Workstation and ESXi and Windows Activation

[melgish]

I'm a software developer and use VMWare to maintain separate development environments for the varioius versions of our product.  I typically work out of my home office, or on the road.

Back in the days when  VMWare Server was fresh and new and wonderful, I setup a small server to host these VMs.  I ususally only have 1 or 2 running, but it freed up space and CPU cycles on my laptop.  When I'd get sent on-site, I would copy the relevant VM(s) off to a USB drive and head for the airport.  Once home they get copied back and I'd pick up where I left off.  Life was good.

But then VMWare Server started being treated like an ex-girlfriend (with an STD besides).  I switched my little server box to ESXi, went through the painful process of converting all my machines.  And for awhile I was exicted.  My VM's performed better than ever before.  And I only had to logon to the management interface once per session.  This all seemd allright. until it came time to go on the road again.

When I was using Server 2 and Worstation 6.5 I never ran into any problems moving stuff around.  It just worked.  Now with ESXi, every time I try, the Windows activation message pops up like the ED-209 robot from Robocop.   "You must activate windows! You have 30 seconds to comply!"

I recently upgraded to workstation 7.1 and i see the import / export feature.  I tried an import from my ESXi box and once again I get asked to activate any VM I relocate from server to laptop (haven't tried back again yet).

Now all this time I thought 1/2 the fun of virtualization is an abstract set of hardware that doesn't change from host to host.  So what gives?  How do I get my new setup to work just like it did all those year ago?

[continuum]

I guess you used Converter to move your VMs from Workstation to ESXi ?

don't do that !

if you post some details about your VMs I can show you ways how to move to ESX without using converter.

First of all I need to know which disktypes your VM use now

[melgish]

Yes I used the converter. At the time it seemed the only way to get stuff on a fresh clean ESXi.

My ESXi box has two drives.  ESXi and datastore1 are on first drive, datastore2 is on a second drive.

Disk Types:  Not sure what specific info you need but here's some samples : (my vm's are typically named for spices)

paprika.vmdk 16GB fixed   - LSI Logic

clove.vmdk 8GB fixed, 2GB fixed - LSI Logic

spearmint 14GB fixed - LSI Logic

salt.vmdk 16GB grow - IDE

bay.vmdk 12GB fixed - IDE

They're all windows boxes.  Mostly Server 2003, a couple have XP pro, and more recently some server 2008's   I've always installed vmware tools as "complete"

I have a third datastore "usb".  This is ...well it's a circle...  It's a USB drive mapped onto an ubuntu VM which shares the drive back out to ESXi as an NFS partition.  I don't run VMS on it, but use it to store backups and for holding ISO's etc.  I also have access to it's contents as a Samba share.