VMware

VMware ESX Server Driver Disk RPM for QLogic 4G Fibre Channel HBAs


Released 01-Feb-2007

Driver Disk

This update for ESX Server 2.5.4 contains a driver disk for installing ESX Server on machines with QLogic 4G HBAs.

Downloading the Driver Tarball

To download and extract the tarball:
  1. Download the tar file.
  2. Check the m5sum of the package:
    # md5sum Qlogic_driver.tar.gz

    The md5 checksum output should match the following:

    e458c7ec19b32fdb6613e018f472d61b Qlogic_driver.tar.gz

To unpack the tar file and create a driver floppy disk:

    For Windows Systems

  1. Unpack the tar file to extract the floppy image (.img).
  2. Use the WinZip program (or similar utility) to unzip the file:

    Qlogic_driver.tar.gz.

  3. Rename the Qlogic_707-38650.img to a name with less than seven characters. (For example, driver.img).
  4. Place the renamed driver.img file into a temporary directory in C:\ (For example, c:\temp).
  5. Create a driver floppy disk.

To create a diver floppy disk from the extracted floppy image:

  1. Place the ESX 2.5.4 Installation CD into the CD ROM drive of the Windows system.
  2. Choose Start > Run and browse to the dosutils folder on the ESX Server 2.5.4 installation CD.
  3. Double click rawrite.exe.
  4. In the new pop-up command prompt window, the image file name along with its location and floppy drive letter must be specified. For example:
    • Enter disk image source file name: c:\temp\driver.img.
    • Enter target diskette drive: a.
    • Insert a formatted diskette into the floppy drive and press Enter to create the driver disk.

    For Linux Systems

  1. Unpack the tar file:

    # tar -xzvf Qlogic_driver.tar.gz

  2. Create a driver floppy disk using the dd command:
    # dd if=qla2300_707-38650.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=1440k

Installing ESX Server 2.5.4 Using the Driver Disk

To install ESX Server 2.5.4 using the driver disk:
  1. Insert the Vmware ESX Server 2.5.4 CD in to the CD-ROM drive when the BIOS startup messages display.
  2. The machine detects and boots from the CD.
  3. At the boot prompt menu, enter bootfromsan driverdisk.
  4. Place the floppy disk you created into the floppy drive.
  5. From the dialog box, choose Driver Disk.
  6. Continue to indicate that you have one driver disk only.
  7. Continue with the installation process for a standard installation of ESX Server 2.5.4.
  8. When you are prompted to reboot at the end of the installation, the installer will restart your system to run ESX Server.

    Note: Linux-UP and SMP modules are not installed due to space constraints of the driver disk image. Boot into esx-san-safe instead of linux-up or linux mode for server maintenance. To boot into linux-up or linux mode, you must manually install the driver modules.

To manually install the Linux-UP and SMP driver modules:

  1. Copy the qla2300_707_up_smp-1.0-38650.i386.rpm from the extracted driver disk tar file: Qlogic_driver.tar.gz
  2. Install the RPM by running the following command:

    # rpm -ivh qla2300_707_up_smp-1.0-38650.i386.rpm