Unable to find a supported device to write the VMware ESXi 4.1.0 image to.

[archeos]

Dear All,

A week ago i received my brand new HP Proliant ML350 G6 server. Since then am trying to install ESXi 4.1.0 without success.

I have three 3,5" SATA hard disks 250GB each configured in RAID 5.

I am getting the error "Unable to find a supported device to write the VMware ESXi 4.1.0 image to." just right after i click "Accept Terms and Install".

Am attaching some screenshots of my current bios configuration.

I would appreciate if someone could help me on this.

Thanks in advance.

Demetris

[ScottBentley]

Hi Demetris

What is the raid card you are using is it the built in P410i?

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[archeos]

Scott,

Thanks for your reply.

I believe yes it is the builtin one.

You can see attached a screenshot with full details

[ScottBentley]

What can you see when you go into the raid controller settings? it may be worth deleting and recreating the Raid 5 array

Have you upgraded all the latest firmware and bios from HP? you can either download the latest firmeare CD and apply all updates.

To use HP Smart Update Manager on the Firmware Maintenance CD

version 7.50 and later:

Place the [Firmware

Maintenance CD|http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=1844068&prodTypeId=18964&prodSeriesId=1844067&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=1005] on a USB key using the HP USB Key Creator Utility. Place the desired firmware to be updated in the directory,

/compaq/swpackages on the USB key. Boot from the newly created Firmware Maintenance USB key

Follow HP Smart Update Manager steps to complete firmware

update.

Regards,

Scott

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[archeos]

Scott,

I have already tried deleting and recreating the RAID 5 array.

I will try updating firmware and let you know. (link provided does not work, but i think i can find it)

[archeos]

Btw, the correct full path for downloading Smart Update FirmwareDVD is:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&swLang=8&mode...

[ScottBentley]

Be aware the latest firmware CD does not normally include all of the latest firmware, you will need to download the individual components and add them to the USB key.

[archeos]

Thanks Scott,

I ll keep that in mind.

[archeos]

Hello again.

Well here is what i did during the weekend regarding my issue:

Downloaded the HP Proliant Firmware Update CD version 9.0 and created a bootable usb through the HP utility.

Added to the appropriate folder on the usb, the latest drivers for HP Proliant ML350 G6 (*.md5 and *.scexe files )

Booted from usb, selected interactive update mode and noticed that most of the firmwares and updates already installed were up to date or even newer than the ones on the usb. (I consider this strange though).

I managed to update the BIOS by downloading latest bios drivers -> create bootable usb ROMPAQ -> succesfully flash the bios of my proliant to the earliest version (2010.05.15 (A))

However, i did not find anything new while searching in the newer version of BIOS in order to help me with the installation of the ESXi 4.1.0.

Except if there was something there and i was too tired to see it

Did i forgot anything? Did anything wrong with the updates?

Would appreciate if anyone could help me.

Thanks

Demetris

[MatrixJ]

Hi,

I had the same problem for my HP Proliant ML 350 G6 and I found the solution for it. The reason is that, Vmware ESXi is looking for the drive to write the image to. you might need to disable your external devices such as tape drives or other storage devices except RAID and DVD ROM drive.

Please do remember if you got a tape drive attached to the machine you need to have a seperate SCSI card to make it work on the machine.

Regards

Matrix

[Golog]

Hello,

I had the same problem on the same config.

My workaround was to first install ESXi4.0 and then upgrade to Esxi4.1 without problems.

Regards

[archeos]

Dear Sir,

thanks for your reply. Unfortunately i have no other devices attached except the dvd rom and the raid.

[archeos]

I have installed ESXi 4.0 without any problems. Will try to upgrade it and let you know.

Thanks

[DSTAVERT]

Does your server have the BBWC module and RAM cache on the controller. If not you will want to add them if nothing else for the performance gain but it may also affect your ability to install. As Scott mentioned make sure that you have the current firmware specifically for ESXi and not just the latest. There have been times where the most current BIOS of firmware is supported for VMware. Check the HP website carefully.

[WiEmWaerUser]

We have exactly the same problem with our ML350 G6.

All the above steps doesn't help to install the HP ESXi 4.1 (583772-005.iso) from CD.

(We don't have a tape drive attached, but BBWC module and RAM cache on the controller).

Any idea, what exactly is the real cause of this problem?

Is it a "not supported" CD/DVD-Drive (Original-Part from HP)?

Have you found a way to workaround this problem without installing 4.0 and then update it to 4.1?

[archeos]

Dear sir unfortunately not.

[newstartech]

following article may help you.

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=109447626128401539842228353475&threadId=1440577

[WiEmWaerUser]

What exactly do you mean should help from the linked article?

a) It makes no difference for this problem, if we try to install the ESXi 4.1 image from HP or VMWware

b) We have downloaded the HP ESXi 4.1 image from https://h20392.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=HPVM06

[archeos]

Am not really sure if this helps, but: After installing ESXi 4.0 and then vsphere on another machine, the dvd rw is not viewable while trying to create a new virtual machine.

I had to plug an external dvd rw on esxi server, in order to boot from a win7 dvd rom.