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Accepted
Steve Bonds
Asked: 2017-10-30 11:23:06 +0800 CST

No Storage Seen When Installing VMware ESXi 5.5 on HP Proliant DL360 G6

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Summary

When I try to install ESXi 5.5U3 on a DL360 G6, it fails because no storage is seen.

Details

Hardware

Server: HP Proliant DL360 G6

CPUs: 1 CPU, Intel Xeon E5506 @ 2.13GHz

RAM: 48GB RAM

Storage Adapter: P410i

Storage: 2x 1TB HP SATA drives

Storage config: RAID "10" on two drives, single 1TB "Logical Volume"

Install Process

ESXi compatibility for DL360 G6: https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=server&productid=14664

ESXi source: HPE custom ESXi 5.5 U3 from https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=OEM-ESXI55U3B-HPE&productId=353

I'm booting using the ILO virtual media on an HTTP-provided ISO. This process works fine and I've had no issues with it on my local LAN. Here are some details about that generic boot process using the ILO CLI:

</>hpiLO-> power
power: server power is currently: Off
</>hpiLO-> cd /map1/oemhp_vm1/cddr1
</map1/oemhp_vm1/cddr1>hpiLO-> set oemhp_image=http://server.name.here/ESXHP55.iso
</map1/oemhp_vm1/cddr1>hpiLO-> set oemhp_boot=connect
</map1/oemhp_vm1/cddr1>hpiLO-> power on

After answering the usual VMware prompts, I eventually arrive at this screen and can go no farther:

Results of Booting ESXi ISO -- No Storage Found

I've tried wiping the RAID logical volume using DBAN, just in case any prior data on there was confusing ESXi, but that changed nothing. This also shows that the storage hardware works since I was able to see the storage using DBAN just fine.

The closest related question I found so far that would be similar to this was this question: ESXi 5.5 on HP ProLiant DL380 G7 Server. In that case, the admin wanted a JBOD disk pass-through, which isn't possible on the HP Proliant internal storage P410i controllers.

Normally I'd try loading a special HPE storage driver, but those are supposedly included on the HPE custom images. Anyone else running ESXi 5.5U3 on a DL360 G6 see this problem and get past it? Are there logs available somehow to show what's failing on the storage detection?

Thanks in advance for any help!

vmware-esxi

2 Answers

  1. Try creating a small logical drive to install ESXi onto. I use a 16GB logical drive for this purpose. You can do this using the offline Array Configuration Utility.

    Create a second logical drive for the remaining capacity for your actual VM data.

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  2. Best Answer

    The non-HP VMware image worked great. What the heck? I wasn't expecting that.

    I grabbed ESXi 5.5.0U3 from https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?productId=352&downloadGroup=ESXI55U3 (MD5: 279685120bdb867172dc1e0c7e93514e) and the storage configuration screen showed just what I'd expect:

    Non-HP VMware image showing a single 931GB drive detected

    I'm not sure what value HP is adding to those VMware images, but for Future Me or anyone else, it's worth trying the non-HP images if things don't seem to work with the HP images.

    UPDATE: The HP 5.5 U2 image also works. Even though 5.5 U3 is on the compatibility list for a DL360 G6, it would appear that this release doesn't actually work properly.

    The 5.5 U2 image name that works is VMware-ESXi-5.5.0-Update2-2403361-HP-550.9.2.40.2-Sep2015 (MD5: 4733f52e30e42549d0d16799002b5942)

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