Advice on ESXi 4 USB install

Similar Questions

• ESXi 5 USB startup key

  I managed to create a boot ESXi 5 USB device but it does not start on the test PC I am using. I also installed ESXi 5 on the internal drive of the computer to test if it was compatible and OS boots fine from that. But I really want to test the functionality of USB startup. If you set the BIOS to boot from USB first.

  If I boot my laptop on the same ESXi USB device it works fine.

  Any ideas?

  Try on another USB key if you have one. I had the same problem in this thread;

  http://communities.VMware.com/thread/404893?start=15&TSTART=0

  I try to use the Sandisk Cruzer 4 GB, but for the life of me, cannot operate. It works with other USB keys, but not this one.

  Steve

• Local storage for ESXi - SD USB or a traditional hard drive

  We will replace our ESX host soon with new hardware and I'm on the fence about the use of a player USB SD 4 GB or traditional hard drives in a RAID. Obviously, the reader SD has its advantages, namely its speed and reliability, but is reliable enough to give up using redundant hard drives?

  As someone mentioned previously, we spend much of our time concerned with our redundant hard disks, expecting to fail. Several times the failure is related to moving parts in the drive also. SD readers have the pleasure of having no moving parts to wear out or fail. But what good are they?

  Sells the dealer that I spoke with them for 3 years and never heard of a failure. His $62 for 4 GB, so it's not a bottom of the line edit. It is designed to be in a HP DL380G7, once again, I doubt that it is a lower end model.

  I'm leaning toward the SD drive rather than traditional drives, but I wanted to get feedback from others who may have used this before configuration. I'm looking for the successes and failures (and the reason for the failure).

  4 GB is enough for installation (ESXi 4.1) and I have not any more local storage as VM is on the shared storage and the assistance as AppSpeed and esXpress VM program I can also install it on the shared storage (where in our current datacenter these are installed on the local storage). Or should I worry about this size with respect to logging or something else?

  Thanks in advance, please discuss.

  Eduard Tieseler

  I had a fight 100 ESX hosts running by USB - only questions I ever had were with the original green USB keys that HP provided in the first days of ESXi on USB.

  I like the approach of USB for several reasons:

  1. no local physical disk required, less moving parts = less material problems

  2. If you have local physical disks, you can use these as the dumping grounds for the ISOs etc.

  3. If rebuilding a server, I can remove the old USB key and press a new - and recover simply by replacing the OLD USB key

  4. I can pre-generate a USB one double key as a method of construction of servers in bulk (not tested on 4.1u1 well)

  5. I've had many many hard drive failures. . USB (except Green HP ones) have never failed on me.

  In addition, your syslog problem isn't treally a 0 - practice problem is to get servers to connect to a centralized in any case syslog box (I would even if I used not USB/SD)

  Good luck - let us know what you decide.

• How do I know where my esxi OS is installed?

  Hello

  I am looking at a host and I'm trying to find out where the image of the operating system is installed.

  I have access to the host using the vi or SSH client. I don't have physical access to the server.

  The vi client, I see 2 VMFS data warehouses. but that doesn't tell me anything.

  If I putty ssh on the server, how can anyone know where, what partition, or what drives the esxi image is installed?

  
  

  Thank you.

  
  

  An easy way to find out if ESXi is installed on the drive of dives and on which of them is to open the properties of the data store. This won't show information about the store of data itself, but also on the disk partitions.

  André

• ESXi can be installed on the merger? or in my computer?

  ESXi can be installed on the workstation to create a virtual hypervisor to make several virtual machines or fusion?

  Thank you

  Sebastian Medina says:

  It supports is - x 64 intel core i5? in Mac book pro 4 GB ram osx 10.8.1

  Yes, but you are going to have probably at least double this amount of RAM, depending on what you intend to accomplish.

• How do I know if ESXi 4 OS installed on the local hard drive or SAN?

  Hello

  As above, how can I know if ESXi 4 OS installed on the local hard drive or SAN? average is ESXi SAN hard drive boot?

  Thank you

  The output looks like that ESXi is installed on the local disk (vmhba0).

      1 root     root       146778685440 Jul  8 11:16 mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0
      119 917504 -rw-------    1 root     root          939524096 Jul  8 11:16 mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:1
      121 4193280 -rw-------    1 root     root         4293918720 Jul  8 11:16 mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:2
      123 138223680 -rw-------    1 root     root       141541048320 Jul  8 11:16 mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:3
      125 4080 -rw-------    1 root     root            4177920 Jul  8 11:16 mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:4
      127 255984 -rw-------    1 root     root          262127616 Jul  8 11:16 mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:5
      129 255984 -rw-------    1 root     root          262127616 Jul  8 11:16 mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:6
      131 112624 -rw-------    1 root     root          115326976 Jul  8 11:16 mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:7
      133 292848 -rw-------    1 root     root          299876352 Jul  8 11:16 mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:8
  

  Sizes, looks like you are using 2x146GB hard drives in RAID1.

  BTW. ls-lisa and fdisk-lu are two separate commands.

  André

• Patching ESXi 4.1 installed with custom image

  Hello

  Our company has several ESXi 4.x - hosts installed with HP or DELL-customized images.

  If I install the patches with VUM without doing something more, simply by using the patches automatically downloaded VMware, they then somehow will overwrite the DELL/HP-installation custom ESXi? (Leaving me with a fully functioning but the host not custom).

  Or are the standard VMware patches without affecting the part 'tailor-made' installation?

  Concerning

  Matthias

  The patches that you apply do not overwrite OEM customizations.

  http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/ESXi_management.pdf :

  The basic hypervisor code can also contain custom code provided by suppliers of servers (OEM) that provides additional features, such as monitoring and hardware support information. These customizations would be present, for example, if had ESXi embedded format of the manufacturer of the server or a customized version of ESXi has been installed on

  the hard drive. Any update to an existing installation of ESXi integrates automatically the correct update of this custom code.

  Dave
  VMware communities user moderator

  ESXi Essentials free training / eBook offer

  Now available - VMware ESXi: planning, implementation, and security

  Also available - vSphere Quick Start Guide

• Flexflash vs esxi usb install

  Hi all

  We just picked up a few m3 ucs240 servers and need to install esxi. We have no physical disks in servers. The var, that we bought has two technicians with different points of view about the location of the installation. Their arguments are as follows,

  Tech 1 I always install on the USB

  Tech 2 I always use the flexflash if they have

  Tech 3 (me) I better get some other points of view.

  Note only the slot 1 of the flexflash has a map in SD253, Im guessing its a sd card?

  Is there a difference in performance?

  Is there a best practice?

  Any advice/help would be very appreciated.

  Kind regards

  Robert

  Hi Robert,.

  If you go with the SD install the card you have the advantage of having a redundancy with the second sd card.  In the 1.5 firmware relase we added a new feature that allows you to configure raid 1 on these SD cards.

  See also notes for any question you may have version.

  Release notes for Cisco UCS C-Series Software, version 1.5 (3d)

  http://www.Cisco.com/en/us/docs/unified_computing/UCS/release/notes/OL-28995-01.html

• Installed ESXi on USB/Flash but swap does not seem to have been placed on the virtual disk

  Hello

  I've read several times that when you install ESXi 5.1 on flash media he creates a work space available on a virtual disk of 4 GB in/tmp/scratch so that the USB itself is not used for temporary data to extend the life of the USB.  However, this doesn't seem to be from my experience and I was wondering if someone can help me to confirm that my disc scratch is actually on a virtual disk or whatever on the USB.  I should mention as well as installing ESXi has identified correctly as 'flash' disc type and the disc as a "Generic USB drive»

  After installation, I noticed two things:

  1 log-in user activity logs are able to survive a reboot (I don't think they should the ramdisk is dissolved after a reboot)

  2. There is no directory with the path/tmp/scratch

  Unfortunately I can not directly determine where the partition scratch is (be it on USB or RAM) because I did not have a file ' / etc/fstab "watching (even if I under ESXi 5.0 disk a hard base install?) and it doesn't seem to be a 'mount' command I can use to look at the existing mounts either.

  Can anyone tell me what can I do to verify that the directory used for temporary files is actually a virtual disk and not on the USB drive itself?  Hours of research are presented only the forum messages and documentation clearly indicating that the file will use "/ tmp/scratch", but that just isn't the case.

  Thanks in advance for all your help.

  As you can see from the output

  ~ snip ~

  drwxr-xr-t 1 root root 1260 28 Dec 23:08 50de22a5-f4afafa0-f7b5-001517197ad8
  root drwxr-xr-x 1 root 8 1 January 1970 50df4c30-82b86e61-8522-001517197ad8
  lrwxr-xr-x 1 root root 35 1 Jan 22:21 640GB_WD_Black_AALS-1 -> 50de22a5-f4afafa0-f7b5-001517197ad8

  ~ snip ~

  the UUID is a store existing data "640GB_WD_Black_AALS-1".

  This proves that with an existing data store, a folder ".locker" (which is a ScratchLocation) is automatically created.

  André

• ESXi 4.1 installed on a life issue, USB flash drive

  Hello

  I just installed a new server ESXi 4.1 on a (internal port) USB flash drive. I heard these flash drives USB gets used a lot of Scriptures; I do pay attention on the ESXi host to maximize the life of the USB? Maybe switch logs in a data store, if possible?

  Someone at - it information on how long will last my with ESXi USB flash drive?

  Thanks in advance!

  ... what I do pay attention on the ESXi host to maximize the life of the USB? Maybe switch logs in a data store, if possible?

  VMware optimizes access R/W if you install ESXi on a flash or SD drive. If I'm not mistaken, some changes are written only once in an hour. Depending on the size of the flash player, you can configure the location of the scratch partition (which is used for discharges of support etc.) to be on one of your data warehouses (HARD drive)

  Someone at - it information on how long will last my with ESXi USB flash drive?

  This depends mainly on the quality of the drive itself. Some providers (like Dell) offer models of server with two type of a RAID1 SD cards.

  André

• U1 ESXi 4.1 install on Dell PowerEdge R210

  Have no success in installation of the ESXi 4.1 U1 on the Dell PowerEdge R210? I'm unable to install ESXi and maybe someone had some advice. The Dell server comes with a RAID1 and is under the list of VMWare HCL. There a S100 for the RAID controller. Dell recommends to break the RAID1 and install ESXi on the local drive (single). This server comes with a 500 GB drive (x 2).

  What will be the best option? I think to install the 4.1.U1 ESXi on a USB key, but had no experience this and I don't know how is it sustainable. I can count on and what size of USB do I need?

  Please advice what have you done or any recommendations on how to install the server host.

  Thank you.

  Collin

  I'd certainly install on a USB key. You will need a 1 GB or more large USB key. You can have an internal USB slot and I would like to check the documentation for your location. ESXi loads directly into RAM, and he has very little written on the disc. A copy of the small configuration happens once per hour.

  I don't think that your RAID controller can be used as RAID because I think it's a software RAID that is not supported under ESX (i). You will end up with two separate drives.

• New to ESXi ESXi installation USB or local disks operation best practices?

  I'm new to Vmware and run a small store, what is the best practice or best method to install the OS ESXi.  I currently have a few that I have installed on the usb stick on the server Board.  After some research it would be better to have two small drives SSD that I can raid with the operating system, then another RAID for the VM data store.  USB is a single source of failure.

  Thank you

  Mike

  Hello

  Having the internal hard drives in RAID1 for the o/s will certainly to avoid a single point of failure, as you pointed out correctly. At present the death of your USB key, your host problems quite quickly, and you will need to get a new one and re-install again. You could save your good host configuration and realistically - it does take too long to rebuild a crowd if he dies. Lose other stuff like network configurations and others would however be a pain!

  I think I have two SSD internal drives in RAID1 for the o/s is probably overkill. You will have an advantage any speed of startup, but realistically most of the servers restart everything often and once that ESXi is in place and operational it is very little activity on the disks, a config updates every so often and so on. I'd be inclined to use a SSD to create a Cache of the host for the swap drive, like that you can actually use the SSD and get more performance for your money.

  Many manufacturers (like Dell) use internal SD cards in RAID1. While SD cards are not known to be very robust, because of the congestion of ESXi and the minimum number of necessary paperwork once installed initially, it makes a less expensive alternative to business class for the o/s disks.

  In regards to your data warehouses, having an internal RAID your local disks is best if you use a stand-alone host with no storage attached to the network. You always have the problem of failure of the host if.

  See you soon,.

  Ryan

• ESXi 5.5 install LAN driver

  There is a way to copy the driver (USB, CD key) network in the local data store. I need to do this because I've lost the network on this host.

  A cdrom can already be mounted automatically in/vmfs/volumes/DISC after inserting the disc.

  The following works on ESXi 5.5 for mounting a cdrom drive:

  1 insert the disc and determine the optical drives detected, note that your output will be different:

  # ls-l/dev/cdrom /.

  10800 total

  -rw - 1 root root 0 May 26 13:42 mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0

  -rw - 1 root root 44236800 26 mai 13:42 mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0

  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 26 mai 13:42 vml.0005000000766d686261303a303a30-> mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0

  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 26 mai 13:42 vml.0005000000766d68626133333a303a30-> mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0

  2 load the module for mounting cd images:

  ~ # vmkload_mod iso9660

  Iso9660 module loaded successfully

  3. install the unit with the following (adjust the name of the adapter):

  ~ # / sbin/vsish EI set, vmkModules, iso9660, mount mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0

  The contents of the cdrom will be then mounted vmfs/volumes / [adaptername], for example /vmfs/volumes/mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0 in my example case.

• ESXi 5 test/install the environment?

  I'm stuck with a network very old so I thought, lets start Update/reinstall with some 'new' hard and software. I released a 'server', installed ESXi 5 on it and hung it on my production network. Then I installed Windows SBS2011 on the ESXi server to start configuring the new network, but figured that's not a good idea because I have 2 domain controllers in the same network in a few minutes, so I started to use an IP address different range instead of the old 192.168.1.x network 192.168.2.x

  The only problem that remains is that the new network is not have an internet connection and that's one thing I really like difficulty. Is it possible to achieve, or y at - there someone who can give me some advice or tip? I have already spent hours on the internet to find a simular question but couldn't find an answer.

  Some information:

  Old network:

  -DC Windows2003 with Exchange2003 on that (IP 192.168.1.11)

  Router/gateway IP 192.168.1.250

  -About 6 workstations

  New network:

  -VMWare ESXi 5 Server (IP 192.168.1.14)

  -Windows SBS2011 as one machine virtual (IP 192.168.2.11)

  -no jobs yet

  I don't want to migrate, I just want to start with a new situation. I'm new to VMWare so please don't shoot me again!

  Any help is appreciated!

  Maurice

  Welcome to the community - the best way would be to place a virtual router on your ESXi host this will act as a gateway towards you netwrok production and finally out of the internet.

• ESXi on USB Flash

  Hello

  I installed 5 ESXi on a USB key with success. My question is that if it's a good way to get a USB stick that comes out of the back of the server, but especially how to secure that would be in case something happens to the USB since data is on this USB key... is there a way to save it?

  There are better ways to install on USB on a sticky on the back.  I wouldn't do this if it is within a grid locked with VERY rarely access.

  There are SD cards that are sometimes built inside the server, or the USB connectors inside.  It is MUCH safer to have a stick in the back.

  You can use esxcfg-backup to back up or restore the configuration.