ESXi with ryzen works OK?

[paddy-stone]

Just wondering, as title... was trying to do some testing today on my main PC. Tried a few times to install ESXi, the installer got almost to the end and then crapped out on me with a purple fail screen. I have installed ESXi fine on many other systems, and not encountered this before... and it's nothing to do with network card AFAIK as I borrowed my 4 port gigabit card from my server for the testing. I tried both bios and uefi boot from usb stick and they both came up with same error. I used rufus for making the installer USB, but can't remember whether this or proxmox was the one that should've used etcher instead? 

I'll try other ways tomorrow, like etcher for making installer etc, but just wondered if anyone knew there to be problem with AMD systems, ryzen in particular so it might save me some time and hair pulling, thanks

[paddy-stone]

Nevermind, found this  https://www.servethehome.com/amd-ryzen-with-vmware-esxi-a-pink-screen-of-death/

 

Seems it's not supported yet still.

[unijab]

Which version did you try?

[paddy-stone]

Just now, unijab said:

Which version did you try?

VMware-VMvisor-Installer-201701001-4887370.x86_64

 

It's the one I have used on several systems now. I have seen a few threads now after looking a bit deeper, apparently this can be fixed now, by turning off SMT, installing ESXi, then upgrading? and re-enabling SMT... i'll give it a go tomorrow, late now and am whacked, lol

[NelizMastr]

11 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

Nevermind, found this  https://www.servethehome.com/amd-ryzen-with-vmware-esxi-a-pink-screen-of-death/

 

Seems it's not supported yet still.

With SMT disabled, it should work well on 6.5U1, don't bother with the original release of 6.5 anymore.

[paddy-stone]

2 hours ago, NelizMastr said:

With SMT disabled, it should work well on 6.5U1, don't bother with the original release of 6.5 anymore.

Yeah, I'm gonna try that next, thank you... I have found a couple posts now claiming that SMT enabled will work AFTER installation. So will disable SMT install and then re-enable SMT to see if it works.

This is only so I can do some testing on my main PC right now, if it doesn't work it's not too much of a problem having SMT disabled as I can work with just 8 cores to test what I need anyway. Just would rather have the 16 logical cores obviously.

Main reason I am doing this is to see if I want to swap my main PC with my backup PC that is currently being used as my server (i7 6700K) - and to test some stuff. If it works I then have the option of either swapping the machines uses, or just invoking the changes/installing that setup to the current server setup.

 

Yeah, I have 1st world problems, lol

 

[NelizMastr]

Hah, that's why I run a DL380G7 with dual X5650 Xeons, 12C/24T beast.

[paddy-stone]

Just now, NelizMastr said:

Hah, that's why I run a DL380G7 with dual X5650 Xeons, 12C/24T beast.

Yeah, I have a dual xeon server too, also 12/24 HP server, can't remember the exact xeons I have in there right now but they are both 6/12 for sure, have 48GB ram in there too, whole lot cost me £200 last year. I don't use it much though TBH as it's loud as hell... I bought it when I thought we would be moving soon and I'd have a garage to keep it in. I since found out we are NOT in fact moving and so I'm stuck with a server I can't use most of the time. It'll still come in handy if I can find somewhere to keep it that doesn't annoy us with the noise or we DO in fact move house, lol. I'm not too bothered that I bought it though, I learned some stuff from it that helped me when I turned my old(er) CPU/mobo into a server build. And I occasionally use the BEAST, when I'm alone in the house, lol.

 

Just checked and the one I bought is this:  G6 Server SE316M1 Twin Hex Core Intel Xeon E5645 2.40GHz

[NelizMastr]

Mine is very quiet actually, granted I'm not loading it 100% and I run in balanced performance mode to save some power. CPUs run pretty cool too. The G6 is a tad louder overall, yes.

[paddy-stone]

@unijab @NelizMastr

 

Just wanted to let you guys know that the newest version of ESXi ver 6.5U1 works fine without having to disable SMT, just if you're interested. Thanks for the help.