ML350 ESXi Can't access host CDROM

[Lucas Doherty]

Hi,

I have recently bought an HP ML350 G5 and am running a HP ESXi dongle on it.

I have managed to copy a physical Server 2003 machine to a virtual machine and it works like a charm, however I now want to install an OS (Server 2008)from disk and I cannot access the ML350's DVD drive to install from. I have tried doing it by mounting my computers CD drive in the virtual machine and although it works it is painfully slow.

I would like to be able to install from the ML350's CD drive, does anyone have an idea on how I could do this? Or is the controller in the ML350 simply not compatible?

Thanks in advance.

Lucas

[G Carlisle]

I'm having the same issue as are others. I have upgraded all the system firmware to the latest version and replaced the sata dvd drive with a IDE drive. I still have no option for a cd-rom drive on the host. Once I get a few minutes I will open a trouble call with hp. Both on HP & VMware's sites say the ML350 G5 is compatible with ESXi server. That does not seem to be the case.

Gordon

[Roustabout]

Hi --

I just sorted this on a 180G5, but I suspect you may be in a very similar boat.

My system has SAS RAID on a p400, so very few of my SATA devices are in use - just the one for the CD.

VMWare CDRom drives need their SATA ports to be in "compatible" mode, not "enhanced" mode.

On the 180 BIOS, SATA ports 1 and 2 are available to configure in 'compatible' mode; ports 4-6 are not - they can only be run in enhanced mode.

When I disabled the non-compatible devices in my BIOS I realized that the CDROM was no longer visible to me, meaning it was not connected to a port that could run in compatible mode.

I popped the hood and the riser covering the SATA connectors, and lo and behold: there are six connectors. The CDROM was not connected to port 1 or 2. I fixed this and rebooted, and now have a CDROM in my VMWare build.

I have to say, I'm surprised that HPs design team did not catch this. I'm also very disappointed in the layout of this box. Back in the day, HP had some of the best industrial design I've every seen.

It looks like they fired the old HP team and promoted the Compaq guys. Cables just laying aroudn which should have been tied together and fastened down. Clumps of cables running straight in front of the CPU fans - back in the day, those would have been in a fairing and the fairing would have been designed well.