I just acquired 2 x IBM System x3650 M4 MT 7915 for my lab, and installed VMWare ESXi 5.5 U3 (Lenovo Custom Image).
This system has an onboard RAID card - the M511e. I created a 4-disk RAID5 and tried to set up a VMFS5 datastore, but it wouldn't let me. I thought I was hitting that issue where ESXi can't handle creating a new vmfs partition because of an existing partition table on the array, so I rebooted the server, removed the RAID5 array and created a new RAID0 array with "fast init" (which wipes the first 100 MB of the disk), but ESXi still cannot format this new volume and setup a VMFS volume.
I've done a bunch of reading on this but not have been successfully able to create a new volume. I have also tried using partedUtil to purge the partition table from the volume but that has not helped either.
Also thought I'd add - I booted the gparted Live CD and was able to manipulate the disk / partition table etc so I don't think this is a hardware issue... but rather something with ESXi.
# partedUtil getptbl /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.600507605818f480260043b32a278766
gpt
291296 255 63 4679680000
1 2048 4679679966 AA31E02A400F11DB9590000C2911D1B8 vmfs 0
2020-03-15T02:42:58.033Z cpu26:34251 opID=3ddc49d5)World: 14302: VC opID 7977CB38-0000076E-be-f2 maps to vmkernel opID 3ddc49d5
2020-03-15T02:42:58.033Z cpu26:34251 opID=3ddc49d5)Vol3: 731: Couldn't read volume header from control: Not supported
2020-03-15T02:42:58.033Z cpu26:34251 opID=3ddc49d5)Vol3: 731: Couldn't read volume header from control: Not supported
2020-03-15T02:42:58.033Z cpu26:34251 opID=3ddc49d5)FSS: 5099: No FS driver claimed device 'control': Not supported
2020-03-15T02:42:58.081Z cpu26:34251 opID=3ddc49d5)VC: 2052: Device rescan time 30 msec (total number of devices 10)
2020-03-15T02:42:58.081Z cpu26:34251 opID=3ddc49d5)VC: 2055: Filesystem probe time 122 msec (devices probed 9 of 10)
2020-03-15T02:42:58.081Z cpu26:34251 opID=3ddc49d5)VC: 2057: Refresh open volume time 0 msec
2020-03-15T02:42:58.265Z cpu26:34251 opID=3ddc49d5)Vol3: 731: Couldn't read volume header from control: Not supported
2020-03-15T02:42:58.265Z cpu26:34251 opID=3ddc49d5)Vol3: 731: Couldn't read volume header from control: Not supported
2020-03-15T02:42:58.265Z cpu26:34251 opID=3ddc49d5)FSS: 5099: No FS driver claimed device 'control': Not supported
2020-03-15T02:42:58.317Z cpu26:34251 opID=3ddc49d5)VC: 2052: Device rescan time 32 msec (total number of devices 10)
2020-03-15T02:42:58.317Z cpu26:34251 opID=3ddc49d5)VC: 2055: Filesystem probe time 117 msec (devices probed 9 of 10)
2020-03-15T02:42:58.317Z cpu26:34251 opID=3ddc49d5)VC: 2057: Refresh open volume time 0 msec
2020-03-15T02:42:58.319Z cpu45:33712)<7>megasas: TGT : 0, FW status 0x7e
2020-03-15T02:42:58.319Z cpu39:33141)WARNING: NMP: nmp_DeviceRequestFastDeviceProbe:237: NMP device "naa.600507605818f480260043b32a278766" state in doubt; requested fast path state update...
2020-03-15T02:42:58.319Z cpu39:33141)ScsiDeviceIO: 2363: Cmd(0x4136803f9880) 0x28, CmdSN 0x4 from world 34251 to dev "naa.600507605818f480260043b32a278766" failed H:0x7 D:0x0 P:0x0 Possible sense data: 0x0 0x0 0x0.
2020-03-15T02:42:58.323Z cpu45:33712)<7>megasas: TGT : 0, FW status 0x7e
2020-03-15T02:42:58.328Z cpu45:33712)<7>megasas: TGT : 0, FW status 0x7e
2020-03-15T02:42:58.330Z cpu45:33712)<7>megasas: TGT : 0, FW status 0x7e
2020-03-15T02:42:58.330Z cpu39:33141)ScsiDeviceIO: 2363: Cmd(0x4136803f9240) 0x28, CmdSN 0x4 from world 34251 to dev "naa.600507605818f480260043b32a278766" failed H:0x7 D:0x0 P:0x0 Possible sense data: 0x0 0x0 0x0.
2020-03-15T02:42:58.335Z cpu45:33712)<7>megasas: TGT : 0, FW status 0x7e
2020-03-15T02:42:58.339Z cpu45:33712)<7>megasas: TGT : 0, FW status 0x7e
2020-03-15T02:42:58.355Z cpu26:34251 opID=3ddc49d5)LVM: 7580: Initialized naa.600507605818f480260043b32a278766:1, devID 5e6d9632-be877c91-557b-a0369f44affc
2020-03-15T02:42:58.356Z cpu26:34251 opID=3ddc49d5)LVM: 7668: Zero volumeSize specified: using available space (2395977268736).
2020-03-15T02:42:58.857Z cpu45:33712)<7>megasas: TGT : 0, FW status 0x7e
2020-03-15T02:42:58.857Z cpu46:33196)ScsiDeviceIO: 2363: Cmd(0x413686012f00) 0x28, CmdSN 0x3 from world 34251 to dev "naa.600507605818f480260043b32a278766" failed H:0x7 D:0x0 P:0x0 Possible sense data: 0x0 0x0 0x0.
2020-03-15T02:42:58.862Z cpu45:33712)<7>megasas: TGT : 0, FW status 0x7e
2020-03-15T02:42:58.862Z cpu46:33196)NMP: nmp_ThrottleLogForDevice:2349: Cmd 0x28 (0x413686012f00, 34251) to dev "naa.600507605818f480260043b32a278766" on path "vmhba0:C2:T0:L0" Failed: H:0x7 D:0x0 P:0x0 Possible sense data: 0x0 0x0 0x0. Act:EVAL
2020-03-15T02:42:58.866Z cpu45:33712)<7>megasas: TGT : 0, FW status 0x7e
2020-03-15T02:42:58.866Z cpu40:34251 opID=3ddc49d5)LVM: 4258: PE grafting failed for device naa.600507605818f480260043b32a278766:1, vol 5e6d9632-bc1bc1f1-6c3d-a0369f44affc/8244582585387261033: Storage initiator error
2020-03-15T02:43:01.358Z cpu26:32931)LVM: 13197: One or more LVM devices have been discovered.
2020-03-15T02:43:01.360Z cpu45:33712)<7>megasas: TGT : 0, FW status 0x7e
2020-03-15T02:43:01.361Z cpu14:33164)WARNING: NMP: nmp_DeviceRequestFastDeviceProbe:237: NMP device "naa.600507605818f480260043b32a278766" state in doubt; requested fast path state update...
2020-03-15T02:43:01.361Z cpu14:33164)ScsiDeviceIO: 2363: Cmd(0x412e83174bc0) 0x28, CmdSN 0x4 from world 34252 to dev "naa.600507605818f480260043b32a278766" failed H:0x7 D:0x0 P:0x0 Possible sense data: 0x0 0x0 0x0.
2020-03-15T02:43:01.365Z cpu45:33712)<7>megasas: TGT : 0, FW status 0x7e
2020-03-15T02:43:01.370Z cpu45:33712)<7>megasas: TGT : 0, FW status 0x7e