Archive for the ‘VMware’ Category
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/10/25
On a HP XW6600, you can run ESXi 4 or run ESXi 5, but in yourder to run x64 guest VMs, you need to enable Intel VT in the BIOS first.
So, in the HP XW6600 BIOS, the choose the menu “Security”, then the submenu “OS Security” to get at these two options:
- Intel Virtualization Technology (VTx)—Enables or disables Intel Virtualization Technology to increase workstation performance.
- Intel IO Virtualization—Enables or disables Virtualization Technology to increase workstation I/O performance.
When you enable both VT options, then VMware ESX/ESXi/vSphere can run x64 guests with full VT support (otherwise you will get a friendly warning message when you try to setup or run such a guest VM). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in BIOS, Boot, ESXi4, ESXi5, ESXi5.1, Hardware, HP XW6600, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | 3 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/08/30
When VMware Workstation/Player does an Easy Install of SUSE Linux (and most other Linuxes), it does this:
- mount a CD drive with the autoinst.iso image
- mount a floppy drive with the autoinst.flp image
For Linux, both of them contain autoinst.xml files to automate the boot process.
It has a few drawbacks including a hardcoded boot partition size and unmount problems, so if you don’t want those, follow the guidelines at How to Stop Easy Install in VMware Workstation.
–jeroen
Posted in *nix, Linux, openSuSE, Power User, SuSE Linux, Virtualization, VMware, VMware Workstation | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/08/23
Thanks DoubleCloud for the post on Really Easy Ways to Capture VM Screenshot.
It also works for VMware ESXi, and by default is enabled: browse to https://esxi-machine/screen?id=# to get a PNG screenshot of the VM with ID=#.
I’m not sure yet how to get the ID of a running VM, so usually this is a bit of trial and error on a busy system (:
Later: I found out you can get the ID through MOB; see a couple of these links.
For my ESXi the URLs are these:
You can even add parameters to modify this PNG, as per [Archive.is] Capturing Virtual Machine Screenshots in vSphere – VMware vSphere Blog:
w = the pixel width of the scaled imageh = the pixel height of the scaled imagex0 = the left side of the bounding box to select the imagey0 = the top side of the bounding box to select the imagex1 = the right side of the bounding box to select the imagey1 = the bottom of the bounding box to select the image
Example: https://10.24.145.65/screen?id=vm-162&h=600&w=800
Turn of screen blanking
- In Windows, look at the Power options, then turn off the screen saver.
- On Linux text consoles e.g. you can do this with the command “setterm -blank 0”.
VMware Workstation
There is no way to take screenshots using URLs in VMware Workstation. But as of VMware Workstation 6.5, you can use Ctrl+Alt+PrtSc both in Windows and Full Screen mode. Like the ESXi screenshots, captures only the screen itself (so not the borders/toolbar/tabs in Windowed mode).
Note that form the vSphere client, you can take a movie as well: Creating a Screen Shot or a Movie of a Virtual Machine.
URLs on your ESXi machine
The above leads us to a couple of URLs on your ESXi machine: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in ESXi4, ESXi5, ESXi6, ESXi7, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | 1 Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/06/10
(note: part of this post is unfinished, but I wanted to make sure all the links are publicly accessible, so I posted earlier and incomplete)
I already did a few ESXi5 postings (they apply to 5.1 as well) of which the most important are:
Time to finish up some additional installation steps (with a big thanks to Matthijs ter Woord):
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in BIOS, Boot, ESXi5, ESXi5.1, Hardware, HP XW6600, Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Power User, PowerCLI, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi, Wake-on-LAN (WoL), Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/03
A long time ago, I promised steps how to install VMware 5 ESXi using the MBR boot format.
The steps with screenshots are below, but first some background information.
As of VMware ESXi 5, GPT (short for GUID partition table) is the default partition table used by VMware ESXi.
Disks smaller than 2 TB can boot with MBR, but GPT It is a requirement for disks bigger than 2 TB. GPT also needs a UEFI compatible BIOS.
Some older BIOSes (like those of my HP XW6600 machines: still running strong after many years of fine service) do not support GPT.
Luckily, weasel (the open source Operating System Installer that VMware ESXi uses) can be forced to use MBR using runweasel formatwithmbr.
Forcing MBR is a 2-step process.
- Get to the boot prompt: press Shift+O when the progress bar appears
- Running weasel with the MBR option: after the “runweasel”, type a space, then formatwithmbr
Below are the screenshots of a VMware ESXi 5.0.0 installation I did this way.
But it works equally well in ESXi 5.1.x
After writing this post, I found out about ESXi 5 Won’t Boot From USB which solves this exact problem for an HP XW8600 configuration (those are slightly larger machines than the XW6600 I have, but the architecture is the same).
Screenshots
Click on the image or link for larger screenshots, or view the series here at Flickr. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in BIOS, Boot, ESXi5, ESXi5.1, Hardware, HP XW6600, Power User, UEFI, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | 1 Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/02/11
So I won’t forget: How To Patch vSphere 5 ESXi Without Update Manager.
It describes how to:
- enable SSH on your ESXi host
- download the patches directly from the VMware Patch Portal
- copy them to on your ESXi host using an SCP compatible tool (FileZilla or WinSCP will do fine) to a mounted data store (the ESXi image will be tool small for it)
- collect to the ESXi console using SSH
- run this esxcli command:
esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/[DATASTORE]/[PATCH_FILE].zip
- Remove the patch file from the datastore after patching
Thanks Chris Colotti for publishing this!
–jeroen
via How To Patch vSphere 5 ESXi Without Update Manager • Chris Colotti’s Blog.
Posted in ESXi5, Power User, VMware, VMware ESXi | 3 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/02/08
A long while ago I blogged about Creating vSphere 5 ESXi embedded USB Stick so I could boot ESXi from USB.
Since then, I changed USB sticks to be larger (and faster) ones and thought it might be possible to put a small datastore on it for a small maintenance VM.
The VMware Communities: External USB hard drive detected as… thread on the VMware Communities site shows you can do it for a USB disk, but only from the console or SSH (not from the regular maintenance tools).
The results vary, and don’t sound very stable to me, so it is definitely not recommended.
So I have refrained from going that way.
–jeroen
via: VMware Communities: External USB hard drive detected as….
Posted in ESXi5, Hardware, HP XW6600, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/01/17
Last year, I missed this tiny sentence:
So in plain English, any VM that was generated on VMware ESX Server 3.5 or later can run atop ESXi 5.1 unchanged.
Which means it is a snap to move your VMs from older ESX / ESXi / vSphere versions as long as they are ESX 3.x or later.
In fact hardware version 7 has the widest compatibility amongst ESX/ESXi/vSphere/Fusion/Workstation/Player versions (see the table at the bottom).
The free version still has a 32 gigabyte physical RAM limit (people are still confused by the vRAM / Physical RAM distinction, especially since vRAM is not limited any more). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in ESXi4, ESXi5, ESXi5.1, Excel, Fusion, Power User, VMware, VMware ESXi, VMware Workstation, Word | Tagged: computer, hardware version, hardware versions, machine hardware, physical ram, software, technology, version compatibility, virtual hardware, virtual machine, virtual machines, vm, vms | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/01/14
So I won’t forget:
–jeroen
Posted in ESXi5, Power User, VMware, VMware ESXi, Windows | 1 Comment »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 