1st ESXI install and working but not perfect

[FreddieL]

After years of wanting to I have finally got the proper hardware together and created 3 VM's on ESXI 4.1.

The VM's are one MS Small Business Server 2003, one Centos 5.5 and a Windows 7 Pro. I have a few problems although so fare I have been able to turn off the old physical SBS 2003 and Centos Server.

The main issue is that ESXI is using many Network ports including 80,443 and probably other too that the MS SBS 2003 rely on for Outlook WEB Access, and many IIS related services.

The question is what is the best / common practice to avoid this issue?

Can I use one of the other physical network cards dedicated for the VM's and hope that ESXI will not occupy any of the ports or do I need to create a messy port redirection solution on my router?

I am not short of physical network connection as there is two on the motherboard and a separate PCIe card too, so 3 altogether.

I have been searching high and low for a few days to find any solution, but there seem to be a lock of this pout there.

Any help welcomed.

Freddie

[DSTAVERT]

The Virtual guest machines will be using their own IP address and not sharing with the ESXi host machine.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

There's no problem sharing a NIC for management and virtual machine purposes with ESXi.  Let's say you have 2 NICs in the host.  You can create a single virtual switch that uses both NICs  (the default install creates a virtual switch that is just linked to vmnic0 - you can edit the vSwitch to add another NIC). On that vSwitch you'll have a VMkernel port that you'll use for management.  You'll assign ESXi an IP address for this port and this is what you'll use to connect to your host to manage it.  With a default install you'll also have a virtual machine port group on this same vSwitch.  You'll be able to assign your VMs to this port group and each VM will have a virtual NIC on the vSwitch.  Each virtual NIC get's a unique IP address so you don't have to worry about IP / port conflicts with ESXi. Unlike VMware Workstation,  ESXi doesnt' provide NAT services so you don't have to worry about port conflicts.  The virtual switchs you create are very much like a physical switch that you add to your environment.

[DSTAVERT]

These should help

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-2527

http://www.vmware.com/technical-resources/virtual-networking/

[FreddieL]

OK, so the failure of IIS based services after I created the VM from a physical server is not down to the ports being used by ESXI.

That I guess is great, I expected the VM's network activity to sit behind the ESXI main network and therfor potentially be hampered by this.

If that is not the case then I just need to concentrate on faults developed in my server after the conversion and not worry about the ESXI interfering.

Thank you

[DSTAVERT]

If this is a p2v have you removed all the old hardware drivers and associated software?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539

[FreddieL]

No I have not done anything apart from running the P2V routine.

I just looked in the Device Manager viewing hidden devices and it looks like it is all VWware stuff.

However I am not sure if what you are indicatij g could be an issue.

Maybe I should have steered clear of the P2V stuff and just clean installed. Howeevr the P2V capability is one of the main reasons I am testing VMware,

Freddie

[DSTAVERT]

You must follow the directions to see alll the hidden NON present devices. There can be performance and stability implications with old drivers. As long as you go through the process to remove old devices and software, conversion is usually quite painless.

[FreddieL]

That is a lot of devices removed!!!!

I think I should have perfected my VM backup first, but it restarted fine...

It did not resolve my issues with IIS and OWA, but I have a feeling I am getting warmer.

Thank you

[DSTAVERT]

Now you can start digging into Windows Event Logs. Make sure Firewalls didn't change. Make sure all the services start. If you have used fixed IP addresses you will need to go through the network settings to re establish them.

[FreddieL]

Thanks for all the help.

The issue was HTTP SSL not starting and this was caused by VMWare conversion tools. Once disabled and rebooted I have again WEB Mail and the much missed mail / diary and contact synched to iPhones.

Thank you for helping me to understand a bit more what ESXI is and is not..

[DSTAVERT]

Glad to help. If you have some time have a look through http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-14673