Downloading VMWare with Firefox

Published on June 9, 2009

I've had this issue happen to me several times, and I'm finally writing myself a note to fix it in the future. There seems to be an issue with downloading VMWare Workstation (.bundle). I first tried it with Firefox, but it just crapped out at loading it into /tmp. Next, ... Read more.

Files between ESX and Linux via NFS

Published on March 2, 2009

I like ESX. I like Linux. It is absurdly easy to configure Linux as an NFS server and mount it in ESXIi). Installed NFS I currently use Ubuntu Server for my home lab, but the process is basically the same for Red Hat and derivatives. <pre class="brush: plain; light: true; ... Read more.

Beginning Scripting ESXi

Published on Jan. 6, 2009

I'm not impressed too often with much software, especially the closed source kind. I find a leaning preference to all things FOSS. If I had a million dollars, I'd likely spend all day contributing to all the projects I wish I had time to contribute to. Regardless, there are a ... Read more.

Migrating large disks into ESXi

Published on Dec. 7, 2008

I recently had the need to move a rather large (450GB) VMDK file from an external hard drive into ESXi. Since ESXi doesn't support external hard drives, this makes things quite a bit more difficult. At first I tried using SCP to copy the file over (after enabling SSH access ... Read more.

Speeding Up VMWare Server

Published on Dec. 7, 2008

I found VMWare Server to have very slow I/O, and sought to improve it. Below are a list of tests I performed, the change, and the results. ### Host OS ### /dev/sdb1: Timing buffered disk reads: 220 MB in 3.05 seconds = 72.17 MB/sec ... Read more.

Install ESX from a USB (no CDROM)

Published on Dec. 7, 2008

My little server doesn't have a cdrom, but I didn't want to actually run ESX from a USB (i.e. esx-on-a-stick). Here are my notes of configuring a flash disk to boot the ESX installer (so you can install it onto a local disk). For this demo, my USB is /dev/sdb ... Read more.

Using Raw Disks with VMware Server 2

Published on Aug. 11, 2008

For various reasons I had the need to open a raw disk inside VMware Server 2. The reports from the field say that this just isn't supported. Although I don't need to actually run a raw disk, I needed to get some data off it -- 400GB worth. It turns ... Read more.

VM Automatic Startup in Server 2

Published on Aug. 2, 2008

I think possibly one of the most practical upgrades in VMware Server 2 appears to be the ability to automatically turn on virtual machines in a stagnated order. I have fond memories of turning on a server with 10 virtual machines, and when they all turn on at once, the ... Read more.

Ubuntu 8.04 64-Bit and VMware Server 2

Published on Aug. 1, 2008

I now have successful installation of VMware Server 2 (Beta RC1) on top of Ubuntu 8.04 64-bit. I have been using various virtualization technologies for years, and VMware is usually the easiest to install and configure. So far, VMware Server 2 RC1, has proven to be the exception to the ... Read more.

VMware Tools in VMware Server 2

Published on Aug. 1, 2008

Installing the tools in VMware Server 2 is a little different than Workstation or the previous versions of VMware Server. Under the Summary tab of your Virtual Machine, look for a link that says "Install VMware Tools" -- click it. Wait for 'Success' to show up on the bottom, and ... Read more.