Install ESXi 5.x on HP EliteBook 8560w Workstation
In the process of expanding my lab I got a brand new HP EliteBook 8560w Workstation (Intel Core i7-2670QM @ 2.20GHz w/ 16GB of memory and a build it 500GB HDD which I will be replacing with an SSD real soon).
Surely the first I had it on my mind I had ESXi for it *MOUAHAHA*, so mount my trusty Imation USB key and start the installation and my installation hangs on ACPI so I switched the HDD mode to something different thant AHCI, so don’t use AHCI rather use IDE or SATA (RAID) other wise it will hang on ACPI.
After the installation loads all of its files you’ll get an error that no network adapters are found, even though I also tried using HP’s customized image “VMware-ESXi-5.1.0-799733-HP-5.30.28” still I got the same error.
My workstation’s NIC is an Intel 82579LM so I went a bit did a little research on how to embed a driver into an ESXi image but first I did a little more research and found the proper VIB here.
So how to load a VIB into an ESXi imag, it can be done via two ways:
1- Follow this VMware KB.
2- Use ESXi-Customizer (easy, quick and straight to the point) but for education purposes I suggest you follow the first method and then move to the second once you know how it works :).
Finally after I built my customized image the installation starts successfully.
When the setup finishes and my workstation reboots! Yup another surprise nothing boots and my HDD is no longer detected :(.
After doing some more research I found that this can be resolved via two ways also:
1- Go to you BIOS settings and enable UEFI (if supported).
2- Reinstall ESXi 5.x but when prompted on the first screen press SHIT + O (not zero) and add formatwithmbr to the options then proceed with install.
I tried both and both work like a charm but I would prefer the first method if its possible to apply it, as it would save time and does the job, and finally my box loads up successfully and I start dancing at 12:00AM in the middle of the night :-P.
Regards,
Abdullah^2
I have been trying to get this working with the docking station so that I can have two wired network cards. It is seeming impossible…I believe the docking station doesn’t actually provide a separate network card, just a port replicator.
Hello,
Good thinking, but with docking stations it’s merely acts as a patch panel and doesn’t have an actual NIC built into it. On the other hand I’ve been rethinking my lab and I will most probably get an HP Micro Server soon.
Regards.
Thank you so much for your information. I managed to install ESXi5.5.0 on my HP Elitebook 8460p.
Vishal
Hello,
I am glad that I could help :).
great post, thank you!!!
Thanks for your post! Works like a charm :)
Glad I could help.
Abdullah^2: Thanks for the info. It was very useful as I had the same NIC issues when installing ESXi 5.5U2 on a couple of 8460p and 8470p laptops.
I would like to use the SD Card slot for the ESXi host software but I’m not able to locate an ESX driver for the SD reader. By chance have you ever come across such a driver? If so, please email me.
Again, thanks for the info.
Hello Jeff,
Glad I could be of help, I haven’t tried looking for the SD card drivers, the NIC driver was hard enough to locate however I was trying to locate drivers for the graphic card but no luck till now as well.
If I happen to find anything I will for sure update the blog post :-).
Hello Abdullah and thank you so much for your post , it was very useful for me .
Ilyas
Glad to know it helped :-).