windows 2008 server r2

[mmurrin]

Has anyone gotten the Windows 2008 Server R2 beta working on ESX? I every time I try to install the OS, it does not dectect the hard drives. Does anyone know if there is an updated lsi driver for R2?

[madda]

have you tried mounting the SCSI driver floppy on the R2 beta VM and specifying the drivers from there?

[mmurrin]

Yes I have tried that, it does not work unfortunately.

[madda]

I haven't seen any updated drivers released recently for LSI to specifically run on 2008 R2, you could always try a normal LSI driver from http://www.lsi.com/support but that will be very much hit/miss

[RParker]

Has anyone gotten the Windows 2008 Server R2 beta working on ESX?

Great leave it to MS to reinvent the wheel every release. Windows 2003 and Windows 2003 R2 were the same, I can't believe they changed it. What configuration are you using?

[mmurrin]

I am using Windows 2008 Server 64bit on ESXi Update 3

[madda]

Have you tried R2 32bit? That might be more forgiving to getting up and running on ESXi

[mmurrin]

Just tried it, no difference.

[maishsk]

I have installed it on ESX 3.5 and ESX3i without any issues whatsoever.

Installation recognizes the disks without a problem.

Maish

Systems Administrator & Virtualization Architect

[Craig_Baltzer]

It works for me on ESX 3.5u3 by selecting Windows Server 2008 64 bit as the OS type. No need to add any SCSI drivers, everything works as is.

If you're not using the Windows Server 2008 pre-built Guest Operating System type, make sure that you're selecting the LSI Logic as the SCSI adapter; there is no support for the BusLogic adapter in W2K8R2 and you'll end up with no hard disks visible...

[mmurrin]

I have tried using the 2008 64 bit template, with the LSI drivers. The install still does not decect the hard drive.

[RParker]

I have tried using the 2008 64 bit template

Are you changing the config or starting with a fresh one each time? I have seen issues (for instance switch from Windows 2003 to Windows 2000 doesn't work for Windows 2000) when changing an existing config, you have to start over as a new VM with the configuration you choose.

[mmurrin]

I was just changing the settings but then I created a new VM with using 2008 64 right off the bat and it did the same thing.

[Grimson]

A Dutch newsarticle stated that Microsoft intentionally removed the LSI Logic driver from Windows 7 / Windows 2008 R2.

The author stated also his opinion against Microsoft for doing this; mostly to annoy vmware users. If it's true, shame on Microsoft.

[Craig_Baltzer]

The LSI Logic driver definitely has not been removed for the beta builds that are up on the beta site

[mmurrin]

Alright, I got it to work. I re-downloaded the iso from Technet and everything installed fine. I must have had a bad download. Thanks for everyone's help.