Installation : Installing and Supporting MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on VMware : Supporting MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on the VMware ESXi Operating System

Supporting MegaRAID Storage Manager Software on the VMware ESXi Operating System

This section describes the product requirements needed to support the VMware ESXi operating system. Classic VMware includes a Service Console that is derived from the Linux 2.4 kernel but with reduced functionality.

The MegaRAID Storage Manager server part cannot be installed directly in VMware ESXi. Management is possible only through Common Information Model (CIM) providers. These CIM providers integrated into the ESXi system build an interface between the hardware driver of the LSI MegaRAID controller and remote applications, such as the MegaRAID Storage Manager software. Management is performed through the MegaRAID Storage Manager software installed on a remote machine (Linux or Windows).

* 

NOTE For VMware ESXi 5.0 to work with the MegaRAID Storage Manager software, the SMI-S Provider needs to be installed.

VMware ESX 4.0 comes with the Small Footprint CIM Broker (CFCB) CIM Object Manager (or CIMOM). A CIMOM manages the communication between providers, which interact with the hardware, and a CIM client, where the administrator manages the system.

SFCB supports Common Manageability Programming Interface (CMPI)-style providers. CMPI defines a common standard used to interface Manageability Instrumentation (providers, instrumentation) to Management Brokers (CIM Object Manager). CMPI standardizes Manageability Instrumentation, which lets you write and build instrumentation once and run it in different CIM environments (on one platform).

Network communication is a key element for a proper communication between the ESXi CIM provider and the LSI management software. Please make sure that the network settings are correct by making the following changes:

n

For networks that do not have DNS configured, the “hosts” file in the machine on which the MegaRAID Storage Manager software is installed must be edited as follows:

Add an entry to map the VMware host’s IP address with the host name. This is for the discovery process to happen correctly. In the absence of this entry, the VMware host would be discovered as 0.0.0.0.

Add an entry to map its own IP address (not the loop back address) with the Hostname. This is to ensure that the Asynchronous Event Notifications (AENs) are delivered correctly.

n

For networks that have DNS configured, perform the following:

Provide the correct DNS server IP address when you do the initial configurations for the VMware host.

In the hosts file of the machine on which the MegaRAID Storage Manager software is installed, add an entry to map its own IP address (not the loop back address) with the host name, to ensure that the Asynchronous Event Notifications are delivered correctly.