Restart of ESX management agents

This is just a post to remember the commands for restarting the management agents on an VMware ESX server:

#service mgmt-vmware restart

#service vmware-vpxa restart (the HA agent)

Both of these agents can be restarted without affecting VM operation. Restarting them can be a useful step in troubleshooting if vCenter has trouble connecting to a host or if you experience HA errors.

Here's link to KB article

For restarting mgmt agents in ESXi, this can be done via the console menu interface, see link above.

Console-setup - service console tool for network config in ESX4

As of ESX 4.0 U2 a new tool for configuring network in the service console (COS) has been introduced. If you're not too comfortable with CLI then this might come in handy. The tool will give you a numbered menu and you can list and configure nics, vswitches, vswifs, etc.

Here's a link to a VMware KB article that presents the tool.

To run the tool, type console-setup in the COS.

Menu entry 1, 2, and 3 will show the output of esxcfg-vswif -l, esxcfg-nics -l, and esxcfg-vswitch -l respectively.

Menu entry 5 will let you configure your service console without having to remember any of the commands. Pretty neat..

Here's a link on how to do it the old school way.

What does ESX stand for?

Not too long ago I was doing some general VMware introduction to a number of colleauges from our Chinese branch. One of the guys asked what ESX was short for. And I had actually no idea. It's a product I've been working with for several years and yet it hadn't ocurred to that ESX was probably more than just a three letter name.

Today, I saw an article on acronyms on Yellow-Bricks which reveals the secret. Furthermore, there's a link to a video interview with Mike DiPetrillo which elaborates on the matter (about 20 minutes in...)

So:

ESX: Elastic Sky X

GSX: Ground Storm X

The two names was invented by some marketing people hired by VMware. VMware didn't like it too much so they shortened it to ES and GS and the X was added just to make it sound more technical!

Howto: Getting the Navisphere Agent for ESX Server

There are several post in the forum about where to download the EMC Navisphere agent. Navisphere is an agent that you install in the Service Console on your ESX Server which helps to manage EMC Clariion storage systems. Click here for more info.

The agent is not publicly available for download. If you have a partner login, then I believe you can download it at http://powerlink.emc.com/ .

The way to go to get the agent is via your storage department. Either they can get the login for you or have them contact EMC, then they will send the software. Navissphere is shipped together with the Clariion storage systems on the Navisphere Server Support CD (see this article page 16). But contact EMC if you want to be sure to have the latest version.

In this document on page 7, it is stated that Navisphere v6.22 is compatible with ESX v3.5

ESX 4.0 in Workstation - requires Intel-VT

I have been running ESX 3.5 and ESX 4.0 in VMware Workstation 6.5.1 for a while on my Lenovo T61 from work without any problems. A prerequisite for doing this, at least for ESX 4.0 (an probably also for Hyper-V) as it runs 64-bit, is that the CPU supports virtualisation mode - which in the Intel terminology is called Intel-VT - an which has to be enabled in the BIOS. The T61 is about one year old and has Intel-VT, so I thought that it was standard on all newer Intel processors. But oh-no, this is not the case. I recently purchased a Dell Studio 17 for private use with a Intel Core Duo 2 T6400 processor and I thought that I was in the good house. But - no Intel-VT support. Everything else was in order, 4 GB of memory, Windows 7 64-bit and so on. This was a bit disappointing. If your're looking to buy a new laptop, then check that this feature comes with the CPU. I found an article on ZDnet which lists a number of processors and wheather they have Intel-VT enabled.

The following has been copied from the ZDnet article. YES means that the CPU type supports Intel-VT:

Update: Here's a link to Intel's page with Intel-VT technology list

Howto: 101 Scripting ESX server installation on vSphere 4

I have been wanting to look into scripted ESX installations for a while now but haven't gotten around to it untill now. At first glance it looks a bit complicated - there a several much used deployment tools around (e.g. EDA and UDA), people are posting bunches of deployment scripts etc. I wanted to know the absolute basics - what is the simplest way to script an ESX installation?

First off, I recommend that you download the ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide and read pp. 43-58 on scripting installations. This documentation helped me to get started more than posts on the web.
On ESX 4, there are two built-in scripts that you can run when you boot the installation CD: 'ESX scripted install to first disk' and 'ESX scripted install to first disk (overwrite VMFS)'. But that's a little boring as these scripts can't be modified.

In stead, we can let ESX server generate a script for us based on your own installation. I like this way as it simplifies things compared to the very comprehensives scripts out there - and it fits to your environment. Better to have a simple script that works than to have a do-it-all script that doesn't. You can always expand it later.

When you install ESX 4 in the default graphical mode, then a Kicstart script (ks.cfg) with your specific settings is generated and placed in the /root/ folder of your ESX installation. Make a copy of this file, as this is the one we will be using as our base script.

This script is to be copied to the root of the installation ISO. To do that, you need an ISO modifying tool like MagicISO (you need to pay 29$ to make ISO's larger than 300 MB). Open the ESX 4 installation ISO in MagicISO and copy the ks.cfg file into the root of the ISO.

Now, boot your server with the ESX ISO. When the first installation screen shows as below, then hit F2 to get 'other options'. Then shift down to the 'ESX scripted install using USB ks.cfg'. We will not be installing from USB, we will just use the command as a template and modify it to get the ks.cfg script from the CD in stead.

Modify the boot options command like this:

Boot options initrd=initrd.img vmkopts=debugLogToSerial:1 mem=512M ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg quiet

That's it. This will do a basic scripted installation of the ESX 4 server...

Mini troubleshooting: I tried to reinstall the ESX server that I had already installed, which means that there is already a VMFS partitioned disk on the server. So the clearpart command needed the --overwritevmfs flag to work. Furthermore, in the partitioning section I had to comment out some lines and in stead uncomment the 'part' commands with the --firstdisk flags.

I have pasted the basic script below for reference.

----------------sample ks.cfg----------------------

# Don't edit script in notepad or Word. Use Notepad++ or like app

accepteula

keyboard dk

auth --enablemd5 --enableshadow

#I have added the '--overwritevmfs' flag which is

#necessary when reinstalling an existing ESX

clearpart --overwritevmfs --firstdisk

install cdrom

#The encrypted password is taken from the original

#graphical install

rootpw --iscrypted $1$k364YM8i$CyveR0PWuw294uX8HLzcE0

timezone --utc 'Europe/Stockholm'

network --addvmportgroup=true --device=vmnic0 --bootproto=dhcp

part '/boot' --fstype=ext3 --size=1100 --onfirstdisk

part 'none' --fstype=vmkcore --size=110 --onfirstdisk

part 'Storage1' --fstype=vmfs3 --size=8604 --grow --onfirstdisk

virtualdisk 'esxconsole' --size=7604 --onvmfs='Storage1'

part 'swap' --fstype=swap --size=600 --onvirtualdisk='esxconsole'

part '/var/log' --fstype=ext3 --size=2000 --onvirtualdisk='esxconsole'

part '/' --fstype=ext3 --size=5000 --grow --onvirtualdisk='esxconsole'

%post --interpreter=bash

----------------sample ks.cfg EOF----------------------

New memory hot add feature in vSphere 4

In the new vSphere, there is a new feature - hot add memory and CPU. This is very cool as downtime can be avoided which is, at least in my company, very helphul during daily operations. To enable these features, do the following:

1. Make sure the virtual machine hardware is upgraded to version 7 (right click the VM, choose 'Upgrade Virtual hardware', see below).
2. Go to edit settings for the VM, then the options tab -> Memory/CPU hotplug and enable the two features (see below).

This is all very fine. However, for the features to work, you need a compatible VM OS. And Win2k3 Standard isn't supported. For Windows, it is primarily Enterprise Edition and Datacenter Edition that will work for win2k3. For Win2k8 at least hot add memory will work for all editions 32-bit and 64-bit. See the VMware Compability Guide or for compatible guest operating systems.

Update 2013.07.23: The CPU hot add will auto register the new CPUs in the guest OS for win2k8 R2 Datacenter and Enterprise edition (at least in vSphere 5), see compability chart here. Not for Standard edition. See demonstration here.

iSCSI on a Windows box with Starwind

If you want to run shared storage in e.g. a test setup, then Starwind's iSCSI application can be recommended. Earlier, I have tried Openfiler (iSCSI in a linux distro VM) which works fine, It's not too complicated to configure, but still it's much easier with Starwind iSCSI in a Windows environment. The application is free but there's a 2 TB storage limit.

Download Starwind Free here.

Starwind installation guide. It's easy to install, just go next next done. Load the serial key, connect to the localhost (user: test, pw: test), add a new device, and then follow install guide page pp 5.

For a guide on how to configure iSCSI in ESX 3 and 4, click here

A typical test setup could be one physcial host with 8 GB of memory and one quad core cpu. Check vm-help.com for a list of compatible whitebox ESX hardware.

From ESX 4 it's possible to run ESX as a VM within an ESX. Even VMotion will work (go to vcritical.com for a demonstration). And if you have a VM with an iSCSI target running on it, then you have a full enterprise setup running on one box.

VMware icons for Powerpoint

At the VMware VIOPS page you'll find a whole package of icons for making snazzy Powerpoint presentations. Basically they're the same as the Visio stencils mentioned in an earlier post but just in a PP friendly format for easy copying and pasting. Go here for download.

Visio stencils for VMware - icons and diagrams

Update 2023.06.16: It's been a while since this page has been updated. But there still seems to be interest in Visio Stencils. The latest relevant links I have found are: This first link to virtualg.uk and a secondary one that links to Github, link here. The Github link has installation instructions in the Readme file as well.

--------

When making visio diagrams of virtual infrastructures, there are plenty of icons for depicting the IT infrastructure. But when it comes to VMware and virtualization specific icons, then Visio is all out. Earlier on, one could go to the VMware VIOPS page to download the official VMware stencils. Today, it seems, that VMware is releasing only the icons in Powerpoint format. These (ppt icons) can be downloaded here.

Maish Saidel-Keesing over at Technodrone has taken it upon him to convert these icons and diagrams into a set of Visio stencils which will give you all you need for making boss friendly diagrams (latest update 2012.06.11). These stencils are compatible with Visio 2010.

The VMware Visio stencils can be downloaded here.

A new set of VMware View stencils has been release on 2012.09.17 by Joshua Townsend at vmtoday.com

A first look at installing ESX 4.0 GA

As most people probably know by now, vSphere 4.0 was released in GA earlier today (2009.05.21). To try it out, I have installed ESX 4.0 in Workstation 6.5.1 on a Lenovo T61 - and it works fine. For those who haven't had a chance to play with it yet, here's some screenshots of the installation process, see below.

Workstation VM settings:

• OS type: Redhat Enterprise Linux 4 64-bit
• Mem: 2 GB (that was minimum on the beta)
• Network: Bridged (tick the "Replicate physical network connection state)
• Processor: 1, choose Intel-VT or AMD-V as preferred mode