Using local sata storage on Dell Optiplex 745

[emnaki]

I'm trying to make Esxi update 3 use my local storage to store the VM images. I have setup esxi using usb boot according to the below thread:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1138818

When I log into VI CLient, in Storage Adapters, it shows the 2 port SATA IDE Controller (ICH8), with vmhba1 and vmhba33. But when I try to add a datastore, it gives a blank list.

In my BIOS I have set SATA to legacy and enabled chip virtualization, the drive has one 32 fat partition. I have copied the new oem.tgz into Hypervisor1.

fdisk -l and esxcfg-vmhbadevs only list device vmhba32 which is my usb drive.

I tried to look for info about the two devices in /proc/scsi/ata_piix and for both entries contain the below message:

The driver does not yet support the proc-fs
vmkadapter:vmhba1

So since it has worked for some else with the exact same system, so it should work for me as well. What should I try next?

[nick_couchman · Accepted solution]

I'd try it with SATA in Native mode. Also, make sure that you don't have the built-in "RAID" capabilities enabled - the Optiplex 745 has an on-board "fake RAID" controller, and those do NOT work with ESX/ESXi.

Also, how are you going about trying to add a datastore? You should be going to Configuration -> Storage and then adding using Disk/LUN in the wizard.

[emnaki]

Setting it back to native solved the problem, but I mean geez... every single post told me to set it to legacy mode ?:| Thanks for the help!