ESXi 5.1 on Dell PowerEdge R710

[vJoe3970]

Hi,

I'm on task to install ESXi 5.1 on 6 new Dell PowerEdge R710 servers.

I downloaded the .iso's for ESXi and vCenter as soon as they became available

but I've recently been told that those .iso's will not work and that I will need to

create custom .iso images loaded with current Dell hardware drivers before I

can proceed with the install.  Is this true?

Technically, I was told that a custom installer would need to be created for ESXi 5.0 for Dell PE R720's but would also need

to do the same for 5.1 on R710's.

I recently found this .pdf on Dell's support site:  http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/eslvmwre/VS_5/Docs/ESXiDG/ESXi5DG.pdf

Under Creating the ESXi Installer Media it says to visit support.dell.com to download a custom installer image (.iso) for ESXi

I went there, punched in the service tag for one of our new R710's and did indeed find a custom installer image for ESXi 5.1

Shouldn't that image contain the required hardware drivers?

Any information on this would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[KlausK]

I have ESXi 5.1 running on R610 machines using the stock VMware image without any problems.

[vJoe3970]

Thanks Klaus, I was initially assuming that the stock 5.1 image could be used but why then would Dell have their own

custom image available?  The image on Dell's support site was posted fairly recently, 9/19/12 to be exact.

[KlausK]

I did my upgrade before they were available. I've actually never used the Dell images.

[SCMHenry]

The original VMware ISO should work just fine on an R710 server.

If you are installing on an R720, you will almost certainly encounter issues

[vJoe3970]

Thanks, I'm planning the install on R710's, will there be any issues with that model?

[kuvschin]

I am also planing to upgrade to 5.1.

Have anybody downloaded Dell customized ISO?

VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.1.0-799733.x86_64-Dell_Customized_RecoveryCD_A00.iso

I can not download it.

"Sorry, the requested file could not be downloaded"

[AKostur]

FWIW: I'm running 5.1 on two R710s and a PE2950.  All were installed with the stock iso.  I've had no particular issues.  Ok, other than waiting for Synology to fix their NFS problem.

[SCMHenry]

I managed to successfully download it yesterday, after several failed attempts.

[Jonseet]

Hi All,

I just downloaded the 5.1 depot from the VMware site and installed the 5.1 update via VUM.  The documentation states that the VIBs should be migrated across (i've yet to test).  I'd rather rebuild it from the Dell 5.1 customised ISO rather than through VUM but i've not encountered any issues so far with upgrading an R710 with VUM.

I've emailed the Dell Web master about the broken link, that was last week Friday (21/Sept/2012) and it's still not fixed.

[Jonseet]

Hi All,

Here's an alternate link for the Dell Customised ISO:

https://dtxdropbox.dell.com/

Login Name:   esxi5.1

Password:       1jcmiq50

I found it on the DELL forums

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/servers/f/1466/t/19466431.aspx?PageIndex=1

Regards,

Jon

[kuvschin]

Jonseet

Thank you very much.

[vJoe3970]

All, thanks for the helpful information.

What's the difference between the stock .iso and the one Dell provides?  I need Enterprise Plus.

Does the Dell image include hardware drivers specific to the R710?

If the stock vmware-iso will work on a R710, fine ..but I'm just wondering then why Dell is also

making a .iso available.

[Jonseet]

AFAIK, the stock Vmware ISO contains all the drivers needed to install and run on a R710, the R720 however requires additional drivers included in the Dell customized ISO.

The DELL ISO also includes VIB file(s) which is what i'm really after, although it can also be downloaded and installed manually.

Jon

[vJoe3970]

Thank you, that's helpful information.

Also, I found this blog article:  http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2011/09/whats-in-a-vib.html

It's a little dated and don't know if there's a similar one based on vSphere 5.1

[mclifford00]

Has anyone tried to import this image into VUM?

When I try to import the VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.1.0-799733.x86_64_Customized_RecoveryCD_A0 I get the following error: The uploaded upgrade package cannot be used with VMware vSphere Update Manage.

If I import the image from VMwares site it works fine. since I am running an r720 i need to use this image. I would really like to use VUM to maintain the upgrade.

Thanks for the help!

[TiwestJV]

Hi mclifford,

Have you updated your vCenter and VUM to 5.1 first?  Importing the image into VUM is definately do-able.  I've imported both the VMware offline depot and the same image from the Dell website/FTP and it imports fine.  Otherwise, you may have a corrupted download.  Try downloading again and try again.  Not sure if there's a checksum that you can verify against.

[mclifford00]

I have updated my vCenter server to 5.1.0, 799731. I have also updated my VUM.

I am in the process of downloading the image from dells web site right now. I will keep you posted.

[mclifford00]

You are correct I had a bad download. I downloaded the file again and it imported with not problems.

[Jason1355]

I know this thread is old but I ran into this problem recently as well.  The VMware iso installed fine, however, it didn't have any of the brocade drivers so the host didn't see any of my datastores on the dell compellant SAN shared storage.  Using the dell custom ISO installs those drivers so when the host comes back up it makes all the necessary connections.  That is why you would want to use the custom ISO.