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.

Estimated Download Time: Modem (56k) - 268 minutes, 26 seconds DSL (256k) - 58 minutes, 43 seconds. Adaptec RAID 8885 Adaptec RAID 8885Q Adaptec RAID 81605ZQ. Estimated Download Time: Modem (56k) - 253 minutes, 21 seconds DSL (256k) - 55 minutes, 25 seconds. Adaptec RAID 8885 Adaptec RAID 8885Q Adaptec RAID 81605ZQ.

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

Image creation

Adaptec Raid 8885

• 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

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.

W tym artykule znajdują się informacje o kontrolerach RAID Adaptec serii 8 SAS/SATA 12 Gb. Przegląd wszystkich generacji kontrolerów RAID firmy Adaptec znajduje się w artykule Kontrolery RAID Adaptec.

• 3Informacje

Ogólne informacje

• Seria kontrolerów RAID: Adaptec 8 SAS/SATA 12 Gb
• Interfejs: 12Gb/s SAS/SATA / PCIe Gen3
• Format: low profile (śledź low profile i full profile)
• Dalsze informacje:
  • Adaptec Series 8 RAID Controllers Review (storagereview.com, 07.02.2014)
  • Adaptec by PMC ASR-8885 12Gb/s RAID Controller Review (tweaktown.com, 18.11.2013)

Modele

Adaptec 2610sa Driver

Informacje

Build 33456 (22 May 2020)

• obsługuje kontrolery RAID serii 8
• Release Notes Build 33456, wyciąg z Fixes and Enhancements:
  • Fixed a SATA drive drop issue when drive times out an IO followed by TUR command failure upon drive reset.
  • Fixed an issue where host memory can get corrupted when SATA drive is stuck in NCQ error state during IO timeout error handling.
  • Fixed an occasional issue where RAW drives were not exposed to OS after a drive swap during reboot.

Build 33401 (26 Aug 2019)

• obsługuje kontrolery RAID serii 8
• Release Notes Build 33401, wyciąg z Fixes and Enhancements:
  • Enabled parallel rebuilds on overlapping logical drive configurations.
  • Fixed an issue where the controller would assert during logical drive deletion.
  • Fixed an issue where the drive slot/bay number was not listed correctly on few sepless expander configuration.
  • Fixed an issue where RAID-configured disk will be exposed to OS after exchanging drive slots with raw state disk.
  • Fixed an issue in PBSI interface where a drive part of a failed array is reported as 'Ready' state drive.
  • Fixed a NVSRAM content loss issue during a minor dirty shutdown window.
  • Fixed an issue where product revision of SATA drives are not reported correctly.
  • Fixed an occasional exception when copyback task terminates.
  • Fixed an issue where PBSI interface reports an incorrect GB status as READY when there are NAND-related errors.

Build 33303 (30 Jan 2019)

• obsługuje kontrolery RAID serii 8
• Release Notes Build 33303, wyciąg z Fixes and Enhancements:
  • Fixed an issue where RAID 5 Copyback could take up to 15 times longer than Rebuild to complete.
  • Fixed an issue where a command timeout would lead to an IOP reset.
  • Fixed an issue where a single bad drive would cause drive discovery failure.
  • Fixed an issue where ARC firmware history logs could be lost if firmware assert and power loss.
  • Fixed an issue where ARCCONF setstatsdatacollection returned the wrong status, but command is actually successful.
  • Fixed an issue where the UEFI Boot Option Priorities field displayed bad characters.

Build 33263 (12 Apr 2018)

• obsługuje kontrolery RAID serii 8
• Release Notes Build 33263, wyciąg z Fixes and Enhancements:
  • Fixed an issue where the device was not detected after a hot-add.
  • Fixed an issue where a drive command timeout could cause the adapter to reset.
  • Fixed an issue where a redundant logical drive could fail after single drive failure.
  • Fixed an issue where the firmware would crash after a rebuild with maxCache enabled.
  • Fixed an issue where the logical drive would fail when a metadata write failed during rebuild.

Build 33204 (17 Oct 2017)

• obsługuje kontrolery RAID serii 8
• Release Notes Build 33204, wyciąg z Fixes and Enhancements:
  • Added support for physical drive failure events through PBSI event logging.
  • Fixed an issue where the console showed a controller cache warning due to a backup unit fault after flashing new firmware in UEFI mode.
  • Fixed an issue where the drive would go offline during an expander reset operation.
  • Fixed expander mapping issues.
  • Fixed an issue where the Read Buffer would fail.
  • Fixed an issue where the controller would hang when the drive member was removed from a RAID 5 array.
  • Fixed an issue where the UEFI would freeze while saving the support archive.
  • Added support for driver NMI feature to controllers.
  • Fixed an issue where the INQUIRY to VPD page 0xB0 WRITE SAME length was leading to IO timeouts.
  • Set the SES, STE, SVPD to a higher priority.

Build 33173 (30 Jun 2017)

• obsługuje kontrolery RAID serii 8
• Release Notes Build 33173, wyciąg z Enhancements and Bug Fixes:
  • Resolved an issue where unexpected system reboots would occur during Windows 2012 I/O stress testing.
  • Resolved an issue where the controller would stop responding during a RAID migration.
  • Resolved an issue discovered when a drive is hot-plugged to replace a failed drive.
  • Added support for Ubuntu 14.04.5, XenServer 7.0, RHEL 7.3, SLES 12 SP2, VMware 6.5.
  • Resolved an issue where the system could crash with driver version 1.2.1-53005 and kernel version 3.10.101.
  • Improved controller reset recovery.
  • Fixed the Windows 2016 Server hang issue, when devices become unresponsive.
  • Added support for vSphere 6.5 web client plugin.

Build 33083 (30 Jan 2017)

• obsługuje kontrolery RAID serii 8
• Release Notes Build 33083, wyciąg z Enhancements and Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed an issue where the OS kernel panicked when removing the AACRAID driver.
  • Fixed an issue where the driver was reporting the adapter dead in case of a SCSI hang.
  • Fixed an issue where controller firmware lockup was encountered on the system while deleting units.
  • Fixed an issue where customers on Ubuntu/Debian distributions did not have the documentation for building and installing the driver from the source.
  • Fixed an issue where VMware was displaying a PSOD (purple screen) when the driver triggered an IOP reset.
  • Improved the controller reset/recovery mechanism in Linux.
  • Added support for SAS transport in the driver.

Build 30033 (04 Aug 2014)

Adaptec Raid 8885 Driver Downloads

• (Initial Firmware)
• obsługuje kontrolery RAID serii 7 i 8
• Release Notes Build 32033, wyciąg z Enhancements and Bug Fixes:
  • New product release of the Adaptec RAID 8405 controller
  • Added support for up to 128 Simple Volumes
  • Re-enabled 16/32K Stripe size support
  • Enhanced Error Analysis & Recovery
  • Added support for global device write cache setting force off

Uwagi

Autor: Thomas Niedermeier

Adaptec Raid 8885 Driver Download Windows 7

Adaptec Raid Controller Card