vmware ESXI failed to install on a C210 M2 server

[Haydn von Imhof]

Hi All,

I am having an issue installing VMware ESXI on an old C210 M2 server I have.

Server Specs: C210 M2 - Single Xeon E5620 2.4 GHz - 12 GB RAM - 8 X 300GB SAS Drives

The server was a former DMM server that I am trying to repurpose.

I have followed the server setup guide and reconfigured the drive configurations creating a virtual drive 0 from two disks for the ESXI host and creating a virtual drive 1 with the remaining disks for the main storage.

When installing VMware (4.1 or 5.0 or 5.1) I get the error shown in the attached screen shot.

I read on some other forums that the Dell guys have had this error before and it was due to the LSI controller firmware. A simple upgrade fixed their issues but I cant from anything on Cisco servers having this issue.

I have upgraded the controller in my server but to no avail.

Does anyone has any ideas?

Next I am going to try the Cisco UCS Host Upgrade Utility to bring all the components of the server to the same level and try the installation again.      

[Keny Perez]

I would try a supported ESXi version and a customized Cisco .iso image... so the questions are...

1-Did you check here http://www.cisco.com/web/techdoc/ucs/interoperability/matrix/matrix.html to be sure firmware and OS are compatible

2-What RAID controller are you using?

-Kenny

[Haydn von Imhof]

Hi Keny,

Thanks for the reply.

I did check the compatibility matrix on Cisco's site and on VMware but they were of little help.

I finally got VMware loaded though.

I had to downgrade the server components to 1.2 using the Cisco UCS Host Upgrade Utility. After that I was able to install ESXi 5.0

[Saurabh Kothari]

Hello Sir,

To understand what went wrong!

I checked the Cisco interop and found that esxi 5.0 is not supported on a minimum 1.4 firmware.

However esxi 4.x is supported.

As you mentioned - Did you upgrade the RAID controllers' Firmware using HUU?

 Firmware 1.2 on C210 M2 doesn't support ESXi 5.0 either.

I would say download HUU for 1.4.x as per interop matrix and do a 'update-all' 

Use customized Cisco iso which is available at VMware.com

What was the firmware prior to downgrade?

Thanks,

Saurabh

[Haydn von Imhof]

Hi Saurabh

Sorry I made a mistake on the firmware release.

The server firmware is now on 1.4(3x) and Esxi is  5.0.0

I tried using Cisco custom images for 4.1 and 5.1 and 5.5 nothing worked. I managed to get 5.0 loaded and an going to try upgrade the host instead of doing a fresh install.

[Saurabh Kothari]

Is your current RAID controllers' firmware is 2.130.363- 2183 ?

If yes then installation shouldn't be a problemb from RAID cards' perspective. Firmware is fine.

[Haydn von Imhof]

LSI MegaRAID SAS 9261-8i

Firmware: 12.12.0-0149