esxi 6.0 drops support for dell C1100/C2100 NOOOOOOOOOO!!

[RyC]

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.

My board is definitely a Quanta/DCS board, sorry if I didn't make that clear earlier. MAC address on the BMC comes up as Quanta. I did install the Dell BIOS, however.

 

[chune]

My board is definitely a Quanta/DCS board, sorry if I didn't make that clear earlier. MAC address on the BMC comes up as Quanta. I did install the Dell BIOS, however.

RyC,

There is a lot of misinformation regarding the difference between the DCS and quanta boards. I have several DCS boards i have tested on, however when i run the mac address of the BMC i am pulling up all dell. This makes sense since DCS were dell products. I think early on dell sold rebranded quanta units and those were the ones people were bricking. Two of the three servers i am testing on are both DCS units with no service tag.

Can you run your BMC mac address and confirm it is a dell mac?

 

[RyC]

RyC,

There is a lot of misinformation regarding the difference between the DCS and quanta boards. I have several DCS boards i have tested on, however when i run the mac address of the BMC i am pulling up all dell. This makes sense since DCS were dell products. I think early on dell sold rebranded quanta units and those were the ones people were bricking. Two of the three servers i am testing on are both DCS units with no service tag.

Can you run your BMC mac address and confirm it is a dell mac?

The MAC on all three NICs (BMC and two regular NICS) all come up as Quanta

 

[chune]

shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

 

[Pa55port]

Gentlemen,

I just got ESXI 6.0.0 to install with VT-d enabled on a Dell C2100 FS12-TY after about a hundred failed attempts. I owe my triumphant success to the good people on this page, and this particular dude Mr. Nooblar who put together a sweet page on virtualised gaming: [Build Log] Virtualizing a gaming PC

The bottom line here is all BIOSes after C99Q3B16 are broken for VMWare VT-d, you gotta install 3B16; upon doing it something magical will happen, no more purple screen of F U.

Thank you to Mr. Nooblar and all those people who take the time to document their successes and failures so half-assed hackes like me can do cool stuff once in a while. Check out the V-gaming thing he put together, pretty cool.

Cheers!

 

[Pa55port]

Holy jesus, as I wrote that I looked over and noted that my server had hung on it's first boot at "Vflash loaded successfully"... thankfully it chugged past that and we have lift-off. Yeehaa!

 

[D4T]

Hi all, just thought I'd chime in on this too. I have a C1100 (Quantas) and I have the same PSOD issue with VT-d on the latest BIOS version. Lucky for me I don't use VT-d so I've just turned it off for now although it would be good to get to the bottom of it

 

[Eric M. Bucklin]

You were right! FS12-TY worked without a hitch, but c2100 PSODs. I had mixed up the motherboards on my C2100s and wrongfully thought i had tested a fs12-ty when it was really just another c2100. So thats good news for most people (including myself) I only have 3 c1100s i need to buy boards for now. Any chance people have been successful crossflashing a c1100/CS24-TY bios to a c2100/FS12-TY?

What is your motherboards model number? Mine is 0PN94W, if necesary I will replace it to get ESXi 6.0 and pass-through running.

Thanks
E

 

[radensb]

I also have a FS12-TY with motherboard# 0PN94W also. I see here that there has been success flashing a stock Dell BIOS (C99Q3B16) with success installing ESXi 6.0.

Let me add another data point and try to get more information. My FS12-TY came with S99Q3B15 and was able to get to the ESXi 6.0 installer right off the bat. I havent installed it yet, but will try to get to it this weekend. I managed to get my serial number and it turns out that system shows up under Dell's Support lookup (and is still under warranty! Weee!) and has a recommended BIOS update (B23) which comes from the official site. I found the FTP site for all the BIOS revisions for the official C2100:
Product support for PowerEdge C2100

So, I have a BIOS that starts with S99Q. My NIC MAC addresses come back as Quanta, but Linux says my gigabit network device is Intel. So much confusing information floating around. If you look at the official C1100 FTP site:
http://ftp.dell.com/published/Pages/poweredge-c1100.html
you can see that all the official C1100 BIOS versions start with S99C. All the official BIOS versions for the official C2100 start with C99Q. I have a BIOS that starts with S99Q... Confusing? Ugh...Yes.

There are posts from people (who sound like they are knowledgeable) that strongly warn against flashing firmware that is for a different variant of the system from this thread about the C1100. Even if it is successful, it could be damaging on the wrong hardware. So many different variants out there. Here are the specs from my serial number:
CLOUD, DCS 2100, 1xE5606, 32G B, 12 X 146GB,1xPERC6/I w/Batt , TENCENT A5

I clearly have a DCS system. By BMC states it's an FS12-TY. Whats the consensus so far? How are the DCS FS12-TY systems out there doing with C2100 C99Q3B16 firmware loaded? Any negative results? I just submitted my warranty transfer forms to get support. I plan to hound them for answers on this matter, but wanted to see how the official firmware was treating the FS12-TY in the real world. Or, it there is any other information on firmware support for the DSC systems. I tried to find Quanta firmware and have had no luck, even from Quanta's site. Is there a database for Quanta FS12-TY specific firmware updates?

 

[chune]

I think im on to something...
Using the ESXi 6.0 CPU Microcode Loading Feature - VMware vSphere Blog
here is the microcode download for the LGA1366 gen xeons:
https://downloadmirror.intel.com/18683/eng/microcode-20100209.tgz
When i have some free time im going to follow the steps in the article using the microcode updates for my processor (X5560)

The question is: is esxi applying one of the few "critical" microcode updates at boot time that is causing the PSOD, or is the lack of microcode causing the PSOD?

I am guessing the former given that earlier bioses (presumably without the updated microcode) do not exhibit PSODs, while later bioses (with later microcode) do exhibit the PSOD.

From dells website:
Dell PowerEdge C1100 BIOS, v.S99C3B15, 3B15

- Update microcode to support Westmere EP B1 stepping CPU. (Patch ID=0x10)
- Update microcode to support Westmere-WS 1S B1 stepping CPU. (Patch ID=0x10)
- Update Intel RC P2.91.
- Modify ASPM feature.
- Update 10G LAN Card option rom to version 2.1.60.

Note:
a)This DUP pack added protection to ignore pre-MLK system update.
b)Removed the DOS package for external release, due to the DOS release is not compatible with pre-MLK system.
Fixes & Enhancements
*****************************************************************
* IMPORTANT NOTE
*
* This BIOS release includes a microcode update.
* For the Intel Xeon(R) processor 3600/5600 series.
* Intel and Dell recommend applying the update as soon as possible.
*****************************************************************

* Updated Intel(R) Xeon(R) Processor 3600/5600 Series B1 stepping microcode.
Dell PowerEdge C1100 BIOS, v.S99C3B15, 3B15 Driver Details | Dell Canada

 

[chune]

Just saw this:
"You can prevent ESXi from loading any bundled microcode by setting the VMkernel boot option microcodeUpdate=FALSE."

I will try that first and report back

 

[chune]

Just saw this:
"You can prevent ESXi from loading any bundled microcode by setting the VMkernel boot option microcodeUpdate=FALSE."

I will try that first and report back

No luck using any combination of the VMkernel.Boot.microcodeUpdate and VMkernel.Boot.microcodeUpdateForce checkboxes on 6.0U1b

 

[crazyj]

Gentlemen,

I just got ESXI 6.0.0 to install with VT-d enabled on a Dell C2100 FS12-TY after about a hundred failed attempts. I owe my triumphant success to the good people on this page, and this particular dude Mr. Nooblar who put together a sweet page on virtualised gaming: [Build Log] Virtualizing a gaming PC

The bottom line here is all BIOSes after C99Q3B16 are broken for VMWare VT-d, you gotta install 3B16; upon doing it something magical will happen, no more purple screen of F U.

Thank you to Mr. Nooblar and all those people who take the time to document their successes and failures so half-assed hackes like me can do cool stuff once in a while. Check out the V-gaming thing he put together, pretty cool.

Cheers!

So I thought I'd add my 0.02. I downgraded bios to b16 and bmc to 1.70. Much quieter and 5.5u3b loads with not much issue. Is it worth trying 6 out? Am I the only one who finds vmware's software incredibly hard to locate? I got 5.5u3b from the dell image and have had no luck getting the v client installed.

 

[chune]

So I thought I'd add my 0.02. I downgraded bios to b16 and bmc to 1.70. Much quieter and 5.5u3b loads with not much issue. Is it worth trying 6 out? Am I the only one who finds vmware's software incredibly hard to locate? I got 5.5u3b from the dell image and have had no luck getting the v client installed.

the software is really easy to find if you create a vmware account

 

[Rain]

Sorry to dig up this old thread, but did anyone with a C2100 board P/N 0PN94W flash the "official" versions of either the BMC or the BIOS? Were you successful?

Edit: The BMC on this thing is 1.61, pre-dating even the 1.66 official Dell version! At least it is nice and quiet, I suppose.