SCSI Controller driver in Guest OS

[Deborah Lane-Olson]

I have a SCSI controller (I believe it's an LSI controller, although I'm not 100% certain) in my VMWare ESXi 4.1 server with a HP Ultrium LTO-3 tape drive connected to it.  The VMWare server detected the controller and loaded the drivers as a "53c1030 PCI-X Fusion-MPT Dual Ultra320" SCSI card - I don't know if this is correct but this driver was installed automatically by VMWare upon detection of the new device.

The VMWare server detects the tape drive fine, and I was able to add the tape drive as a device for my SBS2011 server that is running as a guest on this VMWare server. The SBS guest machine sees the tape drive, but it sees the SCSI controller as a "Microsoft VHD HBA" controller.  I am having a lot of problems running backups to the tape drive using Backup Exec 2010.  I set Backup Exec to use its own drivers for the tape drive as I usually do on a physical machine.  However, I'm getting multiple different errors running backups and it's very rare that a backup finishes normally.  Sometimes the error indicates a media failure or a failure to write to the media as if it is no longer detecting the tape, or the tape has been ejected prematurely. Sometimes the backup stops while doing the Exchange backup and indicates a problem with the VSS writer. These could be two different issues, but I really can't tell.

I've tried all the normal troubleshooting steps - updated the tape drive firmware and erased the tapes several times. This same tape drive was being used in a physical server running Windows 2003 previously, so I'm pretty sure the tape drive isn't faulty per se.  I was wondering if I should be installing a SCSI driver in the OS for the controller.  I'm not sure of the significance of the OS showing the "Microsoft VHD HBA" driver for this SCSI card.  Does anyone have any experience with this type of setup?

[Mauro Bonder]

this might help kb.vmware.com/kb/1016407

[Deborah Lane-Olson]

Perhaps I chose the wrong SCSI device when I added it to the virtual host?  I'm not sure.  The device runtime name is vmhba2:C0:T3:L0.  The SCSI virtual device node name in the settings of the virtual machine is "SCSI (0:2) SCSI device 1." But I would think if that were the case then the tape drive wouldn't function at all...I find that article coupled with 1014953 confusing as to how the runtime name corresponds to the virtual node name. The datastore is on an array controller that shows the runtime name of vmhba1:C0:T0:L0 and those SCSI devices (2 separate virtual hard disks) show up in the virtual machine settings as nodes 0:0 and 0:1.  However the tape drive is on a completely different SCSI controller, so should that be 1:0? Or because the Target shows as 3, should it be 1:3?  As you can see, I'm totally confused!

[Mauro Bonder]

you can find the identifier to pointing to vm according this kb http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1014953

[Deborah Lane-Olson]

Yes, I already looked at that article. I'm still confused.  I'm not having any problem finding either the runtime name or the virtual node that is in use. What I'm having trouble with is the relationship between the two.  I am unsure whether my runtime device name of vmhba2:C0:T3:L0 corresponds to a specific node name, which is what I think these articles are implying. And if so, what is that node name - I don't quite understand the correspondence between the physical device designation of Adapter, Channel, Target and LUN and the virtual node name used when you add the device to the virtual machine. Can someone help me out with this?

[Mauro Bonder]

can you post a print screen ?

Click the Configuration tab > Storage Adapters.

[Deborah Lane-Olson]

Sure - see attached.

[Mauro Bonder]

you need mapping this bus to Virtual Machine vmhba2:C0:t3:l0 (this node is your tape)

1. Select the virtual machine that will use the tape device, and click Summary tab > Edit Settings....
2. Click the Hardware tab > Add....
3. Select SCSI Device from the list of device types and click Next.
4. Select the appropriate device from the SCSI Device drop down list.
5. Select the Virtual Device Node which matches the Adapter and Target of the Runtime Name of the device, as recorded in step 6. The Virtual Device Nodes are denoted as <Bus>:<Target>. For example, the Runtime Name vmhba2:C0:T1:L0 corresponds with a Virtual Device Node of (1:1), (2:1), or (3:1).