Operations: Install SMI-S Provider in VMware

The default VMware driver does not have detailed information about the RAID device. To show more information in vCenter/vSphere, we need an extra tool – the SMI-S provider from LSI Megaraid. SMI-S is a protocol that allows VMware to communicate with the controller and query it for details. The provider will create a bridge between the controller itself and vCenter Web Client or vSphere desktop client.

  1. Download SMI-S Provider - required for vCenter and vSphere integration.
    1. Product site: http://www.avagotech.com/products/server-storage/raid-controllers/megaraid-sas-9341-4i#downloads
    2. Go to Management Software and Tools section and expand the section for Latest SMIS Provider for VMware 5.5/6.0
    3. Download the SMI-S provider to your local computer
       
    4. Extract the ZIP file to a local folder

    5. In the extracted folder you will find several other ZIP files

      1. For ESX 5.0 copy the vmware-esx-provider-lsiprovider.vib from the archive: VMW-ESX-5.x.0-lsiprovider-500.04.V0.57-0007-3096039.zip (last group of digits may differ) to the ESX of hyper-converged storage

      2. For ESX 5.5 and 6.0 copy the vmware-esx-provider-lsiprovider.vib from the archive: VMW-ESX-5.5.0-lsiprovider-500.04.V0.57-0007-3096036.zip (last group of digits may differ)  to the ESX of hyper-converged storage
  2. Copy driver to the right place
    1. SSH into your hyper-converged ESX server. The same you copied the files to in the step above.
    2. Change directory to where you copied the .vib file

    3. Move or copy the .vib file to the place where esxcli will look for

      cp ./vmware-esx-provider-lsiprovider.vib /var/log/vmware/vmware-esx-provider-lsiprovider.vib

    4. Install the lsiprovider.vib using esxcli

      esxcli software vib install -v ./vmware-esx-provider-lsiprovider.vib

    5. Verify it was installed. You should see an output like on below

      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: LSI_bootbank_lsiprovider_500.04.V0.57-0007   VIBs Removed:   VIBs Skipped:
    6. Note that it tells you what was installed, and the you need to reboot
    7. Reboot the ESX from its management interface (Vcenter of VSphere) or by issuing the reboot command in the CLI

 

User: Viewing a healthy RAID in VMware

In Vcenter the user will see the datastore as a single volume.

To consult the state of the RAID device, go to Monitor > Hardware Status.

In the image above all disks are healthy and the RAID's logical volume is healthy as well.

User: Viewing a Degraded RAID in VMware

When a disk is broken or a connection to a disk fails, the user will see both an error message in Vcenter / VSphere notifications, as well as a the RAID's logical volume state as degraded.

In the image above the cable to one of the disks was removed. As a consequence the port and physical disk associated with it disappeared from the RAID controller's details. The logical volume appears status Warning and at the end of its name it says "DEGRADED".

User: How to Set Up Notifications in ESXi/vCenter

Since the RAID is managed by ESX, we need to configure it to notify the storage administrator when the RAID health changes. The procedure is explained below.

Configure SMTP settings using the old vSphere Client

  1. Log into the vCenter Server using vSphere Client
  2. From the menu, select View / Administration / Server Settings...
  3. Click on "Mail" in the panel on the left
  4. Enter the name of the SMTP server and sender account (this is kind of lame - would be nice if we could specify a port to connect to, SSL, authentication etc.)
  5. Click OK

Configure SMTP settings using the new vCenter Web Client

  1. Log into the vCenter Server using the vCenter Web Client
  2. In the Navigator select Hosts and Clusters / <your vcenter server > / Manage / Settings / General
  3. Click on the Edit... button and fill in the details as exampelified below
     
  4. Click OK and make sure the changes are persisted
     

Configure the alarm to send email using the old vSphere Client

  1. From the menu, select View / Inventory / Hosts and Clusters
  2. In the tree view on the left, click on the object where you want to configure the alarm - either at the top level (which will affect all hosts) or an individual host
  3. Select the "Alarms" tab
  4. At the top of the list of alarms, make sure "View: Definitions" is selected
  5. Locate "Host storage status" in the list of alarms and double-click it
  6. Go to the "Actions" tab
  7. Add a new "Send a notification email" action
  8. In the "Configuration" column next to your new action, enter the email address you need the alarm sent to
  9. You probably also want to make sure "Once" is selected in each of the last 4 columns, so you'll be notified every time the status changes

 

Configure the alarm to send email using the new vCenter Web Client

  1. Log into the vCenter Server using the vCenter Web Client
  2. In the Navigator select Hosts and Clusters / <your vcenter server > / Manage / Alarm Definitions. In the filter list write Host storage status or locate the alarm definition by scrolling.
  3.  Click Edit... , go to Actions and fill in the details as marked by the arrows in the image below
  4. Click Finish
  5. Verify all actions were set by expanding the Actions group of your Alarm definiton