Trying to install esxi on a Dell R210 II. This is an older machine and as such has Perc S300 controller. Apparently, this controller is only compatible with windows systems and there is no way to install anything else while this controller is in play.
Can I bypass the controller altogether? I tried changing the SATA setting in BIOS to disabled, and to ATA but I can not get the esxi installer to see the disks. I've also tried disconnecting the disks from the controller and plugging them straight into the board but every boot, I still see the perc card doing its thing.
So, is it at all possible to bypass this controller and just use the 2 disks normally? Or do I have to upgrade the controller?
Thanks.
Best Answer
I know that these Dell PERC controllers are a pain in terms of "standard" driver availability. I have run into this problem recently in attempting to perform crash restoration on a Win 7 Pro/64 box. Your best bet is to contact Dell as they might even have drivers (or an ESXi implementation) that would work and see the disks.
If I recall, there IS someway of adding drivers for ESXi ...the last company I worked for did it for a 10GByte Ethernet card....it was a pain but it could be done.