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3,109 Views 14 Replies Last post: Oct 20, 2008 4:10 PM by tuctboh RSS
DonChino Novice
DonChino
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Jul 30, 2008 2:39 PM

Has anyone installed ESXi on an HP X4000?

So has anyone been able to install VMWare ESX or ESXi on an HP X4000 machine?

 

It is an HP X4000, 3GB RDRAM, Dual Channel U160 Integrated Controller, 2 SCSI Drives, but all of this can be found here:

http://www.nts-international.com/site/html/modules/pdf/Workstation/HP_Workstation_X4000.pdf

 

Supposedly, is an LSI SYM53C1010R integrated U160 controller in the x4000.

So has anyone been able to install ESX or ESXi onto an X4000 system? Or any way I can make this work?

 

P.S.

I noticed that it freezes during:

Configuring VMkernel, specifically on "Loading module ehci-hcd..."

 

 

So possibly not the SCSI controller?

Tags: hp, esxi, x4000
Dave.Mishchen… Guru User Moderators vExpert
Dave.Mishchen…
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1. Jul 30, 2008 2:44 PM in response to: DonChino
Re: Has anyone installed ESXi on an HP X4000?

Have you tried disabling any unnecessary devices (USB / etc).  Does the system have an onboard SATA controller and if so can you change the mode of it to ide or sata?

DonChino Novice
DonChino
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2. Aug 1, 2008 9:46 PM in response to: Dave.Mishchen…
Re: Has anyone installed ESXi on an HP X4000?

Well, I just finished getting VMWare ESXi to actually reach the INSTALL screen, but it gives me a FATAL error.

I get the following message:

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

h4. I got it to boot to the INSTALL screen by removing my D-Link USB card, which seems to have been causing the "freeze" while booting but I am guessing that ESXi does NOT support an HP X4000? It is not a "crappy" machine, so is there any way to get this sucker running on there OR is it "dead in the water" at this point? I am surprised since the X4000 uses an integrated LSI adapter, which is a U160 SCSI adapter but there is no SATA and this won't install on IDE drives so what gives?

Dave.Mishchen… Guru User Moderators vExpert
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3. Aug 1, 2008 10:05 PM in response to: DonChino
Re: Has anyone installed ESXi on an HP X4000?

At the install screen you can press ALT-F1 the login with root (blank password) to get a console session.  Run lspic to get the the PCI ids for the device.  You can use the -v switch to get  more info on the devices.   I have a list here of the PCI ids that Update 2 will recognize and thus try to load a device driver for - www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Hardware_support.php.  If your device isn't listed, then it is possible to modify the install files assuming the adapter can use the LSI driver.

 

You can install ESXi on an IDE drive, but you can't create a datastore on it (i.e. you would have to use an NFS / iSCSI server on your network to store VM files.

DonChino Novice
DonChino
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4. Aug 1, 2008 11:02 PM in response to: Dave.Mishchen…
Re: Has anyone installed ESXi on an HP X4000?

In case anyone else is reading this, you have to enter "cd sbin" to be able to run "lspci"...

Anyway, so I pressed ALT-F1 at the INSTALL Screen and I got the command prompt, which is where I ran the "LSPCI -v" command.

I got the following:

 

03:08:00 Mass Storage Controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic 53C1010 66MHz Ultra3 SCSI Adapter

 

 

Class 0100:1000:0021

 

Looking through the list of SUPPORTED DEVICES, it looks like this device is not supported although they do support various other LSI products but it seems mine is just slightly older? Maybe I just missed the cut-off...

Anyway, so how do I go about using that "mptscsi_2xx" driver? It looks like the closest thing so I will give it a shot but I don't know LINUX that well, help?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dave.Mishchen… Guru User Moderators vExpert
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5. Aug 1, 2008 11:30 PM in response to: DonChino
Re: Has anyone installed ESXi on an HP X4000?

Take a look at this thread - http://communities.vmware.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&objectType=2&objectID=1006219.  Basically  he got ESXi to run on a USB flash drive and then tried to edit oem.tgz to recognize the device that was not listed is simple.map.

DonChino Novice
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6. Aug 2, 2008 12:34 PM in response to: Dave.Mishchen…
Re: Has anyone installed ESXi on an HP X4000?

Well, I guess I should state that the HP X4000 cannot boot from USB. I went ahead and created the USB Drive anyway to see if it would "miraculously" catch, but I knew it would NOT because it is not an option in the BIOS and the USB boot thing is fairly new.

Anyway, so this simple.map modification is just adding my device to the listing of VALID devices and assigning a driver to it? I found another doc on ESX supported hardware: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi35_io_guide.pdf

It seems the 53C1020 is supported and mine is the 53C1010 but the same driver is used up to 53C1035 so I am willing to bet mine should work with this driver, so I am going try modifying the simple.map as you detailed.

Just one question: Can I modify this file in the ISO image, repackage ISO, burn "new" ISO, and then boot up? I noticed others have had problems modifying VMWare's image but some seem to do fine, so just wondering if anyone knows this is a "fool's errand" so I do not waste time and create a "coaster".. :P

 

Dave.Mishchen… Guru User Moderators vExpert
Dave.Mishchen…
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7. Aug 2, 2008 2:17 PM in response to: DonChino
Re: Has anyone installed ESXi on an HP X4000?

The problem is that the device ID is not in simple.map - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Hardware_support.php.  I haven't tried to modify simple.map on a CD itself,  but I have done with with a PXE server

 

You could get around this by adding a storage controller that has been tested - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3.5/Whiteboxes_SATA_Controllers_for_ESX_3.5_3i.htm#SATA.  These have mostly been tested with ESX but if you look at that list and the simple.map list you should get an idea for an alternative.

DonChino Novice
DonChino
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8. Aug 2, 2008 2:25 PM in response to: Dave.Mishchen…
Re: Has anyone installed ESXi on an HP X4000?

Where are the instructions for making a custom oem.tgz?

 

I will do this and "break" this sucker so others do not have to buy new equipment...

 

 

Dave.Mishchen… Guru User Moderators vExpert
Dave.Mishchen…
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9. Aug 2, 2008 4:53 PM in response to: DonChino
Re: Has anyone installed ESXi on an HP X4000?

Look at this thread - http://communities.vmware.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&objectType=2&objectID=1006219.  This would help if you're using a USB flash drive or PXE to install.  For the install ISO,  there's oem.tgz in the root of the CD which is used for the install only.  The other one is buried in install.tgz.  That might be a bit harder to switch.

 

But if you could get the CD to boot and see the drive,  then install the image that the server is going to run with,  you could then boot the server after the install with a Linux live type CD and fix oem.tgz on the hard drive.

DonChino Novice
DonChino
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10. Aug 2, 2008 6:05 PM in response to: Dave.Mishchen…
Re: Has anyone installed ESXi on an HP X4000?

Dude, now you have me confused. Rollback a bit...

So I have TWO choices now... 1) Use PXE 2) Modify ISO image

Do you have instructions anywhere online that explain how to do the PXE install step-by-step? I have not run a PXE install in a while but I will remember, but it is more about what I have to do once I install the image. I assume I will PXE boot and basically copy over the VMWare image OR am I running the INSTALL? Then I can modify the oem.tgz on that machine with a Linux LIVE CD as you have suggested, correct? But is ESXi installed at that point? Just confused if the PXE will actually install ESXi...

I guess no one has tried modifying the oem.tgz in the ISO image and burning a "new" ISO image?

 

DonChino Novice
DonChino
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11. Aug 3, 2008 12:29 AM in response to: Dave.Mishchen…
Re: Has anyone installed ESXi on an HP X4000?

Well everyone, I guess I decided NOT to keep fighting...

I decided to look around my "spare parts collection" and I found an old Adaptec 29160N Adapter card.

Yep, a perfectly good SCSI adapter card thrown in a box so I turned off the LSI Controller and slapped this card so now ESXi installed perfectly fine and I am able to control my server through the Infrastructure Client.

So if anyone is reading this, then know that the HP X4000 does not work "out of the box" but if someone FINALLY gets ESXi working on an X4000 then PLEASE DROP ME A LINE. I just decided to take the path of least resistance and now I have other questions but I will start another thread for that...

 

Dave.Mishchen… Guru User Moderators vExpert
Dave.Mishchen…
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12. Aug 3, 2008 12:59 AM in response to: DonChino
Re: Has anyone installed ESXi on an HP X4000?

I'm glad you got something running.  If you were to want to use the LSI controller,  you would do something like this -

 

1) cd /tmp/

2) mkdir -p oem/etc/vmware

3) mkdir -p oem/usr/share/hwdata

4) cd oem/etc/vmware

5) cp /etc/vmware/simple.map simple.map

6) vi simple.map

--- add the necessary PCI data for your devices

7) close vi - press ESC and enter :wq

8) cd /tmp/oem/usr/share/hwdata

9) cp /usr/share/hwdata/pci.ids pci.ids

10) vi pci.ids

-- add the necessary description for your devices (this will be displayed in the console and VI Client

11) close vi - press ESC and enter :wq

12) cd /tmp/oem

13) chown -R 201:201 ./etc

14) chown -R 201:201 ./usr

15) chmod -R 755 ./etc

16) chmod -R 755 ./usr

17) chmod 644 ./etc/vmware/simple.map

18) chmod 644 ./usr/share/hwdata/pci.ids

19) tar -cvzf oem.tgz etc usr

20) cp oem.tgz /bootbank/oem.tgz

21) cd /bootbank/

22) cdmod 755 oem.tgz

23) reboot the host

headlesshorse… Lurker
headlesshorse…
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13. Aug 11, 2008 12:17 PM in response to: DonChino
Re: Has anyone installed ESXi on an HP X4000?

I'm using an HP ML110 with the

53c1030 PCI-X Fusion-MPT Dual Ultra320 SCSI controller which is on the supported hardware list referenced here  yet ESXi can't find a target to install to. Is there anything I can do to get this working? Thank you for your time!

tuctboh Novice
tuctboh
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Oct 18, 2008
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14. Oct 20, 2008 4:10 PM in response to: DonChino
Re: Has anyone installed ESXi on an HP X4000?

Hi,

 

     I have an ASUS with the 53C1010 on board, so I decided to charge ahead and add 1000:0021 1000:1010 to simple map with the mptscsi_2xx . Not sure what you would have come up with, but for me :

 

ALERT: Mod: 1413 Initialization for mptscsi_2xx failed with -19.

mptscsi_2xx failed to load with status 0, -19, 0xbad0001

 

     Personally, I think I'm out of options until I get another SCSI adapter.

 

Tuc

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