VMware Communities: HP ML310 and VMWare ESXi

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claudiotereso

8 posts since
Sep 1, 2008

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Sep 1, 2008 2:23 AM

HP ML310 and VMWare ESXi

Hi,

The ML310 is the most expensive server my company can buy

Has anyone tried it with ESXi?

thanks,

claudio

Dave.Mishchen…

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Nov 15, 2005

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1. Sep 1, 2008 10:20 PM

in response to: claudiotereso

Re: HP ML310 and VMWare ESXi

Welcome to the VMware Community forums. I haven't seen anyone mention the ML310. What sort of NICs and storage controller does it have? Those two components tend to be the main stumbling blocks to getting ESXi up and running. For the NICs you'll likely be Ok, so my main concern would be the storage controller.

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claudiotereso

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Sep 1, 2008

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2. Sep 2, 2008 7:10 AM

in response to: Dave.Mishchen…

Re: HP ML310 and VMWare ESXi

Hi Dave,

Yes, I believe that the problem will be with the storage controller. And if I have a problem with the NIC I'll just add a supported one.

Anyway, the NIC is a NC326i and the storage is not specified anyware but it is Serial Attachad SCSI (SAS).

I'll tell in a day or two how it went..

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claudiotereso

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Sep 1, 2008

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3. Sep 2, 2008 3:41 PM

in response to: claudiotereso

Re: HP ML310 and VMWare ESXi

Hi Dave,

The server just arrived. it has a LSI SA1064E Controller.

ESXi recognizes the 68 Gb hard-disk starts to install and at 44% it stops with an error. I supose the controller is not supported

Since it is an PCI Express attached controller I can trade it with a supported one. Can you advise me on one good enough, not very expensive SAS supported controller?

thanks in advance,

claudio

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Dave.Mishchen…

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4. Sep 2, 2008 11:17 PM

in response to: claudiotereso

Re: HP ML310 and VMWare ESXi

Does it give any sort of error when it stops? Here's the HCL for controllers - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi35_io_guide.pdf. Best bet would be something from it. Have you tried booting ESXi from a USB key to see if that makes any difference?

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claudiotereso

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5. Sep 3, 2008 4:35 AM

in response to: Dave.Mishchen…

Re: HP ML310 and VMWare ESXi

I've checked the file you send me and the LSI SAS1064E is there, which I suppose is a good thing

What is happening is this:

During intall os ESX it stops at 44% with this error:

The installation operation has encontered a fatal error.

Unable to write image to the selected disk.

This may be caused by bad sectors ob the device or another hardware problem.

.....

System Information:

Manufacturer : HP

Model: Proliant ML310 G5

Server Tag: CZ181400WV

BIOS REV: W05

If I restart the server (without CD) it starts to run ESXI and stops after loading ipmi_devinft.

After a minute the screnn goes black with some messages, the last one being : no usb boot found.

When you talk about booting from USB, you're talking about the installer. Should i boot installer from USB instead of CD?

I'm also going to upgrade the firmware of the controller - if I can, it's giving me a hard-time

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claudiotereso

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6. Sep 3, 2008 4:53 AM

in response to: claudiotereso

Re: HP ML310 and VMWare ESXi

Just another info:

The chip is a SAS1064E and that's the name that appears on the BIOS Config program, but there's a tag on the board that says : SAS3042E-HP and this one is not the list on send althouth SAS3041x is..

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claudiotereso

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7. Sep 3, 2008 9:46 AM

in response to: claudiotereso

Re: HP ML310 and VMWare ESXi

UPDATED:

I used a USB Key and it woked great. It recognizes the hard-disk and everyting looks normal.

How reliable can this configuration be? Is there any change that I loose a virtual machine?

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Dave.Mishchen…

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8. Sep 3, 2008 3:24 PM

in response to: claudiotereso

Re: HP ML310 and VMWare ESXi

So you extracted ESXi onto a USB key and then boot with it - right? While this is not supported, it will work fine and your configuration changes will be written to the USB drive. This is exactly what ESXi Embedded is.

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claudiotereso

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9. Sep 4, 2008 1:42 AM

in response to: Dave.Mishchen…

Re: HP ML310 and VMWare ESXi

"So you extracted ESXi onto a USB key and then boot with it - right?" right! And I inserted the USB key in a USB port directly in the motherboard, so it's really a ESXi embedded. nice

Thanks for your help, Dave!

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Dave.Mishchen…

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10. Sep 4, 2008 1:44 AM

in response to: claudiotereso

Re: HP ML310 and VMWare ESXi

Glad to hear it's working. You might want to create a large VMDK on the vmfs partition and run something like IOmeter to stress the storage controller for a bit. Just to make sure there's no problem with it or the disks.

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claudiotereso

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11. Sep 4, 2008 2:11 AM

in response to: Dave.Mishchen…

Re: HP ML310 and VMWare ESXi

Thanks for the advice.

I'll try that if I have the time - I have a virtual machine of my recently deathd server running on VMPlayer on my notebook for a week, now.

Everyday I turn on the notebook in the morning and off in the noon and I need to end this situation as fast as possible, but iI'll try to do what you say this afternoon