Update on my testing last night, V3.5 will happily install, and runs perfectly on the ML115 once the configuration changes have been made, but Vi3 fails to install due to supported hardware not being found. Now for the interesting part, as there's no command line options in Vi3 I tried to find a way to add the new PCI ID's to the Vi3 installation CD, this is what I've found:

On the CD there's a file called BINMOD.TGZ within this, there's a file /etc/vmware/simple.map I extracted this and added the new entires and then attempted to recreate the BINMOD.TGZ file with the updated simple.map file. Using WINISO I then repalce the BINMOD.TGZ with my new updated file in the ISO file, so far so good.

The new CD booted OK but then crashed/panic'ed indicating that there was a corrupt file, I found that during the Vi3 installation you can press TAB key and modify the installation command, I therefore pointed the installation back to the original BINMOD.TGZ file and the installation started correctly but failed due to missing hardware. The reason for so much detail is that if we can find a way to update the BINMOD.TGZ file we maybe able install Vi3 with all the new controllers. I'm not sure if my new BINMOD.TGZ file is corrupt due to the way I created it, or if there's a checksum that is invalid due to the updates I made.

ESX is an amazing product. Using sata in a production environment is not recommended or desirable at all. ESX is designed for SCSI and will always be that way. If you have a server with a supported SCSI card then ESX will install fine. What people are doing here is trying to get ESX working on cheap hardware with cheap controllers.

Obviously ESX is an expensive bit of software designed to work with high quality approved hardware. This is why VMWARE has an approved list of hardware to ensure a robust stable product.

Blackforce, thanks for your quick reply. I tried following your instructions but do not get very far. First and foremost, Linux is pretty new to me so be patient with me please.

I logged in and tried to change the config file u mention. However, I had no sshd_config file in there. There was a ssh_config file but the line you specify does not exist. Correct me if I am wrong but this is to simply get the script on to the machine, correct? Does moving it to the machine via ubuntu LiveCD somehow cause it not to work? Once I got it to the machine I opened up a terminal and moved it from the Ubuntu desktop to root. I used the script that you attached and ran it as-is. I get a syntax error on line 53 just like before.

Only thing I can think of is that I have to be in the ESX Server troubleshooting mode to get this script to work. I'm gonna go give that a shot while I wait for your reply.

With respect to my 'suspect' hardware. My machine and it's SATA controller are on the approved list.

Thanks again for your assistance.

I have to disagree with you blackforce on a number of points, I've been using VMWare since V1.52 and use ESX extensively in production environments running on high end HP DL585 servers. Your point about it not being officially supported is correct, but the performance differences between SCSI & SATA are not that different now. In addition to using fully supported hardware I have been running custom whitebox solutions using SATA & the LSI controller, I'm now running the ML115 with the standard onboard MCP55 controller and have seen no difference in performance and is ideally suited as a test/R&D box. I'd be interested in a little more detail regarding your statement that the MCP55 is rubbish, maybe there's a difference in the RAID functionallity, but you have to also take into account the server hardware cost, £130 for an brand new delivered ML115 is a bargain ESX option.

Are you sure, I know people have been experiencing problems configuring the RAID functionallity but it does exist. If you go into the BIOS you have to enable the RAID functionallity, and then enable each of the SATA ports. If this is done correctly your are presented with a F8 Raid configuration during bootup this then allows you to create RAID 0,1 & 5 arrays, ESX will then just install on top of the array.

One final point the ML115 support RAID 5 but the ML110 does not.

I have tried this and get the same problem as blackforce - if anyone has done it differently it would save me the $100 on a 2410SA raid card!

See my post at the end of page 10 - I created a JBOD RAID array with 1 SATA disk for VMFS, and I installed ESX onto 1 IDE disk configured also as a JBOD RAID array, so you should be able to do the same I guess

Hello - I'm curious about your post using sata drives.

Q. What is the performance like and are you using the sata controller build right into the motherboard straight out of the box?

I've read where the LSI cards are working with SATA but your indicating that you have no additional raid controller.

Q. Correct me if I'm wrong but you also indicated that you have your ESX server core OS and your data store on the same drive?

That would be awesome if possible.

Thanks for the reply