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TSCH-VM
Contributor
Contributor

Which ASUS Mainboards work with ESXi 3.5 ?

Hello,

I'm, using VMWare server right now on some noname Rack-Servers (with ASUS Mainboards inside).

Because I don't want to buy completely new systems, are there any ASUS-Mainboards for ESXi 3.5 ?

Thanks a lot.

Kind regards

TSCH-VM

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22 Replies
Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

There's nothing supported, but here's a list of white boxes that have been tested - http://www.vm-help.com/Whitebox_HCL.php. If the MB has run ESX 3.5 without any changes, then it should be OK with ESXi. The important things will be the NIC and storage controller. Do you know what your current servers have (and specifically the PCI vender and device ID)?

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GregecSLO
Contributor
Contributor

Hi!

I tested it on:

ASUS P5K

ASUS P5K Premium

Works great, with exception of NIC and Jmicron controller...

You will have to add supported NICs...

You will easy install ESXi from DVD drive, but when installed ESXi will not recognice DVD (Jmicron) so you will have to upload images and install OS from it...

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

Which SATA controller does ESXi display for each of these systems?

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GregecSLO
Contributor
Contributor

ESXi displays "2 port SATA IDE controller (ICH9)

On both systems the same...

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tractng
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Anybody know that P5K-E (just with the extra E) would work :)? I am running linux ES4.6 and like to format the system to run the free ESXi.

Tnt

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jbusch
Contributor
Contributor

The P5BV-E/SAS works fine for me so far. It's a Xeon board but with ATX form factor. I boot off the LSI 1064E with a 2 drive mirror set, and have 4 more drives attached to the ICH7R configured as "enhanced" which ESXi also sees (still trying to figure out how to use those via RDM).

Using a Xeon X3350 (quad 2.66 45nm) and 8 GB Corsair memory (4x 2GB) I get decent performance for a (relatively) low price.

-jdb

P.S.: the onboard NICs work too.

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ngmartinho
Contributor
Contributor

What about this boards with PCI-X support:

P5E WS PRO ?

P5Q WS ?

Other boards with PCI-X?

Kind Regards,

Martinho.

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trouby
Contributor
Contributor

Hey folks,

I was wondering, If I buy a PSE board with two SATA hard drives,, should I buy any external SATA RAID controller for installing ESXI 3.5?

Is there any ASUS motherboard which is more recommended than the PSE?

Thanks,

Asaf.

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

Take a look at the list here to see what sort of ASUS MBs work - http://www.vm-help.com/Whitebox_HCL.php. Is this a test / learning box? If you're considering this for production, then it would be best to stick with the server HCL. If just for test and you need fast disk I/O, then you'd want to get a good SAS/SATA controller with battery backed write cache. Typically, the Intel / nVidia SATA RAID controllers that come on ASUS MBs don't work with ESXi in RAID mode, so you have to run the drives as JBODs.

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trouby
Contributor
Contributor

Hey,

Thanks for the answer,

This is for tests only,

I'm not a hardware professional but according to 'vm-help.com, many boards with Intel ICH9 controller work fine,

ICH9 is just a standard SATA raid controller that should be enough for RAID 1, right?

If it is recognized by ESXI kernel, then I'll be just using it for not making things too complicated (and cheap)

btw, what is JOBDs?

Thanks again,

Asaf.

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

The drivers that come with ESXi don't support host-RAID so the ICH9R controller will only work in IDE mode. Thus you can't do RAID with it. JBOD - just a bunch of disks (i.e. no RAID).

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tragopan
Contributor
Contributor

I am running the P5E-VM DO ASUS Motherboard - can't use the onboard NIC and it only sees 1 core.

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willemsej
Contributor
Contributor

I'm using a ASUS P5E WS Pro has anyone tested this board ?

Also see http://communities.vmware.com/thread/196968

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tragopan
Contributor
Contributor

Got the P5E-VM DO to see the all cores on a Q6600 - had to update firmware and make sure the CPU ID was set correctly.

On-Board NIC however remains unseen.

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willemsej
Contributor
Contributor

Sounds like music. ESXi recognizes the Systemboard correctly. But when I have to press enter (at the last screen) the system seems to 'hang' num-lock and all other keys do not function anymore. I use a PS2 keyboard. Also tried to use the USB keyboard, same problem. Also try to use ALT-F1 during the install no response. During the whole install num-lock works until the last screen.

Before the last screen shows up it 'flickers' from purple to yellow and I see in the screen '#M' and then the last screen comes where you have to press (R) Repair or to resume but then the system seems to hang. Any help is welcome...

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Symbion_Tech
Contributor
Contributor

Some ASUS mobo experiences with ESX & ESXi

I was using an ASUS P5WDG2-WS Pro and it worked with the ICH7R in SATA AHCI mode (RAID mode worked as well but ESXi treated the disks as JBOD).

I replaced the motherboard with an ASUS P5K WS and it would not work with the onboard SATA at all in any mode.

Now here's the weird bit. I specifically bought an old, second-hand P5WDG2-WS Pro as it has two PCI-X slots. One for my Intel dual-port nic and one for my Adaptec 2130SLP as i wanted RAID1 for my production VM's (i tested the onboard SATA before i put in my 2130SLP & SCSI drives). When i replaced the P5WDG2 with the P5K WS (one PCI-X slot) using the same hardware I could not use the ICH9R onboard SATA in any mode. Once i reconnected my SCSI setup, as i was not going to use the on-board SATA anyway, the installer would hang on loading AACRAID-30 and neither ESX 3.5 U2 nor ESXi 3.5 U2 or 3 could see the storage (2130SLP & 4 SCSI drives) when the installer finally timed out. I can understand why the SATA was good on one but not the other as the chipsets are different but why would the Adaptec 2130SLP in the PCI-X slot work on one but not the other? I've now gone back to the P5WDG2 Pro WS now with my SCSI subsystem.

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TSCH-VM
Contributor
Contributor

Fehler Smiley Wink

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VirtualSlew
Contributor
Contributor

ASUS DSBF-D12/SAS Dual LGA 771 Intel 5000P SSI EEB 3.61 Server Motherboard

This board comes with an Intel SATA Raid controller and a LSI SAS Raid controller. ESXi recognizes both controllers, however it does not see the Raid configuration of the Intel controller. If you mirror your drives, ESXi will see them as 2 single drives. ESXi does recognize the Raid configiuration on the LSI SAS Raid controller. However, this controller does not support Raid 5. It supports a standard mirror, enhanced mirror and striping, but not Raid 5. I installed (4) 1TB SATA drives and set them up as an enhanced mirror on the LSI controller. ESXi sees 2TB, which is what it should see. ESXi supports the dual GB NICs on this board as well. I've only had this board for a few days, but it seems to perform well.

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BillHicks
Contributor
Contributor

I've been using a P5Q-E board running U3 and just upgraded to U4 with no problems. Had to do the OEM.TGZ trick to recognise the ICH10 SATA in U3, but it works out-of-the-box with U4. The onboard network card is not recognised so chucked in a Intel PRO/1000 GT Gigabit Desktop PCI card and it's all running quite happily.

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