Installing ESX 3.0.1 on a HP BL460c Blade

[blong]

I am currently in the process of deploying a small VMWare cluster of 4 hosts. All will be on said blades. I went to HP's driver and software site to see if there was a section for VMWare, and there was. In it were the usual BIOS, and ILO firmware entries you'll find for all OS', but there was also one for an "esxupdatecd.iso", which I am supposed to use as my boot cd for the install. Once it loads some drivers, it asks for the actual ESX 3 cd. I put it in and things install ok. Anyways, my question is, do I even need, or should I even be using that HP ISO? Thanks in advance for the responses!

[jayolsen]

I doubt it, if you configure your disks first, you should just be able to boot off the ESX CD. Done that on several DL385s but not yet on a blade (yet). I'd imagine its the same but not 100% sure. Will be installing on some BL480c by the end of the month.

[outbacker]

I have several bl460's running ESX and have never used nor needed any HP boot disks. They all work great. I'm curious what benefits it provides? Have to do some reading.

[Texiwill · Accepted solution]

Hello,

The ISO from HP is not necessary. It is similar to the smartstart cdrom. It most likely will double check the firmware and other things that are necessary before installing ESX.

Best regards,

Edward

[blong]

After testing the install with and w/o the HP CD, I found that several patches failed when I used the HP CD, and didn't fail when I didn't use it. So, I'll be staying away from the HP CD. Thanks for the help!

[kevin7]

Has anyone here used ESX with iSCSI SAN on an HP blade? Or are you using fiber channel? We noticed that the only iSCSI HBA's supported were the Qlogic 4050C/4052C, neither of which were an option on the HP blades. We would prefer BL460c's, but may have to go with DL360 Quad's instead.

Thanks!

[jaffa-nz]

HI.

Use the standard ESX3.0.1 boot cdrom. If you get report of No Disks and you know they're out their or local storage is available then you will need the updated cciss driver (supposed to be in 3.0.1, not, finally added to Driver downloads page after much pain)

http://www.vmware.com/support/vi3/doc/drivercd/esx301-cciss-2.4.66.html

this of course being the controller drivers, which yes asks for the esx install cd part way through.

cheers