Cant install ESXi on intel DG35EC Motherboard. PLease help!

[RaymondG]

Error: Unable to find device to install Vmware ESX

Config: 500GB SATA drive in slot 0, DVD Sata drive in slot 1 (slots go from 0-3)

intel DG35EC motherboard.

I've tried changing every option on the Drive config. Bios setting and i get the same error. Please help if you can.

Thank you.

[microkid]

My crystall ball is broken. Please be more informative.

- What error do you get?

- What settings did you use for your Sata drive? IDE? Raid? Native? AHCI?

- what's the complete specs of your pc?

[RaymondG]

error is " Unable to find a support device to wirte VMware ESX Serverr"

Manufacturer: Abort

Model: Aborted

Service Tag: Aborted

I have a core 2 quad with 8 gigd of ram.

[Troy_Clavell]

EDIT: removed link as OP is already active in the thread I linked.

Message was edited by: Troy Clavell

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Take a look through these -

http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Hardware_support.php

http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/find_PCI_ID.php

http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/ESXi_install_to_IDE_drive/ESXi_install_to_IDE_drive.php

[RaymondG]

Thanks for the Help Dave. I was able to get it installed via a modified USB iso. Network works and everything.

[hla]

Just as a note. The DG35EC bios 112 and 113 has a bug that causes the AHCI setting to malfunction. Even though you select to use Native SATA with AHCI, you will see that VMware is seeing only IDE devices.

Use bios 107 instead. WIth this bios version and SATA controllers set to Native AHCI, ESXi 3.5 U4 is working without any modifications.

[ashtonhar]

Installed ESX 3.5 U4 on Intel DG35EC.

Network is working, installations sees the sata disk and creates ESX on it, BUT we don't see the controller in the configuration zone, thus we can't create a datastore in this disk.

It has BIOS 112. Is this the problem ?

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Could you post the output for lspci -p and fdisk -l? Also a screen shot of configuration \ storage adapters.

[ashtonhar]

This is the output for lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 2980 (rev 03)

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 2982 (rev 03)

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 2983 (rev 03)

00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82566DC Gigabit Network Connection (rev 02)

00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 2834 (rev 02)

00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 2835 (rev 02)

00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 283a (rev 02)

00:1b.0 Class 0403: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 284b (rev 02)

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 283f (rev 02)

00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 2841 (rev 02)

00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 2843 (rev 02)

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 2830 (rev 02)

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 2831 (rev 02)

00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 2832 (rev 02)

00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 2836 (rev 02)

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801BA/CA/DB/EB PCI Bridge (rev f2)

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 2810 (rev 02)

00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 2820 (rev 02)

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 283e (rev 02)

00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 2825 (rev 02)

03:00.0 IDE interface: Unknown device 197b:2368

04:05.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Lucent Microelectronics FW323 (rev 70)

the output of fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/hda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux

/dev/hda2 14 650 5116702+ 83 Linux

/dev/hda3 651 719 554242+ 82 Linux swap

/dev/hda4 720 9729 72372825 5 Extended

/dev/hda5 720 973 2040223+ 83 Linux

Attached is a screenshot of the storage adapters

We also tried to upgrade the bios, but we got an error in the process, as the iflash exe found the 107.bio but somehow didn't liked it...

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Your two IDE controllers can't be recognized by ESXi (see the first link). Are you able to change the controller to ACHI? If that doesn't help. You'll want to look at customizing oem.tgz (4th link) to add an entry 8086:2820 and 8086:2825.

http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Hardware_support.php

http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/find_PCI_ID.php

http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/ESXi_install_to_IDE_drive/ESXi_install_to_IDE_drive.php

http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/customize_oem_tgz.php

00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 2820 (rev 02)

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 283e (rev 02)

00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 2825 (rev 02)

Before you look at oem.tgz you could also try this

esxcfg-vmhbadevs -a (should return nothing)

vmkload_mod /mod/ide.o

esxcfg-vmhbadevs -a (you might see a vmhba listing now (or lspci -p and look for vmhba(x) and a module of ide.

[ashtonhar]

We downgraded bios from 112 to 107, but still no luck...

storage is not shown in configuration\storage adapters

What should the settings in bios be for the drive ?

AHCI ?

[ashtonhar]

ok now...

we have changed AHCI in order to reinstall ESX server (as the cd was not recognized properly, and we had to install windows to run the windows based bios updater)

we turned it back to AHCI, and the controller is shown normally..

[hla]

The issue with firmwares 112 and 113 with Intel board DG35EC is that they changed the PCI device IDs for AHCI devices. This could be a bug or intentional.

In BIOS 107 the PCI device ID for the SATA controller in AHCI mode is 8086:2824:

00:31.02 : Intel Corporation 82801HB (ICH8) 4 port SATA AHCI Controller

Class 0106: 8086:2824

In BIOS 112 and 113 the PCI device ID for the same SATA controller in AHCI mode is 8086:2820:

00:31.02 IDE interface Mass storage controller: Intel Corporation

Class 0101: 8086:2820

This is a bug according to their own description of the board, where the SATA controller in AHCI mode should be 8086:2824 (Which is the one working with ESXi). But the only response I got from Intel support until this moment is that ESXi is not supported, so they won't do anything about this. Maybe I will create a new case with Red Hat Linux instead, cause the PCI device ID issue will be the same.

[ashtonhar]

Just another question...

We had a couple of virtual machines, running on vmware workstations...

Is it possible to import them in the ESX running on DG35EC ?

Because, ok, we have now a datastore, but

1/ when we tried to convert the vmdk from the vmware workstation and choosed as destination the Infrastracture server and it's datastore, the process completes succesfully, but we get a kernel panic (the VM's are running Suse 6.4 & 7.4 respectively) as the VM doesn't recognize the sata controller..

2/ when we tried through veeam fastSCP to copy the vmdk's in the ESX,and then tried to run vmfstools we get an error that the disk is not scsi...

root@esxserver penguin# vmkfstools -i vm_latest.vmdk vm_new.vmdk

Destination disk format: VMFS thick

Source disk type must be scsi. 'vm_latest.vmdk' is an ide disk

(we haven't installed the oem.tgz - should we do that? or it's not possible at all to import the vmdks in a non scsi disk.. ?

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Did you use VMware Converter to migrate the VM? You don't have to worry about changing oem.tgz. The error about scsi/ide refers to the disk type of the VM. On Workstation, the virtual hd was IDE and ESXi only supports SCSI vritual HDs.

[ashtonhar]

No we didn't used VMware converter. The conversion was done through VMware Workstation.

Should we try with VMware converter or there isn't any chance of make it to work ?

Yes in the workstation the virtual hd was IDE. Can we change it to be virtual Scsi ?

[DSTAVERT]

If you use Converter it should take care of the conversion.

[RaymondG]

Hey are you guys able to attach the Host Cdrom or floppy to your VM? I am not able o do it for some reason. The CDrom is SATA, and it shows up as an HBA of type cdrom. But i am not give the option to attach it in the edit settings menu.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Take a look through this - http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1008673.