Where is the VMware Infrastructure Tutorial???

[car377]

OK, I'm new to server virtualization, but it looks like a good thing, so I download the free ESXi and "Getting Started with ESX Server 3i Installable", and I install ESXi on my lab server. Per the Getting Started guide suggestion, I try out one of the pre-packaged appliances, the NTOP appliance with the clever guess-the-NTOP-login&password mental game/time waster, but I persevere and finally guess correctly (and I'll tell you what it is if you ask, but I don't want to ruin the game for anyone else who wants to play). Then, with help from some of the very cool folk in the community discussion groups, I build my very own first VM, get Linux installed on it, and I'm looking for next steps and trying to figure out answers for a few problems I've noticed. At this point, the Guide says:

"VMware Infrastructure Tutorial
To learn more about VMware infrastructure 3 components and tasks, refer to the VMware Infrastructure Tutorial. You can access the tutorial by clicking the Explore Further links on the Getting Started tabs or by choosing Help > Tutorial in the VI Client."

Great, I'm in. Except that the Help > Tutorial option in the VI Client is greyed out, and the "Explore Further" link, "Learn about VMware Infrastructure", on the "Getting Started" tabs takes me to a web page (http://www.vmware.com/products/vi/vc/) on which the word "Tutorial" does not appear. No problem, I'll just follow the various links and eventually find it, eh? Nope, I never find it. I try the website search for "VMware Infrastructure Tutorial" and turn up 15 hits, all of which are references to it, and none of which are the tutorial itself. I try Google as well, hoping for a hit in the community discussions, but no luck. OK, maybe the new terminology hasn't caught up with all the documentation yet. What did VMware call it before it was "VMware Infrastructure"? Search says: "Virtual Infrastructure". No, that doesn't work either.

Can anyone point me to this mythical tutorial?

Chuck

[Dave_Mishchenko]

It may be this - http://communities.vmware.com/message/1123946#1123946.

[car377]

Thanks, Dave. I will check them out. Hopefully, they'll go far enough to cover that "next step" I'm looking for.

[patrickds]

when i click those links in the VI client i get the tutorials, so it must be something in your installation that's missing.

[car377]

Hi Patrickds,

Thanks for the reply.

How old is your VI client? I just downloaded and installed mine for the first time last Friday. The VI client version is 2.5.0, Build 119801, and the ESX Server 3i is Version 3.5.0, build 123629. If you hit the Tutorial link in the Help drop-down, do you get an embedded tutorial, or do you get a browser launch to a VMware web page?

Before I posted, I logged into a VI client version 2.0 on a friend's ESX installation to see if his help had a viable Tutorials link. Unfortunately, there isn't even such a link on his older client (2.0), so this may be something recent.

Thanks,

Chuck

[car377]

I just tried re-downloading the VI Client from my ESXi server to a different Windows desktop. The only option in the installation Wizard that I ignored first time around was the "VMware Update Service" checkbox, and I checked it this time. However, even on a different desktop with a new VI Client install, the Tutorial drop-down is still greyed out.

Chuck

[patrickds]

Yes, they're embedded tutorials, no links to vmware website

I opened it on the VI client from an ESX 3.5 U3, can't check the exact version right now.

I only tried the links on the summary or getting started tab, not from the help menu

[car377]

On my VI Client's "Getting Started" tab, there are four links:

Two links under "Basic Tasks":

"Import a virtual appliance" and "Create a new virtual machine" (These links launch wizards to perform the relevant task, but don't resolve to tutorials)

Two links under "Explore Further" (This is where all the documentation references regarding the tutorial point to)

"Learn about VMware Infrastructure" (this link takes you to , but not to any tutorial)

"Evaluate VMware Infrastructure" (this link takes you to , but not to anything called "VMware Infrastructure Tutorial")

Perhaps ESX and ESXi are different in this regard, and content provided for ESX was omitted from ESXi, but the document references weren't modified. when the free ESXi campaign was launched.

I've been reading some more about ESXi and the free download, and it seems that VMware has dropped the ball in various aspects of the rollout, so missing this particular documentation wouldn't be that strange. Turning on the RCLI file write capability for just the current update and turning it back off in the next update will probably hurt potential customers worse than a documentation oversight.

Thanks anyhow!

Chucki

[patrickds]

I'll compare this against what i get in the VIC tomorrow in my test lab.

[patrickds]

The links under Explore Further in the Getting started tab change depending on the level of the VI i have selected.

All have "Learn (more) about" and then:

Hosts&clusters: inventory views/virtualization/datacenters

Datacenter: datacenters/hosts/clusters

Cluster: clusters/HA and DRS/resource pools

Host: hosts/create VMs

VM: VMs/How to install an OS

All embedded tutorials.

The Tutorial link in the help menu opens the start page of the embedded tutorials, from which all the others can be found.

Client version is 2.5.0 119826

[car377]

Assuming client builds are sequentially numbered with no skips, your client is 25 builds more recent than mine, but I just downloaded mine a week ago. I'll download again and see if I get the tutorials this time. Thanks for your time and effort!

Chuck

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Are you downloading the ISO again or patching your ESXi host with the latest patch?

[patrickds]

To get a newer version of VI client, you'll have to patch your ESXi to the latest build, and try reinstalling the client version from that.

Although probably not every patch for ESXi contains a new client version.

[car377]

Hi Dave,

I haven't seen anything anywhere about patching. I went back through the ESXi free download pages again and again to see if I'd missed something. I noticed then that the free download for ESXi is still the 11/06/2008 build 123629, so I doubt that anything newer is available, at least for the free download offer. They have added one new download under "Optional Binaries" since last week, though, "VMware ESXi 3.5 U3 Installable with IBM Customization", Version 3.5 Update 3, build 123629, 02/19/09. The description:

"Image for ESX Server 3i installable that includes IBM customization. This image is for customers with an existing license entitlement to download ESX Server 3i for use on supported IBM server platforms. Download to hard drives only."

There is still no description for the "VMware ESX Server 3i U3 Installable Refresh" download that I first downloaded and installed, and it still beats me what a "Refresh" is and why a brand-new user trying out the free ESXi would need with a "Refresh". I'll probably start over with the IBM binary and hope they've fixed my CDROM access problem for the x3550 in it. I don't expect to see any tutorials, though: it's the same size as the "Refresh" version.

I decided to try a different tack and set aside the free ESXi attempt and instead hit the 60-day evaluation pages, where I found additional downloads, as well as some evaluation guides you only see if you go the 60-day evaluation route. Now I have five downloads to consider:

1. "VMware ESX Server 3.5 Update 3 CD image, Version 3.5 Update 3 build 123630 11/06/08" (600MB .iso CD image)

2. "VMware ESX Server 3i U3 Installable Refresh, Version 3.5 Update 3 build 123629 11.06/08" (241MB .iso CD image)

3. "VMware vCenter Server DVD image - English only version, Version 2.5.0 Update 3 build 119825 10/03/08" (754MB .iso DVD image)

4. "VMware vCenter Server - English only version, Version 2.5.0 Update 3 build 119825 10/03/08" (545MB .zip file archive)

5. "VMware Consolidated Backup, Verison 1.5 build 102898 07/25/08" (13MB .exe)

I'm back playing Adventure again, trying to guess what these might be, and which one I have to choose so as not to be eaten by a Grue.

#1 is ESX while #2 is ESXi "Refresh", (whatever that means). I assume I would normally choose one or the other of these. I suspect the ESX is the bloated version that still has the Console in it, while ESXi is the stripped-down version with most of the Red Hat stuff removed.

#3 and #4 appear to be the same thing packaged differently, as a DVD .iso or a .zip file. The vCenter software includes the VI Client according to the description, and the build number, 119825, looks much closer to what PatrickDS has installed (119826), and he says he sees the tutorials.

#5 is clearly a backup utility, and something that I normally wouldn't get with ESXi.

My guess is that the tutorials will be bundled with #3 or #4, and I need to install vCenter under the 60-day trial offer to get access to them. Then, after I've had a chance to go through them, I can go back and start over with the ESXi free download much better armed for adversity.

Chuck

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Patches you can get from here - http://support.vmware.com/selfsupport/download/. You'll want to select ESXi and you only need the latest patch as they are all cumulative.

When you install the VI client you should have had an option to do the VI Update Client as well. You can start that up to patch your host to the latest update. http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Patch_3i_without_VC.php