Unable to get Exsi 5.5 to install in Gigabyte Brix GB-BXi7-4500

[Brixguy]

Hello all,

I have been attempting to put Exsi 5.5 on a gigabyte brix mini barebones PC for use as a home lab for testing and troubleshooting some VMs my company develops. I work in tech support for Extreme Networks (Enterasys side) and would like to get this running as a resource to use to better my ability to perform work tasks.

I have some background experience in PCs, enough to put one together running windows, but windows is quite a breeze compared to this system. Mostly my background is networking and authentication, very little unix and linux.

I have been mucking around sites on the internet and am (I think) very close to getting this system to work. However I have come across a hurdle that has me stumped.

The GB-BXi7-4500 has some unsupported hardware that I have been able to side step through some custom image splicing using the exsi vsphere CLI.

I currently have the 5.5.0 build 1331820 with spliced driver packages for  net-r8168, net-r8169, net-s2io, and net-sky2. I have also spliced in another offline bundle that included additional mappings for my SATA controller and setting the software acceptance level to community supported.

The following 2 sites describe the process I have taken to make the images:

http://www.twistedethics.com/2013/09/23/installing-vmware-esxi-5-5-on-the-gigabyte-brix/

http://www.v-front.de/2013/11/how-to-make-your-unsupported-sata-ahci.html

Currently I am at the point where I boot the installer image from an external DVD driver, and the driver packages look to open normally. However, whenever I boot from DVD and Exsi gets to the point where the popup to install Exsi to the local disk SHOULD pop up, a very very brief window appears and then disappears before I can read it and I'm in the Exsi operating system.

NIC drivers function normally and I can access the device using the vsphere client, however the problem that I seem to be having is that Exsi won't install to the local disk. After some fiddling and searching through the forums I found out how to format the device using the partedUtil utility, and after partitioning with vmfs format vsphere DOES see a mounted disk and I can install VMs on it. If i then reboot the device the VMs disappear and I still can't install Exsi on the local disk. The datastore shows up as mounted, but the VM i installed is gone.

Here is some random output I have that may be helpful to the community:

lspci -v:

0000:00:1f.2 SATA controller Mass storage controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point-LP SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] [vmhba0]

         Class 0106: 8086:9c03

/etc/vmware/driver.map.d # cat xahci.map

regtype=linux,bus=pci,id=8086:9c03 0000:0000,driver=ahci,class=storage

~ # cd vmfs/devices/disks/

/dev/disks # ls

t10.ATA_____MKNSSDAT120GB2DDX________________________MK140527AS1386595___

t10.ATA_____MKNSSDAT120GB2DDX________________________MK140527AS1386595___:1

vml.01000000004d4b3134303532374153313338363539352020204d4b4e535344

vml.01000000004d4b3134303532374153313338363539352020204d4b4e535344:1

And I actually have a file system:

Filesystem   Size Used Available Use% Mounted on

VMFS-5     111.8G 7.6G    104.1G   7% /vmfs/volumes/Datastore01

Any ideas or advice?

[virtualnobody]

Hi, can you install to a USB stick? 4GB schould be enough.

[Brixguy]

USB installs have been unsuccessful. Esxi hangs on "initializing storage stack".

Only way around if from what I can tell is to disable CMS parameters in BIOS, but then it fails to boot from USB stick.

[virtualnobody]

Have you tried to install from a untouched install image? Maybe some of the added drivers are not working in your system setup. Often the legacy IDE controller is the issue.

[Brixguy]

Booting from stock image has the following results:

Installation screen still does not pop. Landing screen for Exsi shows unsupported Ethernet driver.

vmfs/devices/disks shows no attached disks.

[virtualnobody]

So it is possibly not related to the new drivers.

Have you tried to disable power management options in BIOS? And maybe disable VT-d also as it is only needed if you want to passthrough hardware to a VM.

[iforbes]

@Brixguy - Crap. So, can you confirm if ESXi can or cannot successfully install and boot from USB on a Brix?

[CassiusKing]

You can boot from USB, I'm still trying to add NIC drivers to the ISO image as I'm getting stuck at "No Network Adapters"

In BIOS Enable Virtualization, Disable Erp Support, and Disable CSM

1. Download the ISO file and install it on a USB stick so it can be booted on the Brix Box.
2. Hit F2 on the first boot and make sure CSM is disabled in the Boot option and reboot.
3. Hit Shift-O during the first 5 seconds of the ESXi install and add noIOMMU to the boot line. It should say “runweasel noIOMMU” without the quotes.
4. Install ESXi and use the USB storage device as the location of install and not the SSD.
5. After install remove the USB and reboot.
6. On the first boot we will still need to pass the boot parameter to disable IOMMU, use the same procedure as described above in step 3.  The line will be much longer now.
7. Once the device is booted, set the IP address or connect to the address as shown in the console.
8. Connect using the VMware vSphere Client
9. Enable SSH on the Unit - Under Configuration | Security Profile (Under Software, not Hardware) | Click Properties for Security Profile | Services | Select SSH | Select Options | Click the Start and Stop with host radio button

SSH into the unit and run this command without the quotes to set the noIOMMU flag on boot.

“esxcli system settings kernel set --setting=noIOMMU -v TRUE”

1. Type reboot from the CLI and the unit should boot and be ready for use.