VMware Communities: will this run esx 3.5?

Reply Re: will this run esx 3.5? Apr 4, 2008 1:24 AM

in response to: tdubb123

Dave.Mishchenko 8,863 posts since
Nov 15, 2005 Moderator

ESX 3.5 would be a good idea. With that you should be able to get the PCI id for the NIC / disk controller and that way we can see if ESX 3i will recognize it.

Reply Re: will this run esx 3.5? Apr 5, 2008 10:48 PM

in response to: f5alcon

tdubb123 506 posts since
Feb 15, 2008

I am trying to boot 3.5 from cd on this T105 and frezzing up on

ATA3: DEV0 atapi, MAX UDMA /100

ANY IDEA?

Reply Re: will this run esx 3.5? Apr 7, 2008 12:08 AM

in response to: tdubb123

khai 29 posts since
May 23, 2007

I have the same symtom as tdubb123 too. Bought a brand new T105 and tried to installed 3.5 and it hangs at the same location. At first I thought it's the SATA controller, so I went out and bought a Promise SATA300 TX2PLUS controller but it still hangs. I think it hangs on the next device it's looking at, but I don't know which on it is...

Reply Re: will this run esx 3.5? Apr 7, 2008 9:52 AM

in response to: khai

tdubb123 506 posts since
Feb 15, 2008

yeah what is going on? 3i seems to work fine but i want to run 3.5.

Reply Re: will this run esx 3.5? Apr 13, 2008 6:14 PM

in response to: tdubb123

Martin Vincent 11 posts since
Oct 3, 2006

Have you tried to boot from a USB key?

Look for "HOWTO: Installing ESX Server from a USB flash drive" on the vmware communities.

For the controller, I think only the Dell SAS 6/iR is supported (See page 9 of the esx35_io_guide.pdf)

Reply Re: will this run esx 3.5? Apr 14, 2008 9:26 AM

Todd.Simmons 18 posts since
Nov 12, 2007

I puchased the Dell PowerEdge T105 to use for VMware ESX 3.5, and I have experienced the following:

The server has SATA power connectors only, therefore you must use drives that have SATA power. Sure there are adapters to convert SATA power connections, however if you decide to use them you will have to install your hard drive in the 5.25" bay. When attached to the standard hard drive bays the connector will not allow you to close the case.

If you buy a memory upgrade, remember that this model supports 800MHz memory, DDR2 PC2-6400.

There is an onboard USB port that can be used for an ESX Server 3i installation.

I have not been able to successfully use an VMware ESX Server 3.5 Installer CD. The USB Keyboard locks up during installation. The Server does not include PS/2 ports.

You cannot boot from a USB device if the SATA controller is disabled.

If you unplug (not disable) the SATA controller you can boot from the USB device.

If you boot from the USB device and use the nousbboot option by pressing SHIFT+O at the boot menu, you will receive the following error. PANIC: Failed to find SIMULATED boot partition.

If you boot from the USB device, you will receive the following error: PANIC: Failed to find USB partition.

I have attempted the installation with a reliable LSI Logic LSI21320-IS Adapter Card, as well as an Adaptec 29320 PCI-X1 card.

The BIOS offers limited functionality.

Reply Re: will this run esx 3.5? May 13, 2008 1:29 PM

in response to: tdubb123

RicStar 1 posts since
May 13, 2008

I had the same error as you. I disable the onboard NIC. And install a pci card. I got esx 3.5 installed on my T105. It installed fine with the build in SATA controller. However, you cannot create any VM's on the SATA drive you still need SCSI or an LSI RAID controller for the VMFS.

Reply Re: will this run esx 3.5? Jan 5, 2009 12:24 AM

in response to: Todd.Simmons

gklooste 9 posts since
Dec 19, 2006

I have ESXi 3.5 U2 running now for a couple of months (started just after the time-bomb-bug) on my DELL Poweredge T105.

I wrote about it on my blog on http://blog.virtualarchitect.nl. I am not experiencing any problems with this version of ESX(i). I recognize the issue about the network and SATA controller being unavailable, but this only happens if you use an older version of ESX. Because the internal broadcom networkadapter is relatively new this device is not supported in older versions. I told the BIOS to boot from USB first (If I recall correct, this option is 'hidden' beneath the SATA option).

I have made no modifications to the system other than adding extra memory which I ordered through a local computer store. So no disabling of devices etc. I use local storage at the moment with the SATA controller that's part of the standard configuration (no SAS -RAID controller).

(update: changed url because blog moved to other url)

Message was edited by: gklooste

Reply Re: will this run esx 3.5? Dec 2, 2008 2:42 AM

in response to: gklooste

seancrookston 1 posts since
Dec 2, 2008

I recently bought a t105 and tried the lates esxi(update 3). It fails with a message PANIC: Failed to find HD boot partition. I'm trying update 2 now as I see that is what the poster above me used and am hoping that will work.

Reply Re: will this run esx 3.5? Jan 14, 2009 2:20 PM

in response to: seancrookston

Birchy 1 posts since
Jan 12, 2009

I recieved my T105, AMD 2GHZ, 2 x 250GB Sata drives, no raid, basic NIC this afternoon. Had ESXi (3.5.0 123629) up and running in about 30 minutes after prepping the USB drive with the image. The system recognized the NIC and Sata controller from the start. I couldn't get the ESXi installable to recognize the USB drive, so I did it the hard way.

I've created 2 datastores (1 on each drive) and am playing with installing Win 2003 Enterprise now in a VM. I have ordered a SAS6/i on Ebay and will install it when I receive it. Since this is only a test environment I'm not worried about RAID but want to have a better controller installed.

Reply Re: will this run esx 3.5? Jan 22, 2009 2:36 PM

in response to: gklooste

gchamby 8 posts since
Apr 14, 2004

Greetings all. I wanted to share my experiences with ESX on the Dell PowerEdge T105 for what its worth.

System is a PowerEdge T105, BIOS 1.3.2, Dell SAS 6/IR controller (BIOS 6.22.03.00) with two 146 GB SATA drives, Broadcomm NetXtreme

gigabit interface and a quad core AMD Opteron 1352. Everything as shipped from Dell.

I initially attempted to install ESX 3.5 U3 from CD which resulted in a system hang at the "ata3: dev 0 ATAPI, max

UDMA/100" message.

This behavior occurs on all 3.5 update releases - 1, 2, and 3. At this point the system must be power cycled.

Going into the BIOS and disabling the NIC allows the system to move past the above message but it then hangs at the

screen indicating "loading mptscsi_2xx driver".

Again, this happens on all three ESX 3.5 update releases contrary to some of the postings I've seen which seem to suggest older updates work while U3 does not?

Once the hang occurs the system must be power cycled.

Enabling the NIC and booting with the ESX 3.5i U3 CD works perfectly fine. It glides past the "loading mptscsi_2xx" message and comes up as expected.

I assume these issues are all service console related since I was under the impression that the base hypervisor was the same?

Thanks.

Reply Re: will this run esx 3.5? Mar 29, 2009 4:39 PM

in response to: gchamby

Horinius 184 posts since
Jun 20, 2006

I'm also trying to install ESXi 3.5 U3 in a T105 (like that of Birchy: ie no RAID controller, but having two SATA hard disks). But so far I've been unlucky (or lack of experience). Here's my situation:

When both hard disks are connected, ESXi was installed to the hard disk at port B (!!) Then at reboot, there's an error, some kind of panic (forgot what it is). I know it's installed in HD at port B because I would boot up GPartEd to verify what's done in the hard disks, and I could see that partitions are created in port B HD! Very strange.

Then if I disconnect port B HD and install ESXi again, at the next boot up, it would write something like "Panic, can't find HD partition"

Anyone has any idea? I've read in this thread that people would boot to USB drive. Is that the only way to install ESXi?

And I've read that it's necessary to disable NIC. Really? Or is it a matter if the NIC isn't connected to any network, so that's why it's better disable the NIC?

Reply Re: will this run esx 3.5? Mar 30, 2009 2:44 AM

in response to: Horinius

gklooste 9 posts since
Dec 19, 2006

First of all it's important to understand that the chosen hardware is not on the HCL, so it's officially not supported. Having said that, I know that a lot of systems that are not on the list actually do work, with or without some modifications. I tend to keep my environment as close to the original version as possible. Using the T105 with Vmware ESXi is possible as I explained in previous replies and on my blog http://virtualarchitect.nl. Why would you not use ESXi booting from a USB device? The only thing you have to do is change the boot option in the BIOS to boot from USB (and of course create an USB stick with ESXi on it.

Reply Re: will this run esx 3.5? Mar 30, 2009 11:15 AM

in response to: gklooste

Horinius 184 posts since
Jun 20, 2006

Of course I had understood that my server isn't supported in official HCL.

I didn't try the USB boot method because:

1. that seems quite complicated and I'd like to try the simplest method (CD) first if possible

2. that method seems to change something to the USB drive, and nothing is said if that's serious, what effect that would produce and how to reverse it

3. I don't have USB drive of about 512MB or 1GB. Only 256MB and a 8GB. And I really don't want to destroy my newly bought 8GB if something should go wrong.

4. I had tried a 1GB SD card together with a card reader acting like a USB drive. I also had followed that procedure to this SD card. But I just get a prompt (_) on screen when I boot the server to the USB card reader. Seems like I really need a real USB drive?

Reply Re: will this run esx 3.5? Mar 30, 2009 12:06 PM

in response to: Horinius

gklooste 9 posts since
Dec 19, 2006

OK, let's see if I can help you with that

ad 1: The easiest way to get ESXi running is to put some effort in getting it on a stick which is quite straight forward and not too difficult if you follow the guidelines. Doing it the CD way, you will run into many more issues you have to solve, that's if they are solvable. There are many links on the web to step-by-step guides on how to get ESXi on a stick.

ad 2: It changes the filesystem on it. But you're able to clean it afterwards, just use a simple stick without any software based features. You can preserve anything on it the same way (only reverse) as the way you're goning to put the ESXi image on it.

ad 3: One of 1GB or bigger will do (haven't treid bigger than 2GB yet though). These media are rather cheap nowadays. I use a Kingston 2GB at the moment. When you have ESXi running you have to leave iot there so why not get a "special" ESXi stick. I mean just buy one solely for that purpose, it will cost you probably less that 10 Euros/Dollars.

ad 4: Never tried something like that before, I doubt it will work because of the devicetype, it differs from a usb stick so you will probably end up with the same issues as with the cd.

Good luck!

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