Eye on Blades Blog: Trends in Infrastructure

[#1]

The ProLiant BL460c G7, BL465c G7 and BL685c G7 server blades are certified with VMWare and were just listed on the VMware HCL.

To install ESXi with these blades, and to do a scripted installation with ESX, you need to use HP images, not the images available on vmware.com.  This is because the standard VMware image does not have the required NIC drivers.  With ESXi, and with scripted ESX installation, there isn't a way to add them during the normal installation process.

Both of these images are available via SW Depot at hp.com.  [ESX ESXi]

First, here's what's available for download from VMware on vmware.com :

• The base distribution for ESX and ESXi.
• The network drivers for the NC551i and NC553i network adapters.  These NICs use the a controller from ServerEngines (a company now owned by Emulex),  so the drivers are in the Driver CD for ServerEngines BladeEngine 10Gb Ethernet Controller package, currently at version 2.102.440.0.

Installing ESX 4.x ("classic")
Non-scripted Installation: For a simple (non-scripted) install of ESX classic you can download the base ESX ISO and the NIC drivers from VMWare listed above. The VMware install process gives the opportunity to insert the missing NIC drivers.

Scripted Installation: For a scripted (PXE or RDP based) install of ESX classic, the VMware install process does not have a mechanism for adding in missing drivers. To resolve this issue HP worked with VMware to create a custom image that includes the required drivers. This image is available from HP.com via the SW Depot download area.  This custom image is the only route for a successful scripted install of ESX on the new G7 blades.  The drivers that are included in this image are the same ones that are available for download from the VMware site.

Installing ESXi 4.x
HP publishes an HP image for ESXi that includes:

• HP management components – CIM providers
• NIC drivers that are required for HP servers that are not in the base image

The VMware install process for ESXi also does not have any means for adding drivers. The ESXi installer checks to see if there is a valid NIC driver on the image and will not allow the install to proceed if a supported NIC driver is not found.  People using these new G7 blades must use the HP ESXi image.  This HP image includes those same drivers listed above.

Management Agents (both ESX and ESXi)
Unlike the network drivers, the HP management components for ESX and ESXi  can be installed after the base hypervisor from VMware has been installed.  These compontents are available for download from HP.

[#2]

How about the NMI driver? When will HP support DDC/Smartlink with 4.1 on the Flex-10 NICs?

[#3]

Hi,

I'm testing a BL465 G7 in a C7000 Chassis with Flexfabric Interconnects. I can't get my ESXi host to see the FCOE HBA Driver (The flex-fibre). I've assigned the fabric ports to a server profile (along with the flex nic ports) ...

Any ideas? 

[#4]

Hi Daniel

Does the latest HP ESXi 4.1 media include the following fix for HP NMI events:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=uk&prodTypeId=15...

Cheers

David

[#5]

I am currently not able to install ESXi 4.1 onto a HP BL685c G7 blade using either the HP or VMware Image.

I see the following error.

"vmkctl.HostCtlException: Unable to load module /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/vmfs3: Failure"

This appears after accepting the EULA.

VMware Support are claiming that it is the NICs due to the NC551i not being on their HCL, however the Serverengines BladeEngine controller is on their. the RAID controller P410i and processorts AMd61XX series are also on the VMware HCL.

Have you seen this HP Image deploying ESXi 4.1 sucessfully to a HP BL685c G7 blade?

Thanks

Steven Bryen

[#6]

Steve,

Did you use the install media from the link above, or the generic VMware media.

[#7]

Hi,

Ive tried to download the ESXi version from HPs website but my G7 still doesnt see the onboard serverengines nics.

It can see the quad port nics on my mezzanine fine but when I disable this card, I get an error below:

"This system doesn not have a network interface card thats plugged in, or all network interfaces are already claimed. installation can not continue as requested"

I know this cant be true cause im running a scripted installation and PXE booted into the installer. The section its failing on is when it goes to read the ESX kickstart file from an FTP location. If I alt-f1 into the console, I can also see that esxcfg-nics -l reveals no nics .

Any ideas? Could it be firmware related?

[#8]

Sham,

I always start with the latest firmware.  Look at my BladeSystem toolkit blog for one method to deply firmware to new blades.

Next I would try a manual install, to verify it's not an issue with your script or kickstart file.

Ken

[#9]

Thanks Ken. Turns out the issue was related to by SYSlinux config as Im using Altiris to deploy the images.

All working as expected

[#10]

Ken posted a list of the drivers included in the HP ESXi images:

http://h30507.www3.hp.com/t5/Eye-on-Blades-Blog-Trends-in/Driver-Versions-in-HP-supplied-VMware-ESX-...

David, the NMI driver is in the ESXi 4.1 image.  (Just for posterity, here's the VMWare KB article mentioning why there's an NMI driver: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1021609 )

[#11]

Thanks Daniel for confirming the nmi driver fix is included. Saves me installing it.....

Thanks

David

[#12]

As sham stated earlier

"Turns out the issue was related to by SYSlinux config as Im using Altiris to deploy the images All working as expected"

What did you change?  I'm having the exact same problem using Altiris.

Thanks, 

Scott

[#13]

Since we bought our C7000 and did all the firmware upgrades and also on the blades we have installed the ESXI load (from above link) but things are really really slow. 

  We are trying to nail down what it takes so darn long to deploy a clone froma template.  We are running VMware ESXi 4.1.0 build-260247 and vcenter 4.1.0 (Build 345043 and vSphere Client 4.1.0 build 345043) can someone please help..Thanks!  I have also posted this in the vmware community but now sure where else would be good.

thanks.

Here is a tail on  the vpxa.log

[2011-02-24 22:29:23.740 1CCE4B90 verbose 'App' opID=task-internal-4607-cbf64c0d] [TranslateVpxdMetrics] Could not translate vpxd counter 217, metric omitted.
[2011-02-24 22:29:23.745 1CCE4B90 verbose 'SoapAdapter.HTTPService' opID=task-internal-4607-cbf64c0d] HTTP Response: Complete (processed 1934 bytes)
[2011-02-24 22:29:23.745 1CCE4B90 info 'App' opID=task-internal-4607-cbf64c0d] [VpxLRO] -- FINISH task-internal-4607 --  -- vpxapi.VpxaService.querySummaryStatistics -- 52d3c41e-7a73-4746-0ec5-689827560688
[2011-02-24 22:29:40.464 1CE6AB90 warning 'App'] [VpxaHalStats] Unexpected return result. Expect 1 sample, receive 2
[2011-02-24 22:30:00.465 1CCE4B90 warning 'App'] [VpxaHalStats] Unexpected return result. Expect 1 sample, receive 2
[2011-02-24 22:30:14.540 1CEECB90 verbose 'SoapAdapter.HTTPService'] User agent is 'VMware-client/4.1.0'
[2011-02-24 22:30:14.540 1CEECB90 verbose 'SoapAdapter.HTTPService'] HTTP Response: Client: NeedsContentLength: false UnderstandsChunking: true CanKeepAlive: true (PresetContentLength -1)
[2011-02-24 22:30:14.541 1CBE0B90 info 'App' opID=task-internal-4608-4a7de7db] [VpxLRO] -- BEGIN task-internal-4608 --  -- vpxapi.VpxaService.fetchQuickStats -- 52d3c41e-7a73-4746-0ec5-689827560688
[2011-02-24 22:30:14.541 1CBE0B90 verbose 'SoapAdapter.HTTPService' opID=task-internal-4608-4a7de7db] HTTP Response: Complete (processed 972 bytes)
[2011-02-24 22:30:14.541 1CBE0B90 info 'App' opID=task-internal-4608-4a7de7db] [VpxLRO] -- FINISH task-internal-4608 --  -- vpxapi.VpxaService.fetchQuickStats -- 52d3c41e-7a73-4746-0ec5-689827560688. Expect 1 sample, receive 2

[#14]

I think the links are down for the HP .iso images for ESX and ESXi.  Does anybody have an updated link?

[#15]

This post helped me out. Thank you!

A new issue I have though is trying to install Dell's Multipathing Module for our PS4000 SAN. After the install, I get the same message that no NICs are recongnized like you get from installing the vmware version of ESXi instead of HP's. I wonder if this has to do with the custom NIC drivers from HP? This is on our BL490c G7

[#16]

Hi

Can you please provide the direct link to get HP esxi4.1 image ?

thanks

Tom

[#17]

How about those updated links to get ESXi for these blades?

[#18]

The download links are in the 3rd paragraph on this page.

Both of these images are available via SW Depot at hp.com.  [ESX ESXi]

[#19]

can someone please tell me why there was a build release in February (HP_esxi4.1_U1_Feb_2011_ESXi_HD_USB_SDImgeInstlr_Z7550_00031.iso) and another build released in April (4.1_U1_Apr_2011_ESXi_HD-USB-SDImgeInstlr_Z7550_00096.iso)

I cannot find any release notes for the April build

[#20]

Did anybody find those release notes for April?  I need them also.

[#21]

Has anyone had issues using the 460G7 and ESX 5?

I can install ESX ok, but then cannot connect using vSphere Client or vCeter Server 5.

I get the following error: Call "ServiceInstance.RetrieveContent" for object "ServiceInstance" on Server "MyServersIP" failed.

[#22]

The base image that VMware mistakenly provided to OEMs in February  had 2 missing files. This caused VUM to fail image compliance verification. The April image has the same esxi kernel build but corrects the issue with the 2 missing files.

[#23]

Will this image work on a BL460c G7 with an added on Mezzanine card HP NC553m?  We cannot use the internal adaptor HP NC553i.

Marcus

[#24]

When will we see the HP Esxi 5 version for the Proliant BL460c G7 and BL465c G7 servers?