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Re: Problem installing HPE StoreVirtual Multipathing Extension Module for Vmware vSphere

 
erwinbre
Occasional Advisor

Problem installing HPE StoreVirtual Multipathing Extension Module for Vmware vSphere

Hi all,

we have a VMWare ESXi-cluster of 6 hosts (all 6 hosts are identical Proliant DL 385 G7 servers and version of ESXi is 5.5.0, 2718055)

Our HP-Lefthand/StoreVirtual SAN is running version 12.6 of the StoreVirtual OS.

 

I downloaded the latest driver (.vib file) from HP: StoreVirtual Multipathing Extension Module for Vmware vSphere 5.5 (AT004-10536.vib)

Installation went fine on 5 ESXi-hosts. After reboot of the hosts I can see that these 5 hosts are using the HPE_SATP_LH storage array type and the HPE_PSP_LH path selection, which indicates a succesfull installation of the multipathing driver.

 

The problem is one 1 host. Installation of the driver goes fine, the CLI-window confirms installation is succesfull and that the host requires a reboot.

During this first reboot after installation the host goes into a purple screen (see attachement)

After this we have to do a hard reset of the host after which the host boots successfully, but with the default VMWare driver active (VMW_SATP_DEFAULT_AA / Round Robin) and not the Multipathing driver.

 

Can anybody help me please?

 

Thank you very much,

 

Erwin B.

 

18 REPLIES 18
Stor_Mort
HPE Pro

Re: Problem installing HPE StoreVirtual Multipathing Extension Module for Vmware vSphere

It does sound like an installation issue on that host, as the others seem to be working. Try un-installing and re-installing. Check if there are any differences in the versions of the NIC drivers between this host and the others.

I am an HPE employee - HPE SImpliVity Support

Accept or Kudo

Kuiper
Visitor

Re: Problem installing HPE StoreVirtual Multipathing Extension Module for Vmware vSphere

Hi,

We have the same issue on all of our hosts (DL360G7 and DL360G5), I've tried first two G7's in different clusters and after that a G5, but all the the systems gave an PSOD. After a cold restart the HPE-LH-MEM driver seems to be deinstalled. TIll this moment we didn't have an issue and all the ESX servers has the latest VMware 5.5 updates and VUM is updated with the HPE VIBS, but the driver should give us less latency and more IOPS we need. We have two P4500G2 nodes (cluster 1) and four P4530 (cluster 2) nodes.

What can cause this issues?

Best regards,

Jan

 

erwinbre
Occasional Advisor

Re: Problem installing HPE StoreVirtual Multipathing Extension Module for Vmware vSphere

Update: After trying to individually upgrade every possible driver on the ESXi-host, I still couldn't get this to work. So I decided to upgrade the host to ESXi 6.0 (after first upgrading the vcenter server to 6.0). Then I downloaded and installed the HPE StoreVirtual Multipathing Extension Module for Vmware vSphere 6.0 and it finally worked. I then went on and upgraded the 5 remaining hosts to ESXi 6.0 + Multipathing extension without a problem.

To upgrade the DL385G7 servers I used the custom HP ESXi 6.0 ISO as it contains more specific HP-drivers.

Kind regards,

erwinbre

Kuiper
Visitor

Re: Problem installing HPE StoreVirtual Multipathing Extension Module for Vmware vSphere

Hi,

Update: I've tried also to install the MEM extension at one of our customers using four 4530 with three DL360Gen8's and Esxi5.5 , but they also got a Purple Screen of Deadth. So I think the 5.5 version is buggy and must not be installed. If someone has a better solution than upgrade to ESXi 6, please let me know.

Best regards,

Jan

Kuiper
Visitor

Re: Problem installing HPE StoreVirtual Multipathing Extension Module for Vmware vSphere

Hi everyone,

I think I found the issue and reason why a purple screen is displayed after the installation reboot of the extension. Last night I've tried several times to install the module but every time it failed. After I changed first the Path Selection on all the datastores to Fixed or MRU the server was rebooted successfully. Then I could change the path selection to the HP extension. After checking everything seems to be working (a few warnings are displayed in the vmkernel.log complaining on a path change). After checking all paths the datastores I accidentally changed one datastore to Round Robin again and instantly the server crashed with the PSOD described earlier. After a reboot the servers crashed again because of the wrong path selection, the only solution I did find was to block the nics on the switch (disable port), after waiting very long the server was started up again and I was able to remove the extension. After enabling the ports on the switch and rebooted the server the ESXi environment was up and running again.

Lessons learned:
тАв    DonтАЩt use or deactivate Round Robin if you are planning to use the HPE-LH-MEM
тАв    Inform all technicians to keep their hands of the path policy selection if the HPE-LH-MEM is installed

I hope that the issues described above are fixed in the extension for vSphere 6.

Best regards,
Jan Kuiper

Stor_Mort
HPE Pro

Re: Problem installing HPE StoreVirtual Multipathing Extension Module for Vmware vSphere

Use VMware 5.5 update 3 with the StoreVirtual MEM driver for 5.5 for best results. VMware fixed something that was causing issues. VMware 6.0 and MEM for 6.0 seem to work well.

I am an HPE employee - HPE SImpliVity Support

Accept or Kudo

Ste7N
Frequent Visitor

Re: Problem installing HPE StoreVirtual Multipathing Extension Module for Vmware vSphere

Hi All,

Same issue here with :

VMware-ESXi-6.0.0-Update2-3620759-HPE-600.9.5.0.48-Apr2016 (patched last week)

and VIB

Hewlett-Packard-Enterprise_bootbank_hpe-lh-mem_6.0.0-12.6.0.14

As soon I started modifying the path selection method (mixing HP MEM and previously set Roind-Robin) the system became unresponsive, and I had to reboot.

Then I started to get PSOD at every boot, and there was no way to get out of the loop until I decided to disable the read/write access to the volumes using the CMC.

After the timeout, the esx completed the load process and then I removed the driver via SSH:

esxcli software vib remove -n hpe-lh-mem

Hope to save you some time. I spent three hours trying to get out of this.

Best regards.

Stefano.

 

 

Convergo
Frequent Advisor

Re: Problem installing HPE StoreVirtual Multipathing Extension Module for Vmware vSphere

Hi,

we had similar problems with the MEM.

We have multiple Storevirtual VSA clusters hosted on the same ESXi hosts. Running vSphere 6 and some external Windows 2008R2 servers the latest version we can use of LHOS is 12.5. We upgraded the first storevirtual cluster to 12.5. On the physical windows servers the DSM also upgraded succesfully (remind install this before upgrading). When we tried installing the MEM on one ESXi host we configured the acceptance level however we receive the message:

Unable to set acceptance level of accepted due to installed VIBs Hewlett-Packard (followed by a list of HPE vibs). Unable to solve this issue we decided to install the MEM vib for ESXi 6 : HP_StoreVirtual_Multipathing_Extension_Module_for_Vmware_vSphere_6.0_AT004-10525.vib

Hitting alt+F11 on the ESXi host a redline appeared :

Jumpstart dependency error : Initialization barier "vmkeventd" is not provided by any plugin but the following plugins require it : "nmp-hp-satp-lh", "nmp-hp-psp-lh", "hp_vaaip2000". During the boot some other messages appear like cpu0: HP_PSP DEBUG VERSION and char_driver : ALL Done. Being written all in red we suspect this is not good, but decided to go further while we could not solve these messages, or interpret them as being "valid".

It appeared that the LHOS 11.5 volumes of the second cluster were still configured with RR. Due to a six node cluster we had about 30 volumes and thus a lot of paths on the ESXi host. When we powered off one VSA in the first cluster, it seemed that the ESXi host entered a "stress mode" not being able to manage this host anymore. After reseting the host all volumes of the first VSA cluster disappeared.

For now we reverted to the RR pathpolicy by uninstalling the driver.

Questions that arise:

- is it supported to use the MEM vib on an ESXi host even when this host also connects to a 11.5 LHOS cluster ?

- when using 12.5 as LHOS in a cluster, is it supported to use the 12.6 MEM (while looking to the vib for vSphere 6 it is still version 12.0)

- Can the jumstart dependency error and the char_driver messages be ignored or do they indicate a fault ?

Anyone else experienced this behaviour on a ESXi 6 site with 12.5 clusters in combination with MEM ? The performance gain of 150% - 500% mentioned in the forum is definately worth testing and creating a stable environment.

thanks !

danevald
Advisor

Re: Problem installing HPE StoreVirtual Multipathing Extension Module for Vmware vSphere

Hi VISABATI,

Quick fix, please correct the guide to uninstall, the command for uninstalling now contains HPE and not only HP :-)

~ # esxcli software vib remove -n hp-lh-mem <----

http://h20564.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c04586354