ESXi 4.0 Dell T105 "Failed to find boot partition"

[alexmunk]

Used Dban's Nuke to wipe my hard drives (both of them).

Unplugged secondary hard drive.

Installed ESXi 4.0 (Declared Success).

Machine starts, boots into ESXi 4.0, starts to load, and then:

"Failed to find boot partition."

Others have suggested setting SATA Controller setting to AHCI. Not possible from my BIOS. I have "ATA Mode" and "Off". "Off" shuts off the whole controller and my hard drive doesn't get recognized.

Others still have suggested installing to a thumb drive. Leery of such a hack...

Please help. There is very little out there about ESXi 4. Even a pointer to VMware documentation with a list of error messages and their meanings/solutions would be helpful (can't find such a list, myself).

[Saadat]

Did you check VMware compatibility list? I didn't see it there!!!

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

If it is not supported then you cannot install.

Thanks,

[Dave_Mishchenko]

What model of controller do you have? The USB flash drive is a good idea and running that way is what ESXi Embedded is. Also check the md5sum of the ISO image you're using for the install.




Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

New book in town - vSphere Quick Start Guide -http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/08/12/new-book-in-town-vsphere-quick-start-guide/.

Do you have a system or PCI card working with VMDirectPath? Submit your specs to the Unofficial VMDirectPath HCL - http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=21.

[AndreTheGiant]

Check on whitebox configuration to find some hints:

http://www.vm-help.com

http://ultimatewhitebox.com

Andre

[anmarkle]

The Dell T105 is on the compatibility list. I am having the same issue.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Welcome to the VMware Community forums. What sort of storage controller are you using in the host?




Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

New book in town - vSphere Quick Start Guide -http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/08/12/new-book-in-town-vsphere-quick-start-guide/.

Do you have a system or PCI card working with VMDirectPath? Submit your specs to the Unofficial VMDirectPath HCL - http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=21.

[alexmunk]

OK. Thank you all for the suggestions and the homework. I'm going to spell out exactly what I did, for the sake of the poor souls who follow.

I verified the md5sum of the install iso file. It matches the one on the download page here.

• Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal.app in OSX.

• Command: md5 and then the path to the iso file.

I found the SATA Controller model by doing the following (which I found here thanks to Dave.Mishchenko)

• During the load, when ESXi 4 fails, it prints: Failed to find boot partition

• Pressed ALT - F1: Nothing visible happens

• Typed "unsupported": No text appeared

• Pressed Enter

• Got a warning and a password prompt

• Pressed Enter

• Command prompt appeared

• Typed "Lspci -v | grep storage"

• Pressed Enter

• Saw the following:

• "00:07.00 IDE interface Mass storage controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller

• "00:08.00 IDE interface Mass storage controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller

I read the rest of that second thread (this one) and was a little discouraged. My only SATA Controller options from the BIOS are "ATA Mode" and "Off". "Off", well, shuts the thing off, and thereafter my hard drive isn't recognized. So ATA Mode is my only option. The only other suggestions are to install to a flash drive or to get a new SATA controller.

Other suggestions please?

[DSTAVERT]

Install to a flash drive. That gets you started and makes it somewhat easier to get things sorted out especially if there are things that need to get modified.

[alexmunk]

Installing to a flash drive is ESXi 4.0 Embedded, correct? The compatibility list shows:

<span class="gridHeaderCellText">[Partner Name\	http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?action=search&deviceCategory=server&product...	click to sort asc]	<span class="gridHeaderCellText">[Model\	http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?action=search&deviceCategory=server&product...	click to sort asc]	<span class="gridHeaderCellText">[CPU Series\	http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?action=search&deviceCategory=server&product...	click to sort asc]	<span class="gridHeaderCellText">Supported Releases
DELL	PowerEdge T105\	AMD Opteron 13xx Series\	ESX 4.0\^[1\	http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?action=search&deviceCategory=server&productId=1&advancedORbasic=advanced&maxDisplayRows=50&key=&release%5B%5D=29&datePosted=-1&partnerId%5B%5D=-1&formFactorId%5B%5D=-1&cpuSeriesId%5B%5D=38&filterByEVC=0&filterByFT=0&min_sockets=&min_cores=&min_memory=&rorre=0#notes]^ , ESXi 4.0 Installable\^[1\	http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?action=search&deviceCategory=server&productId=1&advancedORbasic=advanced&maxDisplayRows=50&key=&release%5B%5D=29&datePosted=-1&partnerId%5B%5D=-1&formFactorId%5B%5D=-1&cpuSeriesId%5B%5D=38&filterByEVC=0&filterByFT=0&min_sockets=&min_cores=&min_memory=&rorre=0#notes]^

If the supported version doesn't work, why would the unsupported version work?

Also, can someone offer a link to a how-to on ESXi 4.0 Embedded that I can do from Mac OSX? Isn't there some fanciness that I will have to do with the iso file or something like that? I've seen posts on how to install 3.5 to a flash drive, but an update for 4.0 would be better.

[DSTAVERT]

The vSphere 4 CD will install directly to the flash drive. Installation to a flash drive is an option during the install.

[mudha]

it only supports installable and not embedded

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/eslvmwre/VS/VS.htm

[DSTAVERT]

The other option here is to get a supported controller. Probably more money than the server itself. I would try installing to USB anyway and using the standard ESXi CD not the Dell version since the server does not have an IPMI baseboard. You don't gain anything by using the Dell version. The next step is modifying the OEM.tgz to gain support for the built in sata controller. The HCL support is for the server with the SAS RAID controller.

[anmarkle]

I installed to the USB drive and now all is well. The flash drive was an option when it came time to pick a drive to install to. Just select it and away you go.

[DSTAVERT]

Were you able to create a datastore?

[anmarkle]

I have 3 hard drives in the system and I was able to create a data store on all of them. Everything is working well except my Windows 7 64 bit VM which crashes after a few minutes although I understand that it is a common issue and probably not related to the hardware.

[DSTAVERT]

Glad it worked.

[RodneyIce · Accepted solution]

I have had the same problem that others are having with booting to the HDDs. I did go with the USB boot and it works just fine and since it has an internal USB port, it works out even better because I am not burning up an external port. I am running an older BIOS version that does not startup the USB ports quick enough for the USB to be recognized from a cold boot *bummer* but no big deal. Once that is done, I am off and running just fine.

I would recommend going this way until someone comes up with a better alternative, of which I would be interested in doing.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

If you ever try to reinstall to HD this might be worth looking at - http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1354&start=10.




Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

New book in town - vSphere Quick Start Guide -http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/08/12/new-book-in-town-vsphere-quick-start-guide/.

Do you have a system or PCI card working with VMDirectPath? Submit your specs to the Unofficial VMDirectPath HCL - http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=21.

[alexmunk]

Just installed to a flash drive. It worked. I guess Embedded is supported and Installable is not.

[ferryl]

I had the same problem as this...

The onboard controller was a Nvidia Corporation CK804 SATA controller

I had fixed this by adding a promise 300tx4 sata controller ( very cheap ), connected the hd to this and the problem was fixed

It's now using the driver of Promise Technologie inc PDC40718 ( sata 300 TX4)

Regards

Ferry