New BE7K Install, booting into shell

[mumbles202]

Working on a new UCS C240 that boots into the shell rather than VMware as I expected it to. I have the CiMC setup but was checking on the best path forward.  The boot menu doesn't seem to list any drives or flash to boot from either. In the past I believe we were able to download a Cisco customized image from VMware, but now that Broadcom has pulled the ESXi downloads wondering if anyone has run into this or knows how to proceed?

[Jonathan Schulenberg]

If you don’t see a HDD option on the omen you need to use the RAID config utility (watch for it during boot) to create a logical volume. Once that exists you can raise it up the boot order in CIMC.

[mumbles202]

Ok thanks for this.  I'm used to the BE6K that came pre-installed w/ the OS.  I'll check for this.

[mumbles202]

This would normally be a single RAID 5 volume or 2 RAID 5 volumes, splitting the number of disks in half?  

[riaan.vanniekerk]

I don’t think what you are trying to install with is the the issue, but if you are looking for the Cisco customised ISO, see

https://community.cisco.com/t5/unified-computing-system-discussions/vmware-custom-iso-post-broadcom/td-p/5105340

[mumbles202]

Thanks. I'll check this out and see if I'm able to download.

[Steven Tardy]

You didn't provide a server Serial Number or any relevant details so I can only guess what parts shipped with your server. . .

Does this server have M.2 boot drive?
If so push the M.2 boot disk controller firmly onto the motherboard (a bit harder then you thing you should).

https://bst.cloudapps.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCvy63223
UCS C-Series/B-Series Mini storage controller (FlexFlash and M.2) seating issues

[mumbles202]

That's fair.  The unit is a UCSC-C240-M7SX.  I'll try to work on getting the serial number, but looking at the order it has 32 600 2.5 drives.  I don't see any other drives on the order. 

So the server typically doesn't ship w/ a volume created?  I'd have to create the volume, install VMware, then install regular UC applications?

[riaan.vanniekerk]

"So the server typically doesn't ship w/ a volume created?"

Try booting off an ESXi install CD. If the installer does not show the local drive/volume, create the volume.

If ESXi installer sees a volume, install to it. UC application I assume install/configure as you usually would.

NB: Since the server is M7, it runs fairly new firmware, and I would recommend installing with as new a Cisco customised ISO as possible, e.g. VMware-ESXi-7.0.3o-22348816-Custom-Cisco-4.3.2-a.1.iso accessible via the procedure documented at 

Instructions to find Product Downloads, OEM custom images, Patches and Addons in the Broadcom Support Portal.

[mumbles202]

Thanks for the information.  I was able to get into the CiMC and created 2 Raid5 volumes w/ 7 disks each and left 2 Global Hot Spares.  I downloaded the latest ESXi customized image I could find on Broadcom site and will attempt to do the install today to 1 of the volumes.  The server came w/ relatively new firmware but I'm upgrading to the latest so that is done before proceeding w/ the ESXi install.

[Jonathan Schulenberg]

If you intend to use this for the Cisco Collab suite of apps, be sure the RAID config matches what they call for in Cisco Collaboration on Virtual Servers (CSR 14) to be TAC-supported - especially proper use of the write cache.

Edit: They haven't updated that doc for M6 hardware. The hardware examples specify that a BE7K M6 Medium is supposed to have four RAID5 volumes each with four drives in them though.

[mumbles202]

Thanks for the post.  I created 4 volumes each that matched this.  The controller is a ucs-raid-m6sd.