Comments on: Running VMware ESXi Hypervisor

By: Chung Marotz

Chung Marotz — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:54:42 +0000

It was a very nice idea! Just wanna say thank you for the data you have distributed. Just continue penning this kind of post. I will be your loyal reader. Gives Thanks again.

By: Jose Gomes

Jose Gomes — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:41:10 +0000

Just set-up my first ESXi White Box and was going to use the instructions to create a USB stick, however, I ended up downloading the ISO modified by Dell (available from VMWare). Install went on fine without further modification and I am now running ESXi from USB.

The test server I am using is a Dell Precision 490 Workstation, 3.2 GHz Dual Core Xeon CPU, 8 GB of RAM and 3 750Gb SATA disks. Just thought I would post it here in case someone else is looking to do the same.

Thanks
J

By: Installing ESXI 4 in Embedded Mode

Installing ESXI 4 in Embedded Mode — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:46:37 +0000

[...] work on "with some modifications". Should you want (or need) to do this then I suggest you start here, which explains how to create your own bootable ESXi USB stick and then goes on to provide links to [...]

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:27:00 +0000

I have an ESXi server with several disks. ESXi is installed on disk1, but when I boot the box I get a warning that the disk is faulty and should be replaced. So I thought I would use a USB stick instead. The machine boots just fine, but it seems to have lost the definition of the datastores that contain all my VMs on the other disks. If I try and create a new datastore on a disk, any previous data on the disk will be lost.

Do you know if I can somehow get the new system to recognise the datastores that already exist on the other disks?

I have enabled ssh and I had a look in /etc/vmware/esx.conf but no signs of any datastore config there.

Any info would be much appreciated.

P.S. my unix is a bit rusty but isn’t there a more command you canuse? I don’t seem to be able to use it when I ssh??

Thanks,
Chris

By: Threepwood Goes to VMware ESXi | From thoughts to text

Threepwood Goes to VMware ESXi | From thoughts to text — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:31:21 +0000

[...] that I’ve got VMware ESXi running, I decided it was time to move already. To move it I used VMware Converter, which can move physical [...]

By: Tor Håkon Haugen

Tor Håkon Haugen — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:05:15 +0000

Robin:

If you install ESXi correctly on a USB stick, it won’t touch the local HDDs on the box. However, to be able to run a guest OS, ESXi needs a place (data store) to keep the images.

I think you can create a data store on a single partition, but I can’t guarantee it. When a data store is created, it will wipe out all the data on that partition/disk.

By: Robin

Robin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:05:47 +0000

Really interesting post.

I’m trying to run ESXi as a test/prototype on a machine with an existing OS. Leaving aside the fact that it would be safer to run ESXi on a bare-metal box – what happens to the host PC when you start it up from the ESXi’d USB drive?

I notice from other docs I’ve read that to install ESXi onto the machines it wipes the HDD (unless you do certain jiggery-pokery). With the USB solution will it just use the system resources but not touch the HDDs? Or will it wipe them as if I had installed it straight onto the box?

If that makes sense…

By: jj

jj — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:12:28 +0000

nice and useful post

By: Tor Håkon Haugen

Tor Håkon Haugen — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:04:42 +0000

Rick:
Hi, thanks for the reply.

There might be several reasons to run VMWare ESXi from a flash drive. Let’s say the hardware you’re running it on dies, then it’s easy to replace it with an identical server. Plug and play. This of course means that your data stores must be located on an external drive, like a SAN.

My main reason to install ESXi on a flash drive was because I could. To test it. Also, I didn’t have a monitor laying around to the machine I intended to run ESXi from. So I configured the flash pen drive on my ~~IBM~~ Lenovo ThinkPad X61, and then plugged it into the server and booted.

I don’t run this as mission critical, it’s for my own amusement. On the office however, we run the full-blown ESX with Virtual Center (now vCenter Server).

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 14 May 2009 00:44:18 +0000

whats the point of running ESX on a flashdrive?

Is there not enought space on your hdd for it?

do you need to travel with ESX drive to places?

Im lost on the benifit or purpose to this?