VMware ESX 3.x

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Hiltonizer

[H]ard|Gawd
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Aug 5, 2004
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Hi All,

I just whiteboxed a few systems for a test environment here at work, I have 3 quad core servers with 8gb of ram running GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L motherboards for under a grand a piece.... sounds great right? Well....

I'm not running RAID in this particular test environment, however, ESX wants the RAID Controller driver for the motherboard during installation.

Google has failed me miserably, so does anyone know how I can get ESX up and running on this board and/or where I can find a linux driver for this?
 
I would ask VMware, if I were you. After all, support is part of the package when you buy ESX.
 
VMWare ESX doesn't support IDE or SATA raid or not. While it may be possible to recompile the service console kernel, the VMkernel can't be recompiled. VMware won't support any installs that use drivers that they didn't include in the official release of software. Also the file system, VMFS, only supports SCSI, iSCSI, and Fiber Channel.

Your only option is to install one of the supported SCSI cards listed in the document Child of Wonder linked.
 
welp, i sprung for a RAID controller on the HCL... but i'm still recieving the same error message, though it appears its probably not related to the RAID controller.

"Unable to find any devices of the type needed for this method of installation"... or something to that effect. Regardless of install type.

3.5 came out since i originally posted this, so ive tried that version as well... no dice.

I know its a long shot... but anyone have a clue?
 
welp... this is amazing...

i tried installing from a USB cd-rom drive instead of the IDE DVD-RW I had built the machine with..... all went well. un-freaking-believable.
 
Can I ask what RAID controller you went with in conjunction with the Gigabyte board? I have been able to get ESX 3.5 installed but it won't fire up the VMFS partition with the stuff ESX provides. I am also having issues with ESX not liking the Realtek NIC but I will be scrounging for some Intel Pro 100 pieces to fix that issue.

Thanks for your help!

Ron
 
Hiltonizer said:
Hi All,

I just whiteboxed a few systems for a test environment here at work, I have 3 quad core servers with 8gb of ram running GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L motherboards for under a grand a piece.... sounds great right? Well....

I'm not running RAID in this particular test environment, however, ESX wants the RAID Controller driver for the motherboard during installation.

Google has failed me miserably, so does anyone know how I can get ESX up and running on this board and/or where I can find a linux driver for this?
Click to expand...

VMware Storage TSE here -

To answer your question in short, you can't. At least, not without buying a new RAID controller (supported ones start at about $350). There is no possible way to insert new drivers into ESX, as the console is not actually a true hardware console, but a VM running the COS (Console OS). You cannot access the core OS at all. To run ESX, you need one of the few whitebox supported Motherboards.

Take a look at the Asus P5M2-SAS, it has a controller that is supported (board starts at $320).

In addition, ESX REQUIRES RAID for VMFS. you cannot run it on a non-raid system.
 
Gotcat said:
Can I ask what RAID controller you went with in conjunction with the Gigabyte board? I have been able to get ESX 3.5 installed but it won't fire up the VMFS partition with the stuff ESX provides. I am also having issues with ESX not liking the Realtek NIC but I will be scrounging for some Intel Pro 100 pieces to fix that issue.

Thanks for your help!

Ron
Click to expand...

Adaptec makes the cheapest raid cards that ESX will be happy with. Let me know if you want help finding them, but the HCL is on vmware.com
 
wh4t3ver said:
VMWare ESX doesn't support IDE or SATA raid or not. While it may be possible to recompile the service console kernel, the VMkernel can't be recompiled. VMware won't support any installs that use drivers that they didn't include in the official release of software. Also the file system, VMFS, only supports SCSI, iSCSI, and Fiber Channel.

Your only option is to install one of the supported SCSI cards listed in the document Child of Wonder linked.
Click to expand...

you can't recompile the COS kernel either, unfortunately. Wouldn't really matter, since the COS kernel isn't actually ~doing~ much: It's mostly a service front end and access to the esxcfg commands.

VMFS also supports SAS, so you CAN run SATA drives on a SAS controller, if you'd like.
 
Damn lopoetve, that's some ballistic answering you did there! :D

There's also the post+ button if you want to chain quotes. ;)
 
BillLeeLee said:
Damn lopoetve, that's some ballistic answering you did there! :D

There's also the post+ button if you want to chain quotes. ;)
Click to expand...

I'm used to answering like that from work - we want the posts in separate ones for making knowledge base articles later :D
 
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