Custom ESXi 6 image for Adaptec 6805 RAID controller
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.
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
https://my.vmware.com/en/group/vmware/evalcenter?p=free-esxi6
- PowerCLI 6
https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/get-download?downloadGroup=PCLI600R1
- Adaptec driver
http://partnerweb.vmware.com/comp_guide2/detail.php?deviceCategory=io&productid=19667
Useful PowerCLI Documentation:
https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp#...ve-EsxSoftwarePackage.html
Image creation
- Install PowerCLI 6 (and all required dependencies)
- Unzip the Adaptec driver to e.g. C:\temp\VMServer6\
- 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:\temp\VMServer6\# 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:\temp\VMServer6\build\ESXi-6.0.0-20160104001-standard-Adaptec.iso# Creates Bundle
Export-ESXImageProfile -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.0.0-20160104001-standard-Adaptec" -ExportToBundle -filepath C:\temp\VMServer6\build\ESXi-6.0.0-20160104001-standard-Adaptec.zip
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
was the most important thing. All other steps can be found in the standard documentation.
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Hello
I just want to say a big thank you for posting this. I have been trying for two days to install Esxi on my server running Adaptec 8885. Your instructions worked exactly.
Thank you.
Thank you for the feedback!
Thanks a lot, now you have a friend at venezuela
Great!
i mean it, you helped me a lot to install esxi6 in an inspur server
thanks a lot, really helpful
A slightly more straightforward option is to use the "EX Customiser" tool from this URL:
https://www.v-front.de/p/esxi-customizer-ps.html
To build a bootable ISO with the AAC-RAID driver included.
What I did was:
Download the VMware ESXi 6.7.0 offline bundle (this is available for download if you register for a trial) from:
https://my.vmware.com/en/group/vmware/evalcenter?p=vsphere-eval
Downloaded an AAC-RAID driver from the MicroSemi website - I actually picked one for a newer RAID card, as it seems to be a superset of the one needed for the 6805:
https://storage.microsemi.com/en-us/speed/raid/aac/linux/aacraid_vmware_drivers_1.2.1-56009_cert_tgz.php
The one listed for the 6805 is here:
https://storage.microsemi.com/en-us/speed/raid/aac/linux/aacraid_vmware_drivers_1.2.1-52040_cert_tgz.php
Install PowerCLI (as ESX Customiser is just a wrapper around this)
Create a folder, and put the ESX Customer script, and the 6.7.0 bundle file in it. Create a "Extra" sub folder, and extract the .vib from the Adaptec driver package into that folder.
Then an ISO can be built with:
.\ESXi-Customizer-PS-v2.6.0.ps1 -izip .\VMware-ESXi-6.7.0-8169922-depot.zip -pkgDir .\extra
In theory the customiser script should be able to download the VMware image directly, without having to give it the bundle, but that seems to always time out for me.
Hi,
Nice to see someone shared information about adaptec installation esxi 6.7
did someone managed to get cim manager working
Thank you so much, that helped a lot! )
Hello, recently i tried to build a esxi iso with adaptec 6806 driver for hp dl380eg8 and your post helped me a lot. thank you.
Perfect!