PCI Passthrough (Adaptec 3405) Fails to Start

[kennedy101]

Hypervisor Version: ESXi 4.1.0,348481

Hardware: Dell T5500

Direct I/O enabled in BIOS

Guest: Server 2008 R2

From the host Configuration->Advance Settings tab I can enable the Adaptec 3405 controller for passthrough. I've rebooted the host and see that the device is now green (available for passthrough). I edited the Server 2008 R2 guest and booted up the VM. Inside the server 2008 guest device manager I see the device correctly identified under storage adapaters. However, the device shows unable to start error code 10 (yellow excalamation next to device). I have a single RAID 5 array on the controller.

I've seen a similar post for a PERC H800 storage controller that was resolved with a command line adjustment to the device that is passed through.

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1690414#1690414

Is there a similar command required to use the Adaptec 3405?

[DSTAVERT]

You have installed the Adaptec drivers inside the VM?

[kennedy101]

The drivers were automatically found once the Server 2008 R2 guest was booted. I updated the drivers manually using the latest adaptec vendor drivers and then rebooted the VM. Still the same results. I've attached the screenshots showing the error and driver version.

I removed the controller card and installed into a physcial workstation (Windows 7). The device was automatically found and worked using the MS drivers. I've also moved the PCI passthrough to a Windows 7 (x86) VM guest. The same failure to start error was seen in both the Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 VM guest.

[kennedy101]

Still no luck after updating the host drivers. I've also tried numerous guest drives for the controller. The device still shows unable to start. In order to create a partition larger than 2TB I'll need to pass the PCI device directly to Server 2008 for a Guid partition table. I've double checked the simple stuff to ensure that Direct IO is enabled on the BIOS. Suggestions to make this work would be greatly appreciated!

Here's a detailed description explaining the 2TB limit within ESXi. http://serverfault.com/questions/260605/vmware-esxi4-1update1-and-raid6-raw-drive-2tb-for-vm

It would appear that PCI passthrough is the MOST viable option to store 5GB of data on a single partition. Are there further suggestions to get the device to start inside a VM?

[kennedy101]

I've moved the PCIe card to different slots ensuring the IRQ is not shared. The card will not passthrough to the Server 2008 R2 VM, or an install of OpenFiler. Here's the messages from openfiler

dmesg output

Adaptec aacraid driver 1.1-5[2461]-ms
  alloc irq_desc for 18 on node -1
  alloc kstat_irqs on node -1
aacraid 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
AAC0: adapter kernel panic'd ffffffff.
aacraid 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A disabled

lspci ouput

[root@localhost ~]# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 01)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 08)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 08)
00:07.7 System peripheral: VMware Virtual Machine Communication Interface (rev 10)
00:0f.0 VGA compatible controller: VMware SVGA II Adapter
00:10.0 SCSI storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic 53c1030 PCI-X Fusion-MPT Dual Ultra320 SCSI (rev 01)
00:11.0 PCI bridge: VMware PCI bridge (rev 02)
00:15.0 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:15.1 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:15.2 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:15.3 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:15.4 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:15.5 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:15.6 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:15.7 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:16.0 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:16.1 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:16.2 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:16.3 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:16.4 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:16.5 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:16.6 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:16.7 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:17.0 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:17.1 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:17.2 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:17.3 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:17.4 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:17.5 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:17.6 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:17.7 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:18.0 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:18.1 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:18.2 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:18.3 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:18.4 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:18.5 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:18.6 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
00:18.7 PCI bridge: VMware PCI Express Root Port (rev 01)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper) (rev 01)
03:00.0 RAID bus controller: Adaptec AAC-RAID

/var/log/messages output

kern.info<6>: May 15 18:36:16 localhost kernel: Adaptec aacraid driver 1.1-5[2461]-ms
kern.info<6>: May 15 18:36:16 localhost kernel: aacraid 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
kern.warn<4>: May 15 18:36:16 localhost kernel: sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 1x/1x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
kern.info<6>: May 15 18:36:16 localhost kernel: Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
kern.err<3>: May 15 18:36:16 localhost kernel: AAC0: adapter kernel panic'd ffffffff.
kern.info<6>: May 15 18:36:16 localhost kernel: aacraid 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A disabled

I'm about to throw in the towel (quit). Let me know if there is more information that will help tell me WHY this is happening.

[DSTAVERT]

If you do a search on Google for AAC0: adapter kernel panic'd ffffffff you will find a lot. I would check the Adaptec web site and search for the kernel panic message. See if there are firmware updates or perhaps even earlier firmware that does not have the same issue. I would try an earlier install of ESXi or check the patches section of the VMware website to see if there might be a patch to address the problem.

[FluxboxUK]

Hi,

Iv got a similar issue with an Adaptec 3805 card, did you ever figure out a solution to this issue ?

Fluxbox