ML370 G6 and ESXi..

[Elina]

Testing if could run ESXi 6.5 U3 in our vacant ML370 G6 server.

The VMware-ESXi-6.5.0-Update3-13932383-HPE-preGen9-650.U3.9.6.8.8-Jun2019.iso image installs nicely.  Recognizes the P410i controller & disks/partitions, the 4-port Ethernet NC375i works, the E5520 processors are supported.  But after startup, the console freezes for minutes or completely, after a short moment.  The browser still gets the login page but the login is refused, because of bad user/password, or sometimes times out. So something obviously is not good.

Anyone tried this, and had it working?  Or better luck with ESXi 6.0?  I know this is not officially supported combination, but I know some people have had it working, after different kind of resolved issues, but this random freezing after succesful install seems to be something new.  All the firmwares are updates to the latest too.

[daphnissov]

Word of advice: Don't run clearly unsupported combinations of server and ESXi because of inexplicable issues just like this one. Stick to what works.

[Elina]

Yeah well, I am trying to find out what works... :smileyhappy:

I do understand what "unsupported" means, but like VMware itself says, "unsupported" does not mean it will not work.

It just would be shame to put away a perfectly good server hardware, which is build to last years after years, just because the combined ESXi/Proliant officially supported lifecycle is so so short. In this server, the ESXi 6.0 has been running perfectly well in all testing, but before going to production will like to find out if 6.5 would run ok too.

Anyway, at the moment looks like 6.0 is the best option now, and luckily it is supporting Windows Server 2019 too.

[daphnissov]

If this is for production, ​definitely don't run in an unsupported state. The thing about supported versus unsupported is that if it says unsupported, you really don't know if it'll work regardless of whether you actually want support or not.