Areca Driver Disk for ARC-11XX/12XX/16XX/18XX on VMware ESX(i) 4.X

Notice : 
VMware officially does not support async drivers' device to be the ESXi 4.x system disks.
Consequently, Areca RAID volumes can only be the data storages on ESXi 4.x.


Installation for VMware ESX 4.X on Areca RAID volume(s):

 1). Install Areca SAS RAID controller, and configure RAID/volume(s).
 2). During ESX installation, select "Add" in the Custom Drivers menu, insert the device driver CD, and click OK.
 3). Browse for the driver to install and click OK.
 4). When prompted, replace the driver CD with the ESX 4.X CD, and then click Next.
 5). Continue the ESX 4.X installation.
 6). When finished, reboot the server.


Installation for Areca RAID volume(s) as data storage:

 for VMware ESX4.X:
   1). Power on ESX4.0 server.
   2). Mount the driver ISO into the local director,
 	#@$ mkdir /ISO
	#@$ mount /dev/cdrom /ISO
   3). Use the following command to install the driver:
	#@$ esxupdate update --bundle=/ISO/offline-bundle/ARC-arcmsr-1.20.00.15.vmk.100202-offline_bundle-262812.zip --maintenancemode
   4). Run the following commands:
	 List the driver package details and verify the new driver installed:
	 #@$ esxupdate query --vib-view
	 List the vmkernel modules:
	 #@$ vmkload_mod -l grep arcmsr
	 Verify that the OS recognizes Areca RAID controller:
	 #@$ esxcfg-scsidevs -a 
   5). Reboot ESX 4.X server.

 for VMware ESXi 4.X:
   1). Insert the Areca driver disk on your Windows system.
   2). Download and install the VMware vSphere Client and VMware vSphere CLI on your Windows system.
   3). Launch VMware vSphere Client and login the ESXi 4.X server.
   4). Through VMware Vsphere Client, set ESXi 4.X server into "Maintenance Mode".(select Inventory-->Summary tab-->Enter Maintanence Mode)
   5). Launch VMware vSphere CLI.
   6). key in "cd bin" on VMware vSphere CLI.
   7). key in "perl vihostupdate.pl -server ESXi_4.X_IP_address -username root -password "root's password" -b CD/DVD_ROM_directory:\offline-bundle\ARC-arcmsr-1.20.00.15.vmk.100202-offline_bundle-262812.zip --nosigcheck -i"
       on VMware vSphere CLI
   8). After loading Areca driver is finished, close VMware vSphere CLI.
   9). Set the ESXi 4.X server as "maintenance mode" through VMware Vsphere Client.
  10). Reboot ESXi 4.X server.
  11). As the ESXi 4.X server comes back, you should see the storage device(s) on the ESXi 4.X server through VMware vSphere Client.