Category: ESX / ESXi

Using VMware Data Recovery to Back Up VMware vSphere

VMware Releases New Virtual Machine Backup System Called VMware Data Recovery. It is a virtual appliance based on CentOs 5.2 which we will incorporate into our virtual environment, and with a plugin we can manage from the VMware client, as it integrates with our VMware vCenter Server. I have to tell you that I love how it works, is fully customizable, We can make backups of the virtual machines that we are interested in, We can indicate how many copies we want it to keep of each virtual machine and for how long; how many machines you keep for us for a specific time. The best thing is the technology you use to make backups called deduplication, This will prevent duplicate copies of virtual machines, but in the next copy it will only copy the differences with the complete copy, This is, an incremental copy! We will be able to restore the entire virtual machine, […]

Migrate VMware ESX 3.x to VMware ESX 4.0 manually

This document shows how to migrate an ESX host from the VMware ESX release 3.5 to VMware ESX 4.0, but it is valid for any ESX 3.x, It is designed for small environments, of one or two host's, but it would not make sense since it is a manual update process, without the ability to schedule the task or perform more than one simultaneous migration or by specifying a migration order for our hosts.

Upgrade ESX 3.x to ESX 4.0 con VMware vCenter Update Manager

We continue in the process of migrating the VMware Virtual Infrastructure environment 3 to VMware vSphere 4. We first upgraded the VMware VirtualCenter server to VMware vCenter Server, later we will have migrated the VMware Update Manager component to VMware vCenter Update Manager 4.0. After this, we will now be able to upgrade from ESX to the 4.0. All this, of course, taking into account whether our ESX hosts are fully compatible with the new version, to do this, check it in the VMware HCL.

Deploying ESX servers in bulk

If we are facing an installation of many ESX servers and we have to make a new installation on the servers we have, We can or do it by hand one by one, inserting the CD and completing the wizard or, use a virtual appliance that will allow us to deploy new ESX servers per network, all of them already configured with the options that interest us. This will save us a lot of time, is a virtual appliance called EDA or ESX deployment Appliance available on the VMware Virtual Appliance Web.

Virtualize VMware ESX 4 on a virtual machine and run virtual machines within it

Yes, as the title says, a VMware ESX can be virtualized 4.0 inside another VMware VM, and also, be able to create and boot virtual machines within our virtual VMware ESX!!! Logically we are talking about a test environment and never for production, as it is ideal for setting up your own lab if you don't have enough VMware ESX-compatible hardware 4.0 and want to try out the new features (Fault Tolerance or FT, vNetwork Distributed Switch or DVS, Host Profiles Linked VC… Let's go vSphere) or if you want to perform a testing lab… it is also done in a few very simple and quick steps.

Installing VMware ESX 4.0

Simple document on how to perform a basic installation of a VMware ESX host or server 4.0, It will be a simple installation with no setup during installation more than the basic one. We should keep in mind that before installing VMware ESX on any physical server, we must always enable the virtualization technology of our processor, either Intel VT or AMD-V at the server BIOS level.

Recreating the descriptor file from a .vmdk file

There are times, that either due to a poorly deleted snapshot or an unexpected shutdown of the VM the .vmdk of the same is corrupted losing the information of the VM. “configuration” and leaving us the raw virtual hard drive; normally, midisco-flat.vmdk Si nos ocurre esta situación, The most likely thing is that the virtual machine will give us the error “File not found” When trying to start. The procedure to follow is to recreate the descriptors() of the virtual disk(s).

Connecting USB Devices in VMware ESX Environments

I have wanted to publish this document for a long time, where with a simple software called USB over Network (HTTP://www.usb-over-network.com/usb-over-network.html) We can share USB devices over the Ethernet network, This is, We can have on the physical server (in the VirtualCenter or VCB x example) a server with multiple USB adapters or extending it with PCI devices… plug the USB devices needed by the virtual machines into this hardware and share it over the network; in the VMs a client software is installed that will make them connect to this USB server. Apart from this software there are also other solutions, but personally they are not as fast as they are. If we are looking for a hardware solution I would review AnywhereUSB (HTTP://www.digi.com/products/usb/anywhereusb.jsp).