False CIM warning on the SCSI controller - vSphere 5.

We have had a number of CIM warnings in the Hardware Status tab in vCenter on the ESXi 5 hosts related to the SCSI controller. We have seen it on HP servers with a P220i and a P410i SCSI controller.

However, there is nothing wrong with the SCSI controller.

Turns out it is a false alarm generated by the hp-smx-provider and it can be fixed by applying a driver update (which effectively changes the hp-smx-provider with the hp-smx-limited driver, both are CIM drivers). The difference between the two is, to my understanding, that with the limited driver you cannot update the ILO firmware via the ESXi console.

There are two ways of installing the four VIBs in the driver package. Either you can uninstall the existing four VIBs and then install the driver package, the zip file, which will install all four VIBs. This requires two reboots.

Or you can unpack the zip file and update only the VIBs that are actually newer than the ones you already have installed. In our case, we only needed to update two of the VIBs. This requires one reboot.

Method 1 (uninstall/install)

List the relevant VIBs

# esxcli software vib list | grep hp

Remove the installed VIBs

# esxcli software vib remove -n hp-smx-provider
# esxcli software vib remove -n char-hpcru
# esxcli software vib remove -n char-hpilo
# esxcli software vib remove -n hp-ams

Reboot

Download the driver package fromt the HP Support Center. The file is called "hp-ams-esxi5.0-bundle-9.3.5-3.zip".

Upload it to the ESXi host and place it in /tmp/.

# cd /tmp/

# esxcli software vib install -d /tmp/hp-ams-esxi5.0-bundle-9.3.5-3.zip

Reboot

Verify that the new VIBs have been installed

# esxcli software vib list | grep hp

Method 2 (update)

List the relevant VIBs

# esxcli software vib list | grep hp

Unpack the "hp-ams-esxi5.0-bundle-9.3.5-3.zip" file and copy the following VIB files to the /var/log/vmware folder:

• hp-ams-esx-500.9.3.5-02.434156.vib
• hp-smx-limited-500.03.02.10.3-434156.vib

If you unsure about whether the other two VIBs are newer than the ones already installed, then just copy all four VIBs.

Update the VIBs

# esxcli software vib update -v hp-ams-esx-500.9.3.5-02.434156.vib

# esxcli software vib update -v hp-smx-limited-500.03.02.10.3-434156.vib

Reboot

Verify that the new VIBs have been installed

# esxcli software vib list | grep hp

When the host comes back online after the reboot it will still have the warning. Leave it for about 10-15 minutes and the warning will disappear. Also, you can try to reset the sensors and refresh the page.

Thanks to Anders Mikkelsen for finding this fix and writing the guide to method 1 above.

Updating the firmware and driver on an HBA on ESXi 5.0

When updating firmware on an HBA, it will update the driver at the same time as both parts are included in the installation VIB file.

First step is to verify the type of HBA in your ESXi host:

Run the following command:

# esxcfg-scsidevs -a

Or see this KB article for more info

In the example below, the HBA is a Qlogic ISP2532 PCI-Express

However, this name will not always be used to (at least not in the case of HP) in the documentation when you're looking for a specific model.

Another way to get info on the HBA type can be combined with locating the firware version (see next step)

Next step is to identify the current firmware level of the HBA:

For a Qlogic HBA, use the following command:

# more /proc/scsi/qla2xxx/0

(The '0' can also be a '1' or a '2')

For other types of HBAs, see this KB article

In the screendump above, you can see firmware and driver version and also another name for the HBA, QMH2562.

Now that we know the model and firmware version, we can look for the latest recommended version.

Go to this KB article to find the latest version.

For HP, it takes you to the following site: http://vibsdepot.hp.com/hpq/recipes/ where you should choose the PDF called: "HP-VMware-Recipe.pdf" which is the latest one.

In the PDF, you can search for you model, in this case QMH2562:

Find your model and follow the link. It will let you download a zip file. In this example the file is called:

qla2xxx-934.5.6.0-887798.zip

Unpack the zip file and locate the .vib file which will be used for the update.

In this case the .vib file is called:

scsi-qla2xxx-934.5.6.0-1OEM.500.0.0.472560.x86_64.vib

Now, transfer the .vib file to the following folder on the ESXi host:

/var/log/vmware

Run the following command:

# esxcli software vib update -v scsi-qla2xxx-934.5.6.0-1OEM.500.0.0.472560.x86_64.vib

Reboot to finish updating.

And then verify that the update has properly installed by re-running:

# more /proc/scsi/qla2xxx/0

You can also get detailed VIB package info by running:

# esxcli software vib list | grep scsi
# esxcli software vib get -n scsi-qla2xxx