ESXI & Raid - Crash !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MosheFriedman]

Hi everyone

I have set up my ESXI Server with a LSI Logic MegaRaid SAS 8344ELP & Four 1TB Seagate Drive in a Raid 5 configuration. One of the drives failed and had to be replaced. It took 30 Hours to rebuild the array in Bios during which time the ESXi Server was UNAVAILABLE !!!!! Is there any way to access the Mega Raid software in ESXi ?

If I was running ESX Server could the Megaraid Linux software be installed in the Service Console ?

Thanx

Moshe M. Friedman, PE

[s1xth]

The drives aren't hot swapable? I have done one rebuild, but they were hot swap drives.

[Jackobli]

This is not (only) drive driven... but depends also on the capabilties and settings of the raid controller.

The controller must be set to "automatic rebuild" and it should be set to any given priority for rebuild. Low prio = machine is better useable but the rebuild is slower, thus the risk of another harddisk failure is bigger. High priority = server might be slow, but rebuild is faster.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

The console for ESXi does not allow for the install of software. Do you see the RAID controller on the Configuration \ Health Status tab. For some LSI controllers (and this is what I've heard not done myself) it is possible to pass some RAID commands to the controller, but it would only be certain newer and supported models of LSI controllers.