Eric Sloof

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

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.

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.

Viktor commented on the “Loading VMware Hypervisor�? article and asked me to show more new features. Well Viktor you wish is my command ;-) To configuring a NTP server on a “normal�? ESX server you had to logon to the Service Console and manually edit some files before you could start the NTP daemon. Well in the ESX 3i version you can all do it from within the VI Client. Cool huh. In the picture you see the dialog box where this new option can be configured. Besides this new feature you should take a look at some other extras in on the configuration tab.

I got back from San Francisco and was unpacking my suitcase. I noticed the USB key I received when I picked up my T-Shirt and thought lets give it a try. This USB key contains a beta version of VMware ESX 3i – the next generation, thin hypervisor integrated into server hardware, providing the foundation for a virtual infrastructure. With this thin architecture, ESX Server 3i brings unprecedented levels of security, reliability and manageability to the IT infrastructure. I placed the memory stick in a Compaq EVO D50 desktop PC. After one or two minutes the kernel was loading and suddenly my VMware ESX Server 3i server was running.  I downloaded the new VI client version 2.1.0 build 54592 and installed it on my workstation. The next steps are configuring the storage and create a virtual machine. Stay tuned.

Bouke Groenescheij delivered his “Clustering How-To“ presentation at the VMworld 2007 event. I have never seen 250 people so enthusiastic about clustering. Bouke is a VMware certified instructor and owner of Jume, a company that delivers consultancy and training services. His presentation was dealing with Microsoft clustering in a VMware HA environment and is rated as one of the best. The Complete Clustering How-To with VMware and Microsoft Cluster Server presentation will be available on the VMware site. I made a brief video compilation and placed it on my YouTube page. The professional photographer Viktor van den Berg shoot some really nice pictures today.

Prior to the keynote, VMware showed a great video clip. It’s a song called “If the server goes down�? it ‘s also the winner of the VMworld 2007 video contest.  John Chambers the CEO of Cisco systems delivered the first keynote and talked about the fundamental shift in the IT industry. He emphasized the importance of a good CEO that must have a clear vision and a good reaction on market transitions. John expects a second innovation that will be driven on new inventions. At the end of his speech there was a great applause.

Tuesday the 11th of September at 8 in the morning the VMworld was officially opened by the  VMware President and Chief Executive Officer. Diane Greene talked about some interesting topics like the environment issue, ESX Server 3i, Disaster Recovery and VDI . Hear from an incredible array of industry experts, and virtualization executives discussing the current state and future vision in the virtualization industry—all during the VMworld 2007 General Session Webcasts.



The professional photographer Viktor van den Berg shoot some really nice pictures today.

ESX Server 3i is the industry’s first hardware-integrated hypervisor built on a next-generation thin architecture, giving your organization an efficient foundation for building a dynamic, automated data center. ESX Server 3i represents a significant advance in realizing the vision of virtualization as the standard computing platform for x86 servers, further simplifying IT operations through integration with server hardware.

Continue reading "VMware ESX Server 3i" »

The IT research firm Ideas International released  a new evaluation that compares the technical capabilities of four x86 virtual machine platforms (VMware Infrastructure 3, Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1, Xen with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, and Xen with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1). The evaluation compares the quality of  40 different functional details in these systems, organized across five categories: performance & scalability; availability; storage Integration; manageability, and deployment considerations. The results of this evaluation are public, and they can be browsed online using a web-based collaborative mechanism. This interface allows visitors to weight the importance of functions covered in the evaluation to arrive at a customized comparison of these VM platforms reflecting their needs. It is also possible for users to contribute their own ratings of individual functions, should they choose to agree or disagree with our "expert" analysis.