This is just a quick reminder for myself on loading the 9650SE or 9650SA drivers into an ESXi environment after it’s been installed. First of, you need some specific downloads.
- Download the correct offline driver bundle: VMware drivers for LSI raid controllers
- Download the vSphere CLI tool: browse to the IP of your ESXi server and choose the ‘vSphere Remote Command Line’ download option (ie: ‘Download the Windows Installer (exe)')
Once you’ve downloaded the correct Driver bundle from LSI/3ware, you should have an ISO file of a few kilobytes. You can simply extract that using a tool like 7-zip. For convenience sake, place it under “C:/3ware/". Once the ISO is extracted, the contents should look like this.
C:/3ware/
│ drivers.xml
│ TRANS.TBL
│
├───.rpm
│ TRANS.TBL
│ vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-3w-9xxx-400.2.26.08.036vm40-1OEM.x86_64
│
├───doc
│ open_source_licenses_vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-3w-9xxx_400.2.26.08
│ README.txt
│ TRANS.TBL
│
├───offline-bundle
│ AMCC_2.26.08.036vm40-offline_bundle-290896.zip
│ TRANS.TBL
│
└───source
driver-source-vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-3w-9xxx_400.2.26.08.036vm4
TRANS.TBL
You specifically need the offline-bundle directory.
On the ESXi node, place the server in maintenance mode. If you don’t, you’ll get an alert aftwards that the driver could not be installed because it’s not in maintenance mode.
For ESXi 4.0 and 4.1
Open your vSphere CLI Command Prompt, it should be available in your Start-menu once you’ve installed it. Once it’s open, you should be in the root directory of your vSphere CLI. Go to the ‘bin’ directory now.
vCLI> cd bin
In that directory, you’ll find a script called “vihostupdate.pl". Use it as such:
vCLI\bin> vihostupdate.pl --server 10.0.2.2 --username root --password "somethingsecret" -b "C:\3ware\offline-bundle\AMCC_2.26.08.036vm40-offline_bundle-290896.zip" -i Please wait patch installation is in progress ... The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective. vCLI\bin>
Reboot the ESXI node and it should be able to see its storage again.
For ESXi 5.0 and 5.1
Installations are similar to ESXi 4.0 and 4.1, but you can’t use the vihostupdate.pl. First, enable SSH and upload the .ZIP or .VIB file to the ESXi installation, preferable in the / root partition. If you’re on Windows, use WinSCP to copy the file. You can only run the installer on media that is present on the system.
Open the vSphere CLI Command Prompt and go to the ‘bin’ directory.
vCLI> cd bin
In that directory, you can use esxcli to install the .vib or .zip file.
vCLI> esxcli --server 10.0.2.2 software vib install -d /AMCC_2.26.08.036vm40-offline_bundle-290896.zip
Alternatively, if you still have SSH access to your ESXi box, you can also just run the command below – without the –server parameter.
esxi-prompt ~ # esxcli software vib install -d /AMCC_2.26.08.036vm40-offline_bundle-290896.zip Installation Result Message: The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective. Reboot Required: true VIBs Installed: VMware_bootbank_scsi-xxx VIBs Removed: VIBs Skipped:
Reboot the system and you should be set.