Accessing Fujitsu iRMC using the High Speed transfer protocol (HTI) in ESXi 6.0/6.5/6.7/7.0 (Partner Verified and Support)

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides information about Partner Verified and Support Product from Fujitsu for accessing iRMC using the HTI interface.

Note: The Partner Verified and Supported Products (PVSP) policy indicates that the solution is not directly supported by VMware. For issues with this configuration, contact Fujitsu.

 

It is the partner's responsibility to verify that the configuration functions with future vSphere major and minor releases, as VMware does not guarantee that compatibility with future releases is maintained.

Disclaimer: The partner product reference in this article is a software module that is developed and supported by a partner. Use of this product is also governed by the end user license agreement of the partner. You must obtain the application, support, and licensing for using this product from the partner. For more information, see http://www.fujitsu.com/global/support/.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0

Resolution

Product Overview

The High Speed transfer protocol (HTI) is conceived for a fast communication between the server and the internal Remote Management Controller (iRMC) using the PCIe interface of the iRMC. The iRMC supports a SD card for non-volatile mass data storage. A file system installed on the SD card is mounted in the iRMC -internal file system. From the server side, files stored on the SD card can be read and written through the PCIe interface through HTI. With HTI support for ESXi this file system is used to save vm-support data.

HTI support is available for VMware ESXi 6.0/6.5/6.7/7.0.

 

Addons and Vib

• Fujitsu addons can be found here, followed by clicking on the OEM Addons tab.
• The offline-bundle fujitsu-hti-<version>-6.0.0-offline-bundle.zip file contains VMkernel driver:
  
  pci-fujitsu-hti_ driver-version-1OEM.600.0.0.2494585.vib
  
  
• The ESXi 7.0 component fujitsu-hti-<version>.<release>-7.0.0-offline-bundle.zip file contains Native Driver:
  
  FJT_bootbank_svshti_9.20.01-1OEM.700.0.0.14828939.vib
  
  Driver module which supports access to the HTI interface.

Download and Installation

1. Download the offline bundle/component from Fujitsu.

To download the offline-bundle/component:

1. Select your product (you can search by Serial Number or select your product manually).
2. In the Downloads section select appropriate Operating System.
3. In the Applications tab select the entry Server Management Software.
4. Select ServerView – ESXi CIM Providers.

2. To Install:
   1. Copy the offline bundle/component to a system that has access to the ESXi hypervisor with esxcli. This may be the ESXi hypervisor itself.
   2. Run the following command:

For ESXi 6.0/6.5:
esxcli --server <hostname_or_IP address> --username <userid> --password <password> software vib install –d fujitsu-hti-…-offline-bundle.zip

For ESXi 7.0:
esxcli --server <hostname_or_IP address> --username <userid> --password <password> software component apply –d Fujitsu-svshti_<version>-1OEM.700.1.0.15843807.zip

3. Reboot the ESXi system for the installation to take effect.

 

Configuration Details

A scheduled cron job may run the script /opt/fts/bin/prcoll-vm-support.sh in batch mode.

The following example shows how to collect Userworld process information every ten minutes and save these data in the iRMC storage.

1. Open a console to the ESXi host using the Tech Support Mode.
2. Add a new line to the crontab /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root file:
   
   echo “*/30 * * * * /opt/fts/bin/prcoll-vm-support.sh -a Userworld:ProcessInformation” >>/var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
   
   
3. The change takes effect after stopping and restarting the cron daemon process:
   
   kill -HUP $(cat /var/run/crond.pid)
/usr/lib/vmware/busybox/bin/busybox crond

Now every thirty minutes a vm-support file is created, and the data are transferred to the iRMC.

It is also useful to transfer more extended vm-support files periodically. This saves system status information which is available even if the system has become inoperable.