MegaRAID virtual disk drive missing in VMWare ESXi virtual machine operating systems - System x3650 M4, x3750 M4

Resolving The Problem

Source

RETAIN tip: H212857

Symptom

Users running VMware ESXi 5.5 using the ServeRAID M5110e in pass-through mode with firmware version 23.16.0-0027 or a later level, might find the Virtual Disk missing from the Virtual Machine operating system. The following information related to this issue are found in the logs below:

firmware EvtLog:

FWTermLog:

Operating System boot.msg file:

When VMware ESXi 5.5 using the ServeRAID M5110e in pass-through mod is working correctly, the boot.msg log shows:

This issue is present when:

• VMware ESXi 5.1 or 5.5 is installed (as Hypervisor on USB)
• ServeRAID M5110e SAS/SATA Controller enabled as a pass-trough device
• Virtual Machines running SLES 11 SP2, SLES 11 SP3, or Microsoft Windows Server 2012 are started

Affected configurations

The system can be any of the following IBM servers:

• System x3650 M4, type 7915, any model
• System x3750 M4, type 8718, any model
• System x3750 M4, type 8722, any model
• System x3750 M4, type 8733, any model
• System x3750 M4, type 8752, any model

The system is configured with at least one of the following:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2012, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2, any model
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 2
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 3

The system is configured with one or more of the following IBM options:

• ServeRAID M5110e SAS/SATA Controller for IBM System x, onboard, any embedded

The version 23.16.0-0027 or higher level of firmware for the ServeRAID M5110e SAS/SATA controller is affected.

Note: This does not imply that the network operating system will work under all combinations of hardware and software.

Please see the compatibility page for more information:

Solution

Users should follow the VMware Guidelines found on the link below for configuring a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) device as pass-through. This document is from VMware and any user attempting to configure PCI device as pass-through should reference it first.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsp_4_vmdirectpath_host.pdf

Note: The attached document is from VMware and it is a generic document for all PCI devices. It states that users can add an entry in the passthrough.map file for D3 to D0 reset method.

To resolve this issue, modify the passthrough.map file by adding a new line for this card being used, save the file and restart the VMware ESXi host server:

Workaround

No valid workaround is available for this issue because the VMware ESXi host server must be corrected and restarted.

Additional information

After adding the following line: 1000 005b d3d0 default in the passthrough.map file and restarting the VMware ESXi host, the PCI pass-through for the ServeRAID M5110e will work properly in SLES 11 and Microsoft Windows 2012 Virtual Machines.

This special configuration settings change in VMware ESXi is required for this configuration to work properly. While configuring a Host Bus Adapter (HBA) as a pass-through device under VMware, the user must make sure that the proper reset method is used in order for the reset to complete properly.

For PCI devices, the D3D0 reset is the proper method, which uses PCI power management features (D3 to D0 level transition method) to reset pass-through devices.

In the absence of this reset method, the rest of the functionalities of pass-through device might work fine but when it comes to Virtual Machines issuing a reset to a device, it might not work properly.