When P2V’ing a server to ESX or vSphere, there is a small list of “clean-up” items that must be done to the new virtual image. I have added an additional item to my list that will modify the custom text and images that computer manufacturers add to the system properties dialogue box. Often when running [...]
A few weeks ago I attempted to build out a vCenter instance at an office in Europe, intended to be added to my main vCenter instance as a linked clone. Reading the release docs for vCenter 4.0, it is apparent that future releases of vCenter will not be supported in a 32-bit environment. This led [...]
My server of choice for running ESX 4.0 is currently Dell’s 2U PowerEdge R710. Recently I received 2 of these and began the build out process, only to find that the ESX 4.0u1 installer (and ultimately the entire OS) did not recognize either of the two Intel Quad Port GB server adapters I have installed. [...]
Today I began my work with VMware’s DR product, SRM. I’ll be using this tool to migrate a few hundred virtual machines from one datacenter to another, not for DR purposes.
The first issue I ran into took me quite a bit of time to figure out. It turns out that if you are not using [...]
There are several advantages to enabling hardware virtualization technology in the BIOS of your servers when using vSphere or ESX. These include the ability to use EVC (Enhanced vMotion Compatibility) on your DRS clusters, the use of 64bit OS guests, and using VMware FT (Fault Tolerance).
Turning Intel VT or AMD-V on must be done on [...]
Along the way you might run into a P2V (or need to build a new VM) that will host an application which has a license attached to it’s NIC. In order to do this, you generally need to provide the software vendor the MAC address to your VM. That being said, it’s important to ensure [...]
