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5,813 Views 7 Replies Last post: Mar 27, 2009 8:48 AM by JohnL123 RSS
Ronnie Swaffo… Novice
Ronnie Swaffo…
3 posts since
May 8, 2008
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May 8, 2008 7:55 AM

Adding Drivers to ESX 3.5

 

I have an ESX 3.5 installation running on an Asus DSEB-DG Series Board.  The board has two Sata Raid adapters and I have the option set in Bios to see Sata as ide.  This allows me 4 drives on the first adapter and ESX sees them fine.  I would like to utilize the Marvell adapter as well and need to install a driver.  How would I go about this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Texiwill Guru User Moderators vExpert
Texiwill
11,345 posts since
Jan 13, 2004
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1. May 8, 2008 8:05 AM in response to: Ronnie Swaffo…
Re: Adding Drivers to ESX 3.5

Hello,

 

The only drivers you can add to a VMware ESX host are those provided by ESX or one of the partners that create drivers specifically for ESX. So in essence unless it is a driver specifically for ESX you can not use it. There are really two kernels to worry about on ESX. The vmkernel and the one used by the management appliance. Changing the management appliance kernel does no good, so you need to worry about the vmkernel and VMware controls this.

 

I suggest you request from Asus and VMware an appropriate update to use the device in question.

 


Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education. As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

Ronnie Swaffo… Novice
Ronnie Swaffo…
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May 8, 2008
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2. May 8, 2008 8:13 AM in response to: Texiwill
Re: Adding Drivers to ESX 3.5

Thanks a million for your help and quick response.

Dave.Mishchen… Guru User Moderators vExpert
Dave.Mishchen…
11,905 posts since
Nov 15, 2005
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3. May 8, 2008 10:11 AM in response to: Ronnie Swaffo…
Re: Adding Drivers to ESX 3.5

For a test box like this I usually add an Intel Pro 1000 GT desktop adapter which work fine and is fairly cheap.  If you have any Intel / Broadcom NICs lying around give them a try as they may work for you.

aconnell Novice
aconnell
25 posts since
Dec 18, 2006
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4. Jul 4, 2008 6:37 AM in response to: Ronnie Swaffo…
Re: Adding Drivers to ESX 3.5

Were you ever able to get ESX to recognize a RAID array using the onboard controllers on the ASUS DSEB-DG?

Ronnie Swaffo… Novice
Ronnie Swaffo…
3 posts since
May 8, 2008
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5. Jul 4, 2008 6:55 AM in response to: aconnell
Re: Adding Drivers to ESX 3.5

 

I never did find a solution.  It was on a new server I built and rather than try to find a sata card that would work, I went with an installation of Windows Server 2008 datacenter with Hyper-V.  The Windows server, of course recognized all my drives and the Hyper-V is working well so far.

 

 

Thanks,

 

 

Ronnie

 

 

 

 

 

JohnL123 Novice
JohnL123
2 posts since
Mar 11, 2009
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6. Mar 11, 2009 8:08 AM in response to: Ronnie Swaffo…
Re: Adding Drivers to ESX 3.5

 

I have a DSEB-DG with the Marvell RAID controller and was not able to get it to work in a RAID configuration for ESX 3.5i r3.  For an extra $100 over the DSEB-DG MB, there is the DSEB-DG/SAS ASUS motherboard that has the on-board LSI 1068 PCI-X 8-port SAS controller which may be supported by ESX. 

 

 

The Marvell controller however supports 2008 and Hyper-V as previously stated.

 

 

John

 

 

JohnL123 Novice
JohnL123
2 posts since
Mar 11, 2009
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7. Mar 27, 2009 8:48 AM in response to: JohnL123
Re: Adding Drivers to ESX 3.5

I changed from Hyper-V to ESXi. Had to buy a supported controller and ended up selecting an Adaptec 3405 RAID card and two 1TB WD RE3 drives for about $700 total. When the Adaptec card is installed it confuses the ASUS BIOS v1007 and it no longer shows the Marvell controller so if I want to boot up from my original setup, I'll have to pull that card and then reboot. ESXi is incredibly fast, 5-10 times faster than running VMWare Server 2.0 hosted by Windows 2003 Server 64bit on the same hardware. I have 16GB of memory installed and a 2.33GHz Xeon 5400 series Harpertown CPU.

 

 

 

 

 

It's amazing that 15 VMs can run with great performance on a box that cost about $2400!!

 

 

 

 

 

John

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