Hi,
Yes, the host was rebooted in maintenance mode with no change.
Some more info for those in a similar situation:
- The server is configured with 1 x 2.4Tb RAID5 (raid mode) on a H330 Mini PERC
- The ESXi installation is on the RAID array.
So, I got to the machine and performed the following steps:
- Upgraded to ESXi 6.5 u1 DELL custom image. RESULT: No change, no controller / storage found.
- BIOS was a little old, so updated all onboard R530 BIOS / FW to latest versions. RESULT: Still no change.
- Decided to install ESXi on USB flash drive (as recommended - don't have SD storage installed). RESULT: storage found and remounted VMs and happy days.
I think I know the cause. On the new ESXi install, the H330 PERC mini passthrough is disabled. On the old ESXi install, I had enabled H330 passthrough and I could not turn off H330 passthrough.
I would like to monitor the RAID array from the VMs, but I'm now paranoid of enabling passthrough as the ESXi VMs were offline for almost a week.
I would really like to know if anyone has experienced issues after enabling H330 passthrough in ESXi 6.5.