IBM eServer x346 (8840)

[admin]

This is the machine that does all ! (And 'no', that's not my serial number there...) This machine is running VMware ESXi 4.1 (only 32bits guests), which on his turn, holds all Virtual Machines. As mentioned in Global Network, everything below the blue line in there. Including this phpbb forum, dolfgeerdink.nl and serveral other Virtual machines, including pfSense, FreeNAS, Windows XP.

Just a reminder which i wrote last year, in /DGWP01/?page_id=194

NOTES:
Both machines actually are NOT supported to run ESXi 4.1.x at all !!
DIY according these instructions is AT YOUR OWN RISK !!
These machines are just hobby objects, but still running fine!
At this moment (feb 2013) it runs 7 VM’s with different OS’s and hardware.
Due to machine and CPU limitations (HT but no VT) all VM’s can only run 32bits.

Booting my test machine shows:


The 'better' on, with 2 higer speed CPU's:


With RAID5 capabilities:


These machines will show ESXi 4.1 booting, if properly installed:



i'll try to inform here about updating this machine to latest level, as of feb 2014.
It should boot from USB and uses all 6 (150GB SCSI320) HDD's in RAID5 as datastore1 within ESXi 4.1

Although the machine could run a 64 bits OS, it can only be run as MAIN OS, not virtual.
This is due to VT (virtualization technology), which this machine does not have. It only has HT (Hyper Threading).

Anyway @ this moment running about 12 Virtual machines.
In the picture there are a lot of gateways (DGVMGWxx), these are test machines, and they take less CPU and memory.


Here my vSphere Cient overview, the tool to manage all VM's:


With around 700GB of diskspace this machine looks a bit tiny, but the RAID5 is very fast!
And with over 4TB of USB disk space, connected through FreeNAS running as VM, everything is possible with this configuration.

--
What more to tell, some IBM links:
http://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry/po ... migr-58373
http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bi ... SZG04-0486

All IBM Drivers & Firmware for the Model 8840:
http://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry/po ... 1289838813
..

[admin]

Next issue will be:

- Boot the new 4.1 version with latest updates from USB stick? (Need to make this completely new.)
- All RAID configered diskspace will then be available for VM's.

I already worked on it in 2012: https://communities.vmware.com/thread/415972
So perhaps it would just not work on this machine.

... to be investigated.

[admin]

Current VMware levels:

ESXi 4.1 build 1682698


Vmware vSphere Client:


VMware tools Windows XP: