64bit support with a Proliant GL360 3.06Ghz and ESXi server

[sccarlso]

Hi,

I acquired a Proliant GL360 with dual Xeon 3.06 processors, 4GB of ECC memory, and two 300GB U320 drives. I installed ESXi server without a hitch and it's running images nicely. The ESXi server has options to select 64bit Operating Systems, although when I tried, I am unable to install a 64bit Operating System as when ESXi server boots the DVD iso image to install the OS, it reports I do not have a 64bit processor.

So a few questions.

1. How can my ESXi server address all 4GB of my memory if it isn't 64bit?

2. I did find a processor upgrade which lists EMT64 support on them. The HP number is

345103-B21 - HP/COMPAQ - INTEL XEON 3.2GHZ 512KB L2 CACHE 1MB L3 CACHE 533MHZ FSB 604-PIN SOCKET MICRO-FCPGA PROCESSOR FOR PROLIANT DL360 G3 SERVERS

So can I upgrade to these processors and be able to run 64bit images on my ESXi server? Is this what is stopping me from running 64bit OS's?

Are there any other processors which support 64bit other than these? If so, does anyone have HP part numbers so I can search for options?

Thanks!

[sccarlso]

Sorry, a bit loose on the typing.

I intended to put in Proliant DL360 but there is no edit capability here in these forums :)

[sccarlso]

Also, I've read the posts that point to matrixes that say it isn't supported, only the G4 and G5 (mine is a G3) but if the processors support it, and the board can address more than 3.3GB of memory. Is it not possible that while HP says no, that it is possible but they don't "support" it but it will work?

[Srinivas Suddapalli]

Hi,

64bit OS is not supported on DL360 G3 server.

4GB memory is addressed because of BIOS, system board and OS support but it doesnn't esentially mean to be supporting 64bit OS.

Following are the links:

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11504_NA/11504_NA.HTML
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3288138&taskId=135&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=316558〈=en&cc=us

The above links confirm that the server does not support 64bit OS.

Further 345103-B21 is a Xeon processor and is not a 64bit based.

So, even if we upgrade processors to 64bit which are not available from HP, the system board and BIOS should also be compatible to support 64bit OS.

You can reply or speak to HP support for any further details.

Regards,
Srinivas S

[sccarlso]

Understood all that, I read those links already, but I can think of dozens of situations where the vendor says it isn't supported, and it worked anyway.

The processor there is not 64bit, but since it has EMT64 capability like many processors do, and which the current 3.06Ghz processor doesn't have I wish someone out there who has this proc and server would just pop one in and try to boot a 64bit OS DVD and see what happens since I don't really want to spend the $200 to try it out. Since the package is the same and that proc is listed that it is for a DL360 Proliant, it should function in the system even if it still doesn't support 64bit.

Thanks anyway!

[con84t]

I have a hunch that It should work for 1 reason, The DL360 supports 8gig of memory. Why would HP do that if it couldn't be addressed?