Does any one have any success in installing the ESXi 4.1 U1 on the Dell PowerEdge R210? I am having trouble installing ESXi and maybe someone had some advice. The Dell server comes with a RAID1 and is under the VMWare HCL list. It has a S100 controller for the RAID. Dell recommend to break the RAID1 and install the ESXi on the local (single) drive. this Server comes with a 500GB (x2) drive.
What will be the best option? I am thinking of installing the ESXi 4.1.U1 on a USB flash drive but had no experience doing this and I am not sure how durable it is. Is this something I can depend of and what size of USB drive do I need?
Please advice of what have you done or any recommendation on how to install the host server.
Thank you.
Collin
I would definitely install to a USB stick. You will need a 1GB or larger USB stick. You may have an internal USB slot and I would check your documentation for location. ESXi loads directly into RAM and there are very few writes to the disk. A small configuration copy happens once per hour.
I don't think your RAID controller can be used as RAID as I believe it is software RAID which isn't supported under ESX(i). You will end up with two separate drives.
I would definitely install to a USB stick. You will need a 1GB or larger USB stick. You may have an internal USB slot and I would check your documentation for location. ESXi loads directly into RAM and there are very few writes to the disk. A small configuration copy happens once per hour.
I don't think your RAID controller can be used as RAID as I believe it is software RAID which isn't supported under ESX(i). You will end up with two separate drives.
I would definitely will try this as this might be the option to get this host server going. Thankyou for the insight.
It has a S100 controller for the RAID - this is a software raid controller and will not pick it up as a single drive as its able to see through the RAID config.
you would have needed the H-series controller which has the hardware Raid with Battery backup.
yes. its a software RAID. I will try this process. this will be my first try installing in USB drive.
The USB stick will show up as an install destination. Once installed I would set up a scratch location on a datastore. You can do that from the vSphere Client Configuration tab under Advanced settings in the software section. At the same time I would create a datastore location for the logs to go in the same advanced settings under Syslog.
Ok. I will try that. thank you.
Please post back to this thread on your progress.
Good luck.
I will. thank you.
I got the host up and running. Installed in the USB drive. However, the RAID1 drive that is local drive shows up in the devices as a separate drive 500GB drive (2). Is this because of the software controller and VMWare ESXi did not recognized the controller?
Please advice?
Thank you.
Collin
ESX(i) does not support software RAID cards. As mentioned earlier in this thread you would need an H series card or a Perc 5 or 6 to get hardware RAID.
I probably just break the RAID and use the 2 drive for separate datastore. Most of the guest VM will be on the iSCS SAN.
Thank you.
You could use the local disks for creating clone copies of some of your more important VMs. http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8760
That is a good idea. Thanks for the information.
Thank you.
Collin.