Howto: Removing a disk from a VM - howto identy the right disk?

From time to time, we need to remove disks from a VM. If there's only two or three disks attached to the VM, it's typically not a problem figuring out which one to remove e.g. if the disks have different sizes. But if you have seven or eight disks and they are the same size, then it's a bit more tricky - let's say if you're asked to remove the 'E-drive'. Under 'Edit Settings' for the VM, the disks only have a number which does not necessarily...

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Resetting the root password on ESXi 5 (and ESXi 4)

Yesterday, we had a fairly nasty situation at work where a standalone ESXi 4.1 host had to be rebooted. After reboot it did not automatically reconnect to vCenter and so a manual reconnect was done which prompted for root password. Unfortunately, we did not have the root password (don't ask). The host was joined to a domain but it could not be added to vCenter by using domain credentials and ssh to host with domain credentials did not work...

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Disabling cores in BIOS for BL460c Gen8

Due mainly to licensing rules imposed by Oracle and Microsoft, there is an increasing demand for either locking VMs to specific hosts (like with VM-host-affinity rules) or for decreasing the number of physical CPUs or logical cores in the ESX hosts.For HP hardware it is possible to order Blade servers with 2, 4, 6, or 8 cores - at least for BL460c Gen8. But in my company, we like to keep things as standard as possible, not having too many different...

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Downloading VMware tools seperately from VMware site

The other day I had to extract the VMware tools ISO for a customer. One way to do it is to log on to a VM that has not updated VMware tools to latest version, choose to upgrade VMware tools manually and then copy all of the files on the mounted ISO and make a new ISO.However, the different versions of VMware tools can also be downloaded directly from VMware's website on http://packages.vmware.com/tools. There are also tools version for Windows servers.I found some more info on it on this s...

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Why Are There Two VMX Files?

Have you noticed that for a powered on virtual machine in vSphere 5.1, there is now an additional VMX file that ends with an ~ (tilde) found within the virtual machine's configuration directory? This was an observation that was made by a few folks and some thought it might be related to a virtual machine's lock file which is created when a virtual machine is powered on. After a bit of research, it turns out this extra VMX file is not a lock file...

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How to change SID in Windows Server 2008 R2

Most of the tech guys usually work on VMware and some other Virtual platforms and usually install the same OS to create multiple copies. You can do this copy by two methods.1.      By cloning the virtual machine2.      By Changing the SID of the OS so that it will not conflict.In previous version of Windows like 2003 we usually use NewSID.exe that is recommended by Microsoft to changing the SID....

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How To Backup & Restore Free ESXi Host Configuration

ESXi host configurations can easily be backed up and restored using either the vCLI's vicfg-cfgbackup or PowerCLI's Get-VMHostFirmware cmdlet. These commands along with others that perform "write" operations are only supported when you have a (paid) licensed version of ESXi. If you are using free ESXi, the remote commands are only available for "read-only" operations. Note: In my personal opinion, it is much quicker and more efficient to re-install...

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Enable Auto Startup After Power Failure For Apple Mac Mini

I recently came across a very useful tidbit after receiving several inquires asking how to configure an Apple Mac Mini to automatically startup after a power failure. This is extremely useful for situations where power is eventually restored and you are not physically around to press the power button. Automatically starting up after a power failure is not a new feature of the Mac Mini and it actually exists on most modern day systems and can...

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VMware vSphere can virtualize itself + 64-bit nested guests

Running VMware ESXi inside a virtual machine is a great way to experiment with different configurations and features without building out a whole lab full of hardware and storage. Virtualization enthusiasts everywhere have benefited from the ability to run ESXi on ESXi, first introduced with the vSphere 4 release. VMware vSphere 5 makes it easier than ever to virtualize hypervisor hosts. With new capabilities to run nested 64-bit guests and...

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How to Access vSphere Remote Console Using vSphere & VMRC API

We can provide access to the remote console of a virtual machine in a vSphere environment to your end users. This can be accomplished by leveraging both the vSphere and VMRC (Virtual Machine Remote Console) APIs and can be useful if you are building a custom portal for users to access their virtual machines. To use the VMRC API, you can download the latest VMRC 5.1 SDK which provides the following:The VMRC SDK allows you to use a Web-based application...

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