cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
47441
Views
15
Helpful
25
Replies

C220 M3 problem recognizing HDD disks

b.moakhar
Level 1
Level 1

Hi,

We recently have bought a UCS C220 M3 Server, in order to install a virtual environment through ESXi. When trying to install EXSi 4.1; the hard disks are not recognized and listed.

When connecting to the Web GUI (CIMC), in the inventory, the disks are not displayed...

We use 3 disks (A03-D500GC3)

cisco.JPG

What can i do in this situation?

Edit: the ESXi installation was tried with RAID and without RAID, same problem. when configuring RAID, the disks are recognized

Thanks

25 Replies 25

padramas
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Hello Bilel,

When you boot the server, are you able to see the LSI RAID controller card ?

If yes, can you launch webios utility and check if it detects hard disks or not ?

Can you check the RAID cables are connected properly to HDD back plane ?

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/hw/C220/install/raid.html#wp1020431

Padma

Hi Padma,

Thanks for your response.

Concerning your first question the answer is yes, the server lists the disks when booting and sees the LSI RAID as shown in this picture:

But the weird thing here is that i cannot access the Webbios interface. as you see, we are not prompted to access it through the "ctrl + h" command...we can only access the LSI RAID interface using "ctrl+m" (in that interface the disks are seen and ready)

here some information about the server:

The RAID cables seem to be correctly connected.

Bilel,

From the POST screen shot, you have the embeded Intel Patsbug SCU (Storage Control Unit) software raid array. It is software based and will not show up in the hardware storage inventory in CIMC.

It is also not supported by VMWare, so, there are no drivers available for ESXi. You will not see the software raid device to install on.

In order to be supported, you can either use the SD Flexflash, or potentially upgrade to either a mezzanine or PCIe array controller.

Dave

Thanks Dave,

So unless upgrading the server, we cannot install VMware..

We even met this problem when installing Windows Server 2008 (in order to install Hyper-V), with and without RAID 5 config. See below when the RAID is online:

In this case, the disks are not seen.(see screenshot)

Now, and this wasn't the case before, we have this screen when booting:

This is kind of frustrating, we have a server but we can't install any OS on it...

Thanks for your help

Hello Bilel,

Hypervisors do not support embedded RAID controller.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/hw/C220/install/raid.html#wp1028426

------------------

VMware  ESX/ESXi or any other virtualized environments are not supported for  use with the embedded MegaRAID controller. Hypervisors such as Hyper-V,  Xen, or KVM are also not supported for use with the embedded MegaRAID  controller.

-----------------

However, you can install OS with installing appropriate drivers.

For W2K8 R2, the driver is available under  \Windows\Storage\Intel\C600\W2K8R2\x64

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/os-install-guides/windows/CSERIES-WINDOWS_chapter_011.html

Padma

Thanks Padma for your response

I downloaded The Cisco UCS C-Series Drivers DVD ISO image from cisco site (ucs-cxxx-drivers.1.4.7.a.iso), following the link you gave me (\Windows\Storage\Intel\C600\W2K8R2\x64).

after that, I mapped the file and the installation iso file of win2K8R2, and I began installing windows server. when I try to use the driver in order to see disks, and when I uncheck "hide drivers not compatible with this computer", the installer shows many drivers:

however, when i check it, no driver is shown:

i'm desperate here!

Hello  Bilel!

I have the same problem whit that server. How could you solve it?

thanks in advance for you time!

Hi,

We are still working on this case with Cisco support team, but it seems to be a hardware issue (motherboard maybe). I advice you to contact them...

thanks for your quick response!!!

you're welcome, good luck with your server

Hi David,

I found the guide on creating partitions for VMware on FlexFlash at the link below:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns340/ns517/ns224/ns944/white_paper_c11-718938.html

However it's not quite clear whether the ESXi hypervisor will be able to see SW on-board RAID once ESXi is installed on SD Flexflash with properly created partitions. Could you clarify this?

SKU for FlexFlash mentioned above is UCSC-SD-16G-C220.

Many thanks

Leo


Folks

I am facing similar issue, Appreciate if anyone respond to this.

I was able to install the ESXi5.1 server on C22 M3 UCS. I am seeing the problem where HD is not recognized by the bios. I keep getting the following message all the time in a loop. Hard disk is seen during the boot. I have not configured any RAID and the Server has only 1 Hard-drive. I include the HD in the configured boot order and power-cycle or reboot the server, it comes up with only the PXE & EFI option for actual boot order. I was able to successfully install ESXi5.1 thorough external CDROM drive on the hard-drive. However, when I try to boot it from the HD where the ESXi server is installed, it does not work.

Can you pls advice how to proceed and if you have seen this problem before?

Thanks

Pramod,

Based on your screenshots it looks as though your C22 is using the embedded controller.  In order for the server BIOS to see the drive you must create a Virtual Drive using the Ctrl-M feature shown in your second screen capture, the server BIOS will not be able to recognize the drive as a pass-through (JBOD) device.

Once you do this however ESXi will not be able to see the drive for install because the onboard controller and associated software are not certified on the ESX HCL.  Note table 5 located on page 18 in the C22 Spec Sheet states that there is no VMWare support for the embedded controller.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/ps10265/ps10493/c22m3_sff_specsheet.pdf

I also have the same problem, since a week   I'm trying to fix the problem without success, if you solve it please tell me what can i do to fix these problem

Getting Started

Find answers to your questions by entering keywords or phrases in the Search bar above. New here? Use these resources to familiarize yourself with the community: