INSTALLING ESXi 4.1 ON HP PROLIANT BLADE BL460c SERVER

Before we install the ESXi server on a HP Blade server, we need to check the BIOS settings to make sure all settings are properly configured. Before we start , you need to download HP version of ESXi server. Using a ESXi downloaded from VMware gives you driver issues.

Start the server and hit “F9” to get the BIOS screen.

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Select processor options to check the Intel-VT if the server is a Intel processor made. Make sure everything is enabled in the screenshot shown below.

Now we need to select the power regulator as shown below.

By default “HP Dynamic Power Savings Mode” which need to be changed to “OS Control Mode”. By selecting this we will allow the vSphere to manage the power of the server. Otherwise, the

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BIOS will disable the unwanted device such as processor or DIMMs if they are not used which will result in the performance problem.

Disable the ASR status as shown below.

Disable the “Virtual Install Disk” as shown below. This will be useful if you are installing Windows 2008 Operating System.

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Map the ISO as shown below .

Reboot the server and server automatically boots from the CD and the following screens apper as shown below.

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Unmap the ISO from the ILO and reboot the server shown below

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Once the installation is done check the connectivity. Make sure the DNS records are up to date for all the ESX servers. FQDN are very important when adding the server to the vCenter. HA will be get effected if the records are not properly updated. Check with ping and nslookup.

Good article for recommended settings for HP G7 server:

http://boerlowie.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/recommended-bios-setting-on-hp-proliant-dl580-g7-for-vsphere

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