Active System Console on ESXi guest

[idata]

Hi,

I can't find much information regarding the use of Active System Console on an ESXi guest, so i thought i would ask.

I have a windows 2003 guest on a new ESXi box that is running a S3420GPLC board with an RS2BL040 controller.

After much fiddling i was able to get the Webconsole2 management software to find my RAID card (although webconsole2 runs like an absolute dog for some reason, taking 30seconds to process a mouse click).

Now i am trying to get the Active System Console setup so i can monitor the hardware of the box.

The setup goes through fine and an icon appears in the desktop. Once i open the icon it asks for a username/password. I use the password i setup on install and it logs me in fine, but it then stops.

Sometimes IE will say "Loading xx objects..." in the status bar, other times not. Nothing in the main pane of the webpage loads, and if i click on any other page (user settings, or go down the menu on the left) nothing loads.

If i close the webpage and reload it i get the login pane again. Put my login details in and hit login, except that this time it does not go past the login screen. The only way to get it to go through the login again is to reboot the machine (guest OS).

Is this expected behaviour when running the active console on an ESXi guest OS, or should i be looking at my windows 2003 install?

I have tried firefox, but that presented the same problems as above. One install actually presented me with some red text advising me of a "server error". But a reinstall fixed that.

I also installed the latest Adobe Flash just in case.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

[Edward_Z_Intel]

I don't think Active System Console will run in a guest OS, because the guest OS can't talk to BMC thru management bus...

My suggestion is to configure BMC for out of band management, and then install and run the http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=19896 Multi-Server Manager on a different server on the network. Please note that the BMC IP address needs to be different from ESXi or guest OS.

For details on BMC configuration, please see http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/CS-030462.htm Server management on Intel® Server Boards and Systems.