ESXi 7.0.2, H200 IT-mode, Pass-thru, TN12

[arankaspar1]

I'm on TrueNAS 12 and the VM runs fine for like a couple weeks or so then continues to log this...
The webGUI page doesn't load anymore at this point, can't ssh either. Rebooting the VM fixes for another couple weeks.
The ESXi gui is functional for the most part. Just takes extremely long to power off VMs and when I try to shutdown the host it sits there indefinitely, have to manually power cycle. Not sure if it's the VM or host at this point but my CIFS and iSCSI are still alive when this happens.

Using an H200 in IT mode Dell R720 backplane is plugged into the PCIe card (H200).
DRAC doesn't like it but it works. I get these errors...
The storage BP1 SAS A cable is not connected, or is improperly connected.
The storage BP1 SAS B cable is not connected, or is improperly connected.

The H200 is configured for PCI pass-through and is assigned to the VM. Works like a champ for about 2 or 3 weeks but I'm
And yes I already have my VM config > storage controller setting set to LSI SAS Logic. (before I installd TrueNAS 12) not sure if this matters.

Considering flashing my H310mini to IT mode and using that instead...

r/homelab - Flashing the H310 Mono Mini to IT mode

34 votes and 68 comments so far on Reddit

www.reddit.com

Would probably make DRAC happy too.

 

[arankaspar1]

Bump?

 

[jgreco]

What exactly do you want?

The LSI 6Gbps HBA controllers are known to have poor compatibility with ESXi 7, which doesn't support them at all, and have been known to be problematic in PCI passthru in the manner you describe.

Perhaps update to the 12Gbps HBA's...? Or roll back to ESXi 6.7.

 

[arankaspar1]

Ah, I see.
Well I guess I can downgrade ESXi, not the end of the world.

Kind of off-topic but.... what do you think about flashing an H310 mini mono to IT mode?
Would flashing it to LSI IT give me a true HBA and bypass it's cache making TrueNAS happy?
I'm trying to get the H200 out of the picture because my SAS cables are bent backwards sharply (backplane side) to get the cover on and DRAC complains unnecessarily.

Wayback Machine

 

[arankaspar1]

Whatcha think? flash h310 mini mono and install ESXi 6.7?

 

[jgreco]

As long as someone's already shown it can be done. The usual pointy bits are that these things can be super-prickly about details because they're not intended to be reprogrammed like this.

On the other hand, people have been crossflashing H710's apparently. None of this is really shocking because the LSI controllers are all based on a similar hardware platform, it's just a matter of whether or not things actually work right. For example I'm not sure I'd leave a battery hooked up to an H710 which had the firmware that was monitoring the battery health overwritten by something with no battery monitoring...

 

[arankaspar1]

Nice. I actually do have the H710P mini monolithic. I just installed ESXi 6.7.
Does the H710 have a non-RAID mode like the H330 or does it need to be flashed?
Also do they make any native HBA monolithic cards I can buy or are they all RAID and need to be flashed?

 

[jgreco]

Nice. I actually do have the H710P mini monolithic. I just installed ESXi 6.7.
Does the H710 have a non-RAID mode like the H330 or does it need to be flashed?

It probably has what HP sales would like you to think is a "non-RAID" mode, but that isn't meaningful. The issue here isn't that "it has RAID options available," it's whether or not it handles I/O correctly.

What's all the noise about HBAs, and why can't I use a RAID controller?

1) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter. This is a controller that allows SAS and SATA devices to be attached to, and communicate directly with, a server. RAID controllers typically aggregate several disks into a Virtual Disk abstraction of some sort...

www.truenas.com

Uncoupling the cab from a semi does not make the cab a pickup truck.

Also do they make any native HBA monolithic cards I can buy or are they all RAID and need to be flashed?

Talk to your Dell salesperson or check the options list for your server model. Note that Dell sales will be exceedingly unhappy to recommend anything except a pricey RAID card, so it may be better to check out the options list first before talking to them, come to think of it.