SATA III controller question

[sgc2c]

Anyone know how to get the SYBA SI-PEX40064 PCI-Express 2.0 Low Profile Ready SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) Controller Card to work in VMWare ESXi?

It has the Marvell 88SE9215 chipset

Installer did not see any drives attached to it. I tricked it to install by putting the Crucial MX200 1 TB SSD on the onboard (SATA II) controller to install ESXi in my Dell T7500.

Then switched the drive to the Syba controller, which did boot ESXi. Thing is, once in ESXi, it sees no storage. So it can't see anything on the very same disk it booted itself from!

Any ideas?

[a_p_]

Please take a look at https://vibsdepot.v-front.de/wiki/index.php/Sata-xahci where you can find a vib file, and instructions on how to make this work.

André

[sgc2c]

Tried those instructions but got this for the final command:

[root@localhost:~] esxcli software vib install -d http://vibsdepot.v-front.de -n sata-xahci

[InstallationError]

The transaction is not supported: VIB VFrontDe_bootbank_sata-xahci_1.37-1 cannot be live installed.

Please refer to the log file for more details.

[sgc2c]

Also where it the log file to which it refers?

You'd think it'd suppl the location at least.

[sgc2c]

Also yes, it IS in Maintenance mode when I try that last command.

[sgc2c]

OK so I made a 'customized ISO' based on the instructions

at VMware Front Experience: ESXi-Customizer-PS

(experience  related below).

I incorporated the .vib as suggested to make this ISO.

Booted to it ... NO GO!

STILL no drives seen attached to this controller.

I hooked up a platter 500 GB drive and my Crucial MX200 1 TB SSD.  

Nothing!

Any further suggestions?  This has been a lot of work so far, and not

exactly the best first impression when using this highly-recommended ESXi 6.0

product that everyone raves about.  Lot of pain so far.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

-sgc2c

How I made the customized 6.0 ESXi ISO:

=====================================

If you need more help, visit the PowerCLI community: Get-PowerCLICommunity

       Copyright (C) VMware, Inc. All rights reserved.

PowerCLI C:\> f:

PowerCLI F:\>

PowerCLI F:\> cd VMWARE

PowerCLI F:\VMWARE> dir

    Directory: F:\VMWARE

Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name

----                -------------         ------ ----

d-----        6/20/2016   7:47 PM                VMWARE

-a----        6/20/2016   8:22 PM              0 ESXi-6.0.0-20160504001-standard-customized.iso

-a----        6/20/2016   7:41 PM          30194 ESXi-Customizer-PS-v2.4.ps1

-a----        6/20/2016   8:15 PM           5611 sata-xahci-1.37-1-offline_bundle.zip

-a----        6/20/2016   5:37 PM           2696 sata-xahci-1.37-1.x86_64.vib

-a----        6/20/2016   7:51 PM       83527488 VMware-PowerCLI-6.3.0-3737840.exe

PowerCLI F:\VMWARE> .\ESXI-Customizer-PS-v2.4.ps1 -v60 -pkgDir F:\VMWARE

Script to build a customized ESXi installation ISO or Offline bundle using the VMware PowerCLI ImageBuilder snapin

(Call with -help for instructions)

Logging to C:\Users\baker\AppData\Local\Temp\ESXi-Customizer-PS.log ...

Running with PowerShell version 5.0 and VMware vSphere PowerCLI 6.3 Release 1 build 3737840

Connecting the VMware ESXi Online depot ... [OK]

Getting Imageprofiles, please wait ... [OK]

Using Imageprofile ESXi-6.0.0-20160504001-standard ...

(dated 04/29/2016 04:20:29, AcceptanceLevel: PartnerSupported,

For more information, see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2145070.)

Loading Offline bundles and VIB files from F:\VMWARE ...

   Loading F:\VMWARE\sata-xahci-1.37-1-offline_bundle.zip ... [OK]

      Add VIB sata-xahci 1.37-1 [New AcceptanceLevel: CommunitySupported] [OK, added]

   Loading F:\VMWARE\sata-xahci-1.37-1.x86_64.vib ... [OK]

      Add VIB sata-xahci 1.37-1 [IGNORED, already added]

Exporting the Imageprofile to 'F:\VMWARE\ESXi-6.0.0-20160504001-standard-customized.iso'. Please be patient ...

All done.

PowerCLI F:\VMWARE>

[sgc2c]

OK here's something interesting:

[root@localhost:~] lspci -v | grep -i marv

0000:22:00.0 SATA controller Mass storage controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88SE9215 PCIe SATA 6.0 Gb/s controller

... which is what I have.

So what gives?   Why can't I actually see its storage after booting to it?

df yields nothing. 

No devices turn up except the CDROM.