Running VMware ESX 3.x on the cheap

San Diego VMUG

Lawrence Dee

Systems Engineer - Cardinal Health

Consultant - North County Computer Consulting

July 10, 2008

{Slide 2} Options for running ESX on the cheap

bq. for lab/testing/training/demo purposes

Challenge is ESX will install on IDE/ATA, but VMFS storage requires SCSI

Therefore, 2 primary inexpensive options:

1. Use iSCSI setup
2. Use SATA controller that will use a SCSI driver (thereby fooling ESX)

Links on White-box setups

• http://communities.vmware.com/thread/121231 Cheap ESX solution (Tests)
• http://vmetc.com/2008/03/14/esx-home-lab-hardware-shopping-list/
• http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3.5/Whiteboxes_SATA_Controllers_for_ESX_3.5_3i.htm Motherboards and unsupported servers that work with ESX 3.5 and / or 3i Installable
• http://www.vmprofessional.com/index.php?content=sata_faq
• Inexpensive white box clones
  • HP D530
  • http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/archives/325-The-ultimate-ESX-3.5-white-box.html

Or, run ESX 3.x under Workstation 6.x!

{Slide 3} Running VMware ESX 3.x under Workstation 6.x

• Running ESX v3.0.x under Workstation v6.0.x http://www.xtravirt.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=99&Itemid=124
  • Guide to installing VMware ESX3 on Workstation 6
  • Guide to installing VMware ESX3 on Workstation 6 - Part 2 IET Virtual Shared Storage
  • Guide to installing VMware ESX3 on Workstation 6 - Part 3 OpenFiler VIrtual Shared Storage
  • Commentary on VMware ESX3.5 on Workstation 6.0
    • Basically talks about the need for a newer revision of AMD Virtualization (AMD-V ‘Pacifica') / Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) found in Intel Quad-Core CPUs (and I believe 3rd generation AMD chips (Phenom)
• Desktop CPUs
  • http://www.intel.com/products/processor_number/chart/core2quad.htm
    • Most, but not all, Intel CPUs T5600 or higher have VT
  • http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUResult.aspx
  • http://products.amd.com/en-us/NotebookCPUResult.aspx
  • Note: Server/workstation CPUs
    • Looks like AMD quad-core Barcelona based Opterons share 10h architecture with Phenoms, so should also work •Xeons released mid-2007 should also work
• VMware Workstation v6.5 beta 2
  • Originally removed support for some Intel virtualization handling (‘too bloated / cumbersome") to support ESX v3.5 but based on community feedback was added back to v6.5. AMD support was always present

{Slide 4} My Experience - setup

• Dell Latitude D820 T7200 (Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz VT enabled, 64-bit capable) 2GB RAM
  • External Raptor 10k RPM SATA drive for VMs
  • Host OS - was running Vista Ultimate x32 SP1, but needed more ram, so dropped host OS to - XP Pro x86/32 SP3
  • VMware Workstation 6.5b2 (build 99530)
• 5 VMs (currently) built initially based up XtraVirt.com's ESX 3.0.x under WS6.0.x
  • Fedora 7 running OpenFiler / IET 0.4.15 (256MB RAM, 1 vCPU)
    • 40GB vmdk, 30+GB for iSCSI storage
  • ESX#1 v3.5 Update 1 Build 82663 (768 MB RAM 1 vCPU)
    • IDE local, SCSI for local VMFS
    • VMkernel set for same NAT'ed network as Service Console
  • ESX#2 v3.5 Update 1 (768 MB RAM 1 vCPU)
    • IDE only
  • Virtual Center 2.5 update 1 (892MB RAM 1 vCPU XP Pro SP2)
  • ESX#3 v3.0.2 Update 1 (768 MB RAM 1 vCPU)
    • IDE system drive, SCSI for local VMFS

{Slide 5} My Experience - challenges

• Virtual Center
  • RAM - finally upped RAM to 768+MB and that seems to have really helped
  • CPU usage - Maxing out 1 CPU, tried 2 and squeezes out other VMs so went back to 1 vCPU for VC
  • Followed VMware kb article to stop statistic collection (not sure that helped - seems to have)
  • not uncommon for vpxclient to crash in VirtualCenter VM (most likely CPU starved?)
• ESX couldn't see iSCSI storage in my setup (most likely user error?) though MS initiator can
• Switched from logging using VC client to log into Virtual Center and log direct into ESX server - seems to work better at the moment
  • ESX using 400MB of RAM sitting there, so upped ESX VM from 512 to 768 MB of RAM
• I've adjusted the VIC timeout from 30 seconds to 60 seconds
• Running XP's Task Mgr in Virtual Center VM drives CPU to 100% with Task Mgr taking 50%???
  • I do have WS 6.0.3? VM Tools installed rather than WS6.5b2's VMtools (read of blue screen with latest VM tools).
• Bottom line
  • I was unable to build a Win XP or 2003 VM under ESX under WS6.5b2 (couldn't see disk drive??)
  • I was able to get a VM running (Bart PE booting off ISO file)

Future plans