Tag: ESX / ESXi

Using Veeam Backup & Replication to make backups and replicas of our virtual environment

This Veeam product called Veeam Backup and Replication, offers us the possibility of both backups and replication of our VMware virtual environment, for both VMware Infrastructure 3 How to VMware vSphere 4 (VMware ESX or VMware ESXi, depending on the license purchased, that the product is paid for, but very cheap). It will allow us to make backups of the virtual machines that we indicate in the location that interests us, We will be able to keep as many copies of the same virtual machine as we are interested in, as Veeam will store them incrementally. Personally, what I like is the replication, since the backup is given to us by VCB or VMware Data Recovery, replication can be carried out in another storage array that we have and the replicated virtual machines will be optionally placed in the VMware inventory, just like backups, We can have so many replicas […]

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.

How to Upgrade VMware vCenter 2.5 to VMware vCenter 4.0

If we want to have the new VMware virtualization technology, vSphere, with the new version of VMware ESX hosts, we will need to update our VMware vCenter Server virtual infrastructure management server. And this will have to be updated before updating our ESX host to the latest version. This procedure shows the steps to upgrade a VMware VirtualCenter server from the release 2.5 to the 4.0.

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.

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).

Convert VMs to XenServer

If we want to convert VMware Server VMs, VMware ESX, Microsoft Virtual Server or Microsoft Virtual PC to Xen Virtual Appliance Format (XVA) we must use the v2xva Virtual Disk Migration Utility application (a V2V app). We go to their official website and download the binary or the sources depending on our OS. (HTTP://tx.downloads.xensource.com/products/v2xva/), be careful that it is only useful to convert virtual machines with Windows from S.O. client and run it from a Windows XP/2003 R2 or Vista as administrator.

Creating a .flp file for use with Virtual Floppy.

In this document, I will try to explain how to make advanced use of the Virtual Floppy in a Virtual Machine, either with VMWare Workstation, Server, ESX or ESXi. In the beginning, We will no longer need the use of this support, But we all know, that on certain occasions, The easiest thing would be to take a floppy drive with us 3 1/2 USB on top. With this procedure, We learn how to create an image in .flp with drivers, or a boot floppy disk for later use on the VM.