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VMware ESXi 5 whitebox NIC support

December 13th, 2011 |

I tested the following NICs in my VMware ESXi 5 whitebox server at home:

NIC	Recognized by VMware ESXi 5	Listed in ESXi 5 as
Intel PRO/1000GT Desktop Adapter PCI	Yes	Intel 82541PI Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Realtek RTL 8111E	Yes	Realtek 8168 Gigabit Ethernet
Intel Gigabit CT Desktop Adapter PCI-e	Yes	Intel Corporation 82574L
Intel 82579 Gigabit LAN controller	No You need the make a customized ESXi 5 ISO or VIB file. This is a not supported configuration!	Intel Corporation 82579V or Intel Corporation 82579LM

To add the Intel 82579 chipset, create a customized ESXi 5 ISO. This is very simple because some people have already done the hard work.

Here are the steps:

1. Download ESXi-Customizer (create by Andreas Peetz) found here.

2. Download the driver (created by Chilly) found here.

3. Start the ESXi-Customizer and follow the 3 steps:

And your ready to install the customized VMware ESXi 5 ISO. The ISO supports the Intel 82579V and 82579LM NIC(s) found on many whitebox motherboards. Possible future updated version(s) of the driver can be found in the following post.

Posted in ESXi, Whitebox | Tags: esxi, homebrew, Whitebox | 14 Comments »

Add SQL Server Management Studio to Microsoft SQL Server Express 2008 R2

December 8th, 2011 |

Author: Ivo Beerens

When installing VMware vCenter 5 with the default database engine (Microsoft SQL Server Express 2008 R2) the SQL Management Studio is not installed by default. It can be confusing to add SQL Management studio at a later time. Here are the steps explained:

1. Download Microsoft SQL Express 2008 R2 (can be found here) ~~or browse the vCenter installation ZIP or~~ ~~ISO. The installation package can be found in the “\redist\SQLEXPR” folder.~~

2. Select “New Installation or add features to an existing installation”.

3. Select “New installation or add shared features”.

- Only select “Management Tools – Basic”.

When the installation is completed you see the “SQL Server Management Studio” listed under the start menu.

Important to know is that you need exactly to follow these steps. If you choose the wrong option and use the back button the “Management Tools – Basic” isn’t listed anymore. Strange….

Posted in sql, vcenter | Tags: SQL, vCenter | 2 Comments »

Migrate to VMware ESXi? Use the “ESX System Analyzer” tool

December 5th, 2011 |

Author: Ivo Beerens

VMware Flings did it again. They released another cool tool called “ESX System Analyzer”. This tool helps when you want to migrate from VMware ESX to VMware ESXi. It scans the VMware environment and collects the following information:

- Hardware compatibility with ESXi. It checks if the hardware is compatible with ESXi 4 and ESXi 5.

- VMs registered on the ESX host, as well as VMs located on the host’s local disk

- Modifications to the Service Console
        – RPMs which have been added or removed
        – Files which have been added
        – Users and cronjobs which have been added

This tool also provides summary information for the whole existing environment

- Version of VMware Tools and Virtual Hardware for all VMs

- Version of Filesystem for all datastores

By having this information, administrators can determine what tasks need to be done prior to the migration. Examples include:

- Relocate VMs from local datastores to shared datastores

- Make note of what agent software has been added to the host and obtain the equivalent agentless version

- Replace cronjobs with equivalent remote scripts written with PowerCLI or vCLI

The installation and configuration of the “ESX System Analyzer” appliance is very easy. Here are some screenshots of the appliance:

Screenshots of the Output in XLS (Excel):

Overview output:

ESX server output:

This is a very handy tool when you want to migrate from VMware ESX to ESXi. More information can be found on the VMware Flings website found here.

Posted in ESX, ESXi, Tools | Tags: ESX, esxi, Tools | No Comments »

Time for new whitebox for your VMware vSphere or MS Hyper-V home lab environment?

November 18th, 2011 |

Author: Ivo Beerens

When using a whitebox lab environment at home and like to test for example vSphere 5, vCloud Director, VMware View and MS Hyper-V (nested in VMware vSphere Glimlach ) you need a lot of processor power and memory. In almost all whitebox lab environment the processor power is not the problem but the amount of memory is.

Till now the Sandy Bridge desktop boards support up to 32GB memory with only four DIMM slots on the motherboard. For 32GB you need 4 * 8GB DIMMs, 8GB DIMMs are very expensive on the moment when writing this post.

Intel Introduced the Sandy Bridge-E processors and motherboards with the X79 based chipset that support this processors. This gives new possibilities for building a new whitebox home lab.

Processor

Intel introduced the Sandy Bridge-E or the 2nd generation Core i7 Extreme Processors. On the moment there are two Sandy Bridge-E processors available:

- Intel Core-I7-3960X 3,3GHz,15M L3-cache, list price around €950,00

- Intel Core-I7-3930K 3,2GHz,12M L3-cache, list price around € 550,00

As you can see the processors are pretty expensive. The Sandy Bridge-E has the following features:

- Socket LGA2011;

- 6 cores (12 cores with Hyper-Threading);

- Quad channel DDR3-1600 memory controller;

- Supports Hyper-Threading, Intel VT-x, VT-d;

- PCI-Express 3.0 support;

- 40 PCI-Express lanes;

- Max TDP 130 W;

- Multiplier unlocked.

The 2nd generation Core i7 Extreme Processors can be compared here.

Begin 2012 Intel will release the Core I7 3820 Sandy Bridge-E processor. This processor will support 4 cores (8 with Hyper-Threading) and have 10MB L3-cache. The price is not announced yet but will be much lower as the Intel 3930K and 3960X processors. When you buy a Sandy Bridge-E processor there is no CPU cooler in the box.

Motherboard

The Intel X79 chipset support the Socket LGA2011. To choose a motherboard you can for example check the following things:

- How much DIMM slots it has (some X79 motherboard have 4 DIMM slots);

- How much expansion slots it has;

- Price;

- How many USB ports and what speed they have;

- Type and number of SATA controllers;

- Type of number of NIC(s).

Important for a whitebox lab configuration is that the SATA controller (if you want to use local storage) and NIC(s) are supported by VMware ESXi. When choosing a motherboard with enough expansion slots you can always add extra RAID and NIC cards that are supported.

The most X79 based motherboards have 8 DIMM slots and supports up to 64GB memory. 8GB memory modules are expensive. So you can make a configuration with 8 x 4GB = 32 GB DDR-3 memory which is much cheaper. When 8GB memory modules become cheaper you can upgrade to 64GB memory.

Asus has a nice overview of all the X79 bases series motherboards they have, found here.

Shopping list

I made a shopping without the case, storage and the power supply. The prices are taken from the Tweakers pricewatch (Dutch) an can change every day.

Shopping list:

Component	List price (€ )
Intel Core-I7-3930K	520,00
Asus P9X79	230,00
4 x 4 x 2GB DDR3-1600 memory (total 32GB)	160,00
Simple processor cooler	30,00
Simple graphic card PCI-E	25,00
Total	965,00

Conclusion

With the Sandy Bridge-E processor and X79 based motherboard you can build a monster whitebox lab environment with the best performance on the moment.

The advantage of using one huge whitebox you can use nesting to run your VMware vSphere and MS Hyper-V environment(s) on one box. An other advantage of using a whitebox is that you can make a low noise system. It’s a lot of money for a whitebox home lab environment but if you you wait for the Intel Core I7 3820 Sandy Bridge-E processor (announced in January 2012) can save you around €270,00 (this is an assumption because the list prices are not available yet).