May 15, 201214 yr I installed ESXi on a USB stick in my X9SCM board. To try things out I had 2 USB ports running in pasthrough. I then switched one USB back to normal (no passthrough). All in vSpere Client-Configuration-Advanced Settings-Edit. Then reboot. This all worked great. Today I put 2 newly flashed M1015 cards on the X9SCM. They get detected in vSpere Client as LSI Logic/Symbios Logic LSI2008 on PCI Express Root Port. I also try to put them in passthrough but after a reboot these changes are lost. Also when I put the USB-port that is currently in passthrough back to normal this change is lost after a reboot. Is my ESXi broken? Or is there a conflict with the LSI cards?
May 16, 201214 yr Is my ESXi broken? Or is there a conflict with the LSI cards? There is no conflict with the LSI cards. Check the file /bootbank/boot.cfg on the server for the line kernelopt=auditMode=TRUE You do not want True.
May 16, 201214 yr Author just out of curiosity, what bios did they ship you? I see Version 2.12.1211 printed on the bottom of the screen. The board came in an inside out folded box of a C2SEE MB. It had X9SCM-F-P on it. The board came without cables manual CD etc. Probably common practise at Supermicro.
May 16, 201214 yr Author Is my ESXi broken? Or is there a conflict with the LSI cards? There is no conflict with the LSI cards. Check the file /bootbank/boot.cfg on the server for the line kernelopt=auditMode=TRUE You do not want True. Is that file on the USB stick? Can I edit it in Windows or on a ESXi config screen?
May 16, 201214 yr I see Version 2.12.1211 printed on the bottom of the screen. The board came in an inside out folded box of a C2SEE MB. It had X9SCM-F-P on it. The board came without cables manual CD etc. Probably common practise at Supermicro. You'll most likely need to drop back to 1.0c or 1.1a (I'm using the former.) This is likely one of the things that Supermicro 'broke' with the v2 BIOS update.
May 16, 201214 yr USBpassthrough and vmdirectpath, which you use with passing on the cards is different technology. Make sure you have enabled vt-d in the BIOS to have vmdirectpath working.
May 16, 201214 yr Just a note, 1.0c is generally the preferred BIOS - since it's not on Supermicro's site, you can get it here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1666761
May 16, 201214 yr Author I see Version 2.12.1211 printed on the bottom of the screen. The board came in an inside out folded box of a C2SEE MB. It had X9SCM-F-P on it. The board came without cables manual CD etc. Probably common practise at Supermicro. You'll most likely need to drop back to 1.0c or 1.1a (I'm using the latter.) This is likely one of the things that Supermicro 'broke' with the v2 BIOS update. Actually I see 2 versions listed in the BIOS. When I enter the BIOS the MAIN tab is open, where system time and date are. It also says: X9SCL/X9SCM Version 1.1a Build date 09/28/2011 In the blue bar at the bottom of the screen it says: Version 2.12.1211. Copyright © 2011 American Megatrends, Inc. This might be an AMI version.
May 16, 201214 yr Author USBpassthrough and vmdirectpath, which you use with passing on the cards is different technology. Make sure you have enabled vt-d in the BIOS to have vmdirectpath working. VT-d is enabled by Johnm's instruction in Advanced-Chipset Configuration-Integrated IO Configuration
May 16, 201214 yr Author Just a note, 1.0c is generally the preferred BIOS - since it's not on Supermicro's site, you can get it here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1666761 Is everyone who uses ESXi using BIOS 1.0c? I'm not a big fan of fiddling with BIOS'es if it is not strictly neccesary. Can this BIOS downgrade be done remotely?
May 17, 201214 yr Author Is ESXi 4.1 still downloadable? I guess I need another key then too? I am gonna start over, are you all using 5.0 or 4.1? BTW: I downgraded the BIOS to 1.03c on my X9SCM.
May 17, 201214 yr To double check what you are doing for passthrough... - in the vSphere client, highlight the host in the left column and then choose the Configuration tab on the right. - in the Hardware menu, click advanced settings and then edit on the far right - Tick the LSI Logic / Symbios Logic LSI2008 entry like the below screenshot (I have 2 in my box) - Click OK and reboot the ESXi host - After reboot, create a new VM/edit existing VM, then add a PCI device. Once you've added it, it should appear like this on the VM configuration screen:
May 17, 201214 yr Author To double check what you are doing for passthrough... - in the vSphere client, highlight the host in the left column and then choose the Configuration tab on the right. - in the Hardware menu, click advanced settings and then edit on the far right - Tick the LSI Logic / Symbios Logic LSI2008 entry like the below screenshot (I have 2 in my box) So far everything is ok, I also have 2 in my box, listed exactly as yours. I also have thoses boxes ticked. Looks exactly as yours. - Click OK and reboot the ESXi host But after rebooting, the changes are lost and don't show under hardware. - After reboot, create a new VM/edit existing VM, then add a PCI device. Once you've added it, it should appear like this on the VM configuration screen: In fact, all changes I make under hardware are lost.
May 17, 201214 yr Sounds like you are running in audit mode. Have you check the file /bootbank/boot.cfg on the server for Auditmode=TRUE?
May 17, 201214 yr If you need further help with editing that file, here is one way: - On the same configuration tab as above, click on 'Security Profile' under 'Software'. - Click on 'Properties' (top right of services) - Start the ESXi Shell and SSH (should be self-explanatory) - SSH into your ESXi host using putty or similar - once there, edit the /bootbank/boot.cfg - quick vi instructions.... vi /bootbank/boot.cfg - arrow down until you find the mentioned line - put the cursor under the T in TRUE and press INSERT to enter insert mode - press DEL to remove TRUE and type FALSE instead - press ESC to exit insert mode :wq (type the above, i.e. colon,w,q and hit enter to write the file and quit) - reboot the host and see how you go (you'll need to set things up again once you're out of audit mode, if that is indeed the issue. I'd love to know how you managed to get it into audit mode in the first place! lol) - if you give a shit, go ahead and stop the ESXi shell and SSH access. Probably neither here nor there in a home environment, but the yellow warning ! can be annoying
May 17, 201214 yr Author Sounds like you are running in audit mode. Have you check the file /bootbank/boot.cfg on the server for Auditmode=TRUE? Don't know how I entered auditmode, but I will see. Still a novice with regards to this, but I like to learn.
May 17, 201214 yr Author If you need further help with editing that file, here is one way: - On the same configuration tab as above, click on 'Security Profile' under 'Software'. - Click on 'Properties' (top right of services) - Start the ESXi Shell and SSH (should be self-explanatory) - SSH into your ESXi host using putty or similar - once there, edit the /bootbank/boot.cfg - quick vi instructions.... vi /bootbank/boot.cfg - arrow down until you find the mentioned line - put the cursor under the T in TRUE and press INSERT to enter insert mode - press DEL to remove TRUE and type FALSE instead - press ESC to exit insert mode :wq (type the above, i.e. colon,w,q and hit enter to write the file and quit) - reboot the host and see how you go (you'll need to set things up again once you're out of audit mode, if that is indeed the issue. I'd love to know how you managed to get it into audit mode in the first place! lol) - if you give a shit, go ahead and stop the ESXi shell and SSH access. Probably neither here nor there in a home environment, but the yellow warning ! can be annoying When I try that, I get this:
May 17, 201214 yr Really? That suggests you have no boot.cfg... you should certainly have one, and it should look similar to this: How exactly did you install ESXi? Did you download the 'installable' ISO, then burn it to CD/mount it via IPMI, boot up off either and during the install process, tell it to use the USB stick as the destination?
May 17, 201214 yr Author I installed it with help of Johnm's post. I took the ISO and mounted it through Virtual Media in the iKVM console. ESXi is installed on a USB stick. Funny thing is I have 2 VMs: unraid and Windows 7 and ESXi was running nicely until I added the 2 M1015 cards. I think I just install ESXi again, presumably on another USB stick.
May 17, 201214 yr Might be the way to go - the reason I asked how you installed it is because if there isn't a boot.cfg present, I was wondering if somehow the .ISO had just been dumped to the USB stick. Hopefully a different USB stick works for you, though I'm not sure how the first one ended up in the state it did. Very strange.
May 18, 201214 yr Author Might be the way to go - the reason I asked how you installed it is because if there isn't a boot.cfg present, I was wondering if somehow the .ISO had just been dumped to the USB stick. Hopefully a different USB stick works for you, though I'm not sure how the first one ended up in the state it did. Very strange. The first one wasn't a real stick, but a SD card in a Kingston reader. Maybe it has just become corrupt somehow. Anywat I reinstalled and now it works as you told earlier.
May 24, 201214 yr I'm new to the forum but have been reading about virtualizing unRaid. If you use ESXi 4.1, you run into the 2 TB limit for RDMs (board doesn't support VT-d). If you use ESXi 5.0, you have an 8 GB memory limit which won't affect unRaid but will decrease the number of potential vm's. Any thoughts? Also, this is a popular topic. Shouldn't virtualization be a sticky?
May 24, 201214 yr ESXi 5 no longer has the 8Gb limit - it was raised to 32Gb at release. Both 4.1 and 5.0 have the 2TB limit for .vmdk's /RDM's
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