Driver is not enabled on storage controller when upgrading from Megaraid_sas to LSI_MR3 or vice versa

Products

• VMware vSAN
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

Some storage controllers can map to more than one driver:

ex. Controller LSI SAS2208  has 2 types of drivers:

• lsi_mr3
• megaraid_sas

You may notice on the vSAN HCL that both Drivers are NOT supported in all versions of ESXi. It is a good idea to check the support for current ESXi OS version before changing the driver. 

During the upgrade ( Change ) from a Megaraid_SAS Driver to an LSI-MR3 or vice versa, the driver may not automatically be enabled for the storage controller.

After installation of the new driver and rebooting, the storage controller does not take the new driver and apply it for use.

You may also see that upon installation, the old driver is not automatically disabled:
[root@esx:~] esxcli software vib install -v /tmp/lsi-mr3-6.610.21.00-1OEM.600.0.0.2768847.x86_64.vib
Installation Result
   Message: The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.
   Reboot Required: true
   VIBs Installed: Avago_bootbank_lsi-mr3_6.610.21.00-1OEM.600.0.0.2768847
   VIBs Removed:
   VIBs Skipped:

Resolution

Make sure the host is in Maintenance Mode

Check the version of the driver loaded for the controller,

#vmkload_mod -s megaraid_sas | grep -i version
Version: Version 6.610.15.00, Build: 2494585, Interface: 9.2 Built on: Nov 18 2015

#vmkload_mod -s lsi_mr3 | grep -i version 

Check the details of the controller

vmkchdev -l | grep -i vmhba(x) where x is the number of the HBA to check

0000:0b:00.0 1000:005d 1014:0454 vmkernel vmhba1

The old driver must be disabled and the new driver enabled:

Disable the old driver, choose the command for the driver you need to disable:

esxcli system module set --enabled=false --module=megaraid_sas
esxcli system module set --enabled=false --module=lsi_mr3

Enable the new driver, choose the command for the driver you need to enable:

esxcli system module set --enabled=true --module=lsi_mr3
esxcli system module set --enabled=true --module=megaraid_sas

Reboot the host and confirm the correct driver is in use:

esxcfg-scsidevs -a (Confirm in the resulting output that the desired driver is listed for the adapter in question)

Additional Information

Impact/Risks:
If the old driver is removed manually, the host will boot without any drivers.
Disk groups may not mount
Disks may not be seen by ESXi