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4 Replies Last post: Aug 18, 2008 10:33 PM by GreenRabbit
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Installing ESX 3.5 on Dell Precision T3400

Apr 16, 2008 7:23 AM

Click to view rrowlandson's profile Lurker rrowlandson 2 posts since
Apr 16, 2008

I am trying to create a couple VMware servers in a test environment in order to build a business case for moving our production environment to VMware. I have a couple Dell Precision T3400 workstations that I would like to use. Unfortunately, when I attempt to install it, it boots the CD but when it attempts to start the initial install it tells me that it can't see the SATA drives (CD or HD).

I used a USB CD-ROM drive and I was able to get by this , but it still can't see the Hard Drives.

Any thoughts as to how I can get this to work?

Thanks ...

Tags: esx3.5, dell, precision, t3400, install, sata
Reply Re: Installing ESX 3.5 on Dell Precision T3400 Apr 16, 2008 7:27 AM
Click to view Chris_S_UK's profile Expert Chris_S_UK 590 posts since
Feb 20, 2006

I had a similar problem on a desktop machine and cured it by adjusting a setting in the bios. This setting (forget the exact terminology) controlled how the SATA controller was seen by the OS.

It might be worth seeing if your BIOS has a similar setting....

Reply Re: Installing ESX 3.5 on Dell Precision T3400 Apr 16, 2008 8:14 AM
in response to: Chris_S_UK
Click to view rrowlandson's profile Lurker rrowlandson 2 posts since
Apr 16, 2008
Thank you very much for your help...

I checked the BIOS and there was a setting to change teh operating mode. I changed it from AHCI to AHA and it worked.

Unfortunately, now I am getting another error "The installer was unable to find any supported network devices"

Reply Re: Installing ESX 3.5 on Dell Precision T3400 Apr 17, 2008 6:05 AM
in response to: rrowlandson
Click to view jonhutchings's profile Hot Shot jonhutchings 251 posts since
Mar 29, 2006

This is the joy of trying to install onto whitebox (as far as esx is concerned) hardware. The driver support is a little limited.

We use dell sc1430 tower servers which are cheap and work just fine. Otherwise with your workstations you'll have to buy a cheap supported network card for each box.

Yuu may find that if you are using hardware that is on the supported lsit, but it still isn't working that disabling any on board sound, and other unused perihprals may help, as it seems happier if there are no IRQ sharing devices


Reply Re: Installing ESX 3.5 on Dell Precision T3400 Aug 18, 2008 10:33 PM
in response to: jonhutchings
Click to view GreenRabbit's profile Novice GreenRabbit 5 posts since
Aug 18, 2008
Did you have a chance to try SC1430 with ESXi, too?
I'm looking for a cheap dev/test server, but can not find a confirmation that ESXi actually works there
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