HP ML110 G6, CPU and ESXi

Before installing VMware ESXi (or any other OS) it is good practice to explore the BIOS of the server hardware. Poorly configured BIOS settings can have major performance impact on the installed OS and default settings are not automatically the best settings.

While writing this post, I stumbled onto some BIOS settings, I did not fully understand. That makes it difficult to choose the correct settings. In this post, I will show you how to deal with some “CPU Power Management” settings on a HP ML110 G6 server.

Before you start, make sure which CPU’s are supported in the server, some BIOS settings are not relevant for your CPU. Example: the ML110 G6 supports[1] Intel Xeon X3430, X3450, X3460, In the BIOS under “Advanced Processor Options” there is the “Processor Hyper-Threading” option. The X3430 does not support Hyperthreading, which makes this option irrelevant. However the other models do support Hyperthreading.

The first question is, which processor is installed? A HP ML110 G6 will show the CPU type during the boot process. In case you have VMware ESXi already installed, you can also determine the CPU type from the vSphere Client, under Configuration.

Installing VMware ESXi 4.1 on a HP ML 110 G6 server

About one year ago, I hesitated about what to purchase for my new home lab. One day I discovered Simon Seagrave’s http://www.techhead.co.uk. As a result, some time later I bought a HP ML110 G5, followed by a HP ML110 G6.

And that isn’t all, you buy a server with 1 or 2 GB Memory and a single NIC, so a hardware upgrade is inevitable. Again, TechHead was of great help.

I regularly receive new comments on blog post “HP Proliant ML110 G6 Released – Still a worthy virtualization work or home lab server?” and I notice that people often encounter problems while configuring the G6 or installing ESXi.

So in this post, I will describe:

-          The basic configuration of my G6

-          Hardware Upgrade

-          Important BIOS settings

-          Installing VMware ESXi 4.1 Update 1

HP ML110G6 dual boot: VMware ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2

I have been working with VMware products for many years. Recently, I decided to extend my home lab and bought a HP ML 110 G6 server . These HP servers are a good choice for a home lab, they have the look and feel of the enterprise stuff, are affordable and are pretty able to run VMware ESXi (although the compatibility of the G5 was better…).

VMware ESXi is the future, I found this great blogpost,  Installing VMware ESXi 4.0 on a USB Memory Stick “The Official Way” , plugged a memory stick in the internal USB connector, installed ESXi, created a local VMFS partition and started creating VM’s.

I think one has to be independent and it is always good to know how other vendors (especially in the field of Virtualization are doing). And the best way is to download and install, in my case, first on my list is Microsoft Hyper-V server 2008 R2. And it would be nice to have both on the same hardware, just like in the old days with a dual boot Windows/Linux PC…