Re: [CentOS] Vmware - Slightly off topic

[Andrew Holway]

Packer FTW

On Tuesday, 24 April 2018, Jerry Geis  wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> What is the correct way to provide a CentOS 7 - WMware image for ESX ?
>
> As an amateur to VMware - I thought - great I can get VMplayer and ESX
> should be able to import my image... Wrong... I even went through the
> trouble of "converting" to VMWare workstation and thinking ESX could import
> that - Apparently still Wrong...  I cannot for the life of me understand
> how one product family is so incompatible with itself. But that is another
> story.
>
> I just want to be able to provide a pre-built image with CentOS 7 and my
> other programs on a bootable VMware image that is easily imported into any
> VMware platform - Workstation, ESX or other.
>
> How is that accomplished ?
> Thanks for your thoughts and experience.
>
> Jerry
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Re: [CentOS] Vmware - Slightly off topic

[Lamar Owen]

On 04/24/2018 01:26 PM, Jerry Geis wrote:

What is the correct way to provide a CentOS 7 - WMware image for ESX ?
...

I just want to be able to provide a pre-built image with CentOS 7 and my
other programs on a bootable VMware image that is easily imported into any
VMware platform - Workstation, ESX or other.

How is that accomplished ?
Thanks for your thoughts and experience.
While my experience with ESX is rather old at this point, as is my 
experience with Workstation, since I have converted to KVM for my 
virtualization here, I will just point out that the virtual hardware 
supported by ESX(i) and Workstation are not the same.  I don't know if 
current vSphere/ESXi is different, but it's easy enough to check, but 
older ESX only supported SCSI for the virtual hard disks; no IDE hard 
disk support in ESX, and Workstation defaults to IDE hard disks.  VMware 
Workstation and ESXi are very different products, or at least the last 
versions of each that I actively used were.  So check which ESXi version 
you're targeting, and make sure you install the guest in Workstation 
with that hardware version and with ESXi-compatible devices.


And then there is VMware Fusion for macOS

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Re: [CentOS] Vmware - Slightly off topic

[Sorin Srbu]

> -Original Message-
> From: CentOS <centos-boun...@centos.org> On Behalf Of Steven Tardy
> Sent: den 25 april 2018 02:26
> To: CentOS mailing list <centos@centos.org>
> Subject: Re: [CentOS] Vmware - Slightly off topic
> 
> On Tue, Apr 24, 2018 at 1:27 PM Jerry Geis <jerry.g...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > What is the correct way to provide a CentOS 7 - WMware image for ESX ?
> 
> 
> You are probably looking for VMware Converter which can p2v or v2v.


The converter you mention only runs on Windows, right?
Or has there been releases that now works with linux flavours as well?

--
//Sorin
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Re: [CentOS] Vmware - Slightly off topic

[Mauricio Tavares]

On Tue, Apr 24, 2018 at 11:20 PM, Jack Bailey  wrote:
>>> What is the correct way to provide a CentOS 7 - WMware image for ESX ?
>>
>>
>> You are probably looking for VMware Converter which can p2v or v2v.
>>
>> IMO: if you are creating a VM image which is a binary blob or image then
>> you are doing it wrong. Have the VM/server/desktop be a simple
>> next/next/next install and the incorporate a config management tool
>> (puppet/ansible/etc) to make it the way you like it. VM-as-code if you
>> will. This results in a reproducible thing instead of an unmanageable
>> thing.
>
>
> I'm doing this sort of thing, and frankly, VMware Converter would be my last
> choice.
>
> One project uses packer, the other, a combination of shell scripts,
> genisoimage, and Virtualbox's vboxmanage.  Both projects build a VM and
> export it to an OVA.  Example usage, these are great for creating new VMs
> from the CentOS rolling ISOs.

  Glad to know I am not the only one using packer...
>
> As for getting the OVA into vSphere's inventory, I'm using Powershell
> (Ansible's VMware support wasn't so great when I was working on the
> projects).
>
> Jack
>
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Re: [CentOS] Vmware - Slightly off topic

[Jack Bailey]

What is the correct way to provide a CentOS 7 - WMware image for ESX ?


You are probably looking for VMware Converter which can p2v or v2v.

IMO: if you are creating a VM image which is a binary blob or image then
you are doing it wrong. Have the VM/server/desktop be a simple
next/next/next install and the incorporate a config management tool
(puppet/ansible/etc) to make it the way you like it. VM-as-code if you
will. This results in a reproducible thing instead of an unmanageable thing.


I'm doing this sort of thing, and frankly, VMware Converter would be my 
last choice.


One project uses packer, the other, a combination of shell scripts, 
genisoimage, and Virtualbox's vboxmanage.  Both projects build a VM and 
export it to an OVA.  Example usage, these are great for creating new 
VMs from the CentOS rolling ISOs.


As for getting the OVA into vSphere's inventory, I'm using Powershell 
(Ansible's VMware support wasn't so great when I was working on the 
projects).


Jack
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Re: [CentOS] Vmware - Slightly off topic

[Steven Tardy]

On Tue, Apr 24, 2018 at 1:27 PM Jerry Geis  wrote:

> What is the correct way to provide a CentOS 7 - WMware image for ESX ?


You are probably looking for VMware Converter which can p2v or v2v.

IMO: if you are creating a VM image which is a binary blob or image then
you are doing it wrong. Have the VM/server/desktop be a simple
next/next/next install and the incorporate a config management tool
(puppet/ansible/etc) to make it the way you like it. VM-as-code if you
will. This results in a reproducible thing instead of an unmanageable thing.

>
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Re: [CentOS] Vmware - Slightly off topic

[Fred Smith]

On Tue, Apr 24, 2018 at 08:02:19PM +, Tony Mountifield wrote:
> In article 
> ,
> Jerry Geis  wrote:
> > Hi All,
> > 
> > What is the correct way to provide a CentOS 7 - WMware image for ESX ?
> > 
> > As an amateur to VMware - I thought - great I can get VMplayer and ESX
> > should be able to import my image... Wrong... I even went through the
> > trouble of "converting" to VMWare workstation and thinking ESX could import
> > that - Apparently still Wrong...  I cannot for the life of me understand
> > how one product family is so incompatible with itself. But that is another
> > story.
> > 
> > I just want to be able to provide a pre-built image with CentOS 7 and my
> > other programs on a bootable VMware image that is easily imported into any
> > VMware platform - Workstation, ESX or other.
> > 
> > How is that accomplished ?
> > Thanks for your thoughts and experience.
> 
> Looking at the results for 
> https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=how+to+export+a+vmware+image
> it looks like you need to export a built, working VM as an OVF.
> 
> Not sure which VMware products can do that. Possibly Workstation? The old, 
> free
> VMware server 1.0.10 that I use doesn't appear to have that feature.
> 
> You should then be able to copy the OVF file to another VMware host an import 
> it.
> 
> Cheers
> Tony

Or,if push comes to shove, you can rebuild it in VirtualBox and
do an export to OVF from there.

It might be possible to import the existing VM into VirtualBox, and
if so it MIGHT let you do an OVF export. no guarantees, I've not
tried doing that particular thing.

Good luck!

Fred

-- 
 Fred Smith -- fre...@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us -
 God made him who had no sin
  to be sin for us, so that in him
 we might become the righteousness of God."
--- Corinthians 5:21 -
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Re: [CentOS] Vmware - Slightly off topic

[Tony Mountifield]

In article ,
Jerry Geis  wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> What is the correct way to provide a CentOS 7 - WMware image for ESX ?
> 
> As an amateur to VMware - I thought - great I can get VMplayer and ESX
> should be able to import my image... Wrong... I even went through the
> trouble of "converting" to VMWare workstation and thinking ESX could import
> that - Apparently still Wrong...  I cannot for the life of me understand
> how one product family is so incompatible with itself. But that is another
> story.
> 
> I just want to be able to provide a pre-built image with CentOS 7 and my
> other programs on a bootable VMware image that is easily imported into any
> VMware platform - Workstation, ESX or other.
> 
> How is that accomplished ?
> Thanks for your thoughts and experience.

Looking at the results for 
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=how+to+export+a+vmware+image
it looks like you need to export a built, working VM as an OVF.

Not sure which VMware products can do that. Possibly Workstation? The old, free
VMware server 1.0.10 that I use doesn't appear to have that feature.

You should then be able to copy the OVF file to another VMware host an import 
it.

Cheers
Tony
-- 
Tony Mountifield
Work: t...@softins.co.uk - http://www.softins.co.uk
Play: t...@mountifield.org - http://tony.mountifield.org
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