ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting
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@pmoncho said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@G-I-Jones said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@pmoncho said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@G-I-Jones said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@NetworkNerd, @pmoncho , I'm still having no luck over here. I've tried 6.5, 6.7 and 6.7 U2. All with Dell ESXi and without. Dell is saying that they think it's because this specific server doesn't have a PERC cache. Does that sound like nonsense to you all or not? I know the previous machine (which I had 0 zero issues other than forgetting to install VMWare Tools on initially), worked fine, but it DOES have a PERC cache...
Which RAID card do you have in the server according to the BIOS or iDRAC?
PERC H330 Adapter
Well, they are right that the PERC H330 does not have a cache. Based on a few google searches, others have had similar issues with this card depending on the RAID level.
So, what type of drives do you have and what RAID level are you using?
The H330 is like for labs or testing. Shouldn't be found in a production environment. It's a fine card for what it is, just not a production use card
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@G-I-Jones said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@pmoncho, @NetworkNerd, @travisdh1, @Dashrender, @DustinB3403, @marcinozga - Thanks for your help. After reading an article on it or two and talking with Dell, We're ditching the H330. Boss just ordered the H730P.
Yeah, that's definitely the way to go. You need the CPU and cache of that card.
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@pmoncho said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@G-I-Jones said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@pmoncho We're ditching the H330. Boss just ordered the H730P.
That, in the long run, is probably the best call. Any way you can get the boss to add on the SD Card module? That will be a benefit also if you stay with ESXi.
haha, yes. Working on that as we speak.
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@G-I-Jones said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@pmoncho said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@G-I-Jones said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@pmoncho We're ditching the H330. Boss just ordered the H730P.
That, in the long run, is probably the best call. Any way you can get the boss to add on the SD Card module? That will be a benefit also if you stay with ESXi.
haha, yes. Working on that as we speak.
Sweet. Keep going. See if your boss can get iDRAC enterprise license if you don't have that. Not really required but it is nice to have.
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The H330 is like for labs or testing. Shouldn't be found in a production environment. It's a fine card for what it is, just not a production use card
Begs the question why when ordering a server for a specific purpose, they would even ship that out.
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@G-I-Jones said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
The H330 is like for labs or testing. Shouldn't be found in a production environment. It's a fine card for what it is, just not a production use card
Begs the question why when ordering a server for a specific purpose, they would even ship that out.
I have thought the same thing for a long time on Dell 4XX's on up. Either no controller at all or start at the H730 and up. Just an opinion though.
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@G-I-Jones said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
The H330 is like for labs or testing. Shouldn't be found in a production environment. It's a fine card for what it is, just not a production use card
Begs the question why when ordering a server for a specific purpose, they would even ship that out.
Because they are not your IT - at least, they shouldn't be.
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@Dashrender said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@G-I-Jones said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
The H330 is like for labs or testing. Shouldn't be found in a production environment. It's a fine card for what it is, just not a production use card
Begs the question why when ordering a server for a specific purpose, they would even ship that out.
Because they are not your IT - at least, they shouldn't be.
I get it, although, to even sell an H330 on a Dell PowerEdge R840 is like selling standard breaks on a Audi A6 and making the driver request anti-lock breaks. While there are some users that prefer standard breaks, my guess would be the amount of users requesting a trade down to standard brakes is minuscule.
Also, Dell does not even have a Celeron processor on the list for anything higher than a T340. Logic tells me they know its is not a good idea. Apparently selling an H330 on a T/R440 or higher hasn't hit the "not a good idea" level yet.
EDIT - Reread my post - Dell just gets under my skin sometimes! Didn't mean to come off jerky.
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@G-I-Jones said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
The H330 is like for labs or testing. Shouldn't be found in a production environment. It's a fine card for what it is, just not a production use card
Begs the question why when ordering a server for a specific purpose, they would even ship that out.
People mix up the H330 and the HBA330.
Both are LSI SAS3008 cards but with different firmware.
It can do one million IOPS and transfer 6GB/sec but it doesn't have any cache.Entry and mid-level servers come with the H330.
HBA330 is primarily a Host Bus Adapter and it's what you order for running vSAN or any type of software raid.Both have their place in production servers. It just depends on what they are used for.
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@G-I-Jones said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
The H330 is like for labs or testing. Shouldn't be found in a production environment. It's a fine card for what it is, just not a production use card
Begs the question why when ordering a server for a specific purpose, they would even ship that out.
Because it's functional and meets some people's requirements. Customers demand it, so vendors supply it. Companies sell what people buy, the question isn't why someone would sell it. The question is, why would someone buy it? In your case, you guys chose that card and justified to Dell why they are making and selling it - it makes them money. They don't care why you chose that card, they only know that you did (presumably because someone wanted the cheapest hardware RAID possible) and that you did is what makes them make sure that they keep providing that option for the future.
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@pmoncho said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
Also, Dell does not even have a Celeron processor on the list for anything higher than a T340. Logic tells me they know its is not a good idea. Apparently selling an H330 on a T/R440 or higher hasn't hit the "not a good idea" level yet.
Define "not a good idea."
Not a good idea: Selling configurations that no one buys and do not encourage people to buy something of higher profits.
Selling a Celeron in a server makes the server look low end and would undermine higher cost sales. Selling it logically would not make sense. No one would buy it, and it would not help sell better configurations.
Selling the H330 makes absolutely sense in every way. Tons of people choose it for whatever reason, so selling it directly is profitable. It also encourages buying a second RAID card later, making them even more money so double justifying it.
It's a great idea for them to sell the H330. Now everyone sells things that are bad ideas to buy. The question is why are people buying these things, not why someone is selling them.
People will sell whatever makes them money. It is always buyers, never sellers, who truly determine what is for sale. if buyers wanted Celeron configurations in any quantity, you bet your bippy that Dell would have them as options immediately.
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@Pete-S said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@G-I-Jones said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
The H330 is like for labs or testing. Shouldn't be found in a production environment. It's a fine card for what it is, just not a production use card
Begs the question why when ordering a server for a specific purpose, they would even ship that out.
People mix up the H330 and the HBA330.
Both are LSI SAS3008 cards but with different firmware.
It can do one million IOPS and transfer 6GB/sec but it doesn't have any cache.Entry and mid-level servers come with the H330.
HBA330 is primarily a Host Bus Adapter and it's what you order for running vSAN or any type of software raid.Both have their place in production servers. It just depends on what they are used for.
I struggle to find a place for the H330 in production. The combination of low performance, but high cost and hardware risk just make it a crazy component. Dells makes it because the cost to do so approaches zero, and it earns them profits. But I can't think of any real world scenario in production where someone should buy it. It's an awesome lab unit for testing platform systems, so that it exists or is purchased in general make absolute sense, but deploying to production - feels like something would have to be wrong.
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@pmoncho said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
I get it, although, to even sell an H330 on a Dell PowerEdge R840 is like selling standard breaks on a Audi A6 and making the driver request anti-lock breaks.
They used to do this until the law changed and I can tell you as someone from snow country, this is what good drivers want. Anti-lock brakes kill a few good drivers to save even more bad ones. For the majority, they are great, should probably be required by law. But it totally screws people that know what they are doing and have that control. I've known a lot of people having anti-lock induced accidents, mostly in snow.
The point being, like anti-lock brakes, the H330 is something customers demand. If Audi had customers demanding not to have anti-lock brakes (and they could sell them) then it would only make sense for them to sell that configuration. The H330 is exactly like that, it has use cases, it has customer demand. Dell is absolutely faultless here. In fact, we'd be upset with them if they refused to sell us configurations that we need.
Every server vendor, every hardware RAID vendor, offers configurations like this. Every single one. Why? Because it is one of the most widely demanded solutions. If Dell didn't offer this, people would go to another vendor to get it.
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@scottalanmiller said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@Pete-S said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@G-I-Jones said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
The H330 is like for labs or testing. Shouldn't be found in a production environment. It's a fine card for what it is, just not a production use card
Begs the question why when ordering a server for a specific purpose, they would even ship that out.
People mix up the H330 and the HBA330.
Both are LSI SAS3008 cards but with different firmware.
It can do one million IOPS and transfer 6GB/sec but it doesn't have any cache.Entry and mid-level servers come with the H330.
HBA330 is primarily a Host Bus Adapter and it's what you order for running vSAN or any type of software raid.Both have their place in production servers. It just depends on what they are used for.
I struggle to find a place for the H330 in production. The combination of low performance, but high cost and hardware risk just make it a crazy component. Dells makes it because the cost to do so approaches zero, and it earns them profits. But I can't think of any real world scenario in production where someone should buy it. It's an awesome lab unit for testing platform systems, so that it exists or is purchased in general make absolute sense, but deploying to production - feels like something would have to be wrong.
It's the kind of card you'll buy when you:
- don't know what you're doing
- know exactly what you are doing
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@Pete-S said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@scottalanmiller said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@Pete-S said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@G-I-Jones said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
The H330 is like for labs or testing. Shouldn't be found in a production environment. It's a fine card for what it is, just not a production use card
Begs the question why when ordering a server for a specific purpose, they would even ship that out.
People mix up the H330 and the HBA330.
Both are LSI SAS3008 cards but with different firmware.
It can do one million IOPS and transfer 6GB/sec but it doesn't have any cache.Entry and mid-level servers come with the H330.
HBA330 is primarily a Host Bus Adapter and it's what you order for running vSAN or any type of software raid.Both have their place in production servers. It just depends on what they are used for.
I struggle to find a place for the H330 in production. The combination of low performance, but high cost and hardware risk just make it a crazy component. Dells makes it because the cost to do so approaches zero, and it earns them profits. But I can't think of any real world scenario in production where someone should buy it. It's an awesome lab unit for testing platform systems, so that it exists or is purchased in general make absolute sense, but deploying to production - feels like something would have to be wrong.
It's the kind of card you'll buy when you:
- don't know what your doing
- know exactly what you are doing
LOL. Pretty much.
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@pmoncho said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@Dashrender said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
@G-I-Jones said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
The H330 is like for labs or testing. Shouldn't be found in a production environment. It's a fine card for what it is, just not a production use card
Begs the question why when ordering a server for a specific purpose, they would even ship that out.
Because they are not your IT - at least, they shouldn't be.
I get it, although, to even sell an H330 on a Dell PowerEdge R840 is like selling standard breaks on a Audi A6 and making the driver request anti-lock breaks. While there are some users that prefer standard breaks, my guess would be the amount of users requesting a trade down to standard brakes is minuscule.
Also, Dell does not even have a Celeron processor on the list for anything higher than a T340. Logic tells me they know its is not a good idea. Apparently selling an H330 on a T/R440 or higher hasn't hit the "not a good idea" level yet.
EDIT - Reread my post - Dell just gets under my skin sometimes! Didn't mean to come off jerky.
you aren't the one I was replying to
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@DustinB3403 said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
ESXi recommends SD card, USB is a bit to fragile for the number of writes you'd be making to it.
M.2 SSD is the recomendation. SD cards lack any kind of ECC and the controllers are too dumb to prevent read discards. Throw in the fact that cheap SD cards are slow on boot, you can log local on a M.2, I'd say for non-lab usage M.2 is the recomendation going forward.
If you must go embedded SD card, I'd get at least 32GB as it will likely have fewer read endurance issues.
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@scottalanmiller said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
The H330 is like for labs or testing. Shouldn't be found in a production environment. It's a fine card for what it is, just not a production use card
It's fine for a boot device but on Dell 14G most people use BOSS cards(Unless they are maxing out the PCI-E bays, and then getting a H330 embedded version)
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@pmoncho said in ESXi 6.7 Troubleshooting:
ESXi is loaded all into memory after boot up. Other than USB disk checks, nothing is stored on the USB key after the hypervisor is loaded. It mostly writes to the USB key on reboot/shutdown.
It is on embedded installs. (not on full version installs).
