When I was stumbling through the VMTN Discussion Forums I found a thread about VMware ESX 3i Server. One little post from Olivier Crémel over at VMware caught my attention. It’s dealing with the boot options you can use during the initial startup of ESX 3i. When you press <SHIFT> o during the bootstrap you can put in additional commands. The only command Olivier Crémel revealed was the nousbBoot option but there must be more. Finally I opened the ESX 3i kernel in a hex editor and found the complete list. Some of these commands have great potential.
maxPCPUS serialPort overrideSerialPortAddr baudRate
fakeNUMAnodes cpuCellSize netNumPortsets netNumGPBuffers
netMaxPCPUPktCacheSize netPktNumSlabSizes netPktHeapMinSize
netPktHeapMaxSize storageHeapMinSize storageHeapMaxSize
passthruMem BOOTIF BOOTUUID clockMultiplierMayVaryPerNode
memmapMaxPhysicalMemMB acpiDbgLevel nouseNUMAInfo
nompsIntRouting noforceCRS noACPI noexecutePOST
nopageSharing nomemCheckEveryWord nohyperthreading
nologicalApicId nodumpDiag norealNMI nologOnScreen
nonetESX2LegacyMode nonetPktBufUseSlab nonetPanicBadDevOpen
nonetUseProc nonetUseMemcpyNt noioapic nopassthruEnabled
novga64 nosmallFontForTTY noauditMode noshell nopasswdReset
nousbBoot nouwSwap nobusSpeedMayVary noclockMultiplierMayVary
noassumeCommonBusClock noassumePerNodeBusClock
nobusSpeedMayVaryPerNode notimerEnableTSC notimerForceTSC
notimerEnableHPET notimerEnableACPI notimerEnableMPMC
nomemmapStressHighBitMPNs nopanicOnVmkernelAbort noconsole
noxapicAMDDetect noxapicForce nocheckCPUIDLimit novmkKeyboard
novmkTerminals nouseTSCForCPUHz nodebugBreak nologSynchronous
nofastHzEstimate buddyPhysicalMemoryDebugStruct
noclockMultiplierMayVaryPerNode
nobuddyPhysicalMemoryDebugStruct BootConfig_LogOptions
BootUser
Wednesday, September 19. 2007
ESX 3i Boot Options
ESX 3i running in a VM
Since my memory stick is broken I had to find out how I could carry on with exploring the new futures of ESX 3i. I was lucky; one of my fellow VMware trainers was willing enough to provide me with an image of his USB stick. What I did is use an existing virtual machine and added a one gigabyte hard disk. I downloaded Selfimage and placed the ESX 3i image on the new disk. I disconnected the disk and created a new virtual machine. I have chosen for “other Linux? with one gigabyte memory and two network adapters and connected the ready made “one gigabyte disk? as an existing disk. The last step was powering on the new VM. You see the result in the screen dump.
Tuesday, September 18. 2007
ESX 3i Create a Datastore
The ESX host is running so it’s time for the next step. The wizard shows the following message: “Your VMware ESX Server does not have any persistent storage. In order to run virtual machines, you must create at least one data store where virtual machines and other system files will be maintained?. Let’s do it. I created a PDF document (datastore.pdf) with some screen shots. Then the trouble started. The final screenshot shows an error message and I thought lets use a real server instead of a desktop. I placed the USB key in a HP Proliant DL380 G5 and it wouldn’t boot from USB. When I got back to my desktop I discovered that the USB key is totally empty and doesn’t boot anymore :-( . Maybe someone at VMware can put a ghost image online? I received a lot of requests to share my copy and pbraren found out how to duplicate the USB key.
VMware files 10-Q for Q2 2007
VMware announced that it has filed a 10-Q for the second quarter of 2007 with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). A summary of the company’s second quarter financial information was disclosed earlier this year in the company’s S-1 registration statement. The 10-Q, which includes detailed information for the quarter ending June 30, 2007, is available online.
VMworld.com — Now Open 365 Days a Year
I hope you have enjoyed VMworld 2007. This year's event featured more than 10,800 attendees and 147 sponsors and exhibitors this year, compared to 7,000 attendees and 82 sponsors and exhibitors last year. There were also more than 250 breakout sessions and 100 hands-on labs to participate in, making VMworld 2007 the most exciting and interactive conference devoted to virtualization. But it’s not over yet. VMworld.com now extends the success of the VMworld conference to an online virtualization destination open to anyone to learn and share what they know about virtualization. VMworld.com is an independent virtualization resource available 24x7. While not a replacement for the unique face-to-face networking opportunity of the conference, you can now get access to valuable information and conference sessions, talk with vendors, get tips and tricks from other virtualization users, and hear the latest virtualization buzz every day online. Access the latest resources and information you need to make informed decisions about implementing virtualization.
ESX 3i Manage Plugins
Plugins extend the capabilities of VirtualCenter by adding features and functionality not present in the base product. Generally, plugins have a server component and a client component. After the server component of a plugin is registered with a VirtualCenter server, the client component is available to all VirtualCenter clients connected to that VirtualCenter server. Users can download the client component of the plugin through the VirtualCenter client plugin manager. Users can select to enable or disable plugins installed in their VirtualCenter client. Disabling a plugin does not uninstall it from the client; it merely disables the functionality of the plugin. The VirtualCenter client interface might change after a plugin is enabled. New views, tabs, menus, and menu options related to the plugin's features are added to the interface. Existing interface items are not affected. The base product and plugins can be upgraded independent of each other. To reach the plugin manager, select Plugins > Manage Plugins.