Getting Started with ESXi 5 (Part 2) Create your first virtual machine

by Scott D. Lowe [Published on 12 Oct. 2011 / Last Updated on 12 Oct. 2011]

38
In this part of this article series we'll create a virtual machine.
If you would like to be notified of when Scott Lowe releases the next part in this article
series please sign up to our VirtualizationAdmin.com Real Time Article Update
newsletter.
If you would like to read the first part in this article series please go to Getting Started
with ESXi 5 (Part 1).

Introduction
In the previous part of this series, we laid the groundwork for your new ESXi 5-based
virtual environment by going through an ESXi 5/VMware Hypervisor installation and
installing the vSphere Client software. In this part, well create a virtual machine.
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Create your first virtual machine

You now have the key ingredients for virtual machine success. Youve installed the
hypervisor ESXi 5 and a management tool vSphere Client. From here, you can
start building virtual machines to meet organizational needs.
Start the vSphere Client by opening Start > All Programs > VMware > VMware Sphere
Client. This will open up the vSphere Client login page, shown in Figure 1. On this
page, provide the IP address for your ESXi 5 host and also provide the root user name
and password that you specified during the setup of your server.

Figure 1: Specify the ESXi host and username and password

You will likely receive a security warning like the one shown in Figure 2. This is
basically telling you that the SSL certificate being used by the ESXi host cant be
trusted. However, since you just installed the ESXi server, youre generally sage simply
clicking the Ignore button here, although you can also choose to install the certificate to
your local certificate store so that you dont see this message again.

Figure 2: It's safe to ignore this security warning

Once youve gained access to the vSphere Client, right click your server IP address and
choose New Virtual Machine. Note that the IP address from before and the one you see
below are different; I modified some network settings on my ESXi host in between
screen shots.

Figure 3: Start the virtual machine creation process

The first question is a simple one: Do you want to use Custom settings for your new
virtual machine or do you want to use settings that typically work well based on the
operating system you use? For the purposes of this demonstration, Im choosing the
Custom option.

Figure 4: Do you want to customize your virtual machine?

Now, provide a unique name for your new virtual machine.

Figure 5: Name your new VM

For the purposes of this article, Im using all local storage; no SAN is involved,
although I will include my EMC VNXe 3300 at some point later on. For now, though,
this test virtual machine will be deployed to local storage, as shown in Figure 6. Note
that the screen in Figure 6 tells you a bit about the selected storage, such as whether or
not thin provisioning is supported.

Figure 6: Choose a datastore

VMware has introduced a new version of their virtual machine format version 8. In
addition to enabling a number of new maximums, version 8 also brings with it 3D
graphics capability to allow support for Windows Aero and support for high speed USB
3.0 devices. These new hardware capabilities will extend the potential use cases for
vSphere, particularly with regard to desktop scenarios. The table below gives you a look
at some of the more significant differences between version 7 and version 8 virtual
machines. Although version 8 VMs are much more scalable than their version 7
counterparts, version 8 hardware is not supported across all of VMwares and third party
products yet, so choose carefully and only after checking with your vendors.
Some capabilities are dependent on the VMware edition as well. For example, 32-way
SMP is available with Enterprise Plus. The table below outlines the high level
differences between version 7 and 8 virtual machines without taking into regard edition.
Version 7

Version 8

SMP

8-way

32-way

RAM

256 GB

1 TB

3D support

No

Yes

BIOS

Yes

Yes

EFI

No

Yes

CPU hot add

Yes

Yes

RAM hot add

Yes

Yes

Figure 7: Choose the virtual hardware version you want to use

The next step is to identify the operating system that will run inside the virtual machine.
Your selection will help the client identify the baseline specifications that will be
recommended for this new virtual machine. You can see this screen in Figure 8.

Figure 8: Choose your operating system

On the next screen shown in Figure 9 youll begin to see where ESXi 5 has
introduced some changes. Rather than simply assigning a number of cores to a virtual
machine, specify the number of virtual sockets youd like to assign to the machine as
well as the number of cores per socket youd like to assign. The client will calculate the
number of cores based on the values you specify.

Figure 9: Specify CPU options

Next up, assign RAM to the virtual machine. The virtual machine creation wizard
provides you with a number of different recommendations including the minimum
recommended RAM based on the operating system you selected, default recommended
RAM for this OS and the maximum recommended RAM for this particular operating
system. You can see these options outlined in Figure 10.

Figure 10: RAM recommendations

Every virtual machine needs one or more network adapters. On the next screen of the
wizard, choose the number of NICs youd like to add to the virtual machine, choose the
virtual network to which each NIC should be attached and choose your NIC type.
E1000. The E1000 is an emulated version of the Intel 82545EM Gigabit
Ethernet adapter. Not all guest operating systems include support for this
adapter. Generally, if youre running a system with Linux kernel 2.4.19 or later,
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and later, and Windows Server 2003 (32bit) and later, youll find E1000 support.
VMXNET 2 (Enhanced). Unlike the E1000, the VMXNET adapters do not have
physical counterparts and are specifically designed for use in a virtual machine.
Once you install VMware Tools, drivers for this network adapter are provided.
VMXNET 2 builds on the base VMXNET by adding support for features such as
jumbo frames and hardware offload. VMXNET 2 support is provided in the
following operating systems:
o Windows Server 2003
o Windows Small Business Server 2003
o Windows XP Pro 32-bit
o Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0
o SUSE Linux Enterprise 10
o Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0 64-bit
o Ubuntu Linux 64-bit

VMXNET 3. VMXNET 3 is not simply a next version of VMXNET 2. Its a

new adapter type that includes all of the features of both VMXNET and
VMXNET 2 but adds additional features including IPv6 offloads and multiqueue
support. VMXNET 3 is supported in the following guest operating systems
(refer to VMware documentation for limitations that may be specific to each
operation system):
o Microsoft Windows XP,7, 2003, 2003 R2, 2008, and 2008 R2
o Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0 and later
o SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 and later
o Asianux 3 and later
o Debian 4
o Ubuntu 7.04 and later
o Sun Solaris 10 U4 and later

Figure 11: Choose a network adapter type

Although the network adapter type is an important selection for your new virtual
machine, your choice of SCSI controller will likely have more significant performance
implications. This selection is made on the next screen of the virtual machine creation
wizard, as shown in Figure 12.
BusLogic Parallel. This is the default selection for older operating systems.

LSI Logic Parallel. This is akin to a traditional parallel SCSI adapter and is not
suitable for all purposes, but is generally compatible with guest operating
systems.

LSI Logic SAS. This is the default for Windows-based guest operating systems.

VMware Paravirtual. As is the case with the VMXNET series of Ethernet

adapters, the VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) adapter is designed for virtual
hardware, but it has some limitations, such as a restricted list of supported guest
operating systems.

Figure 12: Choose a SCSI controller type

Next up, choose your virtual disk. You can create a brand new virtual disk, as you can
see in Figure 13 is the route Ive taken, use an existing disk, create a raw device
mapping (RDM) or not create a disk at all.

Figure 13: Select a disk

Since Ive chosen to create a new virtual disk, the wizards next step is to provide me
Figure 14 with the options that I need to carry out that wish.
On this screen, Im asked three questions:
Size of the new virtual disk

Provisioning type
o Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed. Fully allocated space for the new virtual disk
and wipes it of previous data.
o Thick Provision Eager Zeroed. Fully allocates, wipes, and zeroes out
allocated space on the new virtual disk. Some applications require the use of
Eager Zeroed disks. On the surface, it would seem that this type of disk provides
the best performance since space is already allocated and prepared, but some
testing has shown that the performance benefits may not be substantial.
o Thin Provision. Disk space is not immediately allocated to the disk. Its
allocated on demand with the upper space limit being the specified size of the
virtual disk. There are enormous space benefits to be had with thin provisioning,
but it also requires you to keep a careful eye on storage to avoid accidentally
overprovisioning and running out of space.
Virtual disk location

Figure 14: Choose a location for the new virtual disk

If you like, you can make advanced changes to the disk configuration on the next page
of the wizard, shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15: Advanced disk options

Summary
And with that, youve now created your first fully functioning virtual machine under
VMware ESXi 5!
If you would like to be notified of when Scott Lowe releases the next part in this article
series please sign up to our VirtualizationAdmin.com Real Time Article Update
newsletter.
If you would like to read the first part in this article series please go to Getting Started
with ESXi 5 (Part 1).

Getting Started with ESXi 5 (Part 1)

by Scott D. Lowe [Published on 28 Sept. 2011 / Last Updated on 28 Sept. 2011]
35
In this article, youll walk though a complete installation of ESXi 5 and the vSphere
Client.
If you would like to read the next part in this article series please go to Getting Started
with ESXi 5 (Part 2) - Create your first virtual machine.

Introduction
As you may know, VMware recently released ESXi 5 and, with it, a plethora of new
capabilities. In order to familiarize yourself with ESXi 5, youll need a platform from
which to test.
Getting going with a lab installation of ESXi 5 isnt too hard and is the topic Ill be
presenting in this article. After all, before you take the plunge and migrate your
production environment to ESXi 5, I assume youll play with it in your lab first. Or, if
youre just getting your feet wet with VMware, youll need to gain an understanding for
how the software operates.
If youre interested in learning about some of the new features that are available in
ESXi 5, Ive written two articles on the subject here at virtualizationadmin.com:
What's new in vSphere 5 (Part 1)
What's new in vSphere 5 (Part 2)
Before you get started, make sure you understand that the free version of vSphere
Hypervisor (the official name for the free ESXi 5) has some limitations:
Has a limited vRAM entitlement of 32 GB for the server. This is probably the
biggest limiting factor.
Cannot be managed with vCenter due to the free products lack of a vCenter
Server Agent. You must use the vSphere Client, which well be installing as a
part of this article.
For more information about the free VMware vSphere Hypervisor, visit VMwares
information page.
In this article, youll walk though a complete installation of ESXi 5 and the vSphere
Client. In part 2, well go through the process of creating your first virtual machine. Im
making the assumption that you have a server that you can use for this purpose and that
the server meets VMwares relatively strict hardware requirements. For my purposes,
Im installing ESXi 5 to a VMware Fusion-based virtual machine on my Mac in order to
ease the process of getting screenshots and there are many screenshots in this article.
To get started with your installation of ESXi 5, insert the ESXi 5 disc into your server
and start it up. In my installation, Im installing ESXi 5 under Fusion. Obviously, this is
for demonstration purposes only.
In Figure 1 below, youll see the first screen that greets you when you start your server.
From this menu, choose the first option to start the ESXi 5 installer.

Figure 1: ESXi 5 boot menu

Once you choose the installation option, the installer provides you with a window that
details the status of each file that needs to be loaded. Figure 2 shows you this screen.
After that, youre greeted with a familiar screen that shows you some information about
your server, including the processor type and system RAM. The target machine for my
sample installation is a virtual machine running on my Mac, hence the relatively
minimal hardware configuration. You can see this screen in Figure 3.

Figure 2: Installer load status

Figure 3: Yet another boot screen!

With the preliminaries out of the way, the ESXi 5 installer truly kicks off with a
welcome screen containing information regarding VMwares Compatibility Guide. To
continue with the installation process, press Enter.

Figure 4: Kick off the ESXi installation

Of course, no installation would be complete without having to accept an end user
license agreement. To accept the agreement as a part of the installer, press F11. If you
dont accept the agreement, press Escape to abort the installation. You can see this
screen in Figure 5.

Figure 5: ESXi 5 end user license agreement

A location to which to install ESXi 5 is the first technical decision you have to make. In
Figure 6 below, you can see that I have a single 40 GB volume from which to choose as
an install location on my machine.

Figure 6: Choose an installation location for ESXi 5

Next up, as shown in Figure 7, choose your keyboard layout. Im sitting smack in the
middle of Missouri, USA, so Ive chosen the US Default option.

Figure 7: Choose your keyboard layout

The root password on your ESXi 5 system is the key to your virtual kingdom, so choose
with care. Make sure you provide a strong password. As you can see in Figure 8, you
have to provide the password twice to make sure you dont include any typos.

Figure 8: Provide a password for the root user account

The ESXi installer now scans your system to get additional information (Figure 9).
Once thats complete, youre asked to confirm the installation by pressing the F11
button (Figure 10). Once you initiate the installation, your selected disk will be
repsrtitioned. Throughout the process, the installer provides you with an installation
status like the one shown in Figure 11.

Figure 9: Gathering additional system information

Figure 10: Confirm the installation

Figure 11: Installation status

When the installation process has finished, youll get a message indicating such (Figure
12).

Figure 12: Installation is complete

The last screen youll see is a yellow and gray one like the one shown below. Take note
of the IP address on the screen.

Figure 13: ESXi 5 server display

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Install the vSphere Client

With the ESXi 5 installation complete, turn your attention to preparing the
administrative tools youll need to work with your new server. Start this phase of your
journey by pointing your web browser at the IP address shown in Figure 13 and
downloading the vSphere 5 client software. Execute the client software installation
routine and provide an answer to the first question youre asked: What language would
you like to use for the installation?`

Figure 14: Choose an installation language

The first four screens of the installer dont add much technical value, but you need to
run through them in order to proceed with the installation:
Welcome screen (Figure 15). Click the Next button to proceed.

Patent agreement (Figure 16). If you like, read through the patent information
and click the Next button to proceed.
License agreement (Figure 17). Decide whether or not you agree with the license
terms and, if so, click Next.
Customer information (Page 18). Provide a user and organization name for the
installation.

Figure 15: vSphere Client installation welcome screen

Figure 16: Patent agreement

Figure 17: End User License Agreement

Figure 18: Provide customer information

On the Destination Folder step, shown in Figure 19, choose a location to which to install
the vSphere Client. The default installation location is C:\Program
Files\VMware\Infrastructure. If youd like to choose a different location, click the
Change button and provide one.

Figure 19: Installation location

Once youve made your selections, youre presented with one final screen on which you
need to click the Install button to proceed with the installation.

Figure 20: Perform the installation

Once complete, click the Finish button on the Installation Completed screen shown in
Figure 21.

Figure 21: Click the Finish button to complete the process

Summary
Obviously, this installation is taking place for a small environment since were using the
vSphere Client without vCenter. In the next part of this series, well go through the
installation of a single virtual machine.
If you would like to read the next part in this article series please go to Getting Started
with ESXi 5 (Part 2) - Create your first virtual machine.