VMware Cloud Community
techmen8080
Contributor
Contributor

Downloading appliances and assigning ip address to new vms

Greetings all,

I am a noob ( new at this? like newbie I guess) and am trying to create some vms from the vi client for the first time. I clicked on the Download Appliance button and sure enough up came the download window. However, there were only a few machines listed on that first page and so I clicked to browse for more and another window came up with access to many appliances. When I tried to download an apppliance from the second window it download to the machine I was browsing with and not to my Vmhost. The only downloads I can get to go directly to my vmhost have to be downloaded from that first window.

1) Am I missing something simple that makes me unable to open a second window or access more appliances that will download to my host rather than the machine I am browsing from?

Given this limitation I decided to try the Zimbra appliance (for a test) as it was showing in that first window that downloads to my vmhost. I downloaded it to my vmhost and turned it on and watched it boot on the console tab. It crashed trying to find an ip on etho. I check the configuration tab and can see the Zimbra appliance is showing a green light and connected to VmNetwork which is connected to the active nic card on the vmhost machine.

2) I have 5 Ips assigned to me from the datacenter. One is going to the vmhost. How do I assign an Ip to the Zimbra appliance so it does not crash?

Reply
0 Kudos
3 Replies
Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

What sort of file do you download locally. With the ones you import directly they come in an ovf file format. For the Zimbra you can for example use this URL http://download3.vmware.com/software/appliances/zcs-NETWORK-4.5.3_GA_733.RPL1-ovf.ovf and the File\Deploy OVF Template to import the VM directly to your host.

Dave

VMware Communities User Moderator

New book in town - vSphere Quick Start Guide -http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/08/12/new-book-in-town-vsphere-quick-start-guide/.

Do you have a system or PCI card working with VMDirectPath? Submit your specs to the Unofficial VMDirectPath HCL - http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=21.

Reply
0 Kudos
techmen8080
Contributor
Contributor

I downloaded centos 5.2 as a zip7 file that expanded into five files - vmdk, xf,x,sd and an nvram file. I downloaded vma and it became two fiels as well: vMA-ovf-4.0.0-161993-0.vmdk and vMA-ovf-4.0.0-161993.ovf. The ovf file is only 13kbs? I have no idea how to load the vmdk and associated files? I

Files that I deploy by URL like you suggest load fine, However, there seem to be very few of these ovf templates available? A search on google produces almost none. I can find not a single site that is listing ovf templates the way we sould see for say drupal themes.

When I search the vmware appliance site for ovfs I get about seven finds? Most appliances in the market place seem to be written in a format other than ovf for earlier versions of esx?

1) Please direct me to a webpage with a significant number of ovf templates to chosse from that have urls listed for deployment. I could find very few if any besides the Zimbra one you listed.

2) How do I add an ip address to the Zimba machine. This cannot be a great mystery. HOwever, the KB only had 25 articles in response to a search " ip" and none reference add one to a virtual machine. I fear I am over looking the obvious as this information does not seem to be available. I did see some stuff about IpCop but find it hard to believe we have to have a whole applicane just to add an ip to a machine. I did this easlily in one file on OpenVz and it took care of all the nework issue behind the scenes.

I looked through the 4 pdfs listed as documentation for vsphere4 and they seem to revolve around Virtual Center? Searching the vmware site in general is very confusing as there are so many products all having vmware in the name. For instance a lot of information seems to relate to Vi3 and esx and not to Vsphere4 and esxi? I am having trouble finding specific directions for for vsphere.

I am very new to vmware but it looks to me like the console was removed in vsphere and practical documentation to compensate is scarce or buried in the confusion of multiple products, releases, and poor product naming conventions. Searches often produce documents that are relevant to other products even when serached for in a specific community. So many things I have read are about esx with console and don't seem to apply to esxi 4.

Reply
0 Kudos
techmen8080
Contributor
Contributor

I hit return through the Zimbra vm console and got the appliance past the etho ip problem it booted to a linux prompt. I then went in the /etc directory and found the ifcfg-etho file and tried using the ifconfig command to set the ip and subnet mask so the vm could be accessed on the vmnetwork and the vmnic. However, that didn't seem to give me connectivity. I am imagining a virtual appliance would have an better way to get on the vnetwork of it host other than doing stuff like this?

However, maybe I am on the right track? Can I assign a vm one of the static ips the datacenter has given me and have it appear to the phyical nic port via the vmnetwork and vmnic shown in the networking tab of the vi client?

i am also reveiwing the Vmware Virtual Network Concepts.pdf for a more general understand of how it all works.

Reply
0 Kudos