i'am in the same issue. Boot the server, waiting and blue screen appear with the Esxi version . trying with Esx , the installation hang at 99 %.

How had you proceeded that Vmware Esxi running on Proliant DL180 G5 ?  is it due to P800 smart Array ?

The DL180 G5 isn't supported

VMware on ProLiant - Supported versions matrix - http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/505363-0-0-0-121.html

Thanks

We use the P800 card in a dl380 and had the same problem. The problem was the VDS hardware provider. you can download the latest version (4.10) at HP.com...

We were not having this 99% installation problem, but we decided to reinstall. . .and now we can't get it reinstalled either. . .failing at 99%.  Very strange.  At this point we are considering several options.  Drop VMWare ESX and put on HyperV (probably what we will have to do because of budget and already acquired hardware).  We are about to benchmark HyperV and compare that to our current VMWare Server test beds.  The other option for the future is to drop HP and just get the Dell 1950 III or 2950 as they both are officially suppored and compare with the DL180.

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to let you know that I had similar problem getting ESXi to work with DL180 even though I had followed the suggestions of making sure BIOS was up-to-date, add-on card was used for storage (HP Smart Array P400) and network card, and using a USB keyboard and mouse rather than the PS2 version.

However, after a number of different combinations of raid card and add-on card and disabling this and that I still could get the ESXi to work either from a USB stick, or when installed on the local drives, both old and new version (at the timing of writing this the latest version is 130755). It would basically stay alive for around 1-2 minutes and then PSOD with Exception 14 errors. I even tried ram changes, upgrades and individual module inserted, and trying to virtual copy the USB stick from a perfectly working ML350 G5 with the latest ESXi build. At one point I thought of replacing the single 2.5Ghz Quad Core CPU for 1 or 2x Dual/Quad core 2Ghz to see if that worked.

It was then that I asked TechFan for a hand, as his last post he had mentioned that he managed to get a couple of Dl180 G5's working for the last several months. After a number of emails being sent back and forth he suggested ditching the downloadable ESXi + HP Insight Support, and just using the standard ESXi download, and IT WORKED. Simple really, and i guess it made sense, as the HP tools where probably not designed for the DL180 G5 and as soon as ESXi booted and tried to run the HP Tools, it crashed and gave me PSOD.

I have now been using it for a few days straight and not a single crash. I have installed new VMs, migrated VMs, backed up VMs and made a heap of configurations changes + assigned it to Virtual Center and everything is ticking along nicely.

So for all of you out there wanting to use a DL180 G5, for whatever reason, and mine was for home use to get to know VMware slightly better (as it is a great little cheap server that can easily take up to 12x Hard Disk) make sure you do the following and you should be fine:

1- Disable on board SATA as it does not work well with it on. If you want to use a CD/DVD-Rom then make sure to connect it to the first port and not the second and set the port to non-raid.

    - No need to disable onboard Lan as it seems to work fine

2- Download and install whatever version of ESXI (and i think ESX as well) you want but make sure not to use the ones with HP Tools, as for the time being (13-02-2009) that causes the server to crash.

3- Use the USB keyboard and mouse and not the PS2 version, as this also has the habit of making it slightly less stable and prone to crashes.

And you should be fine.

Good Luck and thank you TechFan

Message was edited by: fa147