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I was totally lost with all the options VMware was offering, and all the new lingo. To make things worse they have begun to rename their products recently, but some documents have the old name, others have the new name. I actually came across a chart showing Old Name and correlating New Name values! And that was BEFORE the vSphere4 rollout, which is introducing additional names and acronyms. There had been one form that made things fairly clear (less confusing), but it is no longer where I had been able to locate it as recently as last Friday. Going through the product overview & demo after installing ESXi, and using my browser to connect to the ESXi Server (yep, FireFox works!) brought up a form that had links for the viClient app where I could request an eMail with a link to download that app (that is how I connect to and manage the ESXi Server(s)), and where the product overview and demo on how to configure ESXi and install/build guest machines was located. It did not get into how to take a VMX machine built via Workstation and move it to ESXi. After some rough starts and failures I noted a mention of a separate VMware Convertor app, so I downloaded it, and worked my way through it, finally figuring out how to take all 5 Workstation VMX files and pulling them into the ESXi Server. For the VMware Server 2 it was easier, just copy the Workstation files onto the Server 2 machine, then light it up! With the ESXi using VMware Convertor app it was easy once I figured it out, but I did have to reset the virtual NICs' static IP addressing (if you use DHCP you will likely be fine), reinstall/update VMware Tools, and let the guest machines see their "new" video adapter and adjust for it. Other than that, no big deal. In one of the demo presentations the speaker mentions that VMware suggests never configuring a set of guest machines where the number of CPUs on the guest machine exceed the number of host CPUs (dual core is considered to be a 2 CPU machine), so if I have a single core/CPU host machine I ought not tell my guest PC to run with 2 CPUs. Makes sense. I set all my guest PCs for a single CPU config (my ESXi Server has a 2 Core Duo CPU). Further, he says they suggest not exceeding 2 guest machines per host CPU, so in theory I ought not have more than 4 guest machines running at the same time. It was that 4th machine when I noticed the bootup time had increased a bit, and the 5th one as well. The ESXi Server was running the guest machines very nicely with 4 guest machines running, holding up well with 5 guest machines running simultaneously, and my gut tells me with 6 guest machines I will likely find my practical limit. With 1Gb RAM assigned per guest machine, and 8Gb RAM on the host machine, having 6 guest machines leaves 2Gb of RAM for the host machine - but with their thin OS it is overkill. Yet to assign even 128k more per guest machine (128 X 6 = 768, reducing the host RAM to just over 1.2Gb RAM) just feels wrong <g>. So the temptation is to get a dual quad core server next time, one that can handle > 32Gb RAM. But, there is a "trap" where the CPU count and RAM will at some point no longer be the cause of performance degradation. It will be the HDD controller, or NIC if there is only one NIC (or too few to share amongst too many guest machines). So I am going to have to find a balance between Server CPUs, base RAM, and overall performance throughput. And, the VMware ESXi Foundation license pricing is based on the number of CPUs managed (I do not know if a dual core CPU counts as 2 CPUs for that or not). Now, on to the question re: SATA and eSATA HDD controllers... I tried to attach a USB 1.5Tg HDD, but ESXi failed to see it. After digging into the documentation it is stated clearly they do not try to use USB controllers for HDDs. Well, that particular unit (Seagate Extreme) has USB2, FireWire and eSATA! So I installed one of my eSATA PCI-Express cards, connected the HDD via an eSATA II cable and lit the machine up. ESXi refused to see the eSATA HDD, and I did not bother to see if I could find a way to get that to work. I decided to just do all my file-by-file backups via SyncBack over the 1Gb LAN. And I believe any SnapShots will go to the viClient management PC anyway. I will learn more about that today and/or tomorrow. I removed the eSATA card, and plan to use it on a different machine later on. Oh well... Having said that, the Dell Precision t3400 machines were configured with 2 each 250Gb SATA HDDs, non-RAID. I planned on using HDD0 for the guest machines, and HDD1 for the data HDD. For the VMware Workstation guest machines I usually had only one internal HDD, which I set up a share on the virtual Drive C as a share, and mapped to that share as a logical network drive, where I placed all my database files (dbf, dbc, cdx, fpt, etc.). I knew there would be a lot of HDD chopping and thrashing, but it worked fine, and was still faster than pointing to a logical drive over a LAN connection to a different physical machine. With the t3400 I was able to identify the 2nd physical HDD separately from the primary HDD. The VMware Convertor placed all my virtual machines onto HDD0, as expected. When I reconfigured the converted virtual machines I created a 2nd virtual HDD, pointing to the HDD1 unit. Now each guest machine has 2 HDDs, with both pointing to the separate physical HDD units. Having said that, between multiple machines there could still be a lot of thrashing were I to have all virtual machines using the HDDs heavily at the same time, and their respective virtual HDDs are still pointing to shared resources. But the way my app works is I need to do a single data conversion and dbf updates daily, and the rest of the day the machines idel, looking for a command to run a query and output a resultant .csv file for a different server to use to build a suite of reports, then distribute said reports via pdf via email (all automated, really slick). If I were to simply stage each machine to run its translation at a time not conflicting with the remaining guest machines I ought to be fine. The randomly issued query build trigger files only take a little bit of processing power to run (fairly simple SQL SELECT commands on only a few tables at any one time), so even if all guest machines received a command to build an output file at the same time they ought to be able to handle it. With 3 machines under VMware Server 2, even 4 machines, they all processed concurrent SQL SELECT processing fine. If I were using the guest machines to host even somewhat heavily used web servers I would be in trouble <g>... Okay, on to other eMails... I hope this is all helpful. I am no expert with VMware (yet), but I have gotten my arms around a lot more of it lately, and feeling very comfortable with it. I plan to look at Dell for their VMware pricing also, as I find for a lot of things I purchase their pricing can actually be quite reasonable. I also have a commercial account with TechData, and need to see if I can purchase at my wholesale cost or not. Gil > -----Original Message----- > From: Malcolm Greene [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 3:44 AM > To: Gil Hale > Subject: Personal: Suggestions on how to automate VM Server client > backups? > > Hi Gil! > > Thank you for your help Gil! Ed's Profox strips attachments, so your > WAV > file never made it to the list. > > Can you email it to me by replying to this email (my personal email) or > by sending me a link or ftp login? > > I'm reading your links now. For what its worth, I've been looking at > the > vSphere Essentials ($1K) and vSphere Essentials ($3K) products as well > as the VMware ESXi Management Kit Promotion (also $1K/year - as a > subscription). > > The ESXi Management Kit promotion was supposed to end Apr 20th? but its > still showing up on the site. > http://store.vmware.com/servlet/ControllerServlet?Action=DisplayPage&En > v=BASE&Locale=en_US&SiteID=vmware&id=ProductDetailsPage&productID=11265 > 1300 > > As a customer, I'm confused with all the options. > > BTW: Have you had any problems using ESXi with your SATA or eSATA > controllers/drives? > > Thanks! > > Malcolm > > > > ----- Original message ----- > From: "Gilbert M. Hale" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Date: Mon, 11 May 2009 22:42:31 -0400 > Subject: RE: [NF] Suggestions on how to automate VM Server client > backups? > > Answers, answers. I have attached a Zip file with an embedded .wav > file > where I recorded a conversation with a VMware Sales Rep (for later > review, > not me trying to trap him). And, yes, for the Legal Beagles out there, > in > NY it is legal for me to record conversations within NY or any other > Single > Party Notification state, as long as at least one party is aware of > said > recording (that party would be me). > > If you unzip the file and play it you will gain some tidbits re: Jim's > (VMware Sales Rep) recommendations. If the Zip file gets stripped > during > transport let me know and I will place it on my ftp Server for you to > download. > > I have placed some links below for you to peruse. The links I had > found > just the other day have disappeared. I know VMware is undergoing an > upgrade > to vSphere4, and I bet that is why their site map is changing. But, I > do > recall the Foundation license was $995, but that may be per Server CPU > also. > There had been a Small Business package that I found attractive where I > can > have up to 3 Servers with 2 CPUs each for $1,500. But the model > showing > the > data backup/recovery is what I can't find now. Sorry... > > Anyway, here are some links for you... I bet you may have seen some of > this > already. I am still lighting up the remaining guest machines on the > ESXi > Server, and polishing the configurations. If you would like to call > and > see > what I have been getting into you are welcome to do so (585-359-8085). > I > plan to be Tues - Thu all day, with only 2 short conference calls in > there > somewhere. Friday I leave for SoCal for 10 days, and away from the > toys. I > hope to have ESXi up and running full tilt by Wednesday so I can use it > while I am away. > > Also, when I lit up the ESXi Server, then browsed the ESXi Server IP > (the > documentation that came with the ESXi Server is excellent), I saw links > on > how to download the viClient app. I also was provided in that form 2 > links, > one was a presentation overview of ESXi, the other showed how to set up > ESXi > and virtual machines under it. I had to dig a bit to get the VMware > Convertor that allowed me to push my Workstation VMX files into the > ESXi > Server, but once I figured that out it was easy. > > http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/ > > http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/features.html > > http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/uses.html > > http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/buy.html > > https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vi_pubs.html > > https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vi_pages/vi_pubs_35u2_3i_i.html > > > Gil > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [email protected] [mailto:profoxtech- > > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Malcolm Greene > > Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 8:51 PM > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: RE: [NF] Suggestions on how to automate VM Server client > > backups? > > > > Hi Gil, > > > > Thanks for the detailed response - very much appreciated! > > > > > ESXi package with their Fundamentals ($995) level includes guest > > machine backups. > > > > I googled for this product packaging and couldn't find any products > > called "ESXi Fundamentals". > > > > Do you mean vSphere Essentials ($995)? My understanding is that > vSphere > > Essentials *Plus* ($2995) is required to get the backup capabilities. > > > > Regards, > > Malcolm > > [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
