Thursday, October 20, 2011

Got the new book by Scott Lowe - Mastering VMware vSphere 5

At the last day of VMworld in Copenhagen they finally managed to get a number of copies home of Scott Lowe's new book - Mastering VMware vSphere 5 (they said they would have it by Tuesday at first). I got myself one and I'm really looking forward to reading it. One question, though, is how the book will be able to include best practices and operational experiences when the final product has 'just' come out and most of the book must have been written during the beta? But we'll see.


VMworld Europe 2012 announced - Barcelona

Here at VMworld in Copenhagen, VMware has announced the location for next years 2012 VMworld Europe. It will take place in Barcelona from 16-18 October. I have to give cudos to Copehagen and the Bella Center for hosting two extremely well organised VMworlds (2010 and 2011) but I'm also looking forward to a bit warmer climate next October - providing the boss can be persuaded to buy a ticket.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

How to run XenServer 6.0 on vSphere 5 - with nested Windows Server 2008 R2 VM

It is possible to install XenServer 6.0 in a virtual machine on vSphere ESXi 5 and then with a few tweaks you can even run a nested Windows Server 2008 R2 VM on the virtual XenServer 6.0.

To install XenServer 6.0 in a VM, first follow this guide to configure ESXi 5.0 (or watch this youtube video).

One important step is to execute the following command from the console:

echo 'vhv.allow = "TRUE"' >> /etc/vmware/config

Otherwise, configure like the guide. Once the custom VM has been created, to be able to choose ESXi 5 as operating system, go to Edit Settings -> Options -> Guest Operating System choose 'Other' and then choose VMware ESXi 5.x. This will ensure that you won't receive the "HVM is required for this operation" error when trying to boot the win2k8R2 vm (it is possible to change this after the install of XenServer as well).


Download the install .iso from citrix.com 

Mount iso and install XenServer

When done, you will get startup screen as below


Download XenCenter from citrix.com and install

Add the the XenServer to XenCenter

Create a new VM, choose win2k8 R2 64-bit, mount ISO, install.

Done.