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trxman
Contributor
Contributor

HP ProLiant DL180 G5 & Smart Array P800 installation problem

here:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi35_io_guide.pdf

I've found that Smart Array P800 is supported by ESXi Installable by using drivers/version cciss/2.4.66

Boot from install CD was ok,

I was able to choose "install" and not "repair",

ESXi installation recognized my 2.1TB RAID5 made by Smart Array P800 (connected to HP StorageWorks MSA60),

I've chosen it as install destination,

but at ~43% of installation I've got this error message:

-


Installation operation Failed!
The installation operation has encountered a fatal error:
Unable to write image to the selected Disk.
This may be caused by bed sectors on the device or another hardware problem.
...
System Information:
Manufacturer: HP
Model: ProLiant DL180 G5
Service Tag: CZC8262VN6
BIOS Rev: 019

-


Is there something obvious that I'm missing or there's some manual procedure to add cciss/2.4.66 driver ?

Is it possible that >2.0TB disk array causes a problem?

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15 Replies
kjb007
Immortal
Immortal

Depends on how much space you were trying to write to. If you go over the 2 TB mark, then ESX will see the amount over the 2 TB that you have available. In your case, that would be 100 GB. If your partitioning called for creating partitions over that amount of space, I can see why the install failed. I would lower my logical drive to at or below 2 TB, and retry the install.

You will also get better performance if your vmfs is spread over smaller chunks. Create multiple logical drives, and store your vm's in those LUNs as opposed to one giant LUN.

-KjB

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
trxman
Contributor
Contributor

Two changes have been made and now it installs fine:

  1. 1 x 1GB of RAM has been replaced with 4 x 4GB of RAM

  2. power cable for one and only internal SAS hard drive that did not work (was not recognized by controller) has been changed. hard drive now works (leds are lit while booting), but it still doesn't show itself in the BIOS. supplier's stuff tried everything and ordered replacement backplane and backplane-to-SATA cables.

So now, with these changes been made, I've managed to install ESXi on the external storage attached to HP Smart Array P800 without a problem.

Latter I'll made two independent RAID5 arrays and spread VMs over them, thank you kjb007.

NIC is recognized as:

Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5722 Gigabit Ethernet
Location: PCI 07:00.0
Driver: tg3

I'll write everything I can read from VI client about the storage as soon as I lay my heands on that server again, but, as I already sad, internal storage controler and/or backplane don't work.

Additional storage controler HP Smart Array P800 works great, but then again, it is listed in officaly supported hardware list.

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kjb007
Immortal
Immortal

You're very welcome, glad to help, and glad to see all is working.

-KjB

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
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trxman
Contributor
Contributor

here's the screenshot of 'storage adapters' section, so I guess that integrated SCSI (SAS) controler is not recognized

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TechFan
Contributor
Contributor

So, the conclusion is that someone has ESXi 3.5 U2 running on a DL180 G5?? You actually have them running with VM's running??

We have been having major issues with this. We have two identical DL180 G5's. We already had added a supported Intel NIC and replaced the E200 controller (though it appears that controller is on the list now) with one on the HCL. We have gotten ESXi installed (which some people seem to be having issues with; actually, it never auto reboots at the end of installation just says it will take a few minutes - we have left it overnight - but it comes up fine after manually powering off/on the machine). We have even had some VM's running for a short time, but then all of a sudden we get the Purple screen of death with a message about CPU 0 (or some other number) not responding. We have re-installed 10+ times on 2 different identically configured machines.

So do you actually have ESXi running on a DL180 G5?? Seen the CPU not responding message?? Any solutions? We have dual quad 2.5ghz processors in both machines.

Thanks.

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VINAMILK
Contributor
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i'am in the same issue. Boot the server, waiting and blue screen appear with the Esxi version . trying with Esx , the installation hang at 99 %.

How had you proceeded that Vmware Esxi running on Proliant DL180 G5 ? is it due to P800 smart Array ?

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TechFan
Contributor
Contributor

We haven't done that much special to install, but we still have CPU not responding crashes. We updated the bios and made sure we had enabled VT in the bios. We do not use the P800, we have the P200, but it has worked with that and the Adaptec card we have as well. We do have another NIC installed as well because the integrated one is not recognized.

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simonkl
Contributor
Contributor

The DL180 G5 isn't supported

VMware on ProLiant - Supported versions matrix -

Thanks

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RyeGuyWpg
Contributor
Contributor

That's a bummer answer :smileysilly:

We're trying to get ESXi installed on a DL180 as well with the P200 controller and we're having the same issue. Install hangs at 99% and eventually gets the PCPU0 not responding.

It is on a lab machine so it's not a big deal and I saw that it wasn't on the supported list but it is a brand new server so i figured I'd give it a try anyways. we've been trying MS HyperV server but would rather stick with VMWare if we can.

I'm going to watch this thread to see if maybe we can get this running in the office.

Thx

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Sketchy
Contributor
Contributor

We use the P800 card in a dl380 and had the same problem. The problem was the VDS hardware provider. you can download the latest version (4.10) at HP.com...

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RyeGuyWpg
Contributor
Contributor

I have been able to get this to work by booting from a USB stick. It's not rock solid but it's been working for a bit now. I have been able to install the client and configure remotely however the server seems to crash if I try to F2 or F12 from the server. Like others, I can't get an IP from the onboard NIC but I can from my second NIC.

I have a DL180 with a E200 Smart Array

**Update. It ran for about an hour, tried to install a VM, no CDRom was detected, tried a few things and the server locked up

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TechFan
Contributor
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We were not having this 99% installation problem, but we decided to reinstall. . .and now we can't get it reinstalled either. . .failing at 99%. Very strange. At this point we are considering several options. Drop VMWare ESX and put on HyperV (probably what we will have to do because of budget and already acquired hardware). We are about to benchmark HyperV and compare that to our current VMWare Server test beds. The other option for the future is to drop HP and just get the Dell 1950 III or 2950 as they both are officially suppored and compare with the DL180.

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TechFan
Contributor
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Just an update. Our CPU not responding messages went away after we stopped plugging in the PS2 keyboard and mouse. We can also install with the first onboard SATA/IDE controller disabled. So, we have been running fine with the E200 controller and using the built-in NIC and an addon.

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fa147
Contributor
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Hi Guys,

Just wanted to let you know that I had similar problem getting ESXi to work with DL180 even though I had followed the suggestions of making sure BIOS was up-to-date, add-on card was used for storage (HP Smart Array P400) and network card, and using a USB keyboard and mouse rather than the PS2 version.

However, after a number of different combinations of raid card and add-on card and disabling this and that I still could get the ESXi to work either from a USB stick, or when installed on the local drives, both old and new version (at the timing of writing this the latest version is 130755). It would basically stay alive for around 1-2 minutes and then PSOD with Exception 14 errors. I even tried ram changes, upgrades and individual module inserted, and trying to virtual copy the USB stick from a perfectly working ML350 G5 with the latest ESXi build. At one point I thought of replacing the single 2.5Ghz Quad Core CPU for 1 or 2x Dual/Quad core 2Ghz to see if that worked.

It was then that I asked TechFan for a hand, as his last post he had mentioned that he managed to get a couple of Dl180 G5's working for the last several months. After a number of emails being sent back and forth he suggested ditching the downloadable ESXi + HP Insight Support, and just using the standard ESXi download, and IT WORKED. Simple really, and i guess it made sense, as the HP tools where probably not designed for the DL180 G5 and as soon as ESXi booted and tried to run the HP Tools, it crashed and gave me PSOD.

I have now been using it for a few days straight and not a single crash. I have installed new VMs, migrated VMs, backed up VMs and made a heap of configurations changes + assigned it to Virtual Center and everything is ticking along nicely.

So for all of you out there wanting to use a DL180 G5, for whatever reason, and mine was for home use to get to know VMware slightly better (as it is a great little cheap server that can easily take up to 12x Hard Disk) make sure you do the following and you should be fine:

1- Disable on board SATA as it does not work well with it on. If you want to use a CD/DVD-Rom then make sure to connect it to the first port and not the second and set the port to non-raid.

- No need to disable onboard Lan as it seems to work fine

2- Download and install whatever version of ESXI (and i think ESX as well) you want but make sure not to use the ones with HP Tools, as for the time being (13-02-2009) that causes the server to crash.

3- Use the USB keyboard and mouse and not the PS2 version, as this also has the habit of making it slightly less stable and prone to crashes.

And you should be fine.

Good Luck and thank you TechFan

Message was edited by: fa147

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NTShad0w
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

just little update for TechFan and fa147 and for all that wants to run ESX/ESXi on non (officially) supported HW,

quite same case, i have normal PC (1QC 3GHz, 8GB RAM, 4x HDD on Adaptec SAS, asus p5k-e mb), I fight 4 months with crashes (just halt of ESX v4 or ESXi v4 during read data from virtual machine to another server, cant do anything like keyb click, ping etc) i change everything... but still crashes...

One time i forgot to plug USB mouse... pc with ESXs works 2 months ok, I was wonder it works ok but dont know why... hheeh, nex time i change a power supply for better it starts crash/hang again...

so I discovered that it crash because of USB mouse (logitech in my example), I have PS2 keyb and it working fine.

conclusion:

If you trying to run ESX/ESXi on unsuporteed HW and have problems with crashes... disconnect all USB or/and PS2 HW and check again...itcan really help !!!!!!!

kind regards

Dawid Fusek

IT Security Consultant and Virtual Infrastructure Designer

COMP SA

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