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Installing ESXi 5.1 as a VM on an ESXi 5.1 Host

March 19, 2013 VMware No comments

Installing ESXi 5.1 as VM on an ESXi 5.1 Host

This article explains how to install VMware ESXi in a virtual machine. Installing ESXi in a virtual machine provides a way to try the product without dedicating hardware to it. A virtual ESXi machine may be useful if you are studying to become a VCP (VMware Certified Professional)

Nested Virtualisation Check

A quick way to verify whether your CPU truly supports both Intel-VT+EPT or AMD-V+RVI, you can paste the following into a browser:

https://[your-esxi-host-ip-address]/mob/?moid=ha-host&doPath=capability

You will need to login with your root credentials and then look for the “nestedHVSupported” property and if it states false, it means you maybe able to install nested ESXi or other hypervisor, but you will not be able to run nested 64-bit VMs, only 32-bit VMs, assuming you have either Intel-VT or AMD-V support on your CPUs.

Intel VT-x or AMD-V is required for running “Nested Virtualization” which supports nested 32-bit VMs
Intel EPT or AMD RVI is required for running nested 64-bit VMs

Instructions

Download the ESXi 5.1 ISO image from the VMware Download site
Log into your physical host with the vClient
Click on your Physical Host
Select Create Virtual Machine
Select Custom
Type a name for your Virtual ESXI 5.1 Host
Choose a Datastore
Select Virtual Machine Version 8
Choose Linux > Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (64bit)
Choose 2 Virtual Sockets and 1 core per virtual socket
Choose 2 or 4GB RAM
Choose your network
Choose your SCSI Controller. LSI Logic SAS is probably the best one to choose
Select a Create a new Virtual Disk
Select Disk size.
Choose your Disk Provisioning Method. Thick Provisioned Lazy Zero is ok
Select Store with the Virtual Machine
Choose Advanced Options. These can probably be left as they are
Next > Finish
When the VM is built, click Edit Settings
Attach your VMware ESXi 5.1 ISO to the VMs CD Drive and select to Connect at Power On
This next option is critical to allow a virtual machine to power on within the virtualized ESXi system. The advanced option “monitor_control.restrict_backdoor” with a value of “True” must be added to the virtual machine’s general options. The configuration parameters section is empty on the virtual machine at this point because it has not been created yet. If you have ever been in this section of the virtual machine configuration for a virtual machine that already exists, there are a number of options that are populated.
If you are using an i3 or later processor (that is, you do not have a Core 2 Duo), you can enable nested VT. This allows you to run 64bit virtual machines within ESXi. To enable nested VT, add this line – vhv.enable = “TRUE” to the .vmx file of the ESXi virtual machine:
Start the VM
Press Enter to start the boot process
Press fn+F11 to accept the EULA and continue
Select the virtual drive where you want to install. Press Enter to continue
Select a keyboard layout. Press Enter to continue.
Enter a root password. Press the down arrow key, then enter the password again to confirm. Press Enter to continue
This warning appears: <HARDWARE_VIRTUALIZATION WARNING: Hardware Virtualization is not a feature of the CPU, or is not enabled in the BIOS> This is generally expected. Press Enter to carry on
Confirm that the info on the screen is correct then press F11 to install
Reboot when required and remove the attached ISO
If virtual machines on the virtual ESXi server are going to be powered on, the Enable Promiscuous Mode option will need to be enabled on the vSwitch on which the virtual ESXi server resides.
The ESXi guest starts with an IP address assigned from DHCP. To set a static IP address: Press fn+F2.
Enter your password, then press Enter.
Select Configure Management Network, then press Enter.
Select IP Configuration, then press Enter.
Select Set static IP addresses and network configuration, then press the space bar.
Press the down arrow key to select IP Address field, then enter the correct information.
If you need to set the Subnet or Default Gateway, press the down arrow key to select those fields.
After you have finished adjusting the settings, press Enter to exit.
Press ESC to exit the configuration screen.
When you are prompted to restart the management network for the changes to take effect, press Y.
Press ESC again to go back to the main screen.

Running Hyper V

Edit your Virtual Switch and enable Promiscuous Mode
Upgrade your Hyper V VM to Hardware Version 9
Use WinSCP to tweak the hyperv.vmx file
guestOS = “winhyperV”
featMask.vm.hv.capable = “Min:1” followed by a carriage return
Save Changes

Tune ESXi Host Memory Configuration

January 29, 2013 Objective 3 Tuning and Optimisation No comments

Tuning Options

In addition to the usual 4KB memory pages, ESX also makes 2MB memory pages available (commonly referred to as “large pages”). By default ESX assigns these 2MB machine memory pages to guest operating systems that request them, giving the guest operating system the full advantage of using large pages. The use of large pages results in reduced memory management overhead and can therefore increase hypervisor performance.
Hardware-assisted MMU is supported for both AMD and Intel processors beginning with ESX 4.0 (AMD processor support started with ESX 3.5 Update 1). On processors that support it, ESX 4.0 by default uses hardware-assisted MMU virtualization for virtual machines running certain guest operating systems and uses shadow page tables for others
Carefully select the amount of memory you allocate to your virtual machines. You should allocate enough memory to hold the working set of applications you will run in the virtual machine, thus minimizing swapping, but avoid over-allocating memory.
Understand Limits, Reservations, Shares and Working Set Size

If swapping cannot be avoided, placing the virtual machine’s swap file on a high speed/high bandwidth storage system will result in the smallest performance impact. The swap file location can be set with the sched.swap.dir option in the vSphere Client (select Edit virtual machine settings, choose the Options tab, select Advanced, and click Configuration Parameters)

A new feature that VMware introduced with vSphere 5 is the ability to swap to host cache using a solid state disk. In the event that overcommitment leads to swapping, the swapping can occur on an SSD, a much quicker alternative than traditional disks. Hightlight a host > Configuration > Software > Host Cache Configuration

Use the Mem.ShareScanTime and Mem.ShareScanGHz advanced settings to control the rate at which the system scans memory to identify opportunities for sharing memory. You can also disable sharing for individual virtual machines by setting the sched.mem.pshare.enable option to FALSE (this option defaults to TRUE)