VMware vCenter Administration

Nested VM in Vmware

  • How to provision nested ESXi hosts on free ESXi 5.5
    1. Create a Other 64bit VM
    2. Change the HW version to version 9 in command line
      • vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms (check the VM’s ID)
      • vim-cmd vmsvc/upgrade vmid vmx-09
    3. Enable VHV in the vmx file
      • echo vhv.enable = \"TRUE\">> vESXi.vmx
      • vim-cmd vmsvc/reload vmid
    4. Enable “Promiscuous Mode" in the vSwitch
  • vSphere 5.1 Lab – Nested ESXi 5.1 (more complex method)
  • How to Enable Nested ESXi & Other Hypervisors in vSphere 5.1
    • Intel EPT or AMD RVI is required for running nested 64-bit VMs
    • Check compatibility from ESXi:
      • https://[your-esxi-host-ip-address]/mob/?moid=ha-host&doPath=capability
    • Optional: guestOS = “vmkernel5″
    • Hide the VM status from other Hypervisor: hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = FALSE
  • Nested VM (VMware/Hyper-V inside VMware)
    • Veeam Blog – Nesting Hyper-V with VMware Workstation 8 and ESXi 5
      VMware Workstation 8.0 and ESXi 5.0

      • ESXi 5.0
        • ESXi Server Level:
          • echo ‘vhv.allow = “TRUE" ‘ >> /etc/vmware/config
        • VM any OS type is ok, not necessary set the type to ESXi
        • VM set Configuration Parameters
          • echo ‘monitor.virtual_exec = “hardware" ‘ >> Hyper-V.vmx
          • echo ‘hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = “FALSE" ‘ >> Hyper-V.vmx
        • VM settings > Options > CPU/MMU Virtualization
          • use Intel EPT / AMD RVI
        • VM Options area > CPUID Mask click on Advanced
          • Add to Level 1 ecx: —- —- —- —- —- —- –H- —-
    • How to Enable Nested ESXi & Other Hypervisors in vSphere 5.1
      • ESXi 5.1
        • Hardware Version 9 required
        • Global vhv.allow = “TRUE" replaced by vhv.enable = “true"

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HOWTO

  1. Troubleshooting Virtual Machine snapshot problems
  2. VMDK Handbook – Basics
    Explain the VMDK thin provision difference between VMware Workstation (can use a reduce sized VMDK) and ESXi (require VMFS support)
  3. *** VMWare Workstation conversion to ESXi 4
    Cannot rely on VMware Converter Standalone, must use: vmkfstools -i disk1old.vmdk -d thin disk1.vmdk, so that it can correctly convert to thin provisioned disk in ESXi. Apply for ESXi 5.0 also.
  4. KB1026437: Clipboard Copy and Paste option is disabled in vSphere Client 4.1 (Enable copy/paste from vSphere client, but does not allow file transfer yet)
  5. How to add a static route to VMWare ESXi server
    Use ‘esxcfg-route’ command in console mode, the setting will also save to persistent config file at /etc/esx.conf
  6. Setup any Static Ethernet Address
    • Remove these parameters
      ethernet0.generatedAddress
      ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset
      
    • Set these parameters
      ethernet0.checkMACAddress = "false"
      ethernet0.addressType = "static"
      ethernet0.Address = "00:0C:29:B0:27:E1"
      
  7. Manually set the time of a VM
    rtc.startTime = "1089395200"
    tools.syncTime = "FALSE"
    time.synchronize.continue ="FALSE" 
    time.synchronize.restore = "FALSE"
    time.synchronize.resume.disk = "FALSE"
    time.synchronize.resume.memory = "FALSE"
    time.synchronize.shrink = "FALSE"
    time.synchronize.tools.startup = "FALSE"
  8. Epoch Converter

VMware Tips

  1. KB1005208: Injecting SCSI controller device drivers into Windows when it fails to boot after converting it with VMware Converter
    Basically need to include these 2 registry keys and related driver (for lsiscsi)
    For booting in WinPE, edit with ControlSet1 instead of CurrentControlSet
    
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\symmpi
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\
      CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1000&dev_0030
  2. KB1664: Disable PC Speaker Beep sound in VMware
    mks.noBeep = true
    
    Per VM setting add to: *.vmx file
    Linux add to: /etc/vmware/config
    
    Alternative method:
    Linux: xset -b
    Windows: Device Manager -> show hidden devices
    open non plug-and-play -> beep -> disable
  3. VMware image can reduce 40% size if used NTFS file compression
  4. Linux Forums: How to update initrd image
    Extract initrd image:
    gunzip < /boot/initrd.img | cpio -i --make-directories
    
    Re-make initrd image:
    find ./ | cpio -H newc -o > ../initrd.cpio
    gzip initrd.cpio
    mv initrd.cpio.gz initrd.img
  5. Creating bootable Linux ISO for ESX4
    mkisofs -l -J -R -r -T -o custom_esx4.iso -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table ./esx4
  6. Linux vi editor command reference