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Alexandre TakacsFlag for Switzerland

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ESX 6.5 storage not recognized after tagging as SSD

I'm am in the process of setting up a new ESX 6.5 host (based on a Intel Server Board S2600WT2R).

We are using hardware RAID (card MegaRAID SAS Fusion Controller) and the virtual disks created by the hardware are not seen as SSD (maybe we are missing a driver ?).

I have followed this procedure (which I have done a few times under v5.5 and 6 without issues) and although it did not report any error message the affected disks are not anymore seen by the host server :(

They don't appear at all in the Vsphere client and as "degraded" in WbUI:

User generated image
This is what I see now

l
[root@server7:~] esxcli storage nmp device list
naa.6001e67c13eb10001fefcc5513968283
   Device Display Name: Intel Serial Attached SCSI Disk (naa.6001e67c13eb10001fefcc5513968283)
   Storage Array Type: VMW_SATP_CX
   Storage Array Type Device Config: {navireg ipfilter    }
   Path Selection Policy: VMW_PSP_MRU
   Path Selection Policy Device Config: Current Path=vmhba2:C2:T1:L0
   Path Selection Policy Device Custom Config:
   Working Paths: vmhba2:C2:T1:L0
   Is USB: false

naa.6001e67c13eb10001fefcc5513966b3d
   Device Display Name: Local Intel Disk (naa.6001e67c13eb10001fefcc5513966b3d)
   Storage Array Type: VMW_SATP_LOCAL
   Storage Array Type Device Config: SATP VMW_SATP_LOCAL does not support device configuration.
   Path Selection Policy: VMW_PSP_FIXED
   Path Selection Policy Device Config: {preferred=vmhba2:C2:T0:L0;current=vmhba2:C2:T0:L0}
   Path Selection Policy Device Custom Config:
   Working Paths: vmhba2:C2:T0:L0
   Is USB: false
[root@server7:~]

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Nothing obvious reported in syslog.

Any idea ?

(yes I understand that there is now a GUI for that I that I should have presumably used it).
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
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This happens when you Storage Controller does not support SSD RAID correctly, and is your Storage Controller support on the HCL ?

What are you wanting to use the SSDs for, any SSD functions ? other than just a datastore ?

otherwise it does not matter.
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Thanks

My goal was (is ?) to use the SSD as host cache.

I'm afraid I will only know the exact make & model of the RAID controler Monday (no physical access to the machine till then). Will report back.

In the meantime I have tried this procedure to revert my changes but it does not seem to help...
You have two issues, and the ESXi OS unable to see the correct presentation of the storage is the more serious one at this time, which is possible a storage controller compatibility issue.

Storage Controllers when used with SSDs, need to support SSDs correctly, e.g. Dell PERC 730
I agree with your assessment... but initially (I.e before I went into command line to tag the ssd disk) it was recognized and was working fine. Problems just started when I force tagged it as ssd and I'm surprised that I can't seem to be able to revert to initial state...
SOLUTION
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Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
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That's actually what I am leaning towards....
What you are doing is not supported anyway, and is really a "hack"!
Well it is described in VMware knowledgebase and is working fine for dozen of other servers I am managing. But this is the first 6.5 deployment, admittedly.

Will try a full reinstall but hope to be able to restore the configuration as there are lots of networking tuning that I'd hate to redo from scratch...
If everything is supported, and on the HCL, you do not need to tag SSDs as SSDs!

if a verified controller supported by ESXi.
turns out we are using this controller which happens to be supported...
Well in is on the HCL and it is a "12Gb/s (SAS 3.0) 4 internal port SAS/SATA mezzanine card built with PCIe 3.0 dual core RAID-On-Chip (ROC), RAID levels 0/1/10/5/50/6/60". No mention about specific SSD features / support (well I don't see why you would not be able to use SSDs except explicit support for TRIM ?)
What does the vendor state about the card, we use Dell PERC H730 which specifically support RAIDED-SSDs, these are also verified for use with vSphere VSAN.

We do not have any issues with these, recognised as SSD (e.g. no tagging required), when also they are RAIDED.
Well re-installed VMware from scratch - everything works fine, except that the SSD are not recognized as such... Not sure I want to pursue that further although it would be nice to be able to use them as host cache.
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Well storage vendor is Intel (both RAID card and SSD)...

Will open a case with them and revert here if I get some answer :)
do you require any additional assistance, to close and select a solution?
Didn't really get a straight answer as of what happened but useful - if mostly trivial - comments (yes I know about the HCL and yes all my hardware is on it... ),
Thanks for your help & interest in any case.