Question

ESXi & PowerEdge 2600: any limitations?

Asked by: Pantz

Am looking to use a Dell PowerEdge 2600 server w/ 4GB memory, five 36GB SCSI drives, and two 2.4GHz Xeon processors as proof-of-concept box for use with VMWare's free ESX3i product.  

The VMWare ESX Compatibility Guide does not give its blessing to this hardware; however, I purchased the server based on the experience of others that have successfully deployed this configuration.

Does anyone have any experience with ESXi and a PowerEdge 2600 server?  Are there any limitations to be aware of?

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Asked On
2008-12-10 at 13:00:43ID23974167
Tags

VMWare

,

ESXi

,

Dell

,

PowerEdge

,

2600

Topics

Virtualization

,

VMware

,

Computer Servers

Participating Experts
2
Points
125
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: nappy_dPosted on 2008-12-10 at 13:09:38ID: 23143179

Unfortunately the VMWare hardware compatability list is there for good reason.  If you have purchased the hardware already and have also purchased a support contract from VMWare for your ESXi software, you may have difficulty getting support for your Virtualized environment from VMWare.

 

by: nappy_dPosted on 2008-12-10 at 13:12:29ID: 23143203

BTW, how many guests and What OSes are you planning on running? Even in a RAID 5 configuration, you may get only 120GB of usable space.  Also 4GB or RAM, again, depending on the OS, is not a lot of RAM...

 

by: PantzPosted on 2008-12-10 at 13:20:51ID: 23143289

Thanks for the feedback.

I realized that I may have an issue with obtaining support because of the absence of the hardware on the HCL.  This box is going to be used as a platform for a generic proof of concept.  It will never be placed into a production environment.

Will probably run two Windows Server-based guests.  Maybe three.  RAM can be upgraded if necessary.  The storage limitation is interesting.  I will have to wait and see.

Would ESXi handle an external USB hard disk drive for additional storage or backup?

Regards.

 

by: paulsolovPosted on 2008-12-10 at 21:51:03ID: 23146052

Should work fine even though not on the ACL list.  As long as the raid controller is ok and the nic as well it should work just fine.  I am running HP DL360 G2, G3 as well as some Dell servers that aren't on the HCL just fine.  I've seen a few similar models in use with no issues in ESX3.x and ESX3i

Since you've already purchased and it's a POC give it a shot. If you have any issues let me know and I'll see what I can do.  It probably has a PERC controller which work just fine.  I would bump up the memory if you'll be running more than one or two VMs but it's a very small hypervisor so it depends what you want to run on it

My $.02

 

by: nappy_dPosted on 2008-12-11 at 01:53:33ID: 23146882

VMWare does not support USB as it is a Linux type OS that VMWare built.  You could setup NAS, SAN, iSCSI or NFS storage for additional space if necessary.

 

by: PantzPosted on 2009-03-31 at 16:26:40ID: 24034808

Well...  I obtained my PowerEdge 2600.  I installed ESX v3.5 server.  Everything seems to work pretty well...  except when I install VMKernel to access NFS shares on a Windows box (using WSU).  The server hangs.  The only other issue - installing Dell OpenManage agents doesn't appear to monitor the PERC 4/di controller.  Any help would be appreciated.

Otherwise...  A guy at Dell told me that the 2600 isn't on the HCL because it had been discontinued prior to the implementation of the hardware certification process.  Works for me...  so far so good with the 2600.

 

by: paulsolovPosted on 2009-03-31 at 18:15:18ID: 24035284

Make sure you upgrade the BIOS. You probabaly will not be able to monitor the PERC controller through ESX unless it has agents specifically for ESX

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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