Everyone,
We have migrated a platform to a Centos 8 host using kvm guest machines
Recently I tried to copy one of the guests to the external SD card on the back of the Dell R730xd, but I have not been able to get the Centos 8 host to recognize the SD card.
I can use DRAC interface of the R730xd to see that the SD card is being recognized and the status of the external SD slot is turned from inactive to active when the card is inserted.
I have used lsblk, fdisk -l, and 'dmesg | tail' none of which demonstrate that the Centos 8 host is recognizing the SD card.
You help would be appreciated.
Thanks !!
On Sun, 07 Mar 2021 11:17:19 -0600 Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
I have used lsblk, fdisk -l, and 'dmesg | tail' none of which demonstrate that the Centos 8 host is recognizing the SD card.
Is the card formatted? Can you format it on that computer?
On Sun, 07 Mar 2021 11:17:19 -0600 Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
I have used lsblk, fdisk -l, and 'dmesg | tail' none of which demonstrate that the Centos 8 host is recognizing the SD card.
Is the card formatted? Can you format it on that computer? -------------------------------------------
Frank,
I wondered the same thing? I used a usb sd card reader adapter and put attached it to a usb port on the same machine and used gparted to format an xfs partition on it.
Unfortunately, when I inserted the SD card in the SD adapter in the back of the machine I could still not get Centos 8 to recognize it.
Greg
Am 07.03.21 um 20:58 schrieb Gregory P. Ennis:
On Sun, 07 Mar 2021 11:17:19 -0600 Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
I have used lsblk, fdisk -l, and 'dmesg | tail' none of which demonstrate that the Centos 8 host is recognizing the SD card.
Is the card formatted? Can you format it on that computer?
Frank,
I wondered the same thing? I used a usb sd card reader adapter and put attached it to a usb port on the same machine and used gparted to format an xfs partition on it.
Unfortunately, when I inserted the SD card in the SD adapter in the back of the machine I could still not get Centos 8 to recognize it.
Any logs (journalctl -f) while inserting?
Such slots should be handled by the sdhci kernel module ...
-- Leon
Am 07.03.21 um 20:58 schrieb Gregory P. Ennis:
On Sun, 07 Mar 2021 11:17:19 -0600 Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
I have used lsblk, fdisk -l, and 'dmesg | tail' none of which demonstrate that the Centos 8 host is recognizing the SD card.
Is the card formatted? Can you format it on that computer?
Frank,
I wondered the same thing? I used a usb sd card reader adapter and put attached it to a usb port on the same machine and used gparted to format an xfs partition on it.
Unfortunately, when I inserted the SD card in the SD adapter in the back of the machine I could still not get Centos 8 to recognize it.
Any logs (journalctl -f) while inserting?
Such slots should be handled by the sdhci kernel module ...
-- Leon
----------------------------------------------------------
Leon,
Thank you for your help.
I am not getting any error messages that I can identify when inserting the sd card,
I have Centos 8 fully updated : CentOS Linux release 8.3.2011 with 4.18.0-240.15.1.el8_3.x86_64 kernel
Is the sdhci kernel module something that I need to add or should that already be present.
Greg
Am 07.03.21 um 20:58 schrieb Gregory P. Ennis:
On Sun, 07 Mar 2021 11:17:19 -0600 Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
I have used lsblk, fdisk -l, and 'dmesg | tail' none of which demonstrate that the Centos 8 host is recognizing the SD card.
Is the card formatted? Can you format it on that computer?
Frank,
I wondered the same thing? I used a usb sd card reader adapter and put attached it to a usb port on the same machine and used gparted to format an xfs partition on it.
Unfortunately, when I inserted the SD card in the SD adapter in the back of the machine I could still not get Centos 8 to recognize it.
Any logs (journalctl -f) while inserting?
Such slots should be handled by the sdhci kernel module ...
-- Leon
----------------------------------------------------------
Leon,
Thank you for your help.
I am not getting any error messages that I can identify when inserting the sd card,
I have Centos 8 fully updated : CentOS Linux release 8.3.2011 with 4.18.0-240.15.1.el8_3.x86_64 kernel
Is the sdhci kernel module something that I need to add or should that already be present.
Greg
------------------------------------------------------------------
It looks like I already have teh sdhci module
/usr/lib/modules/4.18.0- 240.1.1.el8_3.x86_64/kernel/drivers/mmc/host/sdhci-acpi.ko.xz /usr/lib/modules/4.18.0- 240.1.1.el8_3.x86_64/kernel/drivers/mmc/host/sdhci-pci.ko.xz /usr/lib/modules/4.18.0- 240.1.1.el8_3.x86_64/kernel/drivers/mmc/host/sdhci-pltfm.ko.xz /usr/lib/modules/4.18.0- 240.1.1.el8_3.x86_64/kernel/drivers/mmc/host/sdhci.ko.xz /usr/lib/modules/4.18.0- 240.10.1.el8_3.x86_64/kernel/drivers/mmc/host/sdhci-acpi.ko.xz /usr/lib/modules/4.18.0- 240.10.1.el8_3.x86_64/kernel/drivers/mmc/host/sdhci-pci.ko.xz /usr/lib/modules/4.18.0- 240.10.1.el8_3.x86_64/kernel/drivers/mmc/host/sdhci-pltfm.ko.xz /usr/lib/modules/4.18.0- 240.10.1.el8_3.x86_64/kernel/drivers/mmc/host/sdhci.ko.xz
_______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
On Sun, 07 Mar 2021 13:58:16 -0600 Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
I wondered the same thing? I used a usb sd card reader adapter and put attached it to a usb port on the same machine and used gparted to format an xfs partition on it.
Is xfs a valid format for a sdcard? (I really don't know.)
I would reformat it as fat32 and see what happens.
On Sun, 07 Mar 2021 13:58:16 -0600 Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
I wondered the same thing? I used a usb sd card reader adapter and put attached it to a usb port on the same machine and used gparted to format an xfs partition on it.
Is xfs a valid format for a sdcard? (I really don't know.)
I would reformat it as fat32 and see what happens.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I have tested most all of the formats on SD cards to see if they work, and have not had difficulty with any format that I have used in the past.
For what I am doing now, the original format of the SD car was fat32 which was recognized when I used the usb card reader, but was not recognized in the SD card slot in the back of the machine. This was the same for xfs.
Greg
Everyone,
We have migrated a platform to a Centos 8 host using kvm guest machines
Recently I tried to copy one of the guests to the external SD card on the back of the Dell R730xd, but I have not been able to get the Centos 8 host to recognize the SD card.
I can use DRAC interface of the R730xd to see that the SD card is being recognized and the status of the external SD slot is turned from inactive to active when the card is inserted.
I have used lsblk, fdisk -l, and 'dmesg | tail' none of which demonstrate that the Centos 8 host is recognizing the SD card.
You help would be appreciated.
Thanks !!
On Sun, 7 Mar 2021, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
Everyone,
We have migrated a platform to a Centos 8 host using kvm guest machines
Recently I tried to copy one of the guests to the external SD card on the back of the Dell R730xd, but I have not been able to get the Centos 8 host to recognize the SD card.
I can use DRAC interface of the R730xd to see that the SD card is being recognized and the status of the external SD slot is turned from inactive to active when the card is inserted.
On some of our machines (not Dell R730 series, so caveat emptor), I had to use the kmod-isci RPM from ELRepo.org to get EL8 hosts (both CentOS and RHEL) to recognize Intel SATA controllers. The same controller is recognized just fine by EL7 kernels, but the isci driver was removed in RHEL 8:
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/8/htm...
My suggestion is that you try finding a driver at http://elrepo.org/.
* On Sun, 7 Mar 2021, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
Everyone,
We have migrated a platform to a Centos 8 host using kvm guest machines
Recently I tried to copy one of the guests to the external SD card on the back of the Dell R730xd, but I have not been able to get the Centos 8 host to recognize the SD card.
I can use DRAC interface of the R730xd to see that the SD card is being recognized and the status of the external SD slot is turned from inactive to active when the card is inserted.
On some of our machines (not Dell R730 series, so caveat emptor), I had to use the kmod-isci RPM from ELRepo.org to get EL8 hosts (both CentOS and RHEL) to recognize Intel SATA controllers. The same controller is recognized just fine by EL7 kernels, but the isci driver was removed in RHEL 8:
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/8/htm...
My suggestion is that you try finding a driver at http://elrepo.org/.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul,
That is very helpful. Thank you !!!!!!
Greg
On Sun, 2021-03-07 at 11:17 -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
Everyone,
We have migrated a platform to a Centos 8 host using kvm guest machines
Recently I tried to copy one of the guests to the external SD card on the back of the Dell R730xd, but I have not been able to get the Centos 8 host to recognize the SD card.
I can use DRAC interface of the R730xd to see that the SD card is being recognized and the status of the external SD slot is turned from inactive to active when the card is inserted.
I have a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that that slot is associated with the iDrac system and not the main board.
In any case doesn't that need a vFlash card not a standard SD/SDHC card? From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_DRAC
To take advantage of storage greater than 256 MB on the iDRAC6 enterprise, Dell requires that a vFlash SD card be procured through Dell channels. As of December 2011, Dell vFlash SD cards differ from consumer SD cards by being over-provisioned by 100% for increased write endurance and performance.[21]
While there are no other known functional differences between a Dell-branded vFlash SD card and a class 2 or greater SDHC card, the use of non-Dell media prevents the use of extended capacities and functions.
P.
On Sun, 2021-03-07 at 11:17 -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
Everyone,
We have migrated a platform to a Centos 8 host using kvm guest machines
Recently I tried to copy one of the guests to the external SD card on the back of the Dell R730xd, but I have not been able to get the Centos 8 host to recognize the SD card.
I can use DRAC interface of the R730xd to see that the SD card is being recognized and the status of the external SD slot is turned from inactive to active when the card is inserted.
I have a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that that slot is associated with the iDrac system and not the main board.
In any case doesn't that need a vFlash card not a standard SD/SDHC card? From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_DRAC
To take advantage of storage greater than 256 MB on the iDRAC6 enterprise, Dell requires that a vFlash SD card be procured through Dell channels. As of December 2011, Dell vFlash SD cards differ from consumer SD cards by being over-provisioned by 100% for increased write endurance and performance.[21]
While there are no other known functional differences between a Dell-branded vFlash SD card and a class 2 or greater SDHC card, the use of non-Dell media prevents the use of extended capacities and functions.
P.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Pete,
Thanks for your help!!!!
I am beginning to be persuaded you are right. However, I have seen some posts about putting vmware either on the SD card or internal usb stick that made me think the SD card could be addressable. If Dell has this limited to Dell flash cards instead of a regular SD card that might explain some of what I am seeing.
Greg
On Sun, 2021-03-07 at 11:17 -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
Everyone,
We have migrated a platform to a Centos 8 host using kvm guest machines
Recently I tried to copy one of the guests to the external SD card on the back of the Dell R730xd, but I have not been able to get the Centos 8 host to recognize the SD card.
I can use DRAC interface of the R730xd to see that the SD card is being recognized and the status of the external SD slot is turned from inactive to active when the card is inserted.
I have a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that that slot is associated with the iDrac system and not the main board.
In any case doesn't that need a vFlash card not a standard SD/SDHC card? From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_DRAC
To take advantage of storage greater than 256 MB on the iDRAC6 enterprise, Dell requires that a vFlash SD card be procured through Dell channels. As of December 2011, Dell vFlash SD cards differ from consumer SD cards by being over-provisioned by 100% for increased write endurance and performance.[21]
While there are no other known functional differences between a Dell-branded vFlash SD card and a class 2 or greater SDHC card, the use of non-Dell media prevents the use of extended capacities and functions.
P.
Pete,
Thanks for your help!!!!
I am beginning to be persuaded you are right. However, I have seen some posts about putting vmware either on the SD card or internal usb stick that made me think the SD card could be addressable. If Dell has this limited to Dell flash cards instead of a regular SD card that might explain some of what I am seeing.
Greg
I don't know iDrac but I'd guess that you can make the SD device visible to the OS by passing them through as a virtual devices. Maybe you could try this?
Simon Simon
I am beginning to be persuaded you are right. However, I have seen some posts about putting vmware either on the SD card or internal usb stick that made me think the SD card could be addressable. If Dell has this limited to Dell flash cards instead of a regular SD card that might explain some of what I am seeing.
You can get an Internal Dual SD Module (IDSDM) addon for those machines - they are different to the iDrac based vFlash card. And yes, you can boot a hypervisor from the internal SD card.
Also, apparently, neither the vFlash slot nor the IDSDM are hot- pluggable.
P.
On Sun, 7 Mar 2021 at 18:39, Pete Biggs pete@biggs.org.uk wrote:
On Sun, 2021-03-07 at 11:17 -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
Everyone,
We have migrated a platform to a Centos 8 host using kvm guest machines
Recently I tried to copy one of the guests to the external SD card on the back of the Dell R730xd, but I have not been able to get the Centos 8 host to recognize the SD card.
I can use DRAC interface of the R730xd to see that the SD card is being recognized and the status of the external SD slot is turned from inactive to active when the card is inserted.
I have a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that that slot is associated with the iDrac system and not the main board.
In any case doesn't that need a vFlash card not a standard SD/SDHC card? From Wikipedia:
I think the SD card on the back of the IDRAC7 systems on the Dell 730xd are similar to this. They are accessible by the IDrac and dell software and are primarily there for emergency install of the hardware from known good media. I believe that vmware has a module which talks to the card so you can install software in vm's from said known good media.
On Sun, 7 Mar 2021 at 18:39, Pete Biggs pete@biggs.org.uk wrote:
On Sun, 2021-03-07 at 11:17 -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
Everyone,
We have migrated a platform to a Centos 8 host using kvm guest machines
Recently I tried to copy one of the guests to the external SD card on the back of the Dell R730xd, but I have not been able to get the Centos 8 host to recognize the SD card.
I can use DRAC interface of the R730xd to see that the SD card is being recognized and the status of the external SD slot is turned from inactive to active when the card is inserted.
I have a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that that slot is associated with the iDrac system and not the main board.
In any case doesn't that need a vFlash card not a standard SD/SDHC card? From Wikipedia:
I think the SD card on the back of the IDRAC7 systems on the Dell 730xd are similar to this. They are accessible by the IDrac and dell software and are primarily there for emergency install of the hardware from known good media. I believe that vmware has a module which talks to the card so you can install software in vm's from said known good media.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Simeon,
You have anticipated what I am trying to do. I have been using Centos 8 as a host on a 730xd machine, for some Centos 7 guests. With the end of life of Centos 8 only 9 months away I decided to try to migrate everything to vmware. I purchased a sister 730xd to use as a lab computer, and am working on the skill sets necessary to migrate everything to vmware. I have really grown to like kvm and am still disappointed RedHat/IBM is backing away from Centos.
I certainly have not been able to get Centos 8 to recognize the SD card, and have also not been able to get vmware on the sister machine to recognize either the SD card in the back slot or even when I have it plugged into a usb converter. The vmware problem is more likely related to my lack of experience with vmware; this is my first time to use it.
Thank you for your help!!!!!
Greg
On Sun, 7 Mar 2021 at 18:39, Pete Biggs pete@biggs.org.uk wrote:
On Sun, 2021-03-07 at 11:17 -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
Everyone,
We have migrated a platform to a Centos 8 host using kvm guest machines
Recently I tried to copy one of the guests to the external SD card on the back of the Dell R730xd, but I have not been able to get the Centos 8 host to recognize the SD card.
I can use DRAC interface of the R730xd to see that the SD card is being recognized and the status of the external SD slot is turned from inactive to active when the card is inserted.
I have a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that that slot is associated with the iDrac system and not the main board.
In any case doesn't that need a vFlash card not a standard SD/SDHC card? From Wikipedia:
I think the SD card on the back of the IDRAC7 systems on the Dell 730xd are similar to this. They are accessible by the IDrac and dell software and are primarily there for emergency install of the hardware from known good media. I believe that vmware has a module which talks to the card so you can install software in vm's from said known good media.
Simeon,
You have anticipated what I am trying to do. I have been using Centos 8 as a host on a 730xd machine, for some Centos 7 guests. With the end of life of Centos 8 only 9 months away I decided to try to migrate everything to vmware. I purchased a sister 730xd to use as a lab computer, and am working on the skill sets necessary to migrate everything to vmware. I have really grown to like kvm and am still disappointed RedHat/IBM is backing away from Centos.
I certainly have not been able to get Centos 8 to recognize the SD card, and have also not been able to get vmware on the sister machine to recognize either the SD card in the back slot or even when I have it plugged into a usb converter. The vmware problem is more likely related to my lack of experience with vmware; this is my first time to use it.
Thank you for your help!!!!!
Greg
Hi Greg,
If your only problem with CentOS 8 is the support end, why not just switch the system to Oracle Linux 8 or another clone or even Red Hat EL with one of the new licenses, if they fit your needs?
Moving the whole setup to VMware seems a bit overkill to me as you likely have to learn a completely new system and deal with new problems.
Simon
On Sun, 7 Mar 2021 at 18:39, Pete Biggs pete@biggs.org.uk wrote:
On Sun, 2021-03-07 at 11:17 -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
Everyone,
We have migrated a platform to a Centos 8 host using kvm guest machines
Recently I tried to copy one of the guests to the external SD card on the back of the Dell R730xd, but I have not been able to get the Centos 8 host to recognize the SD card.
I can use DRAC interface of the R730xd to see that the SD card is being recognized and the status of the external SD slot is turned from inactive to active when the card is inserted.
I have a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that that slot is associated with the iDrac system and not the main board.
In any case doesn't that need a vFlash card not a standard SD/SDHC card? From Wikipedia:
I think the SD card on the back of the IDRAC7 systems on the Dell 730xd are similar to this. They are accessible by the IDrac and dell software and are primarily there for emergency install of the hardware from known good media. I believe that vmware has a module which talks to the card so you can install software in vm's from said known good media.
Simeon,
You have anticipated what I am trying to do. I have been using Centos 8 as a host on a 730xd machine, for some Centos 7 guests. With the end of life of Centos 8 only 9 months away I decided to try to migrate everything to vmware. I purchased a sister 730xd to use as a lab computer, and am working on the skill sets necessary to migrate everything to vmware. I have really grown to like kvm and am still disappointed RedHat/IBM is backing away from Centos.
I certainly have not been able to get Centos 8 to recognize the SD card, and have also not been able to get vmware on the sister machine to recognize either the SD card in the back slot or even when I have it plugged into a usb converter. The vmware problem is more likely related to my lack of experience with vmware; this is my first time to use it.
Thank you for your help!!!!!
Greg
Hi Greg,
If your only problem with CentOS 8 is the support end, why not just switch the system to Oracle Linux 8 or another clone or even Red Hat EL with one of the new licenses, if they fit your needs?
Moving the whole setup to VMware seems a bit overkill to me as you likely have to learn a completely new system and deal with new problems.
Simon
_______________________________________________
Simon,
Thanks for your advice. I have not moved anything yet, but am in the early stages of trying to figure out what to do. I have wanted to try my hand at VMware, but never had a reason to do so. I have not looked at Oracle 8, but will put this on my list of things to evaluate.
Thanks again for your help!!!!!
Greg
On Mon, 8 Mar 2021, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
On Sun, 7 Mar 2021 at 18:39, Pete Biggs pete@biggs.org.uk wrote:
On Sun, 2021-03-07 at 11:17 -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
Everyone,
We have migrated a platform to a Centos 8 host using kvm guest machines
Recently I tried to copy one of the guests to the external SD card on the back of the Dell R730xd, but I have not been able to get the Centos 8 host to recognize the SD card.
I can use DRAC interface of the R730xd to see that the SD card is being recognized and the status of the external SD slot is turned from inactive to active when the card is inserted.
I have a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that that slot is associated with the iDrac system and not the main board.
In any case doesn't that need a vFlash card not a standard SD/SDHC card? From Wikipedia:
I think the SD card on the back of the IDRAC7 systems on the Dell 730xd are similar to this. They are accessible by the IDrac and dell software and are primarily there for emergency install of the hardware from known good media. I believe that vmware has a module which talks to the card so you can install software in vm's from said known good media.
Simeon,
You have anticipated what I am trying to do. I have been using Centos 8 as a host on a 730xd machine, for some Centos 7 guests. With the end of life of Centos 8 only 9 months away I decided to try to migrate everything to vmware. I purchased a sister 730xd to use as a lab computer, and am working on the skill sets necessary to migrate everything to vmware. I have really grown to like kvm and am still disappointed RedHat/IBM is backing away from Centos.
I certainly have not been able to get Centos 8 to recognize the SD card, and have also not been able to get vmware on the sister machine to recognize either the SD card in the back slot or even when I have it plugged into a usb converter. The vmware problem is more likely related to my lack of experience with vmware; this is my first time to use it.
As was said above, the sd card on the back of the machine is ONLY for use by the iDRAC. If you have iDRAC enterprise, it is not necessary to use it to install vmware esxi or for that matter any OS. All you need to do is mount the iso as a virtual disk using the iDRAC console. I do this all the time to both upgrade/install esxi and install centos/Windows/whatever vm's.
Just do not try to mount the iso on a machine on a low bandwidth connection. It will take forever. :-(
If you want to install vmware esxi on an sd card you need a isdm module. Something like: https://www.ebay.com/itm/PMR79-Dell-PowerEdge-R630-R730-R730xd-Dual-SD-Flash... Keep in mind that Dell recommends that you do not install esxi newer than 6.7 on an sd card. They stopped offering the isdm modules on 14th gen servers with esxi 7.0 installed. They claim they see too many failures of the sd cards with 7.0.
HTH,
On Mon, 8 Mar 2021, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
On Sun, 7 Mar 2021 at 18:39, Pete Biggs pete@biggs.org.uk wrote:
On Sun, 2021-03-07 at 11:17 -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:
Everyone,
We have migrated a platform to a Centos 8 host using kvm guest machines
Recently I tried to copy one of the guests to the external SD card on the back of the Dell R730xd, but I have not been able to get the Centos 8 host to recognize the SD card.
I can use DRAC interface of the R730xd to see that the SD card is being recognized and the status of the external SD slot is turned from inactive to active when the card is inserted.
I have a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that that slot is associated with the iDrac system and not the main board.
In any case doesn't that need a vFlash card not a standard SD/SDHC card? From Wikipedia:
I think the SD card on the back of the IDRAC7 systems on the Dell 730xd are similar to this. They are accessible by the IDrac and dell software and are primarily there for emergency install of the hardware from known good media. I believe that vmware has a module which talks to the card so you can install software in vm's from said known good media.
Simeon,
You have anticipated what I am trying to do. I have been using Centos 8 as a host on a 730xd machine, for some Centos 7 guests. With the end of life of Centos 8 only 9 months away I decided to try to migrate everything to vmware. I purchased a sister 730xd to use as a lab computer, and am working on the skill sets necessary to migrate everything to vmware. I have really grown to like kvm and am still disappointed RedHat/IBM is backing away from Centos.
I certainly have not been able to get Centos 8 to recognize the SD card, and have also not been able to get vmware on the sister machine to recognize either the SD card in the back slot or even when I have it plugged into a usb converter. The vmware problem is more likely related to my lack of experience with vmware; this is my first time to use it.
As was said above, the sd card on the back of the machine is ONLY for use by the iDRAC. If you have iDRAC enterprise, it is not necessary to use it to install vmware esxi or for that matter any OS. All you need to do is mount the iso as a virtual disk using the iDRAC console. I do this all the time to both upgrade/install esxi and install centos/Windows/whatever vm's.
Just do not try to mount the iso on a machine on a low bandwidth connection. It will take forever. :-(
If you want to install vmware esxi on an sd card you need a isdm module. Something like: https://www.ebay.com/itm/PMR79-Dell-PowerEdge-R630-R730-R730xd-Dual-SD-Flash... Keep in mind that Dell recommends that you do not install esxi newer than 6.7 on an sd card. They stopped offering the isdm modules on 14th gen servers with esxi 7.0 installed. They claim they see too many failures of the sd cards with 7.0.
HTH, ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Simeon,
That was very helpful. I an new to the Dell servers as well as esxi. Thank you very much for the perspective and advice!!!!!
Greg
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