VMware Communities: Message List - Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

rpartmann — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:58:11 GMT

hi,

did you get any error message?
If not do <mount> and post the output please.

do a
<less /var/log/messages> the press SHIFT-F before you plug in the USB stick
plugin the stick
and watch the output

i´ll got this

---8<---
Jul 10 16:52:12 esx074 kernel: hub.c: new USB
device 00:1d.7-8, assigned address 2
Jul 10 16:52:12 esx074 kernel: usb.c: USB device
2 (vend/prod 0x4146/0xba63) is not claimed by any active driver.
Jul 10 16:52:15 esx074 /etc/hotplug/usb.agent:
Setup usb-storage for USB product 4146/ba63/100
Jul 10 16:52:15 esx074 kernel: Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Jul 10 16:52:15 esx074 kernel: usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
Jul 10 16:52:15 esx074 kernel: scsi1 : SCSI
emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Jul 10 16:52:15 esx074 kernel: Vendor:
Pretec Model: 02GB Rev: 2.00
Jul 10 16:52:15 esx074
kernel: Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Jul 10 16:52:15 esx074 kernel: VMWARE SCSI Id:
Supported VPD pages for sda : 0x1f 0x0
Jul 10 16:52:15 esx074 kernel: VMWARE SCSI Id: Could not get disk id for sda
Jul 10 16:52:15 esx074 kernel: :VMWARE: Unique
Device attached as scsi disk sda at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Jul 10 16:52:15 esx074 kernel: Attached scsi
removable disk sda at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Jul 10 16:52:15 esx074 kernel: SCSI device sda:
4095999 512-byte hdwr sectors (2097 MB)
Jul 10 16:52:15 esx074 kernel: sda: Write Protect is off
Jul 10 16:52:15 esx074 kernel: sda: sda1
Jul 10 16:52:15 esx074 kernel: USB Mass Storage support registered.
---8<---

kind regards,
Reinhard.

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

itopman — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:12:21 GMT

I have tried this but nothing seems to happen, after runnig each line i checked the usb stick and nothing on their, so tried to run through teh commends again it stated that can not created /mnt/usb already exists, then when i type the other commends mount -t auto /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb and return it seems like its going to do some thing but does not retunr back to the previous command line ~~root@sohuvt01~~ root#

i do try the last line again also but again n othing happens, am i missing something

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

MartynT — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:40:39 GMT

Hi Brian,

Can you try and copy the '/etc/vmware/esx.conf' file onto a USB memory stick so I can take a look?

Boot into the recovery console as before, insert the USB drive and try the following...

mkdir /mnt/usb
mount -t auto /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
cp /etc/vmware/esx.conf /mnt/usb

Thanks,

Martyn

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

itopman — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:27:54 GMT

thanks for the quick response to this question, instructions where easy to follow thanks.

although i have now added the line sucessfully and still getting the same error, any thing further i can try to get it to work

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

MartynT — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:41:42 GMT

Hi Brian,

When you get to the boot menu select the 3rd option. Once at the command line type "nano /etc/vmware/esx.conf" without the quotes. Simply add the line "/vmkernel/checkCPUIDLimit = "FALSE"" to the top of the file and press 'Ctrl + X' to exit, Press 'Y' to save the changes. Once you've saved the file, reboot the machine as normal.

I hope this helps,

Thanks,

Martyn

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

itopman — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:25:14 GMT

HI...I read your thread with gresat intrest as I am also trying to get my Dell 670 to work with ESX 3.5, as with yours the error 'mounting root failed dropping into basic maintenance shell also stated VMK538 and 0xbad001e'

I need to no how to do your fix "To do this, simply boot into the recovery console, edit the /etc/vmware/esx.conf file and add /vmkernel/checkCPUIDLimit = "FALSE". Reboot"

when you boot it gives 3 options recovery console is not one of them so which one did you mean? 1, ESX 3.5 server, 2, EXS 3.5 server debug mode or 3, Service console only trouble shooting mode.

And can you give simple instrutions on how to edit this file as I tried option 2 but could not get it to do any thing, my knowledge of this EXS server and command lines is zero

thanks

Brian

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

vmmeup — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:32:44 GMT

If you can't get the sata cdrom to work you could download and run the UDA as a VM on another machine and do the install from there. This is what I ended up doing because I didn't want to remove the sata cdrom and put in an IDE.

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

Dave.Mishchenko — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:09:10 GMT

See also the link on this page - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3.5/Whiteboxes_SATA_Controllers_for_ESX_3.5_3i.htm

If you have problems with the CD-ROM, it happens with ESX and SATA CD-ROMs. Do you have another CD-ROM to use or an HTTP / FTP server you could install from? See also if you have an option to put the CD-ROM in legacy or IDE mode.

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

ceemour — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:15:41 GMT

Have got the GA-G33-DS2R working no problem with a plugin intel e1000 nic using esx 3.5

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

xxxomxxx — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:50:07 GMT

i am wondering how you want to install esx. It does not regognize the cdrom....

has anyone really got ESX (AND NOT VMWare Server) to work on a GA-G33-DS3R??

greetz

cobra

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

tuckrman — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 04:44:07 GMT

Already done Thanks for your advice, seems a fair few people out there have these cards (as they seem to be reasonably priced and have good features) so it would be good to see them working

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

Dave.Mishchenko — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 04:35:10 GMT

If you'd like to see the possibility of it working down the road, I would suggest adding a post here - http://communities.vmware.com/message/947521#947521.

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

tuckrman — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 04:32:44 GMT

Thanks mate!

Bit disappointing that it may not work, it seems from further research on the web no one has it working. Cheers anyway!

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

rpartmann — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:23:18 GMT

Hi,

i searched on my server where i have 2 sata controllers running,
but i didn´t find your vendor id in these files.

kind regards,
Reinhard.

ps: Award points if you find answers helpful. Thanks.

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

tuckrman — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:16:39 GMT

hey mate, any further information on the above ? Thanks

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

tuckrman — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 12:09:43 GMT

Thanks for the prompt reply. Unfortunately you might be right there it might be a software based solution It seems to be a good card though, seems to work very well under Windows 2003 Server The details as requested are: PCI\VEN_11AB&DEV_6081&SUBSYS_11AB11AB&REV_09\3&267A616A&0&48 Cheers

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

rpartmann — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 09:55:00 GMT

Hi,

please send us the vendor id/device id of this controller.
on my computer rclick-> manage -> devicemanager -> scsi
controllers -> $YOUR_SCSI_ROCKETRAID -> TABdetails dewvice instance id
you will find something PCI\VEN_xxxx&DEV_yyyy&subsys_zzzzzzzz.

But if this controller is some sort of software raid ala promise ...
then it could be that there is no driver for raid funtionality.

hope we can help,
Reinhard.

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

tuckrman — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 08:57:08 GMT

This is an interesting thread. I am looking at building an ESX solution, getting the Asus Mainboard mentioned etc. I currently have a file server with a RocketRAID2220 in it that I have a 2TB RAID array hanging off. Could I use the RocketRAID2220 in my ESX machine ? Have not been able to find any information anywhere as to if anyone has successfully got one of these working. Any information would be much appreciated, cheeres

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

prlyons — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:19:02 GMT

My ESX lab, parts listed below all purchased from NewEgg:

Item List

MEM 2GX2|A-DATA ADQVE1B16K R - Retail (Qty=2, Price=$139.98)
MB JETWAY JM26GT3-SVP AM2 - Retail (Qty=2, Price=$79.98)
CASE LINKWD|313G-C2628 BK/SIL % - OEM (Qty=2, Price=$55.98)
CPU AMD|A64 X2 4000+ 2.1G AM2 65N R - Retail (Qty=2, Price=$111.98)
FLASH 1G|KST FLDRV DTI/1GBKR R - Retail (Qty=2, Price=$11.98)
Extended Warranty Fee: 0
Subtotal: 399.90
TAX: 0.00
Shipping and Handling Charge**: 44.71
Total: 444.61 Not bad for a 2 node ESX cluster.

Plopped in old Intel 10/100 PCI cards that I had collecting dust in each, ESX 3i installable onto the USB thumb drives, Solaris 10 w/ZFS for ISCSI target, another old solaris box for NFS datastore... The MB supports up to 4 x 2GB RAM, so can grow from 4 GB to 8GB in each server. Also plan on getting a cheap gigabit switch and a few gig NICS. very functional, especially for studying for VCP exam.

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

Dave.Mishchenko — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:53:05 GMT

The evaluation process has changed recently. It used to be that you would get a 30 day eval license for VirtualCenter 2.0x / ESX 3.0.x and the license files would expire and be unusable after that period. Now with VC 2.5 / ESX 3.5 each product will start with a 60 day eval so in theory you could just reinstall on your test systems every 60 days. Not sure what the evaluation license agreement says about that though. When you install and leave it in eval mode you don't have to worry about adding a license file as you would have with VC 2.0.x / ESX 3.0.x.

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

techstyled — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:47:10 GMT

My network admin told me that you could only use one "evaluation ESX" evaluation and there's not such for VC.

Is he just misinformed and the "evaluation period" is like with Windows products (i.e. install it to test and just wipe it when done, no activation necessary).

If that's so, I guess you have to have the "real" product first because you don't seem to be able to get more than one trial license via the website.

Not being dense on purpose, just not getting how you can test the whole enchilada.

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

Dave.Mishchenko — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:41:18 GMT

When you install ESX by default you get a 60 day evalulation period.

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

techstyled — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:00:58 GMT

We will be starting our first rollout of VMWare in a week or two. We're using 4 top-end DELL 2950's for the physical hosts and an EMC NS20 for the storage.

I would LOVE to start building a TEST environment right now and I have 3 systems exactly like the cheap AMD system posted earlier as well as plenty of storage options.

However, what I DON'T have are test versions of ESX. How are y'all doing this? Are you just using your production license on test systems?

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

azn2kew — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:35:38 GMT

Unfortunately, my ESX is not cheap because I need more power than functional. This box is a beast can run pretty much a lot of servers for testing.

Item

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz

ASUS P5M2/SAS LGA 775 Intel 3000 ATX

G.SKILL 8GB(4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Quad Channel

WD5000AAJS 500GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s (5 drives)

ASUS Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL SATA

Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000BWA Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower

Thermaltake W0093RU ATX 12V 2.0 Version 500W Power Supply 115/230

Hanns·G HW-191DPB Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 700:1 Built in Speakers

PNY 256MB Video Card DVI

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen
iGeek Systems LLC.
VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

vmmeup — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:39:45 GMT

I recently built out a 4 host test environment using:

Acer Aspire MT500A Desktop which I picked up for $400.00 on clearance at best buy. The onboard SATA and NIC's didn't work so I order 2 Intel Pro/1000 GT Nics for each host for $29.99 per nic and used a IDE Drive as my boot drive. I have exernal NFS and iSCSI setup for vmfs/vmdk storage. The machines came with 2GB RAM but support up to 8GB so I orderd 4 2GB Sticks per server to mac them out at a price of around $150.00 per server;. So all in all each host ended up costing $580.00.

I have a server that is setup running Centos w/ virtual server that I am using for a storage server. On it I am running multiple storage solutions as vm's. So I was able to remove the 500GB SATA drives that came in the Acer machines and put them into my virtual server machine and was able to gain 2TB of storage in the process. Also reused the 1GB RAM sticks in my storage box, well not all but half of them. End result for just over 2K I have

4 Hosts ESX 3.5 Environent utilizing NFS & iSCSI for storage with over 2TB of storage and multiple storage servers allowing me to test different solutions.

17Ghz Processing Power with 8 Cores

32Gb Ram

Not a bad test environment.......

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

rbrambley — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 11:05:44 GMT

go to http://vmetc.com/2008/03/14/esx-home-lab-hardware-shopping-list/ for the parts to build a dual core AMD host for $337or a quad core Intel host for $695.

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

MartynT — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 09:01:22 GMT

Would you mind adding the Dell Precision 670 workstation to the list?

Over the weekend I managed to install and run ESX 3.5 with only a minor config change, the change is simple and just requires the CPUID check to be disabled to stop the '0xbad001e' (Unsupported CPU) error on boot. To do this, simply boot into the recovery console, edit the /etc/vmware/esx.conf file and add /vmkernel/checkCPUIDLimit = "FALSE". Reboot, and ESX will boot and function fine. My setup is utilising the 670s onboard (ICH5) SATA controller. The Intel 10/100/1000 onboard network adaptor work fine.

The box spec is as follows:

Precision 670
Dual 3GHz Xeon Processors
8Gb ECC DDR2 400MHz
Intel Pro 100/1000 On board Network Adaptor
1x 40Gb SATA2 HD
1x 500Gb SATA2 HD

I hope this helps,

Thanks,

Martyn

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

bertdb — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 11:30:06 GMT

This is what I bought a couple of weeks ago:

MSI P35 Platinum motherboard

Intel Core2Quad 2.4 GHz

2x 2GB ram

Promise Sata300 TX2 Plus SATA controller (I bought a card referenced in cat /etc/vmware/pciid/*xml | grep name )

Intel pro/1000 PT Dual port PCI express network card (same, although this one is really on the HCL)

80 GB Sata HD (smallest I could find)

Installed ESX 3.5 over HTTP (CD install booted, but then couldn't find the CD to read the packages from it). Works great.

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

youngy100 — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:21:18 GMT

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/116689

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

jonasb — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:03:25 GMT

I don't really want to start building my own computer, but what about the HP Quad-core Workstation xw4600 or xw6600?

Will they work out of the box with 3.5?

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

xAyiDe — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:36:20 GMT

I would like to add the following parts to workinglist, as it runs very fast to:

Gigabyte GA-G33-DS3R (cheap motherboard with build in graphics so ni need for any extra card)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (run at 1.01 Volt but with full speed)
8 Gbyte of Kingston 4x2 GB modules DDR667
LSI logic 8344ELP (8 port SAS)
1 x 150 GB (10k raptor)
2 x 750 Gbyte (7k wd)
1 x Intel Dual Pro 1000MT Server

The above runs very cool and is fast enough for 12-15 servers. power consumption is around 95 watts with CPU loaded.
The onboard Realtek does not work with ESX but I build this for use with VMware Server. Now when ESX 3i is so cheap I will buy that one and run. I have it running on it now and its absolutely stable and runs with good speed. I know I could buy a sevrer for the price of the above stuff, but a sevrer would cost me more electricity, run hotter and make alot more noise without beeing so much faster.

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

rpartmann — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:58:01 GMT

Hi,

best is to use any newer dual/quad core cpu (amd ot intel) and memory.

Be careful which SATA controllers are on the mainboards. (as Dave.Mishchenko already posted)

I bought additional
PCIe (http://www.intel.com/network/connectivity/products/pro1000pt_desktop_adapter.htm)
and
PCI (http://www.intel.com/network/connectivity/products/pro1000gt_desktop_adapter.htm)
gigabit nics.

ps: Award points if you find answers helpful. Thanks.

Re: Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

Dave.Mishchenko — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:32:52 GMT

Here's a list I'm working on. If you're looking at a whitebox then ideally something with a broadcom / intel Pro /1000 NIC. For a SATA controller the list here should still be fine - http://www.vmprofessional.com/index.php?content=sata_faq, but ESX has a greater number of drivers on the install CD. If you open the CD, go to /vmware/RPMS/ and look for the VMware-esx-drivers-* rpms. If for example, you have a Promise controller open vmware-esx-dirvers-scsi-sata-promise-1.03-64607.i386.rpm. Drill down into the rpm until you find this file - VMware\RPMS\VMware-esx-drivers-scsi-sata_promise-1.03-64607.i386.rpm\VMware-esx-drivers-scsi-sata_promise-1.03-64607.i386.cpio.gz\VMware-esx-drivers-scsi-sata_promise-1.03-64607.i386.cpio\etc\vmware\pciid\sata_promise.xml. You can open it and then you'll see a list of SATA controllers that ESX will recognize. These aren't supported, but they will likely work.

With some SATA controllers (see the source link for the HP ML115 below, you have to make some changes after the install of ESX as the controller is not listed in the XML file, but you can edit it to add support for the card. That assumes that the driver will work with the SATA controller.

Processor wise if you're going with Intel make sure the processor supports Intel VT. Some of the older and lowest priced dual-core CPUs don't. If you're going with a good dual / quad core CPU then a single processor motherboard will be sufficient. You can also look for older servers that were supported with ESX 3.0.x on eBay. I have an older IBM x335/336 that work fine with 3.0.2 - just haven't tested them with 3.5 yet. Downside with them is that they don't have Intel VT so I'm limited to 32 bit VMs on them.

Motherboards and unsupported servers that work with ESX 3.5 / 3i Installable
Last updated - 2008.01.13
Model	SATA Controller	ESX 3.5 b64607	ESX 3i Installable 3.5 b67921	Source / Notes
Servers and PCs
Dell Dimension E521	Working	http://communities.vmware.com/message/833706#833706
Dell PowerEdge SC1430	Working	http://communities.vmware.com/message/838709
HP ML115	MCP55 SATA Controller	Working	Need to update sata_nv.xml - http://communities.vmware.com/thread/116768?tstart=0
Dell XPS - M1710	Intel 82801/GHM (ICH7-M Family)	Working	Tested by vm-help.com
HP Compaq d530 - Small form factor (SFF) DG755A	SATA 82801EB (ICH5)	Working	http://communities.vmware.com/message/833706#833706
HP DC 7100 / 7600 / 7700	Working	http://communities.vmware.com/message/833706#833706
Sun x2200	Working	http://communities.vmware.com/message/833706#833706
Motherboards
ASUS P5M2/SAS	LSI Logic LSI1068 / 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family)	Working	Tested by vm-help.com. Both the LSI1068 and ICH7 controllers work fine.
Intel S5000PSLROMB	Working	http://communities.vmware.com/thread/116768?tstart=0
GeForce6100SM-M2	NVIDIA GeForce 6100S (MCP61)	Working	Tested by vm-help.com - after install boot into Service Console Mode. Then edit sata_nv.xml to add an entry for the device 03f6. Then run esxcfg-pciid and reboot the server.
Gigabyte GA-K8N51GMF-9	NVIDIA GeForce 6100	Working	http://communities.vmware.com/thread/116768?tstart=0
MSI 915P/G Neo2	Intel ICH6R	Working	http://communities.vmware.com/thread/116768?tstart=0
Supermicro P8SCi	Intel ICH6R	Working	http://communities.vmware.com/thread/116768?tstart=0
SuperMicro X7DBE	Intel Corporation 631xESB/632xESB	Working	HostRAID does not work - http://communities.vmware.com/thread/116768?tstart=0
SuperMicro	Intel 6300ESB Sata Controller	Working	Set controller to SATA only (not IDE-SATA) - http://communities.vmware.com/message/835422
SATA Controllers
Adaptec 2610SA	Untested - should work	Untested - should work	http://communities.vmware.com/message/829936#829936

Cheap ESX solution (Tests)

TheDonMiguel — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:13:56 GMT

Hello community

I'm looking for a cheap hardware solution to play with VMware ESX 3.5, or 3i. Since the new version doesn't work in the Workstation Version it's important to have an alternative What do I have to consider? What kind of CPU, NIC and Controller are suggested? I would like to use local SATA storage...

Thanks in advanced for the feedback!
Miguel