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13 Replies Last post: Nov 23, 2008 5:08 AM by TechFan
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HP ProLiant DL180 G5 & Smart Array P800 installation problem

Aug 1, 2008 3:17 AM

Click to view trxman's profile Novice trxman 13 posts since
Aug 1, 2008

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?


Tags: esx3i, esxi, 3i, hp, p800, array, raid, install, proliant, dl180, installable, esxi_3.5, hp, driver
Reply Re: HP ProLiant DL180 G5 & Smart Array P800 installation problem Aug 1, 2008 6:38 AM
Click to view kjb007's profile Champion kjb007 3,310 posts since
Sep 18, 2006

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

Reply Re: HP ProLiant DL180 G5 & Smart Array P800 installation problem Aug 5, 2008 7:38 AM
in response to: kjb007
Click to view trxman's profile Novice trxman 13 posts since
Aug 1, 2008

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.


Reply Re: HP ProLiant DL180 G5 & Smart Array P800 installation problem Aug 5, 2008 8:19 AM
in response to: trxman
Click to view kjb007's profile Champion kjb007 3,310 posts since
Sep 18, 2006

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

-KjB

Reply Re: HP ProLiant DL180 G5 & Smart Array P800 installation problem Aug 12, 2008 4:55 AM
in response to: trxman
Click to view trxman's profile Novice trxman 13 posts since
Aug 1, 2008
here's the screenshot of 'storage adapters' section, so I guess that integrated SCSI (SAS) controler is not recognized
Attachments:
Reply Re: HP ProLiant DL180 G5 & Smart Array P800 installation problem Oct 6, 2008 1:04 AM
in response to: trxman
Click to view TechFan's profile Enthusiast TechFan 96 posts since
Dec 12, 2006

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.

Reply Re: HP ProLiant DL180 G5 & Smart Array P800 installation problem Oct 8, 2008 2:23 PM
in response to: TechFan
Click to view VINAMILK's profile Lurker VINAMILK 1 posts since
Aug 1, 2008

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 ?

Reply Re: HP ProLiant DL180 G5 & Smart Array P800 installation problem Oct 8, 2008 3:13 PM
in response to: VINAMILK
Click to view TechFan's profile Enthusiast TechFan 96 posts since
Dec 12, 2006
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.
Reply Re: HP ProLiant DL180 G5 & Smart Array P800 installation problem Oct 23, 2008 12:44 AM
in response to: TechFan
Click to view simonkl's profile Lurker simonkl 1 posts since
Oct 23, 2008

The DL180 G5 isn't supported


VMware on ProLiant - Supported versions matrix - http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/505363-0-0-0-121.html


Thanks

Reply Re: HP ProLiant DL180 G5 & Smart Array P800 installation problem Oct 23, 2008 10:47 AM
in response to: simonkl
Click to view RyeGuyWpg's profile Lurker RyeGuyWpg 3 posts since
Sep 18, 2008
That's a bummer answer :p
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
Reply Re: HP ProLiant DL180 G5 & Smart Array P800 installation problem Oct 23, 2008 11:00 AM
Click to view Sketchy's profile Novice Sketchy 9 posts since
Nov 18, 2007
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...
Reply Re: HP ProLiant DL180 G5 & Smart Array P800 installation problem Oct 23, 2008 3:10 PM
in response to: Sketchy
Click to view RyeGuyWpg's profile Lurker RyeGuyWpg 3 posts since
Sep 18, 2008
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
Reply Re: HP ProLiant DL180 G5 & Smart Array P800 installation problem Oct 23, 2008 6:07 PM
in response to: RyeGuyWpg
Click to view TechFan's profile Enthusiast TechFan 96 posts since
Dec 12, 2006
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.
Reply Re: HP ProLiant DL180 G5 & Smart Array P800 installation problem Nov 23, 2008 5:08 AM
in response to: TechFan
Click to view TechFan's profile Enthusiast TechFan 96 posts since
Dec 12, 2006
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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