topic Re: Installation of VMware ESXi 4.1 fails on bl460c G7 in BladeSystem - General

Installation of VMware ESXi 4.1 fails on bl460c G7

cpruke — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:38:54 GMT

I'm trying to install VMware ESXi 4.1 on our new bl460c G7 servers, but it fails in the beginning with a traceback error screen.

Following is the last line in the error message:

vmkctl.HostCtlException: Unable to load module /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/vmfs3: Failure

Any clue?

Re: Installation of VMware ESXi 4.1 fails on bl460c G7

Johan Guldmyr — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 13:55:30 GMT

Hi!

Looks like BL460c G7 is not certified yet on any VMWare :/ !

http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/us/en/servers/4x-servers.html

Win2k8 R2 and RHEL5 is supported.

Would you be able to try ESXi 4.0 and see if that works?

Maybe there is driver issue or something like that? But both G6 and G7 have the P410i controller so that doesn't make sense..

Are you installing it on the local hard disks?

I don't know enough about VMWare, like what kind of drivers does it use? Would it be possible to use the RHEL drivers or something like that?

Re: Installation of VMware ESXi 4.1 fails on bl460c G7

cpruke — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 14:05:41 GMT

According to VMware it should work: http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?device_cat=server&device_id=12838&release_id=24

I have tried to install on servers with local disks and SD card. The same error is shown on both combinations.

ESXi doesn't give the same error, but complains about the unsupported NICs.

I have installed 4.1 earlier without any issues on G6 blades.

This is really strange.

Re: Installation of VMware ESXi 4.1 fails on bl460c G7

Johan Guldmyr — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 19:00:08 GMT

Yes.. very strange!

Contacted HP about this?

Can you disable the NICs in BIOS?
Does that maybe make a difference?

Re: Installation of VMware ESXi 4.1 fails on bl460c G7

Sivaramakrishna_1 — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 09:36:34 GMT

I hope ESX will not be installed in we disable NICs.

You can try by supplying additional driver disk. The below link may be link to vmware site and try your luck.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=4194638&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=4194735&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=4091

Earlier we had a similar kind of issue with G6 server with ESX4.0 like unsupported network, the issue is with NIC firmware. Later we have downgraded the NIC firmware all went well.

Siva