VMWare build suggetion!!!!

[milinkothari]

Hi, I want to building following IPTel LAB lab, looking for suggetion or best practise, i have never used vmware before.

1 publisher, 1 subscriber, 1 uccx, 1 backup/storage server/network management(windows), 2 x unity connection(both publisher for digital networking).

I am using following hardware:

asus motherboard p7p55 lx

intel core i7 860

8 GB ram 1600mhz

1tb hdd

onboard realtek nic(it is not supported by esxi, i just found out)

Also looking for suggetion like how many nic i need to use for this lab and which make of dual nic supported by esxi.

Any help will be highly appriciated.

[malaysiavm]

I will suggest to you search through the VMWare HCL list for the entry level servers and storage. This will simplify the entire process for you

Craig

vExpert 2009 & 2010

Malaysia VMware Communities -

[xalba]

Hi,

I also have a Realtek NIC and managed to install ESXi 4.0.0 Update1 customized with the NIC driver and SSH access to a 1GiB pendrive. Now I can boot my computer with ESXi. To make it I followed this two:

• This one gives an overview:

• This one gives step by step procedure, is great: (look down in this link, step by step with screenshots)

The customization script is prepared for systems using apt-get but detects when the system uses a diferent package management system and asks for the installation command. I was using Mandriva 2010.0 so I typed command urpmi as the package management system, the script verified all the required tools and installed the ones missing using urpmi. It was awesome.

Enjoy it.

PS: Thank you Varazir.

[Varazir]

Your welcome.

Cool to see that that part of the script works as I haven't tested it my self to any extends.

//Daniel

[DSTAVERT]

Remember that you may need to rebuild for every update. You would be further ahead getting a supported NIC(s). Embedded desktop controllers can and do fail at load.

[Varazir]

Me ?

My script doesn't contain any drivers, its adds the oem file to the image.

//Daniel

[xalba]

I missed to add that part, I took the driver from here: http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2187

This is the file that I used: http://www.vm-help.com/forum/download/file.php?id=343&sid=99c75a6d4e3d38d31a10f37f317da81d

Thanks to IRJustman.

[DSTAVERT]

The original post was asking for "best practices" advice. That you can get something to work deserves a congratulatory nod but it hardly follows any best practice. Realtec desktop NICs are very low end devices. They are embedded on many motherboards even ones built by Intel simply because the chipset is cheap not because it is the best. Networking becomes far more critical in a virtual environment because it is under far more load especially when used with external storage as is the case here. The best advice for any question like this should always be the hardware compatibility list where you will find tested components that function in predictable supportable ways.

[xalba]

You are right DSTAVERT, I have focused in making the hardware that causes trouble to work. As you point,

"Realtec desktop NICs are very low end devices. They are embedded on many motherboards even ones built by Intel

simply because the chipset is cheap not because it is the best.

Networking becomes far more critical in a virtual environment because

it is under far more load especially when used with external storage as

is the case here.

So if we already have that hardware (Realtek), and suppose it is embedded in the motherboard, it could be disabled in the BIOS so it doesn't avoid ESXi to boot?

That way we can make the other nic, that are in the hardware compatibility list work?

Thank you.

[DSTAVERT]

Yes Disabling ALL unused hardware is beneficial. Serial and Parallel ports as well any unsupported components free up CPU cycles and interrupts that can be used by ESX(i).