1. Press Tab on very first screen of ESXi install

2. Move cursor just after first tgz filename and write "acpi=off"

3. press Enter and ESXi successfully install on DL160G5

4. Be careful because after this setting is lost and problem appears again - solution:

a) disconnect HDD, connect to computer with Win XP, then edit boot.cfg on second partition andin second line set "kernelopt=acpi=off"

b) after starting ESX go to console (Alt-F1, see also "usupported" mode and "enable SSH in ESX" topics) type vi /bootbank/boot.cfg and set "kernelopt=acpi=off"

This should solve problem permanently - I probably test it on monday if this problem cannot back.

Additional Comment:

I successfully Install and run Windows 2008 Server 64bit on my ESXi/DL160G5 config.

There are no problem with builtin network or storage controller - everything wotking fine. Must remember that ESX seen RAIDs defined on builtin SATA controller as individual disks.

Hope you find this solution usefull.

Maybe you use USB keyboard or mouse (i use PS/2 in such situations only to avoid problems) ?

I also must correct a little my instruction - after point 4a I activate Alt-F1 for console and perform operations to enable SSH for ESX (you should find it here: http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/ESXi_enable_SSH.php) and the rest operations i perform from simple putty ssh client.

But i think best method is to connect your server from Infrastructure Client then make changes as suggested by Dave.Mishchenko (by the way -thanks Dave it was probably working for me - "probably" because I also make my vi /bootbank/boot.cfg edit).

I was restarting my server three times today to be sure and its working. Also last 72 hours server is up and stable. I create Windows 2008 64bit guest successfully, also migrate Windows 2003/ISA 2006 guest directly to this ESX (about 4GB vhd in 33minutes) from Windows 2005 Virtual Server (vmc/vhd).

Everything working well.

• 2*250Gb SATA HDD

• 4*1Go RAM

• 1 internal DVD drive (added after) - maye the source of the issue ?

Actually in my last test (by doing it quickly before it crash ) I was able to launch console (alt-f1 +"unsupported") and cd /bootbank and vi boot.cfg the option kernelopt=acpi=off was alread set (with Knoppix I found a third partition with a boot.cfg and an oem.tgz

Well, maybe we are not lucky with our hardware... I will do a final test without de DVD drive and move to another solution for the server base OS.

EDIT: I did my final test without DVD drive and also with only one HDD, well it crashed... so we are indeed unlucky with our DL 160..

Best regards,

Message was edited by: support@serial.ch

We have stopped our test with ESXi on this hardware... Thanks a lot anyway for your support...

Actually we did not plan when we bought this hardware to use it with ESXi as it was not released...

Next time we will use certified ESX hardware... Well it was a good experience anyway to see what problem can be encountered and how ESXi is packaged...

Best regards