I wanted to test an Openfiler as a solution forHA and vMotion with ESX Server and vCenter. Using Openfiler is a great way to save some money on expensive SANs and for home lab testing and learning, this choice is just great. I did not have 3 physical boxes (2 for ESX hosts and one for Openfiler) so I opted for a hybrid solution, where I’m actually running one ESX server inside of VMware workstation.
via How to configure OpenFiler iSCSI Storage for use with VMware ESX. | ESX Virtualization.
This is the tricky step. Unlike VMware Server, the Infrastructure Client does not have the File > Open option, allowing you to browse for existing .vmx configuration files and registering them. So it seems you might be stuck.
The answer lies in the datastore. In the destination folder, where you have just created your clone, right-click on the .vmx configuration file. Select Add to Inventory.
via How to clone virtual machines in VMware ESXi.
Update: This indeed worked. The problem occurs in that if a .vmx file is copied directly from Workstation, it can contain erroneous info that can cause problems. In my case eth0 would not pass traffic. I noticed something wrong by examining the virtual machines on Configuration -> Networking when the esxi box is selected. I noticed the vm I was having problems with wasn’t listed so I thought to examine the .vmx file.
The copied over .vmx file had ethernet0.vnet=”/dev/vmnet0″ which is a Workstation reference that doesn’t apply to esxi. By eliminating this and adding ethernet0.networkName = “VM Network” networking worked.
Oh sure they’ll provide you with a tool called VMWare Converter Standalone which purports to convert your VMWare workstation guests in to fully fledged ESXi compatible versions but does it actually work? In short, no, it doesn’t.
via VMWare Workstation conversion to ESXi 4 | lewisroberts.com.
I’m not the only one with this problem!
OVF is a format that describes virtual appliances; these could be single or multiple machine. In doing so, OVF describes the virtual hardware and physical requirements of each machine.
Via Importing Kensho OVF to ESX | Citrix Blogs.
In my example I am going to use XenConvert to create an OVF Appliance from a XenServer XVA (that is an export of a XenServer VM), modify that using a VMware created OVF, and then import to ESX.
Heavyweight companies from around the globe are competing in the hot cloud space. In the center ring are two tough competitors Citrix and VMware. Each has strengths and weaknesses. Which should you choose?
In this article, I compare the hypervisor products from these two vendors, Citrix XenServer and VMware ESXi, and explore what each as to offer developers. Since hypervisors have become are a dime a dozen, it only makes sense that a comparison of VMware ESXi and Citrix XenServer also discusses the surrounding components to get a full picture of what each can do for the development
via VMware ESXi vs. XenServer: Cloud and Desktop Feature Showdown – Developer.com.
On a system with a lower amount of RAM you may find that ESXi allocates too much to run the vmkernel and system services not leaving sufficient memory for running VMs. In the below example, the host has 3 GB of memory. ESXi is showing about 2600 MB available for virtual machines. But an important number for virtual machines is the memory capacity shown on the Resource Allocation in the 2nd image below. This shows that my VMs have a total capacity of just over 1400 MB for VM memory overhead. A chart of memory overhead per vCPU / VM memory is shown below. VM memory overhead includes space for the VM frame buffer and virtualization data structures like shadow page tables. Once my running VMs have exhausted the 1400 MB of total capacity, I will not be able to start additional VMs even though ESXi may have plenty of free memory.
Use SCP to copy your Workstation files over to the ESX server. The path is /vmfs/volumes/YourDataStore. Next, ssh into your ESX server and run the following command:
vmkfstools -i sourcefile.vmdk /vmfs/vmfsname/destinationfile.vmdk
Once that process is complete you can point ESX at that file and start it up. Make sure you delete the source files so you aren’t wasting space on the ESX server.
via Righteous Hack » Converting VMWare Workstation images to VMWare ESXi 3.5.
This worked. The VMware converter failed on two VMs made with Workstation but copying them over and using this command does the trick. Problem solved! (I hope)
Converter completely failed on Windows 7 and apparently there’s a hack where the type of OS needs to be changed in Workstation settings for the VM. My PBX in a flash vm wouldn’t boot from its hd after conversion because the converter lost its partition. I confirmed this by booting vm into knoppix and checking the partitions. IMHO, converter creates more work than just copying the vm manually. I fixed my piaf vm by manually copying the .vmdk file over and using the command above. Will do more experiments later.