VMware Communities: Message List - Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

flyty — Mon, 11 May 2009 02:44:02 GMT

Hi, My name is Ron and I need some help to install ESX 3.5 Update 4 on a Dell SC440. Would it be possible for you to email me instructions on how you were able to create storage usung the onboard SATA Controller. My email is pokerty@earthlink.net.

/Thanks

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

dr00l — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:48:06 GMT

My apologies for the confusion. I don't PXE boot the ESXi on the SC440 to do the installation. I boot AND run the ESXi instance from PXE.

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

augustynr — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:07:33 GMT

Hi,

Why are you booting it of PXE and I have no problem booting it of the CD but problem recognizing the Sata controler.

Thank you

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

dr00l — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 08:51:54 GMT

My apologies. I run ESXi off of PXE, so i didn't realize there were installation issues (VMFS volumes are recognized fine). I believe the following post will help you get ESXi 3.5 U3 installed on the SC440.

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1108108#1108108

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

augustynr — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:18:25 GMT

I am trying to install ESXi 3.5 U3 on my SC440 but it errors out telling me:

Unable to find supported device to write the image to

The server has E2180 processor with 2gigs of ram and bios 1.5 ...

It has two sata drives in it but no hardware raid card.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

dr00l — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:34:50 GMT

Quick status update. ESXi 3.5 U3 still recognizes the SATA controllers and allows you to run VMFS on them. Oddly enough, ESXi 3.5 U3's simple.map has the 27c0 entry for the ICH7, but strait ESX 3.5 U3 doesn't.

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

dr00l — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:31:31 GMT

Yes, I think it shoudl work with that processor. Be aware that you won't be able to do any 64bit OSes due to the lack of VTon the E2180.

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

dr00l — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:38:48 GMT

Just a heads-up: Upgraded my ESX 3.5U2 to ESX 3.5U3 and now the internal SATA disks are no longer recognized as VMFS volumes. ESX runs fine off of the on-board SATA, but can no longer host virtual machine volumes on it. I'm going to tinker a bit and see what I can do. I'll post back if I find a fix.

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

okokokok — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:02:09 GMT

Sorry another noob here.....

So to summarize..... For a home lab it looks like the SC440 will work with ESXi (latest build) with the standard on-board components.

I have seen most folks with specs including the Xeon processor. Will it also work with the low end Intel Dual Core Pentium E2180

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

dr00l — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:54:51 GMT

That all depends on your needs. If your running the device as your home lab system, then probably not. If you're hosting mission critical servers for your business, then I would use a vmware supported server (HCL).

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

mobcdi — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:08:29 GMT

That shouldn't stop someone using the internal disk to run ESX and host the vm files across the network should it?

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

dr00l — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:48:52 GMT

Yes, ESX only recognizes the drives individually when using the onboard SATA controller.

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

mobcdi — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:11:44 GMT

Hi dr00I

Are you using the the onboard SATA controller with just 1 hard drive. I know it does nothing for redundancy or preformance but would like to keep the cost down as much as possible, plus i plan to store my vm's on iSCSI

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

dr00l — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:05:42 GMT

Both the onboard SATA controller and the onboard NIC work for me (3.5U2). The onboard Broadcom NIC only started working after the U2 upgrade.

The "Intel Pro 1000 PT Desktop" NIC seems to work well with ESX3.5. I've not yet tried to utilize VLANS. I only mention that because it's a "desktop" NIC. NewEgg sells them for around $50.

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

mobcdi — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:52:11 GMT

Thanks Phil, Appreciate any help you can give me on the storage issue. In relation to your NIC problem Dell Ireland want 40 euro ex vat to add a Intel PRO 1000PT Single Port Server Adapter, Gigabit NIC to the standard SC440 built. That nic is listed on the i/o compatability list for esx3.5 and esx3i if that helps

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

the_norris — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:36:31 GMT

I could check tonight for you - I'm currently using two drives on the raid controller (optional upgrade - SAS Raid). I can confirm this works with ESX3.5 Update 2 and ESX3i (free version). ESX3.5 non update 2 sees the storage but the not the inbuilt NIC.(just use Update 2 version).

Anyone with any idea for a cheap NIC card for this server that works under ESX?

Phil

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

mobcdi — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:10:20 GMT

Can any of the SC440 users confirm that they were able to install and use ESX on it without needing a 2nd harddrive. I hope to create a very cheap cluster using the SC440 but would like to confirm it will work before I part with my money

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

NB_72 — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 07:47:45 GMT

cd is defo 1st in boot order as it boots with the dell utility cd in ad also boots with w2k3 cd in... is the directory and file structure mentioned in one of my previous replies correct for an esx cd.

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

adpcyence — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:45:59 GMT

hello NB_72,

try changing the boot order in bios. make the cd-rom as the first boot option. maybe the function keys are messed up .

just my 2 cents.

/adp

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

NB_72 — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:32:46 GMT

thanks for the help - interesting thought on the media - i am using DVD -RW and also CD -R.

Hopefully someone has a help tip to sort me out.

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

Scovndrel — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:19:45 GMT

Could be compatibility issues with your media? Try burning again, setting it to lowest speed?

Do your burned VMware CDs boot OK in other machines?

Also, I just noticed in your first post that you said some of the ones you tried were burned to CD, not DVD. Sorry about that.

I'm out of ideas beyond that.

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

NB_72 — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:09:19 GMT

lol - yes it has directories on it and is not an ISO image to Disk burn - the directories on the disk are

dosutils

Images

isolinux

scripts

VMware

on the cd root it has the following files

.discinfo (file)

open source licences

Readme

Trans.tbl

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

Scovndrel — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:52:18 GMT

OK, next noob trick possibility: Did you burn the ISO file to the DVD as a file, or did you "create CD from image"?

To verify this, put the DVD in another computer and open it with Windows Explorer. Do you see a .iso file on the disc? If so, go directly to jail. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

NB_72 — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:49:29 GMT

Its defo a DVD-Rom Drive.

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

Scovndrel — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:41:04 GMT

It sounds to me like your Dell SC440 has a CD-ROM drive, NOT a DVD-ROM drive, and you are trying to boot from a DVD. You need to either put in a DVD-ROM drive, or re-burn your ISO to a CDR.

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

NB_72 — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:29:31 GMT

Guys - please dont laugh as i am a total new newbie to VMWare. I have been reading abt the SC440 on the forums - i dont have a SAS controller card - am using the onboard SATA controller.

It has 4GB ram, BCM5754 NIC and also a 2nd Nic RTL-8169 Gbic.

Proc is Intel Xeon CPU 3060 @ 2.4Ghz (2 Core)

I am trying to install VMWare 3.5 U2, which i D/L from Vmware site (trial version) - I have burnt the software to a DVD-RW disk

Stupid Q: When i boot the Dell Server with the VMware U2 Disk in - I press F11 to go to the boot device menu. In there i select the Onboard CD-Rom Drive. I then get a message Strike the F1 Key to Continue or F2 to run the Setup utility. If i press F1, i get "selected boot device not available, Strike the F1 Key to continue or F2 for Setup utility".

The CD rom is bootable, it boots with the Dell utility CD - Version 5.3, quite happily ???

So what am i doing wrong ??? I have tried other versions of ESX 3.02 and also 3 and get the same result. The other versions are burnt on CD-Rom not DVD.

Thanks...

Newbie....

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

dr00l — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:40:07 GMT

I'm using the stock onboard SATA controller.

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

Scovndrel — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:01:24 GMT

I have a Dell PowerEdge SC440 working out of the box with no hardware changes. ESXi 3.5.0 Update 2 build 110271 (downloaded 8/14/2008) installs with no issues.

Server Hardware Configuration:
Dell PowerEdge SC440
222-3378 Dual Core 3060 Processor, 4MB Cache, 2.4GHz, Xeon, 1066MHz Front Side Bus for PowerEdge SC440
311-6676 4GB DDR2, 667MHz, 4X1GB Dual Ranked DIMMs
341-3756 SAS 5IR SAS, PCI-Express Internal RAID Adapter
341-4180 160GB 7.2K RPM Serial ATA 3Gbps 3.5-in Cabled Hard Drive - Primary (RAID 1)
341-4176 160GB 7.2K RPM Serial ATA 3Gbps 3.5-in Cabled Hard Drive - Additional (RAID 1)
430-0488 On board Network Adapter (Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5754 Gigabit Ethernet)
313-4359 48X CD-ROM Drive

This being an entry level server, Dell has limited it to 4GB RAM. I have not tested this and don't intend to. If I need more than 4GB, I also need a better server.

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

mdlister — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:24:33 GMT

I also have a Dell PowerEdge SC440 and had the same issues as you have reported, i went through a number of cards till i tried the intel pro 1000 GT Adapter for about £30 on Dabs, works a treat from then, currently have 2 80Gb hard drives and 2Gb Ram, was thinking of upgrading the ram a bit but dell states it cants handle more than a gb in each channel with a total of 4gb is this true??

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

the_norris — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:19:58 GMT

Hi dr001

Is it the SC440 with the SAS 5/i intergrated controlled for SATA and SAS?

Looking to get one of these servers for myself ESX test system.

Phil

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

dr00l — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 06:13:59 GMT

Just an FYI: After 3.5 U2 upgrade, the onboard Broadcom BCM5754 Gig-E adapter is now recognized. So the SC440 is now completely usable out of the box (both onboard SATA and Ethernet are functional under ESX 3.5U2).

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

Dave.Mishchenko — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:42:18 GMT

If you add an Intel Pro / 1000 NIC that will get you past the error message, but you still may have problems with the drive controller. What model of drive controller does this system have?

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

warren.walker — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:34:44 GMT

Unfortunately Rinse, thats the problem with using unsupported hardware. You could check the server compatability list for a similar spec Dell machine. And then check the IO compatibility list for supported components.

Cheers,

Warren

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

Rinse — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:24:18 GMT

Hello Warren,

Thaks for your answer.

I have no problem with installing a supported NIC, but how big is the chance that I then will face some other incompatibility issues with the rest of the hardware (video, mainboard) ?

regards,

Rinse

Re: Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

warren.walker — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:00:35 GMT

Hi,

Im sorry if this doesnt seem particulraly helpful but if its not in the IO compatibility list then it shouldnt be used. You could always install a supported network adapter.

Cheers,

Warren

Esx 3.5 on a Dell PowerEdge SC440, will this work ?

Rinse — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 18:45:38 GMT

Hello,

I am trying to get ESX running on a Dell PowerEdge SC440. During installation I get the message "The installer was unable to find a supported network device".

The onboard NIC is a Broadcom BCM 5754. Any chance I will this get running ? if so, how ?

Thanks in advance,

Rinse Lemstra