Installation: Pre-Install Check that “virtualization technology” is enabled in the BIOS Load ESXi software Where possible download the vendors version of ESXi. For example Dell provide their own customized ISO that contains Dell specific settings for SNMP etc. (Alternatively you can use the Dell Uniform Server Configurator – you will still need the Dell ESXi [...]
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In this example I am installing the VMWare Storage Appliance onto ESXi servers that have existing running VMs. This is known as a brownfield installation. Basics The VSA Manager must be installed on a 64-bit Windows vCenter machine that runs vCenter Server version 5.0 or later. vCenter does not need to be on the same [...]
When installing vCenter 5.1 you may get the error message: “Error 32010. Failed to create database users. There can be several reasons for this failure. For more information, see the vmMSSWLCmd.log file in the system temporary folder” You can find the location of vmMSSQLCmd.log in The reason for the error should be in this file. [...]
In this article I am setting a 3 network card aggregate link between an ESXi host and a Cisco 2960. Note that LACP is only supported on distributed vSwitches on ESXi 5.1 and not on ESXi 5.0 and below. You will need to know to which port on the switch your nics connect. DvSwitch [...]
This article explains how to deploy Dell OpenManage using VC update manager. You can use this process to deploy other bits of software (e.g. Dell Equallogic Multipath extension module). In the below example I am adding OpenManage v7 for ESXi 5.0. You will need to have the Update Manager plugin for virtual center installed and [...]
This article explains how to setup an VMWare vSphere ESXi 5.0 host with an Equallogic array. This is all performed via the GUI. Note that the setup for this includes a vmkernal heartbeat instance as recommended by vmware (here) and equallogic (here). Add iSCSI initiator Setup iSCSI vSwitch In the networking section click on [...]
INSTALLATION Hardware Requirements Taken from vmware.com 64-bit x86 CPUs with at least two cores. ESXi 5.0 supports only LAHF and SAHF CPU instructions. Supports up to 2TB RAM although the free version is limited to 32GB ESXi requires a minimum of 2GB of physical RAM. VMware recommends 8GB of RAM to take full advantage of [...]
This explains how to install ESXi into a VM. You will need ESXi 5.0 installed and have a copy of the ESXi 5.0 installation ISO. Prepare ESXi 5 host You will need to enabled hardware virtualisation on the ESXi 5 host. To do this connect to the ESXi 5 console and enter echo ‘vhv.allow = [...]
This article explains my best practise for creating a Windows 2008 R2 template. You will need to be running a VMWare virtual center server to use VMware templates. Step 1 – Build VM Install windows 2008 r2 Install VMware tools Apply windows updates (including other Microsoft updates) Activate windows Install any other standard software you [...]
When running a vmware capacity plan you will more often than not find that certain servers have been excluded from the report due to a system exception. I will explain how to deal with these below. Subnet exception By default if a server is on more than one subnet it is excluded from analysis. You [...]