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arahuman
Contributor
Contributor

VMWare ESX

Dear, I am totally confused from many products of VMware. I am going to implement a external project for customer where they required 8 servers to run in VMware server farm. Which VMware server product i have to choose? can anyone help me please?

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rickardnobel
Champion
Champion

Can you specify a little more on your requirements?

If you are interested in running a so called Hypervisor ("virtualization server") directly on a bare metal server then there is only one product now called ESXi. The ESX version you mention in the thread title is no longer available.

My VMware blog: www.rickardnobel.se
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VMmatty
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

First off, welcome to the forums.

As ricnob states, we need a little bit more information to help guide you to the right solution here.  A really good place to start though is to either download an evaluation copy of vSphere 5 (which will have all of the features activated for 60 days), or by using the free vSphere Hypervisor.  The free product will allow you to virtualize some workloads and get your feet wet with vSphere before looking at licensed versions with more features.

Here is a link to the free vSphere Hypervisor:  http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor/overview.html

I generally try to have folks avoid using the free license of vSphere due to its limited feature-set.  There are editions of vSphere you can buy for as little as $500 that includes up to three hosts and includes VMware vCenter to manage everything.  Take a look at the vSphere Essentials bundle:

http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/small-business/essentials-kits.html

Matt

http://www.thelowercasew.com

Matt | http://www.thelowercasew.com | @mattliebowitz
arahuman
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you Ric and Matt for quick reply. We are going to implement a testing environment with 8 servers, the server configuration is very high,

HP Server 2 X 6 core processor

64 GB RAM

HP SAN storage

Can you suggest a best product to install and manage 8 virtual server. I would prefer to go with VMware ESXi but i never have experience in installing on bare metal server? is it complicated task? easy to manage? can i get help from the community to install and configure?

Or as Matt suggested, can i go with Vsphere? what are the advantages over VMware ESXi? Please clarify

Thanks and Regards

Arahuman

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GaneshNetworks

As per your requirment, I recommend you to go for ESXi 5.0. It is available to download and install for 60 days trial period. If you are looking for a long period, please purchase a copy from VMware.

Installing ESXi5.0 on bare metal is very easiest job. For more: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UjSd8rbJvQ

It's not at all complicated and its very easy to manage through vSphere client. You can get the link to download this client, once you installed ESXi 5.0. You can get help from VMware community. It is always open to everyone, especially whoever is getting into vSphere world.

Note: ESXi5.0 is one of the component available in vSphere 5.0. Hope, you will get some idea about what to do.
~GaneshNetworks™~ If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".
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arahuman
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks a lot Ganesh. I will download the trial version and try.

Regards

Arahuman

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arahuman
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the feedback, Can you give an idea to extend the existing farm to more than one server, now the scenerio is

One of our customer have VMware farm and running with 4 virtual machines on the same server using ESXi 3.5 or older version. What is required if i want to create more VMs on the different server for the same farm? is it possible or i have to create a different farm on the new server?

Thanks for your help.

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GaneshNetworks

Looks like, your customer does not have virtual center server as they have only one ESXi3.5 server and 4 VMs. It is possible to create more VMs on the different ESXi server. However you can't manage these both ESXi server in a single console.

In order to manage those two ESXi servers, you may need to install virtual center server. If you dont want to enable the feature like HA, DRS, then you dont need to go for a new VC. Also I dont understand what you mean by the name called "farm". In VMware world, there is no space for the word "farm". I think you are getting confused with the word "cluster".

Please give more info, so that I can give more specific solution to your needs.

Note: Don't forget to rate the comments. You can select either "Helpful answer" or "correct answer". It will keep us to do more for this community.
~GaneshNetworks™~ If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".
arahuman
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the Reply. Actually i was told by customer that they have VMware ESXi farm with 4 virtual machines(2 X 2 node cluster) and they want to extend the farm with more VMs in different server. What shall i ask them to get more information?

Regarding VMware Virtual center, Should i need to remove the existing ESXi 3.5 ? or i can install this VC on the new Server?

Moreover, i am trying to install the trial version of ESXi 5, i get an error during installation, 'No network adapter detected' , How to proceed on it?

Appreciate your help.

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nayan007
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Choose Network Adapters for the Management Network


One or more Gigabit or 10Gb Ethernet controllers. For a list of supported network adapter models, see the

Hardware Compatibility Guide at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.

Traffic between an ESXi host and any external management software is routed through an Ethernet network

adapter on the host. You can use the direct console to choose the network adapters that are used by the

management network.

Examples of external management software include the vSphere Client, vCenter Server, and SNMP client.

network adapters on the host are named vmnic<N>, where N is a unique number identifying the network

adapter (for example, vmnic0, vmnic1, and so forth).

During the autoconfiguration phase, the ESXi host chooses vmnic0 for management traffic. You can override

the default choice by manually choosing the network adapter that carries management traffic for the host. In

some cases, you might want to use a Gigabit Ethernet network adapter for your management traffic. Another

way to help ensure availability is to select multiple network adapters. Using multiple network adapters enables

load balancing and failover capabilities.

Procedure

1 From the direct console, select Configure Management Network and press Enter.

2 Select Network Adapters and press Enter.

3 Select a network adapter and press Enter.

After the network is functional, you can use the vSphere Client to connect to the ESXi host.

Set the VLAN ID

You can set the virtual LAN (VLAN) ID number of the ESXi host.

Procedure

1 From the direct console, select Configure Management Network and press Enter.

2 Select VLAN and press Enter.

3 Enter a VLAN ID number from 1 through 4095. http://imagicon.info/cat/5-59/vbulletin-smile.gif

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arahuman
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the link, I am trying VMware ESXi5 in my laptop but unfortunately both the network cards are not supported by VMware and i couldnt able to proceed the installation. Is there any way to bypass the network check step to complete the installation?

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abbie11
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello ,yes it is possiable ,you can disable NIC in vmware BIOS, then try to install ,if still having problem please disbale in NIC physicalay after installation you can enable .

Yours, Abbie

Winning!
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