Comments on: The VMware ESXi 4 64MB Hypervisor Challenge http://www.vcritical.com/2009/08/the-vmware-esxi-4-64mb-hypervisor-challenge/ Informed Virtualization Criticism Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:39:29 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: VAroon http://www.vcritical.com/2009/08/the-vmware-esxi-4-64mb-hypervisor-challenge/#comment-9612 VAroon Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:02:59 +0000 http://www.vcritical.com/?p=1468#comment-9612 Can this work on a normal laptop for testing purposes.But with no CPU AMD-V Can this work on a normal laptop for testing purposes.But with no CPU AMD-V

]]> By: Mark Richards http://www.vcritical.com/2009/08/the-vmware-esxi-4-64mb-hypervisor-challenge/#comment-9566 Mark Richards Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:40:47 +0000 http://www.vcritical.com/?p=1468#comment-9566 I understand it's meant as a demo but a demo that doesn't really work isn't nearly as impressive as one that doe. In my case I have lots of 256 MB USB keys I'd like to give to people to get them to try esxi- but it's a lot less useful if the config doesn't get saved. I'm not really sure why it wouldn't save the config- everything is definitely there- esxi boots- vm's run- etc. It just seems like the memory filesystem isn't being written out to disk. I actually had a 256MB key so I went a little further with my test: I set up a partition for VMWare tools and installed those to the key (I left out Vsphere client as I can download and install the latest version from vmware's site easily enough and at 111MB it would have taken up too much room). The tools worked fine and let me install to the vm's I tested. I'd still like to figure out the save issue if anyone has any ideas. I understand it’s meant as a demo but a demo that doesn’t really work isn’t nearly as impressive as one that doe. In my case I have lots of 256 MB USB keys I’d like to give to people to get them to try esxi- but it’s a lot less useful if the config doesn’t get saved.

I’m not really sure why it wouldn’t save the config- everything is definitely there- esxi boots- vm’s run- etc. It just seems like the memory filesystem isn’t being written out to disk.

I actually had a 256MB key so I went a little further with my test: I set up a partition for VMWare tools and installed those to the key (I left out Vsphere client as I can download and install the latest version from vmware’s site easily enough and at 111MB it would have taken up too much room). The tools worked fine and let me install to the vm’s I tested.

I’d still like to figure out the save issue if anyone has any ideas.

]]> By: Kevin Brooksby http://www.vcritical.com/2009/08/the-vmware-esxi-4-64mb-hypervisor-challenge/#comment-9565 Kevin Brooksby Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:08:27 +0000 http://www.vcritical.com/?p=1468#comment-9565 Nice work Eric. Great post. Used this method (a la a bit modified to extract the VMware-VMvisor.dd.bz2 on a Linux box) and I also used a 128 MB flash stick I had laying around. I must admit this is very cool to prove the core thin hypervisor is indeed a very small footprint and I appreciate your explanations in your two-part articles explaining the use of the other partitions. Doesn't seem to load as quick (but this may be because it is a 1.x USB device and not 2.x complaint like most of my 1-2 GB ESXi usb sticks I test with) but all functionality is there minus of course tools/vSphere client (web interface give a cute blank page as I assume it is missing tomcat portlet)/etc. Booted up a xppro VM that I recently installed the openssh for windows package on for test I was doing for a friend (I know it seems so bastardized) and yanked the 128MB ESXi u1 stick and to my immediate surprise my ssh session into that xppro box stayed running as did the VM. Must have been because the ESXi hypervisor is loaded into memory. Powered off my laptop running ESXi that joins my two way cluster and approx 45 seconds later HA fired the VM back up on esx2 node. Very cool indeed! Also noted the settings do not stick but that is no surprise with this stripped/slim ESXi install. Keep up the good work! Nice work Eric. Great post. Used this method (a la a bit modified to extract the VMware-VMvisor.dd.bz2 on a Linux box) and I also used a 128 MB flash stick I had laying around. I must admit this is very cool to prove the core thin hypervisor is indeed a very small footprint and I appreciate your explanations in your two-part articles explaining the use of the other partitions. Doesn’t seem to load as quick (but this may be because it is a 1.x USB device and not 2.x complaint like most of my 1-2 GB ESXi usb sticks I test with) but all functionality is there minus of course tools/vSphere client (web interface give a cute blank page as I assume it is missing tomcat portlet)/etc. Booted up a xppro VM that I recently installed the openssh for windows package on for test I was doing for a friend (I know it seems so bastardized) and yanked the 128MB ESXi u1 stick and to my immediate surprise my ssh session into that xppro box stayed running as did the VM. Must have been because the ESXi hypervisor is loaded into memory. Powered off my laptop running ESXi that joins my two way cluster and approx 45 seconds later HA fired the VM back up on esx2 node. Very cool indeed! Also noted the settings do not stick but that is no surprise with this stripped/slim ESXi install.

Keep up the good work!

]]> By: Eric Gray http://www.vcritical.com/2009/08/the-vmware-esxi-4-64mb-hypervisor-challenge/#comment-9557 Eric Gray Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:29:43 +0000 http://www.vcritical.com/?p=1468#comment-9557 This is an exercise to show that the core functionality of ESXi is fully contained in 64MB and not 1GB as some have claimed. This is an exercise to show that the core functionality of ESXi is fully contained in 64MB and not 1GB as some have claimed.

]]> By: Mark Richards http://www.vcritical.com/2009/08/the-vmware-esxi-4-64mb-hypervisor-challenge/#comment-9543 Mark Richards Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:37:07 +0000 http://www.vcritical.com/?p=1468#comment-9543 I've been able to get esx to boot on a key using this method- but no changes I make to the system are being saved to the key. If I reboot- the changes are lost. Are you able to save changes to the key across reboots? I’ve been able to get esx to boot on a key using this method- but no changes I make to the system are being saved to the key. If I reboot- the changes are lost. Are you able to save changes to the key across reboots?

]]> By: Eric Gray http://www.vcritical.com/2009/08/the-vmware-esxi-4-64mb-hypervisor-challenge/#comment-9522 Eric Gray Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:29:19 +0000 http://www.vcritical.com/?p=1468#comment-9522 The partition table entries are not in disk order. Run fdisk -u -l VMware-VMvisor-big-175625-x86_64.dd to see what I mean. On my "64MB" USB stick I did not have access to a full 64MB -- typical for storage devices of all kinds, so I had to trim that partition down a bit. 1.5MB was chosen arbitrarily and it worked. The partition table entries are not in disk order. Run fdisk -u -l VMware-VMvisor-big-175625-x86_64.dd to see what I mean.

On my “64MB” USB stick I did not have access to a full 64MB — typical for storage devices of all kinds, so I had to trim that partition down a bit. 1.5MB was chosen arbitrarily and it worked.

]]> By: Mark Richards http://www.vcritical.com/2009/08/the-vmware-esxi-4-64mb-hypervisor-challenge/#comment-9505 Mark Richards Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:49:59 +0000 http://www.vcritical.com/?p=1468#comment-9505 I realize this is a late comment but: Can you elaborate on why you performed some of these steps? For example- why do you skip the first 32 blocks? Why 1.5MB? is that the size of the files in the partition? The first partition itself is actually 4 MB in size so why 1.5MB? I realize this is a late comment but:

Can you elaborate on why you performed some of these steps? For example- why do you skip the first 32 blocks? Why 1.5MB? is that the size of the files in the partition? The first partition itself is actually 4 MB in size so why 1.5MB?

]]> By: Le concepteur d’ESXi est Français ! - Hypervizor.fr http://www.vcritical.com/2009/08/the-vmware-esxi-4-64mb-hypervisor-challenge/#comment-8022 Le concepteur d’ESXi est Français ! - Hypervizor.fr Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:34:01 +0000 http://www.vcritical.com/?p=1468#comment-8022 [...] fil d’un post sur VCritical détaillant la procédure pour limiter à son strict minimum la taille d’ESXi (64Mo), nous apprenons qu’Olivier Crémel est à l’origine du projet VMvisor aka ESXi [...] [...] fil d’un post sur VCritical détaillant la procédure pour limiter à son strict minimum la taille d’ESXi (64Mo), nous apprenons qu’Olivier Crémel est à l’origine du projet VMvisor aka ESXi [...]

]]> By: NiTRo http://www.vcritical.com/2009/08/the-vmware-esxi-4-64mb-hypervisor-challenge/#comment-7838 NiTRo Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:51:35 +0000 http://www.vcritical.com/?p=1468#comment-7838 you can use HP Drive Key Boot Utility to wipe it you can use HP Drive Key Boot Utility to wipe it

]]> By: asus77x http://www.vcritical.com/2009/08/the-vmware-esxi-4-64mb-hypervisor-challenge/#comment-7837 asus77x Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:49:14 +0000 http://www.vcritical.com/?p=1468#comment-7837 i try it before and failed. now my flash disk only shown to have 4MB. is there anyway to wipe the flash disk? originaly it's 2GB. thanks. i try it before and failed. now my flash disk only shown to have 4MB. is there anyway to wipe the flash disk? originaly it’s 2GB.
thanks.

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