Help setting up ESXi5.

[vasim11]

Hello Gurus,

This is my first post to the blog.

Need to setup my home Lab to test all of the features of ESXi5 including DSRM, VMotion, etc. This is to get Certified .....I  got trained & have Voucher for VCP 5 Certification.

I know the HCL do not mention support for desktop Processors like the Intel i5, i7 series, but many blogs on the net mentions successful implementations.

My proposed hardware.

Intel i7 2600 that supports VT-X & VT-D   (Virtually 8 processors)

Intel DQ67SW Motherboard that supports VT-X & VT-D.   Can go with Intel DB75EN  supporting VT-X & VT-D,, memory support @ 1600 Ghz.

16GB DDR3 @ 1333 Ghz Memory. I can go with 32 GB @ 1600 Mhz.

(I thought of Xeon Processors,, but not readily available at my location...Budget & video / gaming performance is another factor to skip Xeon. Skipping AMD for overheat issues & personally perfer reliable Intel platform)

Setup:-

Windows 7 OS with Workstation 8.

2 or 3 ESX i5 Virtual Hosts within Workstation..... that would further host VM's + Application Servers for testing.

==============================================================

I researched & found VT-D is a good to have feature for Virtualization....... Need to know if VT-D is a MUST for VMotion & any other features ?

                                                                                                                            OR maybe considered for future requirements / features ?

Need your recommendations if I think of Overclocking by having ASUS like motherboards,,, but possibly miss on VT-D.

Need all your expert inputs & suggestions.

Thanks for taking time going through my post.

Best Regards

Vasim.

[vasim11]

Adding some more...

VT-D has a host of supported features.... so need to know if they would help with Optimised utilization of Physical Memory & some better performance.

      Does VT-D helps in memory balooning in any ways ?

If I wanna use the Physical RAID Controller as a hardware under Virtual guest & create few VMFS volumes,,,will that be configured as RAID volumes... need clarifications.

[Troy_Clavell · Accepted solution]

VT-d is only really needed if you are going to utilize VMDirect Path

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsp_4_vmdirectpath_host.pdf

[vCloud9]

Is there any specific reason that you want to run ESXi on top of Windows 7/Workstation? Did you looked into running ESXi directly on baremetal and cascaded/nested ESXi? The following blog talk about how to run nested ESXi http://tsmith.co/2011/creating-a-nested-esxi-5-environment/

And you could boot the ESXi off of flash drive as well, if you need the physical box for some other purpose.

[vasim11]

Hello Troy,

Appreciate your time & the document.

I went through & seem that the VT-D is only helpful if I share any PCI or PCI-e, Graphics Controller.

Need some clarifications about my understanding as below.

Onboard RAID controller & Physical Memory management / allocation / Balooning will have no effect whether I have VT-D or no... Am I correct ?

How about HA, DRS & Vmotion features that works more at hosted System's hardware level ?  are they affected if I do not have VT-D ?

Thanks 7 Regards

[a_p_]

Onboard RAID controller & Physical Memory management / allocation  / Balooning will have no effect whether I have VT-D or no... Am I  correct ?

Yes.

How  about HA, DRS & Vmotion features that works more at hosted System's  hardware level ?  are they affected if I do not have VT-D ?

No, only "VT-x" and "Execute Disable" are required. VT-d is only needed if you want to pass through devices directly to a VM.

André

[vasim11]

Hello vCloud9,

Thanks for your insight.

I though of nesting over VMware Workstation and chose Windows + workstation.

I can surely think of Flashdrive option booting the System through Flash drive.

  Concern is that I need additional System to access this Host. Wherein on a Workstation environment, I have option to setup the vSphere Client to another VM that can access the hosted ESX's.

Believe you are more inclined to the VCloud Director & hence the name...

Just wanna ask this to you.

   Does vCloud Director require "I/O memory management" a feature of Vmdirectpath ?

Do we have Evaluation setup for vCloud Director ?

[vasim11]

Thanks for the response Andre.

It helps me to concentrate more at a high speed memory support than the VT-D supported feature.

If I host few ESX's nested on a Vmware Workstation, should I expect the HA, DRS, Vmotion & other features work smooth ?

Or its recommended to have ESX on a Flash Drive which would nest the other ESX's.

Best Regards

[a_p_]

If I host few ESX's nested on a Vmware Workstation, should I expect the HA, DRS, Vmotion & other features work smooth ?

Or its recommended to have ESX on a Flash Drive which would nest the other ESX's.

It's less a question about where to install the hosts (HDD or SDD) themselves, but more where you create the datastores. I setup my home lab with the EXSi hosts on my HDD and created an iSCSI storage (using the MS iSCSI target) on an SSD drive. For hints on how to setup a test lab take a look at e.g. Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab

André

[vasim11]

Thanks for the wonderful link Andre.

That will help me a long way to setup my home Lab.

Best regards.

[vCloud9]

Vasim,

I didnt get your question on memory management. And yes, I have done couple of deployments of vCloud director, and there is evaluation version from VMware available for trial. And starting with 1.5 I think appliance version is available. Here is the link to download http://www.vmware.com/go/try-vcloud-director

[vasim11]

Hello vCloud9,

Thanks for the link for VCD Evaluation.

I was referring to the below inputs for memory Management.

ESX Host Requirements

VMDirectPath supports a direct device connection for virtual machines running on Intel Xeon 5500 systems,

which feature an implementation of the I/O memory management unit (IOMMU) called Virtual Technology

for Directed I/O (VT‐d). VMDirectPath can work on AMD platforms with I/O Virtualization Technology (AMD

IOMMU), but this configuration is offered as experimental support.

from the below link

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsp_4_vmdirectpath_host.pdf

Just wanna get confirmation if VT-D has any effect over vCloud... so I might reconsider VT-d....

========================================================================

I started with a hardware consideration like Intel i7 2600 (VT-x + VT-d).....with a motherboard having VT-x + VT-D support.

Now,,,, I would rethink my hardware procurement & consider i7 2600K + an ASUS motherboard that would support VT-x ONLY ...but gives Overclocking feature so that I can use Physical RAM with 1600 Mhz Operating speed.

Kindly let me know your thoughts on overclocking a Virtual environment.

Proposed setup: Windows 7 + Workstation that would host a ESX.  This ESX will further nest 2 or 3 ESX's & further Application Servers & test systems.

      (looking at the above setup... surely I would start with 16 GB go upto 32 GB of RAM).

Best regards

Vasim

[vasim11]

Hello Andre,

A quick question.

If I do not have a VT-D supported environment, maybe a Motherboard that do not support VT-D. Obviously I not have VT-D support.

In this Scenario,,, If I have additional NIC controlled @ PCI bus,,, I CANNOt use this Card to present to the Guest VM, or I can present...but get a Performance hit.

Appreciate your inputs.

[a_p_]

I doubt you will be able to do this without VT-d support. For a NIC this isn't really needed anyway, since you could just create a separate vSwitch with the NIC as the only uplink and connect the VM to a port group on this vSwitch.

André

[vasim11]

Thanks Andre,

Just to summarize my requirements & understanding.

Hardware:

Intel i7 3770 or 3770S or T 3rd Gen Processors that has all the VT features.

ASUS motherboard that has ONLY Virtualization support (specifically VT-x..NO VT-d)  say any z68, p67 Series Chipset.

16 GB RAM...upgradable to 32 GB as required.

Host System:  Windows 7 + VMware workstation 8.

This Workstation will have 4 VM's : 3 as ESXi5 and 4th with Windows 2003 + vCentre for Management.

I believe Workstation will gimme option to add Multiple NIC's for each VM...  Here as per your inputs VT-D is not required...Am I correct ?

           Even if I have 2 NIC's physically... those do not matter...Unless I install ESX on Physical System..Am I Right   ??

With Multiple NIC's presented to each Virtual ESXi, I can use these NIC's to be configured for HA & VMotion between ESX's... right ?

These Multiple NIC's can serve as the VMkernel NIC's  for every Virtual Switch... Am I correct ?

Currently I have a Intel Board with 100 MBPS Intel NIC...  While I setup a VM under workstation,,,, I see that NIC presented is a Intel GBIC and I can install ESX 5 which needs a GBIC NIC.

Need your Confirmation..Does Workstation present each VM with a Intel GBIC NIC,,, even if I have a Broadcomm GBIC / any other on physical host ??

              I see many issues at the NIC level unless its Intel... so that would help to decide..maybe a ASrock board with different NIC controller.

Thanks for all your time Andre.

Best Regards.

Vasim..

[a_p_]

Although I cannot guarantee that this configuration will work, I assume it will for VMware Workstation 8.

With VMware Workstation you can configure multiple networks and assign multiple virtual NICs to each VM. Since these are virtual NICs your hardware NIC doesn't really matter except you want to connect to other physical systems.

Maybe Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab will help you to design your virtual lab.

André