Configuring Xsigo Systems I/O Directors on ESX 4.x, ESXi 4.x and ESXi 5.x (Partner Verified and Support)

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides instructions for Partner Support for Xsigo Systems Virtual I/O Switching Platforms.

Installation, configuration, and support of Xsigo Systems VP-780 and VP-560 virtual I/O Director platforms for ESX 4.x, ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.x hypervisors.
Basic creation of virtual network (vNIC) and virtual HBA (vHBA) adapters to ESX 4.x, ESXi 4.x and ESXi 5.x hypervisors.
Where to get additional documentation for PXE, SAN-Boot, and iSCSI boot support of ESX 4.x, ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5x hypervisors.

Note: The Partner Verified and Supported Products (PVSP) policy implies that the solution is not directly supported by VMware. For issues with this configuration, contact Xsigo Systems directly. See the Support Workflow on how partners can engage with VMware. 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.xsigo.com/.

To contact Xsigo Technical Support directly:

For non-critical customer escalations, email [email protected]
For critical customer escalations, email [email protected]
Toll Free US Support Hotline – 1-866-974-4647
International Hotline – 1-408-736-3013

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable

Resolution

Introduction to Xsigo Systems

Xsigo Systems provides an IO Virtualization solution that works in conjunction with VMware ESX 3.5, 4.x, and 5.x. Xsigo’s solution is comprised of the VP780 and VP560 IO Director along with Xsigo Host Drivers. The Xsigo Host Drivers provide standard NIC and HBA instances to the host operating system. These Xsigo NICs and HBAs look and act exactly like any other NIC or HBA. The Xsigo host drivers communicate with the Xsigo IO director to provide Ethernet and Fibre Channel connectivity to the host. All physical NICs and HBAs actually live remote from the server inside the Xsigo IO Directors where they are dynamically provisioned and managed.

Xsigo is a longstanding member of the VMware TAP Alliance program, the IO Vendor Program, and the System Builder program and is committed to providing the best possible service to our joint Xsigo/VMware customers.

Note: To use virtual network and storage devices, the Xsigo Update Bundle must be added to ESX server attached to Xsigo I/O Director. The update bundle can be obtained from Xsigo Systems support website.

Installing the Xsigo Driver Bundle

There are several ways to install the Xsigo Driver Bundle. These are the most common ways:

The Xsigo Update Bundle can be pushed to all ESX/ESXi 4.x and ESXi 5.x hosts with the VMware Update Manager Server.
By using the VMware remote CLI in the VMware Management Appliance (vMA), the Xsigo driver Bundle can be installed to individual ESX/ESXi 4.x hosts via the command vihostupdate:
1. Copy the xsigo-xxxx.zip to the vMA Virtual Appliance.
2. Run this command to push update the ESX host:
  
  vihostupdate –host esx-server --password XXX --username root
3. Reboot the ESX/ESXi host.
Local installation of the driver bundle can be done through the ESX 4.x console operations system or through the ESXi 4.x Tech Support Mode shell.
1. Copy the Xsigo driver bundle to the server. This can be done by uploading the file through the vSphere Client upload to an ESX VMFS filesystem, or by using secure-copy (scp ). To upload a file, first browse the available datastores, then click Upload.
2. When the file is copied to the ESX/ESXi 4.x host, you can then log into the local shell. When online, run the command esxupdate locally. The syntax for this command is:
  
  esxupdate --bundle xsigo-XXX.zip update
For ESXi 5.x, from the ESXi Shell, run this command:

esxcli software vib install -d xsigo_xxxx.zip
The Xsigo driver bundle can be added as a driver disk, or slipstreamed into existing VMware media. For more information, consult the Xsigo Systems documentation or contact Xsigo Support directly.

Configuration of server profile and virtual adapters

With the Xsigo driver bundle added to your ESX/ESXi 4.x 4.x/ESXi 5.x server, you can then create a server profile, and then add vNICs or vHBAs. This can be done using the Xsigo Management Software GUI (XMS) or with the command line interface (CLI).

To do this with the CLI:

Create a server profile and attach it to the server profile with the command:

admin@vp780> add server-profile newserver
Add a vnic to the director on the server profile newserver , with the names vMotion1, vmnet1, and console1. These NICs will be terminated on the ports 7/1, 1/1, and 2/1 respectively:

admin@vp780> add vnic vMotion.newserver 7/1
admin@vp780> add vnic vmnet1.newserver 1/1 –boot-capable=true
admin@vp780> add vnic console1.newserver 2/1 –boot-capable=true
Create a vhba on the server profile newserver , with name xvhba1 and xvhba2. These terminate on ports 3/1 and 3/2:

admin@vp780> add vhba xvhba1.newserver 3/1
admin@vp780> add vhba xvhba2.newserver 3/2

Setting up PXE, iSCSI, and SAN-boot Capabilities

Xsigo attached servers support all available boot mechanisms including:

ESX 4.x and ESXi 4.x/5.x SAN-boot
ESXi 4.x/5.x iSCSI boot
ESX/ESXi 4.x and ESXi 5.x PXE Auto-install
ESXi 4.x/5.x PXE boot and stateless-boot

To configure a remote boot protocol, see the XgOS Remote Booting Guide.

Getting Xsigo support logs from a ESX host

The Xsigo Support logs, which are used for troubleshooting, can be collected from a ESX/ESXi host using this command from the ESX/ESXi 4.x and ESXi 5.x host console:

xsigo-support

This command creates all the necessary log files needed for troubleshooting in this compressed file:

xsigo-support-esx-Hostname-date-time.tar.gz