Differences between ESXi 4.1 and 4.0 “Software” –> “Advance Settings” as it pertains to slow boot up times due to MSCS nodes with RDM LUNs

While troubleshoot the issues I had with a VMware ESXi cluster:

http://terenceluk.blogspot.com/2011/01/vmware-esxi-40-update-2-slow-boot-up.html

http://terenceluk.blogspot.com/2011/01/vmware-esxi-41-slow-boot-up-seemingly.html

http://terenceluk.blogspot.com/2010/10/slow-boot-up-times-on-esxi-41-do-you.html

http://terenceluk.blogspot.com/2010/10/problem-when-upgrading-from-esx-35-to.html

… I’ve noticed that the VMware KB article: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1016106 wasn’t clear on what variables existed in which ESXi version so I took some time today to review the differences between the 2 version’s “Software” –> “Advance Settings”.

First off, the Scsi.UWConflictRetries parameter ONLY exists in ESXi 4.0 and NOT 4.1 while the Scsi.CRTimeoutDuringBoot parameter ONLY exists in ESXi 4.1 and NOT 4.0.  What I’ve been told by a VMware storage engineer was that the reason why the Scsi.UWConflictRetries parameter does not exist in 4.1 is because it was fixed in that version which then gave us the Scsi.CRTimeoutDuringBoot parameter to modify instead.

The following list is what exists in the “Software” –> “Advance Settings” of ESXi 4.0:

• Scsi.PassthroughLocking
• Scsi.ConflictRetries
• Scsi.UWConflictRetries
• Scsi.LogCmdErrors
• Scsi.LogMPCmdErrors
• Scsi.MaxReserveTime
• Scsi.MaxReserveTotalTime
• Scsi.MaxReserveBacktrace
• Scsi.ReserveBacktrace
• Scsi.SCSITimeout_ScanTime
• Scsi.SCSITimeout_ReabortTime
• Scsi.ScanOnDriverLoad
• Scsi.TimeoutTMThreadMin
• Scsi.TimeoutTMTreadMax
• Scsi.TimeoutTMThreadExpires
• Scsi.TimeoutTMTThreadRetry
• Scsi.TimeoutTMTThreadLatency
• Scsi.ScsiRestartStalledQueueLatency
• Scsi.CompareLUNNumber

The following are the screenshots I took in case anyone is interested in the description and values:

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The following list is what exists in the “Software” –> “Advance Settings” of ESXi 4.1:

• Scsi.PassthroughLocking
• Scsi.LogCmdErrors
• Scsi.LogMPCmdErrors
• Scsi.MaxReserveTime
• Scsi.MaxReserveTotalTime
• Scsi.MaxReserveBacktrace
• Scsi.ReserveBacktrace
• Scsi.SCSITimeout_ScanTime
• Scsi.SCSITimeout_ReabortTime
• Scsi.ScanOnDriverLoad
• Scsi.TimeoutTMThreadMin
• Scsi.TimeoutTMTreadMax
• Scsi.TimeoutTMThreadExpires
• Scsi.TimeoutTMTThreadRetry
• Scsi.TimeoutTMTThreadLatency
• Scsi.ScsiRestartStalledQueueLatency
• Scsi.CompareLUNNumber
• Scsi.UseAdaptiveRetries <— New in 4.1
• Scsi.ChangeQErrSetting <— New in 4.1
• Scsi.CRTimeoutDuringBoot <— New in 4.1

The following list shows what was taken out of ESXi 4.1 from 4.0:

Scsi.ConflictRetries

Scsi.UWConflictRetries

The following are the screenshots I took in case anyone is interested in the description and values:

Hope this helps anyone that is a bit confused with the differences between the two ESXi versions.