Only one NIC

[candabi]

I'm newby, and for learning purposes, I have only one NIC. Is it possible to share this NIC between Management network and VM Network ?

What is the promiscuous mode of the Vswitch for?

I used in Virtual Server, to copy one vhd easily and rename w/o problems. Here, trough datastore browser, I think it's no posible to copy one machine to use as template to another new machine and rename it.

[candabi]

I only have IP traffic between both machines in VMnetwork, but why isn't there any IP traffic between VMnetwork and physical nic? I want to connect them to internet...

[a_p_]

With the VM's being able to reach each other on the virtual network, I think this could be an issue with the physical switch. In case this is a managed switch, please check whether the ports are configured for port security by default and disable it.

André

[rickardnobel]

candabi wrote:

I have only one NIC. Is it possible to share this NIC between Management network and VM Network ?

Yes, that is no problem. In vSphere you could think of the physical NICs actually not being "nics", but a link between a virtual and a physical switch. This means that your single nic (called "vmnic") is attached to a virtual switch (called vSwitch) where you could connect a suitable number of machines.

[candabi]

But, two things:

- I suppose so,  that managed nework can have a different IP network from each machine, as each one have her own phisical nic?

- And, what is the 'promiscuous' option of each vnic and each vswitch ?

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

- I suppose so,  that managed nework can have a different IP network from each machine, as each one have her own phisical nic?

Yes, the uplink to a physical switch is comparable to a trunk between physical switches and all VMKernel port groups as well as the virtual machines are connected to the virtual switch using their own unique IP address. With different IP subnets on the ESXi host, you may need to properly configure the uplink port (i.e. 802.1Q).

- And, what is the 'promiscuous' option of each vnic and each vswitch ?

With promiscuous mode disabled, network traffic is only sent to the port group on which the target MAC address is directly registered. With promiscuous mode enabled traffic will be sent to the port group(s) regardless. This is required for e.g. a nested ESXi host where the VM's are connected to the nested host's vSwitch/port groups rather than to the outer ESXi host's port groups directly.

André

[rickardnobel]

candabi wrote:

- And, what is the 'promiscuous' option of each vnic and each vswitch ?

And to add to ap:s description it could also be used for a kind of packet mirror function to inspect other VMs network traffic.

However both funcitons are only for quite specific use cases and I do think you could safely ignore the Promiscous setting at the moment.

[candabi]

Thank you. I'll make another newby question.

With microsoft it's very easy duplicate a Vmachine. You only must copy the VHD renaming as you prefer, and create a new machine using that new vdisk.

But with VMware, it doesn't seem so easy. If you rename or the VMDK file or the name of the folder, the machine doesn't boot.

How is the best way to clone a machine using it as templatefor a new one?

[rickardnobel]

candabi wrote:

How is the best way to clone a machine using it as templatefor a new one?

Do you have vCenter or just a standalone ESXi? If having vCenter then there is a feature called just "Templates" where you create base installations of guest operating systems and then very easily deploy new VMs from.

[candabi]

I only have the free version ESXi 5.1 because I`ve understood that Vcenter is a payed version

[rickardnobel]

Yes, vCenter is not free and unfortunately you will need vCenter for both the Templates features as well as the online "clone" function.

[candabi]

So cannot I duplicate a machine and renaming it?

If I need a new machine I need to generate from the beginnning and install, all the updates, so and so?

[a_p_]

You can "copy" a VM using e.g. VMware Converter. If you are familiar with command line tools, you can also create a new VM (with only a small virtual disk) and then clone an existing virtual disk from a powered off VM using e.g.

vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/dataasstore1/oldVM/oldVM.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/newVM/newVM.vmdk

In case you want to create a thin provisioned virtual disk append -d thin to the command.

Andre

[candabi]

It's not the same copy the file through datastore explorer?

But how is the right way to copy a machine? Copy the folder and then rename the folder and the files, or:

-First create a machine without HD.

- Then copy inside this new folder the VMDK file (and rename) from the machine template to this new created folder.

- Now add this HDD file to our machine config.

Could this procedure work?

[a_p_]

Unfortunately it's not that easy.

The VM consists of a couple of descriptor and data files. If you want to rename the files after copying, you will also need to reconfigure/edit some of the descriptor files. In addition to this, you cannot rename the virtual disk file (.vmdk) from the datastore browser. Although this shows up as only a single file, it actually consists of two files, that's why I mentioned the vmkfstools command which takes care of the correct renaming.

André

[canillas]

...and If I want to 'backup' a whole machine, is it possible to COPY the folder of the machine by datastore explorer to an external drive and whe the fatal day come, I only have to copy back the folder and when the machine runs, then restore actual data ??

:smileyshocked: