A few notes on installing VMWare ESX Server 3.0.1 on an IBM Blade HS20 (Type 8843) when you have an onboard LSI 1030 Adaptor. We are using the LSI to do hardware RAID 1 on 2 local Mini SCSI disks then a DS4300 SAN for the VMFS storage.
The reason for writing this down ... Ive been struggling with it all week! ... and I don't want someone else to have the same problems. Im very familiar with VMWare - including the ESX range having installed it multiple times in various situations ... however, never on a IBM BladeCenter.
After various aborted attempts to complete this install, this is the final set of working steps. The biggest problem I had until now was that the ESX Install could see the SAN Space but NOT the local mirror - even though it had the correct driver etc.
1. Use the latest version of ESX - in my case, 3.0.1 - rather than the 3.0 CD we had to hand
2. Ensure all Blade Center firmware is totally up to date - for the Chassis 8677 - http://www-304.ibm.com/jct01004c/systems/support/supportsite.wss/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-54597&brandind=5000020
3. Ensure all Blade Firmware - including the LSI controller are totally up to date
4. Login to your Fibre Channel Switches and DISABLE the ports for the blade you are working on - remember to do both switch modules!
5. Use the ESX CD (real CD - not ISO otherwise you will have to do some funky stuff to make the CD contents availbale via HTTP/FTP/NFS) and boot the install - I used graphical but it doesnt really matter.
6. Choose the LSI device to install on - I was happy to use the default layout
7. Reboot at the end of the install and install the license file, set the hostname, IP - other basic config settings.
8. Re-enable the Fibre ports for the blade
9. Follow the guide "Implementing VMware ESX Server 2.1 with IBM TotalStorage FAStT" (linked at the bottom) to provision a LUN on your SAN for VMWare. - Note - the doc is aimed at ESX 2.1 but the SAN config advice is still valid. (Key thing is setting the host type on the HBA's to be LNXCL)
10. Reboot the ESX Server
11. Load the VI Client, login, go to Configuration. Check Storage adaptors now show up the HBA's and the allocated LUN from the SAN (note - if you have dual path - it will show up twice - this is ok.
12. Now go to Storage, Add Storage, Disk/LUN ... your LUN from the SAN should show up, choose it and Next, Next through the setup. I would suggest naming the Storage something sensible to make it clear where and what it is. Also, rename the local storage.
Steve Seymour March 17th, 2007 18:33:35