Install VMWare on raid controller

[rassoul]

Hi All ,

I am new at VMware but I ve heard that we have to have the boot partition on a single disk when we install VMware ESX ?

Isn't it like windows , we can create a hardware raid and then install windows on that and it will recognize it as a single disk ?

Do we have to have a seperate disk for /boot and can't we install on a raid volume directly ?

Thanks

[Rumple]

it will install just fine on a RAID controller, but it must be one of the supported controllers.

Anything consumer level even up to the 3Ware may or may not work. Most of the intel RAID controllers show up as seperate drives as they are software RAID.

The 3ware 9560 I think series can be installed for booting on esx4, but can only be used for the vmfs volumes on esx4i (because you can't install boot time drivers)

What system are you looking at, enterprise brand or whitebox?

[lanalyzer]

Hi.

Provided that the hardware is supported, you could create a single volume (no more that 2TB in size) and install ESX on. The installer will recognize the volume as a local disk and will create the partitions that are needed.

You could create your own partitions, but the installer will partition de volume with the default (VMware-recommended) partition sizes.

If your volume is larger than 2 Tb, then create separate volumes as you cannot have a VMFS partition (needed to allocate the virtual machines) on a partition larger than 2 TB as per the following document:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_config_max.pdf

If you need step by step information on how to install ESX, please refer to the following document:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40_u1/vsp_40_u1_esx_vc_installation_guide.pdf

Thanks,

JesusM

[rassoul]

Hi ,

That was a quick response !

I am trying to install on a dell poweredge R410 ,

Dell says it is VMWare compatible , I think raid controller is LSILogic 1068E ,

I don't know if there is any special driver how to download and use it ,

I tried dell support web site , it has got some drivers but they are not ESX driver CD and I am not sure how to use them or if I should use them at all ?

Thanks a lot for response .

[rassoul]

Sorry , I forogt to say that I installed with the normal vmware wizards , created partition automatically (less than 500GB) and after install when it comes up it stops loading and goes to troubleshooting mode and can not load the boot files ....

Any idea ?

[lanalyzer]

Dell PE R410 is fully supported as per the compatibility guide at:

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility

You do not need any drivers as the ISO will include all required drivers for this hardware.

All you need is to setup the RAID volumes.

Thanks,

JesusM

[rassoul]

It stops at vmnix .....

and says failed to load the kernel ,

but installation actually finished ok !

[lanalyzer]

which version of ESX you installed? ESX Classic or ESXi? 4.0 or 4.0u1?

vmnix is the service console kernel.

The fact the troubleshooting mode is working, then the service console kernel should not be the issue but a module of the vmkernel most likely.

I could not find any documented issues with this hardware.

Could you verify that the server has the lastest BIOS installed as well as the lastest firmware?

Could you also disconnect any HBA/NIC cables and try to restart?

Thanks,

JesusM

[rassoul]

VMWAre ESX4 update 1

I just haven't updated the BIOs and firmware ,

Should I do that ?

I will do it now and let you know ....

[rassoul]

Thanks for all your help ,

My problem was SATA controller (which is only CD ROM connected to ) was set on raid , when I changed it back to SATA , problem fixed !

not sure why as hard disk are still on raid connected to SAS controller but it is working now ..

Thanks a lot ...