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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.

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mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello maxline,

do you get Any error messages when you try to setup ESXi?

Without any info, I am guessing that built-in Network card might cause the installer to fail as

ESXi is pretty strickt about various cards.

If you know exact model, you can look for compatible driver for the network card and integrate them into the

installer ISO.

Please let me know what Error message you are getting and also the specific Network Card model number that your laptop has.

Best regards.

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mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello maxline,


Just a note: If you want to set up a test environment only, have you thought about setting the whole thing up in a Virtual machine? VMPlayer?


Cheers

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stanleigh
Contributor
Contributor

thanks,  the ESXI customize steps you detailed worked like a charm. (

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joopworst
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks a lot! Thanks to your detailed how-to guide I got things to work nicely. I am also using the Z87 PRO.

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mohammadpf
Contributor
Contributor

Hi dear TNX to ur help it works and everythings went fine unless if i use "formatwithmbr" esxi doesnt install on my one of H.D.D or i can say i wouldnt show me a box that contains hdd drives and when i deattach the CD or USBFLASH esxi goeas down!

but when i dont use that it will show me the box but the not raid drives! where is the problem?My MB is z87-plus

bestregards

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mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello mohammadpf,

By adding this command, it should not make any difference in terms of finding your Harddrive. I had a chance to set another machine with a Z87-PRO board, but with an updated BIOS this time and I noticed that it also

had some issues with booting. Steps are still the same, but reset you BIOS, by setting a jumper on your motherboard to clear the BIOS and push the power button. Then put the jumper back and follow the instructions again.

If it still doesn't work and you are currently using the latest BIOS revision, you can try using older version of the BIOS if possible. Please be careful when flashing your BIOS, even though it is hard to brick your MB now-days, it is still possible.

Also, could you please list your full specs, like RAID card, number of harddrives etc.

On-board RAID is still not supported, unless you have found some custom driver for it.

Best regards

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mohammadpf
Contributor
Contributor

Hi mapd07

Tnx for ur help it gone normal when i flush the BIOS

As You said onboard raid is not supported and i must buy a raid card that i will buy it soon and i'd like to test with freeNAS,What's ur Opinion mapd07?is it suitable for making RAID drive or not?

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mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello mohammadpf,

Since you are setting up an ESXi machine, I would get atleast 4 harddrives and set up a RAID 10. Also, when you are looking into a RAID Card, make sure that it has some on-board memory as well. That will make a big difference. When setting up a FreeNAS virtual machine in your ESXi, give it at least 4GB of memory.

If you are OK with 4 drives, Adaptec ASR-6405E is a good option as well.

How many virtual machines are you planning to run on this setup all together?

Best regards

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mohammadpf
Contributor
Contributor

Hi mapd07

My plan for this situation maybe required 2 or three Vms.and also  2 drives it would be enough for me

could u plz explain what exactly do the memory on raid cards?for the caching?

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mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello mohammadpf,

If you are only going to run 2-3 Virtual Machines, you should be OK with running 2 hardrives in RAID 1 (Mirror), just keep in mind that if you have 2 500GB harddrives, you will have only 500GB available to you. Both drives will have the same data written to them and in case of failure, you will be able to change the failed harddrive and everything will keep still running.

Memory on the RAID card is allowing your computer access the data from the RAID hardrives much faster as some data is prepared by the RAID card into the memory. Since memory is much faster than reading the data from the harddrive directly, you will benefit having that cache available to you. ASR-6405E has 128MB of DDR2 memory. For the price, it is not too bad. Without it, your transfer rates will suffer greatly.

Best Regards

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mohammadpf
Contributor
Contributor

Hi mapd07

i appreciate for ur response ,tnx

one last Q there is a way that esxi support Software RAIDs?if no what is behind it?

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mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello mohammadpf,

I don't think ESXi free will have Software RAID option unless somebody in the community will write a driver for it.

ESXi was probably not intended to be used the way it is being used by home users. Smiley Happy It is great that it is possible though.

Having a software RAID is probably not good in terms of performance as well.

There is a possibility that in the future there will be motherboards that will have a hardware RAID built-in. You never know.

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PRoyer
Contributor
Contributor

Hi mapd07,

Thank you for your help. This save me a lot of wasting time! Smiley Happy

I used your vib file for a Lenovo ThinkServer that has an Intel i217 NIC and everything seems to work well now.

I have a question for you: did you build this vib file or did you get it from another source? Because I tried to build my own with ESXi5 Community Packaging Tools from official Intel Linux drivers and it doesn't work.

Thank you!

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Dina447
Contributor
Contributor

Dear mapd07

Thanks a lot for your useful post.

I would install esxi 5.1 on Asus Z87-Plus mainboard. But I can't use Raid Controller. Do you know any solution?

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JarryG
Expert
Expert

It has been here said zillion times: ESXI does NOT support on-board pseudo-/fake-/software-/bios- raid. Period. Get true HW raid-controller, or configure your disks as stand-alone.

But be ready for poor performance if you attach disks to motherboard's sata-ports! ESXi does NOT do disk-caching. It counts on raid-controller disk-cache (which your on-board sata-controller does not have).

_____________________________________________ 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 Dina447,

In most cases you will not be able to use the on-board RAID, because ESXi does not have drivers for them and nobody in the community would actually spend the time to make it work since the performance would be so poor anyway.

You will be much better off running the whole thing off of single drives or setting up a USB as your boot-drive for ESXi and have the main datastore as a large stand-alone harddrive.

One good RAID card that would work would be Adaptec ASR-6405E KIT. You should be able to find it for little over $200 or so. If you have any other questions, feel free to write back. Otherwise, good luck!

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sthnaing
Contributor
Contributor

Hello,

I tried to install the ESXi 5.5 on a machine with the following specs

+++++

MotherBoard+CPU : ASUS Z97 Deluxe + i7 4790

RAM : GSkill RIP JAWS-X 1600 (8GBx4pcs) CL10

HDD :WD 3.5 SATA BLACK 2TB

Casing : Cooler Master 311

Power Supply : Seasonic S128-Non MODULAR520W

+++++

The problem is when I install the ESXi 5.5, it can't detect the HDD.

And I also changed the CPU settings as follows.

+++++

Intel Adaptive Termal Monitor Enable

Hyper-Treading Enable

Actie Processor Cores All

Limit CPUID Maximum Disable

Execute Disable Bit Enable

Intel Virtualization Technology Enable

Hardware Perfetcher Enable

Adjacent Cache Line Prefetch Enable

Boot Performance mode Turbo Performance

+++++

But, still can't detect the HDD

So, I tried to install to usb.

After installing the ESXi to the usb, the system still can't detect the Datastore.

So, is there any idea or any suggestion?

Please check the following screenshots.

http://s11.postimg.org/4p72h1u4y/20140820_190710.jpg

http://s24.postimg.org/fxm4jw8tw/20140820_190718.jpg

http://s12.postimg.org/ioize4tfw/20140820_190725.jpg

http://s17.postimg.org/ta0x9o9y6/20140820_190733.jpg

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Vik0090
Contributor
Contributor

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gpatrikios
Contributor
Contributor

Dear Colleague,

I have a Toshiba Tecra w50-A-10J and it has an Intel i7 4800MQ and 32GB Ram. and a NIC i217-LM.

Your solution seems that it worked for many, but I still can't pass the problem with the no network card detected.

Any proposal?

Regards,

Jerry

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