Adding a Dell PowerVault RD1000 as a datastore

[johnnyonetime]

Hey everyone,

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I've got a PowerEdge 1900 running VMware ESXi and it as an INTERNAL PowerVault RD1000 not using USB

I tried adding it as a disk/lun and I realize that since it's SATA it will not add that way.

Is there anyway to utilize this in my VM's? I'd like to do file level copies to it as backups and the occiasional vm snapshot in off hours.

I was going to start mucking around in the command line and trying to mount it but I decided I'd post here before messing something up.

Thanks!

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Welcome to the VMware Community forums. What model of SATA controller is the drive hooked up to?

[johnnyonetime]

Dave, sorry for not replying to your post sooner! I guess my e-mail alerts for this post weren't setup properly.

The controller the RD1000 uses is a 2 port SATA IDE Controller. (ICH9)

The main datastore is using a MegaRAID SAS 1078 Controller.

The server is a Dell PowerEdge T600 and this is all internal.

What other information do you need?

[D-OveRMinD]

I too would like to use the RD1000 internal SATA device for backups. I have found a device from Addonics that will allow me to map a drive to the external USB

version, but it is limited to 100mb network speeds at the moment. I also found a Networkable USB hub that does something similar, but it only operates at USB 1.1

speeds. If there is a way to present an internal SATA device to the guest OS, can someone please advise? I'll buy whatever controller it takes to get this done.

[kmyerqsv]

Having just lost the base CentOS of an office fileserver, due to filesystem corruption, and looking to reinstall with ESX and build a fileserver VM, I'm interested in how to do this too. I have a PE 2900 with an internal SATA RD1000 that I hope can be made accessible to the VM (especially since some of my backed up data is on RD1000 cartridges). My long term goal would be to use the RD1000 as a backup device in a VM, like I was when I had CentOS installed on the server.

Timely post, since my server blew up just a few hours ago..

Kevin

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Would you be able to post the PCI id for the controller - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/find_PCI_ID.php? Do you have any BIOS options to change the mode of the controller? By default ESXi won't use IDE drives for VMFS (and your RD1000 may appear as an IDE connected drive depending on the mode of the controller). You can trick the install of ESXi into using IDE and it'll then work fine, but I haven't tried it post install. Best thing to start with is the PCI id and also run fdisk -l to see if ESXi can see the drive.

[D-OveRMinD]

I'm not actually wanting to use it as a VMFS store. I just want to be able to present it to the guest OS so that it may be used as a backup device.

[kjb007]

You have to find out if ESXi can see the drive at all. As Dave posted, run fdisk -l, to see if the drive is recognized. If it is, then you may be able to pass the drive on as a generic SCSI device, and present it to the VM, but you can't add it to a guest over USB/SATA directly. You may be able to add it to a different physical host, and mount it as a SMB/CIFS share to the vm. You'll have a few more options if ESXi sees the drive.

-KjB

[kmyerqsv]

In my setup (PowerEdge 2900), with ESX 3.5U3 (not ESXi), ESX will not boot if the drive is enabled. The only options in the BIOS for the RD1000 device are "Off" and "ATA". There is a Dell document that states that the RD1000 will cause RHEL 3U6 and 4U2, or older, to hang. The document also states that this is resolved in 3U7 and 4U3 and if my understanding is right, ESX 3.5 is based on 3U8.

I too am not looking to use the RD1000 as a VMFS device, but just want to pass it through to a VM.

ESX installed fine, but the only way I could get it to boot was to go into the BIOS and set the option for that device to "Off". So I don't know if the hang is a different issue than the one documented with Dell, or if I have my version info incorrect. Or that maybe VMWare backported something that breaks the SATA improvements in 3U7 or higher.

The path I may take is to move the drive to a different physical machine and then use NFS or SMB to share the contents that I want to backup out.

Kevin

[D-OveRMinD]

Well, if all else fails, I may just use this device:

http://www.addonics.com/products/nas/nasu2.asp

I can plug in the external USB version, and then map a network drive to it in the guest OS. It is limited to 100mb speeds at the moment, but better than the AnywhereUSB device which is limited to USB 1.1 speeds.

Any idea when ESX is going to get up to speed with the rest of the linux world? I am waiting for not only updates to resolve these retarded disk issues, but also getting LVM up to date so that greater than 2tb volumes are supported by default. (yes I know about extents)

[johnnyonetime]

Hey Dave,

I ran an "fdisk -l" and this is my readout:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~ # fdisk -l

Disk /dev/disks/vmhba2:0:0:0: 748.1 GB, 748129615872 bytes

64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 713472 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/disks/vmhba2:0:0:1 5 750 763904 5 Extended

/dev/disks/vmhba2:0:0:2 751 4845 4193280 6 FAT16

/dev/disks/vmhba2:0:0:3 4846 713472 725634048 fb VMFS

/dev/disks/vmhba2:0:0:4 * 1 4 4080 4 FAT16 <32M

/dev/disks/vmhba2:0:0:5 5 52 49136 6 FAT16

/dev/disks/vmhba2:0:0:6 53 100 49136 6 FAT16

/dev/disks/vmhba2:0:0:7 101 210 112624 fc VMKcore

/dev/disks/vmhba2:0:0:8 211 750 552944 6 FAT16

Partition table entries are not in disk order

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and here's my lcpci output:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~ # lspci -v

00:00.00 Host bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0600: 8086:65c0

00:02.00 PCI bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0604: 8086:65f7

00:03.00 PCI bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0604: 8086:65e3

00:04.00 PCI bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0604: 8086:65e4

00:05.00 PCI bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0604: 8086:65e5

00:06.00 PCI bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0604: 8086:65f9

00:07.00 PCI bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0604: 8086:65e7

00:16.00 Host bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0600: 8086:65f0

00:16.01 Host bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0600: 8086:65f0

00:16.02 Host bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0600: 8086:65f0

00:17.00 Host bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0600: 8086:65f1

00:19.00 Host bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0600: 8086:65f3

00:21.00 Host bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0600: 8086:65f5

00:22.00 Host bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0600: 8086:65f6

00:28.00 PCI bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0604: 8086:2940

00:28.04 PCI bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0604: 8086:2948

00:28.05 PCI bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0604: 8086:294a

00:29.00 USB Controller Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation

Class 0c03: 8086:2934

00:29.01 USB Controller Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation

Class 0c03: 8086:2935

00:29.02 USB Controller Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation

Class 0c03: 8086:2936

00:29.03 USB Controller Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation

Class 0c03: 8086:2939

00:29.07 USB Controller Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation

Class 0c03: 8086:293a

00:30.00 PCI bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation 82801BA/CA/DB/EB PCI Bridge

Class 0604: 8086:244e

00:31.00 ISA bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0601: 8086:2916

00:31.02 IDE interface Mass storage controller: Intel Corporation 4 port SATA IDE Controller (ICH9)

Class 0101: 8086:2920

00:31.05 IDE interface Mass storage controller: Intel Corporation 2 port SATA IDE Controller (ICH9)

Class 0101: 8086:2926

01:00.00 Ethernet controller Network controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5722 Gigabit Ethernet

Class 0200: 14e4:165a

02:00.00 Ethernet controller Network controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5722 Gigabit Ethernet

Class 0200: 14e4:165a

03:00.00 RAID bus controller Mass storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic MegaRAID SAS 1078 Controller

Class 0104: 1000:0060

06:00.00 Ethernet controller Network controller: Intel Corporation 82572EI Gigabit Ethernet Controller

Class 0200: 8086:107d

09:00.00 PCI bridge Bridge: Intel Corporation

Class 0604: 8086:032c

11:07.00 VGA compatible controller Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc

Class 0300: 1002:515e

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I bet the "IDE interface Mass storage controller: Intel Corporation 2 port SATA IDE Controller (ICH9) " is the controller?

I tried an "fdisk /dev/disks/vmhba1" and the system replied "Unable to open /dev/disks/vmhba1". I think we're getting closer??

Message was edited by: johnnyonetime

[kjb007]

Not quite yet. The only disk that is seen is attached to vmhba2, which appears to be your LSI SAS controller. There is nothing seen connected to vmhba0 or vmhba1, it would be called vmhba0:0:0:0, or something similar for vmhba1.

-KjB

[johnnyonetime]

bump?

[dwalkes]

Hi

Unfortunately I'm not currently aware of a way to pass an RD1000 or RDX SATA device to a VMWare guest VM.  There is a Gigabit ethernet option for a USB RDX/RD1000 guest VM connection using the Addonics NAU.

See

http://www.addonics.com/products/nas/ADU2N1G.asp

http://forum.rdxstorage.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=645&p=2215#p2215

Dan