ESXi 6.5 on R610

Hi,

First of all, R610 would only be able to support up to ESXi 6.0 as the drivers and firmware are compatible with the OS. You may encounter unknown issues in a long run although you manage to install ESXi 6.5.

Ref: https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=server&productid=3745&vcl=truehttps://dell.to/34hV6WN

To monitor individual RAID disk in the server, the best way to install OMSA for live hardware monitoring without bring down the server from production. Here the guide for installation: https://dell.to/3fh4Wyo;

Hello,

I did take a look and it seems there is no .vib for ESXi and the 610.  Officially it's not supported but runs fine on the system.  This is why we looked into using VeeamOne.

Hello,

We are decidedly not going the OMSA route at this moment unless there's a way to monitor the ESXi servers AND the MD3220 series hardware?

Hello GM_XISS,

You would use OMSA to manage the host hardware and MDSM to manage the storage:

How to install OpenManage Server Administrator VIB (OMSA) on VMware ESXi 5.x and/or VMware ESXi 6.x

https://dell.to/34iXY5z

Dell EMC OpenManage Server Administrator vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB) for ESXi 6.0 U3, v9.1.0

https://dell.to/3ul8W5k

If you want to try 6.5 this is the link but note the R610 is not listed in Compatible Systems on the page:

Dell EMC OpenManage Server Administrator vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB) for ESXi 6.5 U3, v9.4.0

https://dell.to/3ur2cTC

Dell PowerVault MD32/MD34/MD36/MD38 Series Resource DVD

https://dell.to/3ulBlba

You could use OpenManage Enterprise but there is limited support for these systems. Monitoring only is about all you can get.

https://dell.to/3fk0RJN

Page 4 , 11G Servers . Page 11, MD3220

As noted by Joey, ESXi 6.5 is not supported on the R610. You may try to run it but we have no support for this.

Your PowerEdge R610 supports these operating systems : https://dell.to/3vfVKQp

Support pages:

Support R610 : https://dell.to/3fkgi4D

Support MD3220 : https://dell.to/3fk0SgP

Thanks for the reply.  Ok, so we are thinking of going either 630 or 730 (leaning towards the 630 because it's only 1U).  Are there any hardware differences that ESXi 6.5 would take advantage of on the 730?

What we are trying to do is setup the 3 systems with ESXi 6.5, attached to an MD3220 with 6GB SAS HBAs, and put vCenter Essentials Plus for HA.  We are looking for the best solution to monitor the RAID of the system and the MD3220 and get notifications.  The 630s and 730s come with an iDrac enterprise, but I have yet to find the place to set email notifications when there's a RAID disk failure on our existing 610s.  If I could find that, then we wouldn't need the additional monitoring software.

We've already purchased VeeamOne, which is why I initially asked about it. 

There's not a major feature difference, if that's what you're looking for. The R730 would offer more storage, being bigger obviously makes that an option. Both the R630 and R730 are 2 socket servers, so both can support dual processor configurations. As far as controllers go though, they'd both draw from the same pool of controllers. The biggest difference is that the R730 will offer more local storage and more riser/PCI configurations than the smaller R630. 

Hello,
for me it looks like something goes wrong here..

The ESXi uses basic CIM to monitor HW releated warnings/errors. Depending on ESXi Version this was worse or slightly better but fare away from being perfect.
VeeamONE can only fetch this warnings but cant take a deeper look because it only collect the state of what ESXi have been recognized.

For us it was always the iDRAC which is responsible to inform us about HW related stuff.

Yes, we also use "OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter" formaly know as "Dell Management Pluging for VMware vCener"  which brings with the help of iDRAC AND OMSA more visibilty about the Hosts into vCenter and add more than 50 HW related alarms. Yes... VeeamOne can fetches the alarmstate of vCenter too.

Current OMIVV does not support 11Gen any more when it comes to FW Updates through vCenter so iam unsure if OMIVV supports old poweredge in general. We moved to later generations already.

Regards,
Joerg