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VMWare ESX: static MAC address
Apr 21st
Last week I planned to migrate some virtual machines running on a Windows host with VMWare Server 1.x version to VMWare ESX 3.5i host. One of the vm’s is running as license server and the key is registered by using the MAC of the network interface.
I had the prerequisite of keeping the MAC address of this VM. I first read this post I found with google. http://zealkabi.blogspot.com/2008/09/vmware-esx-server-3x-procedure-to-set.html
I first tried it manually but got the famous error message “The MAC address entered is not in the valid range. Valid values are between xx:xx:xx:xx:xx”
Then I removed the vm from ESX inventory; download the vmx file and changed the ethernet0.addressType to static and ethernet0.Address = “01:0C:29:B0:27:E1″ with Notepad++.I deleted original file from the Datastore and upload the vmx file back. I started the vm again and got the message below:
Please specify a static Ethernet address for ethernet0. Failed to configure ethernet0
Without additional setting in the vmx config file you won’t be able to assign a static MAC address in the range your require. To disable mac address checking before boot add the following line in the vmx file.
ethernetX.checkMACAddress = “false”
Thanks to Jason Nash I fixed this problem.
http://jasonnash.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/disabling-mac-address-checking-in-vmware/
My working config changes:
ethernet0.checkMACAddress = “false”
ethernet0.addressType = “static”
ethernet0.Address = “00:0C:29:B0:27:E1″
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Loading ...VMWare ESX: Hyper-V and memory overcommit? forget it!
Dec 18th
Hyper-V Manager error when trying to start my 4th virtual machine:
- An error occurred while attempting to change the state of virtual machine. Unable to allocate MB of RAM. Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service. etc…
Before I reinstall my test Dell PowerEdge 2900 Quad core server I wanted to share this with you. Hyper-V does not support memory overcommitment and I don’t like that. The virtual host has 8GB or RAM and I want to run more VMs than just 6 of those; the OS uses almost 1GB and less than 7GB is available for VMs.
Some weeks ago I read about memory overcommitment feature which is available for VMWare’s ESX/ESXi servers.
What is Memory Overcommitment?
Memory overcommitment is not a feature in itself, but a collection of technologies out of which “transparent page sharing” is the most interesting in my opinion. The usefulness of transparent page sharing will spring to mind immediately if you consider VDI environments. There, host machines typically run large numbers of identical client operating systems with the same applications installed on them. Since all the clients/guests run the same application set, most of the code pages they need to keep in memory are identical. Each guest keeps separate copies of all system and application EXEs and DLLs in memory – what a waste!
Now consider the following: in memory program code is organized in units of pages. If you had a component that identified all those identical pages in each guest’s virtual memory and map them to one set of pages in the host’s physical memory, you could reduce the code memory footprint of n virtual machines to that of one single virtual machine. And that is in a nutshell what VMware’s “transparent page sharing” does.
I only want to run different VMs of Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 and install additional components to test them with each other. With Hyper-V server I can only commit the physical memory available and additional VMs.
Related links:
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...VMWare ESX: Extend Windows Server 2008 Basic volume hard disk
Sep 30th
Last week I run into free disk space problem on my Windows Server 2003 virtual machine and today on another virtual machine running Windows Server 2008 I encountered same thing again. The virtual disk was sized for 10GB and only 80MB was free.
The virtual machine is running Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft enhanced the feature for extending basic disk volumes on the fly. In my previous post I needed to add the virtual disk to another server; assign a drive letter and than run the extend option in diskpart. Within VI client extend the "Hard Disk" in the properties of the virtual machine to desired and planned size 
and goto Computer Management / Storage / Disk Management, right-click and Refresh.
The additional defined disk space will be shown as "Unallocated". Right-click on the C:\ volume and choose "Extend Volume". Follow the wizard and within seconds the basic volume has been extended. Thanks to VMWare ESX and Microsoft Server 2008 our lives as System Engineers is becoming easier.
As lesson learned size your virtual environment appropriate and especially the Hard Disk configuration.
Related links:
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...VMWare ESX: Virtual Hard Disk FULL
Sep 28th
I am working to prepare my virtual machine to move it from test network to production. Before bringing this virtual machine to production I wanted to run the latest updates and during the process my virtual hard disk went full ;-(. I sized the vm with 6GB of disk space and yes I run into disk space problem.
VMWare ESX allows you to extend the virtual disk size on a running virtual machine. How to extend the virtual disk size? Right click the virtual machine in the VI cleint; choose settings and go to “Hard Disk 1″ and type new disk size. Click OK.
Example of my new Disk Configuration in “Disk Management”. To extend the virtual disk we need to go to diskpart and extent the volume.
I opened command prompt and opened diskpart; selected the volume and run extend.
The volume you selected may not be extended.
Please select another volume and try again.
My virtual hard disk was full and I was not able to extend my basic disk with the additional 2GB I added to this configuration.
Thanks to Kalpesh Prajapati post I was able to find a solution to my problem.
Follow these steps to extend your virtual machine basic hard disk:
- Shutdown the virtual machine
- Extend the virtual disk size
- Add the harddisk to another virtual machine and start it up (second virtual machine)
- Open command prompt and start diskpart.exe
- list volumes and select the volume with the disk problem
- extend the disk
Make sure the volume has a drive letter assigned otherwise same warning will be returned. Virtual machine was started again without any problems and two additional gigs of disk space.
Links:
- Arne Fokkema posted another way how to perfom these actions on a basic disk. It should be easier if you download the additional ExtPart.exe tool from Dell. Extend the OS disk the easy way (ExtPart.exe)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...VMWare ESX: Service Console IP address
Sep 12th
There are couple command line tools that VMWare ESX offers when the server has been installed with the “Service Console” mode (without i). In the following example I will explain and show how to create new vSwitch; link a physical network interface and assign a IP address for your “Service Console” management interface.
[root@LAB-ESX-01 root]# esxcfg-vswitch -a vSwitch0 –> This will create new virtual switch
[root@LAB-ESX-01 root]# esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic0 vSwitch0 –> This will link my first physical network interface to vSwitch0
Result of the two commands:
As you can see vmnic0 with 1000Mbps has been associated with vSwitch0. Now I would like to have a “Service Console” port group sitting on this virtual switch.
[root@LAB-ESX-01 root]# esxcfg-vswitch -A Service\ Console vSwitch0 –> This will create new port group named Service Console. Creating new port group on a virtual switch is nothing more than assigning or defining a interface on a switch. Now I would like to assign a L3 IP address on this interface/portgroup.
[root@LAB-ESX-01 root]# esxcfg-vswif -a vswif2 -p “Service Console” -i 192.168.1.2 -n 255.255.255.0 -b 192.168.1.255 –> This will create new L3 interface which is linked to the Service Console port group with an static IP address. ESX server will generate new L2 mac address and assign this to the vswif2 interface.
[2008-09-12 13:22:21 'Vnic' warning] Generated New MAC address, 00:50:56:40:49:f4 for vswif2
Target result:
Just using two built-in esx configuration command line tools I was able to create and assign new service console ip address on a special physical management network interface.
Summary:
- esxcfg-vswitch -a switch_name
- esxcfg-vswitch -L physical_nic switch_name
- esxcfg-vswitch -A Service\ Console switch_name
- esxcfg-vswif -a vswif2 -p “Service Console” -i 192.168.1.2 -n 255.255.255.0 -b 192.168.1.255
Related links:
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...VMware ESX: SSH remote management
Sep 12th
After installing VMWare ESX 3.5 hypervisor host server I would like to manage this system with SSH remotely. Server is manufactured by Dell and the DRAC mgmt card interface is available but I prefer to use SSH. SSH is enabled by default but disallows access for root.
See my work log and screenshots how to enable this feature:
- Login with root from the console
- Change directory with “cd /etc/ssh”
- Open sshd_config with “vi sshd_config”
- Locate Authentication section and change “PermitRootLogin no” to “PermitRootLogin yes”; for going into edit mode type i; press ESC to exit
- Type “:wq!” to save and exit the file
- Restart the SSH deamon with “service sshd restart”
- Start putty.exe or any of you favorite SSH remote management tools to connect to your ESX 3.5 server.
This procedure also applies to version 3.x. With this procedure I achieved to manage my ESX server remotely so I don’t need to use my remote management access card. SSH daemon also support secure file copy protocol which can be used to connect with WinSCP and download or upload any file/virtual machine to your VMFS file system.
Please be aware of any security implications! I enabled this kind of access because the management interface is sitting in a different VLAN than the vSwitch networks within virtual machine which are trunked amongst different networks.
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