Hey everyone.
I started putting together new ESXi 6.7 update 3 based home server platform last weekend and have slowly been turning things up.
Intel E2278G CPU
Supermicro X11-SCA-F motherboard
32GB ECC RAM
LSI 9211-8i HBA in IR
2 x 1TB Samsung EVO 860 SSD as boot disk volume (Hardware RAID 1)
Intel 540-T2 2 x 10Gb NIC
Silverstone 400 series case
Now installing ESXi was no big deal. I built a couple of VMs (one Windows 10 Pro for Blue Iris and one Ubuntu 18 for Plex server) and I also added iSCSI storage from my Synology NAS over dedicated 10Gb direct connection.
Initially things working ok other than a few minor issues (can't get rid of chassis intrusion alarm on IPMI, etc.)
This morning I was itching to try to pass through the Intel GPU to the Plex VM and that's when things went sideways.
I put ESXi into maintenance mode, set the Intel GPU to pass through and rebooted the box. When the box came up it had no datastore available, both the iSCSI and integrated 2X1TB RAID were missing. Basic CLI troubleshooting didn't help much with figuring out what was going on as there wasn't even datastore listed that I could mount.
I changed the GPU back (probably didn't have anything to do with the issue but who knows) and rebooted the box again. This time the LSI RAID came back but the iSCSI still gone. Checked a few things and this time decided to do a full power down of the server and back up... this time it comes up and the LSI HBA and iSCSI both gone!
I am scratching my head trying to figure this out. Am I going to have to reboot my NAS to get my iSCSI back up every time ESXi needs a restart? If so this is not cool.
What could explain the intermittent nature of the HBA not being available? Is it that after a software reset the HBA is in a bad state? Do I have to do a hard power down or some other action every time? The card was fairly recently manufactured so I did not bother to update the firmware on it... is it possible that is the issue?
Right now I have flipped from a lot of excitement about getting this new environment up and running to lots of concern that this new environment might not be stable enough for my home.... where it needs to run with lots of up time and provide Plex, surveillance recording and a few other critical services to my family.
Any help is appreciated.
I started putting together new ESXi 6.7 update 3 based home server platform last weekend and have slowly been turning things up.
Intel E2278G CPU
Supermicro X11-SCA-F motherboard
32GB ECC RAM
LSI 9211-8i HBA in IR
2 x 1TB Samsung EVO 860 SSD as boot disk volume (Hardware RAID 1)
Intel 540-T2 2 x 10Gb NIC
Silverstone 400 series case
Now installing ESXi was no big deal. I built a couple of VMs (one Windows 10 Pro for Blue Iris and one Ubuntu 18 for Plex server) and I also added iSCSI storage from my Synology NAS over dedicated 10Gb direct connection.
Initially things working ok other than a few minor issues (can't get rid of chassis intrusion alarm on IPMI, etc.)
This morning I was itching to try to pass through the Intel GPU to the Plex VM and that's when things went sideways.
I put ESXi into maintenance mode, set the Intel GPU to pass through and rebooted the box. When the box came up it had no datastore available, both the iSCSI and integrated 2X1TB RAID were missing. Basic CLI troubleshooting didn't help much with figuring out what was going on as there wasn't even datastore listed that I could mount.
I changed the GPU back (probably didn't have anything to do with the issue but who knows) and rebooted the box again. This time the LSI RAID came back but the iSCSI still gone. Checked a few things and this time decided to do a full power down of the server and back up... this time it comes up and the LSI HBA and iSCSI both gone!
I am scratching my head trying to figure this out. Am I going to have to reboot my NAS to get my iSCSI back up every time ESXi needs a restart? If so this is not cool.
What could explain the intermittent nature of the HBA not being available? Is it that after a software reset the HBA is in a bad state? Do I have to do a hard power down or some other action every time? The card was fairly recently manufactured so I did not bother to update the firmware on it... is it possible that is the issue?
Right now I have flipped from a lot of excitement about getting this new environment up and running to lots of concern that this new environment might not be stable enough for my home.... where it needs to run with lots of up time and provide Plex, surveillance recording and a few other critical services to my family.
Any help is appreciated.