SuPz.orG

The list of supported hardware for VMware ESX 3.5 is about 5 devices long, which means that if you want to use local SATA for storage on a VMware server, and don’t feel like buying new servers, or doing some weird cross-NFS storage model with multiple gigabit ethernet links between the boxes, you have to hax0r ESX.

I found a really good thread on the VMware forums where a number of people are trying to get ESX 3.5 running on their unsupported SATA based devices and a lot of them are actually able to do it. I, on the other hand, am unsuccessful so far, but I’ll keep trying. Regardless, If you’re seeing the following after installing and booting up into ESX 3.5, head over to the forum and see if the scripts provided there can lend you a hand:

Mounting root failed. Dropping into basic maintenance shell.
To collect logs for VMware, connect a USB storage device and
run 'bin/vm-support <devicename>'.
Machine will be rebooted when you exit from this shell.

And make sure to post a comment if you get your unsupported SATA-based server working.

Update: One of the guys participating in the thread has created a list of unsupported SATA controllers and motherboards that are known to work with ESX 3.5, and the necessary hacks to get them working. I love the internets.