May 22nd, 2009 
Kiwi Si 
With the release of VMware’s vSphere and ESX 4.0 (build 164009) those of you that currently own or are thinking of buying an HP Proliant ML110 or ML115 are probably wondering if it will run on these trusty cost effective (ie: cheap 
) lab servers. 
Then if you can install ESX 4.0 on to it to what extent is it compatible? As many of you have probably experienced ESX/ESXi 3.5 U3 and U4 had a number of issues identifying the local SATA based hard disk(s) during the installation process and as a result many people not wishing to hack around with the install ended up running ESX from a USB key inserted into the servers internal USB port.
Well, the good news is that ESX 4.0 (build 164009) works well with the ML110 (G4 and G5) and ML115 (G5 – Dual and Quad Core). The local SATA disk(s) are identified and presented to the ESX install process allowing local disk based installations. I personally still like installing and running ESXi off of a USB pen drive but obviously you don’t get this option with the service console rich ESX version. CPU, memory and network adapters across all of the models mentioned above were detected successfully.
Installing and Running VMware ESXi 4.0 (build 164009):
| Server | CPU | Disk | Memory | Network |
| ML110 G4 |  |
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| ML110 G5 | |
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| ML115 G5 (Dual Core) | |
|
|
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| ML115 G5 (Quad Core) | |
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Below are some screen shots from each of the models from within the vCenter Server interface.
HP Proliant ML115 (Quad Core) G5
Sensors: As with the ML115 G5 Dual Core model there is a disappointing lack of sensor information.
CPU:
Storage:
Network Adapter:
HP Proliant ML110 G5
Sensors: Some useful sensor information – though still no hard disk info. This is a hardware limitation rather than that of ESX. 
CPU:
Storage:
Network Adapter: 
HP Proliant ML115 (Dual Core) G5
Sensors: As you can see there is pretty much no hardware sensors presented with the ML115 G5. Disappointing!
CPU:
Storage:
Network Adapter:
HP Proliant ML110 G4
Sensors:
CPU:
Storage:
Network Adapter:
So you can download the 60 day evaluation of VMware ESX 4.0 with the peace of mind that it will install and run on your ML110 G4/5 or ML115 G5 without any problems.
Also, check out the TechHead ‘Hot Deals’ section on the site as this is where I regularly post good deals on these servers and other associated components that I come across.
More of my related HP Proliant ML110/115 and VMware ESX articles can be found on this summary page here.
Have fun !
Related posts:
- Can you run VMware vSphere Fault Tolerance (FT) on an HP Proliant ML110 or ML115? Thanks to vinf.net for giving me a dig in...
- VMware ESXi Purple Screen of Death on HP Proliant ML110 or ML115 A common occurrence discovered by HP Proliant ML110 and...
- HP Proliant ML110 G6 Released – Still a worthy virtualization work or home lab server? The much anticipated, at least by me , HP...
- Running VMware ESXi on a home lab HP Proliant ML115 G5 with a Dell PERC 5i Array Controller. TechHead would like to welcome James Pearce as a...
- Good Deal & Free Delivery on HP Proliant ML110 & ML115 G5 *** UPDATE – 21st April 2009 *** Prices on...
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My name is Simon Seagrave and I am a London (UK) based Technical Architect. 
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The burning question…..does the AMD one support FT?
[Reply]
Really great to see such a list so quick. A question about the HP E200 array controller, does vSphere show raid or disk status?
If not, do you know if the older “VMware ESXi 3.5 U4 Installable with HP Management Agents and Customizations” did show this status?
[Reply]
Kiwi Si Reply:
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Hi Erz,
Unfortunately not, which means that on an ML110 or ML115 even with an e200 disk controller or similar you are stilll blind to the status of the controller or the attached disks. This is a limitation of the server itself rather than ESX as the status of this hardware isn’t presented through.
This means that the only way of knowing the status of your disks is to perform a reboot and view what the onboard disk controller indicates the disk status as being during boot time.
In my opinion this is the probably the main thing lacking in these great little servers. Though if they did provide a disk and/or controller status then HP would potentially lose sales on the HP Proliant 300 series servers I guess.
You will find that the ESXi with HP Agents installable won’t detect or present any of the hardware through to HP SIM. Infact people often find that it makes their ML110/M115 ESXi install unstable.
Hope this helps.
Si
[Reply]
TheBoy Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Si – I thought this was as massive flaw in ML110 G5 with HP RAID card, hence spending a fair bit of time working through the problem. Hope the link I gave (http://forum.lettronics.com/forums/thread/1273.aspx) helps you and everyone else
[Reply]
Kiwi Si Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Hi,
Thanks for taking the time to reply and for the link to the article. That will most definitely be of interest to all the ML110 and ML115 owners out there!
I will be giving it a go in the next day or so.
Cheers,
Si
TheBoy Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
To monitor array and drive status of an E200 or P400 in the ML110 G5 under ESXi 4, please see this post from my site – http://forum.lettronics.com/forums/thread/1273.aspx
[Reply]
TheBoy Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 7:43 am
I’ve only tested my workaround on ML110 G5, so any feedback on it if works on other ML100 or DL100 series would be useful – I will then update original article on which servers this works on
[Reply]
Hi All
It seems that some configurations will show more sensors, I am seeing all the sensors you have on your ML110 screenshot on an ML115 G5 Quadcore running esxi4.0
On another note does anyone have the original boot cd for an adaptec 5405 0r 2405 please?
Erwin
[Reply]
Kiwi Si Reply:
May 23rd, 2009 at 10:14 am
Hi Erwin,
Hmm, that is strange. Thanks for letting me know. May be a firmware thing. What version of firmware are you running on your ML115 G5 Quad?
Mine is O18 (26/05/2008).
Cheers,
Si
[Reply]
Si
Same firmware as yours I had a look on the HP website and both ML115 are on the same firmware. I get the impression that the Adaptec 5405 changed settings somewhere, I never had these sensors before on esxi 3.5u4.
I have just added another Adaptec 2405 on an identical ML115 G5 and could only see limited sensors with esxi3.5u4. Will let you know what sensors I see when this is added and firmware updated on the raid card.
Also note the USB methood is different on the esxi4.0, so I am installing to DAS for now.
Anyboody interested in running iscsi in a virtual machine other than Openfiler should look at the free Falconstor, Starwind or StormagicSVsan alternative, am benchmarking to see which has the best performance for now.
Cheers..
Erwin
[Reply]
Hi,
Just to update…
Running vSphere ESX 4 in a Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe (in the future will be my SAN) i tested the procedure to add a cheap QLE220 to ESX 3.5 described here:
http://blog.core-it.com.au/?p=317
in vsphere and if you add the line with the device id=5432 to the file /etc/vmware/pciid/qla2xxx.xml it works !
Thanks in Advance
Serpins
[Reply]
Hi, nice posts there
thank’s for the interesting information
[Reply]
Hi Kiwi
one question:
have HP ML115G5 with AMD Opteron 1214 Virtualization Technology in CPU,
i.e. can you run 64-bit OS on this server?
Thanks.
[Reply]
I just set up an HP ML115 G5 with the 1214 dual-core CPU and it works out of the box with Windows 2008 R2 (64-bit) and Windows 7 (64-bit). I didn’t have to change anything in bios (version O18, release date 2008-05-26).
I also see all hardware sensors as in the ML110 G5 picture above on this ML115 G5. I added 8 GB RAM of the type recommended on this site.
[Reply]
Kiwi Si Reply:
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Hi Erz,
Thanks for taking the time to let us know of your experience with W2K8 R2 and Win7 on the ML115 G5. These are both OS’s myself and others will no doubt start installing on our ML110/ML115’s over the coming months – good to know it’ll be a smooth process
Not too sure what the problem is with my ML115 sensors from within ESX 4.0. I’ll have to look into this further and will update the post to let others know that it may be a one-off type problem with mine.
Cheers,
Si
[Reply]
[...] Originally Posted by DMcCoy The CPU has AMD-V, the NIC and Storage work with for VMs (RAID doesn’t work though). You can’t install ESXi 3.5 with the CD, but you can put the image on a USB stick and boot from there (there’s an internal USB port too so you can hide inside). ESXi v4.0 provides better support for the ML115 apparently. [...]
A short update that I added a Perc 5/i raid card to the ML115 G5 and it shows up on the health status in ESXi 4.0:
[Reply]
Kiwi Si Reply:
June 9th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Hi Erz, Thanks for taking the time to let us know and for the screen shot. This is of great interest as visibility of the storage controller and attached disks are what has been lacking on the ML110/ML115. It’s just a shame the the HP e200 controller doesn’t offer the same monitoring capability. Cheers, Si
[Reply]
James Pearce Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Interesting thing from the screen shot is the voltage, temperature and fan info – was this a dd-to-USB job, or a CD instalation?
[Reply]
Erz Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
It’s from a CD installation.
[Reply]
James Pearce Reply:
October 21st, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Hi Erz, could you post a bit more info about your ML115 G5? I’ve just updated my system & BMC firmware to latest revisions (2009-07-06 and BMCv3.11), and tried a CD install – but still see nothing!
Do you have the iLO board fitted?
Si – seems vmware sneaked in an install-to-USB on v4, works a treat too
Cheers
James.
Erz Reply:
October 21st, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Model: HP ProLiant ML115 G5
HP number: 470064-781
CPU: AMD Opteron 1214 / 2.2 GHz
RAM: Corsair 4x 2GB DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2
Bios: HP System BIOS O18 2008-05-26
I don’t have an iLO card in, just a Dell Perc 5/i for RAID.
I installed from CD directly onto an USB 2 GB stick that I put in one of the USB ports.
No changes on hardware level or install media.
James Pearce Reply:
October 21st, 2009 at 9:14 pm
That’s really odd, okay you have a better cpu but the service guide lists only one board for this unit. Oh well! Thanks for the info though.
Kiwi Si Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Hi James,
Are you not getting voltage, fan and temperature info in your screen?
Just in case – remember to access the ESXi install directly and not via vCenter else the sensor info will not show as being available.
Cheers,
Simon
[Reply]
James Pearce Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 8:16 am
Hi Simon,
My ML115 G5 quad-core shows the same health as your screen clip from the dual-core version above – i.e. nothing. It’s a DD’d install to USB now patched to latest version, perhaps this is significant? Can the CD install be run to a USB drive on this server?
Nice running temperature there BTW – yours out in the shed as well?
Thanks
James.
Kiwi Si Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Hi James,
Nope afraid you won’t be able to install ESX/ESXi onto an attached USB drive from the ESX CD install – at least to my knowledge.
That is a low temperature – thought I should have turned the heating on over th weekend. lol.
I may have to double check that as it does seem suspiciously low.
Cheers,
Simon
Si
Do you know if you can use the downloadable ESXi 4.0 image from HP (http://h20392.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=HPVM06) to install onto the internal USB on an ML115 G5?
I would be interested to know if this works or if it is only for the HP 300 series and blades. Any chance you could have a go?
Regards
Martin
[Reply]
Hi there,
I’m building a new training lab with a trio of ML115’s. At the moment I’m undecided between Hyper-V and ESX.
Can you tell me how easy it is to get new licenses every 60 days? Do I use the same one when re-installing or do I need to request a new one from Vmware?
[Reply]
Hi John,
I would go with VMware ESXi – this is the free version that once registered does not need renewing. As would be expected there a few limitations in that you don’t get the enterprise level features such as vMotion and DRS though you wouldn’t get that with the current version of Hyper-V.
Hyper-V v2.0 that will be released with W2K8 R2 looks much better than the v1.0 of the product though I would personally still opt for ESX as it is a much more mature product.
If you need the more interesting features such as DRS, HA and vMotion then you could run the 60 day eval versions though you would need to reinstall it all (including VMware vCenter which managers the entire environment) every 60 days which could become a hassle after a while.
I hope this helps – let us know what you decide to go with.
Cheers,
Simon
[Reply]
JohnBradbury Reply:
July 10th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Hi Simon,
thanks for the response.
I’m interesting in using the enterprise feature like vmotion and DPM so I’m pretty much stuck with an evaluation version.
When I re-install these can I just re-use the same activation key for a further 60 days or will I need to be re-issued with a new one?
[Reply]
Kiwi Si Reply:
July 30th, 2009 at 6:13 am
Hi John,
Apologies for the delay in replying to your message.
If you’re reinstalling ESXi from scratch you will be able to run it in evaluation mode for another 60 days.
Hope this helps,
Simon
[Reply]
All,
I have a ML110 G5 8GB memory running Esxi 4.0 and have installed a WinXP VM Sp3 with 2GB memory 1 VCPU. I am finding the WinXP VM freezing up at times and certain Windows might not re-paint correctly or I am unable to drag a window around. I have enabled VT in the bios and checked the memory with memtest and it came out fine any ideas?
Thanks
[Reply]
Kiwi Si Reply:
July 30th, 2009 at 6:17 am
Hi msuk,
Hmm, that is a one I haven’t seen before. TBH I don’t really run XP under ESX/ESXi – not that it is a bad thing, I just haven’t had cause to.
When the XP VM freezes what are you running on it – is there anything CPU, Memory or Disk intensive? How many other VMs are you running on the ML110? While the XP VM freezes do you notice much happening on the disk drive light on the front of the server (assuming you are running the VM from local disk)?
Cheers,
Simon
[Reply]
Hi
I have an ML115 booting from an ESXi 3.5 USB stick. If I prepare a new ESXi 4 memory stick and replace the existing, will it recognise the filesystem on the local disk and let me use the DMs installed there?
Thanks
Oli
[Reply]
Kiwi Si Reply:
July 31st, 2009 at 6:00 am
Hi Oli,
Yes, that should work ok.
When starting ESXi 4 the local disk with VMFS containing your VMs will be presented.
I’m assuming that this is just a standalone install and that you’re not using vCenter Server – if you are then you’ll have to re-add the server back in as it will think its a new ESXi server and as such won’t be included.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Simon
[Reply]
Great tips. Made me run out an find a $100 ML110G4! Course then there was the $100 3060 (yup, works but unsupported). Some memory ~$80. Loaded ESX 4.0 and I’m off and running.
Question: I see your ML110G4 has 4GB memory. I currently have (until the UPS man comes on Tues-Wed) 2 1GB DIMMS and 2-512MB DIMMs. Runs fine with 2 512MB installed or 2 1GB DIMMs installed, but when I try to put it all in, I get 1long, 3short-3short-1long beep. I have tried all permutations of the sockets, although I think from the docs the identical memory must be on the same bus – hence, 1GB in slots 1 & 3 and 512MB in slots 2&4.
Any ideas?? (Win7 doesn’t run too well in 2GB!)
Thanks,
Rick
[Reply]
Kiwi Si Reply:
August 10th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Hi Rick,
Thanks for reading TechHead and congratulations on your new purchase – you’ll have plenty of fun with it.
I’m guessing that your memory isn’t playing nicely together as one set (eg: 512MB) will have ECC and the other will be non-ECC. The beeps you mention matches this issue.
Hope this helps.
Simon
[Reply]
Hi!
thanks for this post! I think I am going to buy such a system for my private NOC.
The ML115 quad-core with 4GB RAM and one 500GB HDD for only 1250 US Dollar looks good.
There is only one question:
there are some posts about the E200 which is not presenting a status. But is the E200 (without the status) working? I would like to have a raid 1.
yours
Marco
[Reply]
Hy, nice article, i have the same machine (ML110) with esxi4 but i can’t make the vmnetwork talk to outside..
is the yours working??
thanks
[Reply]
rickrcomm Reply:
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:18 am
Yes. Do you have “connect at power on” set in the VM properties?Send me your email and I’ll send you screen shots tomorrow of my network setup.
Rick
[Reply]
Hy, thanks for the fast reply, yes “connect at power on” is marked, I = did reset the configuration of the esxi e start again but still not = working..
fernando @ seer dot com dot br
[Reply]
Hi, I read the article and another one and just wanted to clear something up on ML110 G5. With the out of the box embedded RAID SATA controller, assuming i set it up as Raid 1 MIrrored, does it show it as 1 or 2 disks? Riad controleers i have used present both disks and not the Raid 1 volume so am concerned to see if the ML110 presents it correctly.
Cheeers
[Reply]
Kiwi Si Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Hi,
Sorry but I missed you original query. The onboard/embedded RAID SATA controller unfortuantely won’t present RAIDED disks through to ESX/ESXi. You get similar results to that seen in my post here: http://www.techhead.co.uk/can-you-use-the-hp-proliant-ml115-g5-onboard-raid-with-vmware-esxi-35-update-4-u4
Cheers,
Simon
[Reply]
[...] to link it all up. Getting ESXi itself on the ML115G5 is straightforward thanks to TechHead’s reference guide on the subject (note that for this lab it’s vital that AMD-V is enabled in the Proliant [...]
I am also interested in RAID1, what is the best solution?
[Reply]
Kiwi Si Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Hi Chris,
If you want to use RAID (eg: 1 or 5) then I would recommend using an HP e200 or Dell Perc RAID controller card. Check out James’s good article here:
http://www.techhead.co.uk/running-vmware-esxi-on-a-home-lab-hp-proliant-ml115-g5-with-a-dell-perc-5i-array-controller
Cheers,
Simon
[Reply]
I got the Purple Screen of death with ESXi 4.0
FYI
http://derek858.blogspot.com/2009/09/purple-screen-of-death-with-esxi-40.html#comment-form
[Reply]
TheBoy Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Did you not follow the instructions here?
http://forum.lettronics.com/forums/thread/1273.aspx
[Reply]
Hi TheBoy
In the link I’ve given it mentions:
‘Apparently the HP version of ESXi relies on a heartbeat from the iLO2 ASIC to ensure the server is still alive. Since my system doesn’t have an ILO2, it would crash when the timer timed out.’
I’ve loaded the normal version and all working fine now.
Nothing to do with the HP SMART Array controllers.
Dec
[Reply]
TheBoy Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Ah, yes, no point installing the HP version unless you are using some HP hardware
[Reply]
Kiwi Si Reply:
October 21st, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Hi,
The ESXi HP build is only for HP Proliant 300, 500 and 700 series servers. Running it on a 100 series such as the ML110 or ML115 will generally result in the dreaded Purple Screen of Death.
Cheers,
Si
[Reply]
TheBoy Reply:
October 21st, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Unless you follow the instructions in my link above to remove the component that causes the PSOD
Kiwi Si Reply:
October 21st, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Doh! Missed that – thanks.
Yes it was a HP ML115
[Reply]