VMware ESXi 5.5 / 6.0 GA "Driver Not Found" problems solution for HP P440ar RAID controllers on New Gen9 Servers.

Symptoms

When configuring and using ESXi 5.5 / 6.0 Scripted Install there are several factors that can cause an installation to fail. Reviewing the log files and any on-screen prompts can often indicate the root cause of the issue. This article is to help you troubleshoot these issues.

Basically, The ESXi 5.5/6.0 GA ISO provided by VMware does not have the latest HP Smart Array driver that supports HP Gen 9 Smart Array controllers.

As a result, an ESXi installation or upgrade to ESXi 5.5/6.0 may fail, you see errors similar to:

Error (see log for more info)
An error has occurred while parting the installer script

error:file:///ks.cfg:line 3: Error (see log for more infor):
Could not find first boot partition

 SOLUTION:

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1. Install the host using HP's custom ESXi 6.0 GA installation media which includes the scsi-hpsa-5.5.0.74-1OEM.550.0.0.1331820 driver.

To install the host using the HP ESXi 6.0 Custom Image, download the ISO from VMware downloads and install ESXi as detailed in the Installing ESXi section in the vSphere 6.0 Installation and Setup guide.

 

 

Download HP custom image for esxi 5.5.0 U2 here https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?productId=353&downloadGroup=HP-ESXI-5.5.0U2-GA

 Download HP custom image for esxi 5.5.0 U3 here https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=HP-ESXI-5.0.0-U3-OCT2013&productId=229

2. Create a custom ISO and inject the updated driver separately.

To manually create a custom ESXi 6.0 image, inject the driver and install the host:

• Create a custom ESXi build using the ESXi-Customizer-v2.7.2 software.
  
  Note: ESXi-Customizer is not a VMware product. You can download the software at ESXi-Customizer Downloads page.
• Replace the current version of the driver 6.0.0.44-4vmw.600.0.0.2494585 with version scsi-hpsa-5.5.0.74-1OEM.550.0.0.1331820.x86_64.vib. 
•  

 To replace the driver:

1. Download the driver vib file from Drivers & software ESXI 6.0. & Drivers & software ESXI 5.5.0
   
   Note: The preceding link was correct as of December 17, 2015. If you find the link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.
2. Run this command to install the driver:
   esxcli software vib install -d path_to_vib

Other Common Errors & Solutions:

This table outlines common errors and how to troubleshoot them:

Error	Solution
error:nfs://192.168.0.1/FileShare /ks.cfg:line12: install --firstdisk specified, but no suitable disk found	This error can occur if there is insufficient disk space on the host to install ESXi. The minimum requirement for the size of the boot disk is 900 MB. Ensure that your disk meets this requirement.
NFS mount failure for URL nfs://192.168.0.101:/NFS/ks1.cfg	Log onto the host and examine /var/log/weasel.log. This reveals a more informative message. According to the logs, you see the error: Could not open file over NFS nfs://192.168.0.101:/NFS/ks1.cfg Exception: Error (see log for more info): Error copy / download file This means the ks1.cfg file was not found. Either the file was not created or the mount point is incorrect. Ensure that the file exists and that the share has been created.
Did not get an IP Address from DHCP server	This error indicates that the host cannot contact a DHCP server. The host requires an IP address to be able to mount the NFS share containing the ks.cfg file. If you do not specify IP information at the boot command. If no network choices were specified at the command line, the installer defaults to DHCP. If there is no DHCP server on the network, then the installer has no way of retrieving files over the network. Ensure your DHCP server is working correctly. In environment where there is no DHCP server available, static network configuration entries need to be added to the boot command. A network configuration must be specified to allow access to the ks.cfg file if no DHCP server is available on the network. This can be achieved by specifying these parameters at the boot prompt: ip=, netmask=, gateway=
warning:nfs://192.168.0.101/ NFS/ks.cfg:line 5: bootproto was set to static but "--hostname=" was not set. Hostname will be set automatically.	This is not an error, but a warning that temporarily halts installation. When setting a static IP, specify a hostname to avoid this warning.