Built a Server/Workstation for a business start up back in August. Set up a virtual lab using VMware Workstation 15 and deployed an ESXi environment for practice. Everthing was working, appeared ready to end the lab and go bare metal. Boy howdy, nothing works the same!
The server consists of:
SuperMicro X11DPG-QT
Dual Xeon Platinum 8260L
2TB Hynix 2933Mhz RAM
VM Storage: 1TB NVMe Evo 970 Pro
2x 128GB SATADOM RAID1 - ESXi Home
LSI 9361-8i w/ 2x Adaptec 12Gbps Expanders for all SAS 12Gbps Enterprise storage:
VM Storage: 2TB (5x 400GB) HGST SSD RAID0
Cold storage: 1TB (4x 300GB HGST SSD) CacheCade Pro 2.0
100TB (10x 10TB HGST) RAID10 - 2 Hot Spares
Offsite Backup: 32TB (4x 8TB HGST) in rotation
First, installing ESXi ignored the Intel software RAID1 SATADOM. It appeared to be working splendidly under Workstation. ESXi installed on only one of the SATADOMs and gives warning that the installation is in need of attention. Can force boot from the SATADOM but cannot select it as a viable boot option. About 20 re-installs have failed to result in a working boot-selectable SATADOM installation.
Ah, see someone else had this same issue. Could swear the whole idea of SATADOM RAID1 for ESXi was on a STH article. Is it just this motherboard? Well, will remove the software RAID1 and try again.
Secondly, and likely independently, no new datastores are available other than the capacity of this single SATADOM on which ESXi is installed. Had expected that the 1TB NVMe would at least be available and that perhaps after installing vCenter or maybe upgrading the LSI drivers that the RAID0 SSDs would become available.
My understanding is that the first VM (Server 2016 AD, DHCP, DNS) ought be placed on a non-SATADOM datastore along with vCenter. So, at present stopped in my tracks with no datastore on which to install Server 2016 and vCenter.
Are these issues due to a corrupt ESXi install or is there some way to create datastores before even installing ESXi that I've missed in relying on the VM Workstation lab environment?
Or is it that vCenter has the more robust datastore feature set and one ought move forward with the SATADOM installation and then move the Server and vCenter to safer datastores once created?
Thanks in advance!
The server consists of:
SuperMicro X11DPG-QT
Dual Xeon Platinum 8260L
2TB Hynix 2933Mhz RAM
VM Storage: 1TB NVMe Evo 970 Pro
2x 128GB SATADOM RAID1 - ESXi Home
LSI 9361-8i w/ 2x Adaptec 12Gbps Expanders for all SAS 12Gbps Enterprise storage:
VM Storage: 2TB (5x 400GB) HGST SSD RAID0
Cold storage: 1TB (4x 300GB HGST SSD) CacheCade Pro 2.0
100TB (10x 10TB HGST) RAID10 - 2 Hot Spares
Offsite Backup: 32TB (4x 8TB HGST) in rotation
First, installing ESXi ignored the Intel software RAID1 SATADOM. It appeared to be working splendidly under Workstation. ESXi installed on only one of the SATADOMs and gives warning that the installation is in need of attention. Can force boot from the SATADOM but cannot select it as a viable boot option. About 20 re-installs have failed to result in a working boot-selectable SATADOM installation.
Ah, see someone else had this same issue. Could swear the whole idea of SATADOM RAID1 for ESXi was on a STH article. Is it just this motherboard? Well, will remove the software RAID1 and try again.
Secondly, and likely independently, no new datastores are available other than the capacity of this single SATADOM on which ESXi is installed. Had expected that the 1TB NVMe would at least be available and that perhaps after installing vCenter or maybe upgrading the LSI drivers that the RAID0 SSDs would become available.
My understanding is that the first VM (Server 2016 AD, DHCP, DNS) ought be placed on a non-SATADOM datastore along with vCenter. So, at present stopped in my tracks with no datastore on which to install Server 2016 and vCenter.
Are these issues due to a corrupt ESXi install or is there some way to create datastores before even installing ESXi that I've missed in relying on the VM Workstation lab environment?
Or is it that vCenter has the more robust datastore feature set and one ought move forward with the SATADOM installation and then move the Server and vCenter to safer datastores once created?
Thanks in advance!