HP ML350 G5 - ESXi?

[blueivy]

Hi,

I know the the ML350 G% is not in the supported HCL for ESXi, however from what I have read it appears the E200i is a supported RAID card and the rest will be a very similar hardware to the ML370 G5 which is supported. I also know that even though it's not on theHCL doesn't mean it won't work!

I am about to place an order for an ML350 G5, however I don't want to spend aover £1k on hardware that won't work with ESXi. Alternatively I could use VMWare Server on Linux but would rather use ESXi.

So my question. Has anybody managed to get ESXi to work on an ML350 G5?

[deems_vm]

I'm in a similar position. I'm looking for a high quality, relatively low cost quiet server I can deploy in my office and the offices of my customers. I spent half an hour in a chat session with HP Thursday morning and half an hour on the phone with Dell yesterday. Here's what I found out:

• The HP ML350G5 is listed on vmware's HCL for ESX Server 3.5.

• The HP rep told me that the ML350G5 will run ESX3i.

• The HP rep also told me that if I bought the machine through him, I could return it within 30 days if it didn't meet my needs.

A friend of mine suggested I buy a Dell 1950 III (1U) or 2950 III (2U) instead. They can be ordered with ESX3i embedded and are supported by VMware with either ESX3i or ESX Server 3.5. I'm looking into them. These are rack mounted servers that might not work well in a small office environment. It seems like Dell is strongly positioned in this area.

[rsa911]

ML350 G5 works fine as an ESXi host

installed a couple lately and no issues

make sure you get the BBWC module for the SmartArray controller

redundant power supply and fans are also a must on your purchase list (not expensive and a nice improvment in overall reliability)

[deems_vm]

Which model/config did you purchase? What's the BBWC module?

Thanks.

[blueivy]

Guys many thanks for your help there. That is a wait off my mind. I'll get a decent quote now for the kit and get it ordered.

Redundancy is a must but at the momet cost is a consideration so the second PSu and the fans will need to wait but they are on the list. The BBWC comes with the 350 anyway but I agree is an absolute must.

[blueivy]

The ML350 G5 comes with BBWC (battery backed write cache). The E200i queues up writes to the disk so that it can be done more efficiently. However if the power goes when the data is in the queue it disappears and is never written. Can lead to corruption etc. The battery keeps the data in memory so that when the server comes back on the card can then write the data to disk that it has in it's queue. Stops the corruption and other problems.

The one I'm looking at is HP # 470064-610.

[rsa911]

Model purchased :

ML350T05 Xeon 5410 (2.33GHz/1333FSB) 1P 2GB SA-E200 BBWC LFF 2x72GB DVD-RW

P/N: 470064-613

and extra ram (the original 2 gb are not enough to do anything serious with your vmware box)

Kingston 4GB Ram Kit: KTH-XW667/4G

HP Redundant Power Supply Kit Euro (ML350/370/380G5)

P/N:399771-021

Redundant Fan Kit Hot Plug For ProLiant ML350 G5

P/N:409579-B21

BBWC is the a battery backed cache module for the smart array, it vastly improves performance as without this module write cache is disabled to ensure data integrity in case of power loss

the BBWC module ensures any data in the controller cache will be written to the disks when power comes back

[deems_vm]

Thanks guys. This forum is great.

Are SATA drives ok for a light load?

[rsa911]

>Are SATA drives ok for a light load

yes, as they will be attached to smart array, they benefit from the cache and bbwc protection.

you can even mix SAS and SATA (in different raid arrays, but still in the same machine and single controller)

homever pay attention to the warranty: the server itself and the SAS disks have a 3y warranty wheras SATA drives have only a 1y warranty

[KristianEklund]

I have the Dell PowerEdge 2950 (III) and it is not suited for

a small office environment. It is very loud and I had to

exchange the fans to low-RPM Papst-fans to be able to

have it on..

Works perfectly with ESXi.

[deems_vm]

I agree. The Dell Poweredge 1950III and 2950III put out 70 db, which is not suitable for a small office . The ML350 puts out 35 db.

I'm about to purchase the ML350.

[Dybvik]

I can confirm that ESXi works on ML350 G5 as i have one beside me in my office running smoothly with 9gb ram and 2x146gb sas in raid1 and 3x500gb sata in raid 5

The BBWC module is needed if you wanna make RAID5 diskset on the E200i controller. RAID5 is not supported without this one. Got the server delivered with 1 xeon quad core cpu. Got additional xeon quad core cpu today, installed, and works like a dream. Had a little misunderstanding about the allocation of virtual processors to the virtual machines, but after some reading it seems that 4 cpu's (cores) are max supported in this version of VMWare.

Im thinking of running 3 virtual test machine platforms on this box, in addition to the ESXi itself.

1) Windows 2003 std ed, 32bit, sp2, domain controller (3gb ram, 20gb disk, 2 virtual cpus (aff 6+7))

2) Windows 2003 std ed, 32bit, sp2, exchange server against the comain in server 1 (3gb ram, 20gb disk, 2 virtual cpus (aff 4+5))

3) Windows 2003 std ed, 32bit, sp2, mssql 2005 express database server, (3gb ram, 20gb disk, 2 virtual cpus (aff 2+3))

Anyone have any thoughts on this setup ?

[blueivy]

This doesn't answer your question but poses another!

Are you saying that if I buy a second quad core CPU then it's redundant to ESXi as it only supported a maximum of 4 cores?

I maybe misunderstanding and you mean that I can CREATE up to 4 virtual CPU's from the 8 cores (pover 2 CPU's) that I would have so that I can assign a cirtual CPU to a particular VM leaving the other 4 cores to be used as ESXi sees fit?

[rsa911]

>Are you saying that if I buy a second quad core CPU then it's redundant to ESXi as it only supported a maximum of 4 cores?

absolutely NOT

the "4 cpu" limit is the maximum number of vCPU you can assign to a single virtual machine

ESXi will use your second physical cpu and use the 8 available cores to schedule the various VMs

[deems_vm]

I'm about to pull the trigger on a ML350 G5 with a single Xeon 5410 processor. To prepare for installation, I checked out VMware's "ESX Server 3i Installable Setup Guide". I found something on page 20 that said we need at least two processors. This isn't correct is it? The HCL lists the ML350G5 with Xeon 5400 processor as compatible with ESX.

Thank you.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

You can install with a single processor. If you're using a licensing file, then you'll need to using the licensing service - http://www.vmware.com/download/eula/single_processor.html.

[deems_vm]

Thanks Dave.

If I download (when it becomes available) and install VMware ESXi 3.5 Installable Update 2, do I need to deal with a licensing file and service? TIA.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

No, it's a seperate Windows service / app and it'll be unaffected by update 2.

[cosfreelance]

Hi All,

I am trying to install a SATA 1.5tb LFF drive in the machine (Seagate Barracuda 7200) . I have connected the cdrom's power and data to the seagate drive and the ML350 does not see the SATA 1.5Tb drive. Can any one confirm if this configuration will work. I am using ESX 3i 3.5.0 build-123629.

Many Thanks

[Bartmosss]

First, you should check in the ACU at boot time if the drive is detected and configured.

I think it is the first thing to check. Then ESxI should see it.

MCP, A, Network, Linux+, VSP, VTSP, VCP