Storage Health Monitoring on PowerEdge R430 with PERC H730 Mini in ESXi 7.0U2

Hello @mjtEF,

Good to see you back in the Dell Community,

Was this a fresh installation or an update? At the end of the day, the Web Client is just pulling this information from the iDRAC. Do you have access to the server iDRAC and can confirm if the storage information is visible from the IDRAC GUI? Can you please let me know the iDRAC, BIOS and PERC firmware versions?

Maybe you will need to reset the iDRAC. But please, first let me know the answers to my previous questions.

Regards:

Here's a view of Storage Health from within the Web Client.  None of the physical drives are shown under "Storage" nor "System sensors".  In the screenshot below, the PERC card is visible, but with health status "Unknown:.

Thank you for your response.  This was a fresh installation of ESXi using "VMware-VMvisor-Installer-7.0.0.update02-17867351.x86_64-DellEMC_Customized-A04.iso".  Yes, the storage information is visible in iDRAC.  I see firmware versions as follows:  iDRAC: 2.81.81.81, BIOS: 2.13.0, PERC: 25.5.9.0001.

Diego had mentioned resetting the iDRAC, which can certainly help. You might also consider installing the iSM (iDRAC Service Module). The iSM improves communication between the iDRAC and the host OS and adds some additional functionality, as well. The latest iSM for your model doesn't support U2, but I have an older version that does linked below.

https://dell.to/3obOCnr;

The linked iSM doesn't list ESXi 7.0U2 as supported.  The VMware HCL shows that ESXi 7.0U2 is supported on the R430.  Is there an iSM that supports ESXi 7.0U2?  Or does version 3.4.1 work with ESXi 7.0U2, even though it isn't listed in the Supported Operating Systems?

Curiously, the R430 isn't listed as supported on the ESXi 7.0U2 A04 Dell Customized ISO.  So, perhaps I'm out of luck here, with a mismatch between the information in the HCL versus what systems the ISO supports.

Thank you.  Checking again today, I see the following entries in System sensors that may correspond to drive health.  However, the entries under Storage still do not include any items for drive health.  I'm proceeding with the iDRAC Reset now, then I'll try the iSM.

Thank you.  I'll give it a try now.

Looking at the OS list, it doesn't look like we're support 7.0 on this platform (link below)

https://dell.to/3B3f7iD

That having been said, this ISM may still work:

https://dell.to/3l0mNg0

The R430 isn't listed, but a few other 13G systems are (including the R530) so I'd think it would still be worthwhile to try. Looking at the parts database, it looks like the R430 and R530 have common boards, so I'd think you'd have a fairly reasonable chance of it working.

Because ESXi 7.0U2 is not fully supported on the PowerEdge R430, I have installed ESXi 6.7U3 instead.  And . . .  I'm right back where I started.  Server health as reported in the web client under ESXi 6.7U3 looks exactly the same as under ESXi 7.0U2.  I'll try the iSM for 6.7U3, hopefully tomorrow, and report back.

Hello @mjtEF

I think you have already talk about this in post: https://dell.to/3a6aCI6

Regards.

No, the other post is for the separate issue that icons are not shown under System sensors in ESXi 7.0U2.  This post is for the issue that drive health (and PERC card health) is not shown at all in the ESXi web client.  This is true of all of our Dell servers running ESXi 5.x, 6.x, and 7.x, which were all installed using the Dell-customized ISOs for ESXi.  Our HPE servers show SmartArray and hard drive health within the web client, but I must be missing something on our Dell servers.

Try installing the PERCCLI vib and see if that allows it to pull the data correctly. https://dell.to/3BiAi00

Thank you for your continued assistance.  I successfully installed the iSM Version 4.1.0.0, but no change in the items shown in the Storage section of Monitor, Hardware in the web client.  I've now tried installing the PERCCLI vib, but get the following results:

esxcli software vib install -v "/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/vmware-
perccli-007.1623.vib"
[VibDownloadError]
('/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/vmware-perccli-007.1623.vib', 'Bad VIB archive header')
url = /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/vmware-perccli-007.1623.vib
Please refer to the log file for more details.

I resolved the issue by uploading the .gz file to a VMware datastore, then extracting using tar.  The .vib file must have gotten corrupted when I extracted using WinZip.  I believe the PERCCLI is now installed.  No improvement in the items listed under "Storage", however.

Name Version Vendor Acceptance Level Install Date
----------------------------- ------------------------------------ ------- ---------------- ------------
dell-shared-perc8 06.806.90.00-1OEM.650.0.0.4598673 Avago VMwareCertified 2021-10-05
bnxtnet 218.0.62.0-1OEM.670.0.0.8169922 BCM VMwareCertified 2021-10-05
bnxtroce 218.0.21.0-1OEM.670.0.0.8169922 BCM VMwareCertified 2021-10-05
lsi-mr3 7.716.03.00-1OEM.670.0.0.8169922 BCM VMwareCertified 2021-10-05
lsi-msgpt35 17.00.02.00-1OEM.670.0.0.8169922 BCM VMwareCertified 2021-10-05
vmware-perccli 007.1623.0000.0000-01 BCM PartnerSupported 2021-10-06
dell-configuration-vib 6.7-3A01 DEL PartnerSupported 2021-10-05
dellemc-osname-idrac 6.7-0A03 DellEMC PartnerSupported 2021-10-05
dcism 4.1.0.0.ESXi6-2410 Dell VMwareAccepted 2021-10-06

Just to clarify my goal, here is a look at the "Storage" items in the web client on an HPE server running ESXi 6.5U2.  I'm hoping to get a similar view of storage health within the web client for Dell servers, to include PERC card and battery health, individual drives, and virtual disk health.