kdewitt
Contributor
Contributor

Supermico X7DVL-E puzzling Sata issues

Here's my current configuration;

||_Product Information_|| ||
|*Vendor*:|SuperMicro|
|*X7DVL-E*:| |
|*E*:| |

||_Configuration Tested_|| ||
|*VMware Infrastructure*:|ESXi 3.5u2

VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 2

|*Configuration Tested*:| |
|*Integration Method*:| |

||_Support Information_|| ||
|*Vendor representative?*|no|
|*Configuration Supported?*|no|
|*Support Provider*:|metaflo|
|*Support Provider Contact Info*:|kurt@metaflo.com|
|*Support Provider Website*:|metaflo.com|
|*Support End Date*:|n/a|
|*Known Issues*:|sata controller not working correctly - intel 5000V / ESB2 |
|*Additional Comments*:|see below|

SuperMicro - X7DVL-E (2 x socket 771 64bit Xeon (quad or dual)MB) FSB speed of 1333Mhz/1067 Mhz / 667Mhz - ATX form factor

- ACPI

- 6 x onboard SATA ports (supports RAID 0,1,5,10)

- 2 x Gbit Lan ports-supported by ESB2 south bridge (works 1st time under ESXi!)

- 1 x EIDE UltraDMA / 100 bus master I/F.

- 1 x floppy (I'm not using this.)

- 6 x USB - not using headers, just 2 x onboard on back of system board.

- ATI 16MB ES1000 Graphics Controller

- Super I/O: Winbond W83627HF

- loaded w/ 1 x Dual-Xeon 2GHz cpu in socket location #0

- 2 GB (2 x 1GB) RAM ECC registered memory.

- EIDE DVD

- Bios - 8Mb Phoenix w/ DMI 2.3, ACPI 1.0, PnP, USB kb support, HW Bios virus protection and SMBios 2.3

-

I've been puzzled by this motherboards refusal to work correctly for SATA control for some time now and I'm about at wits end.

The motherboard has a Phoenix Bios (perhaps we should be tracking

versions??) which does contain most of the same settings I've used

successfully on other whiteboxes - i.e.:

- Sata Controller Mode - Enhanced

- Sata Raid Mode - Disabled

- Sata AHCI Mode - Disabled

And indeed, this motherboard worked fine the first time I loaded it up w/ a fresh Samsung 1TB hard drive - HD103UJ.

However, I had formatted the drive correctly in another machine using

Gparted ISO as ESX3. Once I did this, I transferred the drive over to

the machine and then booted up ESXi 3.5.

Machine came up fine and I was then able to connect to it successfully using the VMWare Infrastructure Client on my windows box.

Next, it showed up as a new datastore and I was then able to format it correctly for my system. walaa, it's there.

I then went to the ESXi box's console and did a proper F2 shutdown.

I added 2 x more GB of ECC registered memory (borrowed from an exact

clone of this system - yes, i have 2 systems w/ the same configs

And then restarted the machine. The machine now hangs during boot of the ESXi Server at this point.

"Starting VMware ESX Server 3i: Loading module ata_piix ...

Starting config Script"

I then took the drive out of this system and loaded it into a

completely different system - an E-machine w/ centron CPU 1.6ghz box

running ESXi 3.5 as well. This e-machine recognized the HD and I was

able to format it using this box. Then I tried to transfer the fully

formatted VMSf drive back to the Supermicro box. the ESXi boot still

hangs at the same place.????

Not sure what to try next. any help would be greatly welcome!!!

Reply
0 Kudos
kdewitt
Contributor
Contributor

2nd attempt w/ limited success.

I've now gone back to the Bios and put the SATA Control Mode back to -

"Compatible" mode and left the 2ndary setting to "Serial ATA" mode as

opposed to "Auto".

This allows the ESXi server to boot up correctly.

When launching VMWare Infrastructure Client and pointing to my ESXi

Supermicro box, I get into the Host ok, but the host reports that there

is no persistent datastore.

Next, In the Host screen I navigate to (Configuration > Storage >

Add Storage...) the wizard starts correctly but doesn't see my storage

device (looking for 1tb samsung).

So, then i try the add a new datastore wizard navigating to

(Configuration > "Click here to create a datastore" ) - noting!!! No datastore available. crap.

next, i'm going to set the 2ndary function to "Auto" instead of "Serial ATA" mode and see if that works.

Reply
0 Kudos
kdewitt
Contributor
Contributor

3rd Attempt -

I've now gone back to the Bios and put the SATA Control Mode back to -

"Compatible" mode and changed the 2ndary setting to "Auto" mode from the default - "Serial ATA".

This time, the ESXi boot process does run but the bios seems to be running a ton of different code as it taks about 3 minutes of blank screen before anything happens.

When ESXi comes up and i connect to the host via Vmware Infrastructure Client, I still cannot add the datastore.

I've already been to the vmhelp.org site as well as the ultimatewhitebox web site but i haven't seen any postings on this particular motherboard there. so i'm posting here as well just in case...

Has anyone else out there been able to get this motherboard to work using the onboard intel sata controller? it seems like it should work as it did work the first time I loaded the HD.

Reply
0 Kudos
XenonofArcticus
Contributor
Contributor

This system (Visionman RSX-2ISC10 1U Rackmount Server) is claimed by the vendor (Tigerdirect) to use the X7DVL-E motherboard:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3867932&csid=ITD&body=MAI...

From their site:

Dual Onboard RAID Controllers

Whether you’re running in a Windows or Linux environment, there is a

RAID controller onboard that will support your server deployment. For

RAID levels 0,1, and 5 in a Windows environment, the included Intel

Matrix Storage controller is currently the best onboard RAID controller

available. For those in a Linux environment, the LSI Logic onboard RAID

controller offer RAID levels of 0,1, and 10.

It sounds like you may want to be using the LSI logic RAID controller instead of the Intel. The LSI lacks RAID5 (which the Intel Matrix offers) but it sounds like you aren't trying to use RAID 5 anyway.

kdewitt
Contributor
Contributor

I gave up on using raid since it didn't seem to show up correctly in ESXi. Do you configure the raid set from the Bios? If so, does ESXi automatically detect you are using raid and then allow one to format using VMFS? Or does ESXi have a utility to work with the driver it sees on the motherboard?

My ESXi system w/ this motherboard didn't provide any indication that it found a raid controller. but then again maybe i just missed that one??

Reply
0 Kudos
XenonofArcticus
Contributor
Contributor

I haven't even run ESXi. I was just basing it on what I had read that the Intel controller was sort of Windows-only, and assumed ESXi would be the same situation.

I'm leaning towards Xen instead of ESXi, since I'm a small F/OSS guy and ESXi (free) really seems to be crippled if you aren't licensing a bunch of VI tools. And, ESXi doesn't seem to be able to take advantage of theSATA RAID on my server for reliability.

Reply
0 Kudos
hcronin
Contributor
Contributor

I'm almost glad to see I'm not the only one having issues with the Supermicro X7DVL-E on-board disk controller. I've encountered all of the problems you've mentioned and some even wierder feces after enabling AHCI support within the BIOS. As far as RAID support within ESXi, I've played with ESXi on several different "whitebox" platforms including several different SuperMicro mother boards and have not successfully gotten the ESXi installer to recognize hardware raid support on any of them. After reading the entries you and others have posted my next step as far as the SuperMicro X7DVL-E motherboard is concerned will be to disable the on-board disk controller and try a couple of different disk controllers I currently have access too. What has become painfully clear is VMware is incredibly finicky and picky about the hardware on which it runs. I'll keep you posted on my results as I move forward.

But let's be honest with each other "we've gotten what we paid for...". The truth is we won't put up with this level of incompatibility if the product were not free. At this point the real question is how much longer can I continue to waste time on a system that is so poorly documented and incredibly finicky about it's hardware configuration. There may not be a price tag associated with the FREE download of ESXi, however, because of the time being wasted on systems incompatibilities and incredibly bad documentation. The total cost of ownership associated with the FREE ESXi hypervisor is making Server 2008 and Hyper-V appear to be a much more cost effective solution after all.

More Later,

HCronin

Reply
0 Kudos
XenonofArcticus
Contributor
Contributor

FWIW, I went with Xen, and have been pretty happy with it. I'm using the disk controller in JBOD mode and letting the Xen Linux Dom0 kernel handle the RAID0 in software and then the VM clients (DomU's in Xen terminology) don't see the RAID at all, they just get a reliable block device to use as a hard disk.

Reply
0 Kudos
hcronin
Contributor
Contributor

I to have worked with Zen and have been quite impressed with its performance and stability. The truth is I only have one problem with Zen, as an independent consultant I can't afford to purchase legal copies of Zen, VMware and Hyper-V. To date I haven't been able to acquire an off-site storage copy of Zen Server to play with in my home lab. Since Microsoft support makes up the vast majority of my billable work, I've maintained an MSDN subscription for several years now. So the copies of Server 2008 and Hyper-V, I use in the lab are not only legal but supported. However, from strictly a performance point of view I've never been very pleased with MS Hyper-V.

So when I recently started rebuilding my home lab to fully utilize virtualization I was delighted to see VMware offer the ESXi hypervisor for free. Even with almost thirty years of computer experience under my belt, implementing ESXi hypervisor has been a challenge. Primarily because ESXi has been so terribly particular about the hardware platform upon which it runs. The bottom line has been that by the time I'd gotten VMware's hypervisor up and running it was ANYTHING but free. I've also encountered similar problems while implementing ESXi at customer sites. So when I compare actual personal experience with both Hyper-V and ESXi, total cost of ownership has been far less with Server 2008 and Hyper-V than with ESXi.

Ultimately, since Microsoft represents the vast majority of my billable hours. My goal is to have 1 Hyper-V host server, 1 ESXi host server and 1 Zen host server running within my lab. I then want to see how well Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager really works as the central maintenance console for all three VM hosting products. Who knows maybe one day I'll be lucky enough to only have a single VM environment to support.

Best Regards,

HCronin

Reply
0 Kudos
kdewitt
Contributor
Contributor

I haven't yet started to work on getting my drives mirrored as we're in a bit of design mode and this system is mostly used for getting several key apps up and running. We're building out a virtual office concept with it and for that I'm managing desktops of Windows 2008 & Mac's.

I had the system working along fine once I solved these initial issues for the SATA controller and enet's (yes both work now.) There is another key switch you might want to enable and that is in the Bios settings - I'm fuzzy on where exactly now because it's been quite a while but I think it's in the Bios settings under "General" settings (whatever that 1st screen is...)

In order for one to load up Windows 2008, it must run in 64bit mode and in order to get that working, you'll have to enable "virtual mode" on the processors.

My next move is to get the mirrored drives working for this system and then get my 2nd Supermicro MB X7DVL-E up and running. As you've no doubt started to find out... ESXi is sort a a teaser "free" app. Once you begin to get a network humming along, you'll really want to figure out what friend you can bug for a licensed version of the VI3 console as w/ that one, now you can do some cool stuff like Backup and vMotion - or at least that's my impression.

NOTE - "my impression" really means I may not know what I'm talking about as I haven't yet 1) built it, 2) broken it 3) fixed it again! :smileygrin:

Reply
0 Kudos
kdewitt
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for tapping into this thread and sharing your insights. I appreciate everyone's response - pls keep the info coming.

As far as Xen and Hyper-V, I think you've got a valid point on both. It's very apparant that VMware and Microsoft are much better supported for now - at least. I've played around with only the initial versions of Xen and at the time, it was very painful to get it up and running (yes, just like ESXi.) I didn't like some of the things I saw in the management console for Xen. It didn't seem as feature-rich on mgt as the VMWare. Perhaps that has changed by now?? The main thing I struggled with on Xen was the % of people using it in production and not just labs...

The key thing that keeps me playing in the ESXi world are the following points:

1) Main stream - I think I saw references saying up to 73% of Datacenters are using VMware in production now.

2) Mature and feature rich on the Enterprise side - as long as somebody's got the funding. Templates, Permissions, multiple domains, zones, etc... I think Xen can still only do 1 or 2 (correct?)

3) ESXi is the stated goal for next generation Vmware stuff and it's only 32MB... very tiny.

So, when you put together all the above and you're a person who wants to be on the forefront of the technology curve, it stands to reason there will be quite a bit of plowing new green fields and your bound to hit rocks. It's knowing where to harvest the returns that makes the plowing worth while.

For me, I'm cutting my teeth on this stuff because there is value in being at least a very good "generalist" on something like ESXi (As well as XEN or Hyper-V, I suppose). I can see the benefits in having a very small device running the same stuff that also runs on the Enterprise. That's where I see some "bridging" opportunities such as home server connecting more easily to the cloud - and incidentally, where I'm spending a lot of my energy these days too Smiley Happy

For me however, I really love all 3 for different reasons though but mainly because of the competition it's creating. Competition is very good for all of us. Makes the good stuff have to stay good and causes the immature stuff to leadfrog to get ahead. All good for you and me in the end. Net, net, I don't think you could go wrong w/ any of the 3 options. It's where you see the opportunity aligned with your ability to capture it.

Reply
0 Kudos
XenonofArcticus
Contributor
Contributor

>To date I haven't been able to acquire an off-site storage copy of Zen Server

I'm using the Xen open source product on top of Debian 5 Lenny. Hasn't cost me anything yet. I was running my first DomU a couple hours after downloading the Lenny install CD.

You do need to enable VT virtualization on your BIOS for best results with any virtual machine system.

>The main thing I struggled with on Xen was the % of people using it in production and not just labs...

I figured that if it's good enough to run Amazon's EC3, that's enough credibility to me. I am curious if anyone knows how many DomU clients Amazon runs at any one time, but it's gotta be a lot.

>I think Xen can still only do 1 or 2 (correct?)

Can you clarify the question? 1 or 2 what?

I don't have an Enterprise situation (yet). I'm looking forward to adding a few more 1U machines and maybe moving my storage to a NAS so I can hot-migrate DomU's between machines. So far my management needs have been pretty minimal but it's working great.

Reply
0 Kudos
hcronin
Contributor
Contributor

FYI,

Based on my experience with VMware you don't automatically get Vmotion and the backup feature with the new virtual console, vCenter. VI3 is the full infrastructure suite and it includes the virtual console, Vmotion, HA (High Availability) and Backup features. Shortly after releasing the free ESXi hypervisor and the new virtual console replacement vCenter, VMware began to offer a more ala-cart approach to licensing features like Vmotion, HA and backup. Then depending on the version of VI3 your using, you may not get the latest version of the virtual console vCenter. Aren't licensing issues fun to figure out !!! (lol)

I would however, like to know the final BIOS configuration for your SATA drives if it's not too much trouble. I've already got VM support enabled within the BIOS, as this has become a fairly standard BIOS setting when implementing either VMware, ZEN or Hyper-V. If I can get ESXi working with these specific motherboards my current customer will be ecstatic because it will be able to recycle several test and development servers into production VM hosts. Allowing me to complete this virtualization project WELL below budget. So any additional help will be greatly appreciated.

HCronin

Reply
0 Kudos
hcronin
Contributor
Contributor

After reading you had gotten ESXi working with the X7DVL-E motherboard I went back and carefully reviewed the wide variety of choices available within the X7DVL-E bios. ESXi finally recognized the Sata drives, loaded and BOOTED after configuring the BIOS for Enhanced SATA support with both Raid support and AHCI support disabled. During the process we re-confirmed the free ESXi download doesn't support the hardware RAID features. Changing the subject I've also just learned that as of April 1, 2009, the full blown enterprise version of XenServer is available free for download from Citrix. More later, right now, I've got a new VM host to add to my lab!

HCronin

Reply
0 Kudos
orenyny
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

Do you know if there is a way to convert ESXi VM to a XEN (open source) VM?

Thanks.

Reply
0 Kudos
kdewitt
Contributor
Contributor

You will have to google for that one my friend. I would suggest you first start by removing the vmware tools in your VMware Virtual Machine before you try to use any of the howto's available from the web. There are several links from folks who've done the many hard knock trials... down this path.. back up and then try that path... - try this link...

http://ian.blenke.com/vmware/vmdk/xen/hvm/qemu

good luck!

BTW - Since I started this link, I guess I'm ok to force a small fork... Just wanted to let everyone know that I just got the world's lowest cost and lowest power'd motherboard to run ESXi. Fully compliant on SATA & onboard 1GB enet. - I used Intel's newest 330 atom motherboard (around $95.00 retail w/ CPU) and got a configuration that finally worked. I boot it from USB and it's only 7W nominal w/ 1TB of HD!!!

Freakin rocks! This is my shameless pitch for what I'm doing at Metaflo - Please check out my youtube and give me a vote - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj9gm47MFlI

Reply
0 Kudos
orenyny
Contributor
Contributor

Interesting. I was just thinking about such an idea, when I saw that Supermicro has a product like that.

But what can you actually run on this? Will you install a few servers on such machine?

Reply
0 Kudos
ITPro4Life
Contributor
Contributor

That is correct. I had the same issue with this board. I had to update the BIOS to see the option to change the RAID controller from the ICH to the Adaptec (LSI) RAID Controller. I will attempt to reinstall ESXi on a raid partition instead of a single drive and see what happens. Here is the Usermanual for that motherboard. If you scroll downt o tnearly the bottom, you will see the information concerning this RAID Controller and the suggested uses of it in Windows/Linux environments:

Here is the text copied out of that manual:

Native Mode Operation

Select the native mode for ATA. The options are: Parallel ATA, Serial ATA, Both,

and Auto.

SATA Controller Mode Option

Select Compatible to allow the SATA and PATA drives to be automatically-detected

and be placed in the Legacy Mode by the BIOS. Select Enhanced to allow the

SATA and PATA drives to be to be automatically-detected and be placed in the

Native IDE Mode. (Note: The Enhanced mode is supported by the Windows

2000 OS or a later version.)

When the SATA Controller Mode is set to "Enhanced", the following items will

display:

Serial ATA (SATA) RAID Enable

Select Enable to enable Serial ATA RAID Functions. (*For the Windows OS

environment, use the RAID driver if this feature is set to Enabled. When this

item is set to Enabled, the item: "ICH RAID Code Base" will be available for

you to select either Intel or Adaptec Host RAID fi rmware. If this item is set to

Disabled, the item-SATA AHCI Enable will be available.) The options are

Enabled and Disabled.

ICH RAID Code Base

Select Intel to enable Intel's SATA RAID fi rmware to confi gure Intel's SATA

RAID settings.

SATA AHCI

Select Enable to enable the function of the Serial ATA Advanced Host Interface.

(*Take caution when using this function. This feature is for advanced programmers

only. The options are Enabled and Disabled.)

Warm Regards,

Paul J. Chrisco

Reply
0 Kudos
admin
Immortal
Immortal

Thread moved to ESXi3.5.

@kdewitt: If you would like to report a working configuration, please see http://communities.vmware.com/cshwsw.jspa.

Thanks, Robert

Robert Dell'Immagine, Director of VMware Communities

Reply
0 Kudos