VMware Communities: VMWare 3i will not install

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1,083 Views 14 Replies Last post: Jun 14, 2009 5:14 PM by DSTAVERT

mark3721

2 posts since
Nov 18, 2008

Currently Being Moderated

Nov 18, 2008 6:37 AM

VMWare 3i will not install

I have been trying to install vmware 3i on my IBM xseries 306 server. I have two 74gb SATA drives in this server. When I install it, it tells me that it is unable to find a supported device to write the image to. If I go into the bios and change the settings to SATA Raid enabled, it will install but when it reboots it says boot error at the top left corner. Can anyone help me with this or point me in the right direction.

Thanks,

Mark

Texiwill

11,345 posts since
Jan 13, 2004

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1. Nov 18, 2008 11:19 AM

in response to: mark3721

Re: VMWare 3i will not install

Hello,

Moved to the ESXi forum.

Check out http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi35_io_guide.pdf for your SATA RAID Controller. Not every SATA controller is supported.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

SearchVMware Blog: http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/virtualization-pro/

Blue Gears Blogs - http://www.itworld.com/ and http://www.networkworld.com/community/haletky

As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

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Dave.Mishchen…

11,904 posts since
Nov 15, 2005

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2. Nov 18, 2008 10:49 PM

in response to: mark3721

Re: VMWare 3i will not install

Hello Mark, welcome to the VMware Community forums. What model of controller does the server have? There are a couple of articles here that might help you to get ESXi installed.

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olafz

55 posts since
Nov 4, 2008

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3. Nov 19, 2008 6:44 AM

in response to: Dave.Mishchen…

Re: VMWare 3i will not install

ESXi 3.5 U3 will not work on SATA drives attached to a normal on-board SATA controller. I have the same problem with my Dell PE860.

ESXi 3.5 U2 did work fine on this machine.

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Dave.Mishchen…

11,904 posts since
Nov 15, 2005

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4. Nov 19, 2008 8:48 PM

in response to: olafz

Re: VMWare 3i will not install

What model of SATA controller does the server have?

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cesarli

3 posts since
Nov 20, 2008

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5. Nov 20, 2008 11:03 AM

in response to: Dave.Mishchen…

Re: VMWare 3i will not install

Hi All, i am having the same issue installing ESXi onto my server, i have verified the following for my server.

Specs.

Manufacturer: Intel Type: DQ965GF Socket: 775 Chipset: Intel ICH8 (SATA RAID)

Issue

When loading ESXi to the server it gets to the end and stops at (Unable to find supported device to write the VMware ESx server 3i 3.5.0 image to)

More error

System info

Manaufacturer Aborted

Model Aborted

Service Tag Aborted

BIOS Rev: C096510J.86a.5773.2007.0206.0046

i have verified the Motherboard as well as the SATA controller are on the HCL list at the following websites

http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Hardware_support.php#Intel

Any suggestions is muc h appreciated

Thanks

Cesar

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Dave.Mishchen…

11,904 posts since
Nov 15, 2005

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6. Nov 20, 2008 10:16 PM

in response to: cesarli

Re: VMWare 3i will not install

Hello Cesar, welcome to the VMware Community forums. The first thing to note is that the ICH driver for ESXi does not support the RAID option for the ICH8R controller, so you'll first have to change the mode of the controller. What PCI ID does the controller have after you take it out of RAID mode (assuming that is how it is set)?

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olafz

55 posts since
Nov 4, 2008

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7. Nov 20, 2008 10:22 PM

in response to: Dave.Mishchen…

Re: VMWare 3i will not install

This is a normal PIIX SATA on-board controller with one SATA disk, no RAID.

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cesarli

3 posts since
Nov 20, 2008

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8. Nov 21, 2008 4:56 AM

in response to: Dave.Mishchen…

Re: VMWare 3i will not install

i currently the server is setup with 3 SATA drives using RAID0, as for the PCI the ICH card is independant of the mainboard itself so it does not ccupy a pci slot, can you tell me how to take it ouf of RAID mode?

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mark3721

2 posts since
Nov 18, 2008

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9. Nov 21, 2008 5:35 AM

in response to: Texiwill

Re: VMWare 3i will not install

Sorry I have not been back on here. I figured it out and got it installed on this server. There was already a array setup for some reason, but I deleted it and created a new Raid 1 array and I was able to install it on these SATA drives. Works great now.

Thanks,

Mark

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cesarli

3 posts since
Nov 20, 2008

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10. Nov 21, 2008 5:38 AM

in response to: mark3721

Re: VMWare 3i will not install

congrats and thanks for the reply, can you tell me what type of controller you have? i tried the same thing to blow away the old raid config and setup raid 1 raid 10 and so one but no luck

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WvrentLPL

1 posts since
Jan 12, 2009

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11. Jan 12, 2009 8:02 AM

in response to: mark3721

Re: VMWare 3i will not install

Could you possibly give some detail on this? I'm working with the exact configuration. With SATA Raid enabled I can do an install but it asked which drive I wanted to install to. I chose the first one. Suspicious, I used the compare drive option in the adaptec bios and it confirmed that the drives were not in sync. Are you building the mirror after the fact?