Dell VMware ESX Server Deployment Guide

Transcription

1 Dell VMware ESX Server Deployment Guide February, 2004 February, Dell Inc.

2 NOTES, NOTICES, AND CAUTIONS NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of this product. NOTICE: A NOTICE indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. 2003, 2004 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. Trademarks used in this text: Dell, the DELL logo, and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Inc.; VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc.; EMC is a registered trademark of EMC Corporation; Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds; Netware is a registered trademark of Novell Inc. Intel, Xeon, and Pentium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation; Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own. Portions of this document Copyrighted VMware, Inc February, Dell Inc.

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Notes, Notices, and Cautions 2 Table of Contents 3 Table of Figures 5 Introduction 6 1. Understanding Dell Configurations Understanding ESX Components Understanding VirtualCenter Components Current Hardware and Software Qualification List Product Requirements Virtual Center Requirements Client Requirements Server Requirements Storage Area Network Requirements License Requirements VirtualCenter Virtual Machine Requirements VirtualCenter Template Requirements ESX Client Requirements Hardware Requirements Software Windows Remote Workstation Software Linux Remote Workstation ESX Server Requirements Minimum Requirements for ESX Server on PowerEdge Recommended for Enhanced Performance Maximum Physical Machine Specifications ESX Supported Guest OSes Virtual Machine Specification ESX Server Installation Installation of a Standalone ESX Server VMware ESX Install on the Dell PE Installation of updates for Management User Interface (MUI) Installation of a ESX Server on a SAN Configuring ESX Server Creating new Virtual Machines Installing Guest Operating Systems Creating an ISO Image Library Creating an ISO Image file Installing the guest operating system from an ISO image Installation Error Messages 47 February, Dell Inc.

4 4.3 Tools and Utilities Installation Installing VMware Tools VMware Remote Console Install Linux Guest Operating Systems Installing Guest Linux OSes Known issues in Linux Guest Operating Systems Commands Scripts on Halt or Reboot Microsoft Guest Operating Systems Installing Microsoft Guest OS Installing VMware Tools in the Guest OS Known Issues in Using Microsoft Guest OSes Windows Server Windows Windows NT Windows XP Installation of Dell OpenManage in a VMware ESX Server Environment Open Manage Software Overview Installing Dell OpenManage on the Service Console Starting Your Server Administrator Session Using the Server Administrator Command Line Interface Disk partitioning within VMware ESX Server Additional Resources Additional Web Information Technical Support Resources Newsgroups 77 February, Dell Inc.

5 TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1 - ESX Server Architecture...6 Figure 2 - Virtual Center Management User Interface (MUI)...6 Figure 3 - VMotion Technology Feature...7 Figure 4 - Non-VirtualCenter configuration,...8 Figure 5 - VirtualCenter Configuration with SAN for VMotion...9 Figure 6 - Supported Linux Guest Operating Systems...60 Figure 7 - Supported Microsoft Operating Systems...66 Figure 8 - Example of a Management Station and Managed Systems...72 Figure 9 - Dell OpenManage System Management Software Applications...74 Figure 10 - Suggested Disk Partitioning within VMware ESX Server...76 February, Dell Inc.

6 INTRODUCTION VMware ESX Server provides the rapid creation of multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical server, as shown in Figure 1. These VMs each run in a resource-isolated, secure environment and include a Microsoft Windows, Linux, or Novell NetWare operating system (OS) with their associated applications. ESX Server has a virtualization layer that allocates virtualized Dell resources to VMs and a Console OS a special VM accessed by remote management. Figure 1 - ESX Server Architecture VMware VirtualCenter is a management application that monitors and manages virtual machines distributed across ESX Servers, as well as the ESX Servers themselves. As shown in the left panel of Figure 2, VirtualCenter can show global task lists, all of the virtual machines under its control as a farm, each individual ESX Server, or each individual VM. Enterprise system management programs can also control VirtualCenter through standard interfaces. Figure 2 - Virtual Center Management User Interface (MUI) February, Dell Inc.

7 When VirtualCenter-managed ESX Server farms have a common Storage Area Network (SAN), they can take advantage of VMotion technology. This technology allows for the hot migration of a running VM. A live, state-full application, with its OS, can be moved from one PowerEdge server running ESX to another. This migration is transparent to the end users, who are not aware that it is taking place. VMotion technology provides dynamic scaling, performance, and zerodowntime maintenance. If a physical server needs servicing, it can be vacated; that is, all running VMs are moved to other ESX servers without affecting users. The vacant system can be shutdown, repaired, then placed back into service at which time VMs can be migrated back to it all without impacting availability to end users. Figure 3 - VMotion Technology Feature Dell configurations of ESX Server and VirtualCenter allow users to: Implement Server consolidation Deliver high availability and guaranteed service levels Streamline testing and deployment Scale hardware and software infrastructure Upgrade to current and standard hardware, independently of software upgrades February, Dell Inc.

8 1. UNDERSTANDING DELL CONFIGURATIONS For this release, Dell has qualified a base server configuration for use with ESX Server A single server can be used in a stand-alone mode, or one or more servers can be attached to a shared SAN. VMotion technology is available when two or more servers share a common SAN. VirtualCenter may be used to manage servers in any of these configurations, and is required to initiate VMotion events. Base ESX Server Hardware Configuration PowerEdge 6650 Four (4) Intel Xeon processors (2.8GHz recommended) 16 to 32 GB random access memory (RAM) One (1) PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller 4, dual channel (PERC4/DC) Two integrated network ports Any combination of supported add-in network interface cards (NICs) Additional Supported Devices for a Stand-Alone ESX Server Configuration Five (5) internal hard disks (15K RPM at RAID 5 recommended) Additional Supported Devices for a SAN-attached ESX Server One (1) QLogic fiber channel host bus adapter (FC HBA) Two (2) internal hard disks (15K RPM at RAID 1 recommended) Recommended VirtualCenter Server Configuration PowerEdge 1750 Four (2) GB RAM Integrated RAID controller enabled Three (3) internal hard disks (largest capacity available at RAID 5) Two integrated network ports Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Figure 4 - Non-VirtualCenter configuration, One or more PowerEdge 6650 with optional SAN February, Dell Inc.

9 Dell s qualified configuration with VMware VirtualCenter is: VMware ESX Server on each PowerEdge 6650 with a single VirtualCenter 1.0 client on a PowerEdge 1750 managing all ESX Servers in a farm. For additional performance or VMware VMotion features, Dell EMC CX200, CX400, or CX600 storage is required. Figure 5 - VirtualCenter Configuration with SAN for VMotion 1.1 Understanding ESX Components ESX Server Virtual Machine (VM) software on PowerEdge 6650 for partitioning and consolidating systems, providing a platform for VMs. VMware Remote Console - Management User Interface (MUI) browser, windows application, or Linux application that runs locally on a PowerEdge Virtual Machine an encapsulation for an Operating System and its application with dynamic features beyond physical machines. 1.2 Understanding VirtualCenter Components VirtualCenter Server a management server for network-connected VMware ESX servers, often run on the same PowerEdge 1750 as the client. VirtualCenter Client the client interface for end users and administrators to access the virtual center server. This is often run on the same physical machine as the VirtualCenter Server. VirtualCenter Database backend database used by the VirtualCenter Server. This database can either be located on the same machine as the VirtualCenter Server or a separate Microsoft SQL or Oracle database. Template Repository a persistent storage location that maintains VM templates. These are run-able images of OSes, optionally including Applications. The images can be rapidly cloned February, Dell Inc.

10 for use by ESX Servers. Note that cloning is deployment of a new VM and not migration of an existing VM. VirtualCenter Agent an agent that is installed on each Dell PowerEdge 6650 with ESX Server that is part of a VirtualCenter farm. This agent allows the ESX Server to be managed by VirtualCenter and allows for the VMotion capability. This is installed automatically when a host is added to VirtualCenter. 1.3 Current Hardware and Software Qualification List For current Dell Hardware and Software that has qualified VMware ESX Server and VirtualCenter, see For Dell EMC storage that has qualified VMware ESX Server and VirtualCenter, see EMC Support Matrix (ESM) and RPQ at For additional, non-qualified Dell configurations, see VMware s system, IO, and SAN Compatibility Guides located at February, Dell Inc.

11 2. PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS 2.1 Virtual Center Requirements Client Requirements Administrator privileges when installing the software. Windows 2003 Server (Web, Standard, or Enterprise), Windows 2000 (Professional, Server or Advanced Server), or Windows XP Professional. VirtualCenter Client can be installed on multiple Windows systems with network access to the VirtualCenter server..net Framework version 1.1. This is automatically installed if not present Server Requirements Server Hardware Dell PowerEdge Server (PowerEdge 1750 recommended) Minimum 512Mb RAM, recommend 2GB Minimum PIII 1.3 GHz Sufficient disk space to support the VirtualCenter database and template repository. Templates typically require gigabytes of space depending on the configuration and number. Dell recommends three internal 73GB HD at RAID 5, or use of an attached SAN, for storing templates. The template repository is not an installed component. It is a directory specified by the VirtualCenter client that contains the virtual disks of copied templates. Server Software Administrator privileges on the installing system, which adds VirtualCenter as a Windows service. Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Windows XP Professional, or Windows Server 2003 (Web, Standard, and Enterprise). Database Requirements Microsoft Access (the default). You do not need to have Microsoft Access software installed locally to use this option. VirtualCenter stores the database in Access format. For production environments one of the following databases are recommended. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Microsoft SQL Server 7 Oracle Server 8 Oracle Server 9 VMotion Requirements Activate the VMotion module. February, Dell Inc.

12 ESX Servers that you want to migrate between must share a Storage Area Network (SAN) infrastructure. Shared VM File System (VMFS) must be public. Source and destination physical CPUs must be of the same processor type and vendor. Configure a TCP/IP address on an extra network adapter card (NIC) sufficient to support migration. Minimum number of NICs for an ESX Server is two (2): one dedicated to the ESX Server and another to share between the VMs and VMotion. Recommended number of NICs is one for ESX Server, one dedicated to VMotion, and one or more for the virtual machines. The VM configuration file should not reside on the VMFS located on the shared data store. A gigabit Ethernet network between ESX Servers, such as a Dell PowerConnect Storage Area Network Requirements A SAN is required for VMotion, and is also recommended for performance and scaling. Either the Dell EMC CX200, CX400, or CX600 Storage Enclosures and Disks (SAN) Either the Dell QLA or LP Host Bus Adapters Any of the Dell DS Fibre Switches License Requirements VirtualCenter requires licenses for three elements: VirtualCenter Server license one per VirtualCenter Server, requested on start (after installation). Managed CPU Licenses two CPU-pair-licenses for each managed PowerEdge 6650 with ESX Server. There are not partial licenses such as one CPU pair on a 4-CPU server. VirtualCenter handles licenses including adding and removing PowerEdge VMotion CPU Licenses four CPU licenses for each PowerEdge 6650 to be VMotionenabled. VirtualCenter handles licenses including adding and removing PowerEdge VirtualCenter Virtual Machine Requirements Host Requirements VMware ESX Servers, version Guest Operating Systems Virtual Center works with VMs running the following guest operating systems: Windows Server 2003 (Enterprise, Standard and Web Editions) Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server (Service Pack 3 or 4) Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 1) Red Hat Enterprise Linux (AS) 2.1 and 3.0 SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 8 ESX enables additional operating systems, but these can not be managed by VirtualCenter, including its VMotion hot migration, and have not been qualified by Dell. February, Dell Inc.

13 Guest operating systems must use SCSI hard disks, except CD-ROM drives can be configured as IDE. The ESX Server must be registered with VirtualCenter to allow importing VMs from that ESX Server VirtualCenter Template Requirements VM Format Existing source VMs must be formatted in: ESX Server version 2 or greater GSX Server version 2.5 Workstation version 4 Older versions should upgrade to have VM templates that VirtualCenter can use. 2.2 ESX Client Requirements Hardware Requirements Any Dell desktop, laptop, workstation or server with the at least the following specifications: Minimum 256Mb RAM Minimum PIII 1.3 GHz Software Windows Remote Workstation Client Software: Administrator privileges on the installing system, which adds VirtualCenter as a Windows service. Windows 2003 Server (Web, Standard, or Enterprise), Windows 2000 (Server or Advanced Server), or Windows XP Professional. Other clients, including NT4 (SP6a) and Windows 98, cannot run VirtualCenter Server and are not qualified with Dell Servers and Storage for VMware. For ESX Remote Console, 10MB free disk space is required for basic installation The VMware Management User Interface (MUI) is designed for these browsers: o Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6.0 (6.0 highly recommended for better performance) o Netscape Navigator 7.0 o Mozilla 1.x Internet Explorer may not properly display the MUI for some hardware configurations. If the MUI does not correctly identify your PowerEdge 6650 s configuration, use an alternate browser from the list above, or see Section in this Guide for a workaround patch Software Linux Remote Workstation Compatible with standard Linux distributions with glibc version 2 or higher and one of the following: For single-processor systems: kernel or higher, kernel in the 2.2.x series or kernel in the 2.4.x series February, Dell Inc.

14 For multiprocessor systems: kernel in the 2.2.x series or kernel in the 2.4.x series The VMware Management Interface is designed for these browsers: o Netscape Navigator 7.0 o Mozilla 1.x 2.3 ESX Server Requirements VMware ESX has been qualified for Dell PowerEdge 6650 and optionally, Dell EMC CX200, CX400, and CX600 storage arrays. VirtualCenter and ESX Remote Console should be run on a separate Dell PowerEdge Minimum Requirements for ESX Server on PowerEdge 6650 Two processors: Intel 2.0GHz Xeon and above, for maximum performance four 2.8GHz Xeon processors are recommended 1GB RAM minimum. For maximum Virtual Machines per server 32GB RAM is recommended Two or more Ethernet controllers. Supported controllers include: o Broadcom NetXtreme 570x Gigabit controllers o Intel PRO/1000 adapters ESX Server has a requirement of a minimum of two Ethernet controllers. The service console and the virtual machines cannot share a single Ethernet controller. A SCSI adapter, Fibre Channel adapter or internal RAID controller. Although VMware supports several types of SCSI, RAID, and HBA devices, Dell has tested and recommends the following for ESX 2.0.1: Dell PercRAID 4 qlogic host bus fibre channel adapters A SCSI disk, Fibre Channel LUN or RAID LUN with unpartitioned space. In a minimum configuration, this disk or RAID is shared between the service console and the virtual machines. To ensure the best possible performance, always dedicate Fibre Channel cards to the virtual machines. Dell does not recommend sharing Fibre Channel cards between the service console and the virtual machines Recommended for Enhanced Performance A second disk controller with one or more drives, dedicated to the virtual machines Sufficient RAM for each virtual machine and the service console Dedicated Ethernet cards for network-sensitive virtual machines 15K RPM Hard Drives The lists above outline a basic configuration. In practice, you may use multiple physical disks, which may be SCSI disks, Fibre Channel LUNs or RAID LUNs. For best performance, all of the data used by the virtual machines should be on the physical disks allocated to virtual machines. February, Dell Inc.

15 Therefore, these physical disks should be large enough to hold disk images that will be used by all the virtual machines. Similarly, you should provide enough RAM for all of the virtual machines plus the service console. For background on the service console or for details on how to calculate the amount of RAM you need, see Dell Capacity and Sizing Guide for VMware. NOTICE: ESX Server provides its own drivers for supported devices. Be sure that the devices you plan to use in your server are supported. For additional detail on I/O device compatibility, download the VMware ESX Server I/O Adapter Compatibility Guide from the VMware Web site at ESX Server virtual machines can share a SCSI disk with the service console, but for enhanced disk performance, you can configure the virtual machines to use a SCSI adapter and disk separate from those used by the service console. Ensure there is enough free disk space available to install the guest operating system and applications for each virtual machine on the disk that they will use Maximum Physical Machine Specifications Storage 16 host bus adapters per ESX Server system 128 logical unit numbers (LUNs) per storage array 128 LUNs per ESX Server system VMware File System (VMFS) 128 VMFS volumes per ESX Server system Maximum physical extents per VMFS volume: o VMFS-2 volumes: 32 physical extents 2TB per physical extent Maximum size per VMFS volume: o VMFS-2 volumes: approximately 64TB, with a maximum of 2TB per each physical extent CPU 4 physical processors per PE6650 system, with 8 virtual CPUs per processor Memory 32GB of RAM per ESX Server Up to 8 swap files, with a maximum file size of 64GB per swap Network Adapters 64 adapters of all types, including storage and network adapters, per ESX server 16 Ethernet ports per ESX server February, Dell Inc.

16 Up to 8 Gigabit Ethernet ports or up to 16 10/100 Ethernet ports per ESX server Up to 32 virtual machines per virtual network device (vmnic or vmnet adapter) ESX Supported Guest OSes ESX Server 2.0 and VirtualCenter are supported on the following Guest Operating Systems. VMware Virtual SMP add-on for ESX Server is supported on the following guest operating systems marked SMP-capable for dual-virtual CPU configurations. Guest Operating System Windows Server 2003 (Enterprise, Standard and Web Editions) Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server (Service Pack 3 or 4) Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 1) Windows NT 4.0 (Service Pack 6a) Red Hat Enterprise Linux (AS) 2.1 and 3.0 Red Hat Linux 7.2 and 9.0 Red Hat Linux 7.3 and 8.0 SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 8 SuSE Linux 8.2 Novell NetWare 6.5 and 5.1 (Patch 6) SMP-Capable Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Virtual Machine Specification Each ESX Server machine on PowerEdge 6650 can host up to 32 virtual CPUs in virtual machines (and up to 200 registered virtual machines) on a single ESX Server or up to 8 virtual machines for each CPU, with the following capabilities and specifications. 1. Virtual Storage 4 SCSI adapters per virtual machine 15 targets per host bus adapter 60 targets per virtual machine; 256 targets concurrently in all virtual machines 2. Virtual Processor Intel Pentium II or later, (dependent on system processor) One or two processors per virtual machine. If you plan to create a dual-virtual CPU virtual machine, then your ESX Server machine must have at least two physical processors and you must have purchased the VMware Virtual SMP for ESX Server product. 3. Virtual Chip Set February, Dell Inc.

17 Intel 440BX-based motherboard with NS338 SIO chip 4. Virtual BIOS PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6 5. Virtual Memory Up to 3.6GB per virtual machine 6. Virtual SCSI Devices Up to four virtual SCSI adapters per virtual machine with up to 15 devices per adapter 9TB per virtual disk 7. Virtual Ethernet Cards Up to four virtual Ethernet adapters per virtual machine Each virtual machine has a total of 5 virtual PCI slots, therefore the total number of virtual adapters, SCSI plus Ethernet, cannot be greater than Virtual Floppy Drives Up to two 1.44MB floppy drives per virtual machine 9. Virtual CD-ROM Up to two drives per virtual machine 10. Legacy Devices Virtual machines may also make use of the following legacy devices. However, for performance reasons, use of these devices is not recommended. 11. Virtual Serial (COM) Ports Up to two serial ports per virtual machine 12. Virtual Parallel (LPT) Ports One LPT Port per virtual machine Verify the hardware prior to installing software using the Dell Hardware Diagnostics February, Dell Inc.

18 3. ESX SERVER INSTALLATION 3.1 Installation of a Standalone ESX Server VMware ESX Install on the Dell PE6650 Pre-requirements: Any RAID configurations are already built and initialized. If a SAN will be used, disconnect the HBA from the switch until the install is completed. For high availability purpose, RAID-1 or RAID-5 is recommended for the local disk system containing the ESX operating system. 1. Power on PE Insert ESX install CD 3. On the first install screen you will be asked if you have any driver disk required for installation. No additional drivers are needed for install on a PE6650. Select Continue at this screen. 4. Next you will be asked if you are performing an install or upgrade. In this case we are doing a fresh install. Select Install at this point. February, Dell Inc.

19 5. Allow the installer to auto-select your drive partitioning by selecting Automatic at the Disk Partition Setup screen. 6. Although your hard driver or RAID LUN should already be blank, select Remove all partitions on this system at the Automatic Partitioning screen. NOTICE: Please be aware you may see a screen at this point with the message The partition table on device sda was unreadable. To create partitions, the partition table must be February, Dell Inc.

20 initialized, causing loss of all data. Answering Y is necessary to complete installation, but will cause all existing information on the disk to be overwritten. 7. Confirm the drive partitioning by selecting Yes at the Warning screen. February, Dell Inc.

21 8. After this the installer will auto-select several partitions. If enough space is available it will leave a section of the disk unpartitioned. Leave this for later during ESX configuration. For the disk partitioning, it is highly recommended to follow the guidelines given in section 6 9. At the Boot Loader Configuration screen select Master Boot Record (MBR) as the boot loader. February, Dell Inc.

22 10. At the Network Configuration screen select either DHCP or a static IP configuration. Below is a static IP configuration. Consult your local System Administrator for site specific IP configuration information. 11. Select a fully qualified domain name at the Hostname Configuration screen (i.e. vmware- 3.test.com). February, Dell Inc.

23 12. Select the time zone for the server. 13. Select a password for the root. February, Dell Inc.

24 14. Create a user account for general system administration on the system at the Add User screen. 15. More users can be added in the next step. After adding all the users proceed by selecting OK 16. At this point the installer will partition your hard drive, format it, and begin installation with the selections you have made. February, Dell Inc.

25 17. After, you will be presented with the following installation complete message. Reboot the server by selecting Reboot Installation of updates for Management User Interface (MUI) Some browsers have Java script error which triggers problems when configuring the ESX Server through the Management user Interface (described in section 3.3). In order to avoid this, it is highly recommended to install the update using the following steps: 1. Log in as root into ESX server Service Console by pressing <ALT><F2> 2. Download the update file from the VMware website into a temporary directory, for example /tmp More Information can be found at: 3. Change directory: cd /tmp 4. Extract the tar file: tar xvzf esx6433update.tar.gz 5. Change to the newly created directory: cd esx6433update 6. Run the update patch using:./esx6433update.pl February, Dell Inc.

26 If you do not have a SAN environment, skip section Installation of a ESX Server on a SAN and configure the ESX Server with steps given in section Configuring ESX Server. 3.2 Installation of a ESX Server on a SAN 1. After the system reboots you should see a screen like the following: 2. Connect your HBA to the fibre channel switch at this point. 3. At the ESX server console press <ALT><F2> to switch to another virtual console. February, Dell Inc.

27 4. Login as the root user. 5. Check the hosts file (/etc/hosts) to make sure both the system s fully qualified domain name and alias are associated with the system s IP. 6. Also check the DNS resolution file (/etc/resolv.conf) to make sure your domain and name servers are entered correctly. February, Dell Inc.

28 7. Check to make sure you have network connectivity to both storage processors in the storage array via ping (i.e. ping cx600a and ping cx600b ). 8. Install the Navisphere agent on the ESX server ( rpm Uvh naviagent+cli i386.rpm ) and start the service ( service naviagent start ). This is located on the Navisphere installation CD. 9. At this point your system is now registered with the storage array and LUNs should be able to be shared with it. 10. In the next section, steps are provided to configure the ESX server. 3.3 Configuring ESX Server This chapter describes how to configure a newly installed ESX Server. After installing the ESX Server open a web browser from a management station and configure the ESX server with the following steps: 1. Open the Management User Interface (MUI) of the ESX server by typing the ESX Server hostname (refer step 11 on Chapter 3) in the URL address field of the browser. After the page opens enter the root user name and the corresponding password (refer step 13 on Chapter 3). February, Dell Inc.

29 2. You will configure the ESX Server in the next few steps. Select Next to continue. 3. Read the End User License Agreement and check the box if you accept the license agreement. Enter the serial number for ESX Server and virtual SMP. Select Next to proceed. February, Dell Inc.

30 4. This step involves configuring the memory of the service console and dedicating devices either to the Service Console or to the Virtual Machine. Select the amount of memory to be dedicated to the service console based on the number of virtual machines to be installed. Dedicate each device to either the service console or the virtual machine by selecting the appropriate option from the pull down menu. To share a device between both service console and virtual machines, select Virtual Machine from the drop down list and check the Shared with Service Console box. Note that the first Ethernet controller is taken by the service console and the configuration cannot be changed For performance reasons, it is recommended to dedicate devices, such as HBAs and NICs to the virtual machines. SCSI and RAID controller must be shared between the virtual machine and service console. February, Dell Inc.

31 5. Select Next to continue. The system reboots now to reflect the configurations. 6. After the server reboots logon to the ESX server MUI. The MUI should take you to the storage configuration. The VMFS partition must be created, along with a swap space and space for core dump. Select Create Volume on the free space to continue. February, Dell Inc.

32 7. Select Typical as the configuration type February, Dell Inc.

33 8. The MUI will recommend that you create a core dump partition. Select Yes. 9. Enter a unique label for your VMFS volume. February, Dell Inc.

34 10. The disk partition is listed. Select Next to continue. In some instances the volume label will not be correctly displayed. Please click edit on the VMFS volume change if it is incorrect. 11. The next step is to create a swap configuration. The default configuration is selected by the MUI. Select Next to continue. February, Dell Inc.

35 12. Swap configuration is listed. Click Activate and then Next to continue. 13. Network Configuration is listed. Change the duplex configuration if need. It is highly recommended that a unique name be given to the Network Adapters. Select Next to continue. February, Dell Inc.

36 14. Choose the security settings based on your security policies. Select Next to continue. NOTICE: Configuring ESX Service Console for the highest security level will disable FTP, Telnet, and NFS file sharing services. 15. The ESX server is now configured and the Status monitor is displayed. February, Dell Inc.

37 3.4 Creating new Virtual Machines This section describes the steps involved to install a new virtual machine. 1. From the VMware ESX Server main page, select Add Virtual Machine. 2. Give the new machine a descriptive name and change the default directory (win2000serv) to a unique name in our case we chose /root/vmware/webserver/win2000serv.vmx. February, Dell Inc.

38 3. The next screens allow you to choose the number of Virtual CPUs (if an ESX Virtual SMP license has been installed) and how much memory the new virtual machine will have. We chose a uniprocessor machine with 192MB of memory. The amount of memory may be changed later, but the number of CPUs should not usually be changed once the operating system is installed. Some operating system licenses are bound to a particular hardware configuration when the OS is activated. Therefore, it is best to finalize the VM s virtual hardware configuration before activating such an OS. If you activate the OS, and later change memory, number of CPUs, and other parameters, re-activation of the OS may be required. Processors Memory February, Dell Inc.

39 4. You are now asked to create a virtual disk for your new system. It s most common to create a new disk in persistent mode. Here we created a 2GB disk called WebServer.dsk, and left it in the default persistent mode. February, Dell Inc.

40 5. At this point the Virtual Machine is created and configured. The next steps are to attach a remote console to it. Remote Console Connection For each VM listed in the Remote Management s status monitor, the icon at the left edge reveals its OS type and clicking on this icon attaches Remote Console to this VM. Remote Console replicates the functionality of a KVM console except that it can not use local devices and it is virtual, ex: two users could share the Remote Console connection at the same time. By default, the Remote Console connection uses SSL over TCP port 902. Hostnames and IP addresses are acceptable, WINS names are not. At this point, you should have already installed the VMWare Remote Console. If not, please refer to Section 10, "VMware Remote Console Install", for detailed instructions. After installing the VMware Remote Console, Start it: Start --> Programs --> VMware --> VMware Remote Console. Attach Remote Console to VM 1. Choose Attach Remote Console as shown. One may also select the display icon just to the left of the pull-down arrow. February, Dell Inc.

41 2. Enter username and password for the ESX Server. February, Dell Inc.

42 3. Remote console will show the system description when the VM is off or the current screen state when the VM is running. 4. At this point it s possible to turn the VM on, but because there is no software installed the virtual BIOS will display an Operating System not found message. Installing software is the next step. February, Dell Inc.

43 4. INSTALLING GUEST OPERATING SYSTEMS 4.1 Creating an ISO Image Library The easiest and fastest way to install a guest OS such as Windows 2000 Server is from an International Standards Organization (ISO) image (bit-for-bit copy) of the installation CD-ROM. ISO images are standard format files containing all of the data on a particular CD- ROM. They can be created from the original CD-ROM by using simple copy commands, as outlined below. ESX Server can use an ISO image exactly as if it were the original CD-ROM. Installing an OS in a new VM is greatly simplified if you have a library of gold master ISO files on the Service Console file system usually located in /vmimages. In this way, you only have to insert the physical CD once, to copy its contents to the /vmimages directory. Later, when you wish to install the OS into a new VM, ESX Server is able to mount the ISO file as if it were a CD-ROM and install from it Creating an ISO Image file Use the dd command to create an ISO image file from an operating system installation CD-ROM as follows: 1. Insert the operating system CD into the CD drive of the ESX server. 2. DO NOT MOUNT THE CD-ROM. 3. Create an image directory such as: /vmimages. 4. Type the following command: dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/vmimages/os.iso Installing the guest operating system from an ISO image 1. Connect to the ESX server using VMware remote console 2. Open the virtual machine's configuration February, Dell Inc.

44 3. Select by double-clicking the virtual CD-ROM device and configure it to use the ISO image instead of the physical CD-ROM drive and point to the ISO image for the operating system (such as /vmimages/w2ksp3.iso) February, Dell Inc.

45 4. Make sure the virtual CD-ROM is set to "Connect at Power On." This lets the virtual machine boot from the ISO image when you power it on. 5. Power on the virtual machine February, Dell Inc.

46 6. The operating system s installation screen will be displayed. Follow the normal installation procedure for that particular OS. February, Dell Inc.

47 7. After Operating system installation, shut down the virtual machine and reset the CD-ROM configuration so that it uses the host machine's physical CD-ROM drive. Ensure that the VM is setup and that the VMs devices are setup as expected. For example, if the guest OS requires networking, ensure the VM s Ethernet adapter is configured and enabled. Use the VMware ESX Server s Management Interface to modify a VM's configuration. Disable any screen saver that may be running on the host system before you start to install the guest operating system. A new VM is like a physical computer with a blank hard disk. Before you can use it, you need to partition and format the virtual disk and install an operating system. The operating system's installation program may handle the partitioning and formatting steps for you. Installing a guest operating system inside a VM is essentially the same as installing it on a physical computer. So, as with physical computers, a separate operating system license is required for each VM you run. See sections 4.4 and 4.5 about installing Linux and Window guest operating Systems. 4.2 Installation Error Messages 1. When installing a guest OS on a new virtual disk, you may receive a warning that the disk is corrupted and asking if you want to place a partition table on the disk. Answer Yes, since this only means that some data needs to be written to the file that holds the virtual hard disk and you need to partition and format the virtual disk like a new blank hard drive. 2. When installing a guest OS on a raw or a previously formatted disk, you may receive a No operating system error when you power on the VM. This is due to the VM s boot order not booting from the CD-ROM first. Either: a. When the VM boots, enter the BIOS and correct the boot order on the Boot menu. b. Zero out the first 64KB of the raw disk using dd or a similar utility. ESX 2 provides two APIs for scripting: VmPerl API for Windows Perl (use the Perl shipped with the package) and VmCOM for COM application access from Visual Basic and VBScript. Both API packages can be downloaded from February, Dell Inc.

48 4.3 Tools and Utilities Installation Installing VMware Tools NOTICE: For Windows 2003 and Windows XP guest OSes be sure to install the VMware Tools before activation. Installing the tools after activation may require that you reactivate Windows. After the Guest OS is installed you should immediately add the VMware Tools, which are available for NT4, Windows 2000, Windows XP/Windows Server 2003 and Linux. The VMware Tools: Add a memory driver that cooperates with the VMware system to enhance memory resource allocation Update the generic SVGA driver with a custom driver for VMware VGA virtual hardware, allowing screen resizing and much faster video operation For Windows2000 only: updates the Microsoft Buslogic driver with a version tuned for VMware s virtual device Installs two services: VMwareTray.exe, and VMwareService.exe Allows the mouse pointer to move freely in and out of the Remote Console window Provides the ability to run DOS batch files during power state changes (Power On, Power Off, Suspend, Resume) for Windows VMs VMware tools provide a guest OS service, VMwareService.exe, for: Executing OS commands including shutdown or reboot. Sending a heartbeat to ESX Server to enable status notification, failover, backup, and other services. Executing VM commands including ESX asking the guest OS to gracefully power down and reset. Synchronizing guest clock with the ESX Server clock, settable to once a second or when responding to various system events. Passing the machine.id string between the guest OS and Service Console. This is contained in the guest OS configuration file and is scriptable on Windows by downloading the COM or Perl API from VMware. Common uses include passing the Windows system ID or group ID. Installing VMware Tools in Windows 2000 In this section, the steps required to install VMware tools on a Windows 2000 guest operating system are enumerated. The steps to install the tools are: February, Dell Inc.

49 1. Use the remote console to power-on the virtual machine. Logon to the guest operating system and then select Settings-> VMware Tools Install in the remote console 2. Select Install February, Dell Inc.

50 3. Select Next 3. If the default location is OK, select Next February, Dell Inc.

51 4. Select Yes to continue to install VGA driver February, Dell Inc.

52 5. Select Yes to install the mouse driver 6. Select Yes to install protected resource allocation driver February, Dell Inc.

53 7. Select Yes to install optimized Buslogic SCSI driver 8. Reboot the Virtual Machine when the installation completes February, Dell Inc.

54 9. After rebooting the VMware Tools icon will appear in the icon bar showing that the service is running. Note that the screen background switches from green to blue. VMware Tools Icon After you install VMware Tools, you now have the ability to change your Windows 2000 screen area to be greater than 640x480 pixels. Installing VMware Tools in Linux In this section, the steps required to install VMware tools on a Windows 2000 guest operating system are enumerated. The steps to install the tools are: February, Dell Inc.

55 1. Use the Remote Console to mount the virtual VMware Tools CD. To do this select Settings-> VMware Tools Install in the remote console. Select Install. 2. The virtual machine will mount a virtual CD containing the VMware Tools. Copy the file vmware-linux-tools.tar.gz to a temporary folder (say /tmp) February, Dell Inc.

56 3. The tools must be installed from the text mode. Press <ctl><alt><f2> to go to text mode. 4. Log in as the root. 5. Change to the directory containing the tools file cd /tmp 6. Extract the file using the following command tar xvzf vmware-linux-tools.tar.gz 7. Change to the newly created directory cd vmware-tools-distrib 8. Install the tools by running the script./vmware-install.pl 9. The installation should ask for options. Select the default options for the installation. 10. Press <ctl><alt><f7> to go back to the graphics mode VMware Remote Console Install The VMware Remote Console requires a VMWare ESX server be installed and licensed available on the network. Use the following steps to install the console on a workstation or other client. February, Dell Inc.

57 1. Connect to an ESX server via the web and download the Remote Console package. February, Dell Inc.

58 2. Double click on the downloaded file to begin installation (or select Open when downloading instead of Save As ) 3. At the first screen click on Next 4. Read the license and accept it. After accepting the agreement you can click Next to continue with the install. February, Dell Inc.

59 5. Select a destination folder to install the remote console to and then click Next 6. Click Next again to finish the install. February, Dell Inc.

60 7. After the installer finishes copying the files, click Finish to exit the installer. Your Remote Console is now available to run. 4.4 Linux Guest Operating Systems The following guest operating systems are supported on ESX on PowerEdge Some of these also support SMP for dual-virtual CPU configurations. To utilize this, purchase the VMware Virtual SMP product. Supported Linux Operating System SMP- Compatible Red Hat Enterprise Linux (AS) 2.1 and 3.0 Yes Red Hat Linux 7.2 and 9.0 Yes Red Hat Linux 7.3 and 8.0 No SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 8 Yes SuSE Linux 8.2 Yes Figure 6 - Supported Linux Guest Operating Systems See for additional Linux OSes with limited support. Remote Console Connection For each VM listed in the Remote Management s status monitor, the icon at the left edge reveals its OS type and clicking on this icon attaches Remote Console to this VM. Remote February, Dell Inc.

61 Console replicates the functionality of a KVM console except that it can not use local devices and it is virtual, ex: two users could share the Remote Console connection at the same time. By default, the Remote Console connection uses SSL over TCP port 902. Hostnames and IP addresses are acceptable, WINS names are not Installing Guest Linux OSes The easiest method of installing Linux in a virtual machine is to use the standard Linux distribution CD. The notes below describe an installation using the standard distribution CD; however, installing Linux via the boot floppy/network method is supported as well. Before installing the operating system, be sure that you have already created and configured a new virtual machine using the ESX Server Virtual Machine Wizard. Dell and VMware recommend text mode installation over graphic mode. The following details installation steps and known issues with installing Red Hat 9.0, 8.0, 7.x and Enterprise Linux 2.1 and 3.0. You should not run the X server that is installed when you set up Red Hat Linux. Instead, to get an accelerated SVGA X server running inside the virtual machine, you should install the VMware Tools package immediately after installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Installation Steps 1. Insert the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive, or use an ISO image ). 2. Power on the virtual machine to start installing your specific Red Hat Linux version. You need to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 using the text mode installer, which you may choose when you first boot the installer. At the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 CD boot prompt, you are offered a number of choices. To choose the text mode installer, type the word text and press Enter. If you attempt to use the graphical installer, it fails and launches the text mode installer. 3. Follow the installation steps as you would for a physical machine. Be sure to make the choices outlined in the following steps. 4. Choose the language and keyboard, and then in the Installation Type screen, choose either Advanced Server or Custom for the installation type. 5. For Red Hat Linux 7.x and 8.0 only: In the Mouse Selection screen, choose Generic - 3 Button Mouse (PS/2) and select the Emulate 3 Buttons option for three-button mouse support in the virtual machine. If you have a wheel mouse, you may choose Generic Wheel Mouse (PS/2). Choose the language and keyboard, and then in the Installation Type screen, choose either Server or Workstation for the installation type. February, Dell Inc.

62 6. For Advanced Server 2.1 only: VMware ESX Server if installing to an ESX Server machine with virtual SMP: In the Individual Package Selection screen, use the arrow keys to move down to System Environment/Kernel and press Enter. Be sure that the following kernels are deselected (no asterisk should appear between the brackets): 1. kernel-enterprise 2. kernel-smp 3. kernel-summit VMware ESX Server if installing to an ESX Server machine without virtual SMP: In the Individual Package Selection screen, use the arrow keys to move down to System Environment/Kernel and press Enter. If you are installing a multiprocessor virtual machine, be sure kernel-smp is selected. If you are installing a uniprocessor virtual machine, be sure kernel-smp is deselected. For additional information on using uniprocessor and multiprocessor kernels with a Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 virtual machine under VMware ESX Server, see the release notes. 7. Allow automatic partitioning of the disk to occur in the Automatic Partitioning screen or partition the virtual disk manually if you do not want to use the Red Hat defaults. 8. For Red Hat 9.0 or 8.0 or 7.x only: You may see a warning that says: Bad partition table. The partition table on device sda was unreadable. To create new partitions, it must be initialized, causing the loss of ALL DATA on the drive. Would you like to initialize this drive? This does not mean that anything is wrong with the hard drive on your physical computer. It simply means that the virtual hard drive in your virtual machine needs to be partitioned and formatted. Select the Yes button and press Enter. Also note that sda appears in the message as the device name if the virtual disk in question is a SCSI disk; if the virtual disk is an IDE drive, hda appears in the message as the device name instead. 9. If your computer is connected to a LAN that provides DHCP support, then in the Network Configuration screen, you may select the option Use bootp/dhcp. If you prefer, you may also set the networking parameters manually. 10. VMware ESX Server: If you are using the vlance network adapter in your virtual machine and your computer is connected to a LAN that provides DHCP support, then in the Network Configuration screen, you may select the option Use bootp/dhcp. If you prefer, you may also set the networking parameters manually. If you are using the vmxnet network adapter in your virtual machine, use the network configuration tools in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 to configure your network connection after you finish installing the guest operating system. 11. For Red Hat 7.3 only: In the Video Card Selection screen, choose any card from the list. 12. In the Video Card Configuration screen, choose Skip X Configuration Known issues in Linux Guest Operating Systems Red Hat Enterprise Linux February, Dell Inc.

63 No known issues with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 or 2.1 Red Hat Linux 9.0 Getting a DHCP Address in a Red Hat Linux 9.0 Virtual Machine When a Red Hat Linux 9.0 guest operating system tries to get a DHCP address, the attempt may fail with an error message that states the link is down. On ESX Server, this happens only if you are using the vlance driver for your network connection. To work around this problem, become the root user of the system (su -) and use a text editor to edit the following files in the guest operating system. If only one of these files exist, make the change for that file only. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth[n] /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifcfg-eth[n] In both cases, [n] is the number of the Ethernet adapter - for example, eth0. Add the following section to each of these two files: check_link_down () { return 1; } Then run the command ifup eth[n] (where [n] is the number of the Ethernet adapter) or restart the guest operating system. Red Hat Linux 8.0 Message about "Tainted" Driver When a Red Hat Linux 8.0 guest operating system loads the vmxnet networking driver, it reports that the driver is tainted. This does not mean that there is anything wrong with the driver. It simply indicates that this is a proprietary driver, not licensed under the GNU General Public License. Red Hat Linux 7.3 When you start installing VMware Tools (by typing./vmware-install.pl in the vmwaretools-distrib directory), the following message appears: Found an installed version of the VMware SVGA driver for XFree86 4. Some versions of this driver included with the XFree86 4 distributions do not work properly. Would you like to install a stable (but possibly older) version of the driver over the currently installed one? February, Dell Inc.

64 If you plan to dual boot the virtual machine, answer Yes to allow the driver to be installed. Answer Yes again to back up the existing video driver files and also copy the XF86Config-4.dist file to XF86Config-4.vm. The latter file is used when dual booting the virtual machine. If you do not intend to dual boot the virtual machine, answer No to keep the existing driver. Installation sometimes hangs at running /sbin/loader for no apparent reason. The hang is caused by an error in early versions of the 2.4 Linux kernel. The error has been corrected in kernel Distributions based on this kernel should install without problems. For earlier 2.4-series kernels, a workaround is available. Although the Linux kernel bug is not related to CD-ROM drives, the workaround involves changing a VMware configuration setting for the virtual DVD/CD-ROM drive. Power off the virtual machine and close the virtual machine window. Open the virtual machine's configuration file (.vmx or.cfg file) in a text editor and add the following line: cdrom.minvirtualtime=100 Save the file. Now you should be able to install the guest operating system as described above. After you finish installing the guest operating system, remove this setting from the configuration file, as it may have a performance impact. SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 Installation Steps 1. Insert the SLES 8 installation CD in the CD-ROM drive. 2. Power on the virtual machine to start installing SLES Follow the installation steps as you would for a physical machine until you get to the selection screens described in the next steps. 4. Part way through the installation, the installer reboots the virtual machine. At the LILO screen, let the boot proceed using the default selection of Linux. 5. At the Desktop Settings screen, select 640x colors. 6. Finish installing SLES 8 as you would on a physical machine. No known issues with SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8. SuSE Linux 8.2 Installation Steps 1. Insert the SuSE Linux 8.2 installation CD in the CD-ROM drive. February, Dell Inc.

65 2. Power on the virtual machine to start installing SuSE Linux Follow the installation steps as you would for a physical machine until you get to the selection screens described in the next steps. 4. Install using the text mode installer. In the first installation screen, press the F2 key, type Linux, then press Enter to select the text mode installer. 5. When prompted, do not install an X server. In the Configure Monitor screen, choose Text Mode Only. Click Accept and finish the installation. VMware Tools Be sure to install VMware Tools in your guest operating system. For details, see the manual for your VMware product. Do not start the X server in the guest operating system until you install VMware Tools and run the SaX2 configuration utility. See Before You Start the X Server below. When you start installing VMware Tools (by typing./vmware-install.pl in the vmware-tools-distrib directory), the following message appears: Found an installed version of the VMware SVGA driver for XFree86 4. Some versions of this driver included with the XFree86 4 distributions do not work properly. Would you like to install a stable (but possibly older) version of the driver over the currently installed one? If you plan to dual-boot the virtual machine, answer Yes to allow the driver to be installed. Answer Yes again to back up the existing video driver files and also copy the XF86Config-4.dist file to XF86Config-4.vm. The latter file is used when dual-booting the virtual machine. If you do not intend to dual-boot the virtual machine, answer No to keep the existing driver. Before You Start the X Server After you have installed VMware Tools, but before you start the X server, as the root user, run the SaX2 configuration utility to configure your X server. At a command prompt, type SaX2 and use the wizard to configure your X server. If you intend to connect to this virtual machine with the VMware Virtual Machine Console, configure the color resolution for (16-bit) colors or less. After you run SaX2 you may boot your SuSE Linux 8.2 virtual machine with any of the selections offered in GRUB. Virtual Machine May Hang during Guest Operating System Installation On some host systems, the SuSE Linux 8.2 installer attempts to use a kernel that is incompatible with the ACPI features of the virtual hardware. To work around this problem, open the virtual machine's configuration file in a text editor and add the following line: acpi.present = FALSE You should then be able to install and run a SuSE Linux 8.2 guest operating system. February, Dell Inc.

66 4.4.3 Commands Scripts on Halt or Reboot Append the following line to the /etc/vmware/dualconf.vm startup script in the guest Linux OS: This will execute the command-script on halt and reboot, respectively. /etc/vmware/vmware-guestd halt-command [command-script] or /etc/vmware/vmware-guestd reboot-command [command-script] 4.5 Microsoft Guest Operating Systems The following guest operating systems are supported. Windows 2003 and 2000 also support SMP for dual-virtual CPU configurations that added the VMware Virtual SMP product. Supported Windows Operating System Windows Server 2003 (Enterprise, Standard, and Web Editions) Windows 2000 Server or Advanced (SP3 or SP4) Windows XP Pro (SP1) Windows NT 4 (SP6a) Windows Me/98/95/3.x/DOS see limitations below Figure 7 - Supported Microsoft Operating Systems SMP-Compatible Yes Yes No No No Installing Microsoft Guest OS Scripted Install ESX 2 provides two APIs for scripting: VmPerl API for Windows Perl (use the Perl shipped with the package) and VmCOM for COM application access from Visual Basic and VBScript. Both API packages can be downloaded from Network Install To perform a remote network installation or if AutorunCD is not available, use ISO images of files of installation CD-ROMs and floppy image files of any floppy disks needed for guest OS installation. Connect the VMs CD-ROM and floppy drives to the appropriate image files prior to installing the guest OS. To create a Windows boot floppy to install ESX: A. Put the ESX Server in the CD-ROM drive and a floppy disk in the floppy drive. B: In a DOS command window use the DOS utility rawrite to copy the disk image (boot.img) to the floppy disk. This file is located on the ESX Server CD in the /images directory. In this example, If your CD-ROM drive is not d:, substitute the correct drive letter. D:\dosutils\rawrite -f d:\images\boot.img -d a Follow the remaining steps described in Local Install below. Local Install 1. Ensure that the VM is setup and that the VMs devices are setup as expected. For example, if the guest OS requires networking, ensure the VMs Ethernet adapter is configured and enabled. Use the VMware ESX Server s Management Interface to modify a VM's configuration. February, Dell Inc.

67 2. Disable any screen saver that may be running on the host system before you start to install the guest operating system. 3. A new VM is like a physical computer with a blank hard disk. Before you can use it, you need to partition and format the virtual disk and install an operating system. The operating system's installation program may handle the partitioning and formatting steps for you. 4. Installing a guest operating system inside a VM is essentially the same as installing it on a physical computer. So, as with physical computers, a separate operating system license is required for each VM you run. The basic steps for a typical operating system are: 1. Start Workstation or a remote console connected to the VM. 2. Insert the installation CD-ROM or floppy disk for your guest operating system into the CD- ROM drive being used by your VM. In some host configurations, the VM is not able to boot from the installation CD-ROM. You can work around that problem by creating an ISO image file from the installation CD-ROM. Use the configuration tool for your VMware product to connect the VM's CD drive to the ISO image file, then power on the VM. 3. Power on your VM by clicking the Power On button. 4. Read the two sections below Known Issues Across Microsoft Guest OSes and the section specific to the Microsoft Guest OS you are installing before proceeding. 5. Follow the instructions provided by the operating system vendor. Unclear Installation Messages When installing a guest OS on a new virtual disk, you may receive a warning that the disk is corrupted and asking if you want to place a partition table on the disk. Answer Yes, since this only means that some data needs to be written to the file that holds the virtual hard disk and you need to partition and format the virtual disk like a new blank hard drive. When installing a guest OS on a previously formatted disk, you may receive a No operating system error when you power on the VM. This is due to the VM s boot order not booting from the CD-ROM first. Either: When the VM boots, enter the BIOS and correct the boot order on the Boot menu. Zero out the first 64KB of the raw disk using dd or a similar utility Installing VMware Tools in the Guest OS It is not possible to install VMware tools until the OS install is completed. VMware tools can be installed either from: The Remote Console by choosing Settings VMware Tools Install which attaches a virtual CD-ROM ISO file onto the VMs CD-ROM drive. Or Automatically launch on Windows guest OSes with CD Autorun enabled. Ensure that VMware Tools are installed in every guest OS. The VMware Tools: Updates the generic SVGA driver with a custom driver for VMware virtual video, puts it in the right place, and reconfigures the guest OS to use it. For Windows2000 only: Updates the Microsoft Buslogic driver with VMware SCSI February, Dell Inc.

68 Installs two services: VMwareTray.exe, and VMwareService.exe Improves video performance Allows mouse pointer to move freely in and out of the Remote Console window Provides the ability to run DOS batch files during power state changes (Power On, Power Off, Suspend, and Resume) for Windows VMs. VMware tools provide a guest OS service, VMwareService.exe, for: Executing OS commands including shutdown or reboot. Sending a heartbeat to ESX Server to notify guest OS status to enable notification, failover, backup, and other services. Executing VM commands including ESX asking the guest OS to gracefully power down and reset. Synchronizing guest clock with the ESX Server clock, settable to once a second or synch when responding to various system events. Passing the machine.id string between the guest OS and Service Console. This is contained in the guest OS config file and is scriptable on Windows by downloading the COM or Perl API from VMware. Common uses include passing the Windows system ID or group ID. After you install VMware Tools, you need to change your Windows 2000 screen area to be greater than 640x480 pixels; if you do not change it, Windows 2000 uses the standard VGA driver, and your performance will suffer Known Issues in Using Microsoft Guest OSes Product Activation The Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or XP product activation feature creates a numerical key based on the virtual hardware in the VM where it is installed. Changes in the configuration of the VM may require you to reactivate the operating system. There are some steps you can take to minimize the number of significant changes. Set the final memory size for your VM before you activate Windows Server. When you cross certain thresholds - approximately 32MB, 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB and 1GB - the product activation feature sees the changes as significant. The size reported to the Windows product activation feature is slightly less than the actual amount configured for the VM. For example, 128MB is interpreted as falling in the 64MB- 127MB range. Install VMware Tools before you activate Windows Server When the SVGA driver in the VMware Tools package is installed, it activates features in the virtual graphics adapter that make it appear to Windows Server 2003 as a new graphics adapter. If you want to experiment with any other aspects of the VM configuration, do so before activating Windows Server 2003 or XP. Keep in mind that typically you have 14 days for experimentation before you have to activate the operating system. (Your EULA may define a different period before activation is required.) For more details on Windows Server 2003 or XP product activation, see the Microsoft Web site. February, Dell Inc.

69 Guest Screen Saver It is best not to run a screen saver in the guest OS, since they demand a lot of processing power which can cause Service Console X server on ESX Server to freeze or perform slowly. Hibernation The hibernation feature is not supported in this release. Instead of using the guest operating system's hibernate feature, suspend the VM. The ESX Server CD contains Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) needed to integrate ESX Server with an NT domain or Active Directory. NOTICE: Please note the 2GB boundary limitations and of possible security exposure when using NFS and Windows network shares in the Service Console. Although Non-Dell vendors often require an additional Windows OS CD to install in a VM since their customized Microsoft Windows OEM CDs included with new computers are incompatible with VMware, Dell does not. For current Microsoft guest OS information or additional OSes including Me, Win98, Win95, Win3.x, and DOS, see: Windows Server 2003 You can install Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition or Datacenter Edition in a VM using the corresponding Windows Server 2003 distribution CD. See the previous section for Known Issues across Microsoft Guest OSes. Known Windows 2003 Issues If you are using the virtual LSI Logic SCSI adapter, Windows Server 2003 automatically installs the SCSI driver when you install the guest operating system. If you are using the virtual Buslogic SCSI adapter, you need a special SCSI driver available from the download section of the VMware Web site at Follow the instructions on the Web site to use the driver with a fresh installation of Windows Server If you have a VM with a SCSI virtual disk and an earlier Windows guest operating system and want to upgrade it to Windows Server 2003, install the new SCSI driver before upgrading the operating system. Display Hardware Acceleration Windows Server 2003 has display adapter hardware acceleration disabled by default. This Windows Server parameter will slow down the graphics performance and mouse responsiveness in the guest operating system. February, Dell Inc.

70 To enable hardware acceleration in a Windows Server 2003 guest, open the Control Panel, then open the Display Properties control panel. On the Settings tab, click Advanced. On the Troubleshoot tab, drag the Hardware acceleration slider all the way to Full Windows 2000 You can install a supported version of Windows 2000 in a VM using the corresponding Windows 2000 distribution CD. See the previous section for Known Issues Across Microsoft Guest OSes. Service Pack 3 A Windows 2000 guest with Service Pack 3 installed may fail to boot. A dialog box appears, saying "The Logon User Interface DLL msgina.dll failed to load." Install Service Pack 4 to resolve this. For other workarounds, see Windows NT 4 You can install Windows NT 4.0 (Workstation or Server) in a VM using the standard Windows NT CD. NT 4 is not VMware SMP compatible. See the previous section for Known Issues with Microsoft Guest OSes. NOTICE: Service Pack 6a is required. Virtual disks support DMA transfers for better performance. You can enable the feature after installing Windows NT. You need the NT Service Pack 3 or 4 CD to enable this option. Once the VM is running Windows NT, insert the SP3 or SP4 CD in the drive, run DMACHECK.EXE from the \SUPPORT\UTILS\I386 folder on the CD and click the Enabled option for the IDE controller/channel that is configured with the virtual disk (typically channel 0 only, unless you have the VM configured with multiple virtual disks). NOTICE: The DMA option should not be enabled for any IDE channel that has a CD-ROM drive configured for it. Enabling DMA for such a configuration causes an error. If you have a virtual disk and a CD-ROM attached as master and slave to the primary IDE controller (channel 0) and you want to enable DMA, power off the VM and use the Configuration Editor to move the CD-ROM to the secondary IDE controller (channel 1) at IDE 1:0. Then boot the VM with Windows NT, run DMACHECK and enable DMA for channel 0 only. DMA is always enabled on SCSI virtual disks. Setting up a Windows NT 4.0 Guest with Multiple Disks To set up a VM running Windows NT 4.0 and using multiple disks, you must first create a VM with only one disk. Install Windows NT on that disk. Then use the configuration tools in your VMware product to add the additional disks. February, Dell Inc.

71 If you have a Windows NT 4.0 guest with a SCSI virtual disk, you cannot add both an additional SCSI disk and an IDE disk to the configuration Windows XP You can install Windows XP Home Edition or Professional in a VM using the corresponding Windows XP distribution CD. XP is not VMware SMP compatible. See the previous section for Known Issues across Microsoft Guest OSes. If you are using the virtual Buslogic SCSI adapter, you need a special SCSI driver available from the download section of the VMware Web site at Follow the instructions on the Web site to use the driver with a fresh installation of Windows XP. If you are using the virtual LSI Logic SCSI adapter, you must download the driver from the download center at the LSI Logic Web site. Go to and look for the LSI20320 SCSI adapter driver for your guest operating system. For details on installing this driver, see the VMware ESX Server Administration Guide. February, Dell Inc.

72 5. INSTALLATION OF DELL OPENMANAGE IN A VMWARE ESX SERVER ENVIRONMENT 5.1 Open Manage Software Overview Dell OpenManage systems management software is a suite of application programs for PowerEdge systems. This software allows you to manage your system with proactive monitoring, diagnosis, notification, and remote access. Each system that you plan to manage with Dell OpenManage software products is called a managed system. Managed system applications include Server Administrator, and remote access controller (RAC) software. Server Administrator provides a comprehensive, one-to-one systems management solution in two ways: from an integrated, Web browser-based GUI (the Server Administrator home page) and from a command line interface (CLI) through the operating system. Server Administrator is designed for system administrators to both locally and remotely manage systems on a network. Server Administrator allows system administrators to focus on managing their entire network by providing comprehensive one-on-one system management. A management station can be used to remotely manage one or more managed systems from a central location. By installing IT Assistant on a management station, you can effectively manage from one to hundreds of remote managed systems. Figure 1 illustrates the relationship between a management station and its managed systems. Figure 1 also shows the operating systems and the Dell OpenManage software products that may be installed on the managed systems. Figure 8 - Example of a Management Station and Managed Systems February, Dell Inc.