Adaptec 71605 HBA Controller + VMware ESXi 6.5.0

[peterbata]

It is Sunday and I have spent the better part of the weekend attempting to finalize my Adaptec ASR-71605 RAID Controller install. So, here is where I find myself stumped for lack of a better word.

I set the card to HBA mode because my drive cage consists of 2x HGST SATA 8TB and 2x HGST SAS 8TB drives.

I obtained the appropriate driver for this card from the Microsemi site: aacraid_vmware_drivers_1.2.1-52033_cert.tgz

I put the host into mantenance mode and enabled the SSH service.

After uploading said driver to a /tmp directory to my ESXi host I executed the following command(s) in the ESXi shell:

esxcli software vib install -v /tmp/vmware-esxi-drivers-scsi-aacraid-600.6.2.1.52033.-1.0.6.2494585.x86_64 --no-sig-check

I received a message that the update was successful. Then rebooted the host.

Logged back into the ESXi GUI and I made my way to:

Host / Manage / Hardware and Toggled passthrough on the Adaptec AACRAID card followed by a reboot

I moved down to Storage and attempted to create a new Datastore but was told that there were no devices available.

For some reason I have a feeling that ESXi is not picking up the controller as per these screenshots. Your time and assistance will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Peter

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DGroves]

i don't use VMware esxi, (i use workstation) however i do know the adaptec 71605 cards are supported in most 6.x releases of esxi

the driver you linked to appears to be for esxi v6x series not the v6.5 release

https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=io&productid=34333

the latest card bios/driver(s) are posted on the adaptec/microsemi web page

https://storage.microsemi.com/en-us/support/raid/sas_raid/sas-71605/

HBA (Host Bus Adapter) mode sets the card to non raid, standard SATA 6GBps mode allowing just about any sata drive to be accessed

i assume the 71605 card's bios is showing the sata drives attached to it?

[peterbata]

Clicking on this link takes me to the driver page where I select v6.5.0U3

VMWare ASR-71605 Driver Page 

Yes, I am very familiar with the Microsemi site as I have spent a considerable amount of time there where I have downloaded and used the following driver

Microsemi ASR-716065 VMware driver 

Can I use HBA mode if there is a mix of SATA and SAS. Correct me if I am wrong. But, I don't think that VMware or Windows server will see the disks if the Adaptec array utility does NOT allow me to create any array without generating an error message. Am I correct in that assumption?

This is what appears in VMware ESXi 6.50 after a fresh install an NO drivers have been applied. But after the drivers are installed I see AACRAID

[DGroves]

the adaptec card you have will support both raid and JBOD at the same time but not on the same 4 port connector

(you need to create 2 storage pools)

in other words each 4 port cable needs to be RAID or JBOD (and the card needs to be in raid mode)

if all ports are to be HBA, then select this mode in the 71605 bios and the card will then become a 16 port SATA/SAS HBA card using the cards bios to manage the ports, however any device on these ports can be moved to any motherboards sata ports and be read/write as they are in standard sata format

https://download.adaptec.com/pdfs/user_guides/adaptec_raid_controller_iug_6_2015.pdf

[peterbata]

I tried setting the card to both RAID or HBA mode only  using the 2x SATA and 2x SAS plugged into the single  SFF-8643 supplied cable. I also removed the above-mentioned drives and inserted 2x WD SATA 2TB. Set the card to either RAID or HBA and had the same results. I do not want to use the card as RAID and JBOD at the same time.

My plan was to use it in HBA only so that I could assign specific VM's exclusively to the drive of my choice.

How exactly would I know which cable I was sent? I searched the web and have come across vendors describing the SFF-8643 as both reverse and / or forward.

Reverse 

Forward 

I tried several operating systems as well (Windows server, Windows 10) I installed TrueNAS Scale and it did see the drives but gave me errors. I installed maxView Storage Manager in Windows 10 and it did see both controller and drives but the drives were not accessible. I have always been unable to create arrays in Adaptec array utility at bootup Ctrl-A. See pics below for error message.

TrueNAS

TrueNAs

[peterbata]

I thought that installing the Adaptec card into another PC might be a good idea. So I placed it into my Lenovo ThinkServer TS140. I placed 2x SATA drive into the machine and connected ports P1 and P2 from the SFF-8643 cable directly to those SATA drives. Entered the array config at bootup Ctrl-A / Initialized both drives / attempted to create an array and I am receiving the very same message. Error number 433. This is not an issue with my Z820 or the drives in my opinion. It seems like the Adaptec is the culprit

[DGroves]

if the card sees drives attached then the cables are "forward type"

attaching the cables to the card takes almost no force to properly insert the connector, forcong the connector can cause the cards connector to loose connection to the raid cards traces

put the card in raid mode, using two SATA drives try creating raid 0 and 1 configurations can you do this?

[peterbata]

I am always very careful when inserting cards and/or connectors. I tried everything including what you suggested with the two drives in RAID 0 or 1. That error messgae 433 is generated each and every time. By the way, are all those red lights on the card supposed to be lit all of the time?

Even when trying this very same exercise in the Lenovo TS140 that I mentioned in one of my last posts.

The card is going back for a full refund. I have not decided on my next step yet. This card experience has been very frustrating and discouraging.

Thankfully, the help that you and others have provided has lightened the load so-to-speak. Thanks a million. Will keep you posted. Peter

[peterbata]

Hello again @DGroves. I have good news and some same old news. I finally got the ASR-71605 card to work as it should. The card shipped with 4 sets of cables each packaged in their own plastic bag. The whole time that I was testing the card on two different PC's and getting that 433 error I was using the very same cable over and over.

Until this evening when I had the bright idea to try using another cable. Once again the card was able to detect the drives but this time I was actually able to initialize and create an array. Eureka! I was so stressed out about the card and the error that I hadn't considered using another cable. I  put the card in HBA mode then proceeded to install Unraid and was able to assign /access all drves.

The bad news is that no matter what I do ESXi 6.5 will not see the drives. Everytime I attempt to create a new Datastore I am told that there is no device with any room available. Tried with both the native driver at fresh install and after installing the vmware driver from the Microsemi site. Sadly, the main reason that I  purchased the controller was that I could specifically use it with ESXi 6.5.0.

[DGroves]

are you running the latest adaptec firmware on the card?

with the card connected to the 2 drives while the card is in raid mode

init one drive this will take some time depending on drive capacity does it complete this task?

select raid 0  and add both drives, take the suggested defaults. once this is done the card should begin formatting the array

if the above happens, the card is operating normally