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7 Replies Last post: Jul 27, 2009 6:36 AM by DSTAVERT

ESXi 3.5 U3 Installed on a Flash DOM (noob question) posted: Mar 10, 2009 7:14 PM

rckit2001

5 posts since
Apr 30, 2008

Greetings!

I have been looking for information on how to install ESXi in a supported fashion on a flash DOM (either IDE or SATA). I was hoping to use a flash dom like this: http://www.logicsupply.com/products/ts2gdom40v_s

I am getting confused by looking at the forums and probably overthinking this issue. My hope it to build a diskless ESXi host and attach to a SAN for datastores. My concerns are:

Is this supported by VMWare?

Is a 2 million read/write life of theDOM long enough for VMWare - or do I need to tweak so it runs from memory differently?

I have found a few articles talking about booting/loading from a USB flash but am confused if this is the same type of issue... any suggestions are appreciated.

http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Boot%203i%20from%20USB%20flash%20drive.html

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-6824

http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Boot%203i%20from%20USB%20flash%20drive.html

Thank you!

Tags: 3.5i, boot, configuration, installation, install

Re: ESXi 3.5 U3 Installed on a Flash DOM (noob question)

1. Mar 10, 2009 7:23 PM

in response to: rckit2001

mcowger

2,065 posts since
Aug 22, 2007

Wont be able to use it - it emulates and IDE drive, which is not supported by VMware.

--Matt
VCP, vExpert, Unix Geek

Re: ESXi 3.5 U3 Installed on a Flash DOM (noob question)

2. Mar 10, 2009 8:42 PM

in response to: mcowger

rckit2001

5 posts since
Apr 30, 2008

THanks - but what about a SATA DOM? Sata is supported on 3.5, right?

WHat is the recommended storage media for a diskless ESXi host? USB? I would think Sata2 would be a better interface.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Re: ESXi 3.5 U3 Installed on a Flash DOM (noob question)

3. Mar 10, 2009 9:05 PM

in response to: rckit2001

Dave.Mishchen…

8,948 posts since
Nov 15, 2005

Extracting and running ESXi from the install CD to a USB flash drive is not supported by VMware. That said, there's only supposed to be a few bytes of difference between Embedded and Installable and there are many people that are running it that way.

If the flash DOM can emulate and IDE/ SATA driver and it's connected to a controller that ESXi can use then you should be able to get this installed. You'll want to get a drive that is at least a 1 GB in size. Here's a similar thread about installing to compact flash - http://communities.vmware.com/message/1131496#1131496.

Re: ESXi 3.5 U3 Installed on a Flash DOM (noob question)

4. Mar 10, 2009 10:19 PM

in response to: Dave.Mishchen…

rckit2001

5 posts since
Apr 30, 2008

Thanks again.

I guess I assumed that the i in ESXi was intended to be installed on a flash device of some type. Does anyone know if the USB-based installs are suffering from hardware failure due to high-cycle writes? Even with wear leveling algorithms I would think that unless teh OS was tweaked to use a RAM disk that 2 million write cycles would not last for very long.

So them am I correct to say that both ESX and ESXi (installable) are intended to be loaded on a conventional physical hard disk? If that is the case it seems that booting from a SAN is the way to go unless you go with an OEM embedded build.

Is there any feedback from users using USB devices? Performance? Failures?

Thanks again for your time!

Re: ESXi 3.5 U3 Installed on a Flash DOM (noob question)

5. Mar 10, 2009 11:00 PM

in response to: rckit2001

Dave.Mishchen…

8,948 posts since
Nov 15, 2005

ESXi doesn't do a lot of writing to the flash drive. When it boots up it creates a RAM disk and /var/logs for example is in memory. VC and HA agent installs are stored on disk.

HP has had some problems with some of the keys that they shipped, but in general the embedded keys are quality USB 2.0 certified flash drives.

Re: ESXi 3.5 U3 Installed on a Flash DOM (noob question)

6. Jul 25, 2009 10:39 PM

in response to: rckit2001

appstream

5 posts since
Sep 9, 2006

I installed ESXi 4 on a 2GB SATA DOM directly connected to the onboard SATA connector with no problems. ESX recognized it as a normal SATA disk drive, as expected.

For the virtual machine datastore, I'm using regular SATA II drives attached to an LSI Megaraid SAS 8344ELP PCI express card.

So far, so good, but time will tell.

The 2GB SATA DOM was $38 U.S. from WDL Systems:

http://www.wdlsystems.com/modperl/view_services.cgi?r=detail&prod_num=1ISD2GB&aisle_id=1126

Re: ESXi 3.5 U3 Installed on a Flash DOM (noob question)

7. Jul 27, 2009 6:36 AM

in response to: appstream

DSTAVERT

2,464 posts since
Nov 30, 2003

appstream
I don't know the difference between embedded and installable but I think it is the writing of logfiles. Instead of writing logfiles to a ramdisk ESXi is writing to the SATA DOM. That may come back to haunt you. I would check to verify.

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