ESXi Version 5

Ok, I found the download links and registered for a free version license.
What size should I use for USB installation and booting?

I have a few USB sticks and just wondering if it needs much space when installed to usb to run. And I assume it will and can run from USB stick with good performance?

You need at least a 1GB stick if memory serves (that was for ESX 4.1 mind so might have increased with 5.0). It loads pretty fast from USB stick and doesn't seem to have any issues at all. It leaves the 250GB disk in the microserver solely for server os'es :)
 
I have an HP server running ESXi 4.1. There are 3 VM's. What is the easiest way to backup/move the VM's, install ESXi 5 from scratch and the move the 3 VM's back?
 
Esxi5 will let you do an in place upgrade.

Seems to work fine.

If you really want fresh, then copy the VM files off onto something else, do a fresh install and let ESXi take care of formatting in the new 5 file system, then you can re-upload the vm files back to the datastore, and import them back to the host.

They wont be the latest VM version available on 5 though, so I would personally start from scratch like I did.

Hard work, but worth it to get familiar with all the new iSCSI stuff available.
 
I didn't use the force upgrade option because it complained about VIB's (whatever those are! lol!) so i fresh installed. Since the datastores were all intact anyway I simply recreated the virtual machines and pointed them to their vmx files in the datastores. That imports them and allows you to boot.

Then install vSphere client on the PC's you want to manage it from and then install VM tools on the virtual machines. Then switch the vm's off, upgrade the virtual hardware to version 8 and jobs a good un
 
Its not so bad when you get used to it, PLUS your existing licence agreements port across quite well...

But in comparison to the old one, its rather silly.
 
Tried to put 5.0 fresh on a new test box today. Didn't install to the selected USB disk but kept putting it on the internal HDD's. Popped out the disks and tried again and still would not boot from the USB.

Installed V4.1 and then did the upgrade even though it complained about custom VIB's and all seems ok. Either my install disk is not formatting the USB stick to be bootable or the hardware is very strange.

Either way its up and running and upgraded my first VM to V8. Still capped at 2TB vmdk's which is a shame as I was hoping to virtualise a backup server for disk-to-disk storage. The datastore happily grew to 8TB however without issue and upgraded to VMFS5 so multi-disks in 1 datastore will do for now.
 
I have just left it as 3 virtual disks of 2TB each and split the disk to disk folders across them. A couple of extra jobs in Backup Exec to split the selection list up and its all good.

Using this I have removed the requirement for the LTO on a daily basis and just left it as a weekly. The day to day is on disk to disk and all tests are working fine.

No more walking between buildings in winter to change a tape!
 
Hmm... Am I doing something stupid here....

4.1 worked no problem, but I decided to do a fresh install on 5. Install went ok, VSphere client installed ok but when I connect, I have hardly any options under Adminstration... just Roles and System logs. Where's licensing?
 
click on the host on the left hand side and go to the configuration tab. Licensing can be seen on the left hand side context menu of "configuration"
 
click on the host on the left hand side and go to the configuration tab. Licensing can be seen on the left hand side context menu of "configuration"

I've been staring at that screen for an hour...... then I remembered I did the same with 4.1..... I never see that little edit on the right of the screen..... :o

Thank you sir!
 
Any USB passthrough speed improvements with ESXi 5? With 4.1 it seems to be limited to around 6MB/s which is pretty terrible.
 
How are people finding the inplace upgrades?
+ the virtual hardware upgrades.

Any negative impacts/problems with existing VMs?
 
We found a bug this morning with our G7 Blades/flex10, if you use a trunked port using vlan tagging on the management network, you cant access the host using the vsphere client or vcenter.

You can ping it, and everthing looks fine, but you cant connect to it.

Change the management nic to a standard access port without any tagging and it works fine.
 
No issues on two standalone boxes here. Both upgraded from ESXi 4.1 update 1. The updated tools for Aero has improved the speed of older VM's too. Windows 2003 feels very smooth.
 
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