Install ESX4.1 on Promise STEX RAID

[Phatsta]

Thought I'd evaluate and see if ESX is the answer for a customer of mine. I downloaded the eval and booted a server from it. Going through the install is fairly simple, and adding drivers for my Promise STEX works fine. The problem comes when selecting setup type (standard or advanced). First time I chose Standard and clicked Next (yes I use graphical install) and then the mouse pointer started swirling. After about an hour I rebooted the server again, choosing Advanced setup this time. Same thing happens, and it's been sitting like that for almost 2 hours now.

Anyone have a clue as to what I'm suppose to do to get it to move on..? Help appriciated, thanks!

[Maximenu]

Hello

Check your server in the HCL of vmware

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBoQFjAA&url=http://ww...

[Phatsta]

Well at least the I/O controller is. And if I run the install without adding drivers for that, i.e installing to a single harddrive, it installs just fine. The server is a custom built, but using mostly Intel parts. Think I saw the motherboard on the HCL list as well (S5500HCV).

Here are the links that says my hardware are supported:

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?device_cat=server&device_id=14228

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?device_cat=io&device_id=19491

I contacted Promise who confirmed the above drivers are correct.

I just deleted the RAID array and created a new one. I had something else on there for a while so the file system was ntfs, but it didn't matter. Problem persists.

[Phatsta]

The problem is solved.

I'm not sure when it happened, but there has been a newer driver released that solved this issue. I was using driver version 4.07.0000.71 while the newest one was 4.07.0000.72 as seen here: http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/esx41_promise_stex_dt/ZCV0YmRAZSVidHdw

After contemplating of how to set things up I chose to go with ESXi on a single harddrive, using the RAID drive for VM datastore. This driver change also solved problems with the ESXi host not booting up as fast as it should.