Some time ago, we changed the hardware of our VM server. We replaced the RAID controller with an Adaptec 6805 because the old controller had some problems. The server run with ESXi 5.1.
I/O Connectivity and Data ProtectionWith its entry-level price point, Adaptec 6405E can be used as a connectivity product, with support for up to 4 SATA and SAS devices, and 128MB of DDR2-800 MHz DRAM cache for device acceleration. At the same time, the Adaptec RAID Code (ARC) delivers maximum reliability with RAID levels 0, 1, 1E, 10 and JBOD.
A 'Yes' in this column indicates that Adaptec plans to release a driver for this product. This driver will be available for download from the Adaptec web site in the future. A 'NO' in this column indicates that this product will not be supported for use with systems running Windows Server 2016. This will help if you installed an incorrect or mismatched driver. Problems can arise when your hardware device is too old or not supported any longer. Microsemi Adaptec RAID 6405E Controller Firmware Microsemi Adaptec RAID 6405E Controller BIOS Adaptec RAID 6405E Controller Firmware Adaptec RAID 6405E Controller Microsemi Firmware.
The problem with our Adaptec controller was that ESXi didn't support it out-of-the-box. It was supported in general but the driver was not included. We thought that the new ESXi 6 could contain the driver, but it didn't. So we had to create our own ESXi image with the Adaptec driver.
We thought it shouldn't be a problem because there was much documentation about custom images:
https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/04/using-the-vsphere-esxi-image-builder-cli.html
http://www.virten.net/2015/03/esxi-6-0-image-for-intel-nuc/
(DE) https://www.thomas- krenn.com/de/wiki/Individuelles_ESXi_5....
Some problems:
- We tried to create an image for version 6
- We used the free version of ESXi with all its limitations
A problem was that the documentation references an 'offline software depot'. You can download the offline depot for the paid version but it's not available for the free version - not as simple download. No offline deplot means no custom image - right? Not right, because it's also possible to use an online depot.
The problem was that the documentation didn't contain a full description. We found some hints in different blogs but no complete description.
Here are the steps how we created our custom ESXi 6 image with Adaptec 6805 driver:
Downloads
- ESXi
- PowerCLI 6
- Adaptec driver
Useful PowerCLI Documentation:
https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp#...ve-EsxSoftwarePackage.html
Adaptec Raid 6405e Driver
Image creation
- Install PowerCLI 6 (and all required dependencies)
- Unzip the Adaptec driver to e.g. C:tempVMServer6
- Run PowerCLI as Administrator (sometimes, first launch of PowerCLI isn't working - simply close/run again)
- Execute following commands# Preconfigure
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
cd c:tempVMServer6# Use online depot
Add-EsxSoftwareDepot https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
# Add offline bundle for adaptec driver
Add-EsxSoftwareDepot aacraid-6.0.6.2.1.41024-offline_bundle-2915492.zip# Check added depots
$DefaultSoftwareDepots# Lists all ESXi-6.* profiles
Get-EsxImageProfile -Name'ESXi-6.*'# Sets the base profile
New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile'ESXi-6.0.0-20160104001-standard'-name'ESXi-6.0.0-20160104001-standard-Adaptec'-Vendor'rjahn@SIB'-AcceptanceLevel'CommunitySupported'# Lists all included drivers
Get-EsxSoftwarePackage -Name'*aacraid*'# Adds adaptec driver from offline bundle
Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile'ESXi-6.0.0-20160104001-standard-Adaptec'-SoftwarePackage scsi-aacraid# Creates boot image
Export-ESXImageProfile -ImageProfile'ESXi-6.0.0-20160104001-standard-Adaptec'-ExportToISO-filepath C:tempVMServer6buildESXi-6.0.0-20160104001-standard-Adaptec.iso# Creates Bundle
Export-ESXImageProfile -ImageProfile'ESXi-6.0.0-20160104001-standard-Adaptec'-ExportToBundle-filepath C:tempVMServer6buildESXi-6.0.0-20160104001-standard-Adaptec.zip
Adaptec Raid 6405e Driver Windows 7
Version numbers may be different, but the procedure should work for you as well. The online depot:
https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
Adaptec Raid 6405e Driver Win 7
was the most important thing. All other steps can be found in the standard documentation.