ESXi installation fail with IBM x3650 M4 and m5110e storage controller after Firmware upgrade

Yesterday, we experienced a problem where we couldn’t install ESXi on the one of ours IBM x3650 M4 servers. We suspected it could be a firmware issue as we performed a complete firmware upgrades just before the installation.

If you already had your ESXi installed and did the firmware upgrade it may happen your local datastore will be in unmounted state.

Issue

Installation failed during disk partitioning with following messages:

Operation failed.
vmkfstools failed with message: create fs deviceName: ...
"/vmfs/devices/disk/naa.6..." is not a valid absolute or relative path
Failed to resolve device name path
/vmfs/devices/disk/naa.6...
Error: no such file or directory

It was very similar to the VMware KB2012053  so we knew it is most probably storage related.

We tried to use several ESXi images including the latest Lenovo ESXi Customized image 5.5 and 6.0 and the stock VMware image as well, but without any success.

note: Lenovo ESXi customized images are not supported with IBM servers for some time, the latest supported was ESXi 5.5 U2 and ESXi 6.0.

Yes, I hate this approach from the Lenovo as well, especially when they were promising the same level of support for IBM servers, before acquisition of x86 platform from IBM.

Solution

Reason for this is, that LSI MegaRAID (Avago) storage driver bundled in ESXi image is not compatible with the latest firmware (in our case 23.34.0-0023) of m5110e controller included in our server.

Solution for this is pretty easy, you just need to use ISO image for ESXi 6.0U3 with rolled up drivers which you can find at VMware page directly 🙂 Driver included there is lsi-mr3 7.701.14.00-1OEM SAS Driver for Avago Megaraid Based Adapters

If you are trying to use roll up image for ESXi 5.5 U3, you will fail as that one was released 2 years ago and doesn’t include the latest drivers.

You can try to inject correct driver (lsi-mr3) in your ESXi 5.5 ISO in this case, however I’m not sure if the one available for 5.5 is working, the latest which I found for ESXi 5.5 at VMware Driver Download Page is VMware ESXi 5.5 lsi-mr3 6.610.20.00-1OEM SAS Driver for Avago Megaraid SAS 12Gbps Family of SAS controllers.

Just follow this procedure to create the iso image with custom driver. If it will not work and you need to stay on ESXi 5.5 you may need to downgrade the firmware or contact Lenovo to give you a newer driver.

I have to thank to the users at VMware community forum, who have the same issue and pointed us to the right solution. Although they were even trying to downgrade the firmware. But I believe using newer driver is a more elegant solution.

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Dusan Tekeljak

With over 12 years of experience in the Virtualization field, currently working as a Senior Consultant for Evoila, contracted to VMware PSO, helping customers with Telco Cloud Platform bundle. Previous roles include VMware Architect for Public Cloud services at Etisalat and Senior Architect for the VMware platform at the largest retail bank in Slovakia. Background in closely related technologies includes server operating systems, networking, and storage. A former member of the VMware Center of Excellence at IBM and co-author of several Redpapers. The main scope of work involves designing and optimizing the performance of business-critical virtualized solutions on vSphere, including, but not limited to, Oracle WebLogic, MSSQL, and others. Holding several industry-leading IT certifications such as VCAP-DCD, VCAP-DCA, VCAP-NV, and MCITP. Honored with #vExpert2015-2019 awards by VMware for contributions to the community. Opinions are my own!

Latest posts by Dusan Tekeljak (see all)

• VM Latency Sensitivity set to High still fails with no (proper) warning - June 27, 2024
• ESXi 6.7 U1 fixes: APD and VMCP is not triggered even when no paths can service I/Os - November 30, 2018
• Update manager error: hosts could not enter maintenance mode - November 19, 2018