Problem with Supermicro home lab server, ESXi won't install as server always reboots
Dear community,
I'm having a problem that's driving me nuts and I was wondering if you can help me with that.
While trying to build up a home lab (I think it's often being referred to as a "whitebox" system?) I don't get the ESXi installation up and running. Since three days I haven't been able to install ESXi.
Problem:
The ESXi 5.5U3 installation fails and immediately restarts the host before it starts actually doing anything ... specific.
Using IPMI of my mainboard I have recorded (and also attached) a video and tried to embed it here:
In case you don't see it please look at the attached file.
For those who can't see it the hosts starts up and begins extracting the files to the memory. When it switches to the grey-yellow screen it shows the following lines and then - BOOM - reboots the host and it starts all over again:
Initializing timing ...
Initializing scheduler ...
Initializing power management ...
user loaded successfully.
REBOOT
I have tried several options like booting over USB, both internally and externally, change between USB 2.0 or 3.0 ports, or IPMI ISO loading but nothing, it all fails with the same problem or even f*cks up my video output when attaching a KVM Storage ISO file. Also disabling legacy USB support didn't solve anything and even had to reset the BIOS afterwards. Also to make sure it's not RAM-related I have switched the memory and tried it with 8 or with 16 GB or full 32 GB and also tried different banks, no change.
Lexar 8 GB USB Stick (formatted with Rufus) / no-name 4 GB USB Stick
As described above nothing I've tried did fix anything and I'm starting to feel helpless for a.) not being able to continue and b.) having spent a lot of money on things that currently don't work (and I'd rather not send things back).
I know that currently this mainboard is not listed itself but factually have seen several blog posts of people who use this mainboard successfully. Why am I the only one who can't do it?
Oh any by the way, the ESXi version is this: VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.5.0.update03-3116895.x86_64.iso
All those tries and random reboots that cots me days were due to the faulty be quiet power supply :smileyangry: I hope at some point this will help anyone.
The ESX 5.1 image will boot up and bypass that point from the video mentioned above.
When no separate LAN adapter drivers are injected, it will fail because of no LAN card detected.
When separate LAN adapter drivers are injected, it will continue up to the Splash screen and then completely freezes -- I can't press anything - or it at least doesn't do any change.
Running the ESX 6.01 installer:
The ESX 6.01 image will boot up and bypass that point, even lets me run the installation and finally will work. But only when installed to the SATA disk. When I plug in my SSD or try to install the same sh*t on my USB drive it will crash EVERY TIME or even kills the installable media on my USB drive. I just don't get this thing to work and it's killing my patience, I'm starting to get angry 😞
All those tries and random reboots that cots me days were due to the faulty be quiet power supply :smileyangry: I hope at some point this will help anyone.
