I haven't attempted a local install via ISO to USB with mine yet. Mine are remote in a datacenter. Probably be a week or so before I'm back there to test it.
esxi 6.0 drops support for dell C1100/C2100 NOOOOOOOOOO!!
- Thread starter chune
- Start date
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VUM was my issue. Uninstalled the upgraded version of VUM and VUM 5.5 remnants. Installed VUM6 and told it to use the embedded server 2012 update option. No issues at all!
UPDATE: I used a VUM baseline to update 10 more of these hosts... worked 100% using VUM and parallel migration - doing 5 at a time then 5 more automagically.
Worth noting my exact hardware build: c1100 (cs24-ty) with mezzanine x520-DA2 10GbE cards and USB flash based ESXi boot media.
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Can you confirm vt-d was enabled on this board? Do you have a part number? (ex CN-0C584T, it would be on a sticker on the motherboard near the fans)
VUM was my issue. Uninstalled the upgraded version of VUM and VUM 5.5 remnants. Installed VUM6 and told it to use the embedded server 2012 update option. No issues at all!
UPDATE: I used a VUM baseline to update 10 more of these hosts... worked 100% using VUM and parallel migration - doing 5 at a time then 5 more automagically.
Worth noting my exact hardware build: c1100 (cs24-ty) with mezzanine x520-DA2 10GbE cards and USB flash based ESXi boot media.
So I've got a C2100 that I can't boot into 6.0 with vt-d enabled either. I was able to update to bios C99Q3B23 but still no luck. Strangely is shows "Dell Sequoia" in the BIOS and VMWare, not cs12-ty or C2100.
I do have the LSI 1068 Mezz card installed, but that is what I want to pass through so I'm not going to remove it. Anyone have any idea of a motherboard out on ebay or elsewhere that would work?
I do have the LSI 1068 Mezz card installed, but that is what I want to pass through so I'm not going to remove it. Anyone have any idea of a motherboard out on ebay or elsewhere that would work?
I haven't had the chance yet to open it up and grab the part number, but I did upgrade my production CS24-TY to 6.0 and VT-d is working fine. Posting this from a VM whose storage is running on napp-it with an M1015 passed through on the CS24-TY 
Side note: Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but it seems like if VUM/vCenter are running in a VM on the host you're trying to upgrade, it won't work since VUM wants the host to go into maintenance mode, but if it does, it will shutdown the VUM/vCenter VMs. I haven't used VUM before, and I didn't want to try it on the 5.5->6.0 upgrade, so I just used the offline bundle and esxcli.
Side note: Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but it seems like if VUM/vCenter are running in a VM on the host you're trying to upgrade, it won't work since VUM wants the host to go into maintenance mode, but if it does, it will shutdown the VUM/vCenter VMs. I haven't used VUM before, and I didn't want to try it on the 5.5->6.0 upgrade, so I just used the offline bundle and esxcli.
So I purchased another CS12-TY board off of eBay to see if I would have any luck. It came with a rather old bios, but when installed ESXi 6.0 with VT-d enabled it was able to load ACPI without a PSOD. YAY! The server crashed shortly thereafter due to some kind of CPU timing issue. BOO! I rolled back to 5.5 only to find that it too would give me a PSOD with a similar issue.
I upgraded the BIOS to B23 and it is rock solid in 5.5 but of course 6.0 now crashes when loading ACPI. Somewhere along the line, the BIOS for these mobos fixed the CPU timing issues that would cause ESXi to crash, but also screwed up VT-d. My hope is that there is a slightly older BIOS somewhere that fixes the CPU timing issues without breaking VT-d. Anybody have a pre-B23 bios that they are willing to share?
I upgraded the BIOS to B23 and it is rock solid in 5.5 but of course 6.0 now crashes when loading ACPI. Somewhere along the line, the BIOS for these mobos fixed the CPU timing issues that would cause ESXi to crash, but also screwed up VT-d. My hope is that there is a slightly older BIOS somewhere that fixes the CPU timing issues without breaking VT-d. Anybody have a pre-B23 bios that they are willing to share?
Dell doesn't list the old BIOS files on the support page for the C2100, but thanks to google I was able to find files for FS12-TY BIOS versions 3B18,19,20 and 22 on the Dell website. I will try those starting with the most recent and going backwards. Wish me luck!
UPDATE: No luck. The bios that came with my Mobo was 3B15 so if someone out there has 3B16 or 17, I would be willing to try it out. But for now I am back to running 3B23 and ESXi 5.5. Sigh....
UPDATE: No luck. The bios that came with my Mobo was 3B15 so if someone out there has 3B16 or 17, I would be willing to try it out. But for now I am back to running 3B23 and ESXi 5.5. Sigh....
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Thanks RyC! I will update the thread when i do more c1100 testing.
In the meantime, i found the root cause on my c2100 boards: BIOS! In short, B15 and B16 work with no PSOD on the c2100, however B18, B22 and B23 all PSOD (i didnt test any others, but im assuming the problem is carried forwards from B18)
I also got to the bottom of the quiet vs loud fans issue: Quiet fans on the following BMC firmwares:
1.61 & 1.70
But 1.79 and 1.86 were all loud.
So i am flashing all my C2100s with bios B16 and BMC 1.70 and i will be happy!
In the meantime, i found the root cause on my c2100 boards: BIOS! In short, B15 and B16 work with no PSOD on the c2100, however B18, B22 and B23 all PSOD (i didnt test any others, but im assuming the problem is carried forwards from B18)
I also got to the bottom of the quiet vs loud fans issue: Quiet fans on the following BMC firmwares:
1.61 & 1.70
But 1.79 and 1.86 were all loud.
So i am flashing all my C2100s with bios B16 and BMC 1.70 and i will be happy!
Not at all. Believe it or not, there's more out there than just ESX. Check out Joyent SDC for giggles. And there's more where that came from.
Somehow i missed this whole post, but we came to the same conclusion. Here is B16:
http://downloads.dell.com/bios/PEC2100BIOS3B16.exe
May be an off topic here, but I had instability issues on both of mine C1100 CS-24TY from Quanta with their original DELL BIOS when they came until flashed them to BIOS downloaded from Quanta web site. Also I had issues with ESX 5.0 freezing at any moment before flashing to Quanta BIOS. Finally, after moved to XenServer - had no issues at all. So not sure why are you so worried about ESX 6.0.
Ok getting back into this project, i flashed the most current bios to my c1100 board and was greeted with the same PSOD. I am really confused how RyC got his working. I am going to try to follow his steps verbatim on a board with the same PN today and report back
Alright, i followed RyC's steps to the T and i am still getting a PSOD when booting or trying to install esx 6.0 on the SAME board with the SAME part number.
RyC- you had mentioned yours was a DCS model originally. Can you check your BMC mac address at
MAC_Find: Vendor/Ethernet/Bluetooth MAC Address Lookup and Search
to see if it is a quanta unit? Thats the only difference i can think of, however you would think something as specific as a mobo part number would rule out difference bmc chips... All of my boards have come up as DELL for the vendor and i have never even laid eyes on a quanta board.