May 22nd, 2009 
Simon Seagrave 
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 !
No related posts.
Posted in 
My name is Simon Seagrave and I am a London (UK) based Senior Technology Consultant and vSpecialist working for EMC. 
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The burning question…..does the AMD one support FT?
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?
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
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
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
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
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
Hi, nice posts there
thank’s for the interesting information
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.
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.
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
[...] 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:
[img]http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/6320/hstatus.png[/img]
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
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
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?
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
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?
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
[...] 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?
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
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
Interesting thing from the screen shot is the voltage, temperature and fan info – was this a dd-to-USB job, or a CD instalation?
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
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
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
It’s from a CD installation.
Hi James,
Are you not getting voltage, fan and temperature info in your screen?
[img]http://www.techhead.co.uk/images/ml110sensorinfo.jpg[/img]
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
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
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.
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
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
Did you not follow the instructions here?
http://forum.lettronics.com/forums/thread/1273.aspx
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
Ah, yes, no point installing the HP version unless you are using some HP hardware
Yes it was a HP ML115
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
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.
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.
Unless you follow the instructions in my link above to remove the component that causes the PSOD
Doh! Missed that – thanks.
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.
[...] 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 [...]
[...] Installing and Running VMware vSphere (ESX 4.0) on your lab HP Proliant ML110 or ML115. (TechHead) [...]
so does the ML115 g5 w/ AMD Quad Core work with ESX4? I know it works w/ ESXi but what about ESX4?
Thanks guys!!!
Rick – I use a mix of ESX4i and ESX4 (classic) on the ML115 G5 and ML110 G4/5 no problem
Just to verify ESX (classic) you are referring to ESX 4.0 right?
thanks for the update vinf.net , Im getting ready to place an onder for 2 ml115 g5 for a lab.
Thanks alot!!!!
Ricky – yes ESX 4.0 full-fat with service console
Cheers
Hi Ricky,
As vinf has confirmed, all the components in your ML115 G5 Quad Core will show up just fine in ESX/ESXi 4.0, ie:
- CPU
- Memory
- Disk controller
- Network Card
The only issue you may have is the with the peformance of the onboard disk controller as it can be a little slow when it is put under load by the running VMs.
Check out some the articles here on TechHead and over at vinf.net for some extra info and tips, etc.
Have fun with your new lab.
Cheers,
Simon
Simon, vinf.net
I am currently running my ESX lab on Workstation 7. Def want to upgrade to a physical setup, as per your articles.
Even though the embedded controller isn’t supported, is it a must to get a Smart Array E200 for the 2 boxes?
I am planning on:
ESX4i
2xML115
4Gb RAM each (to start)
VMs running from shared storage (ix2-200 2x1Tb – iSCSI) if find problems setting up RAID on MLs
linksys slm2800
Can you guys comment on that?
Sorry for being a noob
Cheers
Hi guys, anyone knows if ML 110 G5 support VMdirectpath with ESXi 4?
I have upgrade CPU with Quad Q9400 that support VT-d but VMdirectpath is not selectable?
Thanks a lot
Hi Simone,
Probably at silly question but have you enabled it in the BIOS yet?
Also, check out this forum post: http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=1409999
Let us know how you get on.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Simon
Hi Kiwi, I have enable in the bios the VT but I think that it is vt-x and not vt-d. In the bios there isn’t any vt-d option.
I have also read the link, but I would like to know if someone with this server can use Vmdirectpath.
I thinks that tha Intel 3200 cheapset of ML110 G5 doesn’t support VT-d unfortunatly.
Hi guys,
I just grabbed 2 ML115 G5′s with the 4GB RAM / Memory stick deal for ESX4i, but I wanted to look at running these guys on full fat esx4.0 under vcenter.
When installing I get an error asking me to insert the CD partway through (after entering all the networking info etc.), so I guess I need to deal with sata drivers, but how would I go about this, anyone done it without buying more hardware?
Cheers,
Dave.
It was my understanding that ESX 4.0 did not support SATA RAID. I boot ESX 4.0 from a SATA drive off the built-in SATA controller in my ML110G4, but have a P410 Smart Array Controller that runs the 4 500GB SATA drives in RAID 5 for vSphere storage.
Rick
Hmm, that’s a good point Rick.
Additional adapter cards would be a no-no for me from a financial perspective, as I have a NAS solution waiting to be filled up with VMs.
I may have to fall back on ESXi for my home setup then.
Cheers!
Dave.
Hello
Is there any advantage to getting the ml 150 G6 over the ml110 G6, I already have a smart array e200 that I was going to use for raid. since the 110 is cheaper I was trying to see if there is any benefit to getting the 150. Anybody have any suggestions or recommendations they would like to share?
I have updated the guide (posted on an external site – sorry, but allows me to update the guide in a single place) to include the differences between ESXi 4.0 and 4.1, and include the gotchas when upgrading with regard to the HP agents.
http://forum.lettronics.com/forums/thread/1273.aspx
Hey guys, this post has been a lot of help. I was gonna get ProLiant ML110 G6 -1x Quad-COre Intel Xeon X3440 2.53GHz, and need to hear your ideas before spending my bucks
.
Thanks,
Hi there,
I run an ML110 G6 X3430 and it works great with VMware ESX/ESXi 4.x. You can take it up to 16GB (4 x 4GB DIMMs) which gives you some good headway for future expansion. The X3440 you are looking at, from memory, has hyperthreading so that combined with the quad cores will give you plenty of processing power for the average lab environment. The only thing you will potentially be looking at adding would be a seperate PCIe based array controller card as the onboard software based RAID of the ML110 G6 doesn’t work with ESX/ESXi. That said, if you use a small seperate NAS or SAN appliance such as the iomega IX2 or IX4 this will handle the RAID requirement for you (assuming you want to use RAID in your lab).
Hope this helps.
All the best,
Simon
I’m curious what Array Controller PCIe board folks have used. I have used both HP SA410 and E200 successfully but wondering if anything cheaper works with ESX 4?
Thanks,
Rick
I’ve been using the Dell PERC 5i Array Controller, it works great and it shows the array status in the monitoring section without having to do anything extra. I got it off of eBay for around $100
Hi Rick,
I run an HP E200 array controller in my ML110 G5 with 4 x SATA disks running ESXi 4.1. Works just fine, the peformance is ok and acceptable for a home lab setup. The Dell PERC 5 aparently also works well and can be picked up on EBay for a reasonable price quite often.
Not sure about the Adaptec array controller range – anyone else out there have any experience/advice on these?
Thanks,
Simon
Ebay shows many HP E200s available for ~$40. Good buy.
Rick
Hi Kenneth,
I hope to get my hands on a Dell PERC 5i array controller some time, the hardware monitoring status detection in ESX/ESXi is definitely one of the areas that lets the HP E200 array controller down, with no disk status being made available.
Thanks for the comment.
All the best,
Simon
The later Perc-6i is also worth a look. Usually a little bit more off eBay but it supports SATA NCQ, which can give a very considerable performance boost under stress with newer drives such as WD’s RE4 series. Whatever you go for, be sure to get the battery module to enable the write caching.
Some info I’ve put together on the 6i here: http://blog.peacon.co.uk/wiki/Dell_Perc_6i
Hope that helps.
Remember, the HP E200 and HP P400 (only with certain firmwares, else it doesn’t boot) will work fine with the ML110 G5, and can be picked up quite cheaply 2nd hand. I have not tried these in a G6.
These array controllers can be made to provide disk status quite easily, as I’ve posted previously.
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