Issues installing VMware ESXI 6.0

[TheVoiceofExile]

Hi all,

 

I'm trying to install ESXI 6.0 onto a server I purchased from ThinkMate and it just isn't working. We're not sure what's going on with it but it is quite bizarre. Here's a quick run down of what's in the system:

4U Server chassis

SuperMicro X10DRG-OT+CPU w/ X9DRG-O-PCIE expansion board

128GB DDR3 ECC RAM

2 x Intel Xeon E5 2630 (6+6 cores+threads each)

Samsung 850 EVO 500gb SSD (We also have a 1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD, and a LSI SAS RAID Controller with 8 900GB Hitachi SAS drives configured in RAID10. But those are not in the system currently)

2 x EVGA GTX 970s with ACX cooler

1 x EVGA GTX 970 with Blower cooler

1 x PNY GTX 980 with Blower cooler

USB 2.0 External CD Reader

PS2 Mouse+Keyboard adapter to USB

 

So the main issue we're having is that no matter what combination of graphics cards we place in the system we *were* only able to intermittently get the ESXI installation screen to show up. Once we installed ESXI we were never able to boot into it. The install would finish, the power properly cycled after that, and then it would remain at what appeared to be active screen (after post) in which nothing would display on it. This happens consistently when we try to boot to the SSD. After we ran into this issue we then tried the normal installation on the HDD using the server and it also produced the blank (but actively receiving signal) screen. The next thing we tried (kind of as a last ditch effort) , was installing ESXI on a machine we have before and transferring the HDD over to the server. We didn't expect it to work and it didn't work. This previously had a Windows Enterprise install running off the SAS array and a Windows 7 install running off both the SSD and HDD, so we know the system is working.

 

In reality we're at a loss, this is a new realm for us so we're not very familiar with terminology and server level troubleshooting/compatibility, but we're both savvy with computers. After checking the SuperMicro OS compatibility list for our hardware, it seems everything is compatible with ESXI 6.0 but I'm concerned that the X9DRG expansion board may be causing issues. As for what we're doing with the hardware, think 7 Gamers 2 CPUs. That's all we're allowed to tell you. I'll be 100% active on this thread for the next 5 hours or so and after that I'll be a little intermittent. Any help is appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Chris

[Taswell]

what kind if network are you running it on.

 

Ive seen Esxi hang at boot because is searching the network for scsi storage controller like a NAS.

 

I would try unplugging all the other storge devices until you get a successful. It sounds like its getting confused with a piece of hardware taking that expansion board out might not be bad idea 

[TheVoiceofExile]

Just now, ITheSpazI said:

what kind if network are you running it on.

 

Ive seen Esxi hang at boot because is searching the network for scsi storage controller like a NAS.

 

I would try unplugging all the other storge devices until you get a successful. It sounds like its getting confused with a piece of hardware taking that expansion board out might not be bad idea 

We currently do not have it connected to a network. However we have a vSphere Client that we will be connecting it to whenever we get the IP address set up on the server. Currently the only storage device we have connected is the 850 EVO SSD, the rest are not connected and are simply on standby.

 

We can try removing the PCIe expansion board and see if the onboard video wants to cooperate.

[TheVoiceofExile]

7 minutes ago, TheVoiceofExile said:

We currently do not have it connected to a network. However we have a vSphere Client that we will be connecting it to whenever we get the IP address set up on the server. Currently the only storage device we have connected is the 850 EVO SSD, the rest are not connected and are simply on standby.

 

We can try removing the PCIe expansion board and see if the onboard video wants to cooperate.

Removing the expansion board and using onboard video results in a *no* video signal out. The connectors for the PCIe expansion boards appear to be proprietary to SuperMicro, they're called Gold Fingers, and we cannot connect a discrete graphics card to them.

[leadeater]

Couple of things to try. First make sure all firmware is updated to the latest possible. Secondly try ESXi 5.5 to see if it is just an issue with ESXi 6.0, it's still rather new.

 

Also contact supermicro support, they will be able to give some support even it is only to get the onboard video going. I would install using the onboard video before trying to get any add-on cards working.

 

 

[TheVoiceofExile]

SOLUTION FOUND:

 

We contacted ThinkMate Technical Support (that's where we purchased this from) and they elevated the the ticket to a Level 2 item. We received a call back from a man named Jack who helped us run through some checks. It turned out that there is a JPL1 Jumper that controls (physically) the VGA output from the mainboard. This jumper is hidden away from all other jumpers and is underneath the X9DRG PCIe expansion board. After verifying that VGA output was enabled in the bios (because we can still see the bios through one of the 970s), and VGA priority was set to ONBOARD, we shutdown the system and switch the jumper to enable the output. Once everything was back together and a few reboots occurred (the machine did it not us), we had VGA output from the machine and were able to remove the Nvidia Cards. Booting up from our ESXI 6.0 disc, the installer came up beautifully and remained up through the entire installation. Once installation was completed ESXI booted normally and we were able to see the Host from our vSphere client to begin configuration.

 

TL;DR

Physical jumper was in wrong place even though everything was correct. Took out cards and moved jumper over, fixed problem.

 

Thanks to TheSpaz and leadeater for their advice.

 

P.S. In case anyone cares, ThinkMate was actually the ones that switched the jumper originally when we sent the machine in for other support. So it might have just been a giant prank the whole time, idk.