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mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

ESXi 5.1U, Z87-PRO, Adaptec ASR-6805E

Hello,

I am posting this to help somebody else to set up an ESXi Server with following hardware:

- Intel i7-4770

- Asus Z87-PRO

- Adaptec-6805E

To use on board I217-V Network Card and This particular RAID card, customized ISO will have to be created.

When installing, add "formatwithmbr" to the end of the command. Also, disable UEFI.

I will attach drivers to this post. Please feel free to drop me a message if you have any questions.

Cheers.

40 Replies
curiouscat
Contributor
Contributor

Hi mapd07

Thank you for your post, I have some queries how I can get ESXi 5.1U running on my PC:

- Intel i5-4770 Haswell CPU

- Asus Z87-PRO Motherboard

  with I217-V Intel NIC which isn't recognised

Can you please provide detailed instructions on how to create a customized VMWare ESXi 5.1U ISO?

How can I disable UEFI? How do I use the drivers you have attached to your previous post?

Thank you very much, any help would be greatly appreciated.

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mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello curiouscat,

For creating a custom ISO, the simplest way is to use ESXi-Customizer.

Just download an ISO for the ESXi 5.1U and all of the files that I attached to the original post. I would Create a folder on your computer to keep it all together.

It also makes it easier to works with and clean up after you are done. Start up the ESXi-Customizer and select the ISO that you want to use, select the

igb-4.2.16.3-offline_bundle-1138313.zip and lastly the destination for the new ISO file. Once this is complete, delete the original ESXi 5U file. Now rename the created ISO to ESXi5U.iso.

(you can pick anything you want of course.) After you have re-named the file, start the ESXi-Customizer again and this time select the ISO file you just renamed. Then for the driver, select

net-e1000e-2.3.2.x86_64.vib. This was one of the drivers I attached. Now, create the ISO again. As you did not mention anything about RAID, you will not need to add the last driver.

You should be OK with the ISO and can burn that to the CD.

Next you have to disable all of the UEFI to Legacy.

In BIOS,

1) go into Advanced mode, under Boot, Find "Secure Boot" and Set it to Other OS.

2) find CSM (Compadibility Support Module), set it to Enabled.

Save your BIOS and reboot.

Now the last thing, this important, when you first boot from the CD that you just created and you get the Installer menu. make sure that you have the Install ESXi selected and press

a Tab key on your keyboard. You should see a command appearing and you should be able to edit this. All you really have to do is to move to the end of that line, hit space and add: formatwithmdr

This should do it. If you have any problems or questions, feel free to ask.

beshkenadze
Contributor
Contributor

Hi!

I have a z87-deluxe, drivers work fine, but the system does not see the hard drive was (SATA ssd and hdd).

Do you have a solution to this problem?

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mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello beshkenadze,

Were you installing the latest version for ESXi are you installing?

Did you try both Intel and ASMedia SATA ports on your MB?

Have you updated your BIOS to the latest version available from ASUS web-site?

Also, try changing SATA Mode Selection in the BIOS.

The reason why I think it should work is that while I have the main datastore with RAID 10, my boot drive with ESXi is

smaller laptop SATA drive.

Let me know how it works out.

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beshkenadze
Contributor
Contributor

I have VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.1.0.update01-1065491.x86_64 version.

I use only brown ports, not yellow (maybe i should switch to yellow?).

Yes, i update asus bios couple week ago.

I try chage AHCI mode to IDE, no effect.

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beshkenadze
Contributor
Contributor

btw, you're tried passthrough usb & pci (vga)?

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mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I am using passthrough for the USB for the UPS. One one the virtual machines on that setup shuts down all the other machines in case of the power failure.

Are both hard drive connected? Since there are 4 brown ports, try the other two. If that doesn't work, try the yellow ones.

You should also be able to see the drives listed in the BIOS. Do they show up?

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beshkenadze
Contributor
Contributor

I try use yellow ports ant they show up in bios and esxi see devices, thanks for your help.

Now I will try to passthrough VGA and USB.

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mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I am glad that it got figured out. I am still surprised that the Brown ports did not work.

It almost seems that they might be disabled or something for some reason.

When you feel like playing around with the setting some more, you can reset

the BIOS settings back to the default. That might get those ports working.

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beshkenadze
Contributor
Contributor

I've done many times, nothing changed.

btw at the asus z87-deluxe no support Vt-d, say goodbye passthrough GPU.

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mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

What CPU do you have?

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beshkenadze
Contributor
Contributor

I have found that my CPU (Core i7 4770k) does not support Vt-d.

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mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Yes, for some reason that function is not available on the K series. That is unfortunate.

If installing ESXi was your primary goal, maybe can sell 4770K and buy regular i7-4770.

Of course you would be giving up any kind of overclocking in that case.

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chchenss
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,Mapd07

I have a motherboard with onboard intel RAID controller, I'v configured a RAID 0 in "intel rapid storage - option rom" but ESXi installation wizard shows the physical disks only not RIAD volume. and RAID is not working after installation.

How can I use this RAID card in VMware ESXi?

My PC:

Intel E3-1230V3

Asrcok Fatal1ty H87 Performance

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JarryG
Expert
Expert

First of all: do not hijack topics please. Open new one with your question instead.

Second: your motherboad has "fake-raid", which is not supported by ESXi. That's why ESXi installation wizard sees two separate physical disks.

_____________________________________________ If you found my answer useful please do *not* mark it as "correct" or "helpful". It is hard to pretend being noob with all those points! 😉
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mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello chchenss,

On-board RAID cards are not supported by ESXi. Not yet anyway. In a case of separate hard disk showing up, that is strange, because when I was playing around with that, nothing would show up at all. Either there are specific ports for RAID setups that your hard-drives have to be connected or somehow RAID did not take effect at all. ESXi.

Either way, getting a cheap RAID card rather than using the on-board one will benefit you a lot more.

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Tottom
Contributor
Contributor

Hi there,


I have a Hasswell board with I217-V Intel NIC which isn't recognised, I have now tried the process you explained above.

I have an Intel Desktop Board DB85FL.

The install went past the painful cant find NIC error Smiley Happy

Money not wasted.

You rock! Much appreciated!



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mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi Tottom,

Glad to hear that it worked out. Looking forward to ESXi 5.5. Same drivers should work for that.

Cheers

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maxline
Contributor
Contributor

I am trying to install to a Toshiba S55 with an I7-4700MQ.  I can't get past the Initializing IVO.  I disable secure boot and ensured VT is enabled (on by default).

What else am I missing?  Yes this is a laptop with an ssd, but I was just trying to create a test environment...

Thanks,

maxline

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