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You're wanting to run ESX on a workstation?
Yes. The line between what would once clearly have been "just a workstation" and "a server" has blurred in recent years. The Precision T3400 supports 16GB ECC RAM, has an onboard RAID controller with six SATA-2 sockets (though I admit, I do not know whether it is true hardware RAID with the RAID 5 checksum math in hardware, or whether it relies on a software drive to do that), supports 1333MHz CPU to memory bus, 64-bit address space, etc, etc. This "workstation" is far more powerful than servers of just a couple of years ago, to say nothing of the stuff I grew up with ...So, yes, "on a workstation", for whatever that's worth
Have you looked at the HCL?
Yes, and I know already that this isn't "supported". That doesn't guarantee outright that it can't be made to work, I hope...Thanks!
Jay
You mentioned that you were able to at least install ESXi on a Precision T3400? (Unless I'm mistaken)
I have one of these here, and I'm attempting to install ESXi U2 on it with no luck. It freezes right after selecting "ThinESX Installer" on the boot menu. Autodetect/ATA is selected in the Dell BIOS and only when it is, does it actually freeze/hard-lock like this.
If I select any other option like RAID or Autodetect/AHCI which I know will not work, it boots into the CD to install but obviously cannot find the hard drive. Quite disappointing... latest BIOS to-boot (A07) - What did you do to get it to boot properly in ATA mode? I've tried nearly everything, which includes some random pokes at adding things like acpi=off, noacpi, and such.
Anyhow, what I might do is re-download the ISO and perhaps net-boot the process, just in case it's something funky with our cd's or drives.
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Also to note: I've tried this on a second T3400 (A03 BIOS) and it still refuses to boot any farther than the cd boot menu then a hard lock. I mentioned in another thread that the ESX Server 3.5.0 installer boots without issue. What makes ESXi different?
Message was edited by: Draco Dragonsfire
I have one of these here, and I'm attempting to install ESXi U2 on it with no luck. It freezes right after selecting "ThinESX Installer" on the boot menu. Autodetect/ATA is selected in the Dell BIOS and only when it is, does it actually freeze/hard-lock like this.
If I select any other option like RAID or Autodetect/AHCI which I know will not work, it boots into the CD to install but obviously cannot find the hard drive. Quite disappointing... latest BIOS to-boot (A07) - What did you do to get it to boot properly in ATA mode? I've tried nearly everything, which includes some random pokes at adding things like acpi=off, noacpi, and such.
Anyhow, what I might do is re-download the ISO and perhaps net-boot the process, just in case it's something funky with our cd's or drives.
======
Also to note: I've tried this on a second T3400 (A03 BIOS) and it still refuses to boot any farther than the cd boot menu then a hard lock. I mentioned in another thread that the ESX Server 3.5.0 installer boots without issue. What makes ESXi different?
Message was edited by: Draco Dragonsfire
