ESXi 4.1 MegaRAID Storage Manager
Sunday, 12 December 2010 02:47 | 
Written by Tony | 
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This article shows how to Configuring MegaRAID Storage Manager (MSM) with ESXi 4.1 and an SRCSAS18E RAID controller.
NOTE: In the comments below the article Ryan states vmware now has the correct driver package for ESXi 4.x.The link he provided is, http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/esx4_lsi_megaraid_dt/ZCV0YnRlcHBidHdw.
To get this to work you will need:
The latest version of the vSphere Remote CLI on a Physical computer (not a guest on the ESXi host that you are configuring.)
MegaRAID Storage Manager version 2.91-05 2.91-05_Windows_MSM.zip (This link no longer works and may not be needed any longer due to the new driver from VMware.)
Depending on the age of the RAID card you will need the updated BIOS from the Intel SRCSAS18E Support website.
1. Extract the MegaRAID Driver file into Temporary directory.
2. Extract megaraid_sas.iso file from Temporary directory.
3. Edit the offline-bundle.zip package to support ESXi 4.1.
Inside the offline-bundle folder of the driver package you will find a *.zip package. Inside that
Zip fill you will find metadata.zip. Inside metadata.zip there is are two XML files that need to be edited. The easiest way to do this is by opening the file with WinZip or a similar application. WinZip allowed me to edit the files and it automatically updated the .zip file without the need for me to recreate the zip files myself.
Find the following:
true
Change the 4.0.0 in both of the XML files to or 4.*. When the files are edited they should look like
true
Edit both xml files and change esx4.0.0 to 4.*
4. Open the vSphere Remote CLI and change to the bin directory.
5. Execute the following commands at vSphere Remote CLI Command Prompt:
vihostupdate.pl --server {Server IP Address} --username root --password {Root Password}
--bundle c:\(driverdirectory)\offline-bundle\offline-bundle.zip --install --nosigcheck
Make sure to replace (driverdirectory) with the directory where the offline file is located.
6. Restart ESXi Host.
7. Load MegaRAID Storage Manager version 2.91-05 on your management station. This is preferably a VM on the ESXi host.
8. Reboot the management station and connect to MSM.
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Last Updated (Friday, 28 October 2011 20:46)
Comments
I just stumbled across this searching for a way to manage my LSI 9260-8i card via MSM. I used to be able to do this in ESXi 4.0 without adding the offline-bundle. I find this odd that it needs to get loaded considering the card itself is supported in 4.1. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Emailing LSI they suggested I read this document: http://www.lsi.com/DistributionSystem/User/AssetMgr.aspx?asset=52770
Pages 236 and 237 pertain to ESXi. However I am not having luck with this either.
I don't know that I want to load an 'older' driver onto my ESXi host per the offline-bundle.
If you have a test server, try the driver there first. If not schedule some downtime and perform an installation on a USB thumb drive to test the configuraiton with a new driver. (I always disconnect local storage during a new install just in case the installer wipes my storage. ESXi 3.x did)
I came across the same LSI document that you did but it did not help me. Intel has a similar document that says it will work too.
As I'm not an engineer for LSI I can't answer the question about MSM versions. The MSM in the article is the only web manager that I was able to get to run on this system. All I can say is that that is what I found on some other forums and that version of MSM along with the driver is what worked for me. I posted it hear to as I saw many others were having the same issue.
I have the Intel SRCSAS18E and the Intel site also states that there is an issue with which NIC is used for Remote RAID management, http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/CS-028365.htm. The article did not help me but perhaps it will help you.
Also, you can backup your ESXi host configuration by using the remote CLI. You would do this in case you have problems with loading the driver.
vicfg-cfgbackup.pl --server -s
To restore your backup configuration to your host you would run.
vicfg-cfgbackup.pl --server -l
This will cause the host to reboot once the process is complete.
You have a VM on the same subnet as your ESXi host management nic. That VM has the MSM tool loaded it on. A separate *PHYSICAL* machine has the MSM tool loaded (complete install) in which is supposed to see the MSM "Server" in your VM, which *somehow* communicates with the RAID Card.
It's not very straight forward for sure, and so far it's not working (as you've experienced).
Thanks again for posting this. Perhaps I'll get brave one day and install the bundle.
Good Luck!
Looks like I'm going to have to do it your way.
Not necessarily an update on MSM with ESXi out of the box. But I DID find a LSI 4.32 "Driver cd" on VMWare's page. The newest from LSI themselves is 4.31.
The good news, the two XML files that require editing in your post above are already edited in a way that it'll work with 4.0/4.1.
All the user needs to do is get the offline-bundle.zip from the ISO provided and run your bundle update command.
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/esx4_lsi_megaraid_dt/ZCV0YnRlcHBidHdw
I found it here:
SATA RAID Utitlity & LSI Mega RAID Storage Manager http://support.acer.com/us/en/product/default.aspx?modelId=1100
Can confirm it works.
is there a way to do it without vihostupdate.pl, maybe on the console?
Thank you.
Bye
I have got the latest ESXi LSI 4.32 driver from the link above and have it installed and working. I have got the megaRAID 2.91-05 installed on a win 7 and win xp machine both virtually on the same host and on my laptop. I have the firewalls off on both machines. I still can not get connected to the server. What else am I missing ? Has there been any better way of doing this since you wrote this article ? I have not gone to LSI yet.
What type of licensing do you have enabled (if any) for vSphere? Is SNMP running?
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