UCS C22 M3 Software RAID LSI Problem with hard-drive

[Stephane Gilliers]

Hello,

I post here because I search many hours for a stupid problem.

I have a Cisco UCS C22 M3 with soft RAID LSI MagicRAID.
I have two hard drive of 1To.
I create a RAID Array with type 1 (mirror).

When I launch VMware ESXi 5.1 U1 install I see not the RAID Array but the two disk.
I think this is a problem of driver.
So I install VMware with a special iso in VMware website for Cisco server.
I test with ESXi 5.0 and 5.1 and 5.1 U1 but its the same problem.

I try to delete the RAID Array and to install esx on one singe disk. The install working fine but in boot menu I cannot boot into a hard drive. I don't know why I search with UEFI and it is correctly disabled.


I test with windows 2012 and 2008R2 for check if its working but in install I don't see also hard drive or RAID Array.
I go to Cisco and download the 2G driver for VMware Linux and Windows.
I try to insert the driver in windows install but not working.
I think the driver are for a hardware RAID Card and not for a software.

I try to disable the RAID LSI in bios advanced "SouthBridge". After I disabled I don't know how can I do for booting on hard Drive.
When I go to the boot menu (F6) I see absolutely nothing hard drive.

I test all of this on two Cisco server.

I cannot know what I can do now. I must take an install tomorrow and nothing working.

I join you a photo of the boot LSI sequence.


Thank you very much.

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[jwilcoxvc]

What's the model of the LSI controller?

[Stephane Gilliers]

Thank you for your fast reply.

I search the reference in bios I have only found this.
This is an embedded card.
I can found this on PDF page 17.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/ps10265/ps10493/c22m3_lff_specsheet.pdf


Available Embedded RAID (LSI MegaSR) Options
UCSC-RAID-ROM1
Software RAID (LSI MegaSR), supporting up to four SAS+SATA drives. SAS and SATA drives can be mixed. This option supports RAID 0, 1, and 10, and operates at 3 Gb/s. Operating systems supported are Windows and Linux only (no VMware support).

I understand VMware are not compatible but it must be working without RAID only with one hard disk or with windows server.

Thank's,


Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[jwilcoxvc]

To clarify,

You understand that ESXi is not compatible with this controller, and you are looking to install windows server directly onto the physical server in a raid-1 configuration?

If the above statment is accurate, you probably just need to load the right driver during the windows server install. It looks like that LSI controller in your C22 M3 is a MegaRAID SAS 9265CV-8i. I would find the x64 driver for the particular model LSI and load during installation.

[Keny Perez]

Stephane,

Well, according to the screenshot, it definitely looks like you have the embedded controller enabled, so have you tried to DISABLE the option ROMs from CIMC > Server> BIOS > Configure BIOS > Advanced Tab > Disable all the option ROMs.

Also, as mentioned by Jim, load the controller drivers before selecting a disk/volume to install the OS on. Be sure to navigate through the correct folder to load the drivers for the controller

That should allow you to see the disks and install the OS there.

Let us know if you have more troubles.

-Kenny

[Stephane Gilliers]

I'll test asap to disable in BIOS all the option ROMs and try to install another time Windows 2012 with the driver

MegaRAID SAS 9265CV-8i.

I'll take you a feedback.

Thank you for all people.

[Stephane Gilliers]

Keny,

PCI ROM CLP are already disabled.

And I disabled "LOM Port 0 OptionROM" and "LOM Port 1 OptionROM"

And also "All PCIe Slots Option"

I have a valid RAID array in mirror.

I boot on my USB Key for install Windows 2012 and nothing happend.

I try to load all the driver for windows 2012 64bits in ucs-cxxx-drivers.1.5.1.iso.

I have test this drivers :

- LSI 92xx

- LSI 106xE

- LSI 2008M

- LSI 3081E-R

- LSI8708EM2

- LSI 9201

- CISO 1225x

- CISCO P81E

Thank you.

[Keny Perez · Accepted solution]

Stephane,

For what I understand, you are using the embedded RAID controller, so those drivers you listed will not work:

- LSI 92xx        

- LSI 106xE     

- LSI 2008M    

- LSI 3081E-R 

- LSI8708EM2 

- LSI 9201        <<< All of the above are not the controller you have

- CISO 1225x   <<< This is for the VIC 1225

- CISCO P81E <<< This is for the 1st Generation of VIC cards, so definitely not a RAID Controller.

The drivers are organized into top-level folders  by operating system, and each operating system folder has a  hierarchically structured series of subfolders that become increasing  specific so that you can find the exact drivers you need. When you  navigate to a folder that contains drivers, it will also contain one or  more README files that describes what  those particular drivers are used for.

An example of the folder structure for Windows  follows:

Windows
   ChipSet
      vendor
         blade-model-number
            OS-version-number
               All
               ia64
               Lang (contains language subfolders)
               Vista
               x64

You need to look for:   /<OS>/Storage/Intel/C600/   <<<< IF you are  doing the installation of the OS through the KVM, you first need to un-mount the OS .iso image to mount the drivers, once the drivers are done, un-mount the drivers and mount again the OS .iso image.

If that does not work, you better open a TAC case as we will need to set up a Webex meeting for further troubleshooting.

-Kenny