July 10th, 2008 
Kiwi Si 
Hi all,
I am looking at compiling information on, and presenting via the site, peoples experiences with running VMware ESX (versions 3.0-v3.5, including v3i) on HP Proliant ML110 and Ml115 servers. I get quite a few queries regarding what is compatible and what isn’t so thought it be a good idea to compile this information, including workarounds, gotchas and hot deals in an easy to follow format.
These are great little, cost effective servers that make an ideal ESX test environment.
If you can let me know what you have found to work for you, were any tweaks/workarounds required along with any other information you think may be useful to others.
I can confirm that the ML110 onboard storage controller and onboard NIC’s work just fine under v3.5. See my previous blog article here for more information.
Here’s a rough outline of information to give a basic example. This will be a work in progress and a fresh blog article created to house this information.
UPDATE: Check out my blog article here on installing VMware ESX 3i 3.5 on an ML110 G5.
| Make/Model: | Disk Controller: | NIC: | Work Around? |
| ML110 G4 | SC44Ge | NC320i | N/A |
| ML110 G5 | NC105i | ||
| ML115 | NC320i | ||
| ML115 G5 | NC105i |
Useful Additional Information:
VMWare ESX v3.5 I/O Compatibility Guide
List of unsupported servers that work with ESX v3.5 or v3i
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My name is Simon Seagrave and I am a London (UK) based Technical Architect. 
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[...] with ESX (v3.5) and those that aren’t or where there are tweaks or a work around. Here is a link to my temporary article – whilst I compile this information. Check back soon or add me to [...]
The “HP DL180G5″ has also the “NIC105i” onboard!
You can add it to your list
[Reply]
This link may be useful for those of use considering the ML115 G5 as a VMWare test environment: http://www.virtualvcp.com/content/view/27/26/
It seems to indicate that this model will work out of the box (albeit with a minor tweak via a script).
[Reply]
A Quick addendum to my earlier post: I’ve now ordered 3 of the ML115 G5’s and I’ll keep you update on my experiences.
[Reply]
Hi Rog,
Let me know how you get on.
I’ve had some good feedback from others on my other ‘ESX on ML110′ type post which give their experiences with running ESXi on the ML110 G5. This can be found here: http://www.techhead.co.uk/building-a-low-cost-cheap-vmware-esx-test-server#comment-3959
[Reply]
Hey Guys,
I wrote the article on http://www.virtualvcp.com regarding ESX 3.5 on the ML115 G5.
At the moment this little server is running strong and stable for quite a while now. However I do prefer the ML110 G5 for ESX 3.5.
The only problem I found on the ML110 was that the integrated NIC is not supported by ESX 3.5 and therefore I had to install the Intel Pro GT. Other than that, the esx software installed fine.
At the moment I have the following setup:
2x HP Proliant ML110 G5 with 8GB RAM each running ESX 3.5 in a cluster with HA/DRS. This is connected to my iSCSI target for shared storage.
1x Standalone HP Proliant ML115 G5 with 4GB RAM, running ESX Server 3.5 (No HA/DRS), for testing purposes.
1x HP Proliant ML115 G5, 2GB RAM, 4X500GB SATA Drives (RAID 5), running openSuSe 10.3 (No GUI) with iSCSI Enterprise Target for shared storage.
This works very well, and I am currently studying for VCDX using this setup as well.
Regards,
Rynardt
[Reply]
Simon (+ Rynardt)
The install on my boxfresh ML115 G5 went smoothly and the ESX build (as of 18/08/2008) even recognised the onboard NIC as a Broadcom BCM5722 which I wasn’t expecting (having read about the need for an Intel PCI NIC on this model).
However one thing that is confusing me at the moment is that I cannot see the Nvidia SATA storage controller despite running the script mentioned above. As such at the moment I can add the ‘persistent storage’ required for the vmfs3 partition to host the VM’s.
The Adaptec SATA RAID card that I bought in case of complications is no good becuase it needs a 64bit PCI slot – which as you both know isn’t present in these little tower cases! Back onto eBay for those
[Reply]
Simon (and Rynardt),
My boxfresh ML115 G5 install went OK (even identifying the onboard – which I did not expect).
ESX can obviously ’see’ the disk as the server component originally installed OK but if it can’t see the controller from within the infrastructure client then I have no way of assigning storage for vmfs3.
I cannot see any local storage controllers within the infrastructure client despite running the script mentioned above, in fact the boot process now freezes at ‘Checking filesystems’ with the RAID option turned on in the BIOS (with one local disk present)
Any thoughts?
[Reply]
I take it all back.
Gave the machine a hard reset after the ‘checking filesystem’ failed to proceed and lo and behold I now have the MCP55 SATA Controller shown under storage!
[Reply]
Hi Rog,
You mentioned that you have the RAID turned on in the BIOS. From what others have written this may give you a problem. Aparently this BIOS setting should be set to SATA only (ie: not RAID).
Let me know how you get on with the install.
Cheers,
Simon
[Reply]
Hi,
Well that is interesting. I wonder if your machine has a diferrent Embedded NIC than mine, or if VMware enabled support for the NIC in their latest build, which is Update 2?
Also, I’ve never used the script to enable support for the nvidia sata controller with Update 2. I should have been more clear on my blog on my website. I should have said to do a reboot after running the script.
Also, I’m not sure if the previous question was aimed to me, but yes you’re right, the BIOS settings should be set to SATA only if you’re going to run ESX. However, my 2nd ML115 is not configured as an ESX Server but as a iSCSi target, running Suse Linux
Regards
Rynardt
[Reply]
You’re quite right guys – although I created a virtual disk out of 2 further SATA disks in the nVidia array management, ESX still saw it as 2 physical disks rather than the virtual composite.
I think I’ll revert back to just using it as a basic SATA controller and stick one big Samsung in there for storage in addition to the ’system’ disk. Not too fussed about read/write performance as I’m more interested in the architecture than loading it up with VM’s.
Anyway, thanks to you both for getting me up and running.
Simon – I’ll provide my server part number and confirmation of what my NIC and Disk controller are identified as for your compilation of working ML variants when I get home tonight.
[Reply]
Hi all,
never tried esxi with an ml150G5 box?
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I’ve tried ESXi 3.5 on the ML110 G5, not the ML115 G5. But In my mind, it should work fine. Can’t say without trying though.
http://www.virtualvcp.com/content/view/35/1/
[Reply]
One thing I found using the on-board SATA RAID with ESX1 3.5u2 – although ESX sees the raid 1 mirror as a single drive, the second drive doesn’t get mirrored. I’m suspecting that the on-board SATA raid requires support from an OS driver to do the mirroring. I added a 3rd drive and happily setup a raid 5 array, but again I have not found that it will rebuild a replaced drive. I’m suspecting the OS doesn’t have the support required, despite appearing to work initially.
Any other observations on this ?
Cheers,
Dan
[Reply]
Is it possible to get ESX 3.5 Update 2 as an evaluation user ? Or is it only availabe to registered purchasers.
I’d really like to get the ML115 onboard NIC going
[Reply]
Installed ESXi 2.5 Update 2 on HP ML110 G5 – All went peachy!! However when i try and install OS onto guest – no bootable device found (save E1000 NIC) How do i get this to see a hard drive and or CD rom – probably use ISO on storage for this.
Best regards
Omar
[Reply]
Installed ESXi 2.5 Update 2 on HP ML110 G5 – All went peachy!! However when i try and install OS onto guest – no bootable device found (save E1000 NIC) How do i get this to see a hard drive and or CD rom – probably use ISO on storage for this.
can anyone help with this??
Best regards
Omar
[Reply]
I got hold of update 2, installed OK on my ML115 and found the onboard NIC, didn’t find the sata controller still, so ran the script for “nvidia sata controller”
Finds it OK then but after a short while running it turns of the controller and lock the box, giving read errors on the console.
I did notice when running the script, it has issues with one of the names syslogic ?
So I guess the script is no good for Update 2
Cheers.
[Reply]
Graeme,
I confirm the same behaviour as you:
Virgin HP Proliant ML115 G5 (only had a memory upgrade to 4GB) with supplied 160GB Seagate Barracuda drive.
ESX 3.5 update 2 installs fine (with warning about selecting IDE drives on the partitioning section). NIC is detected and works with static IP.
Reboot into server console mode and apply the nvidia sata controller script (errors/warings regarding Symbios and LSI names).
Reboot into normal running mode.
Then after this any task that carries alot of disk activity crashes the host system, in particular installing a guest OS.
I intend playing with BIOS settings an will report findings here.
Anyone else experienced these issues or has a fix.
Cheers.
[Reply]
OK…I’ve done a bit more testing. I have got exactly the same hardware working on an ESX 3.5 install (i.e. without update 1 and 2). I did need to install an Intel NIC, as this was not recognised by the setup program.
It is possible that the SATA controller patch isn’t quite right for update 2. I haven’t tried it on update 1.
Irregualar
[Reply]
Irregular, I got exactly the same problem with ML115 G5, nVIDIA controller when installing ESX 3.5 Update 3.
It ran fine initially then after copying a DVD iso image file to the ESX host it crashes. Rebooted it a few times an always got stuck with remounting the filesystem. Could some please update the fix script to get it working with ESX u1/u2/u3?
Thanks in advance!
[Reply]
Just a small update to my previous post of installing/using ESX 3.5 on ML115 G5 (with nVIDIA SATA onboard controller):
- ESX 3.5 without update 1/2/3, ESX 3.5 can’t fully start up after installation. But if you boot it into the “Service Console” mode and run the fix script, reboot it then it works quite well.
- ESX 3.5 update 3 (not tried the u1 u2 yet but from what I can tell they may have the same problem), ESX 3.5 u3 can fully start up after the installation, but you cannot create vmfs storage.
If you run the fix script in “Service Console” mode then reboot it, you can see all the drives (providing they are not set to use RAID in BIOS). You can create vmfs storages. However, the ESX host crashes once you start heavily utilising the storages. And even if you reboot the host, it always get stuck at checking filesystem.
I reckon this is due to the way ESX 3.5 u1/u2/u3 works differently to the original v3.5, and the fix script was probably written for the original 3.5 version. I shall be very grateful if someone can update the fix script.
[Reply]
I’m not in front of my ML115 ESX setup at the moment but do the steps mentioned here http://flickerdown.com/?p=206 mirror what the ‘fixsata’ script does?
[Reply]
Yes, the script seems to automate those steps.
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My latest update is, the script or the manual “fix” (http://flickerdown.com/?p=206) works to ESX 3.5 update 1 but not after on ML115 G5 with onboard nVIDIA SATA controller.
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Looks as if it might be a case of Adaptec SATA cards all around then gents?
[Reply]
Hi
I have the same issue as Kevin Jiang when i install ESX 3.5 Update 3.
Is there any updated script that makes ESX 3.5 update 3 work on the ML115 G5 Quad Core.
TIA
[Reply]
Ben Reply:
May 11th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Hi
ML110 G4 (latest bios 010 7/20/2007) findings…
Using onboard SATA controller I can install ESX 3.5 Update 2 and 3 fine, but Update 3 does not allow you to create any storage on the local SATA disk. Adding another SATA HD does not fix.
Installing Update 2 (creating/checking storage) and then upgrading to Update 3 makes the local datastore inaccessible.
I will get hold of Update 4 and check that too…
[Reply]
Kiwi Si Reply:
May 11th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Hi Ben,
You’ll most likely get the same result as well. Check out this article for a fix.
Let me know how you get on.
Hope this helps,
Si
[Reply]
Ben Reply:
May 12th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Update 4 worked fine for me
[Reply]
Kiwi Si Reply:
May 15th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Hi Ben,
Thanks for the feedback on U4.
Cheers,
Si
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