VMWare ESX and ICH10 / ICH10R

[powerbaselx]

Hi all,

for those (like me) that were willing to try VMWare ESX on a new platform, please be warned that ESX 3.5 don't work on motherboards with Intel chipsets ICH10 , ICH10R, ICH8 and ICH8R . It works only on ICH7, ICH7R, ICH9 and ICH9R.

I upgraded recently to an i7/X58 platform on an Asus P6T which comes with ICH10 and got really really frustated with ESX since i was planning to try and learn something more about virtualization hypervisors.

Hope VMWare plans a new revision on this despite they are focus on recognized OEM brands and professional HW servers.

 

[GhislainG]

Enterprises normally use servers on VMware's approved list to run ESX (and ESXi), not desktop systems. As a workaround, you could install a supported RAID controller. Unfortunately the Marvell Ethernet controller on your motherboard isn't supported either. You'll have to install supported NICs.

 

[reefburnaby]

ICH10 and ICH9 are supported on the latest update (3.5 Update 4).

I have ESXi 3.5 U4 running on i7 920 and it works pretty good. Besure to update BIOS since some manufacturers don't set the VT mode correctly.

 

[powerbaselx]

ICH10 and ICH9 are supported on the latest update (3.5 Update 4).

I have ESXi 3.5 U4 running on i7 920 and it works pretty good. Besure to update BIOS since some manufacturers don't set the VT mode correctly.

*****
This is great news!

I have a Asus P5T motherboard bought in last week of january. I'll check if there is any new BIOS update.

Many thanks for the info.

 

[powerbaselx]

ICH10 and ICH9 are supported on the latest update (3.5 Update 4).

I have ESXi 3.5 U4 running on i7 920 and it works pretty good. Besure to update BIOS since some manufacturers don't set the VT mode correctly.

One doubt: did you installed ESX with U4 from scratch on a i7 platform? Or you just updated an existing installation?

I guess with ESXi 3.51 U3 still available for free download it's impossible to install from scratch, no?

Thanks.