ESXi Compatibility: It’s Not Just About Servers

Server compatibility is, obviously, the most important part. However, your management workstation can give you some headaches too.

I’ve been working around an error message on my workstation, I/O error occurred, for quite some time. It happens when I try to download large files (and sometimes small files) from ESXi to my workstation using the Datastore Browser.

There is much consternation about this error on the intertubes, and not a lot of answers.

I found a file that would consistently reproduce this problem. Then I shut down my workstation, added an Intel Pro/1000 GT network card, moved the cable over from my onboard NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller, and Shazam! No more “I/O error occurred” for me.

Of course, YMMV.

While we’re on the subject, if you got here as a result of searching for information about server compatibility, here are some helpful links:

• VMware’s Official HCLs
• Unofficial Whitebox (and not white box) Compatibility List
• Another unofficial whitebox list.
• GRC “Securable” app, good for telling whether your system has some commonly needed building blocks.

 The first link is the official VMware hardware compatibility list set. It has a very large number of servers, including which processors, RAID controllers, and network controllers to include in them when there is a choice to be made during parts selection on the vendor website.

Sometimes brand new servers are not in this list, but if you look at the previous model or similar models, you can sometimes find that the server you are querying about has the same processor family, same RAID controller, same network cards, etc in it. In those cases, it’s a pretty good bet that it will be compatible. Of course, the only way to be absolutely sure is to put an ESXi installer disk in the drive and try it. It only takes 10 minutes.

The second and third links include some brand name servers that are not on the HCL but have been tested and posted about in forums. You have to be careful with that because the people who post don’t always specify which controllers and which processor they used when testing. For example, they might say “The Dell Poweredge 840 works fine with ESXi.” without saying whether they used the onboard SATA (no RAID) controller or the PERC5/i controller. If it works with the onboard controller but does not work with the RAID controller, that isn’t really going to be useful for us at a client site.

The second link also includes lists of individual motherboards, SATA controllers, and network cards that are known to work. From this list, you can put together an inexpensive white-box computer with your choice of brand names.

Tags: compatibility, ESXi, HCL, I/O error occurred, whitelist