I have been trying for several days to install ESXi 3.5 on a Dell Poweredge 750 with no success. I believe it has to do with the BIOS not having the AHCI option. The server is listed as compatible and the controller is too.

I would really like to get this working by Tuesday and would even be willing to pay a reasonable fee for a working iso.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Eddie

Do you get the unable to find supported drive error like this - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/ESXi_3 ... ted_device

If so could you post the PCI id for the controller?

That is the error I am getting, but the controller is listed at http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Hardware_support.php as supported. The PCI id is 8086:25a3.

I think the problem is due to the BIOS not having support for AHCI mode.

I was hoping there is a way to find a driver or way to get this working.

When you get the error, can you access the console and run lspci -p. Do you see a module listed for that device? Are you running the latest BIOS for the server?

Yes and yes.

Which module is it? Do you see any drives when you run fdisk -l?

When I run lspci -p the 8086:25a3 does not have anything under Module, but says vmhba0 under the Name column. It does show the nic 8086:1075 as e1000 and vmnic0.

Running fdisk -l does not return any results.


Running lspci -v shows the 8086:25a3 as follows:
00:31.02 IDE interface Mass storage controller: Intel Corporation 6300ESB SATA Storage Controller [vmhba0]
Class 0101: 8086:25a3


BTW: Thanks for helping with this.

Eddie

When the module is missing there was a problem with the driver loading. Take a look in /var/log/messages as the error should be logged there.

I can see it, but not sure what to look for.

How can I get the file off of the server so I can post it here?

Thanks

Unfortunately ESXi 3.5 doesn't bring up the network as does ESXi 4.0 so you can't copy it across the network. look through the file and you should see a section where the driver is loaded. Any errors there?