New ESXi 5.0 Install - Blank Screen After Install Completes

[lkimble932]

Hello

I just went through a clean install of VSphere ESXi 5.0 Update 1 on an HP Proliant ML350 G6.  The install completes successfully but after reboot (and after all the normal HP system checks) the system just sits at a blank screen.

Should I try a reinstall?  Was there some setting I need to check or change during the install?

Thanks,

Leonard Kimble

[Kahonu84]

Can you ping the host?

[lucasmv]

have you already set up a ip address?

if yes, can you ping the server and access it thought vsphere client?

thanks

Lucas

[lkimble932]

I don't know what IP address the host has.  No appropriately new entry has shown up in my DHCP server's list of leased addresses though.  So I suspect it's hung up before it gets an address.

Thanks.

[Kahonu84]

Try installing with a static IP as this is a best practice.

[aravinds3107]

Try running a hardware diagnostics to see if its a hardware problem

[lkimble932]

Weird.  I just went through a re-install. 

I tried hitting Shift+0 to get into options during the install to find where to put in a static address.  But the system ignore me.  The only real option I had was to which drive array I would install the hypervisor.

In my first failed attempt, I chose my second array because it has larger drives.  I figured in the long-term, I would not likely be replacing these drives and need to worry about my esxi install. 

This second time, I chose my other smaller array.  And things worked.  Or at least, I'm further along than I was a few hours ago.

My smaller array happens to be a RAID1 array comprised of the first two drives in my drive bay.  The larger array is a RAID5 array of six larger drives.

Would ESXi care which array it was installed on?

Thanks everyone for the advice.

[golddiggie]

Which RAID array did you set as the first boot volume/drive? That matters more IME.

I would use the smallest drives you have for ESXi 5u1 to reside upon. The larger array can be used for whatever you want, once ESXi has been installed.

What size is the RAID 5 virtual drive? I still wouldn't install ESXi onto a RAID 5 array. IME/IMO, RAID 1 (or 10) is a much better option. A pair of drives under RAID 1 has the redundancy you need for the install. Plus if you have high speed drives (15k rpm SAS) then the performance will be right up there.

[lkimble932]

I created the RAID1 array first.  I didn't purposefully mark any particular array as the boot volume.  But perhaps that array got set that way.  The RAID 5 array is about 1.1TB.

That must have been it.  Too bad the installer didn't give me any signs that I was installing to a non-bootable array.