PERC 6/i, PE2950 with 3.5

[jmacdaddy]

I am experiencing an issue where I am unable to boot VI3.5 fully on my new Dell PowerEdge 2950 with a PERC 6/i controller. The boot process hangs on the line: Loading VMkernel megaraid_sas.o (options: '')

There is a thread that discusses this issue on a PE2900 where a BIOS update resolved the issue. Unfortunately, I have the most up-to-date BIOS (2.0.1) for the 2950, so this is not the solution. I have tried the installation first using the OpenManage CD and the second time just the ESX 3.5 cd.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[RParker]

Call Dell, their support team has a specialized team of people that focus on VM Ware ESX/Server. They will help you.

[moshker]

I have the same Perc card and Dell model. I haven't done the update to 3.5 yet... If you wouldn't mind I'd really like to hear back about what Dell's response is to your problem.

[jmacdaddy]

OK. Looks like this was my fault. This server is not going to be attached to a SAN and during the setup I elected not to create a VMFS partition (just left if as free space). Apparently that is bad. The reason for doing this is that I wanted to make sure my VMFS partition was aligned correctly. Therefore I didn't let the installer create it so that I could go back in and add it through the VIC. I guess not. So, PERC 6i works (I even called Dell and one of their support guys installed 3.5 on a 1950 with a PERC 6i just to be sure. He had no problems). So letting the installer create the VMFS partition did the trick.

As a side note, I tried to remove the VMFS volume through the VIC after the server was up and then recreate it with the VIC. That was real bad. Started getting EXT3-fs journal errors right away. After that the server wouldn't boot. Looks like another thread.