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MegaRAID Storage Manager Online Help System |
Supporting MegaRAID Storage Manager on the VMware ESX and ESXi Operating Systems
This section describes the product requirements needed to support the VMware ESX operating system. Classic VMware includes a Service Console that is derived from the Linux 2.4 kernel, but with reduced functionality.
The MSM server part cannot be installed directly in VMware ESX 4.0. Management is possible only through Common Information Model (CIM) providers. These CIM providers integrated into the ESX 4.0 system build an interface between the hardware driver of the LSI MegaRAID controller and remote applications, such as MSM. Management is performed through MSM installed on a remote machine (Linux/Windows). See MegaRAID Storage Manager Support on the VMWare ESXi Operating System for more information.
The Linux RPM of MSM works under the console with minimal changes. Hardware RAID is currently supported in ESX 4.x.
The network communication is a key element for a proper setup. The communication between the ESXi CIM provider and the LSI management software is an active/passive combination, which requires a highly reliable network. Therefore, we recommend that you install the management on a VM within the ESXi. Follow these steps to install and configure MSM support on the VMware ESX operating system:
1. Network configuration of the ESXi host
- Assignment of an ESXi hostname:
- Configuration of a virtual network environment:
- Option #1: Use the already existing Vswitch, which has a VMkernel port already attached for the communication.
- Option #2: Build a new Vswitch without a link to the Host network card.
The application you use determines which option to choose. Make sure that you chose the applicable option at an early stage because creating a new Vswitch with VMkernel requires a reboot to make sure a proper communication between the CIM provider and the new interface. If you want to reach the target as quickly as possible, no change is recommended.- Configuration of the IP address:
2. VM installation
Install the operating system as usual, including the VMware guest tools. The virtual network card should be linked to a Vswitch that has a VMKernel port attached. For a quick installation, no change is recommended.
3. VM network configuration
4. Reboot and login
Reboot the VM and start MSM from a remote Windows/ Linux machine that has MSM installed in complete mode. The ESXi server should now appear in the list of the found hosts. You can now log in with the root account name and password of the ESXi Host.
5. Host overview
Figure 1 shows the name of the host ESXi server. In this example, the host ESXi server name is
local.lsi.com
.Figure 1 Host ESXi Server Name
You can click Configure Host if you want to select the display preferences for the server. You can choose to display only the local server, display systems from a list, or display all of the systems in the network of the local server.
- Click Connect.
- Enter the user name and the password to log in on the ESXi Host, as shown in Figure 2.
On this screen, you can enter the user name and password to log in on the ESXi Host.Figure 2 Login on the Host Server
After you log in, the dashboard view provides an overview of the system and covers the properties of the virtual drives and the physical drives, total capacity, configured capacity, unconfigured capacity, background operations in progress, MSM features and their status (enabled or disabled), and the actions you can perform, such as creating a virtual drive and updating the firmware.
Limitations of the Installation and Configurations
For more information about these limitations, see Differences in MSM for VMware ESXi.
DB09-000202-04 37857-02 Rev. E October 2010 Copyright© 2010 by LSI Corporation. All rights reserved. You can find a list of the LSI U.S. distributors, international distributors, sales offices, and design resource centers on the LSI web site at: http://www.lsi.com/cm/ContactSearch.do |