VMware Communities: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Sep 30, 2008 12:29 AM

in response to: rpartmann

MauPicco 2 posts since
Sep 30, 2008

Hi,

I tried to install ESXi 3i on dc7700 160Gb SATA HD with no success!

Please give me some suggestion.

The problem appear to be the HD.

Thanks

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Sep 30, 2008 12:44 AM

in response to: MauPicco

paulo.meireles 994 posts since
Oct 29, 2004

Hi,

Please make sure that, in BIOS, the SATA controller is in "Native" or "RAID" mode, not on "IDE" or "Legacy" mode.

Regards,

Paulo Meireles

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Sep 30, 2008 2:47 AM

in response to: paulo.meireles

MauPicco 2 posts since
Sep 30, 2008

Hi,

I tried to set RAID mode in SATA controller configuration but with no result. The only options are IDE and RAID.

The message is always:

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

Any other suggestion?

regards

Maurizio

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Sep 30, 2008 5:01 AM

in response to: MauPicco

paulo.meireles 994 posts since
Oct 29, 2004

I'm sorry, can't help you from here. But you may give a look here:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/833710#833710

I have a dc7700 running ESX 3.5, but it has an HP P400 controller...

Regards,

Paulo Meireles

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Oct 14, 2008 12:30 PM

in response to: paulo.meireles

ginjawinja 1 posts since
Oct 9, 2007

I have a HP DC7700, but everytime i try to install ESX 3.5 U2 it says 'the installer was unable to find any supported network devices'.

The onboard NIC works fine in Windows.

Any suggestions greatly recieved!

Thanks

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Oct 14, 2008 9:22 PM

in response to: ginjawinja

JMills 2,582 posts since
Jun 18, 2004 VMware

ginjawinja wrote:I have a HP DC7700, but everytime i try to install ESX 3.5 U2 it says 'the installer was unable to find any supported network devices'.

The onboard NIC works fine in Windows.

Any suggestions greatly recieved!

Thanks

From what I have gathered elsewhere, the Intel 82566DM controller (on-board GigE for the HP dc7700) requires at minimum version 7.6.5 of the Linux e1000 driver to function properly.

The current revision which has been cross-ported for ESXi 3.5.0u2 is 7.3.15 ... ergo, it may quite truthfully be unsupported.

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Oct 22, 2008 11:21 AM

in response to: JMills

mikekoz 2 posts since
Oct 22, 2008

FYI - I got the sata on a dc7800 SFF to work by moving the HD cable from SATA0 to SATA4, mind you I used a Seagate Barracuda ES.2 1TB drive in place of the stock HD. I'm guessing that port is on a different controller.

As for the NIC, I used an HP Broadcom PCI-E GigE (p/n: EA833AA) in place of the onboard unit.

Cheers,

Mike

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Oct 22, 2008 11:15 AM

in response to: mikekoz

Dave.Mishchenko 6,710 posts since
Nov 15, 2005 Moderator

Hi Mike, was this ESX regular or ESXi that you were trying to install?

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Oct 22, 2008 11:26 AM

in response to: Dave.Mishchenko

mikekoz 2 posts since
Oct 22, 2008

I'm running ESXi or 3i v3.5.0 build-110271 to be exact.

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Oct 22, 2008 11:38 AM

in response to: Virtual_Jazz

ZippyDaMCT 1,293 posts since
Jun 3, 2005

Have we got any updates on a cheap solution, my wife will kill me if its to much - just paid put 800 on a car service so I'm pushing the line already - teach me to buy an STi but hey it burns the competition...he he

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Oct 24, 2008 10:32 PM

in response to: ZippyDaMCT

Virtual_Jazz 29 posts since
Feb 7, 2008

Hi Guys,

Have we been able to find a low cost solution that cost between £250 -300?

I finally got it to install and work on old hardware (my own put together system). See details below.

ASRock K7VT2 Motherboad

AMD Athlon 64, 3000+ Processor Socket A

IGB Ram

Intel Pro 1000GT Desktop Nic

Samsung 160GB IDE drive

ATI Radeon 9550 VGA Adapter

PS2 Mouse and Keyboard

ADAptec AHA 2940u2W Ultra2 scsi

This system was built about 3years ago, so not quite sure if you can still get the same stuff out there, and if you did it would be a lot cheaper than I paid. All in all this system should come under £250.

Now I am in the market to get a cheap system to run Openfiler. I hear you can do wonders with it.

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Nov 17, 2008 10:41 AM

in response to: Virtual_Jazz

danahallenbeck 2 posts since
Jan 5, 2007

Has anybody gotten ESXi to run on the dc7700 yet? I'm trying with no luck...

Thanks.

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Dec 13, 2008 6:23 PM

in response to: danahallenbeck

rc51cgy 1 posts since
Dec 13, 2008

Hello, I am running ESXi (installable) on a dc7700CMT machine.

It's stock out of the box. What I did do was put in an Adaptec 1210 card in it for the install (not really sure if I needed it or not) but I had one laying around at he office and threw it in and did the install.

After I got it up and running, I decided to pull the 1210 card out and just run off the normal SATA controller and she boots and runs fine.

I can get you the specs of the machine in detail if you'd like. I'll have to shut her down and take a peek, haven't looked at the hardware of that machine in 6 months or so.

Cheers!

Reply Re: Low Cost ESX 3.5 System - Suggestions? Dec 16, 2008 3:11 AM

in response to: rc51cgy

freuds 1 posts since
Dec 16, 2008

I have successfully installed ESXi 3.5 in a Dell Vostro 200, a cheap entry-level desktop pc.

Network:

The Intel 82562V-2 motherboard integrated network adapted uses the new e1000e driver, so it’s not supported by ESXi, I had to use a Intel 100S network pci card.

Storage:

Intel 82801IR/IO/IH (ICH9 Family) 4 port SATA IDE Controller: Supported
Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) 2 Port SATA IDE Controller: Supported, but this box uses a sata cdrom, and the installation will fail using this drive, so you will need to install using a external usb cdrom, from a PXE server, o remove the HD and plug in a supported box and install from this box as I did.
ESXi will not recognize the cdrom.

After that , I’m currently using 3 VMs at this box.
Carlos

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