VMWare ESXi 5.0 Whitebox Server build � Part 2

The build has started, everything has arrived – so far so good. First job with everything was to update the firmware, as it is a lot easier to do it now than when you have everything up and running and rely upon the uptime!

ASRock Motherboard – BIOS v1.30 : 19/08/2011 – Download
LSI MegaRAID – Firmware v12.13.0-0104 : 10/08/2011 – Download

Now to start putting everything together. The assembly was nice and easy, the only frustration was with the Antec Take4 – as it came with a bag full of bits including a load of plastic clamps and a piece of transparent plastic sheet with double-sided sticky strips on it… and I couldn’t work out what they were for. An office meeting came to the conclusion that the clamps fitted around the circular torsion bar to create a cable run (see top right corner of 2nd picture) and the clear plastic sheet is to cover the side vents on the case for when you want to create a front to back airflow!

I struggled with the RAID setup on the LSI RAID BIOS, as expected – because I had read about Tinkerguy’s same issues HERE. He mentions that the RAID BIOS setup was nat accesible using Ctrl+H when booting, but didn’t mention a solution – so here’s my workaround :

1. Insert spare HDD into ASRock SATA slot
2. Install an OS (I used XP)
3. Install MegaRAID drivers (availble HERE)
4. Download and install MegaRAID Storage Manager (available HERE)
5. Use the software to configure my RAID array
6. Reboot and check the RAID BIOS displays the Virtual drive
7. Remove temp HDD and install ESXi…

Next stage; ESXi installation