I am trying to install VMware ESX server 3i 3.5.0 on a supermicro server with an adaptec 2010s raid controller setup with a raid 5 configuration. The installer does not see the raid controller or a suitable drive to write to.
The error I am getting is:
Installation operation failed!
The installation operation has encountered a fatal error:
Unable to find a supported device to write the VMware ESX Server 3i 3.5.0 image to.
The following system information will assist the VMware support team with your problem. Please record this information before proceeding.
System Information:
Manufacturer: Supermicro
Model: x5dp8
Service Tag: 0123456789
Bios Rev: 6.00
I even tried updating the firmware on the adaptec raid controller but that did not help. I am shocked that there is no built in support for this very industry standard raid controller.
Can anyone assist?
thanks
Check to see if that card is on the VMware HCL, it's probably not if is is not recognized.
I use SuperMicro boards with Adaptec 5805 and 5804 8 and 4 port cards.
We also use the LSI SAS-3442E which can be used with SAS or SATA drives.
For the LSI SAS it only supports 4 drives without a SAS Expander backplane. With a backplane it supports a whooping 100+ drives...
Eric
Using lspci -v in tech support mode shows the following for the raid controller:
RAID bus controller Mass storage controller: Distributed Processing Technology SmartRaid V controller
Class 0104: 1044:a511
This does not seem right as my card is an adaptec 2010s so I don't think it is detecting the card properly. Perhaps I could manually load a different driver that is similar?
Do you know if the controller uses the same driver as the 2020SA or other Adaptec controllers on the hardware list?
Dave - does that imply that the Adaptec 2020SA is supported? I've not found it on the HCL, but your post gave me a spot of hope...
The 2020SA isn't supported, but should be recognized by ESXi. If you're thinking for production, then I would stick with a model from the HCL. That said, if the 2010 is similar to the 2020, then you might get it to work by customizing oem.tgz - see the article on vm-help.com.