vsphere 6.7 LSI raid card, can't get drive status

[ChristTheGreat]

Hi!

I have this server setup at home:

SuperMicro X10SLL-F

Intel Xeon E3-1241 v3

32GB 3CC 1600

LSI 8708EM2

2x Velociraptor 10k 300gb RAID 1

4x WD Red 2TB Raid 5

I was running Vsphere 6.0 since a long time, and I decided to go over 6.7. Installation worked fine, I have access to everything, all is working... Except 2 things:

1. I can't get my LSI 8708EM2 (detected as a 1078) to show drive status

2. Can't get my Storage Manager to access disk info or rebuild raid.

When I was on vSphere 6.0, I was able to see my drive status (and veeam one could alert me), and with my WIndows VM, I had LSI MSM and I was able to configure the raid card.

So what I did:

Install SAS driver I was using in version 6 --> not working

Installed the SMIS I had  --> not working

Installed lastest SMIS  --> not working

Disabled the Firewall --> not working

I have no idea what else I can do. I know it's an old card, but I got it for cheap. Any idea how can I get this fixed?

Thanks

[vembutech1]

Below search shows, your LSI 8708EM2 model supports upto 6.5 U1. You may require to contact their support for details

VMware Compatibility Guide - I/O Device Search

[ChristTheGreat]

Thanks, I never thought about looking into the Compatibility Guide

The card is detected and I have all my datastore.

This is what I have installed on 6.7:

scsi-megaraid-sas              6.609.07.00-1OEM.600.0.0.2494585      Avago   VMw                                                                                                                                                             areCertified   2018-04-26

lsiprovider                    500.04.V0.66-0002                     LSI     VMw                                                                                                                                                             areAccepted    2018-04-26

for sure, I'll stick with my other USB key running 6.0. Still prefer to know if I have an hard drive dying :/

[TimJones42]

I just ran into this problem after upgrading from 6.5 to 6.7. Messed around with different versions of the SMIS and lsi provider files, but ultimately I believe the issue is that the LSI Provider support has ended at 6.5 U2.  That really pisses me off.  My raid card reports supporting 6.7, so you think all good, right?  Nope, not if the LSI provider functionality is no longer supported.

Search "LSIprovider" on the compatibility check page to see the 6.5 U2. Search your raid card again, and see it probably says 6.7 supported.

Unfortunately, when I discovered this and found the instructions to rollback to previous version, both bootbanks say they are 6.7 and cannot be downgraded or reverted.  So now I'll have to reinstall ESXi 6.5 to get around this issue.

I really, really hate it when hardware and feature deprecation happens in a point release like this. Going to v7.0, I'd expect to drop legacy stuff.  Going from 6.5->6.7 just makes me look at the other hypervisor solutions in the future.

Edit: Just found an updated document (5/16/2018) showing 6.5 U2 as being latest for LSI provider. https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/pdf/vi_cim_guide.pdf

Strangely, I found a Fling for ESXi compatibility checking.  It complained about my 10G nics possibly not being supported in 6.7 (but they still work), but the storage both reported compatible (the datastore works, but no hardware monitoring).

    - Storage Adapters:

     vmhba0 - 0000:00:1f.2: IO Device 'Cougar Point 6 port SATA AHCI Controller' from Intel Corporation

     PCI ID: 8086:1C02:8086:7270        Driver: vmw_ahci 1.2.0-6vmw.670.0.0.8169922

     [OK]  Compatible: IO Device 'Cougar Point 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (PCIID:8086:1C02:8086:7270)' is compatible for ESX 6.7.0

          - More information: http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=io&productid=42116

     vmhba1 - 0000:01:00.0: IO Device 'MegaRAID SAS GEN2 Controller' from Avago (LSI / Symbios Logic)

     PCI ID: 1000:79:1000:9263  Driver: megaraid_sas Version 6.610.15.00

     [OK]  Compatible: IO Device 'MegaRAID SAS GEN2 Controller (PCIID:1000:79:1000:9263)' is compatible for ESX 6.7.0

          - More information: http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=io&productid=20583

[Marcusone]

Would/is it up to the vendor (i.e. Broadcom/Avago/LSI) to make a new lsiprovider (sims) driver?  Any way to find out if they are working on one?

[TimJones42]

LSI did put out a newer LSI provider.  Just with 3/4's of the supported hardware no longer

It probably is on LSI to update the driver, but when an existing driver just stops working on the same major ESXi release number, it's VMWare's fault.  The existing working 6.5 driver shouldn't be prevented from working on 6.7, lest it's VMWare making big changes breaking drivers.

Let's say you install Windows 10 and the driver works for several years just fine. Then you upgrade Windows 10 to an anniversary update and not only does the existing driver stop working, but it stops working for good.  Everyone gets rightfully mad at Microsoft. To be clear, this doesn't even really happen in Windows, you just rollback to the previous working driver and life continues on. Not in this ESXi case.

[peetz]

Greetings,

where are you looking for the drive status? The vCenter Web Client version 6.7 (both legacy Flash and HTML5) currently do not display the LSIprovider information.

However, if you look at the host directly (via embedded Host Client) the status may be shown there. Can you please check this?

- Andreas

[pharkas09]

I am in the same position and nothing good shows on the host web client either.

Under Monitor->Hardware->Storage it shows "LSI / Symbios Logic MegaRAID SAS GEN2 Controller" as well as a ton of other non-storage hardware components, but it it does not show the individual drives and all of them show "Status Unknown".

I have opened a support case with LSI/Avago/Broadcom.  Here is their response.

We are currently qualifying Esxi 6.7.

We are only providing software for 6.0 and 6.5

You already have the latest SMIS provider from Broadcom, 00.66.00.02

When software qualification is finished, a release will be provided by either VMware or Broadcom.

[gerome76]

I am using an older 9260-8i in my home lab.

For 6.5:

• ESXi650-201803001: CIM works, lsiprovider works, MegaRAID discovery works
• update-from-esxi6.5-6.5_update02: CIM works, lsiprovider broken, MegaRAID discovery does not work
  
• ESXi650-201806001: CIM broken, lsiprovider broken, MegaRAID discovery does not work
  

For 6.7:

• CIM broken, lsiprovider broken, MegaRAID discovery does not work

6.5 with ESXi650-201803001 is the latest version I can use.

[Geelenbert]

I'm trying to reproduce this setup.

I have LSI 9260-8i cards with the lastest firmware.

What exact versions are you using ? (SIMS, MSM etc?)

Currently i'm not getting it to work. I'm running ESXI 6.5 U1

• VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.5.0.update01-5969303.x86_64
• lsiprovider    LSI Provider for ESX Server    500.04.V0.66-0002
• Megaraid Storage Manager V15.03.01.00

The driver is working in Vmware, but the Megaraid Sotorage manager can't find it.

[ipv6]

> as well as a ton of other non-storage hardware components

This should get cleaned up  in 6.5U3, PR PR 2297764 where LSI CIM Provider

classes are directly queried instead of base classes which dragged in non-storage

health related cim classes. (from ESX shell) visible as:

	enum_instances CIM_Controller
	enum_instances CIM_Battery
	enum_instances CIM_StorageExtent
	enum_instances CIM_StorageVolume
	enum_instances CIM_SASSATAPort

vs:

LSIESG_PCIDevice

LSIESG_PhysicalCard

LSIESG_FirmwarePackageIdentity

LSIESG_MegaRAIDHBA

LSIESG_DiskDrive

LSIESG_DiskDriveProduct

Mike

[James McEwan]

I'm experiencing the same issue as the OP and lots of other people who are running ESXi 6.5U2/6.7 with LSI Raid Controllers in their environments.

I am unable to view the status of the raid controller and individual drives in the Web Client or through the vSphere API; instead I see lots of unrelated hardware with 'Unknown' status.

This is preventing us from upgrading our ESXi hosts as we rely on this status for our monitoring. We query the vSphere API for the hardware status information and an alarm is triggered if the drives have failed or the raid is degraded.

After creating a case with VMware support and reading some of the other community posts regarding the issue (e.g. LSI SMIS на ESXi 6.7 ), I was led to believe this issue was with the LSI SMI-S Provider not supporting the latest version of ESXi and that this would be resolved in the next release (MegaRaid 7.9).

However, even after installing the latest version released on 25/3/2019 (VMW-ESX-6.5.0-lsiprovider-500.04.V0.73), I was still unable to see the correct hardware status information in vSphere. Broadcom support confirmed that they do not support the vCenter Web Client (even though it has worked in the past) and that I should contact VMware Support.

@ipv6 you seem to be aware of this issue and claim that this will be resolved in the next release of vSphere. Can you confirm that this is a vSphere related issue and that it will also be resolved in the next release of vSphere 6.7? Can you elaborate on how this issue arose in the first place and why it has taken so long to fix?

This should have been tested and discovered imo by VMware prior to the release of 6.5U2. Something as crucial as displaying drive status in the hardware health should not break for devices which are supported according to the HCL.

[jeffshead1]

Same issue with LSI 9260-8i RAID Controller.

Wish Broadcom and/or VMWare would just give a straight answer so we know to wait or move to new hardware.

[clifford64]

I contacted Broadcom support and the reply I got back is posted below. I tried the SMIS they provided, but it didn't seem to work for me. Let me know if you have any luck because I may not know what I am doing.

Yes we will come out with an SMIs provider or find the root cause.
6.5 was working fine and theoretically, the 6.5 SMIs provider should have worked.

But it is broken and no one seems to have a reliable fix at tthe moment.

But we are working on it.
We have had some success with this version:

ftp://tsupport:[e-mail]/private/LSA/vmware-smis.zip

You are more than welcome to try it.
If it does not work, just uninstall it and I will keep your case open until the final release comes out.

If to no avail, use storcli
Latest storcli for all OS:
https://docs.broadcom.com/docs/1.21.06_StorCLI

Thank you and let me know if you have any questions,
Storage Technical support
Broadcom Inc.
Joseph

[ilganna]

Hi,

unfortunately the SMIS providers posted on the FTP address didn't worked for me :smileysad:

FYI I have LSI MegaRAID SAS 9341-8i card and I tried with ESXi 6.7 U2.

Best regards

[plaurent]

I just tried the SMIS providers posted on the FTP site as well, and they did not work for me either on 6.7 U2.

[martinlinder]

I have installed the LSI Provider from Lenovo on 6.7U1

https://datacentersupport.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/DS505420

with the LSI Storage Authority (replacement of Mega RAID Storage Manager) I can manage the LSI controller

Hardware is Supermicro Mainboard with LSI Controller

[ilganna]

Tried with Lenovo SMIS providers (also drivers), but still not able to see drives/card status under Monitor -> Hardware -> Storage .

I'm also on Supermicro server HW (SYS-5028D-TN4T)

Thanks, best regards

[sleeplessnight]

Have someone try to connect via Megaraid Storage Manager on a 6.7?

Install the MSM on a Virtual Windows Machine and try to connect over IP?

[James McEwan]

I've tried to install the LSI Storage Authority (LSA) which, as I understand, is the replacement for Megaraid Storage Manager (MSM), and fully supported by LSI as the method for monitoring RAID controllers.

User Guide - LSI Storage Authority Software User Guide

My hope was that I would be able to monitor the raid status for my ESXi 6.5 and 6.7 hosts using this software.

However, I encountered problems when trying to add more than a single ESXi host to the LSI Storage Authority server. Apparently there is a bug which prevents you from being to monitor more than a single ESXi server per LSA instance:

https://www.broadcom.com/support/knowledgebase/1211221428056/how-to-monitor-esxi-6.7-with-lsa

The workaround is to install an LSA Server per ESXi host, which just doesn't scale if you have more than a handful of hosts. And to be honest, I'd rather SSH to each ESXi host and run storcli to monitor the raid status, that have to install a few hundred LSA servers...

At this point I'm starting to lose hope. It is so frustrating that neither VMware or LSI/Broadcom appear to be taking ownership of this issue. It's almost as though they don't understand the gravity of the problem.

[v0ha]

https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/pdf/vi_cim_guide.pdf here officially listed that 6.5u2 is the last version of LSI Provider support. Same boat here: controller is fully supported but vib not. So seems like moving back to 6.5

[afikzach]

does someone has any update on this...?

i looking for days about solution for this issue

[pzwahlen]

Hi,

Since the release of 6.7u3, Broadcom apparently have flagged the existing provider for both 6.5 and 6.7 (I think it was only flagged for 6.5 before that).

I have installed the provider on a 6.7u3 (where it was previously failing with 6.7u2) and what I can say is:

- It doesn't seem to crash anymore (no core dumps)

- LSA can talk to it

However, as my server has no IPMI whatsoever, I still don't get any health information in the web UI but that might be normal.

[Oleksandr Krupnyk]

[Oleksandr Krupnyk]

[Oleksandr Krupnyk]

Here is the logical config

[yzsz]

The storage monitor of the WebUI of my 6.7 U3 server doesn't work still, but the LSA works pretty fine with U3. And I really don't know what wrong it is after many attempts to try to update both of the driver & SMIS provider were all failed. I even had my 6.7U3 re-installed.

FYI, mine is MegaRAID 9260-8i.

[karl3]

Hi,

I am having the same issues with my LSI Controller (9266-8i) and the latest ESXi Version that worked for me was 6.5 Update2 .

May I ask you how you have managed to see Controller/HDD Infos in ESXi Environment?

I have used the lateset SMIS Provider Latest SMIS Providers from Broadcom Site but I still cannot see anything in VMWare Console.

Is there a Workaround or am I doing something wrong.

I am using a LSI 9266-8i Controller in my Homelab Server.

Thank you

[yzsz]

Hi karl3,

To my experience, for those legacy products like my 9260-8i, you may NOT be able to see any Controller/HDD info via the WebUI (refer to my screenshot). BUT, you may alternatively use LSA(LSI Storage Authority) instead, the substiution of MSM, to remotely manage/monitor your RAID controller, provided your ESXi server is 6.7 Update3(or above).

This is so far I can do after many attempts to try to make it work were all failed. Hope VMware will resolve this problem at the next release/patch.

[freeloader3]

Hi, yzsz

Tell me please, wich version of LSA is work for you?

I have ESXi 6.7U3 and try many versions of LSA, but cant login to host with error "getClass: classname VMware_UserAuthorizationService not found" in syslog.

[jeffshead1]

I have a 9260-8i and I have not updated from 9.5U1 because of the lack of legacy RAID controller support with newer versions of vSphere.

Can someone please chime in and tell us if 9.7U3 and LSA for 9260-8i provides enough features to actually be viable? Does it monitor and send email alerts about disc & battery issues? Can it maintain (discharge/recharge) the BBU like MSM does with 9.5U1?

[yzsz]

Hi freeloader3,

Mine is: Version:007.010.007.000, for Win x86 and x64. And the latest/current version is 007.011.006.000. LSA has several option during installation, and I chose 'Gateway....'. Once done, double-click the LSA icon on your Win-Desktop, and your browser will open a new tab to launch the service. Then input the right IP to discover your ESXi host and it will show up if all is in order. Use your ESXi host's username/password to login.

Please make sure the IP addresses of both of your ESXi host and Windows Workstation are in the same IP segment, e.g., 192.168.1.0/24. If there is a need, you may add an line in your Windows 'hosts' file(C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\):

YourESXiHostName     192.168.1.x

[freeloader3]

Thank you so much.

Downloaded the latest (004.189.000.000) from https://datacentersupport.lenovo.com/ru/ru/downloads/DS539307 and it works fine without any magic.

[srwsol]

Excellent!   I upgraded from 6.5U1 to 6.7U3 this past weekend and found that I couldn't check my raid device status.  I downloaded the LSA software, installed it on Win7 (yes it installs on Win7 even though it doesn't list it as supported), and it all just worked with the stock lsi_mr3 and lsiprovider drivers that were installed by the 6.7U3 update process.   Looks like all the functionality that was present in the old Megaraid Storage Manager is here, and the bonus is that there isn't a fight each time getting the software to find the ESXi server. 

P.S.  Has anyone gotten the email alerts to work?  I can't seem to get it to send any emails.  When I click test, it just comes back and nothing happens.  I run my own email server and I can verify that it saw nothing.  If I deliberately put in a bad IP address it says that it can't send the mail, so it's doing something. 

[TKnijn]

I got email working just fine.

Test it again while monitoring with sysinternals might shed some light on it...

[pzwahlen]

As far as I can tell, the smis provider seems to work better with 6.7 u3

- the provider doesn't crash on ESXi

- the ESXi web ui shows storage information

However, so far this information doesn't show up in vCenter so I still don't know if a disk failure would get detected via vCenter alerts.

Cheers!

[pzwahlen]

Oh, and LSA can talk to the host!

I have even been able to add multiple ESXi to a single LSA, which I think was an issue a couple months ago.

Cheers!

[TKnijn]

Does it also communicate with MSM again?

[Oleksandr Krupnyk]

Nope

[TKnijn]

That's too bad... Stuck on 6.5 then...

[Oleksandr Krupnyk]

6.5 U2 works with MSM

6.5 U3  you have to use LSA instead of MSM

6.7 until U3 doesn't works with LSI provider at all

6.7 U3 works with LSA

I don't see the reason being stuck on 6.5 U2

[TKnijn]

And, just to be sure, this is with the latest smis-provider (mr7.9 - 00.73.00.02)?

[Oleksandr Krupnyk]

yes

[clifford64]

I must be doing something wrong.

I have installed the SMIS provider as stated.

I tried grabbing the latest version of LSA I could find, 4.012.000.000 and it picks up my esxi server intially during discovery, but then when I try to login to it with root, I am told that the user account does not have write permission. After restarting the computer with LSA installed, it no longer picks up my esxi server through discovery and I cannot find a way to manually add the server by ip.

[Oleksandr Krupnyk]

Try to turn off  the firewall.

[clifford64]

I did try turning off the firewall and that didn't work.

I was able to get it working by using version 5.x of LSA. It then allowed  me to login to my esxi server and change the settings of the controller.

I played around with it for a little bit, but it seems like they have a lot more they need to improve upon because I could not do nearly as much as you can with MSM and storcli.

[swinster]

ChristTheGreat​ - Just out of interest, where do you manage to find the latest LSI SIMS? I have been having some odd issues with my 9260-8i, so over the weekend updated the server (a Dell T430) the 9260 firmware (albeit the newest is  3 years old), and re-install a fresh version to the Dell OEM ESXi. I installed v6.7 but of course now my MegaRAID Storage Management software cannot connect to the host. I've looked for the LSI SIMS, but can't seem to track them down on the Broadcom site.

BTW, have you ever managed to get and decent logging out the MSM?

[gerome76]

The first version I used, was from the 6.5 I upgraded from. After it didn't work with 6.7 I checked Broadcom:

Broadcom Website > Support > Support Documents and Downloads

Product Group: Legacy Products

Product Family: Legacy RAID Controllers

Product Name: MegaRAID SAS 9260-8i

Asset Type: Management Software and Tools

Latest SMIS Providers VMware 6.0 and 6.5

MR 6.14, Version: 00.66.00.02, File Size: 31315 KB, Language: English

But it was the same version that was already installed and - as the website noticed - it is just for ESX versions up to 6.5.

[Alpha694]

Latest version of LSI SMIS provider is MR7.7 ver:00.71.00.04  09/17/2018 but still VMware 6.5 ONLY!

LSI (or Avago, or Broadcom), you are sleeping?

[ipv6]

kb.vmware.com/s/article/52583  lists ESXi 6.7 depreciated/unsupported devices

Basically no support for HBA megaraid_sas, so would not expect CIM provider either.

Here's the search I used to locate Avago HBA cards that would be supported.

www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=io&details=1&partner=625&releases=369&page=1&display_interval=500&sortColumn=Partner

[olegfusion]

Any solution? same problem here...

[Alpha694]

IMHO, using storcli is only good option at this time.

[ctsherman]

This ("use storcli") is actually Broadcom support's official suggestion, in the interim, so you've hit the nail on the head.  With the discovery of the data corruption bug in SEsparse simply waiting it out on an out-of-date build of ESXi is becoming more untenable by the day.

[ctsherman]

I recently put in a support request to Broadcom re: the ESXi 6.7 support.  Apparently they're aiming for 6.7 support in the MR 7.8 release and targeting mid/late November.  Of course, targets can slip...and there's no mention of which components will be supported under MR 7.8 (MR 7.7 was officially aimed at SAS3-era components but seems to function on older parts)...but their statement is at least something more than "we're working on it."

[MikeyByte]

Noted this appear today in google search.. I wonder if it will work with our older cards..

http://www.58support.nec.co.jp/global/download/042581-G02/VMW-ESX-6.0.0-lsiprovider-500.04.V0.69-0004-offline_bundle-8676001.zip

Info here LSI SMI-S Provider (00.69.V0.04) for VMware ESXi 6.5/6.7

M.

[ctsherman]

I haven't tried that NEC version, so far.  I have tried the newer Broadcom version 00.71.V0.04 (MR 7.7) and it does not work with any of the cards under 6.7, at least for standard LSI/Avago/Broadcom cards on standard systems (vs. any customized NEC cards on NEC systems).  I do know that MR 7.7 works on my current hardware, under 6.5, and I'm dealing with new-ish hardware here (9271i-8cc in the lab system, 9361-8i in the primary).  Neither system picks up anything under 6.7, however. 

With any luck MR 7.8 will be out soon and will hopefully still support the 92xx and 93xx series cards, at least (MR 7.7 officially supports 93xx and 94xx but 92xx works as well).  As for hardware older than those models, I guess we have to wait and find out (I'm hopefully that the software will function for the 2308 onboard chips as well as I have to support several installs that use this for raid1 boot devices).

[Muckman]

What RAID Controllers / Health Status / Management systems DO work with ESXi 6.7? It's difficult to choose a RAID controller when you use the HCL only to find certain aspects are still unsupported by vSphere.

[AlexJoda]

There are  not many options left at the moment. The available CIM providers for 6.7 are very few and not one of independent RAID big players are left. We stayed at the moment with 6.5U1 which is the last version able to monitor the disks of the hosts with LSI controllers. Without disk monitoring you cannot operate a productive vSphere host in any way! I don’t understand why nobody is taken care of this!

The only option left might be to use Areca controllers because they have an independent ethernet interface to setup and monitor the RAID and they have at least a controller driver for 6.7...

[peetz]

Greetings all,

I'm late to the party, but I want to share with you an alternate method to detect errors reported by LSI MegaRAID adapters.

I also noticed that the LSI CIM provider is no longer working with ESXi 6.7 and looked in the ESXi host log files for other useful information.

In /var/log/vmkernel.log you can find messages like this one

2018-12-16T13:42:23.459Z cpu0:2097613)<6>megasas_hotplug_work[1]: event code 0x0023

You can look up the meaning of the event codes in the LSI User Guides, but I found a helpful list readily compiled here:

MegaRAID Event Messages – Thomas-Krenn-Wiki

According to this list code 23 means that the scheduled Patrol read has completed, so this is a pretty harmless and expected message.

However, if disk or controller errors etc. are detected then other events will be generated.

I'm forwarding my host logs to vRealize Log Insight (you could also use another free syslog server) and have set up a custom alert there that sends me an e-mail when this message appears with an unexpected event code.

This works well for my "LSI MegaRAID SAS 9260-4i" adapter and should also work for other controllers using the megaraid_sas driver, but your mileage may vary.

I hope this helps

Andreas

[AlexJoda]

Do you really want to search the vmkernel logs the whole day to find some LSI Controller errors? The must be a better solution for that! Are there any news regarding the updated CIM providers or any other LSI tools to fix this? We are still stuck with 6.5U1 and are not able to upgrade because of this....

[MysteryX]

I managed to install MegaCLI and made some changes to an megaclisas-status file i found on the internet.

Now i'm getting this output:

-- Controller information --

-- ID | H/W Model                | RAM    | Temp | BBU    | Firmware    

c0    | LSI MegaRAID SAS 9260-8i | 512MB  | N/A  | Good   | FW: 12.15.0-0239

-- Array information --

-- ID | Type   |    Size |  Strpsz | Flags | DskCache |   Status |  OS Path | CacheCade |InProgress  

c0u0  | RAID-1 |   3637G |  1.0 MB | RA,WB |  Enabled |  Optimal |      N/A | None      |None        

c0u1  | RAID-1 |    232G |  256 KB | RA,WT |  Enabled |  Optimal |      N/A | None      |None        

-- Disk information --

-- ID  | Type | Drive Model                                        | Size     | Status          | Speed    | Temp | Slot ID  | LSI ID 

c0u0p0 | HDD  | WD-WCC7K4DJYN7RWDC WD40EFRX-68N32N0 82.00A82       | 3.637 TB | Online, Spun Up | 6.0Gb/s  | 27C  | [252:1]  | 2      

c0u0p1 | HDD  | WD-WCC7K2XS6SYZWDC WD40EFRX-68N32N0 82.00A82       | 3.637 TB | Online, Spun Up | 6.0Gb/s  | 27C  | [252:0]  | 3      

c0u1p0 | SSD  | S21PNSAG950842K Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB EMT01B6Q | 232.3 Gb | Online, Spun Up | 6.0Gb/s  | 28C  | [252:4]  | 4      

c0u1p1 | SSD  | S21PNSAG947444X Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB EMT01B6Q | 232.3 Gb | Online, Spun Up | 6.0Gb/s  | 28C  | [252:5]  | 5 

Now every reboot my files/modifications are gone again.

Can anyone put me in the right direction on how to create an vib file so they remain even after reboot.

Perhaps an nice web interfance would be nice...

Kind Regards,

[peetz]

Broadcom/LSI provides a VIB file for the storcli utility (which is the successor to megacli).

You can download it here: https://docs.broadcom.com/docs/1.23.02_StorCLI

[JeffWDH]

I was unable to get storcli or MegaCLI to display my H200 (crossflashed to 9211-8i in IR mode) adapter information:

    [root@hostname:~] esxcli storage core adapter list | grep mpt

    vmhba2    mpt2sas    link-n/a    sas.xx     (0000:02:00.0) LSI Logic / Symbios Logic Dell 6Gbps SAS HBA Adapter

   

   

    [root@hostname:~]  /opt/lsi/storcli/storcli /c0 show

    CLI Version = 007.0606.0000.0000 Mar 20, 2018

    Operating system = VMkernel 6.7.0

    Controller = 0

    Status = Failure

    Description = Controller 0 not found

   

    [root@hostname:/opt/lsi/MegaCLI] ./MegaCli -adpCount

   

    Controller Count: 0.

I found sas2ircu P20 on the Broadcom website which seems to work (as of 6.7.0 Update 1 Build 11675023):

Download location: https://docs.broadcom.com/docs-and-downloads/host-bus-adapters/host-bus-adapters-common-files/sas_sata_6g_p20/SAS2IRCU_P20.zip

Extract the vmware-esx-sas2ircu.vib from this file and upload it to your ESXi host. Install it using the following command (change path to match your datastore):

    [root@hostname:~] esxcli software vib install -v /vmfs/volumes/Datastore/vmware-esx-sas2ircu.vib --no-sig-check

   

    Installation Result

       Message: Operation finished successfully.

       Reboot Required: false

       VIBs Installed: LSI_bootbank_vmware-esx-sas2ircu_20.00.00.00-03

       VIBs Removed:

       VIBs Skipped:

I was then able to use sas2ircu to display my adapter information:

    [root@hostname:~] /opt/lsi/bin/sas2ircu 0 display

    LSI Corporation SAS2 IR Configuration Utility.

    Version 20.00.00.00 (2014.09.18)

    Copyright (c) 2008-2014 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved.

   

    Read configuration has been initiated for controller 0

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

    Controller information

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

      Controller type                         : SAS2008

      BIOS version                            : 7.39.02.00

      Firmware version                        : 20.00.07.00

      Channel description                     : 1 Serial Attached SCSI

      Initiator ID                            : 0

      Maximum physical devices                : 255

      Concurrent commands supported           : 1720

      Slot                                    : 4

      Segment                                 : 0

      Bus                                     : 2

      Device                                  : 0

      Function                                : 0

      RAID Support                            : Yes

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

    IR Volume information

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

    IR volume 1

      Volume ID                               : 286

      Status of volume                        : Okay (OKY)

      Volume wwid                             :

      RAID level                              : RAID1

      Size (in MB)                            : 113487

      Physical hard disks                     :

      PHY[0] Enclosure#/Slot#                 : 1:4

      PHY[1] Enclosure#/Slot#                 : 1:5

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

    Physical device information

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

    Initiator at ID #0

   

    Device is a Hard disk

      Enclosure #                             : 1

      Slot #                                  : 4

      SAS Address                             :

      State                                   : Optimal (OPT)

      Size (in MB)/(in sectors)               : 114473/234441647

      Manufacturer                            : ATA

      Model Number                            : KINGSTON SA400S3

      Firmware Revision                       : B1D1

      Serial No                               :

      GUID                                    :

      Protocol                                : SATA

      Drive Type                              : SATA_SSD

   

    Device is a Hard disk

      Enclosure #                             : 1

      Slot #                                  : 5

      SAS Address                             :

      State                                   : Optimal (OPT)

      Size (in MB)/(in sectors)               : 114473/234441647

      Manufacturer                            : ATA

      Model Number                            : KINGSTON SA400S3

      Firmware Revision                       : B1D1

      Serial No                               :

      GUID                                    :

      Protocol                                : SATA

      Drive Type                              : SATA_SSD

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

    Enclosure information

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

      Enclosure#                              : 1

      Logical ID                              :

      Numslots                                : 8

      StartSlot                               : 0

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

    SAS2IRCU: Command DISPLAY Completed Successfully.

    SAS2IRCU: Utility Completed Successfully.

This doesn't help with the UI view but I'll grab this information via SSH and monitor my array this way.

[jefferson342]

it probably on LSI update the driver when an existing driver stops working in the same major exsi release number, it's VMware fault, the existing working 6.5 driver shouldn't be prevented from working.

[ipv6]

Then this KB would be of keen interest:  kb.vmware.com/s/article/52583

[Madmax01]

Hi everyone,

i tried this CIM Provider

Latest SMIS Providers

once i test to take Disk down > vCenter alerts but there is no Sensor.  Need to go to the Host Client view. there i see an Storage Section. 

that looks usefully

what i'am trying now is Remote checking Health through the  wbem sfcbd Service.

but i don't find the correct CIM Classes

those worked with 6.0.  Zero Info back with 6.7

VMware_SASSATAPort = Controller Ports

VMware_StorageVolume = Raid Status

VMware_StorageExtend = Disk Online Status

Anyone may knows the right CIM Classes to get above checked remotely?

Best regards

Max

[obstmassey]

I was able to get this working today.  I thought I would share exactly what I did:

I started with an older SuperMicro-based system (X9DRH-7TF) with an embedded LSI 2208 RAID chip.  I installed VMware-provided ESXi 6.7U3.

After installation, I enabled SSH and used it to install StorCLI 1.23.02 (from 1.23.02_StorCLI.zip) via the following command:

  esxcli software vib install --no-sig-check -v /vmfs/volumes/storage/path/vmware-esx-storcli-1.23.02.vib

I don't think StorCLI is necessary for the rest, but I *really* like having it, so I installed it first!  Once installed, I tested it with the following command:

  /opt/lsi/storcli/storcli show ctrlcount

It showed one controller.  Great!

There were reports that nothing needed to be installed on the ESXi side, but this is *incorrect*.  I found that if I next installed the LSI Storage Authority on a VM, it would not work.  I was able to discover the ESXi system, but when I tried to log in I got Error 65537:  Login failure.

Actual next step:  make sure you have lsiprovider installed.  First, verify that you don't, from SSH command line:

  esxcli software vib list | grep lsi

There were several LSI lines (for the drivers) but there was *not* one for lsiprovider.  Fine, now we'll install one.  The latest I could find was 500.04.V0.73-0002 from VMW-ESX-6.5.0-lsiprovider-500.04.V0.73-0002-offline_bundle-12787245.zip.  I installed it with the following command:

  esxcli software vib install --no-sig-check -v /vmfs/volumes/storage/path/vmware-esx-provider-lsiprovider.vib

It installed, but requires a reboot to continue.  After rebooting and logging back in via SSH, I reran the vib list command above and saw lsiproviders.

I then installed the LSI Storage Authority software on a Windows VM.  That VM was on the same subnet as my ESXi box, and the ESXi host was automatically added to LSA.  One problem I had:  the computer name it uses is what it gets from its query of ESXi.  In my test environment here, that name does *not* resolve.  So connecting to that host did not work.  However, I used the Manual Discovery with the ESXi system's IP address and was able to connect to it successfully.

From there, I was able connect to the host using proper credentials from the ESXi side (e.g. root, and the password I used to install ESXi).  I could see the controller and array status, make changes, etc.

As an aside:  I tried to make the Email alert portion of LSA work.  If I used our actual production SMTP server, testing the email configuration would *crash* the LSA interface!  If I used a test (internal) SMTP server it would work, but that doesn't do me that much good.  I'm not real thrilled with the idea of the LSA being responsible for monitoring and alerting anyway:  I use Zabbox and storcli to check on the status of the array instead.

In any case, this will get a brand-new ESXi 6.7U3 box with an LSI 2200-series controller connected to LSA so you can see the status of your array as well as make changes.  I hope it helps save someone some time...

[jthurston]

THIS worked for me. Thank you. I can now at least half manage my 9260-8i. More importantly I can silence alarms.

However, I found out the hard way although I can re-enable the alarm in the GUI it is not possible to silence the alarm from the LSI Storage software interface.

I get an error about an unknown object when I try. Instead I had to do this via StorCLI - so I'm very glad I installed this.

For anyone else in this situation wondering; from the ESXi shell; /opt/lsi/storcli/storcli /c0 set alarm=off

If anyone has been able to do this, I'm all ears.

[Dantomario]

confirmed.

Dell C2100
ESXi 6.5u3
AVAGO Megaraid SAS 9270CV-8i
VMW-ESX-6.5.0-LSIProvider-650.00.V0.82-0001
lnvgy_utl_raid_mr3.lsa-007.016.015.000-0_windows_x86-64

p.s. by the way, C2100 works at ESXi 7.0u3 (supported NIC installed additionaly) with options:
AllowLegacyCPU=True systemMediaSize=small
for now, not tested with VMs and LSI Storage Authority Software
planing a soon.

[Dantomario]

a latest LSA LSI Storage Authority Software: 008.001.018.000_LSA_Windows
did not find ESXi 6.5u3

some information in LSA_Windows_readme.txt:

5. ESXi (Until ESXi6.5) contains a provider class VMware_UserAuthorizationService which provides single method called CheckPermission() to get the permission particular user has. This could be read, readwrite or view
From ESXi 6.7 onwards VMWare has deprecated this service and VMware_UserAuthorizationService class is not available
Impact : LSA doesn’t have a known method to check user permission on ESXi 6.7 and this will impact LSA Login
Workaround : LSA shall avoid making the check for user permission and consider user has read-write permission

[Dantomario]

confirmed, RAID management works at ESXi 7.0U3:

Dell Sequoia C2100 8 CPUs x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU L5520 @ 2.27GHz
LSI MegaRAID SAS 9270CV-8i
I350 Gigabit Network Connection

VMware-VMvisor-Installer-7.0U3d-19482537.x86_64.iso
BCM_bootbank_lsiprovider_700.00.V0.82-0001.vib
lnvgy_utl_raid_mr3.lsa-007.016.015.000-0_windows_x86-64.zip

p.s. don't forget to add parameter for every new VM:
Key: monitor.allowLegacyCPU
Value: true