VMware Communities: Message List - Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

Re: Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

GR2008 — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:14:03 GMT

I was able to find a solution to getting VMWare ESXi version 4.0 installed on a Dell Precision T3400 system & support 64 Bit Virtual Machines. I did not have any problems installing ESXi on the system once I changed the SATA settings to be RAID with ATA functionality if there are not any active RAID drives. I did have problems trying to set up 64 bit VM's on this system though. After reading articles, I determined that it was my processor series that I had installed on my T3400 system. When we purchased the T3400, we selected a low end processor for this system. We had the Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 series processor. You would want to compare your processor with what Intel shows as having the virtualization functionality built into it. The Intel article can be located at http://www.intel.com/products/processor/core2duo/specifications.htm?iid=prod_core2duo+tab_spec for Core 2 Duo processors. Core 2 Quad processors can be located at http://www.intel.com/products/processor/core2quad/specifications.htm.

I replaced the processor with an Intel Core 2 Duo 6300 series process running at 1.86 GHz. The 6300 series does have the Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) functionality. Once I installed the 6300 series processor, I looked in the BIOS. In the Performance tab, there was a new option available for Virtualization. I enabled that feature & then performed a clean install of VMWare ESXi 4.0 on the system.

After finishing the setup, I then started a VMWare convert to move a 64 Bit virtual machine onto the T3400 system. It finally accepted the T3400 as an acceptable location for 64 Bit virtual machines. Prior to processor replacement and SATA changes in the BIOS, I could not perform a VMWare convert targeting the T3400 system. Every time that I tried to select the T3400 system, VMWare convert would come back saying that the T3400 does not support 64 Bit virtual machines.

Re: Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

lxupls1 — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:21:05 GMT

I was able to setup esxi 3.5 update 4 on a T3400 by setting SATA Operation to "RAID Autodetect / AHCI".

Works great.

Re: Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

iben — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 02:17:13 GMT

FWIW -

I've recently setup VMware ESX Server 3i build-123629 (Update 3) on both a Dell Precision T3400 and a Precision 390 BIOS version 2.6.0 (05/19/08)

Seagate ST3160815AS Sata 160GB HD

In the BIOS I set SATA Operation to "RAID Autodetect / AHCI".

It was set to "RAID Autodetect / ATA" and there is also the option for "RAID". I tried the ATA and got the no disk found message during installation.

The CD did work fine in both cases and was able to run the installer all the way up to the disk detection point.

It is working fine on the Net with the on board Broadcom GigE NIC too BTW.

This is the ISO file I downloaded to run install these servers.

VMware ESX Server 3i U3 Installable Refresh
Version 3.5 Update 3 | 123629
- 11/06/08
241 MB
Binary (.iso)
md5sum: 444e1f57d1bc2296391b74e9ee406acb(¹)

https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/p/download.php?p=esxi&a=DOWNLOAD_FILE&baseurl=http://download2.vmware.com/software/vi/&filename=VMware-VMvisor-InstallerCD-3.5.0_Update_3-123629.i386.iso

Hope that helps some of you out there...

Re: Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

andy1121 — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 05:50:25 GMT

Oh My GOD~~~~

Thank you response.

Re: Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

Draco Dragonsfire — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:40:35 GMT

andy1121:
Remember to NOT use RAID or AHCI for your drives, only ATA mode will work.

Jeff Elben: Thanks for that USB boot method. That should help out a bunch of people, since technically that method should work the same as PXE, since it's not using anything on that ATA/SATA bus. Rather an odd problem to say the least. Maybe some sort of IRQ conflict or somesuch between the CD drive and HDD. shrug

And yes, USB would be faster and much easier to set up!

Re: Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

The Other Jeff Eiben — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:26:40 GMT

A05

Re: Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

andy1121 — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 06:29:34 GMT

I am using the usb key to install.

Always response "Unable to find a supported device to write the vmware esx server 3i 3.5.0 image to."

My T3400 BIOS Version is A07

And you?

And everyone error log with me the same?

Re: Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

The Other Jeff Eiben — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:01:20 GMT

I'll admit I haven't read all of the posts on this thread, so if I'm revisiting old topics, I apologize.

I'm assuming changing the SATA options in the BIOS of the T3400 to RAID Autodetect/ATA is somehow adversely affecting the operation of the SATA optical drive. Hence the lockups when using that mode.

I have come up with a different answer that is easier than setting up a PXE environment. All you need is a blank USB Key (Thumb, Pen, Jump, etc.) Drive and about 10 minutes. Here goes:

Download UNetbootin. I used the Windows version available here: http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=unetbootin&filename=unetbootin-windows-281.exe&use_mirror=internap
Run UNetbootin, select Distribution, FreeBSD, Version 7.0. At the bottom select USB Drive as the Type and the appropriate drive letter for your blank drive as the Drive. Click OK.
Once UNetbootin completes, copy the contents of the ESXi CD to the USB Drive.
On the USB drive, rename syslinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg.OLD.
Make a copy of the ISOLINUX.CFG file and rename it to syslinux.cfg.
Make sure the T3400 SATA Operation is set to RAID Autodetect/ATA in the BIOS.
Plug the USB drive in to the T3400 and boot to it.

Using this method I had two T3400s installed and configured in less than 15 minutes.

I hope this helps everyone out. Enjoy.

Re: Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

malaysiavm — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:36:13 GMT

I am currently running with the precision 490 on esx 3.5i as well as 3.5 for testing purpose. I will say the config different I had with you is, I am using the Xeon processor which is same with the server processor on PE 2950. For memory I am using 16GB ECC servers memory. I am running my environment without raid and only SATA DISK. Everything is working accordingly.

Malaysia VMware Communities - http://www.malaysiavm.com

Re: Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

Draco Dragonsfire — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:43:14 GMT

Success so far!

Booting off the CD is impossible, since it freezes but don't ask me why THIS works:

PXE booting works just fine!

So how come this doesn't work? Who the hell knows. So I have tftp-hpa running on a Gentoo machine here on our network to provide the cd's contents to the boot menu. Adding this to my pxelinux.cfg/default:

LABEL ESX 3i Install
kernel esxi/mboot.c32
append esxi/vmkernel.gz --- esxi/binmod.tgz --- esxi/ienviron.tgz --- esxi/cim.tgz --- esxi/oem.tgz --- esxi/license.tgz --- esxi/install.tgz

I copied the root of the cd off into the esxi folder under the tftp root directory. There's plenty of instructions on how to set this up as well out there, but I can help with some questions if you have them. Let me know how this works for ya'll.

Re: ICH9R settings.

Draco Dragonsfire — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:59:48 GMT

If i'm not mistaken, VT support is not needed to run ESXi and definitely isn't needed on ESX - which if I may add, ran fine on this CPU/machine model.

Re: ICH9R settings.

Dave.Mishchenko — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:57:21 GMT

You can still install ESXi onto a host without Intel VT - you just won't be able to create x64 VMs. 32 bit VMs will run fine.

Re: ICH9R settings.

libove — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:55:30 GMT

Note that the default E4600 CPU in the Precision T3400 does not have hardare virtualization support, so ESXi will not work with it. The ESXi installer should warn you of that, rather than just hanging, but either way there is no point trying to go forward with the E4600 CPU.

-Jay

Re: ICH9R settings.

Draco Dragonsfire — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:36:33 GMT

If I remember correctly, I've even tried noapic and acpi=off and whatever boot-line commands there are to bypass the freeze. I could be mistaken but I think this was mentioned already by not only me, but others as well.

The bigger question is why does it NOT freeze when it's set in any other mode other than ATA/IDE (where it should detect the drives perfectly).

These CPU's are stocked default with E4600, but obviously from other posts, even a Q6600 in these have no affect on the problem.

Re: ICH9R settings.

Dave.Mishchenko — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:16:26 GMT

What sort of CPU does the PC have? Search the forum for noapic and give that switch a try when ESXi boots for the install.

Re: ICH9R settings.

eivindo — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:02:19 GMT

I have the same problem, Mr. jmarctech

Help us someone?!

Re: ICH9R settings.

jmarctech — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:24:29 GMT

I am also trying to install ESXi 3.5 Update 2 on a Dell T3400 workstation (actually 2 of them).

I have set the SATA operation to ATA mode, disabled my 2nd SATA drive, and upgraded my Dell BIOS to A08 (the latest). I verified that the drive is seen in the BIOS and it says "controlled by System BIOS" (vs when it used to say ACHI or RAID previously). I also removed the RAID signature on both drives.

ESXi freezes on the ThinESX Installer screen every time....

This sort of problem really gives me the willies - maybe because we just bought ESX for 3 servers and are attempting to install ESXi on 4 others and this is my "dev" environment. I feel like we are leaping before we look here... Gotta say the product doesn't seem baked to me if it won't run on fairly new Dell powerhouse workstations.

Re: ICH9R settings.

libove — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 21:46:08 GMT

Follow-up: The "Cat 5E" Ethernet cable I'm using on this system has a rubberized guard to protect the anchor tab ... which prevents the anchor tab from anchoring. When the ESXi server was telling me that it had no Link on the built-in Broadcom Ethernet adapter (which the installation had found and configured), it was right...
I had just updated the BIOS in this system to A07 at the same time as I realized this stupid Ethernet cable problem, so I can't say whether the A05 vs A07 BIOS version makes any difference.

So, here's my status:

ESXi 3.5.0 update 2 installed on Dell Precision T3400 BIOS A07 Q6600 CPU 4GB ECC DDR2 800 RAM, using a SATA-attached single non-RAID non-AHCI disk
Built-in Ethernet adapter (only Ethernet adapter in the system) configured and working
Web interface working
VMWare Infrastructure Client working to configure and remotely access VMs

And here's where I've realized that all of this is not useful to what I really want to accomplish, which is to use one monstrously powerful workstation as:

At the base, a truly Virtual Machine platform
On top of the VM base, my Domain controller (Server 2003 or 2008)
Also on top of the VM base, my main workstation, including things like Home Theatre functionality (I use SnapStream's Beyond TV product), dual video outputs (one for the primary display, and the other for video watching), with the VM base permitting this workstation (or even yet a third virtual machine) to have direct access to PCI / PCIx boards for hardware tuning and encoding of broadcast/ cable/ satellite video streams.

What I realize is that none of the virtualization environments can do two of the key things above:
1. Use the actual physical console of the machine as a high end graphic (video) workstation
2. Give a hosted virtual machine direct hardware access to e.g. hardware tuner / encoder boards and display full video to a secondary display

But it was fun while it lasted. And evidently, as long as you're satisfied either with no RAID, or having to plug in a supported RAID controller to get RAID, the Precision T3400 series will run ESXi 3.5.0 update 2.

Jay

Re: ICH9R settings.

libove — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:40:04 GMT

Hi Painesville_Don,

The list of options you see in your Precision T3400 BIOS is the same as the list I see in mine. I selected RAID Autodetect / ATA.

Are you sure there are no drives in your system which the ICG9R controller thinks have a RAID signature? Another way of asking this question: When your system goes through BIOS initialization, does it offer you the prompt to press Ctrl+I to enter RAID setup? If so, then your system is enabling RAID mode on the controller, and you must hit Ctrl+I during boot to enter RAID setup, and use the option to erase the RAID signature from all drives (which is likely to lose data on those drives, by the way - be careful).

Jay

Re: ICH9R settings.

Painesville_Don — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:37:44 GMT

Well, I still seem to be missing it. Dell Precision T3400, BIOS A05 or A07, with a SATA drive. Booting on ESX Server 3i 3.5.0 update 2, downloaded 7/29/08 at 4:30pm EST.

The only three options I have for the SATA controller are:

1) RAID Autodetect /AHCI (Error - Unable to find supported device...)

2) RAID Autodetect /ATA (hangs)

3) RAID on (didn't try, obviously RAID))

Libove - could you give us a clue as to where we can configure the controller to SATA-only please?

Thank you very much.

Re: ICH9R settings.

DBLS3P — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:40:33 GMT

Well - I have the Q6600 CPU and the A05 BIOS and it does not work. I get the same freeze/hang-up that Draco is getting so I do not think it is processor related. I have tried everything so I am about ready to give up on this.

Re: ICH9R settings.

Draco Dragonsfire — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:39:12 GMT

Well, what holds me back from agreeing, is that changing the controller type to RAID or AHCI makes it boot but not detect any drives. To me, that seems like it's been isolated to the controller detection of some sort.

Considering the options, the T3400 w/ a Q6600 would make a decent enough upgraded box to do ESXi for our needs. Maybe we can get our hands on one sometime, but I'm still skeptical on proper functionality. Oh well, enjoy your vacation/holiday there and take some good pictures! Had I known, I would've let you borrow my Canon 5D with my 300mm f/4L IS and 70-200 2.8L IS to snap some shots.

Re: ICH9R settings.

MadDave — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:38:44 GMT

Boot up the machine running VMWare ESXi Server
Press F2 to Customize System
Login as root
Select the Configure Management Network menu item
Select Network Adapters menu item
Make sure the vmnic0 entry has an x next to it on the left hand side to (x means it is enabled)

Re: ICH9R settings.

libove — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:26:13 GMT

Hm. When I purchased my machine, it also contained the E4600 CPU (WithOUT virtualization support). The ESXi installed CD (3.5.0 update *1*) noticed that fact and refused to run, so I bought the Q6600 CPU to replace the E4600 which had come in the machine. I think that may be more likely what's getting in your way that the BIOS version.

Thanks for the note about the BIOS update - I last checked about one week ago, so maybe A07 came out since then. I'll look again. I'm actually on holiday at Oshkosh EAA AirVenture this week, so it'll be a few days...

Cheers,
Jay

Re: ICH9R settings.

Draco Dragonsfire — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:18:59 GMT

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/format.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&deviceid=15260&libid=1&releaseid=R192821&vercnt=7&formatcnt=0&SystemID=Pre_t3400&servicetag=9J99SF1&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=-1&impid=-1

A07 is the latest while A06 was a "internal release" or something of that sort. So it's quite possible you haven't checked recently for an update, which is the reason you're using A05. I suppose what I could do is flash to A05 if I can find it and see if that works out. These workstations aren't Q6600's though, C2D E4600's are in ours, so VT (virtualization) CPU support is non-existent unlike the Q6600 which does have VT. This might be the only reason for the difference, but VT support (I would only imagine) doesn't seem like a logical thing to freeze the installer at the stage it's freezing at.

The only added thing in this box is the more-than-likely-required Intel Pro/1000 MT server NIC that I was using w/ a currently-installed ESX Server 3.5.0 (which as I mentioned before, installed perfectly fine with none of this freezing nonsense.) Maybe i can find an earlier build/release of ESXi to try? Would anyone know where I might be able to locate one if there are any?

it all boggles my mind.

Re: ICH9R settings.

libove — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:30:12 GMT

MadDave noted: "You may need to actually enable the nic in one of the menus you get when you boot the server".

Hi MadDave. Do you mean in the Precision T3400 workstation BIOS? .. or in a menu within the ESXi installer?

The ethernet nic is physically enabled; booting any other operating system finds and uses it once a correct driver is installed. In the ESXi installer, I did not see any time where network interface controllers could be set up; the ESXi installation sees and claims to have enabled the integrated Broadcom NIC (ifconfig -a finds that controller, indicates it has the static IP address I gave it during the configuration of ESXi, and says it is "UP", but it can't communicate with anything else on the LAN).

Thanks
Jay

Re: ICH9R settings.

libove — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:26:16 GMT

Er, the newest BIOS I could find on the Dell web site for the Precision T3400 is the same A05 version which came on my workstation. You mention an A07 version. Are we talking about the same workstation hardware?

To answer your question, I really don't know why the ESXi 3.5.0u2 installer was willing to install on my system, and it hangs on yours.

What other options are in your system? Mine was fairly basic - CPU (Q6600), RAM, a couple of SATA hard drives in simple SATA mode (no RAID partitions configured), one SATA DVD-ROM reader, the integrated (and evidently not-supported-by-ESXi Broadcom ethernet controller), nVidia NVS 290 dual DVI video card. Maybe there's another option in your system which is causing the installer to break?

Jay

Re: ICH9R settings.

MadDave — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:14:16 GMT

You may need to actually enable the nic in one of the menus you get when you boot the server (sorry can't remember which one), it should have an x on the left next to the active nic(s), but by default it looks like the 5754 is not set as active. Make this quick and simple config change and you should be up and running

Re: ICH9R settings.

Draco Dragonsfire — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:50:29 GMT

You mentioned that you were able to at least install ESXi on a Precision T3400? (Unless I'm mistaken)

I have one of these here, and I'm attempting to install ESXi U2 on it with no luck. It freezes right after selecting "ThinESX Installer" on the boot menu. Autodetect/ATA is selected in the Dell BIOS and only when it is, does it actually freeze/hard-lock like this.

If I select any other option like RAID or Autodetect/AHCI which I know will not work, it boots into the CD to install but obviously cannot find the hard drive. Quite disappointing... latest BIOS to-boot (A07) - What did you do to get it to boot properly in ATA mode? I've tried nearly everything, which includes some random pokes at adding things like acpi=off, noacpi, and such.

Anyhow, what I might do is re-download the ISO and perhaps net-boot the process, just in case it's something funky with our cd's or drives.

======

Also to note: I've tried this on a second T3400 (A03 BIOS) and it still refuses to boot any farther than the cd boot menu then a hard lock. I mentioned in another thread that the ESX Server 3.5.0 installer boots without issue. What makes ESXi different?

Message was edited by: Draco Dragonsfire

Re: ICH9R settings.

Dave.Mishchenko — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:30:30 GMT

Can you post the PCI ID for the NIC? You can get that running lspci at the console of the host. It may be just easier to add a NIC to the system - I use Intel Pro 1000 GTs for example and they work fine.

Re: ICH9R settings.

DBLS3P — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:54:21 GMT

Yup - same issue here ... please let us know what setting(s) you changed to get ESXi installed.

Re: ICH9R settings.

libove — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:46:58 GMT

Thanks - not sure how I missed it before, but, with the BIOS configuring the ICH9 controller as SATA-only, the ESXi 3.5.0u2 installer was happy to install.

Next problem is the same others have had - network adapter! The built-in Broadcom Ethernet controller IS recognized by the ESXi installer and kernel, but it doesn't talk. This suggests that the Broadcom controller on the Precision T3400 motherboard is similar to, but not exactly the same as, something which the ESX drivers knows about...

Anyone have any suggestion for boot time kernel parameters to get the ESXi 3.5.0u2 kernel Broadcom drivers to properly use the Dell Precision T3400 motherboard Broadcom 5754 Ethernet controller?

Continuing Thanks!
Jay

ICH9R settings.

Erik Bussink — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:59:37 GMT

I've installed ESXi 3.5.0 (Update 1&2) on a Shuttle SX38P2 Pro, which also has a X38 chipset. You cannot use the ICH9R in RAID or AHCI mode, only in SATA/IDE mode. It also requires that you set the mode to Legacy support (I don't know if you're T3400 has that BIOS feature).

Re: Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

libove — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:53:43 GMT

Hm. No joy with Update 2. Much nicer install UI though...

Instead of "fatal error", now it comes up with a friendlier message to the same effect, and asks if I want to load a driver disc.

-Jay

Re: Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

libove — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:18:52 GMT

Thanks so much for your help. I realize that Update 2 came out in the last 24 hours or so; I had been trying Update 1 (which definitely didn't like the ICH9 / ICH9R in any of SATA, AHCI, or RAID modes).
I'm download Update 2 right now, and will post further after I've tried it...

Regarding the PCI device Hardware id - it is PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2922&SUBSYS_02141028&REV_02
The full device id string goes on a bit further: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2922&SUBSYS_02141028&REV_02\3&172E68DD&0&FA

Jay

Re: Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

Dave.Mishchenko — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:02:50 GMT

As suggested give ESXi 3.5 Update 2 a try. Do you know the PCI ID for the SATA controllers when running in non RAID mode? While ESXi will recognize ICH controllers, the driver doesn't support the software component needed on the controller for it to work in RAID mode (I haven't looked at update 2 to see if that has changed).

If you can get the PCI ID, we can help you with a customization to the install CD that should get you around this.

Re: Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

jjkrueger — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 18:31:44 GMT

I've got ESX running on a pair of Precision 390s in my home lab, and the T3400 is just a refresh of that line, so getting ESX running shouldn't be too far fetched. As noted here already, supportability is a whole different ballgame.

Instead of ESXi 3.5.0, have you tried 3.5 Update 1 or the just released Update 2? VMware often tweaks hardware compatibility during these point releases. I know SATA support has been a little trying since it was introduced in 3.5.0. The ICH9R may be one of the drivers having issues (I don't know that for sure, though - I haven't looked). Are there any other settings in the BIOS for the SATA controller (other than the AHCI and RAID settings you mentioned)? If so, maybe try one of those.

I don't know if the onboard NIC on the T3400 will be supported either - in my 390's, the particular Broadcom NIC wasn't even detected, so I added a dual-port Intel Pro/1000 card to each of my boxes.

Just a couple of thoughts.

-jk

Re: Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

weinstein5 — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:06:00 GMT

True not supported does not necessary mean it will not work but the odds that it will not work are much higher since it is not a 'server class' machine -

Re: Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

libove — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:56:44 GMT

You're wanting to run ESX on a workstation?

Yes. The line between what would once clearly have been "just a workstation" and "a server" has blurred in recent years. The Precision T3400 supports 16GB ECC RAM, has an onboard RAID controller with six SATA-2 sockets (though I admit, I do not know whether it is true hardware RAID with the RAID 5 checksum math in hardware, or whether it relies on a software drive to do that), supports 1333MHz CPU to memory bus, 64-bit address space, etc, etc. This "workstation" is far more powerful than servers of just a couple of years ago, to say nothing of the stuff I grew up with ...

So, yes, "on a workstation", for whatever that's worth

Have you looked at the HCL?

Yes, and I know already that this isn't "supported". That doesn't guarantee outright that it can't be made to work, I hope...

Thanks!
Jay

Re: Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

Bunce — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:47:00 GMT

You're wanting to run ESX on a workstation? Have you looked at the HCL?

Dell Precision T3400, ESXi, something else, or forget virtualization?

libove — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:54:50 GMT

Hi,

I just purchased a Dell Precision T3400 workstation, and upgraded its default Core 2 Duo E4600 (no hardware virtualization support) CPU to a Core 2 Quad Q6600 to have plenty of CPU power and Intel's hardware virtualization support. I have this crazy idea of running a real virtual platform on the hardware, supporting a workstation image, a server image, and maybe even a home theatre / media center image. This hardware certainly has more power than my existing three such machines combined!

But... ESXi 3.5.0 gives the error "Unable to find a supported device to write the VMware ESX Server 3i 3.5.0 image to".

The Dell Precision has Intel's X38 Express chipset and ICH9R controller. I have tried booting the ESXi install CD with the machine configured both with the ICH9R in AHCI mode and with the ICH9R in RAID mode - same "Unable to find a supported device" error.

Has anyone got ESXi working on a Dell Precision withOUT the SaS RAID controller option, with just native SATA or AHCI or RAID from the integrated ICH9R controller?

Thanks
Jay