newbie - is this the right forum - esx installation EDIT - ESXi NOW WORKING ON IDE!

[mikemcsw]

I didn't see an esx 3.5 forum, so i am hoping this 3.0 is for all esx 3.x ?

Awhile back ago, I tried installing esx on my notebook as a virtual machine and ran into diffficulties with my bios didn't support virtual, and someone said I could install on my gx270.

The installation went extremely smooth, and it is up and running. Thanks for the suggestion. Now my problem is, that I don't see any "datastore". I installed the esx 3.5 update 2 on the gx270 with one large ide drive. I accepted the defaults for the partition sizes. is any of that large hard drive usable as my datastore? How do I access it?

[khughes]

Hmm I didn't think that ESX allowed itself to install on IDE drives. I know with workstation 6.5 you can install ESX in a virtual machine to do testing if you want. Sounds like that is what you're after since you wanted to install it on a laptop.

There is a 3.5 forum but this will work just fine.

• Kyle

[mikemcsw]

You can install ESX in a virtual machine, but only if your bios supports VT. I already ran down that path. I am happy to install it on my GX270 baremetal.

It installed find on an IDE drive, very smooth, no problems. My question is how can i use the free space on the IDE drive as my datastore.

When i Connect to my esx server from my client, it does not show any available datastore. I remember reading somewhere that there is something you can do to use that IDE drive as the datastore.

[java_cat33]

Are you saying that the disk(s) you installed ESX on should have space for a VMFS datastore? If so, if you did not create a vmfs volume during the install on the IDE disk I'm not aware of any method to create a vmfs volume on that disk.

[mikemcsw]

I installed esx 3.5 udpate 2 on an ide disk. i accepted the default partitions.

The install only took about 10 minutes, so I don't mind reinstalling, if during the partition sizes section i can specify a vmfs volume?

[java_cat33]

With a default install..... any remainding disk space should be a vmfs datastore created by the installer by default so you shouldn't have to re-install it....

[mikemcsw]

I did do a default install, but in my client, i do not see a datastore.

[java_cat33]

I have a strong feeling vmfs is not supported on IDE. I think you're going to have to re-look into installing ESX within a VM and create an iSCSI SAN using OpenFiler for example so you can create a vmfs volume off that.

Message was edited by: java_cat33 -Added link to article regarding how IDE is not supported for vmfs.

[mikemcsw]

i have been googling, and it appears that is correct, that no vmfs partition will be created if your local esx hd is ide.

That sucks? That is about the most basic computer that is out there. You would think that if you can install esx on an ide, that you could use the available disk space as datastore.

Come on VMWARE, what's up? this should not be so difficult??

I have already tried to install esx on vmworkstation 6.5 and that was not supported because you need vt in the bios, and it is next to impossible to find a cheap notebook that has vt in the bios. I have already bought 2 different notebooks, neither of which had the vt technology in the bios.

Do you think that I will be able to install esx server on vmworkstation 6.5 on this dell gx270? I am sure it does not have vt in the bios as well?

[java_cat33]

Yes my understanding is that virtualization technology is required on your cpu. The guide from Xtravirt is worth having a look at.... however you'll need to get a different cpu to continue....

[mikemcsw]

Instead of buying another notebook and encountering my next obstacle, i think i would prefer to wait for VMWARE to wake up and support VMFS on IDE.

I understand that it may not have the performance of SCSI, but it would have a lot better performance than running under vmworkstation 6.5 on an ide emulating SCSI.

Can someone from VMWARE please respond to when you will support VMFS on IDE???

[TomHowarth]

from memory ESX will install on IDE it is just the VMFS partitions that have issues and have to be installed on a SCSI/SAS drive, and some SATA controllers work as well

Tom Howarth

VMware Communities User Moderator

[TomHowarth]

Thread moved to the ESX 3.5 forum

Tom Howarth

VMware Communities User Moderator

[TomHowarth]

Well bearing in mind the ESX is intended to be used in enterprise and on Server based Hardware, I would say that this is not on their roadmap. and to be truthful I am inclined to agree. VMFS is a high performance file system. You can install VMFS on certain SATA disks. have a look at www.vm-help.com for advice on which IO cards have been found to work. but VMFS on IDE I do not think that will ever happen, especially as IDE as a disk technology is rapidly being superceded by SATA.

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Tom Howarth

VMware Communities User Moderator

[mikemcsw]

Well, it seems like VMWARE went through a LOT of trouble to ensure ESX would work on a notebook under vmworksation 6.5. Those notebook drives are IDE or SATA...There aren't a whole lot of scsi notebooks that I am aware of.

There is a LOT old hardware floating around there with IDE drives, and it would be a great marketing decision if VMWARE decided to make a little effort and allow vmfs to be created on IDE, especially since esx itself will install on it.

The ESX installation on this dell gx 270 took all of 10 minutes to install....that's great...now if that vmfs could reside on IDE, as part of the default installation, you would have even a bigger audience. If it is required to make people search for compatible hardware, and need to buy it to try it, it is just my opinon that they would be turned off. Marketing should want to make this product available for demo to everyone with "ease" and "no out of pocket" expenses to get them hooked.

I mean, really, how difficult could it really be to make vmfs support IDE?? If I was in marketing, I would say, MAKE IT HAPPEN. JMO

[TomHowarth]

Well, it seems like VMWARE went through a LOT of trouble to ensure ESX would work on a notebook under vmworksation 6.5. Those notebook drives are IDE or SATA...There aren't a whole lot of scsi notebooks that I am aware of.

Workstation is a personal Virtualisation product, and the ESX guest has to run a SCSI driver to work. so I do not understand your statement here. ESX is still running on a SCSI device, albeit a virtualized one under WS.

There is a LOT old hardware floating around there with IDE drives, and it would be a great marketing decision if VMWARE decided to make a little effort and allow vmfs to be created on IDE, especially since esx itself will install on it.

Why, this hardware is as you say old. not exactly a good candidate for a ESX host. running Guests.

The ESX installation on this dell gx 270 took all of 10 minutes to install....that's great...now if that vmfs could reside on IDE, as part of the default installation, you would have even a bigger audience. If it is required to make people search for compatible hardware, and need to buy it to try it, it is just my opinon that they would be turned off. Marketing should want to make this product available for demo to everyone with "ease" and "no out of pocket" expenses to get them hooked.

It is, it is called ESXi and it runs very well. I can understand your frustration about the IDE drives. but I throw your arguement back at you. the aim of marketing it to generate Leads to converting to Sales, there just is not enough money to be made out of VMFS on IDE. for a test environment WS6.5 running ESX is more than enough.

I mean, really, how difficult could it really be to make vmfs support IDE?? If I was in marketing, I would say, MAKE IT HAPPEN. JMO

Why IDE is old technology that is doing south. why waste developer time on getting a IDE driver for VMFS. it is makes much more business sense to expand the SATA and SAS I/O card support. these technologies are todays and tomorrows technology.

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Tom Howarth

VMware Communities User Moderator

[mikemcsw]

Well,

it seems like VMWARE went through a LOT of trouble to ensure ESX would

work on a notebook under vmworksation 6.5. Those notebook drives are

IDE or SATA...There aren't a whole lot of scsi notebooks that I am

aware of.

Workstation is a personal Virtualisation product, and the ESX guest has

to run a SCSI driver to work. so I do not understand your statement

here. ESX is still running on a SCSI device, albeit a virtualized one

under WS.

>>My point was, engineering took the time to make vmworkstation 6.5 capable of running ESX on an ide drive. My point was that I am sure that took a lot more of an engineering effort, than to simply allow a vmfs partition on an IDE drive.

Maybe I am incorrect, and it wouldn't be a "one man/one day effort" for vmfs to be capable of installing on the same ide drive that esx is capable of residing on.

I can understand not throwing a lot of money out on engineering such a solution that would make ESX available cheaply and easily in every home, if it would take more than one engineer's cigarette breaks for a week.

With all the boxes floating around america with an ide drive that could be an esx server in 10 minutes "for the techies quest" of a "cheap easy test box" ...it may be too much to ask for. I guess we need to either find a notebook that supports VT (which isn't easy or cheap), or to buy a server on ebay (again, not easy or cheap).

[mikemcsw]

Ok, let's take this a different direction then. I went this direction at someone's advice in these forums to install esx on baremetal to my gx270. So i finally got around to taking their advice and upgrading the memory and adding a large hard drive to support esx, only to find i am "SOL" again. My first effort was to buy a notebook and run workstation 6.5 on it, but the notebook doesn't support VT in the bios. I am also hearing some notebooks have VT, but that it cannot even be enabled....i certainly don't want to go down yet another path that leads to no-where, so maybe someone can suggest the least expensive route that is proven to work, that will allow me to build a "cheap test lab"? I would want to be able to support esx 3.5 and vmotion....

What is my cheapest and best direction?

[mcowger]

I highly doubt it would be a 1 day 1 man effort to get VMFS on IDE. VMFS is more than just laying a filesystem down. It a method for managing simult. access my multiple hosts, and things like SCSI reservations are the right/safe way to accomplish that. The reservation code is likely VERY deep in VMFS. IDE doesn't support anything even close, and those it would likely be a MASSIVE effort to make it work.

--Matt

[mikemcsw]

Ok, what do i buy then? I found the old message, where someone told me I could install esx on my gx270, so I spent the money to upgrade the memory and hard drive for nothing.

What is a cheap recommended solution? I don't want to buy some expensive notebook with VT technology....I am sure that is dog-slow. How about a used sata dell server? Recommendations?

I hope whoever's recommendation I follow this time, will not lead me down a third non-working solution.