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Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘Virtualization’ Category

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Identify virtual NICs in Hyper-V virtual machines – 4sysops

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/23

For my link archive: [Wayback/Archive] Identify virtual NICs in Hyper-V virtual machines – 4sysops

There are three simple steps to follow to make your VM’s NICs easy to identify. Here is an overview, before we discuss each step in more detail.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Hyper-V, Power User, Virtualization, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022 | Leave a Comment »

GitHub – valyentdev/valyent: A developers-first cloud platform.

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/20

In my list of tools to try out: [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – valyentdev/valyent: A developers-first cloud platform.

I will likely start with the cloud version, but the local version looks promising too.

More links:

Via: [Wayback/Archive] Valyent.cloud: “📢 Valyent.cloud is getting fully open-source, and its UI dashboard is getting more features day after day. It allows developers to deploy Docker images at scale — made fast-booting and secure microVMs, taking inspiration from Fly.io.” — Bluesky

--jeroen

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Docker, Infrastructure, Power User, Virtualization | Leave a Comment »

Running DOS Programs on an Apple Silicon based Mac

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/08/11

I’m vintage, so I have some old machinery but also want to be able to run old software on newer hardware.

TL;DR: Since Apple Silicon (which is based on ARM) uses Intel Emulation for regular Mac binary programs, VMware Fusion# on Mac M* series cannot run Intel based operating systems, after some research there basically were these options:

  • use VMware Fusion and run inside a Windows on ARM VM by using
    • a dos emulator like DOSBox or DOSBox-X, since modern 64-bit Windows lacks the NTVDM:

      Since virtual 8086 mode is not available on non-x86-based processors (more specifically, MIPS, DEC Alpha, and PowerPC) NTVDM is instead implemented as a full emulator in these versions of NT, using code licensed from Insignia’s SoftPC. Up to Windows NT 3.51, only 80286 emulation is available. With Windows NT 4.0, 486 emulation was added.

      NTVDM is not included with 64-bit versions of Windows or ARM32 based versions such as Windows RT or Windows 10 IoT Core. The last version of Windows to include the component is Windows 10, as Windows 11 dropped support for 32-bit processors.

    • an NTVDM replacement like NTVDMx64 or winevdm (sometimes calles otvdm)
  • use a specific emulator like DOSBox-X directly on MacOS
  • use a more generic emulator like QEMU based UTM

I have a VMware background on bare metal, Windows and MacOS, so I prefer it over Parallels

Links: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in DOSBox, DOSBox emulator, Emulators, MS-DOS, Power User, Virtualization | Leave a Comment »

A PDF can run JavaScript, which means it can hosts a VM for Linux or Doom

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/06/12

A few years back, this question popped up: [Wayback/Archive] Embedding JS into PDF : cybersecurity

The answer is yes, and you can take this far. Virtualisation far. Which is what these repositories – both by [Wayback/Archive] ading2210 · GitHub – did:

Via [Wayback/Archive] Angry Nerds Podcast – YouTube -> [Wayback/Archive] Angrynerds 235 – Automasturbator – YouTube -> 1540 seconds at [Wayback/Archive] Angrynerds 235 – Automasturbator – YouTube – t=5040s

1:24:00 Hadden we Doom in PDF-vorm al eens genoemd? https://github.com/ading2210/doompdf Er is een vervolg, nu gewoon linux draaien in een PDF https://github.com/ading2210/linuxpdf Dus in feite gewoon een PDF-VMetje

Related:

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Posted in *nix, Development, JavaScript/ECMAScript, Linux, Power User, Software Development, Virtualization | Leave a Comment »

The death of ESXi finally confirmed by Broadcom

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/02/12

Quite a few people already bumped into this the last two days (will add those links later), so today’s confirmation by Broadcom – who have a similar modus operandi as companies like Computer Associates and Symantec were and Idera is now – as of the ESXi death does not come as a surprise.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Internet, InternetArchive, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi, WayBack machine | Leave a Comment »

ESXi 8 licenses seem still available, if you might need it: register while you can as it looks like Broadcom will kill registration

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/01/18

This is where you can still register for a free ESXi 8 account (until Broadcom kills that):

Because of:

Note that slightly more than a year ago, there was a problem getting licenses because too many were registering at once: [Wayback/Archive] Solved: esxi 8 Free registration – VMware Technology Network VMTN

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in ESXi7, ESXi8, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

Script to rename a virtual machine in ESXi 6

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/01/10

I bumped into [Wayback/Archive] Script to rename a virtual machine in ESXi 6: gist.github.com/Gremgoll/8bd91258d71fe895c0d416e2543ca2dc.

Then I forked it with the intent to make usage more clear, as the current usage on my ESXi rig (which has mos VMs not in the root of data stores) is like the bold italic portion here:

[root@X9SRI3F-ESXi:/vmfs/volumes/608be754-f21556ad-1082-0025907d9d5c/VM] vm-rename.sh NVMe980PRO_1TB/VM X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-OFFICE X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-OFFICE
VOLNAME=NVMe980PRO_1TB/VM
DIRNAME=X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-OFFICE
OLDNAME=X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL
NEWNAME=X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-OFFICE
VM_DIRPATH=/vmfs/volumes/NVMe980PRO_1TB/VM/X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-OFFICE
NW_DIRPATH=/vmfs/volumes/NVMe980PRO_1TB/VM/X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-OFFICE
Failed to rename './X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-flat.vmdk' to './X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-OFFICE-flat.vmdk': The file specified is not a virtual disk (15)
renaming ./X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-41260b40.vmem to ./X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-OFFICE-41260b40.vmem
renaming ./X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-41260b40.vmss to ./X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-OFFICE-41260b40.vmss
renaming ./X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-6a4b8f29.hlog to ./X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-OFFICE-6a4b8f29.hlog
renaming ./X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL.nvram to ./X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-OFFICE.nvram
renaming ./X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL.vmsd to ./X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-OFFICE.vmsd
renaming ./X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL.vmx to ./X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-OFFICE.vmx
renaming ./X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL.vmx.backup to ./X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-OFFICE.vmx.backup
renaming ./X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL.vmxf to ./X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-OFFICE.vmxf
renaming ./vmx-X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-1093012288-1.vswp to ./vmx-X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-OFFICE-1093012288-1.vswp
All Done. You now need to register X9SRI-3F-W10P-NL-OFFICE to the inventory.

There also was a renaming bug (see the italic line).

I managed to fix both that and added more documentation plus output.

Repositories and code

  1. Original:
  2. Fork with added VSAN functionality (see [Wayback/Archive] Revisions · Script to rename a virtual machine in ESXi 6):
  3. My fork of 2:
  4. My fix:

Code before modifying: [Wayback/Archive] gist.githubusercontent.com/jpluimers/fcc601dd41ac89f601a5174be92c841c/raw/e3683fbb6bdf1e73d65d2b784027c70cf42a5512/vm-rename

Code after modifying: [Wayback/Archive] raw.githubusercontent.com/jpluimers/vm-rename/master/vm-rename.sh.

Yes, that is not in a gist any more (see below why), it is now part of [Wayback/Archive] jpluimers/vm-rename: Script to rename a virtual machine in ESXi 6; fork from https://gist.github.com/jpluimers/fcc601dd41ac89f601a5174be92c841c as [Wayback/Archive] vm-rename/vm-rename.sh at master · jpluimers/vm-rename.

The reason was

Yesterday I described the workaround in Fork Gist to Repo on GitHub – Stack Overflow.

Queries

I found the original via [Wayback/Archive] script esxi rename vmx vmxf and related files – Google Search.

My start was [Wayback/Archive] script esxi duplicate vm and rename vmdk – Google Search which found:

  1. [Wayback/Archive] Renaming a virtual machine and its files in VMware ESXi (1029513) which has a PowerCLI script (that requires Windows to run PowerCLI on)
  2. [Wayback/Archive] Solved: How to clone a VM on a ESXI 6.5 server? – VMware Technology Network VMTN which pointed me to the next Google Search result :
  3. [Wayback/Archive] VMware esxi – Script to clone a VM without vSphere or vCenter. | GrangerX which I put in this gist:
  4. [Wayback/Archive] Script to create Linked Clones on ESXi | RedNectar’s Blog which is great, but way to complicate for my use case. It references a few other cool scripts though, and shows how to use Resource Pools in ESXi (which the Web-UI does not seem to support):
  5. [Wayback/Archive] [script] Cloning VMs using ESXi shell/admin console – Virtualizing Unraid – Unraid
  6. [Wayback/Archive] Script to clone a VM with free VMware ESXi – Rob Pomeroy (again: PowerCLI)

–jeroen

Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, ash/dash, ash/dash development, Development, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, Power User, PowerCLI, Scripting, Software Development, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

While migrating VMs, I keep forgetting ESXi likes the text .vmdk file with a binary -flat.vmdk, where Fusion/ Workstation/Player like binary .vmdk file (and how to fix this)

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/01/02

I keep forgetting this, but ESXi likes the text .vmdk file with a binary -flat.vmdk, where Fusion/ Workstation/Player like binary .vmdk file.

Most sites that mention how to solve it love the cryptic parameters like -i  (software developers: when inventing command-line parameters, please use a more descriptive letter for a command) in stead of --clonevirtualdisk), so for instance Migrate VMware Workstation / Fusion VM to ESXi | Ming’s Blog comes up with

[root...] mv Windows-10-64-Enterprise-disk1.vmdk Windows-10-64-Enterprise-disk1.vmdk.fusion
[root...] vmkfstools -i Windows-10-64-Enterprise-disk1.vmdk.fusion Windows-10-64-Enterprise-disk1.vmdk
Destination disk format: VMFS zeroedthick
Cloning disk 'Windows-10-64-Enterprise-disk1.vmdk.fusion'...
Clone: 100% done.

is more readable as

[root...] vmkfstools --clonevirtualdisk Windows-10-64-Enterprise-disk1.vmdk.fusion Windows-10-64-Enterprise-disk1.vmdk

And yes, I wrote about this before, but keep forgetting it applies :

–jeroen

Posted in ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, Fusion, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi, VMware Workstation | Leave a Comment »

Datastore Naming Rules – VMware Technology Network VMTN

Posted by jpluimers on 2023/12/29

I was looking for VMware ESXi Datastore Naming Rules, and this was the only really relevant post I could find:

[Wayback/Archive] Datastore Naming Rules – VMware Technology Network VMTN

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

VMware ESXi: shell script to get uuid.bios and all Ethernet generatedAddress MAC address values for all VMs

Posted by jpluimers on 2023/12/28

This is a sort of follow-up on ESXi: listing virtual machines with their IP addresses where we ended with this:

I modified the above script to become this:

#!/bin/sh
vmids=`vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | sed -n -E -e "s/^([[:digit:]]+)s+((S.+S)?)s+([S+])s+(.+.vmx)s+(S+)s+(vmx-[[:digit:]]+)s*?((S.+)?)$/1/p"`
for vmid in ${vmids} ; do
    # powerState values:
    #   Powered off
    #   Powered on
    #   Suspended
    powerState=`vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate ${vmid} | sed '1d'`
    name=`vim-cmd vmsvc/get.config ${vmid} | sed -n -E -e '/(vim.vm.ConfigInfo) {/,/files = (vim.vm.FileInfo) {/ s/^ +name = "(.*)",.*?/1/p'`
    vmPathName=`vim-cmd vmsvc/get.config ${vmid} | sed -n -E -e '/files = (vim.vm.FileInfo) {/,/tools = (vim.vm.ToolsConfigInfo) {/ s/^ +vmPathName = "(.*)",.*?/1/p'`
    # For now, I choose to use only the IPv4 main address from ipAddress, which is in between (vim.vm.GuestInfo) { and net = (vim.vm.GuestInfo.NicInfo) [.
    ipAddress=`vim-cmd vmsvc/get.guest ${vmid} | sed -n -E -e '/(vim.vm.GuestInfo) {/,/net = (vim.vm.GuestInfo.NicInfo) [/ s/^ +ipAddress = "(.*)",.*?/1/p'`
    printf "VM with id %3s has power state %-11s and IPv4=%-15s (name = ${name}; vmPathName = ${vmPathName}).n" "${vmid}" "${powerState}" "${ipAddress}"
done

Now the script grew even larger in to vim-cmd-list-all-VMs-with-IPv4-MAC-uuid.sh:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, ash/dash, ash/dash development, Development, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

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