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:

 *** If you face any problem regarding download links given below then please leave a comment in this post, I'll fix that as soon as possible.

Your kind cooperation will help me as well as other readers. ***

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.

HP SmartCache Configuration Process

Here, I am using an embedded P420i controller installed in a HP Gen8 Server. I have also updated the controller firmware and ACU version to the latest. I have used the Intelligent Provisioning feature of HP Gen8 Server and launched ACU from these. You can also ACU within the Operating System to configure HP SmartCache.

[ NOTE: If you are using HP Smart Storage Administrator, the interface will be slightly different. But the steps and procedure remains the same. ]

Steps:

1. Open Array Configuration utility on your Server. You can launch HP ACU or HP SSA (HP Smart Storage Administrator) from Intelligent Provisioning or from the Operating system (Windows, Linux etc).

2. Select the HP Smart Array controller from the drop down menu as shown below.

3. As you can see from the below provided image, the HP Smart Array Controller P420 is connected to four 300GB SAS HDDs and two 200 GB Solid State Disk (SSD).

4. Now let us create an Array using two SAS HDDs. To create array, click on Create Array button.

 

 5. Select SAS, select the HDDs and click OK button as shown below.

6. Now the SAS Array A is created. Let us create a new Logical drive on this array.
 

7. Click on Create logical drive button to create a new logical drive.

8. Select the RAID and click on Save (Here, I have selected RAID 1).

9. Now you have successfully created the logical drive in SAS Array A.

 

10. Now I will create one more Array and Logical drive using the remaining SAS HDDs.

11. To Create another Array,  Select Unassigned drives, then click on Create Array button.

 

12. Select SAS, select the HDDs and click on OK button as shown below.

 

13. Now SAS Array B is created. Let us create a new Logical drive in this array.

14. Click on Create Logical drive to create a new Logical drive.

15. Select the RAID level and click on Save button as shown below.

16. Now you have created a the logical drive 2 under SAS array B

17. Now it is the time to enable HP SmartCache on the Controller.

18. Click on the HP Smart Array Controller, then click on Enable HP SmartCache option as shown below.

19. Select the option Solid State SAS, click Save.

[ NOTE: When you create SmartCache, you are not creating any more RAID logical drives on these SSDs. So you do not have to specify any RAID levels here. Moreover, you could not use any unused space on the SSD to create an array or logical drive. In short, once you make a SSD for SmartCache, it cannot be used for any other purpose at the same time. ]

20. You will receive a warning. Click OK in the warning.

21. It will create a new SmartCache Array on your Server as shown below.

22. To assign a SmartCache to a logical drive, select the SmartCache Array C from left pane, click on Create HP SmartCache logical drive button as shown below.

23. Now select the Logical drive for which you want to assign HP SmartCache.

[ NOTE: The recommended SmartCache is 10% of Logical drive as the first logical drive is 279 GB, it is recommended to set SmartCache size of first logical drive as 27.9 GB. ]

 24. Click on Save button once you are done. Now you have successfully created a 27.9 GB of Cache for your Logical drive 1 (RAID 1 with 279 GB).  Good Job

Now let us assign HP SmartCache for logical drive 2. You can repeat Step 23, 24, 25 and select Logical drive 2 to assign HP SmartCache for Logical drive 2. Here, you can try another method assign the HP SmartCache. Whatever the method you follow, the outcome is same.

25. To assign HP SmartCache for Logical Drive 2, here I will show you alternate method.

26. Click on Logical Drive 2 at the left pane of ACU window.

27. Click on Create SmartCache for Logical drive  as shown below.

28. Select the Recommended size option as shown below.

29. Now you have successfully configured HP SmartCache for both Logical Drive 1 and 2

30. Congrats, you have successfully configured HP SmartCache on your Server.

You can notice that we have 316.6 GB of remaining HDD space on HP SmartCache Array C. This space can be used create more SmartCache for future logical drive that you might create. But you can't use this space for any RAID or storage.

  

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If you would like to know more about HP SmartCache or if you have any doubts, you can always leave a comment here. I will try my level best to answer the questions left by you. 

Thank you for reading.