VMware ESXi 6.5 Installation fails with Error

[TopHatProductio]

Dear Community,

       Please bare with me, for I am new to hypervisor operation(s). As such, I may make simple mistakes along the way. I purchased a Dell Precision T7500 from a 3rd party recently, with the following specifications:

• CPU :: (1x6crs.) Intel Xeon X5650
• RAM :: (6x2GB) 12GB DDR3

                   NOTE :: 3 active memory channels

• GPU :: (1x) nVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti

                   (1x) nVIDIA GeForce GT 520

• SFX :: (1x) Creative 'SoundBlaster' Audigy 2
• STR :: (1x) 4TB HDD

                  (1x) 500GB HDD

                  (1x) 320GB HDD

In addition to this, I should be receiving a CPU/RAM riser and a 2nd (identical) CPU in the mail in a few days/weeks. In that case, I'll have 2 of the same CPU in this workstation instead of one - and that will be the only thing changing. During the installation, I attempted to install ESXi to the 4TB HDD, to no avail. Here is a video of how my installation went:

ESXi Install Attempt :: Part I - YouTube

The final error that I arrive at is:

• Unable to successfully execute 'tryFormatDevice' after 3 tries

I've searched across Google, and have only arrived at one possible solution:

Expand the LUN (size?) from 8GB to 16GB.

Possibly related topic: ESX 6.5 is unable to format a partition when installing on iSCSI.

But, how does one expand/extend LUN? Is it in BIOS? Is it something that must be performed in the installer? Please help.

[TopHatProductio]

Just logged in, successfully, through the web browser. Sadly, the vSphere Client (desktop application) wasn't able to login. So, I guess I'll stick to the browser for now. The UI is a bit laggy at times, and doesn't like to load (quickly). I'll have that fixed as soon as it's activated (hopefully)...

[TopHatProductio]

Okay - I can log in to the ESXi server now. Which means I can begin creating virtual machines. And I can login successfully via the web browser. Now I need to setup vCenter - which requires Windows Server (can't be run from my laptop - ). The bad part is, I have a vCenter key waiting for use (already activated ESXi - Enterprise+ for both). I'll need to decide on whether to bring the other tower back to life or not (in which case, VM-inception ensues)...

[daphnissov]

You don't need a Windows VM to run vCenter. In fact, don't even do that. Use the Linux-based appliance, which deploys as a VM anyway, and put it on your ESXi host.

[TopHatProductio]

I would certainly like to do that. However, I am actually having some difficulty finding where to download the appliance from. I'll keep digging/searching through vmware's website, but if you happen to have the link/URL, that would help a lot :smileyplain:

[TopHatProductio]

Okay, I now have an entirely different issue:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vmware/comments/8ms8s1/esxi_beginner_trying_to_get_pci_passthrough/

I'll repost it here if I have the time this week...

[zweiandlen]

When i enable 'Drive Write Cache' in BIOS,it is work。not 9%,not 'tryFormatDevice' after 3 tries

HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 Server

VMware-ESXi-6.5.0-5310538-HPE-650.10.1.5.20-Oct2017

[TopHatProductio]

While I am currently not in my ESXi season (currently planning out a future hardware upgrade), I will take this into account in my next go at it! :smileygrin:

[rlund]

I generally recommend installing to a 16gb usb drive for a white box server or workstation. Otherwise grab a small ssd for cheap on amazon.