VMware Communities: Message List - will esx run on this?

Re: will esx run on this?

Thomas_W — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:49:45 GMT

doofoo,

You should be fine with the stock Dell heatsink. In fact, I bought a Precision 390 about a year ago with the least expensive processor available from Dell and then swapped it for a QX6700. Also, at least in my system, the CPU socket is mounted at a 45 degree angle relative to the general orientation of the motherboard and I am not so sure that the placement of the post holes is anything like standard. Trying to fit an off-the-shelf heatsink in there might be a bit of a challange. The stock one is quite large and seems to do the job. Just make sure to use high-quality thermal paste and you should be fine. My system has shown no ailments from the upgrade and it runs 24/7 with a good amount of load most of the time.

Re: will esx run on this?

doofoo — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 03:18:59 GMT

I would set it up to expose 1 raid1 (two 1tb drives) as a 1tb volume.

However, I know in some other cheaper on-board raid cards even when I have done that in the past, Linux still recognized the individual drives. So I was looking for someone who had used the 390 w/ raid 1/5 enabled that could tell me for sure.

Re: will esx run on this?

doofoo — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 03:17:25 GMT

Also interested in swapping for the Q6600 processor. Will the heatsink with the 390 work with the Q6600 if I just order the OEM processor from newegg?

Should be a decent box if so, 8gb ram + Q6600. I have searched high and low on the net, but can't find any detailed info about swapping the CPU in the 390.

Re: will esx run on this?

mcowger — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 03:12:49 GMT

Depends on how you setup the controller....if you set it up to expose 1 volume or just as JBOD.

--Matt

Re: will esx run on this?

doofoo — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:58:58 GMT

So I have the 390 on order, should be here tomorrow or friday. I am ordering some more components though and want to get them before the weekend. The internal RAID controller on this 390, will ESX recognize two 1tb drives in a raid1 as 1 drive, or two?

Curious if the RAID works or not.

Re: will esx run on this?

jjkrueger — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:01:03 GMT

That's the one.

Re: will esx run on this?

doofoo — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:48:51 GMT

Is this the nic you were refering to:

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-PWLA8391GT-1000-Network-Adapter/dp/B00030DEQE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1205239638&sr=8-1

Getting ready to order it, and 4gb ram extra.

Re: will esx run on this?

jjkrueger — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:49:59 GMT

yep - 4 dimm slots

Re: will esx run on this?

doofoo — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:48:57 GMT

Yeah I was going to load up the box with 4gb, Hoping it has 4 slots so I can upgrade. Do you happen to know?

Re: will esx run on this?

jjkrueger — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:44:34 GMT

specs look fine. audio and video are naturally not going to be important. disk is fine, processor is adequate for a home lab setup. memory will work just fine, but will definitely limit the number of VMs you can run. The only thing I upgraded in my boxes was the memory - i kicked it up to 4GB each. But 2GB will work just fine.

-jk

Re: will esx run on this?

doofoo — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:41:27 GMT

Do the specs on this server look okay to you? Sorry for all the questions, just don't want to get a server that won't work.

Memory
2 GB DDR2 ECC SDRAM 677MHz (2 DIMMs)

Hard Disk Drive
160 GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM)-----
Video
128MB PCIe x16 ATI FireGL V3400, Dual DVI or Dual VGA or DVI + VGA-----
Sound Card
Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic, w/Dolby Digital 5.1-----
Scratch & Dent
Scratch & Dent-----
Base
Precision Workstation 390 Mini-Tower: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86GHz/1066MHz/2MB L2/Dual-core/VT-----
Media Bay
16X DVD ROM Drive
16X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability-----

Re: will esx run on this?

doofoo — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:32:35 GMT

Awesome. So all of the Precision 390's internal SATA controllers work? I just want to make sure Dell didn't switch controllers in the middle of the run or something. I am about to order 1 or 2 of them from the outlet.

2 more questions:

The ESX 3.5 install worked fine from the internal CD/DVDRom? You didn't need to do a HTTP install did you?

And, second.. I guess I only need a 1000M Intel NIC other than the machine itself and the install should go smoothly?

I appreciate the quick response.

-Mike

Re: will esx run on this?

jjkrueger — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:24:48 GMT

Local storage on SATA on the Precision 390 works for me. I have the 80G boot drive, and a 500G additional drive, and can run VMs from either. I also set up a FreeNAS server to play with NFS and iSCSI, and store most of my VMs on that so that I can play with VMotion, DRS, and HA.

-jk

Re: will esx run on this?

doofoo — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:22:34 GMT

Can you install ESX 3.5 on the local drives, and store vm's locally or am I going to have to store them on a NAS?

I am looking for a lab setup (Under $1000) to run ESX 3.5 in. The precision 390 sounds great, if I can indeed install ESX & Run VM's from local storage. Can anyone speak to that?

Re: will esx run on this?

baalak — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:20:45 GMT

Thanks!

I tried other NIC and it worked.
They should support the original NIC too as they do in Precision 490.
Is there any forum or request list to put this on?

Re: will esx run on this?

jjkrueger — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:13:30 GMT

There are many different actual NICs in the 57xx series. Some may work, some may not.

ESX 3.5 does not recognize the NIC on a Precision 390. My workaround was to purchase and install a pair of Intel Pro 1000 NICs. I sourced the Intel PWLA8391GT PCI Desktop NICs from NewEgg for ~30/ea.

-jk

Re: will esx run on this?

baalak — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:10:08 GMT

Hello:

I'm not able to install latest ESX 3.5 build 64607.Installer doesn't identify any network devices.

DO i have to install new NIC?

It has netstream 57XX...same as dell precision 490; on which esx 3.5 runs fine.

Please Advice.

Re: will esx run on this?

Dave.Mishchenko — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 23:21:55 GMT

And you do need a PC with Intel VT or the AMD equivalent for the ESX VM to boot in a reasonable about of time ( 60 - 90 seconds with VT versus over an hour without).

Re: will esx run on this?

Dave.Mishchenko — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 23:20:32 GMT

Yes, but you can't start a VM on an ESX 3i or 3.5 host VM. You can with ESX 3.0.x.

Re: will esx run on this?

tdubb123 — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 23:17:58 GMT

will 3i run on workstation 6?

Re: will esx run on this?

Dave.Mishchenko — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:53:18 GMT

I haven't tried 3i with a PC that doesn't have Intel VT, but it should work. The big thing will be what SATA controller your laptop has and if the BIOS supports booting from a flash drive. If the SATA controller is not recognized by 3i then you won't be able to use the local hard drive. Likewise for the built in NIC. 3i doesn't have any usuable GUI so if you do manage to get it to working you'll need any PC to run the VI client to manage the 3i host. You may have seen posts about running ESX in a vm on VMware Workstation, but this does require a processor with Intel VT or the AMD equivalent.

Re: will esx run on this?

tdubb123 — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:37:25 GMT

Will i be able to just buy a usb flash memory stick and install 3i on it and run it on any computer? Thinking of getting 3i and booting it off my laptop. However my laptop is a Centrino duo T5250 1.5GHz without intel VT

Re: will esx run on this?

VMware_4Me — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:52:15 GMT

Dave...

Thank you for the follow... I dont recall seeing the 82801GR/GH as an option on the list. I'll take a look when I get home tonight. Maybe my best bet would be to purchase an LSI MegaRAID 154-4 controller. It "appears" as though no one is having any issues with it. That plus its on the HCL as well.

Thanks again, Rick

Re: will esx run on this?

Dave.Mishchenko — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:27:01 GMT

ESX 3.5 introduced support for SATA controllers, but the supported list is pretty short right now. Fortunately for test / learning systems, ESX 3.5 will recognize and work with a number of controllers including models from nVidia, Promise Technologies and Intel. In some cases, ESX will not recognize the sata controller, but you can get it to work by editing the PCI database files. That procedure you can find here http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3.5/SATA_mounting_root_failed.html and here - http://communities.vmware.com/message/818114

Another option might be to run 3i from a usb flash drive - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Boot%203i%20from%20USB%20flash%20drive.html

You won't be able to add drivers to ESX unless they come from VMware, but you should probably be able to get the ICH9r controller to work. It may just not work with it setup as a RAID array.

Re: will esx run on this?

Dave.Mishchenko — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:24:38 GMT

Re: will esx run on this?

jjkrueger — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:43:44 GMT

They're detected as "82801GR/GH (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller AHCI", and listed as vmhba0, 32, 33, and 34.

-jk

Re: will esx run on this?

VMware_4Me — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 03:03:25 GMT

Hey guys/gals...

First off let me say, this is my first time posting on the board.. .I've been a distant reader of the communities forum for sometime now...and I think the people and the information on here are an asset to the VMware community.

Currently I'm in the process of setting up an ESX 3.5 environment here at the house. Since we are not allowed to play with our production environment at wotk, i was forced to purchase an HP Pavilion Elite M9100t CTO Desktop PC (see link below for the specs), which I was going to use for my ESX testing. Obviously I'm unable to test VMotion which is fine.

My question is this... Until I came accross this thread, I was under the assumption that I needed to purchase a LSI SATA controller in order for it to be compatable with 3.5. However the above post stated that the ICH9 controller will work with 3.5. My concern is the controller that comes with this system is a ICH9R... so I'm not sure if it works or not... that plus, I haven't been able to locate the drivers for it so see if it works. I've tried Asus, Intel.. HP...and found nothing yet. And no, the PC did not come with any type of driver CD.....Can anyone provide any additional information on this...?

Link: (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/prodinfoCategory?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3659712&os=2093&lang=en)

Thank you for your help...

Rick

HP Pavilion Elite m9100t CTO Desktop PC

Re: will esx run on this?

Dave.Mishchenko — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 19:49:53 GMT

Which model of SATA controller does ESX list the 390 as having?

Re: will esx run on this?

jjkrueger — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:18:06 GMT

My home lab is a pair of Precision 390s with 4GB of RAM, 80GB SATA disk, and NFS/iSCSI from a FreeNAS server.

ESX 3.0 will not run on those boxes without a supported SCSI conrtoller, but ESX 3.5 does support the SATA controller. ESX 3.x (.0 or .5) does not detect the network controller. I put in a couple of Intell Pro 1000 cards for networking.

Keep in mind that VMware does not provide support for these hosts as they are not on the HCL. But from personal experience, they will work.

-jk

Re: will esx run on this?

Dave.Mishchenko — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:36:39 GMT

Do you know the model of SATA controller that this has? That'll be a critical factor as ESX will only work with a limited set. If it has an Intel ICH 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 controller or nVidia controller you'll have a good chance, but it won't of course be supported. Here's a list of other systems that have been tested with ESX 3.5 or 3i. You might be able to find something else or you pick up an older server on eBy. http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3.5/Whiteboxes_SATA_Controllers_for_ESX_3.5_3i.htm

will esx run on this?

tdubb123 — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:28:56 GMT

Will esx 3 run on this?