ESXi 6.0 GA ISO provided by VMware does not support HP P440ar RAID controllers

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

The ESXi 6.0 GA ISO provided by VMware does not have the latest HP Smart Array driver that supports HP Gen 9 Smart Array controllers.

As a result, an ESXi installation or upgrade to ESXi 6.0 may fail, you see errors similar to:

Error (see log for more info)
An error has occurred while parting the installer script

error:file:///ks.cfg:line 3: Error (see log for more infor):
Could not find first boot partition

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0

Resolution

To use HP P440ar controllers with the GA release of ESXi 6.0, use one of these options.

• Install the host using HP's custom ESXi 6.0 GA installation media which includes the scsi-hpsa-5.5.0.74-1OEM.550.0.0.1331820 driver.
  
  To install the host using the HP ESXi 6.0 Custom Image, download the ISO from VMware downloads and install ESXi as detailed in the Installing ESXi section in the vSphere 6.0 Installation and Setup guide.
  
  
• Create a custom ISO and inject the updated driver separately.
  
  To manually create a custom ESXi 6.0 image, inject the driver and install the host:
  
  
  • Create a custom ESXi build using the ESXi-Customizer-v2.7.2 software.
    
    Note: ESXi-Customizer is not a VMware product. You can download the software at ESXi-Customizer Downloads page.
    
    
  • Replace the current version of the driver 6.0.0.44-4vmw.600.0.0.2494585 with version scsi-hpsa-5.5.0.74-1OEM.550.0.0.1331820.x86_64.vib.
    
    To replace the driver:
    
    
    1. Download the driver vib file from Drivers & software.
       
       Note: The preceding link was correct as of March 31, 2015. If you find the link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.
       
       
    2. Run this command to install the driver:
       
       esxcli software vib install -d path_to_vib

Additional Information

For additional information, see VMware ESXi host fails to detect local disk after applying ESXi 6.0 patches ESXi600-201504001 and ESXi600-201505001 on HP Proliant Gen 9 servers (2120539).

For translated versions of this article, see:

• 日本語: VMware が提供している ESXi 6.0 GA ISO が HP P440ar RAID コントローラをサポートしていない (2115534)
  
• 简体中文: VMware 所提供的 ESXi 6.0 GA ISO 不支持 HP P440ar RAID 控制器 (2115887)
  
• Español: El archivo ISO de ESXi 6.0 GA provisto por VMware no admite controladoras RAID HP P440ar (2131246)
• Português: A ISO do ESXi 6.0 GA fornecida pela VMware não é compatível com os controladores RAID HP P440ar (2132381)