Wanted to get a new motherboard with more SATA cables and extension slots for my home made NAS/SAN. But since I got the board, might as well do the ESXI community some good by testing if the hardware is compatible with ESXI 4.0.
Well, I managed to install it… so I guess it must be! Got it installed on Esxi 4.1 Update 1 (10 Feb 2010).
There might hit 2 snags though in the installation though:
Problem 1: System hangs at loading module usb
Solution 1: Disable C1E Support in BIOS. Press Delete to enter Bios. Go to Advanced. Go to CPU Configuration and Disable C1E Support (4th Option)
No idea why this is so but got some help from a useful post at:
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/272255
Problem 2: Unable to load module /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/vmfs
Well, if you are like me, trying to cheapo and get lucky by hoping that you can get by without the Intel PRO/1000 GT Adaptor, you will probably encounter the above error.
Soution 2: Plug in some Intel NIC that is supported by VMWare. We should also try disabling the motherboard’s in-built LAN.
http://communities.vmware.com/message/1571740
Hope this will help some other ESXI tinkerers.
Hurray! I contributed a bit back by posting at the forum:
http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2954&e=0
But I wonder why they did not include my motherboard in the main compatibility list at: