Browsing Posts tagged ESXi

Reading Time: 2 minutes On a previous post, I’ve write on how build custom ESXi ISO with 3rd part tools. Those tools are not mentioned by VMware so probably are not supported. But you need a custom ISO in order to install ESXi on a host where the network drivers are missing (storage could be not an issue if you install it on a USB/Flash card). The other solutions are use a vendor related custom ISO or the embedded version that probably already include the right drivers. But in order to build your custom ISO you could use the […]

Reading Time: < 1 minute I’ve got a case of a host upgraded to VMware vSphere 5.1 with a determinist PSOD during each host reboot or shutdown (I’ve found the issue during the first patch update). No difference if hosts where rebuild from scratch with a similar configuration. And no difference with all recent ESXi patches. After a full upgrade of each BIOS, firmware and drivers (and of course the HCL verification) I’ve only found the KB 2038281 (ESXi 5.1 host fails with a purple diagnostic screen when Beacon probing is enabled). Syntoms where similar: Cannot reboot a ESXi 5.1 […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes As written in the previous post, one common issue with recent servers of new generations is that maybe the NIC drivers are not included in the standard ESXi ISO. An if you use the vendor (or a personal) customized ISO, could be possible that during a patch update or a version upgrade you loose the drivers and the system is no working anymore. In those cases you may have an ESXi that complete his bootstrap, but without any network connectivity is not usable and could be hard to fix the missing drivers because VUM and […]

Reading Time: < 1 minute If you have a new NIC card or a server of a new generation could be possible that the right driver is missing in the standard ESXi installation ISO. And without a working networking is not possible install the ESXi (the installation will stop because one requirement is at least a supported NIC). Maybe the hardware vendor has a customized version of the ISO, but IMHO I don’t like this option (in some cases it could give some issues).

Reading Time: < 1 minute Finally VMware vSphere 5.1 is available (after the product announce during the VMworld). Note that now there is also a virtual appliance also for Orchestrator (when one for VUM?). Also vShield is now called VMware vCloud Networking and Security. VMware ESXi 5.1 build: 799733 VMware vCenter Center 5.1 build: 799735 What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.1? VMware vSphere 5.1 download page VMware vSphere 5.1 documentation VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 documentation Note that also those other products are now available: VMware vCloud Director 5.1 VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.1

Reading Time: 4 minutes Another interesting feature in vSphere 5.1 is the vSphere Replication (VR) technology. This feature was first introduced on 2011 with Site Recovery Manager 5.0 (on vSphere 5.0) to protect virtual machines natively by copying their disk files to another location where they are ready to be recovered, using a VM replication technology (storage vendor independent) instead of the storage replication (storage vendor depend). It provides simple and cost-efficient replication of applications to a failover site. The big change is that now it is a component delivered simple with vSphere editions (starting from Essentials Plus), and […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes With the new vSphere 5.1 a new vMotion option has been added (only in the new Web Client) that combine vMotion and Storage vMotion in a singe hot migration step to migrate between hosts/clusters without shared storage! This could increase the mobility of the VMs and usage also of local storage (for some cases). Both VM state and VM files are transported across network using the vMotion vmkernel interfaces (so a good network design could be necessary). The requirements are: Hosts must be managed by same vCenter Server Hosts must be part of same Datacenter […]

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