2009 May 24 - Sun

VMWare on HP DL360 G6

I recently acquired a couple of decently configured HP DL360 G6 servers. Each boots VMWare directly from an embedded USB Token. Now that is a server that works right out of the box. And it did.

It is an excellent ability to be able to use HP's management tools to view the console remotely. I've not laid hands on the server, but I have almost complete visibility into the unit. There are about 20 different temperature sensors, I can monitor and cap power usage, evaluate processor utilization, and much more. Remote access to CDRoms is also available through a virtual media Java mechanism. I'm using that now to upgrade to U4 of ESXi.

HP has their own special image and after a bunch of searching, I found it at Software Depot Home.

I had tried the U4 version from VMWare's site, but it wouldn't install itself in the correct spot. That is when I figured that HP must have a special version. Don't try to install HP's v8.20 of management tools either. They are frought with installation problems.