Compatibility Requirment

[Bibou]

Hello,

I am beginning with ESX Server 3i 3.5.0 and it is the first time I am working with virtualization solution.

Booting on the CD, I obtain the following error message : "Unable to find a supported device to write the VMware ESX Server 3i 3.5.0"

I am using : Motherboard Asrock Alive-NF7G with AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ CPU with 1 Maxtor IDE hard Dice alone

I didn't find my motherboard in the HCL List. Does it mean that it is impossible to use this version of ESX with my MB ?

If the compatibility is OK, do you have any idea for my problem.

Sorry for the worst english you have never read and thank you for your answer.

Sébastien.

[donaldmickey]

Salut Seb,

If not find your motherboard in the HCL list, it's impossible to install your product.

It's a server or workstation your configuration?

[Bibou]

Hello,

Thank you for your response. In fact, I am using a Workstation (Homemade Tower ! ).

I saw that there were global specification to follow for products that are not in this famous HCL list... Do I have ny chance to manage to us my MB ?

If not, do you think I will be able to use VmWare Virtualization after installing Windows XP on the same computer ?

Whatever, I really tank you for your help.

Sébastien.

[weinstein5]

Welcome to the forums - Are you following the white paper outlining running ESX under workstation on www.xtravirt.com?

If you find this or any other answer useful please consider awarding points by marking the answer correct or helpful -

[Erik_Zandboer]

Hi,

Allthough an install of ESX 3.5 should work on an IDE drive, it will still not help very much. This is because an IDE device cannot contain VMFS-formatted partitions, which you need to hold your Virtual Machine disks and configs.

I would try to add a SATA disk to your system, which might work (depends on the SATA controller on the motherboard).

Not a single consumer-grade motherboard is to be found on the HCL; this means that VMware has no support for it, but ESX might run on it. Also remember, that the onboard NIC will propably be unsupported, so you propably need to add for example an Intel Gbit NIC (preferably even more than one)...

[Erik_Zandboer]

Running ESX under Workstation is nice for testing and toying around - but basically it gets you nowhere from a usability point of view. I would try to get ESXi running directly on the (physical) machine. If that fails, just install Windows XP and then VMware workstation.

You could consider to use VMware Server 2. This product is used as a server, but has the compatibility plusses like workstation. Unfortunately, it also has the same poor performance as workstation when you compare it to ESX(i).