Create a custom ESXi image for your RAID Driver | 3ware 9750 SAS RAID
Situation :
I have a new server with following RAID card : 3ware 9750 SAS
I would like to run ESXi on it but my RAID card is not supported by VMWare 
Since I have only one partition , I need to modify the original ESXi iso with my own RAID driver in order to be able to install ESXi on my server..
It’s easy , follow the next three steps :
Step 1 – Extract the 3ware 9750 SAS RAID-driver
- Please go to the following url and download the iso on a linux server
- Mount that iso :
- mount -o loop /tmp/vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-3w-sas_400.3.26.00.001vm40-1.0.4.00000.229230.iso /media/
- Copy the rpm from that iso to /tmp
- cp /media/.rpm/vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-3w-sas-400.3.26.00.001vm40-1.0.4.00000.x86_64.rpm /tmp/
- Extract the content from that rpm without installing it
- cd /tmp
- rpm2cpio /tmp/vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-3w-sas-400.3.26.00.001vm40-1.0.4.00000.x86_64.rpm | cpio -idmv
(the following is the one that we are interested in : usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/3w-sas.o
Step 2 – Create your custom oem.tgz file
- Make it yourself easy and get an already existing oem.tgz ( eg mine : oem-9750.tgz )
That way you already have the proper files and directories in place. - Extract that tgz file in an new temporarily directory (eg: /tmp/oem)
- tar xvzf oem-9750.tgz
- cp that “.o file” from step 1 to the following dir : /tmp/oem/usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/3w-sas.o
- Next, adjust the pci.ids file
- vi /tmp/oem/etc/vmware/pci.idsAdd the PCI ID of your raid card to that file.
In my case :- 13c1 3ware Inc
- 1010 9750 SAS2/SATA-II RAID PCIe(An overview of all PCI ID’s can be found here: http://pciids.sourceforge.net/pci.ids)
- vi /tmp/oem/etc/vmware/pci.idsAdd the PCI ID of your raid card to that file.
- Also adjust the simple.map file
- vi /tmp/oem_9750/etc/vmware/simple.map
- 13c1:1010 0000:0000 storage 3w-sas.o
- vi /tmp/oem_9750/etc/vmware/simple.map
- Once that is done create your oem.tgz file :
- cd /tmp/oem
- tar cvzf oem.tgz ./*
Step 3 – Create your custom ISO
- Download this excellent script from mkesxiaio | http://code.google.com/p/mkesxiaio/ on your server
- cd /tmp/my-cd
- wget http://mkesxiaio.googlecode.com/files/mkesxiaio_3.9.9.sh
- chmod a+x mkesxiaio_3.9.9.sh
- Download the ESXi iso from VMWare ( ESXi 4.1 Installable (CD ISO) to /tmp/my-cd
- Copy your custom oem.tgz (Step2) to /tmp/my-cd
- Run the script , follow the instructions, use your brains and once you are done your custom iso will be here:
- /tmp/my-cd/save/VMware_esxi_custom_4.1_oem.iso
If you have questions ,feel free to leave a comment here and if possible I will try to assist you!
Note : I spend quite some time on this issue during my work as an operation manager @ nomadesk - The easiest and most secure way to share, synchronize and backup files wherever you are, online or offline! So thank you for that!