SuperMicro H8QME-2, 4x Shanghai, ICP Vortex 5085BR SAS Controller?

[sr_whq]

Hi!

I've go two of the systems you can see in the subject. I'm currently trying to evaluate ESX 4 / VSphere, which is not possible because it seems the storage controller "ICP Vortex 5085B_R_" is not supported in 4.0 (although it was in 3.5i, please see http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Hardware_support.php). Another model of the same ICP series is the ICP 5085B_L_, which is even officially supported by "aacraid version 3.5.10.5vmw.

Why? The way a driver talkes to either the BL or BR models differs probably only by the deviceID - so why are not both models supported? Above all there is even a 3rd party ESX driver available from the adaptec website.

Please help me to get my configuration to work without changing hardware parts. How could I e.g. modify the install DVD to include and probe the 3rd party drive?

Best Regards,

Mike

p.s.: In my opinion the controller is identical to the quite common IBM ServeRaid 8s, which is of course supported.

p.s: To get the installer running on the H8QME-2, set the following options in BIOS: Operating System - LINUX (vs. OTHER), ACPI - 2.0 (vs. 1.0 / 3.0), USB 1.1 - disabled (vs. Enabled)

[sr_whq]

Please, anyone?

[sr_whq]

bump

[sr_whq]

bump

[whjack]

I searched the partner website (http://partnerweb.vmware.com) and our internal database, I didn't find any device whose model contains "Vortex" or "5085B_R_" . I even searched http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Hardware_support.php that you mentioned, but still could not find this device.

The only devices I found containing "5085" are "Adaptec 5085" and "ICP 5085BL", both are supported by ESX 3.5 and ESX 4.0. So if the mentioned "ICP Vortex 5085B_R_" is same as those two, it's supported by ESX 4.0 .

The PCIIDs of these 2 devices are "9005:0285:9005:02B7" and "9005:0285:9005:02C0". You can find the PCIID of "ICP Vortex 5085B_R_" to verify.

[DSTAVERT]

a

[cherdeg]

Hey guys,

thanks to all of you for greater than great help. This surely was the last time of me looking for help here; I'm very disappointed by getting the same type of answer again and again: an answer I came up with before even typing this site's URL. Never the less I am quite sure, that many other people use the same or a similar configuration as mine and try to get ESX to work with it (because it's a great system that makes a phantastic platform for ESX at not that high cost).

For everybody else visiting the VMTN seeking for information how to get a SuperMicro H8QME-2 (or H8QME-2+ or H8QM8-2 or H8QM8-2+) with 4x Shanghai and a ICP5085BR SAS Controller to work flawlessly with ESX 4.0, here the howto:

• Power on your system

• Get to BIOS

• Set "Operating System" to "Linux"

• Set "ACPI" to "2.0"

• Set "ACPI APIC Support" to "disabled"

• Set "ACPI OEMB Table" to "disabled"

• Set "Plug & Play OS" to "No"

• Set "Clear NVRAM" to "Yes"

• Disable onboard SATA

• Disable onboard USB

• Disable onboard Serial and Parallel ports

• Set your DVD drive as 1st boot device

• Save & exit the BIOS

• Power off your system

• Wait for 30 seconds

• Power on your system

• Clear your RAID array if you use one

• Boot from the ESX 4.0 medium

• Install ESX 4.0 (eventually you may need to use F2 in the ESX boot menu and set option "noapic")

The SAS controller ICP5085BR works with no hassle as I supposed from the beginning because it differs from the ICP5085BL only by the fact that it uses PCIe-x8 instead of PCIe-x4. The slowness of the installation I mentioned in other postings is probably caused by the APIC options in BIOS and is not eliminated by simply using the "noapic" boot option. Using the onboard SATA ports for local storage is unfortunately impossible, at least I wouldn't know how, but maybe someone else just has to give the onboard SATA more priority than I.

The very best regards to all people so very interested in my case; a recommendation for you: if you guys have half an hour of spare time some day, just visit "http://www.autoitscript.com/forum" and watch for the time you have. THERE you can see how communities work and a support forum has to function. Looking for help here hasn't brought me a bit farther.

Regards,

Chris

[DSTAVERT]

Glad you got things working. I don't know why you are disappointed that no one gave you the instructions on how to make your system work. Unless someone had the exact system how would someone know. I pointed you to vm-help.com where there are people dedicated to unsupported hardware.

[cherdeg]

I'm disappointed because the possibility that nobody else on the world uses a mainboard of the same series as I do tends against NULL. Never the less thank you for the tip to vm-help.com; I'm sure it will help me some day to know of that site.

[DSTAVERT]

ESX isn't used by everyone in the world. I would be disappointed that Supermicro didn't have a release note giving you the complete list of steps necessary to get it installed. Or that Adaptec didn't have the steps. That's where you pay for the inexpensive part. You get to do all the work.

[pkr45h]

Had exactly the same issue, and the previous steps worked perfectly.

I too am dissapointed that vmware doesn't provide this as a caveat,

since the server board is on the approved/tested compatibility list:

http://tinyurl.com/ybbvqnp

I applaude vmware for it's caveats for installation list (all 15+ pages of it),

wish there were more (coming soon now (tm)

Thanks you SO MUCH for the wonderful solution to my installation woes.

Best,

<![endif]><![if gte mso 9]>

Paul Krash

System/Network/Security

Administrator

Exegy, Inc.

349 Marshall Road, Suite

100

St. Louis, MO 63119

USA

[asp24]

The settings mentioned above (disable ACPI APIC support etc) have worked well for me on my H8QME-2 and H8QM3-2 based servers. Now when upgrading to ESX4 u1 the server reboots right after grub.

The solution?

• Set "ACPI APIC Support" to "enabled"

• Set "ACPI OEMB Table" to "enabled"

Update 1 for ESX4 seems to have corrected the problems, and it does not need all the tweaking needed earlier.