ESXi 3.5 Update 2 on Dell PowerEdge SC1425? Install Boot CD options/parameters?

[hkawamorita]

Gentlemen,

Is there anyway I can install ESXi 3.5 Update 2 in Dell PowerEdge SC1425 (Dell URL: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/SC1425/en/ug/f3593aa0.htm#wp1053748 ) ?

What are the bootable install CD options/parameters?

It seems it does not like the Hard Drives or their controllers, I can not see the entire error message.

Here is all what I got:

isolinux: Disk error 01, AX = 4200, drive 82...

Boot failed: press a key to retry

And these are my PCI IDs:

\# lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation E7520 Memory Controller Hub (rev 09)

00:02.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation E7525/E7520/E7320 PCI Express Port A (rev 09)

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)

00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev c2)

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) IDE Controller (rev 02)

00:1f.2 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation 82801ER (ICH5R) SATA Controller (rev 02)

01:00.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6700PXH PCI Express-to-PCI Bridge A (rev 09)

01:00.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6700PXH PCI Express-to-PCI Bridge B (rev 09)

02:04.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82541GI Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 05)

04:03.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82541GI Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 05)

04:0d.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV100 QY

Any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks,

[RParker]

If that machine is not on the hardware compatibility list for ESX, then you are on your own for making things work. The controller must be compatible.

IDE hard disks won't work, and some SCSI controllers won't work because there are no ESX drivers.

Also have you tried contacting dell? They have a dedicated VM Ware team that can help you with this also.

[hkawamorita]

Yeah, I know it is not in the HCL, but we always have somkind kind of hope.

I usually do not deal with the hardware level, so I am not sure of the hardware specs of this Server, but I think it has SATA HDs:

Ata WDC WD1600JS-75N

Ata WDC WD1600JS-75N

Here is the full list.

\# grep "desc:" /etc/sysconfig/hwconf

desc: "Intel Corporation 6700PXH PCI Express-to-PCI Bridge B"

desc: "Intel Corporation 6700PXH PCI Express-to-PCI Bridge A"

desc: "Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface Bridge"

desc: "Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge"

desc: "Intel Corporation E7525/E7520/E7320 PCI Express Port A"

desc: "Intel Corporation E7520 Memory Controller Hub"

desc: "Linux 2.6.9-55.ELsmp ehci_hcd EHCI Host Controller"

desc: "Linux 2.6.9-55.ELsmp uhci_hcd UHCI Host Controller"

desc: "Linux 2.6.9-55.ELsmp uhci_hcd UHCI Host Controller"

desc: "Intel Corporation 82541GI Gigabit Ethernet Controller"

desc: "Intel Corporation 82541GI Gigabit Ethernet Controller"

desc: "ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse"

desc: "HL-DT-ST GCR-8240N"

desc: "ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV100 QY "

desc: "Ata WDC WD1600JS-75N"

desc: "Ata WDC WD1600JS-75N"

desc: "Intel Corporation 82801ER (ICH5R) SATA Controller"

desc: "AT Translated Set 2 keyboard"

desc: "Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller"

desc: "Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #2"

desc: "Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #1"

desc: "Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) IDE Controller"

Any other inputs?

Does anyone know where can I find more info about the ESXi Install CD boot options/parameters?

Thanks,

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Do you have the drives configured in a RAID array? The driver that ESXi ships with doesn't seem to support RAID when the controller (like the ICH family) requires a software component to work. You may want to look at the BIOS settings for the controller and see if you can change modes to IDE / SATA or something similar.

[hkawamorita]

Dave,

You brought a good point and yes, it seems it was configured as RAID.

So, I went to the BIOS and did have an option to change the controller to ATA (SATA), but that did not worked either...

Does that mean no game?

Thanks,

[dilpreet · Accepted solution]

It seems like your failing to boot the install CD and don't even get to the installer, is that correct? The error you posted is an isolinux error and this is before ESX even enters the picture.

[hkawamorita]

Right.

Any suggestions?

I wonder if someone has been able to "enhance" the ESXi Boot Image to make it support more Hard Drives...

To complete my previous reply to Dave, before all this the Disk Controller was set as RAID but there were not, and there are not, RAID arrays created anyway.

Anything else?

Thanks,

[Dave_Mishchenko]

When you're at the install screen, you can press ALT-F1 to get a console of ESXi. From there you can run lspci as well. Can you pull the PCI ids (lspci -v ). Take a look at this thread to see what is possible if ESXi is not recongizing the device - http://communities.vmware.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&objectType=2&objectID=1006219.

[dilpreet]

Well a little browsing and it seems this is a common problem (error message could be more helpful) with incorrectly burned or corrupted CD images. For more details have a look at the following thread:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=476226

Please double check your media and do an md5sum of the downloaded image.

[hkawamorita]

So...

I am able to boot ESXi Install CD.

I see the "Thin ESX Installer", "Press TAB for boot options" screen.

Then I get to the black progress bar screen, it moves like 10 sticks and I get the error.

I never get to the yellow screen.

MD5 of my download ISO is correct, but I can try to download and burn it again.

I have already tried the ALT + F keys for the other Linux terminals, but I did not see anything. Was that supposed to work up to the point I stop?

If time allows me, I will try to mess with the ESXi Install ISO Boot files...

Guys, thanks for everything so far.

Let's see whatelse we can do.

Regards,

[Dave_Mishchenko]

If you have a USB flash drive around, you can extract the image for ESXi onto it and then boot it up - just an option.

[hkawamorita]

Yeah, let me try that too.

Let me do some Google, because incredibly, I have never burnt a ISO to USB flash drive.

Thanks,

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Give this a try - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Boot%203i%20from%20USB%20flash%20drive.html. With this you'll be able to run ESXi on your flash drive and then use an NFS server (must by v3 and use TCP) or an iSCSI target on your network and not worry about local storage. Just in case you can't get the local controller to work.

[hkawamorita]

OK, after some several tries, I was able to boot ESXi Boot Image using a USB Flash Drive.

For some reason it seems it only thsi Dell Server only allows you to emulate the Flash Drives as an HD when its disk controller is set as RAID...

So...

Anyways, I will continue this tomorrow.

It is not over yet.

Thanks!

[hkawamorita]

OK.

So, I did not realized that with botting from the Flash Drive, as you guys have pointed, I am actually running ESXi out of the Flash Drive too.

It does not get installed in the HD.

From the VI Client, it seems it recognized the SCSI/SATA HDs.

So, what is the easiest way to install that 750 MB ESXi image to the actual HD?

Now that I have gone through that, I guess can just use "dd" and write that image to my HD?...

Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,

[dilpreet]

dd'ing the image directly to the drive will work, but you will lose

anything else you may have on that device.

[hkawamorita]

OK, so at the end I guess my CD was bad, as it was not completing the ESXi boot.

I was actually using a CDRW that I got from my IT, so when I tried with a regular CDR, it worked all fine.

So, unless other say otherwise, ESXi 3.5 Update 2 works with Dell PowerEdge SC1425.

It did recognize my disks and I was able to configure my datastores.

Folks, thanks a lot for everything.

Thanks and have a good weekend.

[dilpreet]

Go ahead and add this system to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware_ESX_Server(Whitebox_HCL)

so that others will know it works. I think we also have a list on

the communities website as well. I'm glad it worked out for you.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

What sort of storage controller does the VI client show your server as having?

[dilpreet]

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