After getting some malware on my home PC, I am considering wiping it out and installing vSphere Hypervisor (and then buying a 32-bit copy of Windows Vista, because my CPU is 64-bit but won't support 64 bit guest OSes).  My CPU is an "Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q8200".  Does anyone have reason think vSphere hypervisor won't run on it?  I don't see it in the list of supported chips, but I did see a couple of references to it in these forums.

The Intel page for the chips says "Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x)" is not included, which worries me a bit, but I don't know enough to know whether that is critical or not.  I am successfully running VMPlayer (with Ubuntu 9).

Thanks,

       --Paul

I am new to VMWare ESXi and trying to install it to test it out for possible production deployment. I have obtained an older server to perform testing. I am having difficulty installing the VMWare ESXi to the Server. 

Machine Information:

SuperMicro PDSG4

Pentium D

3WARE 9550SXU-8LP

2 Seagate Barracuda 250 GB Drives ST3250310NS -- SATA

Steps so far:

Went into RAID controller and setup RAOD 0 with the two drives.

Went into BIOS and made sure that SATA 0 and SATA 1 were both set to NONE, since read that AUTO can cause a problem.

I put in ESXi 4.1 Update 1 Install disk and gives me a message about failing to install, because it has nowhere to put the image.

Typing lspci, it appears that it dected the 3WARE controller

Output of screen read...

000:003:07.0 Mass Storage Controller 3WARE INC 9550SX SATA-II RAID PCI-X

000:000:31.2 Mass Sotrage Controller Intel Corporation 828016B/GB/GR/GH ICH7 Family SErial ATA Storage Controller IDE [vmhba1]

I type fdisk -l and no partitions or drives are listed.

I tried changing the TargetFilter.py file to ISCI and ISATA and recompilling the install file and I am still encountering the error.

Question:

1. What can I do to get ESXi installed on this server?

2. Do I need to format that drive as ext3 or something of that nature? Does VMWare ESXi require a preformatted drive? If so, how should I format and partition the drive? Will GParted work?

3. Am I using the right version ESXi 4.1 Update 1? Or Should I try ESXi 3.5 for 32 bit OS?

I have a lab environment with fourteen servers.  I have all the hosts in a single vSphere 4.1 cluster under a virtualized vCenter server. Their is a single dVSwitch for the cluster with each physical server  having both of it's ports as external managed adapters in the dVSwitch.

Issue is when we loose power, and the servers power cycle the cluster is not restarting successfully.

Issues

1) VMs all start up as noted in the automatic startup routine, but have the error: "Invalid Backing" -> "This host does not have any virtual machine networks, or you don't have the permission to access them." The console for the VMWare servers is working, so I know the dVSwitch is up and functional as the console IP rides over these links also. But none of the VMs get attachment to the dVswitch for IP communication (including the vCenter server).  How do I get the dVswitch to attach the physical nics to the environment when the vCenter server is not up?  Is their some kind of dependancy to the vCenter server being available for the "backing device" to work?

2) Automatic startup settings for VMs is set per server. I have a few very important server that I want to startup no matter what physical server it has been moved to. Example: domain controllers, vcenter server, mail server, etc...   How do I get a cluster wide setting for boot priority such that no matter the last physical server to which the VM was VMotioned to, will start these servers up?

What is the best way to impliment dVSwitches but avoid this chicken and egg restart issue?

I am facing several issues that may be the result of the vSphere 5 upgrade.  I figured I would throw them out here incase someone is facing a similar issue.

After upgrading from vCenter from vCenter 4 to vCenter 5, I am unable to add the host to XenDesktop 5.5.  I re-added the ssl cert for virtualcenter but get an error when trying to browse objects using powershell. 

After upgrading a host from vSphere 4.1 update 1 to 5.0 (with the HP VIBs using imagebuilder), the host hardware status shows all memory modules on memory board 1 of a DL580 G5 with a status of "warning" and type = unknown.  Memory board 0 is unaffected.  Unfortunately, this server is out of warranty, HP reports that there are no known issues with their agent, and to try updating the firmware (which had no effect).

To troubleshoot this I was going to remove the HP customizations / reinstall with vanilla then try to readd them by first making a host profile, but the host profile creation fails. "Cannot update the profile.  check the profile for errors"

Hello
 I'm in the process of buying a used Dell PowerEdge 2950 with 
  2x Intel Quad-Core Xeon E5410 4x 2,33 GHz ( 12MB Cache / 1333MHz FSB, Intel 64, VT )

 I wanted to understand if it was compatible with vSphere Hypervisor 5.0
 In the compatibility list is shown:
DELL PowerEdge 2950-III Intel Xeon 54xx Series   ESXi 5.0

 The seller does not know if it's a 2950-III or less
 I wanted to ask so if the model difference is important or is the type of processor that determines the compatibility with vSphere Hypervisor 5.0
 (In the Compatibility list for example the 2950-II is not mentioned in the list there are only 2950 or 2950-III)

Can anyone help me?

Hello,

I have just finished installing the ESXi 5 server and the vSphere client on the client computer. However, every single time, I am met with a cryptic message:

The request failed because of a connection failure. (Unable to connect to the remote server)

Call "ServiceInstance.RetrieveContent" for object "ServiceInstance" on Server "172.17.32.20" failed.

I've captured some packets to see what's going on with the following communique:

Client->Server:

GET /clients/clients.xml HTTP/1.1

User-Agent: VMware VI Client/4.0.0

Host: 172.17.32.20

Connection: Keep-Alive

Server->Client:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:56:56 GMT

Connection: Keep-Alive

Content-Type: text/xml

Content-Length: 373

I am looking for the threshold measurement criteria of the VMWare Performance Counters introduced inside Windows Performance Monitor (perfmon). I would appreciate if anybody has any idea on this or  related link where I can get some information.

VM Memory

                -              Memory Active in MB

                -              Memory Ballooned in M

                -              Memory Limit in MB…etc.

VM Processor

                -              % Processor Time

                -              Effective VM Speed in MHz

                -              Host processor speed in MHz

                -              Limit in MHz etc…          

Thanks!

I've just purchased an HP Proliant ML150 G6 server that has a Broadcom NC107i onboard integrated PCI Gigabit controller.
If I look to the rear of the server I can view two  Ethernet port (as the attached immage) but, with my suprise, only one NIC card is recognized by the VMWare ESXi 5.0 server (as Bradcom BCM 5723 NIC card).
The question is: is there any way to force ESXi to view the onboard Gigabit controller as two different and indipendent NIC cards?

And if not: why there are two ethernet port on the rear of the server?
Thanks in advance

Hey There,

I figure this is a long shot and I understand the possibility is near zero with getting this to work.

So I have a Dell PowerEdge 2950 - recently upgraded the motherboard to a gen 3 and popped in 2x xeon 5460's in there. It has RAID 1 and RAID 5 volumes. - Vmware resides on RAID 1 volume and data is on RAID 5. BIOS is 2.7 the latest version. The PERC RAID SAS card firmware (2.2.1 i think) and backplane firmware (1.0) is old but I'm trying to get Dell open manage to work in vmware if anyone has any insight on that .The openmanage is installed in vmware but the app im not sure how to use basically.

The dell poweredge 2950 has 2 sata ports so I connected an esata cable to sata port A - it's enabled in the BIOS.

Edit: The sata A port on the server is connected via an esata bracket. a 2tb drive plugs into the esata bracket.

I found a problem with this setup that can crash vmware hypervisor 5.0. I was able to duplicate it at will.

- 1) keep esata drive off

- 2) power on server

- 3) on dell servers at the end of it posting and initializing you'll get a hit F1 to continue or F2 for setup

- 4) power on esata drive

- 5) hit F1 to continue

- 6) wait for vmware to load - eventually vmware/server crashes and reboots with fatal error

I'm not exactly sure why vmware/server crashes but I'm pretty sure it has to do with the BIOS/sata controller and the fact I turned on the drive after initializing.

So I thought about popping in this Asus u3s6 - it's a PCIe 4x USB3.0/Sata 6 card to see if I get the same problem. I was surprised it even worked in the Dell PowerEdge - I popped it in the pcie 8x slot. It powers on. I plugge the esata bracket to the asus controller card. The ASUS BIOS sees the 2TB esata drive. Vmware boots up fine; however, it doesn't see the drive - I'm guessing vmware doesn't know there's a sata controller there.

So after that my question is this - is there a way to install the Asus u3s6 drivers into vmware so it can see the controller card so I can rescan the datastore on the 2tb esata drive?

Also if you have any insight on the Dell Openmanage 7.0 on vmware that would be great. I already have it installed - im not sure if it's configured right I just followed the instructions from forums and from dell. I did setup SNMP after install but not sure if its configured right. I have been doing research and I got this far but I can't get the openmanage software to connect - I get a blank page. I'm not sure if im doing this right either.

Edit2: I got Openmange 7.0 to work - All I did was install Java 1.6 U31 and it worked after. Maybe it doesn't like Java 1.7.x

Any insight, advice, or help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Dear All,

I am running Veeam 6.1. I have setup one ESXi 3.5 and connected Veeam to it. I wanted to setup a second ESXi 3.5 machine but I have a problem.

I try to 'Add Server' I put in the correct IP address and go with the standard port: 443 however I get the following error:

Unable to connect to the remote server

no connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it 192.168.0.41:443

What's going on??

My ESXi whitebox is for lab testing and educational purpose only at this moment.

Set 1:

AMD FX-6100
Asrock 970 Extreme 4 or Asrock 970 Extreme 3 is fine.
Kingston 8GB 1333 (KVR1333D3N9H/8G) x 2pcs

Enermax NAXN(Tomahawk II) 500W

Thermaltake V3 Black Edition

Set 2:

Intel Core i5 3330 3.0Ghz (I didn't know earlier that some i5 model does support Intel VT-x, VT-d and EPT)
MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3) or (B3) not sure the difference between this 2. (G3) I have checked the manual, it has enable vt-d option
Kingston 8GB 1333 (KVR1333D3N9H/8G) x 2pcs
IBM 1TB 7200rpm

Intel 330 SSD 60GB

MSI 5450 1GB Graphic (i5 3330 has integrated video, i might leave this out, but then I have nothing to test the VT-d ?)

Set 2 is about USD65-75 more expensive than Set 1.  Set 2 is far more expensive than this, but I choose cheaper casing, PSU to reduce the overall cost.

For i5 3330
http://ark.intel.com/id/products/6 [...] o-3_20-GHz
Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology:      No
Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x):      Yes
Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d):      Yes

Hi all

tow month ago  I am installed one server with vmware hypervisor 5.0 & created two machine with one Domain controller & Exchange 2007 server.

Now i installed one another server with Vmware hypervisor 5.0 U1 i want to move those two machine from old server to new server . can some body please let me know the easy method to move those machines.

Thanks in advance

Hey guys, I need your help

after upgrading from ESXi 4.1 to ESXi 5.1.0 (Build 799733) I'm no longer able to deploy my .ovf-Templates.

When using vSphere Client to do so, I throws an error as "Error reading Data: the remote server is not available (Errorcode 503)".

When trying to browse the datastore from within the webinterface, it does not open the directory and leaves a blank page (and of course not even the https login/password protection appears).

I already tried restarting all management services, but it doesn't helped me anything.

Maybe you can give me some hints, thanks for that in advance.

Hi guys

I have a customer running vSphere 5 with ESXi 5.0.0 build 914586.

On a datastore I have a template for W2K8R2SP1-Enterprise. When I try to deploy a VM from this template it states:

"unable to access file vmdk since it is locked"

So I tried the following:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=10051

When connected with SSH to one of the ESXi's in the cluster, I ran the following command:

~ # vmkfstools -D /vmfs/volumes/REP-P1-MGMT01/Template-WIN2K8R2-Enterprise/Template-WIN2K8R2-Enterprise.nvram
Lock [type 10c00001 offset 93065216 v 292, hb offset 4145152
gen 263, mode 0, owner 00000000-00000000-0000-000000000000 mtime 31015 nHld 0 nOvf 0]
Addr <4, 211, 10>, gen 12, links 1, type reg, flags 0, uid 0, gid 0, mode 600
len 8684, nb 1 tbz 0, cow 0, newSinceEpoch 0, zla 1, bs 1048576
~ # vmkfstools -D /vmfs/volumes/REP-P1-MGMT01/Template-WIN2K8R2-Enterprise/Template-WIN2K8R2-Enterprise.vmsd
Lock [type 10c00001 offset 93052928 v 34, hb offset 3366912
gen 563, mode 0, owner 00000000-00000000-0000-000000000000 mtime 9694 nHld 0 nOvf 0]
Addr <4, 211, 4>, gen 6, links 1, type reg, flags 0, uid 0, gid 0, mode 644
len 0, nb 0 tbz 0, cow 0, newSinceEpoch 0, zla 4305, bs 8192
~ # vmkfstools -D /vmfs/volumes/REP-P1-MGMT01/Template-WIN2K8R2-Enterprise/Template-WIN2K8R2-Enterprise.vmtx
Lock [type 10c00001 offset 93048832 v 328, hb offset 4145152
gen 263, mode 0, owner 00000000-00000000-0000-000000000000 mtime 30959 nHld 0 nOvf 0]
Addr <4, 211, 2>, gen 4, links 1, type reg, flags 0, uid 0, gid 0, mode 100755
len 2935, nb 1 tbz 0, cow 0, newSinceEpoch 0, zla 2, bs 8192
~ # vmkfstools -D /vmfs/volumes/REP-P1-MGMT01/Template-WIN2K8R2-Enterprise/Template-WIN2K8R2-Enterprise.vmxf
Lock [type 10c00001 offset 93050880 v 29, hb offset 4145152
gen 263, mode 0, owner 00000000-00000000-0000-000000000000 mtime 28440 nHld 0 nOvf 0]
Addr <4, 211, 3>, gen 5, links 1, type reg, flags 0, uid 0, gid 0, mode 644
len 283, nb 1 tbz 0, cow 0, newSinceEpoch 0, zla 2, bs 8192
~ # vmkfstools -D /vmfs/volumes/REP-P1-MGMT01/Template-WIN2K8R2-Enterprise/Template-WIN2K8R2-Enterprise.vmdk
Lock [type 10c00001 offset 63762432 v 269, hb offset 4145152
gen 263, mode 0, owner 00000000-00000000-0000-000000000000 mtime 31103 nHld 0 nOvf 0]
Addr <4, 139, 134>, gen 137, links 1, type reg, flags 0, uid 0, gid 0, mode 600
len 516, nb 0 tbz 0, cow 0, newSinceEpoch 0, zla 4305, bs 8192
~ # vmkfstools -D /vmfs/volumes/REP-P1-MGMT01/Template-WIN2K8R2-Enterprise/Template-WIN2K8R2-Enterprise-flat.vmdk
Lock [type 10c00001 offset 93054976 v 92, hb offset 3530752
gen 19505, mode 1, owner 5134b1e4-be73111c-a642-e4115be82c43 mtime 28781 nHld 0 nOvf 0]
Addr <4, 211, 5>, gen 7, links 1, type reg, flags 0, uid 0, gid 0, mode 600
len 64424509440, nb 61440 tbz 20479, cow 0, newSinceEpoch 0, zla 3, bs 1048576

So after looking at it, I determined that it had to be the host with a NIC with MAC-address e4115be82c43 (which was another MAC-address previously, but I placed the owner of the previous MAC in maintenance mode and rebooted it).

When I look at that MAC-address it is bound to a NIC which is not in use (as far as I can see, it is part of a Emulex NC553i 10Gb 2-port FlexFabric).

What can I further do? I already rebooted 2 ESXi's but still no joy...

Good day,

I am a beginner in virtualization technology.

The first server I wanted to setup is a normal PC (CPU Core2Duo, VIA motherboard, integrated network adapter).
I downloaded iso image (from VMware web ), burned to a CD and booted from it. After loading some loadings the error appeared:

No Network Adapters were detected. Either no network adapters are physically connected to the system, or a suitable driver could not be located. A third party driver may be required.

It is logical to me, since the installer does not have any driver of the network adapter.

How can I solve that problem? How can I add the driver and where can I get it?

I have a separate CD with all drivers of this PC however they are for Windows OS.

I will be grateful for your help.

Best Regards

Marcin Nowicki

I am trying to deploy a VA in vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 Update 1 but the "Next" button is grayed out in the VA wizard. I installed ESXi on a Dell PE R610 and enabled Virtualization Technology in the BIOS. Any suggestions on how to get a VA installed?  Attached is the error I receive when I try to deploy the OVF file. 

Hi All,

We have a standalone ESXi5.1 Server with the follow hardware specs: -

DELL PE1950

2 x Xeon E5420 CPU (4 cores per each)

8G Memory

LOCAL DISK 2 X 146G SAS Disk (RAID 1)

PERC 6/I RAID Card

I have installed one windows server 2008 for testing something , but i found copy performance too slow when i copied one 3G file on same local disk .

transfer rate around 50MB/s. I don't know why too slow ? Suppose transfer rate should be around 150MB-200MB/s for SAS .

After shutdown down the guest OS and tried to copy vmdk file on same local datastore for testing again.

I found copy performance still too slow . transfer rate around 52MB/s (pls read attached file copyfile.png)

I have searched many website to find out solution . Most advised the problem is caused by Write back cache setting in Controller  or installed improper controller driver .  After double check , Write back cache have actived in controller (pls read attached file perc6icfg.png) & ensure that installed proper controller driver on VM (pls read attached file vmcfg.png) .

I ever guess this problem may be cause by hardware (Controller or HardDisk etc..) & not relative with ESXi , So i tried to do HD surface test by boot image . But the result of transfer rate is up to 209MB/s (pls read attached file disktest.png) .

So i ensure that the problem is cause by ESXi .

Is it some setting miss config ?

Can be tune up in VMKernel ?

Wish all of u can be assist me to solve this problem .

tks a lot

Boris

I have Suse Enterprise 11 SP3 running on vShere 5, installed is Zimbra. VM was initially setup use E1000 adapter. I am getting about 30% discards report via SNMP, and simple ifconfig shows;

RX packets:2406 errors:0 dropped:1087 overruns:0 frame:0

TX packets:1052 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

I have Suse Enterprise 11 SP3, running Zimbra, but on Virtualbox at home, no similar issue. On this specific vShpere server there are 9 VMs total running, none with same or similar packet loss. I browsed thru logs, nothing stood out. I then removed the E1000 adapter and replaced with the VM3, same problem. Did packet capture, but results were as expected, significant packet loss, but it seemed to be for every network service or connection type.

At this point, kind of at a loss on where to look next, so hoping get some ideas. Almost thinking to setup new Suse server, install Zimbra, and just let it run for a week and see. Other than Zimbra, there just is no other applications installed (besides what is necessary for server to function and be monitored).

Hi,

They use programs which run over the network and access some data on the network share from the DC.

Both VMs run with VMXNET3 driver and vmtools is seems to be on the latest version.

Problem:

Now i think the network traffic between these two vms is pretty slow, because the users claimed about a long waiting time when saving an normal document or when working with programs which access the network drives.

At the moment i've got an maximal throughput form about 820Mbit/s, which seemed to be the max. to get out with disabled offloading and enabled jumbo frames.

Before i disabled offloading and enabled jumbo frames, i've got an throuput from about 400Mbit/s.

I tested the setup on a small development server but with ESXi5.1 and i've reached an throughput from about 1.4Gbit/s, with lower Hardware specs.

What i've tested:

- Tested network traffic between the two servers with iperf.

- Disabled all Offloading functions.

- Enabled Jumbo Frames

- Disabled Firewall & Antivirus

Hardware:

Dell Poweredge R420

32GB RAM

Intel Xeon E5-2407 (2.20GHz)

Perc H720 Raid 5

Broadcom 5720 1Gbit/s

Has anyone encountered simliar issues? I really need help on this.

Thanks

Hi All,

We have several production VMs which are 2008 and 2008r2 running on old ESXi 4.0 with Intel processor hardware and on a shared SAN storage.

We recently planned a newer hardware running ESXi 5.1 with AMD processor while leaving the old Intel hardware as a backup in case of hardware failure.

We had chosen "I moved it" when ESXi 5.1 warned on first fire up of the VMs and we noticed the following:

• VMs that where setup with more than 1 core (since OS installation) triggered Windows activation.
• VMs that were setup with ONLY 1 core (since OS installation) has no issue at all.

My understanding is, if "I moved it" is chosen, ESXi will not make any changes to the .vmx file that changes the identity of the VM itself to Windows and therefore will not kick Windows activation. This proved to be true as VMs that had only 1 core never kicked Windows activation.

Interestingly, not those VMs with more than 1 core.

I really have no idea what the problem is, can anyone confirm they ever came across with same issues?

Could it be caused by the mixture of using Intel and AMD hardware?

Cheers,

Grant