Comments on: VMware ESX 4 can even virtualize itself

By: Fred

Fred — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:18:36 +0000

Thanks again Eric! i went to “unsupported “service console” on the physical ESX4i and execu ted esxcfg-advcfg -s 1 /COW/PermitVmfsOnRedoHierarchy
made a snapshot and could startup without any problem.

By: Eric Gray

Eric Gray — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:35:03 +0000

Since this is an unsupported/undocumented configuration setting, it cannot be controlled via remote API. The good news is that you should be able to just log into the “tech support mode” console of ESXi and run the same command that works on the service console.

In other words, go to the ESXi console, press ALT+F1, type in the word “unsupported” (blindly, as it is not echoed to the screen), enter your password when prompted, and then run the esxcfg-advcfg command.

By: Fred

Fred — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:35:07 +0000

Thanks for this advanced configuration setting Eric!
My Physical ESX host is ESX4i and sadly it is an unknown Option in there…

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin>esxcfg-advcfg.pl –server nl01sol
vh10 –username root -g /COW/PermitVmfsOnRedoHierarchy
Enter password:
Option /COW/PermitVmfsOnRedoHierarchy not found.

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin>esxcfg-advcfg.pl –server nl01sol
vh10 –username root -s 1 /COW/PermitVmfsOnRedoHierarchy
Enter password:
Option /COW/PermitVmfsOnRedoHierarchy not found.

By: Eric Gray

Eric Gray — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:10:18 +0000

The snapshot issue may be addressed with an undocumented configuration setting. Please see http://www.vcritical.com/2010/02/taking-snapshots-of-vmware-esx-4-running-in-a-vm/

By: Take snapshots of VMware ESX 4 running inside a VM with this undocumented setting | VCritical

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:08:41 +0000

[...] the capability introduced with VMware vSphere 4 that allows VMware ESX 4 to virtualize itself is a real [...]

By: Steve Shockley

Steve Shockley — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:40:23 +0000

FYI, I had problems getting ESX 4.0u1 to install under ESX 4.0 on an HP DL680c G5. When the install would start formatting the disks, vmkfstools would fail with status 65280, print the vmkfstools command options, then say “Error: not supported”. It turns out I only had the problem when the guest disk was on a volume on a NetApp filer via NFS. Putting the volume on direct-attach disk led to a successful installation.

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:12:37 +0000

I’m seen the same issue when I create snapshots on Virtual ESX 4s. I think it has to do something with the fact that the COS is on the same vmfs disk as the one you use for regular vmstorage. I’ve Google and found the issue, but I’m not sure if anybody has found a workaround yet.

By: Fred

Fred — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:03:32 +0000

It looks like we need another tweak for snapshot usage….. because that was the issue.
The ESX 3.5 reboots fine (with snapshot in use) but the ESX4 fails on vsd-mount

Any suggestions?

Tx
fred

By: Fred

Fred — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:44:19 +0000

Hi Eric… Thx for this post!
I executed the 2 tweaks and was able to install an ESX3.5 server and an ESX 4 server

The ESX4 server fails after a reboot. it fails on vsd-mount ….

Any suggestions?

The ESX3.5 runs fine

Thanks
Fred

By: Rafi

Rafi — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:22:46 +0000

Eric,

I have a HP DL385 G2 with AMD Opteron Processor. I have enabled the Virtualization in BIOS. This machine has enough RAM and DASD.

I was able to install ESX 4 on the bare metal machine

I am trying to get more familar with vSphere and to get familar with other features I needed another ESX server so I followed your post and was able to successfully install a virtual ESX 4i instance within the ESX 4 server. I have successfuly added both the ESX servers in the test cluster in vCenter.

I have also added a bare metal pentium 4 OpenFiler machine which is working as iSCSI storage. I have successfully configured and openfiler storage is visible to the ESX4 and virtual ESX4i instance

virtual ESX4i instance allows me to create virtual machines. However when I power them on I am not able to see anything in the console. When I power on the same machine and migrate it to the physical ESX host and I can see the console.

I am a virtualization newbie who is trying to learn … any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!