VMware Communities: Message List - Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Re: Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

esloof — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:59:30 GMT

I'm running vSphere on my white box, but it's not a shuttle. I'm using the Asus bare bone

http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/categories/18-WhiteBox

Re: Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

dosier — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:41:46 GMT

Eric,

Since the time you posted this, have you tried installing vSphere on the same machine? Just wondering if you still like the Shuttle Pro for that as well? I like your idea of a quite, small and portable system. Wondering if the onbaord LAN now works (to save $$ on having to buy another LAN card). Also using the Firewire and eSATA might prove handy (unsure)...

Thank in advance,

Dan O

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? install vmware in dc7700 with sata hd

jamieorth — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:03:27 GMT

I was looking into building a home server capable of running 3.5 - but with the option to move to vsphere. Luckily i have access to some older Dell PowerEdge1850's. They are not dual core, but they are dual CPU and with a bios update I can enable VT for 64bit but the best part is that they are on the HCL for vsphere. There are a bunch of these on ebay ranging from 300 to 600. Thats pretty good to me.

Regards...

Jamie
If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".
Remember, if it's not one thing, it's your mother...

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? install vmware in dc7700 with sata hd

walls — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:21:50 GMT

Like most machines of this class, the on-board controller is "fake" RAID, which relies on drivers in the OS to manage it.

You will not be able to use the RAID functionality of the on-board SATA controller unless with ESX.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? install vmware in dc7700 with sata hd

pichirilo — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:59:20 GMT

Good evening.
I have the same problem. I have a HP dc7700 with 2HD and I have set up a RAID1.
Vmware 3.5 installed and when I select the disk appear 2. I am surprised only because you should see the disk RAID.
Finally when you finish the installation. appears unbootable grub>

regards

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

walls — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:56:01 GMT

Hi, if you're interested in using a DC7700, have a look at this post:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1232995#1232995

ESXi installed and VMFS using the on-board SATA controller.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

esloof — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 18:11:46 GMT

There's also a esxi version update (u4) and when you want to test esx just use the 60 trail.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

rc51cgy — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 03:32:21 GMT

Can't comment on ESX 3.5. I've only tried ESXi (downloadable) on the DC7700.

FWIW, if I could afford to buy a license of 3.5 for testing, I don't think the cost of a minimal server setup would be much of an issue.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

esloof — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 19:25:51 GMT

VMware ESX Server 3.5 Update 4 is out there

Newly Supported Management Agents
Newly Supported Guest Operating Systems
LSI megaraid_sas and mptscsi Storage Controller Driver Update
Enablement of Intel Xeon Processor 5500 Series
Expanded Support for Enhanced vmxnet Adapter
Intel ICH9
Intel ICH10

I think update 4 will work with the on-board SATA controller.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

rc51cgy — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:26:14 GMT

I've installed and had ESXi running on a DC7700.

What I had to do for the install was throw in a SATA controller, I think I used an Adaptec 1210SA, did the install, got it up and running and then switched back to the onboard controller. No issues with it. Runs fine.

Machine is a stock DC7700CMT, no other cards installed in it. I think I was using a 160GB Seagate SATA drive. 2GB of RAM.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Argyle — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:46:17 GMT

Nikkorasu wrote:Thanks for the response! I did in fact go home last night and installed 2GB of PC-2100 RAM in the computer and it worked great! It's a little on the pokey side, but it will suffice for the time being. I'd much rather have a Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad to run this on, but I can't think of any hardware that ESXi won't be picky about. Any ideas on a machine that might be compatible enough? I've looked at the Whitebox list and that's great and all, but it doesn't tell me what's a desktop and what's a server. Anyone running this successfully on a DC7700?

If you want to run a Core 2 Duo or Quad solution rather cheap this blog has a good example:

http://www.thincomputing.net/articles/my-ultimate-esx-whitebox-small-aesthetically-pleasing-and-under.html

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

esloof — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:53:06 GMT

I've tried the DC7700 but it didn't work out for me, the NIC isn't detected and there was an issue with the SATA controller. You better buy a second Compaq 530.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Nikkorasu — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:10:54 GMT

Thanks for the response! I did in fact go home last night and installed 2GB of PC-2100 RAM in the computer and it worked great! It's a little on the pokey side, but it will suffice for the time being. I'd much rather have a Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad to run this on, but I can't think of any hardware that ESXi won't be picky about. Any ideas on a machine that might be compatible enough? I've looked at the Whitebox list and that's great and all, but it doesn't tell me what's a desktop and what's a server. Anyone running this successfully on a DC7700?

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

esloof — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:52:05 GMT

Add more RAM, at least 2 Gig

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Nikkorasu — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:56:51 GMT

So I have an HP D530 SFF at home and I'm trying to get ESXi installed on it... it gets to about 45% and then errors out. Any ideas. Here are the system specs:

HP D530 SFF
Intel P4 2.66GHz
1GB RAM
160GB SATA Hard Drive
16X Plextor SATA DVD-R/CD-RW CDROM

I had a video card installed on the machine and before I took it out the install errored out at 44%... Any help would be great as I'm trying to learn this product. Thanks.

Oh, and i'm trying to install ESXi 3.5 U2, i'm pretty sure it's U2...

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

MaximH — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:50:05 GMT

Hi!

I'm trying to install ESX 3.5 on a dc7600c system, with a P4-630 CPU, 1GB of RAM (yeah, I know, will buy more once I know this will actually install), a Western Digital 160GB IDE disk, an IDE DVD-ROM, as well as 2x 3Com PCI NICs + the onboard one.

My "problem" is that if I understand correctly, it's better to have the disk being discovered as a /dev/sda device, and not /dev/hda as mine is being detected as.
How might I achive this? Or have I just misunderstood the concept?

Basicly:
What is the difference between /dev/sda and /dev/hda? And what must be done to "swtich" between the two?

Thank you! =)

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

VCPGuru — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:17:03 GMT

Hi rpartmann

I just bought a HP dc7900, but I dont understand what you mean with /dev/hda or /dev/sda?
where could i setup this?

thank you!

Re: Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

Dave.Mishchenko — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:11:14 GMT

Also do you see anything with fdisk -l and have you tried different SATA ports? On some MBs where there are 4 or more SATA ports it seems that only specific ones work Ok with ESXi.

Re: Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

Dave.Mishchenko — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:09:18 GMT

You can follow the customizing oem.tgz steps on vm-help.com. Do you have a Linux system to do this on?

I would suggest perhaps extracting the DD image to the USB drive and then booting from it. That way you can edit the oem.tgz file within ESX itself.

Re: Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

KunalKPatel — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:08:46 GMT

Hey Dave,

Im using 2 WD 500GB SATA drives - i have the BIOS set to IDE mode with legacy.

I am trying to install from a USB flash drive - not boot from one.
But what I wanted to do is update that oem.tgz file however extracting it, editing and then re-compressing into a tgz file seems to create an installation that always crashes with a pink screen.

using a straight copy of the community edited oem.tgz onto the flash drive it does at least load but will not install. It cannot find a device to install to. obviously because the jmicron is not supported and not listed in the simple.map and pci.ids file.

I also did perform the steps found here
in order to install onto an IDE disk however that doesn't help.

Can you explain how to edit the community oem.tgz file and properly recompress it to then be copied onto my usb flash drive installer? This should allow me to try out the edits to the oem file at least.

Thanks for any help you or anyone else may be able to offer.

-Kunal

Re: Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

Dave.Mishchenko — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:52:54 GMT

Are you using SATA drives or IDE? I look at the specs for the MB and the IDE connection is owned by the jmicron controller so that you won't be able to use with ESXi. You might try switching the settings for SATA / Legacy options in the BIOS.

Re: Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

KunalKPatel — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:26:30 GMT

Ok i edited the oem.tgz file as well as the simple.map file entered in the JMicron pci id and well got a pink screen of death.

I took the community updated OEM.tgz file unzipped it on my mac, edited in the jmicron pci id in accordance to all the other IDs were structured, (197b:2368 0000:0000 ata_piix)

i then used GUI tar (mac program) to zip back into a oem.tgz file
copied onto the flash drive, it gets so far as the yellow install screen a quarter way and boom..pink screen of death.

My initial thought was that it was the storage driver i selected to be associated with the JMicron PCI ID however even after eliminating my edits, and zipping back into a tgz file the pink screen occurs again.
So this tells me being simply able to open up the oem file, edit the simple.map and pci.ids file and then re-zipping into .tgz will create an image that will crash.

Any help on how to edit this OEM.tgz file and then properly copying into my flash drive which works otherwise when using the non-altered vmware version or the community oem.tgz file?

Re: Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

KunalKPatel — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 05:53:40 GMT

Hey Dave, Thanks but I did try making the exact same edit listed on that link.

The issue is the specs shown on this system do indeed show ICH9 however the only SATA ports on the Motherboard (all 4 of them) I suppose are of the JMicron controller.

However I was wondering if you believe its possible to edit the oem.tgz file and entering in the PCI IDs of the JMicron controller (197b:2368) and I saw the ICH9 controller shows a PCI ID of (8086: 2926) with an associated driver of ata_piix

Do you suppose if i enter the JMicron id and also list it with the ata_piix it could launch?

Re: Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

Dave.Mishchenko — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:31:25 GMT

You'll want to have the drives connected to the ICH9 controller ports. There's no support of jmicron controllers at this point. If you run lspci -p and the IDE module is loaded for the ICH9 controller, then you'll need to use this install method - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/ESXi_install_to_IDE_drive/ESXi_install_to_IDE_drive.php. It'll allow you to install ESXi to an IDE drive as well as have a VMFS partition on it.

Re: Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

Erik Zandboer — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:34:49 GMT

Hi,

Personally I have got no experience with these mainboards (or hardware on them). I would not suggest to set SATA devices to IDE emulation. Ok, you should be able to install ESX or ESXi to an IDE drive, but you cannot add VMFS storage on an IDE drive. So for a low budget solution it is not the way to go anyway.

I would try to set the SATA controller (in the BIOS) back to SATA non-raid, then try all the tricks again. If it keeps failing, you could consider to create a bootable USB stick with ESXi on it (check out http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2008/07/29/esxi-35-update-2-on-a-usb-memory-key/ ). Then ESXi will at least boot. After that you can start trying to format your SATA drive as VMFS and you are all set to go.

Visit my blog at http://erikzandboer.wordpress.com/

Re: Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

KunalKPatel — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:49:05 GMT

Hi Erik,

ESX wont install actually, So I'm using ESXi, I tried following the steps found at vm-help.com in terms of finding out the PCI IDs
I see there is the intel ICH9 IDE controller and I have 2 disks connected in IDE mode with legacy support. They are plugged into 2 of the 4 SATA ports that exist on that board

Pressing fdisk -l results in nothing,

I used lspci -v to list off all the devices and found that though it did list the ICH9 controler along with the Intel Gigabit NICs there was one device as follows

IDE Interface mass storage controller
class 0101: 197b:2368

this is a jmicron controller after doing some research and looking at the oem.tgz and simple.map its not listed there.

Do you have any experience working with this? With adding a device like this in?

Re: Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

Erik Zandboer — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:51:04 GMT

Hi,

If you can install ESX, but not boot afterwards try this:

1) install ESX
2) on reboot of the host, choose "service console olny (troubleshooting mode)"
3) login as root
4) type "lspci" and locate any unknown IDE or SATA controllers. write down the device ID.
5) edit "/etc/vmware/pciid/sata_nv.xml". Go to the end of the file, and modify the last entry to match the device ID from step 4.
6) run "esxcfg-pciid"
7) reboot and be amazed!

Or are you unable to install at all? In that case I think your (propably SATA) CDROM/DVD will be the culprit. Try to attach an IDE CDROM drive to install from in that case.

Visit my blog at http://erikzandboer.wordpress.com/

Re: Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

KunalKPatel — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:43:06 GMT

Hi Erik,

We purchased the following components and attempted installation using the latest ESXi 3.5 Version 3.5 Update 3 | 123629 - 11/06/08

-Shuttle SX38P2 Pro,

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33Ghz,

Kingston HyperX DDR2 1066 RAM,

2 x WD 500GB Drives,

HP nc360t Dual Gigabit

nvidia GeForce 6200 128mb DDR PCIe Video Card

we've followed the same setup with IDE with Legacy and still receive the error "Unable to find supported device to write the VMware ESX 3.5.0 image to"

Would you be able to provide some insight?We would greatly appreciate it.

Re: Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

lukasware — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:04:20 GMT

I like the shuttle barebones too...I run a openfiler iSCSI server
on one and and an ESXi VM server (and 10 VMs) on another.
The E8400 $160 processor is the cheapest one that supports 64bit guests.

Shuttle K45 ($99) + E8400 ($160) + 1 1TB seagate SATA ($99)
+ 4GB DDR2 RAM ($32). integrated video and GigE = $392
Low power and low noise. I had a terrible experience with IDE
primary (too slow for words) and replaced with a SATA primary
and speed seems good. Despite that I thought the docs say
no VMs stored on the primary drive VMs on primary works fine.

Note that the E8400 is a 1333MHz FSB and requires the latest
K45 BIOS from Shuttle. Flash under MS-DOS only (not windows).

OpenFiler is not kidding: no shared storage on boot drive

The K48 cannot be used as it has no slots therefore no (VMware) enet.

Extra $120 gets the Shuttle SG31G2S that has 2 slots 1 PCI 1PCIe
and holds 4GB RAM and has the fancy "ICE Genie" cooler...

Of course you need an Intel gigE PCI card for $24 since as noted
the on-board Marvel is not supported (works great under OpenFiler though)

In regards to the Shuttle X38 mentioned versus the X48,
I opted for the X48 chipset because of the 2 PCIe 2.0 slots and 8GB
DDR3 support. I also got the quad intel PT PCIe NIC.
Maybe the X48 was a mistake ($100 more plus DDR3 is 2X $ DDR2).
NOTE Quad Ethernet boards are only supported under the oldest version
of the BIOS.

Could not wait for the X58 chipset with QPI (Q4 08). Also could not wait for
the seagate 1.5TB drives (oct) since $135/1TB (pcconnection)
was too good of a deal.

Status under ESXi update 3

Shuttle X48 works...use oldest BIOS if using Quad intel cards

Shuttle K45 works, use latest BIOS is using E8200/E8400 w/ 1333MHz FSB

Message was edited by: lukasware

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

freuds — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:11:45 GMT

I have successfully installed ESXi 3.5 in a Dell Vostro 200, a cheap entry-level desktop pc.

Network:

The Intel 82562V-2 motherboard integrated network adapted uses the new e1000e driver, so it’s not supported by ESXi, I had to use a Intel 100S network pci card.

Storage:

Intel 82801IR/IO/IH (ICH9 Family) 4 port SATA IDE Controller: Supported
Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) 2 Port SATA IDE Controller: Supported, but this box uses a sata cdrom, and the installation will fail using this drive, so you will need to install using a external usb cdrom, from a PXE server, o remove the HD and plug in a supported box and install from this box as I did.
ESXi will not recognize the cdrom.

After that , I’m currently using 3 VMs at this box.
Carlos

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

rc51cgy — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 02:23:12 GMT

Hello, I am running ESXi (installable) on a dc7700CMT machine.

It's stock out of the box. What I did do was put in an Adaptec 1210 card in it for the install (not really sure if I needed it or not) but I had one laying around at he office and threw it in and did the install.

After I got it up and running, I decided to pull the 1210 card out and just run off the normal SATA controller and she boots and runs fine.

I can get you the specs of the machine in detail if you'd like. I'll have to shut her down and take a peek, haven't looked at the hardware of that machine in 6 months or so.

Cheers!

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

danahallenbeck — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:41:51 GMT

Has anybody gotten ESXi to run on the dc7700 yet? I'm trying with no luck...

Thanks.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:32:22 GMT

Hi Guys,

Have we been able to find a low cost solution that cost between £250 -300?

I finally got it to install and work on old hardware (my own put together system). See details below.

ASRock K7VT2 Motherboad

AMD Athlon 64, 3000+ Processor Socket A

IGB Ram

Intel Pro 1000GT Desktop Nic

Samsung 160GB IDE drive

ATI Radeon 9550 VGA Adapter

PS2 Mouse and Keyboard

ADAptec AHA 2940u2W Ultra2 scsi

This system was built about 3years ago, so not quite sure if you can still get the same stuff out there, and if you did it would be a lot cheaper than I paid. All in all this system should come under £250.

Now I am in the market to get a cheap system to run Openfiler. I hear you can do wonders with it.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

ZippyDaMCT — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:38:12 GMT

Have we got any updates on a cheap solution, my wife will kill me if its to much - just paid put 800 on a car service so I'm pushing the line already - teach me to buy an STi but hey it burns the competition...he he

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

mikekoz — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:23:02 GMT

I'm running ESXi or 3i v3.5.0 build-110271 to be exact.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

mikekoz — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:09:43 GMT

FYI - I got the sata on a dc7800 SFF to work by moving the HD cable from SATA0 to SATA4, mind you I used a Seagate Barracuda ES.2 1TB drive in place of the stock HD. I'm guessing that port is on a different controller.

As for the NIC, I used an HP Broadcom PCI-E GigE (p/n: EA833AA) in place of the onboard unit.

Cheers,

Mike

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Dave.Mishchenko — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:15:04 GMT

Hi Mike, was this ESX regular or ESXi that you were trying to install?

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

JMills — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:22:25 GMT

ginjawinja wrote:I have a HP DC7700, but everytime i try to install ESX 3.5 U2 it says 'the installer was unable to find any supported network devices'.

The onboard NIC works fine in Windows.

Any suggestions greatly recieved!

Thanks

From what I have gathered elsewhere, the Intel 82566DM controller (on-board GigE for the HP dc7700) requires at minimum version 7.6.5 of the Linux e1000 driver to function properly.

The current revision which has been cross-ported for ESXi 3.5.0u2 is 7.3.15 ... ergo, it may quite truthfully be unsupported.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

ginjawinja — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:30:54 GMT

I have a HP DC7700, but everytime i try to install ESX 3.5 U2 it says 'the installer was unable to find any supported network devices'.

The onboard NIC works fine in Windows.

Any suggestions greatly recieved!

Thanks

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

paulo.meireles — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:01:45 GMT

I'm sorry, can't help you from here. But you may give a look here:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/833710#833710

I have a dc7700 running ESX 3.5, but it has an HP P400 controller...

Regards,

Paulo Meireles

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

MauPicco — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:47:55 GMT

Hi,

I tried to set RAID mode in SATA controller configuration but with no result. The only options are IDE and RAID.

The message is always:

Unable to find supported device to write the VMware Server 3i 3.5.0 image to.

Any other suggestion?

regards

Maurizio

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

paulo.meireles — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:44:01 GMT

Hi,

Please make sure that, in BIOS, the SATA controller is in "Native" or "RAID" mode, not on "IDE" or "Legacy" mode.

Regards,

Paulo Meireles

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

MauPicco — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:29:46 GMT

Hi,

I tried to install ESXi 3i on dc7700 160Gb SATA HD with no success!

Please give me some suggestion.

The problem appear to be the HD.

Thanks

Re: Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

hw-man — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:10:15 GMT

Ich bin zur Zeit nicht im Hause.
(Bis einschließlich dem 18. September 2008)
GrußGeorg Kohlhas

Re: Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

Erik Bussink — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:32:33 GMT

> Hi Erik,
>
> I read from your online posting about your experience of running VMware ESX on the Shuttle SX38P2 Pro. Your posting was most informative and helpful - and would like to thank you for posting up your experience online to share with the community.
>
> I am very keen to have a similar setup and am currently in the phase of gathering more information - would it be possible to ask you for
> some of your opinions and experience with the setup?
>
> I'm looking to having the VMware ESX running on the Shuttle SX38P2 Pro on SATA harddisks and would most probably be considering a HP NC360T PCIe dual-port card instead of your Quad-port card in order to reduce costs. Processor would likely be an Intel Core2Quad processor with a nvidia graphics card, likely to follow your specs since those are proven to work.
>
> The main considerations I have at this moment is the compatibility of VMware ESX for the following:
> - SATA harddisks (hardware compatibility doc doesn't mention the ICH9R chipset)
> - network adapter (you mentioned the onboard nic isn't recognised?)
>
> Is there any difference between using the ESX and ESX(i) versions?
>
> Any information you care to share is greatly appreciated!
> Thank you also for your time on this as well!
>
> Regards,
> dennis

Hiya Dennis,

ICH9R SATA Controller
You cannot use the RAID/AHCI feature of the ICH9R chipset to use the SATA drives in the SX38P2 Pro. You need to configure the BIOS as SATA Mode for IDE with Legacy support. The storage is not the fastest in this case, but it works good enough for a few VM (~9) running on ESXi 3.5. I have not been able yet to get ESX 3.5 to recognize the ICH9 Sata controller during the initial install (need to modify the pci config files etc...) and since I got ESXi 3.5 running, I stopped testing for now.

Network
The Marvel network card (88E8056) that is on the motherboard of the Shuttle SX38P2 Pro is not recognized. I knew that from the onset of my project. So I got the HP nc364t Quad Gigabit card and an HP nc360t Dual Gigabit card on my 2nd SX38P2 Pro. This allows me create a vSwitch with two uplinks for the Service Console, Vmotion and Virtual Machines, and keep on a separate vSwitch the iSCSI traffic.
The biggest challenge and bet, was to see if the motherboard, would recognize the PCIe 8x NIC in the PCIe 16x connector.

I took a Nvidia 8500GT Silent card, as I wanted a low-powered graphic card that could output a Dual-DVI link signal to drive my 30" monitor (2560x1600). You also need to make sure you have a 'thin' graphical card that does not take two slot spaces, otherwise you cannot plug-in you're nc360t.

The main difference between the ESXi (installable) and the ESX, is the service console. The ESXi doesn't have one, so I can't create scripts etc... but on another side, the ESXi doesn't require as much patching as the ESX.

CPU
I select the Xeon 3350 because I just could not get my hands on a Intel Q9450. The distributors in my area are out of stock for the last 3 months, and so the prices are way up. The Q9450 is nearly the double of the Xeon 3350.

BIOS

I have also select in the BIOS to stop the boot process on error setting : All erors, but Keyboard. So now Ican have the SX38Pro P2 as a ESXi appliance without keyboard & mouse. It's all managed from the VirtualCenter.

DPM

Thanks to the two HP nc364T and HP nc360T network cards, my system are now compliante with the Distributed Power Management. I can therefore poweroff half of my HA/DRS cluster and restart it when I need more performance.

I'm going to post this info also online on the forum, as I got a few request for infomation from other people as well. I hope that doesn't bother you.

Take care,
Erik

Message was edited by: Erik Bussink
More info on ICH9R settings, NIC, DPM

Re: Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

slh@protech — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:57:10 GMT

Erik-

I purchased a shuttle case:

Shuttle P2 Chassis SP35P2V2 Intel Socket T(LGA775) Intel P35 4 x 240P

I have the same ICH9 chipset and Marvell onboard ethernet. I knew I had to replace the

ethernet card, how did you get the install to work? What did you have to go through?

Do you have step by step things that you did to get this working?

Thanks in advance

Stephen Hathorne

slh@protechtraining.com

Extra-small VI3 Appliance ... Shuttle SX38P2 Pro running ESXi 3.5 (Build 94430)

Erik Bussink — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:59:49 GMT

I was looking forward to having a really small and quiet ESX server for home. I have achieved this using the Shuttle SX38P2 Pro.

I have already been able to implement the ESXi 3.5 (Build 82664 Update 1), which was then remediated into a Build 94430. As the Shuttle SX38P2 Pro comes with a Marvell 88E8056 (Yukon)gigabit network card which is not recognized by either the ESX 3.5 nor the ESXi 3.5, I added a Quad-Gigabit NIC from HP, the HP NC364T. This gives me enough network connectivity for sc/vmotion/isci and virtual network. I used a simple ASUS 8500GT Silent graphic card. internal storage is two 1TB Hitachi disks.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Mon, 26 May 2008 09:54:00 GMT

OK, That is great. will use my laptop for that. So I guess I would need another box to try out vmotion, and external storage (iscsi). Well let me start with this first. Once again thanks

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Erik Zandboer — Mon, 26 May 2008 08:05:54 GMT

No GUI... Just a message like "Hi I'm your ESX server at address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx please manage me from somewhere else"

So yes, you should connect another machine in the same LAN, check for IP connectivity, then browse to your ESX server and download the VI client from there. Install it on your connecting machine, and use it to connect to ESX. Happy fiddling

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Sun, 25 May 2008 12:46:54 GMT

Dave and Erik,

Thanks a lot guys. The IDE Hard drive and CDRom did the trick. I finally got VMWare esx 3.5 installed. Yet to have it tested though, once done, would recommend as a potential whitebox on the cheap, well relatively.

I guess you got to manage the server from another pc, or am I expected to have a gui once it boots up?

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Dave.Mishchenko — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:42:40 GMT

If you have an HTTP / FTP server on your network you can copy the files to it and then select that as your source when you get prompted by the install. As mentioned it a problem with 3.5 and happen on newer hardware as well as old.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Erik Zandboer — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:36:19 GMT

The CDROM drive is the problem I guess. Don't go for installs from USB sticks. Try and find an IDE CDROM instead, and do a "next-next-finish" install. I have seen this problem with certain servers (on the HCL!!!) where mounting an ISO to the remote management interface presents the exact same problem. It boots initially, and when it is all ready to go and install ESX it cannot find the (in my case emulated) CDROM drive. Very annoying. It appears to be a problem with the driver (or rather missing the driver) used to access the CDROM drive.

I have had ESX 3.5 running succesfully on a hyperthreading P4 (2.8GHz) mainboard without problems, so a mainboard from 2005 is not that old in my opinion

Dig up an old IDE CDROM drive and you'll be fine I think!

Edit: Vmotion is only possible with at least two ESX hosts and shared storage (amongst other things!). VT has nothing to do with that. Vmotion is not within your grasp right now I think. The cheapest solution I have seen enabling vmotion is having three boxes, two with ESX and one having an NFS or iSCSI software solution... Much different (and more complicated) from your setup.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:55:26 GMT

It doesnt install at all, at least it ges well past the other board. I was having problems installing from my SATA Cdrom, cant understand how. It starts the installation loads some of the drivers then asks where you want to load the image from. I select CDRom, it tries to find the drivers, doesnt then gives you the option to select another locations to install from. I guessed the problem was with the cdrom, so I put the vmware image on a usb stick booted with the cdrom, and selected the USB drive as an alternative location. It then progress further, scaning for the mice and the video card and nic. After that is presents you with the option of installing the software and the available drives you have, and recommends partitions for the VMFS, which in this case is one of the 3 scsi disks. If you select the default and proceed, it comes up with the Bug check error, and halts installation.

Not quite sure how to get past this. The board is relatively old (2005), but support dual core 64, and is HT capable. I know there is no easy ride with this, and I am quite happy trying out things till I get it working, but not quite sure what else to get or do.

If I were to disbale the SCSI disks and install the software on an IDE drive 160Gb, would it give me the option later on to create VMFS partitions or is this a one time only thing. Would I be able to enable Vmotion if the MB is not VT enabled?

Thanks

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Erik Zandboer — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:22:35 GMT

Hi,

Very strange. Haven't you simply tried to connect no mouse at all? Having a mouse in ESX is pretty useless anyway (apart from maybe the graphical installer).

On the other board, you have three SCSI disks, but when they are formatted the system crahses, or does ESX install now?

Not having SATA support is no surprise; the number of supported controllers is very limited. ESX should install on IDE, but you cannot format VMFS on IDE (which is needed for your VMs). So you'll end up needing SCSI anyway. And a system crash at this point? My bet is that a linux install (redhat or the like) will crash as well.

You could also give ESX 3i a try, boot from a stick... ??

VMware has not made the install difficult, it simply relies on having supported hardware. Do not expect an easy ride on a whitebox, it's possible, but there are no guarantees. I assure you, take hardware that is on the HCL and all will be fine. Problem is, you don't want that kind of hardware powered up next to your bed

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:09:00 GMT

Given up trying to install this on my new box, couldnt get it working so reverted to an old KV2 Extreme (V1.0) . Installation progesses further, and the mice is recognised, and the SCSI disks are seen, But the system crashes once trying to reformat the disk and VMFS partitions.

Comes up with a bug check and stops the installation. Wont recognise my SATA cdrom, so have to install from USB stick. Thinking of getting an IDE drive (would this work?), and extra memory.

Not quite sure why vmware has made installation so difficult, or maybe I am just being a bit lazy . The KV2 Extreme (V1.0) is X64, but no VT, does that mean no vmotion, or I can not have X64 VM's?

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Erik Zandboer — Thu, 22 May 2008 09:05:42 GMT

Hi,

Not being able to install graphically should pose no problem. Both text and graphical install is possible without a mouse. I would try to disconnect any not needed hardware, including SATA (I would disable it in BIOS). Just to get an initial install done. After that, test away... For now, I think you should try to minimize your devices and hopefully you'll end up disabling the one that caues the freeze...

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:32:56 GMT

Ok, I was sort of wrong on the scsi thing. I had to set the controller up properly and now it sees all three disks.

The problem I am currently experiencing is that after the installation starts, it does not recognise or sees a mouse, then offers to install esx in text mode, and just freezes.

The sata controller on the MB is NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI^TM^ chipsets . Really not sure why it is stalling.

Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe, should work ok

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Erik Zandboer — Wed, 21 May 2008 06:21:43 GMT

Hi Virtual_Jazz,

Adaptec 2940 should simply work. Even the non UW's are on the HCL. If your machine does not find any disks at bios post, you can be almost certain ESX won't either. The only exception is when you have devices not on LUN0, but that will not be the case when you hook up disks. I think your first step should be to check your SCSI cable setup, it can be rather complex if you are not used to SCSI chaining. Make sure you have all disks on a chain with a terminator at the end. Make sure your 2940 also has a terminator active (enter the BIOS of the card). From the BIOS, you should be able to see your disks. If they do not show there, you have a problem, but it is not called ESX... Also do not forget to make sure all your disks have a different SCSI ID (jumpers on the disks), or otherwise they'll share the same SCSI ID, which is kind of like an IP address conflict.

I remember a saying which said to offer a goat every once in a while to your SCSI cable to keep it working ok, so pay attention to your setup

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Dave.Mishchenko — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:18:30 GMT

I have an adaptec 2940 and 3*18GB scsi drives, but esx 3.5 does not see them while trying to install.

Do you get a message about picking an install source before you get the above error? It may be that ESX is having a problem with the install CD and not the storage. What model of SATA controller does the MB have?

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:46:20 GMT

Hi Erik,

Cant confirm now if my card is on the hcl, but I am guessing so. If I were to go for the 29160, I have found 1 on ebay for about £40, would this be a recommended solution, however if Iam considering a raid controller, got any recommendations. Really looking to spend no more than £100 - 150 to get this thing working.

Thinking back though, @ post my pc keeps saying no disks found, but it says that for even my sata drive. I would be so happy if I can get this thing working

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Erik Zandboer — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:25:15 GMT

Hi,

I have succesfully used Adaptec 2940UW cards with ESX 3.0 and ESX 3.5. Make sure your 2940 is on the HCL:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi35_io_guide.pdf

Do'nt forget that if you get a PCIx card (64 bit PCI), it will work in an 32 bit slot, but you should make sure that the PCB behind the slot is clear of any tall components...

Do you see the disks in the BIOS of the card? did you setup the SCSI IDs on all disks properly?

I would recommend to get a RAID controller, then you can join your 18GB disks in a RAID5 or even RAID0 config, which can actually be quite speedy once you get to U160 (that is, if your disks support those bus speeds).

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:08:30 GMT

Hi Erik,

I have an adaptec 2940 and 3*18GB scsi drives, but esx 3.5 does not see them while trying to install. So might work if I get the 29160, and some more scsi disks?

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Erik Zandboer — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:32:55 GMT

Hi Virtual_Jazz,

SATA is not always supported on consumer mainboards. I know it does NOT work on the M2N-VM (which I have), I know it DOES WORK on the M2N-E (collegue of mine). However, the M2N-E will install ESX on SATA, but not boot it. He uses 3i to boot ESX, then uses the SATA pure as VMFS storage. I'm not sure on the Asus M2N-sli deluxe, chances are that SATA won't work on that one (as with many other consumer mainboards).

The solution I use is somewhat out of the ordinary (and way from supported): I use an EONSTOR which delivers a dual SCSI bus (allthough my disks are SATA), and I have Adaptec 29160 SCSI cards in both of my ESX hosts.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Tue, 20 May 2008 12:00:31 GMT

Hi Erik,

How did you get your stuff to work. I have similar kit, actually ASUS M2N-SLI deluxe AM2 motherboard, AMD Athlon 64*2 2.8GH 5600+ processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB SATA and Adpatec 2940 3*18Gb scsi.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. I would rather spend another £100 -£150 to get this box working, than buy a new box altogether.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Erik Zandboer — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:21:57 GMT

Running ESX 3.5 update1 on two identical machines:

Asus M2N-VM mainboard
4x 1GB DDR2 ram
AMD 64 X2 4000+ dualcore CPU
2x Intel Gbit desktop NICs (1x PCIe, 1x PCI)
Adaptec 29160

This configuration runs 5-7 VMs per host easilly, for storage I use an EONstor (device that carries RAID arrays of SATA disks and presents them on two parallel SCSI busses). Even VMotion, DRS and HA works! 64bit OSses run as well. (Tested XP64 and Solaris10 64bits)

I have seen issues with SATA just like you, able to install ESX, but it fails on bootup. The solution which comes to mind: Use ESX 3i !! Boot the server from a USB stick carrying 3i, and use SATA for VMFS storage only. Works like a dream

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:03:24 GMT

Hi Guys,

Has anyone been able to get a whitebox that supports x64vms and works straight out of the box for about £300? Still looking for the right whitebox, but a bit short on cash

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Argyle — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:31:16 GMT

A P4 2.8 GHz will not support x64 VMs.

You can check for VT compatibility in this list for intel:
http://www.cpu-world.com/info/Intel/processor-number.html

Model number 520 in that list is a P4 2.8.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:06:54 GMT

Hi Guys,

Can anyone advice me if this whitebox would work. Is it VT enable and support x64 Vm.

HP/Compaq DC7100 Tower PC P4 HT 2.8Ghz/1GB/DVD/160GB/XP

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HP-Compaq-DC7100-Tower-PC-P4-HT-2-8Ghz-1GB-DVD-160GB-XP_W0QQitemZ370049844820QQihZ024QQcategoryZ179QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

paulo.meireles — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:56:31 GMT

Hi hw-man,

My cable is precisely equal to this one: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140185290406 (I bought mine on eBay from this seller).

It's been working fine on my dc7700. I don't know if the P400 would work on a dc7800, though it should.

Maybe you could test the cable on the ML350 before you buy a new one?

Regards,

Paulo

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

hw-man — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:50:53 GMT

Hi Paulo,

thank you for the information.

Do you use or tested that cable?

I tested a new Adaptec Cable ACK-I-SASx4-4SATAx1-SB-0.5M R but it not works.

The machine I would like to use the P400 is a dc7800. The controller is initialized but the drives are not detected (PCIe x16 slot).

First I think the controller is defect but I could tested it in a HP ML350G5 machine. It works.

My SATA drives are ok too. I tested it in a ML350G5.

Regards,

Hw-man

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

jkahn_au — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:57 GMT

The BIOS update didn't help with the RAM issue. Something to keep in mind for anyone considering a dc7100 ESX box.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

paulo.meireles — Thu, 08 May 2008 11:51:52 GMT

Hw-man,

You need a SAS fanout cable (Google it) like this one:

http://www.bizrate.co.uk/computercables_adapters/oid540088478.html

Regards,

Paulo

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

jkahn_au — Thu, 08 May 2008 00:19:45 GMT

Hi guys,

I've gone and set myself up a dc7100 ESX 3.5 box - works fantastically. An issue I have is that ESX only sees 3.12GB of RAM, even though I have installed 4GB. With a bit of googling I've been able to find that this is apparently to do with the chipset in the PC reserving a chunk of RAM up to 4GB for bus functions. I'm going to update the BIOS tonight to see if that helps at all. Has anyone else run into this problem? Did you manage to get around it?

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

hw-man — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:25:01 GMT

Hi Paulo,

I bought an HP P400 Array Controller too, but I found not the right cable to connect a SATA HDD directly.

Do you know which cable I need?

hw-man

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

rpartmann — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:47:11 GMT

Hi,

right the 7100/7600 already confirmed on 2008/01/07.
i outranked you.
keep on testing... the more system we get to work the better for our labs....

thanks & greetings,
Reinhard.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

rpartmann — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:06:21 GMT

Hi,

i installed ESX3.5 on several HP dc xxxx systems.

Here is a list how the internal SATA drive was recogniced.

Systemname	/dev/sda	/dev/hda	NOTES	Date
hp dc 7100	X			2008/01/07
hp dc 7600	X			2008/01/07
hp dc 7700		X		2008/01/07
hp dc 7800		X	internal NIC is NOT working	2008/03/30

kind regards,
Reinhard.

Message was edited by: rpartmann 2008/03/30

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Argyle — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:25:45 GMT

Just wanted to add to the list that I also successfully installed ESX 3.5 straight out of the box on a HP DC7600 Desktop PC.

Hardware Model	HP Compaq dc7600 Small Form Factor PC
Mainboard Model	HP 09F8h
Mainboard Chipset	Intel i945G/GZ
Mainboard Southbridge	Intel 82801GB (ICH7)
Mainboard Bios	HP 786D1 v01.59
CPU	Intel Pentium 4 640 Processor (3.2 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) HT. Socket LGA775
RAM	4 GB DDR2 PC2-4200 (266 Mhz)
NIC	Broadcom 5752 NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
Video	Intel 82945G Integrated
Disk	Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3160828AS (160 GB - SATA)
CD/DVD	HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-H10N (48x read/write. DVD Read only)

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Argyle — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:27:57 GMT

Another confirm, this time on the HP DC7100 Desktop PC. Successfully installed ESX 3.5 straight out of the box.

Hardware Model	HP Compaq dc7100 Small Form Factor PC
Mainboard Model	HP 097Ch
Mainboard Chipset	Intel 915G
Mainboard Southbridge	Intel 82801FB (ICH6)
Mainboard Bios	HP 786C1 v02.14
CPU	Intel Pentium 4 540J Processor (3.2 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) HT. Socket LGA775
RAM	4 GB DDR PC-3200 (200 Mhz)
NIC	Broadcom 5751 NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
Video	Intel 82915G Integrated
Disk	Western Digital Caviar XL WD5000AAKS (500GB - SATA)
CD/DVD	LITE-ON DVD SOHD-167T (16x DVD, 48x CD. CD/DVD Read only)

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Smeagol — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 22:13:22 GMT

Dont forget you can write ESX 3i to a USB and boot from that then it doesnt matter if it has any local disks at all or whether they work or not. You can then run the vm's off your desktop if you set up nfs sharing which windows server can do, or linux vm etc, etc.

Or just buy a cheap network NAS device with nfs support. Then you can do clustering, HA and all the nice stuff like storage vmotion etc too. No point just having one server

Info on making your own 3i is on the forum just search for "winimage 3i" or similar. Thats what Id do.

When my Tyan single server gives up the ghost thats what Id do. Three dualcore desktops with 8gb and nfs NAS for a cluster.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

paulo.meireles — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:23:22 GMT

I recently bought a HP dc7700 and an HP P400 Array Controller (both on eBay), which allowed me to mirror two disks.
They work very well together, and I expect the P400 to last a few years and a couple of machine upgrades.
The dc7700's integrated NIC works well and supports VLANs but, unfortunately, I couldn't make it work at gigabit speed...

Paulo

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:01:10 GMT

I will see whats out there. thanks

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Argyle — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:54:29 GMT

You could go for a HP d530 or DC7100 as well. They are not that expensive on ebay etc.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:13:12 GMT

OK. I will stick to the dc7600. A bit pricey though, sure you can get a server for that price that works as well. We have a 4day holiday coming up, would like to get a system in before then. so I can have it setup.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Argyle — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:56:33 GMT

Don't think so. If you check rpartmann's post on the first page in this thread the DC7700 didnt detect the internal drive as SATA.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:40:55 GMT

So I guess the following will work then

HP dc7700/ Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz/ 1GB RAM/ 160GB HDD/ CD-RW/ DVD-ROM Combo Drive/ 3 YR OS Warranty/ XP Pro/ Small Form

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

JailBreak — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:13:45 GMT

Hi

I have the same board, and the same CPU working just fine

I have used a IDE disk to hold the VMware, and a SATA disk to hold the VMs with the ESX 3.5

I even tested with the SATA first, and work

JailBreak

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Argyle — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:35:31 GMT

No special config was needed. It booted right after.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:47:13 GMT

Did you have to do any special config to get the system to boot after installation? I am quite happy investing another £300 if the system will install ok.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 08:12:55 GMT

Hi gopherhockey , wasnt ableto get our kit working. The software would not install, keeps going into dos mode. Not quite sure why, even after adding adaptec 2940 and 3 scsi disks, no way. Maybe the board is not supported. So I have kind of given up on using it, will reserve it for ms hyper -v or make it a iscsi target server.

So guys what do I need to get the ml115 working? got an extra 2940 with 2 36gb drives. Hope this would resolve the sata issue. this whole setup thing is driving me mad

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

deneshkanna — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:41:14 GMT

Hi Daveand others,

Thanks for the List of Whiteboxes i have changed my mind to go for the HP ProLiant DL360 G5 Intel Xeon 5335 Quad Core / 2GB which is = £899.99 ex VAT but im not use if this server has Intel VT Support do u think does it has Intel VT and Im planning to run Win2003 and Exchange 2003 and 2007 well the Exchange 2007 its recommended to use the 64bit but im not use does this server 64bit.... And i got an other question if u dont mind ....

i got his new quote from Vmware

VMware Infrastructure Foundation for 2 processors - SnS is required. Includes ESX Server 3i or ESX Server, VC Agent, VMFS, VSMP, Update Manager, and CB = £ 502.00
But the DL 360 g5 is a Single CPU server can i use this license for 2 CPU for a phycially 1 CPU Server, will it accept and what is " SnS is required " ? and will i get ESX 3.5 along ??

Thanks

Denesh - London

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Dave.Mishchenko — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:31:13 GMT

When you install ESX you'll have a 60 day trial period with no functional limitations. One downside with the HP is that an old processor may not have Intel VT in which case you won't be able to run 64 bit VMs. Here's a list of whiteboxes that have been found to work with ESX 3.5 / 3i - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3.5/Whiteboxes_SATA_Controllers_for_ESX_3.5_3i.htm.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

deneshkanna — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:48:14 GMT

Cool Joasb, I think as u said i might go for the DL360 G3 for the test.. yea as u said the Ram alone costs me very high £200 for a gig umm. Since its new for me to work with ESX im going to use the Trail license do we have any restrictions in it .. Can i use it with no problems? Thanks dude

Tyan K8WE (Thunder S2895) workstation for ESX 3.5 & 3i

Erik Bussink — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:06:33 GMT

I've just validated that I can install VMware ESX 3.5.0 (Build 64607), ESX 3i installable (Build 67921) and ESX 3i installable (Build 70348) on a Tyan K8WE (Thunder S2895) workstation using only the integrated NV RAID as the storage adapter.

The Tyan K8WE (Thunder S2895) has two AMD Opteron 270, 8GB and a single 750GB SATA drive (configured as Spanning volume in the NV RAID). It's using BIOS 1.05.

Regards,

Erik

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

jonasb — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:59:26 GMT

I would go for the DL360 G3 since it's supported in the Systems Compatiblity guide for ESX 3.5.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

jonasb — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:44:43 GMT

According to the Compatibility Guide , ESX 3.5 will work with DL360 G3 so I would go for that one.

Have in min that lots of memory could be expensive for older servers so make sure to check that.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

deneshkanna — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:28:26 GMT

Hi there ,

Even im looking for a PC/Server to test drive the ESX 3.5 .. As some of the other members were taking abt to install these on to a desktop machine which works well with upto 4Vms hz sounds g8 for a newbie so i just searched around ebay and found these 2 products can any one tell me which 1 to go with
1. HP DL360 G3
2. HP Compaq D530 P4 HT

Im a bit confused which shld i go for... and can any one please let me know which can i got for and which looks like working in an easy way of start...

Thanks in advance

Denesh

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:35:39 GMT

Hi gopherhockey,

I gues this is were all the other vendors get it wrong. MS make things a lot easier to install, and work around. I invest about $750 on same kit as you hoping that you would have got it working. Did manage to get adaptec 2940 and 3 scsi disks. Memory didnt arrive over the weekend so will wait till next to give it a go. Will be looking @ MS Hyper -v too. Will let you know how this goes, as you say for the knowledge it might be good to get it working

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

gopherhockey — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:28:18 GMT

Hi VJ,

Tell you the truth I ended up going Windows 2008 with Hyper-V. I played around with ESX but if it is going to be that difficult to get going its not worth the trouble other than for educational purposes (i.e. job training) I got ESX running on an old Dell server, could never get the license files to take, then ended up shutting it off.

Its my hope Microsoft eventually makes a decent run at VMWare, but for corporate use I'd bet ESX will be on top for a long while.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

Virtual_Jazz — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:26:27 GMT

Hi gopherhockey

How did ou get on with your setup? Just ordered similar kit, but will be adding an Adaptec 2940 and 3 * 9.6Gb Scsi disks. Did you manage to get the thing working.

Also can I have the ESX server and VM's on same box if I install the scsi controller and disks or do I need a separate box? To be fair MS have made thier setup for easier, anyway I guess thats why they pay top dollar for VMware.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions?

jonasb — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:19:29 GMT

OK! One last question then - does the CPUs allow you to run 64-bits VMs? I'm only familiar with Intel CPUs where you need Intel VT-enabled CPUs to run 64-bit VMs.