VMware ESXi 5.0 Installation and RWC2 Tips and Tricks This document introduces the details of how to install VMware ESXi 5.0 Operating System onto an Intel® RAID controller and how to use Intel® RAID Web Console 2 on a client machine to manage the RAID controller remotely. Revision 1.
Revision History Revision History Date March 2012 Revision Number 1.0 Modifications Initial release. Disclaimers Information in this document is provided in connection with Intel® products. No license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise, to any intellectual property rights is granted by this document.
Table of Contents Table of Contents 1. Introduction to VMware ESXi ............................................................................................ 1 1.1 What is VMware ESX? ................................................................................................... 1 1.2 What is VMware ESXi? .................................................................................................. 1 1.3 Comparation between ESX and ESXi .......................................................
List of Figures List of Figures Figure 1. Choose RAID Adapter .................................................................................................. 3 Figure 2. Homepage of the Web BIOS Console .......................................................................... 4 Figure 3. Choose Appropriate Configuration Type ...................................................................... 5 Figure 4. Confirm to Clear Existing Configuration .........................................................
List of Figures Figure 33. Show Image Profiles ................................................................................................ 22 Figure 34. Get and Save Image Profile ..................................................................................... 22 Figure 35. Clone Image Profile .................................................................................................. 23 Figure 36. Show the Software Package in New Image Profile ..............................................
List of Figures Figure 68. Select Type of Installation ........................................................................................ 45 Figure 69. Starting Installation................................................................................................... 46 Figure 70. Network and Sharing Center Page ........................................................................... 47 Figure 71. Current Network Connection Status ..............................................................
List of Figures Figure 103. Error Message for Lack of Memory Resource (1GB memory) ................................ 65 Figure 104. Error Message for Memory Resource (2GB memory)............................................. 65 < This page intentionally left blank.
Introduction to VMware ESXi 1. Introduction to VMware ESXi 1.1 What is VMware ESX? VMware ESX is an enterprise-level computer virtualization product offered by VMware, Inc. ESX is a component of VMware’s larger offering, VMware infrastructure, and adds management and reliability services to the core server product.
Introduction to VMware ESXi 1. Improved reliability and security- with fewer line of code and independence from general purpose, ESXi drastically reduces the risk of bugs or security vulnerabilities and makes it easier to recure the hypervisor layer. 2. Streamlined Deployment and Configuration-ESXi has far fewer configuration item than ESX, greatly simplifying deployment and configuration and making it easier to maintain consistency. 3.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations 2. ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations This document provides a step by step guide to create a RAID virtual drive, install an VMware ESXi 5.0 onto an Intel® Hardware RAID controller, install Windows 2008 R2 on Intel® Server Board, use RAID Web Console 2 (RWC2) on a client to control the RAID controller on server. To use the RWC2 tools on a client to control the RAID controller on a server, two server boards are used in this document.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 2. Homepage of the Web BIOS Console 4. Choose “New Configuration” to clear existing RAID configurations and add new RAID configuration, then click “Next”. Or you can choose “Add Configuration” which will add new configuration without clear the existing ones on current physical disks.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 3. Choose Appropriate Configuration Type 5. When then screen displays “You have chosen to clear the configuration. This will destroy all virtual drives. All data on all virtual drives will be lost. Are you sure you want to clear the configuration”, click “Yes” to continue. Figure 4. Confirm to Clear Existing Configuration 6. 5 Choose “Virtual Drive Configuration” and then click “Next”.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 5. Select Configuration 7. Choose one of the configuration methods displayed on the screen and click “Next” to continue, here “Manual Configuration” method is chosen which will allow us to choose RAID level and other appropriate parameters. Or you can choose “Automatic Configuration”, and the console will automatically decide the RAID level and other parameters according to the status of the physical disks during the configuration. Figure 6.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 7. Add Physical Drives to Drive Group 9. Click “Accept DG” to accept the Drive Group, click “Next” to continue. Figure 8.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations 10. Choose the “Array with Free Space” from the drop-down list and then Click “Add to SPAN” to add the chosen array into Span. Figure 9. Add Array to Span 11. Click “Next” to accept the Span. Figure 10.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations On the Virtual Drive Definition window, select the “RAID Level” from the first drop-down list. Here RAID 5 is chosen. If needed, change the stripe size, the policies for Access, Read, Write, IO, and Disk Cache and decide whether to use background initialization. And then Click “Accept” to accept the changes, or click “Reclaim” to delete the changes and return to the previous settings. NOTE: There is a prompt in green that shows the max size of each RAID Level. Figure 11.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations 13. Click “Next” to continue the RAID configuration. Figure 13. Save the Virtual Drive Definition 14. Click “Accept” to save the RAID configuration. Figure 14. Accept Virtual Drive 15. When the screen displays “Save this Configuration?”, click “Yes” to save the RAID configuration. Or you can choose “No” to change the configuration.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 15. Accept and Save the RAID Configuration 16. When the screen displays “All data on the new Virtual Drives will be lost. Want to Initialize?”, click “Yes” to initialize the RAID configuration. Or you can choose “No” to give up the initialization. Figure 16. Accept to Initialize the RAID Configuration 17. If you choose “Yes” , it will begin the initialization of virtual drive.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 17. Initialize the RAID Configuration 18. Now go back to the homepage of RAID BIOS console, it displays the detailed information of the virtual drive.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 18. RAID Configuration Results 2.2 Make ESXi 5.0 Installation Disk for 2208 Chip based RAID Controller Driver 2.2.1 Preparations 1. Get VMware ESXi 5.0 Installation depot. User has to contact VMware to get a proper level of access right to download the ESXi 5.0 installation depot. In this document, the downloaded ESXi 5.0 installation depot is named “VMware-ESXi-5.0.0-469512-depot.zip”. 2. Get the VMware ESXi 5.0 Driver for 2208 Chip based RAID Controller.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 19. Files Needed for the ESXi 5.0 Installation on 2208 Chip based RAID Controller 3. A system with Windows Server 2008 x64 Standard Edition already installed. 4. In above system, install Microsoft.NET 2.0, you can download the Microsoft .Net 2.0 for Windows Server 2008 x64 system from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/confirmation.aspx?id=6523 and complete the installation. 5. In above system, install Microsoft PowerShell 2.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 21. Enter the InstallShield Wizard 4. Click “Next” to continue the installation. Figure 22.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations 5. Click the checkbox of “I accept the terms in the license agreement” and then click “Next” to continue the installation. Figure 23. Accept Installation License Agreement 6. Choose the Installation features, and you can change the installation directory if needed by click the “Change” buttom and choose the proper directory.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 24. Installation Configuration 7. Click the “Install” to begin the VMware vSphere PowerCLI installation. Figure 25.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations 8. The VMware vSphere PowerCLI installation is in process. Figure 26. VMware vSphere PowerCLI Installing 9. When the installation is completed, click “Finish” to end the installation.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 27. VMware vSphere PowerCLI Isntallation Completes 10. After the installation, there will be a VMware vSphere PowerCLI icon on the desktop, you just need to double click for use. Figure 28. VMware vSphere PowerCLI Icon on Desktop 2.2.3 1. 19 Add RAID Driver to the ESXi 5.0 Depot and Export Installation ISO file Open the VMware vSphere PowerCLI by double clicking the icon on desktop.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 29. VMware vSphere PowerCLI 2. Type the command $DefaultSoftwareDepots This command is used to show the current default software depots, if the VMware vSphere PowerCLI is newly opened, it will returns nothing. Figure 30. DefaultSoftwareDepots 3. Type the command Add-EsxSoftwareDepots –DepotUrl C:\test\ESXi\VMware-ESXi-5.0.0-469512-depot.zip (the directory of “C:\test\ESXi\...
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 31. Add ESXi 5.0 Installation Depot to Image Profile 4. Type the command $DefaultSoftwareDepots After adding the ESXi 5.0 isntallation depot, the default software depot is the ESXi 5.0 installation index.xml now. Figure 32. New Default Software Depots 5. Type the command Get-EsxImageProfile This command is used to return the current image profiles. Here it returns two image profiles of the ESXi 5.0 installation depot.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 33. Show Image Profiles 6. Type the command $profs=Get-EsxImageProfile In above step, you can use the “Get-EsxImageProfile” command to return the image profiles directory, here you can also get the image profiles and save them in “profs”, you will get an array with two elements, profs[0] is the ESXi-5.0.0-469512-no-tools image profile and profs[0] is the ESXi-5.0.0-469512-standard image profile.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations 7. Type the command $ip=New-EsxImageProfile –CloneProfile $profs[1] –Name “MyProfile” This command is used to clone the current image profile ESXi-5.0.0-469512-standard (profs[1] is the shortname of it) to a new image profile called “MyProfile” and assign a short name IP for the new profile. In following steps, the RAIDController Driver software package will be inserted to this new image profile and the new profile can be exported to an ISO file for ESXi 5.0 installation.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 36. Show the Software Package in New Image Profile 9. Type the command Add-EsxSoftwareDepots –DepotUrl C:\test\ESXi\LSI_5_34-offline_bundle-455140.zip This command is used to add the RAID Controller Driver depot to current image builder Image Profile. Figure 37.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations 10. Type the command Add-EsxSoftwarePackage –ImageProfile MyProfile –SoftwarePackage scsi-megaraid-sas This command is used to add the RAID Controller Driver software package (VIB file) into the ESXi installation image profile (“MyProfile”). As is shown on the top of the below Figure, there is a “scsi-megaraid-sas, version 5.34-1vmw.500.0.0.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations 11. Type the command Export-EsxImageProfile MyProfile –ImageProfile MyProfile –ExportToISO –FilePath C:\test\ESXi\newesxi5.iso This command is used to export the new image profile with the RAID Controller driver software package to an ISO file. After this step, a new ESXi 5.0 installation ISO file will be created, you can burn it into a DVD disk and then install the ESXi 5.0 system. Figure 39. Export Image Profile to an ISO file 12. After this step, a new ESXi 5.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations For detailed vSphere PowerCLI commands, refer to http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/PowerCLI/PowerCLI50/html/index.html 2.3 VMware ESXi 5.0 Installation and Configuration on Server 2.3.1 VMware ESXi 5.0 installation on Server RAID virtual drive 1. Before installing VMware ESXi 5.0, make sure that the Intel® Virtualization Technology is enabled as is shown in Figure 41. ® Figure 41. Enable Intel Virtualization Technology 2. 27 Insert the VMware ESXi 5.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 42. Boot from the VMware ESXi 5.0 installation DVD 3. Boot from the ESXi 5.0 standard installer. Figure 43. VMware ESXi 5.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations NOTE: If you are installing the ESXi 5.0 you make by yourself as is described in section 2.2, then it will display “MyProfile Installer” instead of the “ESXi-5.0.0-441354-standard installer” in above Figure. 4. Load ESXi installer. Figure 44. Load ESXi Installer 5. Load VMKernel successfully. Figure 45. VMKernel Loaded Successfully 6. Press key to begin VMware ESXi 5.0 installation. Figure 46. Enter VMware ESXi 5.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations 7. Press to accept the user license agreement and continue the installation. Figure 47. Accept User License Agreement 8. Choose the disk to install the VMware ESXi 5.0, the system automatically choose the RAID virtual disk configured in 2.2, press to choose the virtual drive and continue the installation. Figure 48. Select the RAID Virtual Drive to Install the VMware ESXi 5.0 9.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations 10. Enter the root password and confirm it, then press to continue the installation. Figure 50. Create a Root Password 11. Press to confirm the VMware ESXi 5.0 installation on RAID virtual drive. Figure 51. Confirm the VMware ESXi 5.0 installation 12. The VMware ESXi 5.0 installation begins automatically. Figure 52. Install the ESXi 5.0 13. After the VMware ESXi 5.0 installation, remove the installation disk and reboot the server.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 53. ESXi Installation Completes 14. Reboot the server. Figure 54. Reboot the Server 15. VMware ESXi 5.0 initialization.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 55. VMware ESXi 5.0 Initialization 16. Reboot successfully.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 56. Reboot Successfully 2.3.2 1. VMware ESXi 5.0 Network Configuration Press to enter the Customize System/View Logs. Authentication will be required, and enter the root password.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 57. Enter the Customize System/View Logs 2. 35 Scroll the arrows to “Configure Management Network”, and the current hostname and IP address will be displayed on the right side of the screen. Press key to enter the network management configuration.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 58. Network Management Information 3. Scroll the arrows to “IP Configuration”, current IP configuration information will be displayed on the right side of the screen. Press key to change the IP address and subnet mask.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 59. IP Configuration Information 4. 37 Scroll the arrow to “Set static IP address and network configuration”, then press the key to choose this option, then enter the IP address and Subnet Mask as is shown in following figure, and press key to save the configurations.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 60. IP Address and Subnet Mask Configuration 5. Scroll the arrow to “DNS configuration”, current DNS configuration information will be displayed on the right side of the screen. Press key to the DNS configuration screen.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 61. DNS Configuration Information 6. 39 Scroll the arrow to “Hostname” and then enter the new hostname as is shown in following figure, and press key to save the configurations.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 62. New Hostname Configuration 7. Press key to exit the DNS configuration and a restart is required. Press key to save the changes. Figure 63.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations 2.4 Operating System Installation and Configuration on Client 2.4.1 Client operation system installation Here install Windows 2008 R2 on the client as an example, the detailed installation steps are as follows: 1. Insert the Windows 2008 R2 installation disk, and choose to boot from the DVD-ROM in BIOS boot options. 2. Click “Next” to confirm language, time, and so on. Figure 64. Confirm Language, Time, and Keyboard 3.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 65. Install Now 4. Select “Windows Server 2008 standard installation (Full Installation)” and click “Next”.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 66. Selecting the Operating System to Install 5. Enable check-box to accept license and click “Next”.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 67. Accept the Installation License 6. Select “Custom installation”.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 68. Select Type of Installation 7. Click “Next” to start installation.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 69. Starting Installation 8. Installation completes. 2.4.2 Client Network Configuration 1. Open the “Network and Sharing Center” of the windows and click the “Local Area Connection 2” option as is shown in below figure.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 70. Network and Sharing Center Page 2. Click the “Properties” to view the current network connection status.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 71. Current Network Connection Status 3. Choose the “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)” and then click “Properties” to view the current network configuration.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 72. Internet Protocol Version (TCP/IPv4) 4. Choose “Use the following static IP address” and then enter the new IP address and subnet mask. Click “OK” to save the network configuration.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 73. IP Address and Subnet Mask Configuration 5. Click “OK” in Figure 72 to save the network configuration. And click “Close” in Figure 71 to save the changes. 2.5 Use RWC2 on client to control the RAID controller on Server 2.5.1 RWC2 installation 1. Get the latest RWC2 installation package from http://www.intel.com 2. Double click the “setup.exe” file and begin the RWC2 installation.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 74. Preparing the RWC2 Installation 3. Click “Next” to continue the installation. Figure 75. Install RWC2 4. Accept the software license agreement and then click “Next” to continue the installation.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 76. Accept the Software License Agreement 5. Enter the “Customer Information”; this step can be skipped and just click “Next” to continue the installation. Figure 77. Customer Information 6. Choose the installation directory if needed and then click “Next” to save the changes.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 78. Choose the Installation Directory 7. Select the “Setup Type”, the default type is complete. Then click “Next” to save the choice and continue the installation. Figure 79. Choose the Installation Type 8. Click “Install” to begin the RWC2 installation process.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 80. Install the RWC2 9. Starting the installation process automatically. Figure 81. RWC2 is being installed 10. Installation completed.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 82. Installation Successfully 2.5.2 Install LSI Provider on VMware ESXi 5.0 1. The default status of the ESXi Shell is disabled as is shown in below figure. Figure 83. Default ESXi Shell Status---Disabled 2. Press key to enable the EXSi Shell. Figure 84. Set ESXi Shell Status to Enabled 3. The default status of the ESXi SSH is disabled as is shown in below figure. Figure 85.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations 4. Press key to enable the ESXi SSH. Figure 86. Set ESXi SSH Status to Enabled 5. Download the pscp.exe from http://www.putty.nl/download.html and download the SMIS VIB file from http://www.intel.com . Extract them to the local disk of client. The below figure shows the information of the pscp.exe and SMIS VIB file. Figure 87. The pscp.exe and LSI Provider Information 6. Transfer the LSI Provider.vib file on client to the server using the command “pscp.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 89. Enter the Shell Mode in ESXi 5.0 8. Use the command “ls” to show the contents of root directory in ESXi 5.0, and the LSI Provider.vib file can be found. Figure 90. LSI Provider Received Successfully on ESXi 5.0 9. Enter the command “esxcli software vib install -v / LSI_bootbank_LSIProvider_500.04.V0.24-261033.vib --force --maintenance-mode” to install the LSI Provider on ESXi 5.0. Figure 91. Install LSI Provider on ESXi 5.0 10. Reboot the ESXi 5.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 92. Add server IP information in the Hosts File with Uppercase Hostname Figure 93.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations 3. Save the hosts file, and it is recommended to restart the system. 2.5.4 Use the RWC2 on client to control the RAID controller on server. 1. Double click the RWC2 and open it. Choose the “Display all the systems in the network of local server”, uncheck “Stop discovery process of remote servers” and then click “Save Settings” to save the configuration as is shown in below figure. Figure 94. Configure the Display Preference 2.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 95. Find the RAID Controller on Server 3. Enter the “User Name” and “Password” of the Server and click “Login” to enter Intel ® RAID Web Console 2 on the server. ® Figure 96.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations 4. Enter Intel ® RAID Web Console 2 on Server successfully. ® Figure 97. Enter Intel RAID Web Console 2 on Server 5. The logical view of the Server RAID controller. Figure 98.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations 3. Backup 3.1 Enable Intel®Virtualization Technology If the Intel® Virtualization Technology in BIOS-->Advanced-->Processor as is shown in Figure 41 is diabled, there will be a warning while installing the VMware ESXi 5.0. This warning can be ignored and it has no effect to the following steps. So It is strongly recommended to enable the Intel® Virtualization Technology ® Figure 99. Warning about Disabled Intel Virtualization Technology 3.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 100. Empty IP address is found with Wrong Hostname or No Hostname If double click the IP Address 0.0.0.0, the login page will jump out, then enter the root user name and password.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 101. Login the Empty IP Address But cannot really enter the RWC2 of the Server, and the error information will be displayed as is shown in below figure. Figure 102. Failed to Connect the RAID Controller on the Server 3.3 About the Server Memory The VMware ESXi 5.0 needs at least 1.97GB memory. If there is not enough memory, the installation will be forced to stop as is shown in following figures.
ESXi 5.0 Related RAID Operations Figure 103. Error Message for Lack of Memory Resource (1GB memory) Figure 103 above gives the error message while installing the VMware ESXi 5.0.0 with 1GB memory. Figure 104. Error Message for Memory Resource (2GB memory) As is shown in Figure 104, 2* 1GB memory chips are installed，but during the VMware ESXi 5.0 installation, it finds only 1.94 GB and at least 1.97GB memory is needed for the ESXi installation, so the installation is forced to stop.
