From the updated I/O sheet this is what's mentioned on supported SATA controllers....
Supported SAS/SATA Dual Controllers
ESX Server 3.5 supports selected SATA devices connected to dual SAS/SATA controllers. This support is limited to ESX Server 3.5. It is not included with ESX Server 3.0.x.
The supported dual SAS/SATA controllers are:
mptscsi_2xx (PCIE) ‐ LSI1078*
mptscsi_pcie ‐ LSI1068E (LSISAS3442E)*
mptscsi_pcix ‐ LSI1068 (SAS 5)*
aacraid_esx30 ‐ IBM serveraid 8k SAS controller*
cciss ‐ Smart Array P400/256 controller*
So what is the best PCIE card for me to put into my S5000PAL server that will use the above driver, if only someone could make a list :smileygrin:
Thanks,
Kev
I have an Intel S5000PSLROMB motherboard. With ESX 3.0.x I had to purchase a RAID activation key (AXXRAK18E), memory for the RAID card, and I also purchased a battery backup unit (AXXRSBBU3). This was quite expensive. http://communities.vmware.com/message/590583
ESX 3.0.x did not recognize the onboard SATA controller (6321ESB). The installation CD only showed the disks connected to the ROMB card and also after the installation I only could use disk connected to the ROMB card.
The ESX 3.5 installation CD now recognizes the SATA controller and the ROMB card. I was able to create a VMFS on a disk connected to the SATA controller.
It is likely that with ESX 3.5 I could have bought the S5000PSLSATA or S5000PSLSAS motherboard which is cheaper, and it would not be required to buy the RAID activation key and RAID memory. The only difference would be that the configuration would not be on the HCL and therefore is not supported.
This is my test system at home so I could live with this disadvantage.
@J-H:
Can you just only install ESX 3.5 with the SATA controller?
or
Can you install and run ESX 3.5 with the SATA controller?
Cause with a HP ML110G2 and a i82801FR/FRW (ICH6R/RW) I can install ESX 3.5 with VMFS perfectly, but running ESX 3.5 isn't possible. Like @blackforce wrote with his configuration, it crashes during booting on my box too.
I'm currently running a VM located on the disk connected to the SATA controller.
What I haven't tried is to remove the ROMB card and only use the disk connected to the SATA controller to install ESX and create a VMFS on a partition of that disk or another disk connected to the SATA controller. I'm currently too busy to perform this test.
Hi,
i managed to get my ESX3.5 to boot and run on a HP ML 115.
onboard raid: yes, this "raid" really sucks, because my rescue cd found 2 controllers/disks -> NO RAID
TODO-List to get ESX-3.5 up and running.
1.) install it from the cd (of course)
2.) reboot with a linux live cd of your choice.
and now i hope that there are no typos...because i created this "script" on my laptop during i tried and tested it on my ESX box!
mkdir /mnt/eboot
mkdir /mnt/eroot
/boot of ESX box
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/eboot
/root of ESX box
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/eroot
mkdir /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd
mkdir /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/extracted
mkdir /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/extractednew
cp /mnt/eboot/boot/initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd
cd /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd
mv initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img.gz
gunzip initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img.gz
mount initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img extracted -o loop
cd extracted
cd etc/vmware
cp simple.map simple.map.org
vi simple.map
2nd go for SED!
search for 037e
double this line
change one 037e to 037f
save
cd ..
cd ..
dd if=dev/zero of=initrd.img bs=1k count=97000
mke2fs -i 1024 -b 1024 -m 5 -F -v initrd.img
mount initrd.img extractednew -t ext2 -o loop
tar -C extracted/ -cmf - . | tar -C extractednew/ -xmf - .
umount initrd.img
umount extracted
umount extractednew
gzip -best initrd.img
ls -alh
mv initrd.img.gz initrd.img
cd /mnt/eboot
mv initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img.org
cp /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/initrd.img initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img
cd /mnt/eroot
cd etc
cd vmware
cp pci.ids pci.ids.org
vi pci.ids
2nd go for SED!
search for 037e
double this line
change one 037e to 037f
save
cp pci.xml.merged pci.xml.merged.org
vi pci.xml.merged
2nd go for SED!
search for 037e
double this SECTION
change one 037e to 037f
save
cd pciid
cp sata_nv.xml sata_nv.xml.org
vi sata_nv.xml
2nd go for SED!
search for 037e
double this SECTION
change one 037e to 037f
save
reboot from your resuce system into ESX and JUCHEEEEE....
kind regards,
Reinhard
I have tried your instructions.
I typed them in word for word.
All goes well until I get to
mount initrd.img extractednew -t ext2 -o loop
It says it cant find extractednew or something
Hi,
do a "pwd". You should be in "/mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd"
I think i left out a "cd .." in my notes.
Sorry I am confused where did u miss the cd.. from? I've PM'd u my msn address if u can help
Hi,
this works on my ML 115-G1
1.) install normaly, hopefully it works.
2.) reboot with linux Live cd when esx boot fails
3.) scp the following script to the esx and tun it.
->8-
#!/bin/bash
vmware esx initrd changer
#/bin/bash
Reinhard Partmann
date created: 2007-12-17
date modified: 2007-12-17
version: 0.2
echo "creating directories..."
mkdir -p /mnt/eboot
mkdir -p /mnt/eroot
echo "mounting.."
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/eboot
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/eroot
mount | grep sda
echo "copying original initrd file..."
mkdir -p /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/extracted
cp /mnt/eboot/initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img.gz
cd /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd
echo "unpacking & mounting original initrd file..."
gunzip -f initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img.gz
mount initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img extracted -t ext2 -o loop
cd extracted
cd etc
cd vmware
echo "changing simple.map..."
echo "10de:037f 0000:0000 sata_nv.o" >> simple.map
cd ..
cd ..
cd ..
umount extracted
echo "replacing original initrd file..."
gzip --best initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img
mv /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img.gz /mnt/eboot/
cp /mnt/eboot/initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img.gz /mnt/eboot/initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img
echo "patching xml files"
cd /mnt/eroot/etc/vmware/pciid
lines=`wc -l sata_nv.xml | awk ' { print $1 } '`
echo "lines: $lines"
(( lines -= 2))
echo "subtr lines: $lines"
mv sata_nv.xml sata_nv.xml.org
head -$lines sata_nv.xml.org > sata_nv.xml
echo " <device ID="037f">" >> sata_nv.xml
echo " <vmware label="scsi">" >> sata_nv.xml
echo " <driver>sata_nv</driver>" >> sata_nv.xml
echo " </vmware>" >> sata_nv.xml
echo " <name>MCP55 SATA Controller</name>" >> sata_nv.xml
echo " </device>" >> sata_nv.xml
echo " </vendor>" >> sata_nv.xml
echo "</pcitable>" >> sata_nv.xml
touch /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot
echo "#!/bin/bash" >> /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot
echo "esxcfg-pciid" >> /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot
echo "sleep 5" >> /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot
echo "rm /etc/rc3.d/S99rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot" >> /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot
chmod a+x /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot
cd /mnt/eroot/etc/rc3.d/
ln -s ../init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot S99rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot
echo "cleanup..."
cd /
rm -f -r /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd
umount /mnt/eboot
umount /mnt/eroot
rm -f -r /mnt/eboot
rm -f -r /mnt/eroot
->8-
Hi Reinhard, thanks for the script, it works like a charm... However....
I install ESX, works perfectly... Boot with Ubuntu live CD (the only one lying around), run your script, reboot into ESX, all is fine. I reboot the ESX server again, "just to reboot" , and again, the "root not found" issue... Tried it with and without the ending init-rd script.... Any of you have the same problems???
When he did mine. When he booted into esx for the 1st time.
he edited sata_nv.xml to add the 037f line
added 037f to sata_nv.xml
then ran
esxcfg-pciid
I could then reboot ok,
Alrighty, fixed the script with some very minor issues (capitals ID instead of normal id, and fixed the quotation, although this is probably not that important)...
Try it if you will! See attached file... Install-options like Reinhard described, so:
1. Install ESX, should work just fine (keep in mind, let /boot be /dev/sda1, and / be /dev/sda2!)
2. At the reboot, use some Linux live-CD (I use an Ubuntu one, doesn't really matter)
3. Get the script on the Live-Linux distribution, ie. via SCP
4. Run the script
5. Reboot into your new ESX 3.5!
Great! Thanks again Reinhard!
To add to the list, I tried installing 3.5 on a spare desktop system and it worked great, I'm currently running 2 VMs on it (it only has 1gb RAM right now). Here are the Specs:
-Gigabyte GA-K8N51GMF-9 Motherboard (NVidia Chipset)
-AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800+ Processor (Dual Core 2ghz)
-1gb DDR RAM
-1 Seagate 120gb SATA Drive plugged into motherboard SATA Controller (have not tested any RAID setups)
-Using Integrated Nvidia 6100 Graphics
I of course don't expect this to be a supported config and I'd never use it in production but it does give me a cheap system for testing. Much easier than scrambling to find a SCSI/RAID card and SCSI drives. Thanks guys!
Jay
I was able to get a VM created and booted on an old desktop circa 2004 with the following motherboard:
MSI 915P/G Neo2
- Intel ICH6 SATA controller (one HDD attached)
- Broadcom 5751
I didn't do a whole lot of testing to say whether this setup worked well or not.
Many thanks for that script folks. That's got ESX 3.5 running on a Sun x2200 box too
Hi guys, I'm new to this. Can someone please assist? I'm experiencing the same problem as everyone else in here.
2. At the reboot, use some Linux live-CD (I use an Ubuntu one, doesn't really matter)
What is a Linux Live CD? What does it do? I'm on ubuntu's site, but I don't know which one to download
3. Get the script on the Live-Linux distribution, ie. via SCP
What does this mean? Does it mean after running the linux live-CD, it will prompt me for the script?
Hi,
1.) a linux live CD is a linux system which boots completely from a bootable cd. The cd can do as much as the tools on the cd can do.
for example:
2.) scp .. securecopy for help: man scp
And many other free books/infos
nano howto: install esx and try a reboot. If a startup into your esx installation fails, boot your system with any live cd which supports your hardware. Copy my script from above, with corrections from pdewild, ( ) on a usb stick and mount the stick within your linux live environment or set up the network of your linux live system and use under windows winscp to transfer the script to the linux live system.
Every script must be "executable": chmod a+x scriptname.ext and run it with ./scriptname.ext
hope that helps you to move on, r.
Thank you so much, partman. You're a great help.
Ok, I was able to use Winscp and transferred the script to Ubuntu. However, when I tried to run the script chmod a+x command, nothing happened and no error message. Did I miss something??
hi,
wenn you run
chmod a+x script.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2.7K Jan 4 2007 vmnetconf.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2.7K Jan 4 2007 script.sh
cp /sourcepath/script.sh /root
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2.7K Jan 4 2007 vmnetconf.sh
there is no message when completed successfully. Try a ls -al, should look like ..
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2.7K Jan 4 2007 script.sh
then you can run the script with ./script.sh.
Copy this script before all that to /root.
cp /sourcepath/script.sh /root
kind regards,
rpartmann