Installing Esx 3.0.1 on Intel S5000SL

[FGAIBA]

Hi all!!!:)

I have this problem. i don't succeed to install Esx on two disk in mirroring connected to the Motherboard...... the esx cannot recognize the controller raid....

the disk is two Hitachi 15000 rpm sas 74Gb and the mobo is a Intel S5000SL with 2 Quad Core Xeon and 16 (8x2) gb of kingston 667....

[FGAIBA]

sorry...the mobo is a S5000PSL!!!!

[Erik_Zandboer]

Hi,

My first thought would be that your mainboard is not supported. Looking at the hardware compatibility list (http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_systems_guide.pdf), I must say I am not sure how these Intel servertypes work... Read the guide carefully!

[peaceofme]

I have almost the exact same setup. The MB is supported (I think), the built in controller is not. My solution was to buy a LSI SAS3041E-R for each server. They are not very powerfull, but they are cheap and the engineer at LSI assures me they work as well as can be for mirroring and they are on the ESX list. It works fine here.

Message was edited by:

peaceofme

[Erik_Zandboer]

THis sounds strange to me. A mainboard is supported, yet the onboard controller is not? I think you \*might* have an unsupported mainboard after all. Anyone having more expertise in Intel mainboards and ESX support?

[peaceofme]

To further expand the server I have is a SR1500AL:

http://www.intel.com/design/servers/platforms/sr1500-2500/index.htm

An Intel white box design that some companies have on VMWare's list. It is a nice little pizza box with a S5000PAL motherboard. When I bought it, I thought it would be supported, but it turned out it required a specific Intel RAID card to make the cut. I decided the LSI board would work fine for mirroring (after some research) and it costs about a third of the price. So although it is made up of parts, they are all approved for use and so far it works great as a unit.

That said, if I had to do it all over I don't think I saved enough to justify all the research and self support. I have since bought a couple of DL380s... I did learn a lot though.

[FGAIBA]

i have disabled the on board controller and i have attached all the disk on the controller LSI 8408 E, but the installation hang at the discovery of megaraid_sas . . . . . .

[peaceofme]

If I where there I'd:

-Check to make sure I had the latest bios on the MB and the Controller.

-That all the SATA and SAS stuff was disabled on the MB except the CD-Rom in legacy mode.

-Make a second copy of the ISO just to be sure...

Your MB is a little different than mine, that could be it.

Good luck!

[FGAIBA]

the bios is the 79.x.x....the last

the sata-sas controller on the mobo is disabled...

i have try another copy of the iso image but the result is the same

[chrisno]

We use Intel Intel SR2500ALLX (S5000PAL) with the AXXRAK18E intelligent HW Raid (should be the same as 8408E). I had the same problem this week. The install stops at the SAS-Controller init. I used the old 2.00 and the new 3.09 driver, no chance... then i take a look at the Systems Compatibility Guide and found that the supported config has Bios74, BMC 58 and FRU/SDR 40. After downgrading the FW and Bios all worked fine. So try to downgrade your FW and Bios.

[J-H]

What board do you exactly have?

If you have the SL5000PSLROMB, then you need the hardware RAID activation key and additional memory for the controller.

http://www.vmware.com/community/message.jspa?messageID=590583

[kbarina]

Chrisno has the answer.

I had the same problem, the install was hanging on the load of the megaraid driver. I downgraded the BIOS from 79 to 74 (along with the firmware) and everything worked perfectly.