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How do you enable pass-through mode on Controller ?

  • 1.  How do you enable pass-through mode on Controller ?

    Posted Mar 24, 2014 09:33 PM

    I have a DEll PERC H310 Controller which is on the vmware hcl supported list;

    I cannot however find any setting in BIOS or on Controller to enable Pass-through mode? Is it enabled by default?

    I have no raid config or anything on Controller. Esxi host cannot see disks being pass-through. Any ideas?




  • 2.  RE: How do you enable pass-through mode on Controller ?

    Posted Mar 25, 2014 05:29 AM

    Pass-through mode for supported controller is not a editable property.

    Are you saying you are able to see disks inside controller but not in ESXi ?



  • 3.  RE: How do you enable pass-through mode on Controller ?

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Mar 25, 2014 09:41 AM

    passthrough mode is enabled by default and just part of the controller. If you do not setup any RAID for your disks then they should be passed to ESXi directly. Can you run the following command on the commandline of one of your esxi hosts and post the output here?

    esxcli storage nmp device list

    Duncan

    -----------

    Book out soon: Essential Virtual SAN: Administrator's Guide to VMware VSAN (VMware Press Technology)



  • 4.  RE: How do you enable pass-through mode on Controller ?

    Posted Mar 25, 2014 10:26 AM

    So yes, if you check in Controller BIOS you can see all disks online;

    But Esxi doesn't seem to pick up any;

    # esxcli storage nmp device list

    mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0

       Device Display Name: Local USB Direct-Access (mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0)

       Storage Array Type: VMW_SATP_LOCAL

       Storage Array Type Device Config: SATP VMW_SATP_LOCAL does not support device                 configuration.

       Path Selection Policy: VMW_PSP_FIXED

       Path Selection Policy Device Config: {preferred=vmhba32:C0:T0:L0;current=vmhb                a32:C0:T0:L0}

       Path Selection Policy Device Custom Config:

       Working Paths: vmhba32:C0:T0:L0

       Is Local SAS Device: false

       Is Boot USB Device: true



  • 5.  RE: How do you enable pass-through mode on Controller ?

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Mar 25, 2014 10:36 AM

    Did you configure the disks for NON-RAID mode?

    1. Presst crlt+N o access the PD Mgmt screen. A list of physical disks is displayed. The status of the each disk is displayed under State.

    2. Press the down-arrow key to highlight a physical disk.

    3. Press F2 to display the menu of available actions.

    4. Press the down-arrow key to highlight Convert to Non-RAID.

    5. Press enter!

    Duncan

    -----------

    Book out soon: Essential Virtual SAN: Administrator's Guide to VMware VSAN (VMware Press Technology)



  • 6.  RE: How do you enable pass-through mode on Controller ?

    Posted Mar 25, 2014 03:17 PM

    Hey Duncan, thanks for the info, you put me in the right direction :smileyhappy:

    Checked disks and they were already in Non-RAID mode, so I decided to convert to RAID capable and some how I was able to see some disks!!

    Figured there was something wrong so I Reset Controller back to Factory Settings and converted disk back to Non-Raid mode.. works now can see all disks.

    Thanks again!



  • 7.  RE: How do you enable pass-through mode on Controller ?

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Mar 25, 2014 03:25 PM

    Great to hear. Have fun. Do note that the H310 has a very low queuedepth value, so your performance could be limited due to this.

    Duncan

    -----------

    Book out soon: Essential Virtual SAN: Administrator's Guide to VMware VSAN (VMware Press Technology)



  • 8.  RE: How do you enable pass-through mode on Controller ?

    Posted Mar 25, 2014 03:39 PM

    Ya I have heard some people say the H310 isn't the greatest, have being looking @ other controllers from LSI etc but there is limited support for some of the Servers I am using;

    Do you recommend any other controller that have better performance?



  • 9.  RE: How do you enable pass-through mode on Controller ?

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Mar 27, 2014 09:22 AM

    The upper end dell controllers definitely have a better performance / higher queuedepth. Most of the LSI controllers are excellent, just look at what fits your servers and check the HCL (vmwa.re/vsanhcl)

    Duncan

    ----------

    Book out soon: Essential Virtual SAN: Administrator's Guide to VMware VSAN (VMware Press Technology)



  • 10.  RE: How do you enable pass-through mode on Controller ?

    Posted Apr 01, 2014 10:12 PM

    The queue depth on the H310 is not great, however this is what I have in my lab setup, I am using Micron PCIe SSDs though, so the SSD is not running off the H310 which is probably why I am getting decent performance.  It does work though and is certified :-)

    Simon



  • 11.  RE: How do you enable pass-through mode on Controller ?

    Posted Feb 04, 2016 07:11 AM

    Hi,

    say if i have 5 magnetic disks and 1 SSD. With the raid controller, i am able to create 2x magnetic disks for ESXi under raid 1, and the rest of the disks i will not assign any raid config.

    Is that possible ?



  • 12.  RE: How do you enable pass-through mode on Controller ?

    Posted Feb 04, 2016 07:53 AM

    Hi,

    Yes, its possible .

    Even you can have 1 magnetic disks with 1 SSD, and rest of the magnetic disks will not assign any raid config.

    Thanks !