Many questions from people trying implement vmware esxi on the HP Proliant ML110 G4 have raised through the last year.
VMWare ESXi is free, its the base of the vmware infrastructure, meaning its running its own linux kernel using the bare minimum of system resources so administrators can run their virtual environment in an inexpensive mode.
I bought my server from serversdirect for a very cheap price.
Here is a screenshot of my windows xp workstation logged into the esxi installation on the proliant server.
So how did I get it to work? Here is a step through for you to follow:
- First things first, reset the bios to its defaults (to go into bios mode, press F10 while the PC is booting up through the POST screen).
- Once resetted, go into the bios screen again and we will now set the CPU to virtual mode.
- Go to Advanced and Advanced Processor Options
- Enable the VT/virtual setting through the Intel (R) Virtualization Technology > Enable
- We now need to enable raid on the hard drives if not yet enabled.
- Go to the Advanced Menu in the bios > Advanced Chipset Control
- Parallel ATA: Enabled
- Serial ATA: Enabled
- Sata Controller Mode Option: Enhanced
- Sata Raid Enable: Enabled
- Save the settings and reboot.
- While the computer reboots, it will display the RAID screen, when you see it press F8 to enter the RAID Bios configuration. (HP Embedded SATA RAID Setup.
- You need to delete any arrays. So basically the RAID will be setup as RAID0 instead of RAID1.
- You will experience that the installation of vmware esxi will give you an error such as “no hardware found to put the image to”. This is if the RAID Array is setup, so please remember to remove it. And you wont have this error.
- Now put in your vmware esxi (update 3 is the latest version out there, you can get it from vmware.com) and let the cd run on boot, it will go into the installation.
- Accept the installation by pressing enter and the EULA with F11.
- It will now display the hard drives you have on the server, choose the HDD where you want esxi to be installed.
- Confirm the deletion of files with f11.
- Now you should have a running ESXi installation!
Make sure you have the latest BIOS version installed, which I think is 010 from 2007-07-20