ESXI 8 on Dell T420 PowerEdge Server

Dell T420 PowerEdge

Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU 1x E5-2450 v2 @ 2.50GHz. 48 GB Memory. 500GB nvme m.2 in PCIE x16 Adapter, PERC 700 raid controller with 8x4TB 3.5" disks.

Goal: Boot VMWare ESXI 8.0+ from NVME SSD in PCIE Slot in either BIOS or UEFI mode. ESXI must then be able to recognize the raid controller and virtual disk, and be able to create a datastore from it.

Attempts:

1/ BIOS boot mode with GPT partition table: Booted successfully to 8.0U Dell A07  from NVME SSD, but ESXI would not recognize PERC 700 Raid Controller or Virtual Disk.

2/ BIOS boot mode with GPT partition table: Boot from Dell 6.5 ESXI Image, then upgrade to 7.0.3, then to 8.0. 

    Dell 6.5 installer recognized both the NVME and Raid controller VD, great! Installed 6.5, upgraded to 7.0.3, upgraded to 8.0U. System would not boot, seemingly did not want to boot from the NVME in BIOS Mode. 

3/ UEFI boot mode with GPT partition table:  Boot from Dell 6.5 ESXI Image, then upgrade to 7.0.3, then to 8.0. 

Dell 6.5 installer recognized both the NVME and Raid controller VD, great! Installed 6.5, upgraded to 7.0.3, upgraded to 8.0U. System would not boot. 

4/ UEFI boot mode with GPT partition table and Clover tool: https://cybernils.net/2023/09/05/boot-vmware-esxi-from-nvme-on-servers-not-supporting-nvme-boot/  ... system would not boot, presented with black screen when selecting NVME boot through clover.

Partition table issue? Found this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/vmware/comments/zn3c1a/esxi_80_will_only_boot_in_legacy_mode/

As the VMware docu states:

The boot disk has an MBR or MSDOS partition table. Due to a technical
limitation, the UEFI boot option is only created for a GUID Partition
Table (GPT) partition table.

Booted to GParted and modified the partition table to MBR (MSDOS type in GParted), this wiped the disk. Switching system to BIOS mode and trying again since UEFI needs GPT from my underestanding.

5/ BIOS boot mode with MBR partition table: installer recognized NVME and raid disk. System would not boot.

6/ BIOS boot mode with MBR partition table and Clover Tool: System would not boot to Clover in BIOS mode.

7.1/ Use GParted to convert MBR to GPT .. device was back to GPT.. ESXI installer must have converted it back?

7.2/ UEFI boot mode with GPT partition table: upgrade to ESXI 7.0.3. System will not boot via UEFI boot menu. Option to boot from VMWARE ESXI is greyed out.

8/ UEFI boot mode with GPT partition table and Clover Tool: Still no working, getting general protection fault issue in clover. Found this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1d7s8fy/dell_r720_nvme_boot_using_clover_general/ .... ok, maybe the version of clover does actually matter. I've been using the latest, but the guide above specified a specific version, CloverV2-5154.zip. 

Could not find a version of CloverV2-5154.zip, but was able to find CloverV2-5131.zip here https://github.com/CloverHackyColor/CloverBootloader/releases/download/5131/CloverV2-5131.zip

9/ UEFI boot mode with GPT partition table and CloverV2-5131, ESXI 7.0.3: It's booting with Clover V2 5131!!!! Finally... that was roughly 20 hours all in to get to this point. Next I will upgrade to 8.0U and hopefully we'll be in business!

10/ UEFI boot mode with GPT partition table and CloverV2-5131, ESXI 8.0U: Boots! However, the raid controller and virtual disk are still not recognized by VMWARE :(

11/ UEFI boot mode with GPT partition table and CloverV2-5131, ESXI 6.5.5: Getting desperate... going to start over, and this time I'll boot to ESXI 6.5.5 that recognizes the raid controller, try to make a datastore, then continue the upgrade process.

Apprently anything ESXI7 and beyond no longer support the type of firmware used by the PERC H700. I found a PERC H310 and am trying with that.

12/  UEFI boot mode with GPT partition table and CloverV2-5131, ESXI 8.0U and PERC H310: Boots, doesn't see H310.

Apprently anything ESXI7 and beyond no longer support the type of firmware used by the PERC H310. 

I have an H710, but I don't have the correct SAS cables. Ordered, will update when they arrive.