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Esxi Xp Scsi Driver
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Heidi Blessing
Dec 29, 2023, 3:45:06 AM12/29/23
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this automatically makes a selection for which vSCSI controller to use based on what drivers are available in the OS distribution. So be sure to select the correct Guest OS to start in the right place.
Note the letter of the C drive, mine was always E when i checked.Now run the next set of commands to get all the base drivers installed on the system. Note this will take a hot minute depending on your system
Esxi Xp Scsi Driver
Download Zip https://t.co/JA6OsU84Px
Take note of all the oem.inf names that have pvscsi.inf listed by them the other ones for vmnet3,display, printer, etc should be ok to leave alone. you will want to remove all of the pvscsi.inf ones. Do the following BUT CHANGE THE NUMBER ON OEM!! Don't run it copy paste blindly
Once you've gone back and removed all of them, most likely there will be more than one if the server has been around a while, you will now add in the one back from vmware tools that you still have mounted. Note: at this point you still should be in the iso mounted drive on D. otherwise the following command you'll need to adjust to where the scsi driver is. Run the following
First you have to add small disk to the same virtual machine from paravirtual adapter.Then it will automatically installed drivers to virtual machine. after that safely you can remove that disk & change your existing disk controllers.
If you want to switch from VMware paravirtualized SCSI controller back to LSI you do not need to do anything. Just power off the VM and change the controller (since the driveres are aleredy installed in the system there is no need for any manual operation)
From the research I have done, the Paravirtual SCSI driver is supposed to help alleviate the kind of performance issues that I am having. My question is how safe is it to convert the driver on a production machine?
I need to insert the new (5.34-1vmw.500.0.0.406165) RAID controller driver software package (VIB file) into the ESXi installation image profile in order to replace the version 4.32.-1vmw.500.0.0.469512, and then export it to an ISO for installation.
Brian, thanks for the reply. Unfortunately it's not helpful. I already have complete instructions in the Intel document on how to use Image Builder PowerCLI to manipulate software depots, image profiles, and VIBs, in order to include the correct driver. However that document assumes that I already have access to a software depot that contains an image profile that I can customize.
The importance of selecting the right storage controller cannot be emphasized enough. Newer storage controller types might not be supported in older operating systems. For that reason, the drivers included in the chosen guest OS should be taken into account in order to select the best default controller. Virtual machine hardware compatibility (VMware hardware version) and device type (virtual hard disk or DVD-ROM) are also important factors. Newer hardware versions support more storage controllers.
Before changing the storage controller used for a boot disk, you should ensure that the guest operating system (OS) supports this controller type and that the appropriate drivers are installed in the guest OS. When you connect storage devices to multiple storage controllers, input/output performance can be increased compared to connecting all disk drives to a single storage controller. Hence, if more than one SCSI controller is used for a VM, the recommended practice is to distribute virtual disks across these SCSI controllers for better performance.
This VMware SCSI controller was one of the first storage controller types emulated for VMware vSphere VMs. Older Windows versions contain a driver for this controller type by default and, for that reason, this controller can be used in VM configurations to install old versions of Windows on a VM (for example, Windows 2000). The BusLogic Parallel SCSI controller is now considered a legacy controller. Virtual machines with disks larger than 2 TB are not supported. Queue depth is limited to 1 by the driver, and this has an impact on performance. If you need higher performance for VM storage, consider using the LSI Logic Parallel SCSI storage controller.
LSI Logic Parallel is formerly known as the LSI Logic SCSI controller. This is another VMware SCSI storage controller that has been available from the first versions of the VMware virtualization platform. The LSI Logic Parallel SCSI controller is also emulated and is supported by a high number of operating systems including old operating systems because they contain a driver for this storage controller by default. A queue depth of 32 is supported by these drivers, which has made this VMware SCSI controller a common choice and default selection for many guest operating systems. LSI Logic Parallel is selected by default when creating a Windows Server 2003 VM because this storage controller supports SCSI2 commands and Windows Server 2003 supports this SCSI standard.
Note that changing the storage controller for a VMware VM when a guest operating system is installed can make existing virtual disks inaccessible if the needed driver is not installed on the guest OS. VMware Tools must be installed on the guest OS because VMware Tools contains the driver needed to work with the VMware paravirtual SCSI controller.
When you install Windows on a VM and a system disk is connected to the VMware paravirtual SCSI controller, you may need to insert a virtual floppy image that contains drivers and select the driver for the controller during installation to make Windows detect the installation disk.
If you want to change the storage controller for a boot disk, you must ensure that the storage controller driver is installed in the boot mode. If a VM is configured to use BIOS, you may need to modify the VM configuration and BIOS settings. If a VM is configured to use UEFI, the options to change the storage controller for the boot disk are more flexible, and there is no additional setup in most cases.
If I use mptsas or vmw_pvscsi extensions with Redpill, these virtual SCSI disks successfully show up in DSM, and can even be used to install DSM onto instead of SATA data disks. But, even though DSM install goes fine on them, and DSM runs fine, they are highly unstable when it comes to creating a storage pool in DSM on them. This seems to relate to SMART data not being reliably shimmed for these SCSI virtual disks. i.e. Fake SMART data (per TTG SMART shim in Redpill-LKM sometimes shows up, sometimes doesn't, when it does show up, it often causes disks to flip around positions in storage manager, flips the name of the disk back and forth between "Vmware Virtual Disk" and "null Virtual Disk", etc.
That being said, I know others have successfully used mptsas (and mpt2sas/mpt3sas or even the built in DSM SCSI driver) extensions to used physical pass-through disks with DSM. I am guessing this works, because real SMART data gets passed through too, and DSM sees this and works with those disks correctly. That further leads me to believe the following (again, assuming others are able to test the above and get the same result):
these shims work through playing with "sd.c" the syno-modified SCSI driver. I'm wondering if the issue is the fact that for the above scenario, other drivers are being used and the shim isn't properly touching those of course.
Again, I am first curious though if this issue is widespread or if others are able to get virtual SCSI disks on ESXi to work reliably in their configuration. I don't believe comparing or testing with Proxmox helps here because I think I remember TTG saying Proxmox emulates some SMART data to begin with and you can use VirtIO on Proxmox anyway which redpill is designed to work properly with out of the box. Although, if others DO having fully reliable SCSI virtual disks in DSM on Proxmox, this does further support the issue is likely with the shims not interacting with mptsas and vmw_pvscsi properly.
That's a good point and I believe correct. If I take a virtual disk used under a vSATA controller and move it to vSCSI controller, it will still be accessible. The only thing I thought that made SCSI more performant when virtualized is a more performant driver, like Vmware Paravirtual SCSI.
In order for the Windows installer to detect the virtual hard disk connected to our SCSI paravirtual controller (PVSCSI), we will need to provide it with the virtual floppy disk containing the driver for this SCSI paravirtual controller (PVSCSI).
To do this, click on : Add other device -> Floppy drive.
If the PVSCSI driver suitable for the version of Windows you are trying to install has been found on the virtual floppy disk, Windows will show you the "VMware PVSCSI Controller" driver.
Otherwise, you have not inserted the correct "pvscsi-WindowsX.flp" virtual floppy disk. In this case, try with the other virtual floppy disks available on your VMware ESXi hypervisor.
If this still doesn't work, your version of Windows is not supported for this type of controller.
Once the driver is installed, the Windows installer will automatically return to the list of detected disks and a drive 0 will appear with unallocated space.
This proves that Windows is now able to use your SCSI paravirtual controller.
Today, more and more workloads are running in virtual machines (VMs), including workloads that require significantly more IO in the guest operating system. In a VM on VMware vSphere, all virtual disks (VMDKs) are attached to the LSI Logical SAS SCSI Adapter in the default configuration. This adapter is recognized by all operating systems without installing additional drivers, but does not always provide the best performance, especially when an SSD RAID or NVMe Storage is used. In this article we have compared the virtual storage controllers LSI Logical SAS, VMware Paravirtual and the NVMe Controller.
The standard controller in almost every VM is the LSI Logical SAS SCSI controller. This controller is recognized and supported by every guest operating system without additional drivers. It is suitable for almost any workload that does not have large I/O requirements. It is also necessary for the configuration of Microsoft Server Cluster Service (MSCS).
0aad45d008
Note the letter of the C drive, mine was always E when i checked.Now run the next set of commands to get all the base drivers installed on the system. Note this will take a hot minute depending on your system
Esxi Xp Scsi Driver
Download Zip https://t.co/JA6OsU84Px
Take note of all the oem.inf names that have pvscsi.inf listed by them the other ones for vmnet3,display, printer, etc should be ok to leave alone. you will want to remove all of the pvscsi.inf ones. Do the following BUT CHANGE THE NUMBER ON OEM!! Don't run it copy paste blindly
Once you've gone back and removed all of them, most likely there will be more than one if the server has been around a while, you will now add in the one back from vmware tools that you still have mounted. Note: at this point you still should be in the iso mounted drive on D. otherwise the following command you'll need to adjust to where the scsi driver is. Run the following
First you have to add small disk to the same virtual machine from paravirtual adapter.Then it will automatically installed drivers to virtual machine. after that safely you can remove that disk & change your existing disk controllers.
If you want to switch from VMware paravirtualized SCSI controller back to LSI you do not need to do anything. Just power off the VM and change the controller (since the driveres are aleredy installed in the system there is no need for any manual operation)
From the research I have done, the Paravirtual SCSI driver is supposed to help alleviate the kind of performance issues that I am having. My question is how safe is it to convert the driver on a production machine?
I need to insert the new (5.34-1vmw.500.0.0.406165) RAID controller driver software package (VIB file) into the ESXi installation image profile in order to replace the version 4.32.-1vmw.500.0.0.469512, and then export it to an ISO for installation.
Brian, thanks for the reply. Unfortunately it's not helpful. I already have complete instructions in the Intel document on how to use Image Builder PowerCLI to manipulate software depots, image profiles, and VIBs, in order to include the correct driver. However that document assumes that I already have access to a software depot that contains an image profile that I can customize.
The importance of selecting the right storage controller cannot be emphasized enough. Newer storage controller types might not be supported in older operating systems. For that reason, the drivers included in the chosen guest OS should be taken into account in order to select the best default controller. Virtual machine hardware compatibility (VMware hardware version) and device type (virtual hard disk or DVD-ROM) are also important factors. Newer hardware versions support more storage controllers.
Before changing the storage controller used for a boot disk, you should ensure that the guest operating system (OS) supports this controller type and that the appropriate drivers are installed in the guest OS. When you connect storage devices to multiple storage controllers, input/output performance can be increased compared to connecting all disk drives to a single storage controller. Hence, if more than one SCSI controller is used for a VM, the recommended practice is to distribute virtual disks across these SCSI controllers for better performance.
This VMware SCSI controller was one of the first storage controller types emulated for VMware vSphere VMs. Older Windows versions contain a driver for this controller type by default and, for that reason, this controller can be used in VM configurations to install old versions of Windows on a VM (for example, Windows 2000). The BusLogic Parallel SCSI controller is now considered a legacy controller. Virtual machines with disks larger than 2 TB are not supported. Queue depth is limited to 1 by the driver, and this has an impact on performance. If you need higher performance for VM storage, consider using the LSI Logic Parallel SCSI storage controller.
LSI Logic Parallel is formerly known as the LSI Logic SCSI controller. This is another VMware SCSI storage controller that has been available from the first versions of the VMware virtualization platform. The LSI Logic Parallel SCSI controller is also emulated and is supported by a high number of operating systems including old operating systems because they contain a driver for this storage controller by default. A queue depth of 32 is supported by these drivers, which has made this VMware SCSI controller a common choice and default selection for many guest operating systems. LSI Logic Parallel is selected by default when creating a Windows Server 2003 VM because this storage controller supports SCSI2 commands and Windows Server 2003 supports this SCSI standard.
Note that changing the storage controller for a VMware VM when a guest operating system is installed can make existing virtual disks inaccessible if the needed driver is not installed on the guest OS. VMware Tools must be installed on the guest OS because VMware Tools contains the driver needed to work with the VMware paravirtual SCSI controller.
When you install Windows on a VM and a system disk is connected to the VMware paravirtual SCSI controller, you may need to insert a virtual floppy image that contains drivers and select the driver for the controller during installation to make Windows detect the installation disk.
If you want to change the storage controller for a boot disk, you must ensure that the storage controller driver is installed in the boot mode. If a VM is configured to use BIOS, you may need to modify the VM configuration and BIOS settings. If a VM is configured to use UEFI, the options to change the storage controller for the boot disk are more flexible, and there is no additional setup in most cases.
If I use mptsas or vmw_pvscsi extensions with Redpill, these virtual SCSI disks successfully show up in DSM, and can even be used to install DSM onto instead of SATA data disks. But, even though DSM install goes fine on them, and DSM runs fine, they are highly unstable when it comes to creating a storage pool in DSM on them. This seems to relate to SMART data not being reliably shimmed for these SCSI virtual disks. i.e. Fake SMART data (per TTG SMART shim in Redpill-LKM sometimes shows up, sometimes doesn't, when it does show up, it often causes disks to flip around positions in storage manager, flips the name of the disk back and forth between "Vmware Virtual Disk" and "null Virtual Disk", etc.
That being said, I know others have successfully used mptsas (and mpt2sas/mpt3sas or even the built in DSM SCSI driver) extensions to used physical pass-through disks with DSM. I am guessing this works, because real SMART data gets passed through too, and DSM sees this and works with those disks correctly. That further leads me to believe the following (again, assuming others are able to test the above and get the same result):
these shims work through playing with "sd.c" the syno-modified SCSI driver. I'm wondering if the issue is the fact that for the above scenario, other drivers are being used and the shim isn't properly touching those of course.
Again, I am first curious though if this issue is widespread or if others are able to get virtual SCSI disks on ESXi to work reliably in their configuration. I don't believe comparing or testing with Proxmox helps here because I think I remember TTG saying Proxmox emulates some SMART data to begin with and you can use VirtIO on Proxmox anyway which redpill is designed to work properly with out of the box. Although, if others DO having fully reliable SCSI virtual disks in DSM on Proxmox, this does further support the issue is likely with the shims not interacting with mptsas and vmw_pvscsi properly.
That's a good point and I believe correct. If I take a virtual disk used under a vSATA controller and move it to vSCSI controller, it will still be accessible. The only thing I thought that made SCSI more performant when virtualized is a more performant driver, like Vmware Paravirtual SCSI.
In order for the Windows installer to detect the virtual hard disk connected to our SCSI paravirtual controller (PVSCSI), we will need to provide it with the virtual floppy disk containing the driver for this SCSI paravirtual controller (PVSCSI).
To do this, click on : Add other device -> Floppy drive.
If the PVSCSI driver suitable for the version of Windows you are trying to install has been found on the virtual floppy disk, Windows will show you the "VMware PVSCSI Controller" driver.
Otherwise, you have not inserted the correct "pvscsi-WindowsX.flp" virtual floppy disk. In this case, try with the other virtual floppy disks available on your VMware ESXi hypervisor.
If this still doesn't work, your version of Windows is not supported for this type of controller.
Once the driver is installed, the Windows installer will automatically return to the list of detected disks and a drive 0 will appear with unallocated space.
This proves that Windows is now able to use your SCSI paravirtual controller.
Today, more and more workloads are running in virtual machines (VMs), including workloads that require significantly more IO in the guest operating system. In a VM on VMware vSphere, all virtual disks (VMDKs) are attached to the LSI Logical SAS SCSI Adapter in the default configuration. This adapter is recognized by all operating systems without installing additional drivers, but does not always provide the best performance, especially when an SSD RAID or NVMe Storage is used. In this article we have compared the virtual storage controllers LSI Logical SAS, VMware Paravirtual and the NVMe Controller.
The standard controller in almost every VM is the LSI Logical SAS SCSI controller. This controller is recognized and supported by every guest operating system without additional drivers. It is suitable for almost any workload that does not have large I/O requirements. It is also necessary for the configuration of Microsoft Server Cluster Service (MSCS).
0aad45d008
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