I had to configure a bunch of ESXi 5.1 servers with LSI 9240-4i hardware RAID controllers the other day. This RAID controller is perfectly supported in ESXi 5.1 but it lacks the monitoring features.
To have these, you need to install first the LSI SMIS package on your ESXi hosts. With this, the ESXi server acts as a proxy to query the RAID controller from the network. Then you need a Windows computer running LSI MegaRaid Storage Manager (MSM) software.
But that is not enough. With just that, you will not be able to connect to the ESXi server. You will be able to detect a server but it will have a 0.0.0.0 IP address. And if you try to connect to it, you will get a “unable to connect to CIMOM server” error.
This has to do with MSM using multicast and ESXi only answering to unicast packets.
Fortunately, some guy found out a workaround which consists of running a multicast to unicast proxy (written in PHP, LOL). The full explanation to use it is right here: www.tinkertry.com/esxi-5-1-can-run-lsi-megaraid-in-a-vm/ .
Optionally, you can run the multicast to unicast proxy as a Windows service with the help of NSSM, as indicated right here: kb.stonegroup.co.uk/index.php?View=entry&EntryID=199 .
And voilà, now you are able to monitor the controller from MSM and configure things like Patrol Read. Enjoy!
I just set this up on ESXi 5.0, It seems that at one time the “fix” was necessary. To fix the 0.0.0.0 add the ESXi host to the host file of the windows machine running MSM.
Worked for me using MSM ver 13.11.01.00. I did have to install the
LSI SMIS package.
My fix was to add the ESXi host Server ip address manually into DNS.
Also creating a PTR (Pointer) record; for both DNS servers in my environment. A couple restarts of the DNS server(s) ‘Services’ and about 5 mins of waiting…I was then able to ping the ESXi host name and resolve via the -a switch…
I then went back to the LSI MegaRaid Utility and chose the ‘Display all the ESXi-CIMOM…’ option under ‘Configure host’, and walaah. There was my ESXi server!