The (un)Official VMWare ESXi thread.
- Thread starter RimBlock
- Start date
Space you need for current media & projected space required in 6 months ?.
Do you need redundancy or will you be relying on backups ?.
Assuming you are running Plex on Windows Server and not as a standalone NAS appliance, what are you planning on using ESXi for going forwards ?.
ESXi allows you to run multiple virtual machines and how you set it up depends on what you are likely to have running on it. If you only need one machine then you may as well just install to the hardware without ESXi, unless you want ESXi for quick recovery / transportation to other hardware with minimal fuss.
For installing on to bare hardware, the 250GB would probably be used for the OS, 1x 2TB for media / data and 1x 2TB for backup or 2x 2TB for data using raid 1 (mirroring) or some sort of raid on filesystem software.
For installing on ESXi you may use the 250GB for the VM Systems (Windows server having 150GB for example and the rest available for other VMs), 2TB for media and 2TB as datastore for future VMs (backup server etc).
If you are using Plex Nas Appliance then maybe 200GB for Win Server, 50GB (or less) for Plex, 2TB for Win Server datastore (backup plex media), 2TB for plex media (depending on media requirements).
It really is quite difficult to give an accurate suggestion without more information.
RB
Do you need redundancy or will you be relying on backups ?.
Assuming you are running Plex on Windows Server and not as a standalone NAS appliance, what are you planning on using ESXi for going forwards ?.
ESXi allows you to run multiple virtual machines and how you set it up depends on what you are likely to have running on it. If you only need one machine then you may as well just install to the hardware without ESXi, unless you want ESXi for quick recovery / transportation to other hardware with minimal fuss.
For installing on to bare hardware, the 250GB would probably be used for the OS, 1x 2TB for media / data and 1x 2TB for backup or 2x 2TB for data using raid 1 (mirroring) or some sort of raid on filesystem software.
For installing on ESXi you may use the 250GB for the VM Systems (Windows server having 150GB for example and the rest available for other VMs), 2TB for media and 2TB as datastore for future VMs (backup server etc).
If you are using Plex Nas Appliance then maybe 200GB for Win Server, 50GB (or less) for Plex, 2TB for Win Server datastore (backup plex media), 2TB for plex media (depending on media requirements).
It really is quite difficult to give an accurate suggestion without more information.
RB
Just for completion I will post my findings and rectification of the issue reported by me above...
As well as having long pauses on the VMs and timeouts in the logs, I also found that I could not start two VMs that had VMDK files on my SAN. I got an "Unable to set lock error".
It turns out there was corruption, due to a crash (PSOD) a while ago, of the lock information relating to the disks and so ESXi could not correctly manage them. Whilst I could have probably fixed the issue, I ended up reinstalling ESXi, removing the lock directories from the drives before importing or starting any VMs, I removed the partitions on the 2x 320GB Scorpio Blacks and the partition on the 1x Agility 120GB that ESXi could not see (it was part of a striped array so the GPT was showing twice the drives disk space), and now it all works fine including the SAN. Reinstalling and importing the VMs was pretty painless and quick and I managed to sort out a could have little niggles that had been bugging me at the same time.
RB
I'm going to be replacing the motherboard in my ESXi server this weekend, changing from an AMD 890FX board to a 990X board by a different manufacturer. This is going to require a fresh ESXi installation, right? It's not smart enough to repair/recover/just work I'm assuming?
In which case, I should:
Ta
In which case, I should:
- Install ESXi on a new USB stick
- Configure host networking, licensing and guest networking
- Point it at the existing VMFS datastore
- Create mappings for physical disks
- Import VMs and edit/fix network and storage settings as required
- Anything else?
Ta
I would do a fresh install. It is pretty quick and painless and can be done over the current install (i.e. using the same thumb drive) if desired.
The job list seems good to me. If you have space on a spare drive then you could always make copies of the VMs as a precaution but you should be good to go.
I do not use raw drive mappings though so i am unsure if there would be any other requirements regarding those.
RB
The job list seems good to me. If you have space on a spare drive then you could always make copies of the VMs as a precaution but you should be good to go.
I do not use raw drive mappings though so i am unsure if there would be any other requirements regarding those.
RB
What is the best and free way to backup VMs on a schedule to an external hdd? I could use the VM OS but I'd like a centralised solution. I have tried Veeam but that does not work with the free ESXI for some bizarre reason.
The only way I can see to do this is to take OVF exports of each VM manually.
The only way I can see to do this is to take OVF exports of each VM manually.
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![[Darkend]Viper](/styles/overclockers/avatars/4.png){kind=avatar}
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Here's a question, I'm pretty confident with using esxi 5 and vcenter, but wondered if anyone can recommend a good book or two that will help me study towards vcp 5 qualification?
The free ESXi has license restrictions that cause it to hide the vStorage API necessary for backup.
If you want to do image based backup you need to move up to the essentials license of vSphere.
OR
Abandon VMWare and go the Hyper V route which does not have these restrictions on the backup API. Then you can use UNITRENDS free edition to do the job
Hmmm, umming and arring on weather to re-install ESXi 5.0 on my Microserver, after trying out Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 on a core install and had all mannor of issues with remote management and still do
Do I continue trying to get Hyper-V sorted or stick ESXi back on ? one downfall with ESXi was not being able to easily add physical drives for me however I found the rest of the experience pretty good.
Do I continue trying to get Hyper-V sorted or stick ESXi back on ? one downfall with ESXi was not being able to easily add physical drives for me however I found the rest of the experience pretty good.
Adding disks in ESXi is easy. Add the disk (or if non-hotplug, add the disk whilst powered off) and then add a new datastore, then add storage when you create a new VM (or add storage to an existing virtual machine).
Its pretty straightforward I think....
Its pretty straightforward I think....
Yeah I know you can do that. Problem is I want to add disks that already have data on, not have to back up data. Add disk, create datastore, move data back. Not only that but seeing poor disk I disk transfer speeds ? Not sure why i am seeing this?
Have you considered passing through the disks directly to the VM with a compatible controller ?.
What is on the disks (movies, documents, virtual machines) ?.
I used to pass my NTFS disks straight to my WHS 2011 VM using the popular IBM M1015 controller and it worked very well. As it was native control by WHS 2011, the speeds were as expected.
The only issues are making sure the motherboard and cpu supports VT-d. I am not sure if the Micro Server does.
If it doesn't then you could share the drives from a NAS but then that sort of defeats the purpose of teh virtualisation server for a lot of people.
RB
RB
Surely this is exactly what raw disk mapping is for? Ok you need to do it over SSH but it's not that tricky to setup. This guide should get you started but use "vmkfstools -z" instead of "vmkfstools -r" (cite: end of this thread).
I use this process for my media server, passing through numerous 2Tb and 3Tb drives. Works well for me
I use this process for my media server, passing through numerous 2Tb and 3Tb drives. Works well for me
I will have a look at the 2 above posts, yes RDM is why is needed, but everytime I attempt to create it asks me if If I want to proceed and format the drive etc (do not want!) sure I could back stuff up, create the RDM then put back on there, unless I am missing something with RDM?
I'll have another read if I am, if I can create it and allow my VMs to access it without formatting it great
I'll have another read if I am, if I can create it and allow my VMs to access it without formatting it great
VMware have released a 5.1 update. KB: 2035775
I wonder if this fixes the broken pass through problem.
EDIT: Nope, its not fixed my USB PCIe passthrough.
I wonder if this fixes the broken pass through problem.
EDIT: Nope, its not fixed my USB PCIe passthrough.
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Surely this is exactly what raw disk mapping is for? Ok you need to do it over SSH but it's not that tricky to setup. This guide should get you started but use "vmkfstools -z" instead of "vmkfstools -r" (cite: end of this thread).
I use this process for my media server, passing through numerous 2Tb and 3Tb drives. Works well for me
I set this up with a new Intel 520 120GB SSD for my NewzNab VM and after getting over it not working at all then working out you need to create the mapping file on another drive, not the same drive it all seems to have worked. The drive was bare unformatted so I could not verify any data remained intact but the only time I needed to format was in the OS of the VM, ESXi did not ask me about formatting at all. Seems to be working fine.
[RXP]Andy;23422083 said:
The fix for passthrough was meant to be included in the 2nd update, not the first. I completely forgot about the PCIe passthrough issues and passed a nic chipset to a VM and got the PSOD. Finally twigged what was going on and unmapped it and the server was fine. Luckily this is the only VM I had running at the time and I had not yet installed the OS.
Strangely the following is listed as being fixed in this patch;
RB
Soldato
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Anyone in here know of a socket 775 motherboard that supports vt-d ?
I'm thinking of converting an old box over
I'm thinking of converting an old box over
This is technically the 2nd patch they have released for ESXi 5.1, the first was released back in October (Build:838463 KB2034548). The werid thing is I have never had any problems with using vt-d on NICs as I have stuck to using Intel network cards. However, what is causing me problems at the moment is I have bought a USB 3.0 PCIe to use for backups as USB2.0 can be slow at times.
In ESXi 5.0 I would add the device, which is currently showing up as a NEC USB 3.0 device in both ESXi 5.0 and 5.1 then reboot and I could then add that to VMs. However, now I add the card without problems and then once the node has rebooted the card disappears from the passthrough options list.
Its some what confusing.
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