ESXi Adventures -

From: http://traviskensil.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/esxi-adventures/

ESXi Adventures

August 11, 2008 · No Comments

This post will focus on some of the positives and negatives and some of my experiences thus far that I’ve had with ESXi. Part of this post will also outline some of my plans for backup/restore with the hopes of generating other’s opinions of the viability of these options, since very few exist from VMware currently.

COMPATIBILITY: Personally, I’ve always gone against the “norm” and run stuff that shouldn’t be run on things…I guess I like to tempt the odds. Same thing with ESXi. So far I’ve run ESXi on a Dell Poweredge 1900 and my Intel-motherboard based workstation with zero issues. My theory goes that most modern day servers/workstations should be compatible with it; or at least should have some way of making it work. Will soon be testing it on a Dell 2600 as well. Also tested on a Gateway workstation (E series) and confirmed IT DOESN’T work. The PERC controllers seem to be recognized and play well with ESXi. I know I’ve seen that HP and some Sun stuff also works well…we are 100% Dell for servers so thats the limit of my testing ability. I am sure as time rolls on that ESXi will mature in its compatibility ability.

INSTALL: Install is a piece of cake. Basically goto VMware’s site, give them your life history, then download the 200MB .ISO file and receive your license key and your good to go. Install should find your RAID/SATA controller right off the bat and present it as an option….if it doesn’t…..better switch hardware. I have also been investigating USB-boot…some guy on the Vmware communities’ seems to have got it figured out.

http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/Knorrhane/2008/01/21/installing-esx-3i-on-usb-stick

For my platform I just installed to the local disks; will be migrating to the USB drive soon!

BACKUP: I hate to complain about FREE but come on VMware….at least give us something to backup with. Maybe we don’t need enterprise features but a basic tool would be nice. Now, apparently according to the documentation there is the CLI-based way but there still should be some kind of GUI to it all…especially when you consider how nice the Infrastructure client is. This is one area where ESXi DOES NOT shine at all….in fact its a large disappointment! Later this year some 3rd party products are suppost to begin supporting ESXi backup but most can’t wait 3-6 months while thats figured out. If Microsoft Hypervisor has this it definitely could turn the tables for our support of VMware. I have however, devised a simple way to provide a basic level of backup. It is as follows….

• ESX CONFIG/HOST

1) Create image of USB drive contents (using Winimage http://www.winimage.com/winimage.htm or other similiar tools). This should in theory preserve the entire ESXi config, directory/drive structure required to get the system going. The first part is to take the image and save it somewhere.

2) The second part is to take the image of USB1 and copy it to USB2 which should allow for a backup USB stick should the primary fail or become corrupt.

• Virtual Machines

1) After successfully creating/importing the virtual machine, power it done properly. Go into the Datastore Browser and manually download the virtual machine files. Store in a safe place.

2) Obviously take the usual backups from within the virtual machine, use a backup proxy or however you perform “normal” backups.

That is my backup plan for ESXi currently. I have tested parts of it and found success…others need work. Ideally this would allow you to restore the ESXi config, restore your virtual machine then merge the most current data and be back up and running in a short period of time. I have yet to test this process. Please….let me know your thoughts as well….anyone got a better solution?

VMware Infrastructure Client

This is the one place ESXi shines and shines bright! The interface is clean and very easy. Tabs give access to everything one would need to know. I LOVE the networking visualization it shows; groups physical cards to virtual switches/groups…very nice. The performance and reporting per virtual machine or per server is sweet! My only gripe is that I experienced some bad delay when switching virtual machine consoles. I can’t completely rule out the workstation I was on but it still seemed pretty noticable. Also…be aware that ESXi itself doesn’t have any kind of network/IP checking in it. (Realized too late in the process that two machines had conflicting IPs…the ESXi console made no mention of that) To install the client just simply goto the IP address of the box (listed on the physical server’s console)…a splash page will load with download links to the software.

Thats pretty much it for now. Also, the VMware converter does a nice job of bringing in existing VMs into ESXi. My only complaint is the lack of efficient backup in the product. I realize VMware needs to make money, but I think a basic feature like backup, even in a simple form, should be included. Just having a simple export config and VM option would be fine. Most companies use 3rd party software for the majority of their backup needs anyway. I do feel this is one area that will limit ESXi’s deployment. Microsoft Hypervisor includes stuff like LIVE backup in its product without additional licensing (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/virtualization-consolidation.aspx or so its site claims) which has VMware at an extreme disadvantage. The Infrastructure client is nice, but without backup included it is pretty useless I think.

So theres my results starting out. I failed to mention…my test environment is a Dell Poweredge 1900….running Domain Controller, Exchange 2003, Ubuntu Web/DNS services, File/Print servers and a test WinXP. So far so good.

With that said….anyone else using ESXi in testing or production use? What are your backup thoughts? Please share!