|
VMWare ESXi Server (screenshots) - Thoughts
|
| Chris-D |
Posted on 06/13/2010 23:41 CST
|
Co-Founder
Posts: 493
Joined: 16.02.08
|
As some of you might already know, I setup VMWare ESXi server. The main reason I am doing this is to try and eliminate my 3 physical servers from running 24/7 in my basement. I'm wanting to condense the 3 down to 1 physical server only.
So far, everything has been pretty smooth. Here is a rundown of my current configuration:
x1 server - Windows 2003 server (AD, DNS, DHCP, WINS, FSMO)
x1 server - FreeNAS (network share w/RAID 5, FTP, etc..)
x1 server - IPCop (firewall, advanced proxy, VPN, etc..)
condensing to:
x1 server - ESXi (x1 Win2k3, x1 IPCop, x1 FreeNAS)
As of the time of this writing, I already have the IPCop and Win2k3 setup and running (updating Win2k3 now, then need to transfer over roles from physical server to VM server). [UPDATE] See the post below this one
The IPCop setup was the one I was concerned with, since ESXi didn't see the onboard NIC, and the current motherboard only has x2 PCI slots for additional NICs. I need to be able to ues x2 separate NICS (x1 for RED and x1 for GREEN). With a quick Google search, I was able to figure it out within VMware's vSphere.
I will update this as I move along the process. The next big challenge will be installing the x3 HDDs from my physical FreeNAS to this box.
The best part about all of this is:  ITS FREE! (Unlike the non-free version - ESX - around $10,000.00 per license if I remember correctly). At the school district I worked at, we used ESX (x2 licenses) and it appears to be the same thing (I know there is supposed to be some sort of limitation with ESXi - I think one of them has to do with the number of physical CPUs on the host).
When it is all finished, I will record a video or two and upload them to our YouTube account. For now, here are some screenshots of my current setup:
Edited by Chris-D on 06/15/2010 00:55 CST
"Press any key to continue"
Where the heck is the 'any' key?
Rock Falls and Sterling Computer Repair & Services - http://rfcomputer... - Rock Falls Computer Garage |
| |
|
|
| Chris-D |
Posted on 06/14/2010 00:29 CST
|
Co-Founder
Posts: 493
Joined: 16.02.08
|
[UPDATE]
VMWare has a tool called VMWare vCenter Converter that runs on the physical server and creates a VMWare .iso (image). During this process, it actually uploads the image directly to the ESXi server, creating a VM. I'm watching the progress, and it's at 40% complete after 2 min.
This will allow me not to have to transfer all the server roles over from my current DC to the VM DC!!
Here is a screenshot as of right now (this is of my physical server):
[UPDATE]
Ok, Win2k3 converter worked great! TIP: you might need to change the default drive config from IDE to SCSI, as well as changing the NIC (which can be done after the VM is installed) from the default to E1000
Overall, that was still much less painful than transferring over all the roles imho.
Edited by Chris-D on 06/14/2010 08:01 CST
"Press any key to continue"
Where the heck is the 'any' key?
Rock Falls and Sterling Computer Repair & Services - http://rfcomputer... - Rock Falls Computer Garage |
| |
|
|
| wiinaks |
Posted on 06/14/2010 05:41 CST
|
Administrator
Posts: 99
Joined: 16.02.08
|
aww man thats fricken awesome. if only I actually had a need for more than one server  |
| |
|
|
| Chris-D |
Posted on 06/14/2010 08:02 CST
|
Co-Founder
Posts: 493
Joined: 16.02.08
|
wiinaks wrote:
aww man thats fricken awesome. if only I actually had a need for more than one server
HAHA, ya wiinaks, I agree, it's great! Being that I used ESX in an enterprise environment already, I feel very comfortable in the UI.
"Press any key to continue"
Where the heck is the 'any' key?
Rock Falls and Sterling Computer Repair & Services - http://rfcomputer... - Rock Falls Computer Garage |
| |
|
|
| Donald A |
Posted on 06/14/2010 08:14 CST
|
Newb
Posts: 8
Joined: 18.02.08
|
Ummmmm, What |
| |
|
|
| Chris-D |
Posted on 06/14/2010 08:49 CST
|
Co-Founder
Posts: 493
Joined: 16.02.08
|
Donald A wrote:
Ummmmm, What
The angle of the dangle is reversibly proportional to the rhythm of the beat.
Now, was that so hard?
"Press any key to continue"
Where the heck is the 'any' key?
Rock Falls and Sterling Computer Repair & Services - http://rfcomputer... - Rock Falls Computer Garage |
| |
|
|
| Donald A |
Posted on 06/15/2010 01:51 CST
|
Newb
Posts: 8
Joined: 18.02.08
|
Got it |
| |
|
|
| Jason |
Posted on 06/15/2010 19:39 CST
|
Script Kiddie
Posts: 13
Joined: 06.12.09
|
so wonder if a hackintosh server will run on ESXI? |
| |
|
|
| BrokenShovel |
Posted on 06/17/2010 13:51 CST
|
Script Kiddie
Posts: 49
Joined: 26.03.08
|
what hardware are you using?
and does IPCop have to be infront of all hardware to work?
Damn I wonder how you get all this crap work period!  |
| |
|
|
| Chris-D |
Posted on 06/17/2010 15:09 CST
|
Co-Founder
Posts: 493
Joined: 16.02.08
|
BrokenShovel wrote:
what hardware are you using?
and does IPCop have to be infront of all hardware to work?
Damn I wonder how you get all this crap work period!
Using my Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 w/ 2GB of ram, nothing special, really...
As for IPCop, nope.... running as a VM just like the Windows 2003 Server, it's actually working a lot better than I thought it would. This weekend I will install advanced proxy plugin for IPCop for the extra features.
It's not too hard to setup, honestly man.... ESXi, all you have to do is download the .iso, burn it, boot to it, install it.... then access the web interface to access the vSphere tool to manage the whole thing... then BAM!!! just like running VMWare Server, just better 
"Press any key to continue"
Where the heck is the 'any' key?
Rock Falls and Sterling Computer Repair & Services - http://rfcomputer... - Rock Falls Computer Garage |
| |
|
|
| KBone |
Posted on 06/18/2010 02:47 CST
|
Script Kiddie
Posts: 25
Joined: 07.08.08
|
Yea, VMWare has a pretty sweet virtual technology here. I use and manage this technology EVERYDAY at work. I like the fact that you can assign (RAM, CPU, Disk space) on the fly and even provision a VM quickly. There has even been cases where I had a VM become corrupt. After deploying a fresh new VM, I can take a stored previous snap shot of the previous VM (before it became corrupted) and provision the new one with that image. This makes failure/recovery much more efficient. However, I still prefer a physical server. Don't get me wrong, I like VMware's technology here, but it still needs some work.
We're climbing close to 13,000 Virtual machines now in our VM Infrastructure. This is spread across 4 separate VM systems. I will say the "automation" has REALLY impressed me. For example, we have a bunch of different ESX clusters. Let's say ESX043 is having utilization issues. The VM's will automatically be migrated and deployed across various other ESXHOSTS. In other words, it wont just dump a bunch of VM's on 1 ESX host (which could stress that host). It will actually spread the vm's across various hosts making sure that ESXHOST could handle the load of that VM.
In conclusion, I didn't mean to start a Novel here. I like VMware's virtual technology, however I still see a fairly large margin for improvement. Cloud computing seems to be really catching on these days. As long as VMware doesn't run off and start making up it's on standards and doing things weird like IBM in it's day (oops did I say that), I think this product has the potential to be one of the nicest assets for ANY company that has multiple servers.
-KBone
Edited by KBone on 06/18/2010 02:49 CST |
| |
|
|
| Chris-D |
Posted on 07/29/2010 23:52 CST
|
Co-Founder
Posts: 493
Joined: 16.02.08
|
Nice post Kbone!!! Thanks for the details!
Update: I am loving this ESXi server, very stable and flexible. Installing a couple HDDs to add as a datastore now, to replace my FreeNAS box.
"Press any key to continue"
Where the heck is the 'any' key?
Rock Falls and Sterling Computer Repair & Services - http://rfcomputer... - Rock Falls Computer Garage |
| |
|
