Using ESXI 6.0, Can't Create SATA Disk/Controller

[DaWorm]

I only have ESXI 6.0, don't have the $$$ to buy 6.7 or 7.x, so I'm kind of stuck with it.  6.0 doesn't have the web interface, and almost all of the guidelines seem to be using that.  One of the main things that differs when using WebSphere 6.0 to create the VMs instead of the web interface is that it only ever offers me IDE or SCSI drives.  All the guides have the boot disk image (synoboot.vmdk) going to SATA 0:0 (moving it off of SCSI as part of the process), but for me, the only option I have is SCSI 0:0.  I can't find any way to make ESXI 6.0 create a SATA controller or SATA disk to move the boot disk image to.

 

I had DSM5.x working but needed to update to 6.x so that my Plex server could be updated.  I managed to get 6.1.7 to install and work, but after the first power loss, it no longer loads nginx so no GUI (I have SSH access though, and it is functioning).  I have another post here on that topic.  I can't get 6.2.x to even come up beyond the initial splash screen, which never shows the booting messages like 6.1.7 does (Decompressing Linux... etc.).  All my raid disks are on a raid card PCI passthrough, the only datastore is an SSD that ESXI boots from, but I'm not even using that on my 6.2 attempts.  For those, I'm just using the boot disk image and a small virtual disk just to see if I can get it to boot far enough for the discovery tool to see it, but it never gets that far.  If it did, I could then try to remove the virtual disk and turn on the PCI passthrough and hopefully that would work.

 

I've followed the tutorials as best I can, with the only difference being the boot disk is SCSI instead of SATA.  Is this likely to be the cause of my problem?  If so, any idea how to fix it, if this is possible at all?

 

As a last resort I could attempt to go bare bones, but I do have a couple of other VMs on the box that I fire up on occasion, and it would be nice to be able to keep them, but the NAS/Plex combo is the primary purpose.

 

Thanks,

  Jeff

[flyride]

You do know you can get a single-CPU license for ESXi for free, right?

[DaWorm]

Quote

You do know you can get a single-CPU license for ESXi for free, right?

 

No, I did not.  The lowest I saw was something like $600 with an annual support subscription required.  I'll look to see where I can get that.

 

Jeff

[flyride]

Create an account on vmware.com and request a free license, not much more to it than that.  You cannot use vcenter with it - only web management, and it has limits (I believe vmotion, vsan and serial port redirection are all locked out) including max # of cores and dies.  But otherwise works great.

Edited November 11, 2020 by flyride

[DaWorm]

I found this link that showed a fairly easy way to update.  Since I was so far back (pre-March 2018) I had to go through a few other steps, and only went to 6.5 (may go to 7.0 later, but for now, that's good enough).  The 6.0 licence I had should work on all 6.x releases.

This was good enough, and I have the UI up and running.  A few config updates and I'll be ready to test if this one survives a power cycle.

 

Thanks!