How to install ESX Server 3.5/3I onto ESX Server

# The followingArticleThe ESX Server directly installed on the hardware is called the [host ESX Server], and the ESX server installed on the host ESX Server is called the [Guest ESX Server]

1. Set the guest ESX Server

Just like installing other guest OS, connect to the host ESX Server through VI client or Virtualcenter and create a VM. During creation, select "other" for the OS type, set vcpu to 2, and set memory to 1 GB or more.

2. Change the NIC type to e1000

After creating a VM, do not rush to install it.
When installing the guest ESX Server, because the ESX Server cannot identify the default amd Nic, You need to manually edit the. vmx file and change the NIC type to the "e1000" that the ESX Server can recognize ".

Log on to the service console of the host ESX Server, find the. vmx file of the created VM under/vmfs/volumes/, and add the following lines in the VI Editor:

Ethernet0.virtualdev = "e1000 ″

Here, ethernet0 is the first virtual network card. If multiple network cards are set during VM creation, you need to set them separately. After setting, you can check the boot menu when starting the VM.

Default Nic type: AMD am79c970a

Network adapter type changed: Intel e1000

3. The CPU of the host ESX server hardware must support VT (virtualization technology) (AMD-V for amd cpu)

Intel's VT or AMD AMD-V is a technology that provides virtualization support at the CPU level. Installing a 32-bit operating system on the ESX Server, such as Windows XP, enabling or disabling the VT function does not have much impact on performance, but when you install the ESX server on the ESX Server, without VT, the startup time of the ESX Server Virtual Machine is reduced to more than 10 times.

(I installed ESX Server 3I on ESX Server 3 with a dual Xeon CPU and 12 GB memory without enabling vt. After 4 hours of 100% CPU usage, I gave up)

4. Open the backdoors of Vmware

To smoothly run ESX 3.5/3I on the host ESX Server, you also need to open the "backdoors" of VMware ", otherwise, we will probably see the "Purple screen" in VMware (comparable to the "blue screen" in Windows ).

To enable this backdoor to allow the installation of ESX server on a virtual machine, add the following two lines to the. vmx file:

Monitor_control.vt32 = "true"
Monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = "true"

This backdoor not only avoids "Purple screen" and other issues such as crashes and instability, but also increases the startup speed by 10 times. It took me 30 minutes to start the guest ESX Server when I opened the vt. It took me only 2 minutes to start the VT and open the backdoor options.

5. Allow promiscuous mode on host ESX Server

After everything is done above, you should be able to smoothly install the guest ESX Server. However, after the installation is completed and started, it is found that it cannot be managed through Virtualcenter-or even ping the service console of the guest ESX Server! Why?

The reason is that the vswitch settings of the guest ESX Server are connected to the host ESX Server. By default, the vswitch does not allow promiscuous mode (which allows the NIC to listen for packets sent to other MAC addresses. However, in the guest ESX Server, the NIC only acts as a bridge and does not directly bind a MAC address. Therefore, the promiscuous mode must be allowed in the host ESX Server to pass the package to the service console of the guest ESX Server correctly (3i is the management IP address ).

Now, you can experience the magical world of ESX 3.5/3I.

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