The server has SATA power connectors only, therefore you must use drives that have SATA power. Sure there are adapters to convert SATA power connections, however if you decide to use them you will have to install your hard drive in the 5.25" bay. When attached to the standard hard drive bays the connector will not allow you to close the case.

If you buy a memory upgrade, remember that this model supports 800MHz memory, DDR2 PC2-6400.

There is an onboard USB port that can be used for an ESX Server 3i installation.

I have not been able to successfully use an VMware ESX Server 3.5 Installer CD. The USB Keyboard locks up during installation. The Server does not include PS/2 ports.

You cannot boot from a USB device if the SATA controller is disabled.

If you unplug (not disable) the SATA controller you can boot from the USB device.

If you boot from the USB device and use the nousbboot option by pressing SHIFT+O at the boot menu, you will receive the following error. PANIC: Failed to find SIMULATED boot partition.

If you boot from the USB device, you will receive the following error: PANIC: Failed to find USB partition.

I have attempted the installation with a reliable LSI Logic LSI21320-IS Adapter Card, as well as an Adaptec 29320 PCI-X1 card.

The BIOS offers limited functionality.

I have made no modifications to the system other than adding extra memory which I ordered through a local computer store. So no disabling of devices etc. I use local storage at the moment with the SATA controller that's part of the standard configuration (no SAS -RAID controller).

(update: changed url because blog moved to other url)

Message was edited by: gklooste

I've created 2 datastores (1 on each drive) and am playing with installing Win 2003 Enterprise now in a VM. I have ordered a SAS6/i on Ebay and will install it when I receive it. Since this is only a test environment I'm not worried about RAID but want to have a better controller installed.

When both hard disks are connected, ESXi was installed to the hard disk at port B (!!) Then at reboot, there's an error, some kind of panic (forgot what it is). I know it's installed in HD at port B because I would boot up GPartEd to verify what's done in the hard disks, and I could see that partitions are created in port B HD! Very strange.

Then if I disconnect port B HD and install ESXi again, at the next boot up, it would write something like "Panic, can't find HD partition"

Anyone has any idea? I've read in this thread that people would boot to USB drive. Is that the only way to install ESXi?

And I've read that it's necessary to disable NIC. Really? Or is it a matter if the NIC isn't connected to any network, so that's why it's better disable the NIC?

I didn't try the USB boot method because:

1. that seems quite complicated and I'd like to try the simplest method (CD) first if possible

2. that method seems to change something to the USB drive, and nothing is said if that's serious, what effect that would produce and how to reverse it

3. I don't have USB drive of about 512MB or 1GB. Only 256MB and a 8GB. And I really don't want to destroy my newly bought 8GB if something should go wrong.

4. I had tried a 1GB SD card together with a card reader acting like a USB drive. I also had followed that procedure to this SD card. But I just get a prompt (_) on screen when I boot the server to the USB card reader. Seems like I really need a real USB drive?