ESXi 5 and X3650 type 7979

[Gee911]

Hi,

I am wondering what would be the safest thing to do.  I have a cluster of mutiple IBM x3650 (type 7979) servers, they are not M2 or M3.  This cluster is actually running ESX 3.5 and I want to upgrade it to the latest version, I will do a clean install.

However, the type 7979 is not listed on the ESXi 5 HCL, but only on the ESX 4.1 HCL.  I don't want to install obsolete software but I want to make sure I won't run into problems with that cluster.

Should I stick to the HCL no matter what and install 4.1 or would it be safe to assume that ESXi 5 will run fine and will be certified sooner or later ?

Thanks!

[athlon_crazy]

There must be a reason why it is not in HCL. Think about support issue in the future when something goes wrong with your server. BTW, ESX/i 4.1 U1 is not obselete AFAIK.   

just my 2 cents

[Pieter Du Preez]

Hi

Always stick with the HCL for production environments to maintain support

If you wan't to run ESXi5 on these servers you need to contact IBM

This is From HCL page help

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/info.php?deviceCategory=server&mode=server_introduction

If a specific server, storage array, or device is not listed on the Systems Compatibility Guide, please contact the vendor of that hardware to find out the plans for supporting that hardware with VMware vSphere.

Please award points for correct/helpful answers :smileyhappy:

[Techstarts]

Welcome to the community.

Please follow HCL strictly, reason is simple you will save problems for yourself in future.

After all you are going to run a production load on it, why take chance.

Thank you,

Preetam

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Hardware vendors tend to just certifying their latest hardware revisions so I wouldn't expect to see official support for your server models.  They might likely work just fine, but you have to weigh the risk of using 'unsupported' hardware.

[clairvoyancemas]

Hi,

We have the same set of servers running ESX 4.0 update 1. Has anybody here actually performed an upgrade to ESXi5 using the same server models? We would want to know how it went and what would VMware tech support do if ever we would open a ticket during the upgrade process.

Charlie

[beaumeri]

I'm currenly running ESXi 5 on IBM X3650 7979 without a problem.  I'm only using it at home and have 3 vm on it.  One is Window Home server 2011, the other is FreePBX and the thrid is Windows7 with my home automation software on it (CQC).

I'm not doing anything fancy with these but it simply works.    Been working on this for over a month so far.

My only problem is I'm trying to find a sata card that support port multiplier and is also supported in ESXi5.

No luck so far for that.

My knowledge of VMware is to limited to recommend production environment on such set-up but I can safely say for the basic stuff it works.

[goobernoodles]

I have 4 total IBM 3650's running ESXI 5.1 without any issues that I've run into specific to the server hardware.  I'm going to be doing a refresh later this year.  In our main cluster, I have a x3650 M3 (7945), x3650 M2 (7947) and a 3650 (7979).  The other site just has a single x3550 M2 (7946) that is also running 5.1.  The main cluster uses an IBM DS3300 iSCSI SAN paired with QLogic QLE4060C HBA's on the host side.  We did have a lot of issues with the SAN.  However, that was due to IBM's terrible support and eventually, a failed HBA AND SAN controller.

[LaxmanGurav]

yes you can.

i am running esxi 5.5 on three "x3650 7979" in my data center.