11 March 2016

Install and Configure VMware ESXi 6.0

There are few system requirements that must be met before you can install ESXi 6.0 server:
- Make sure the server hardware that you are going to install ESXi server on is supported by VMware vSphere. You can check that using VMware Compatibility Guide.
- The physical server must have 64-bit processors with at least two CPU cores.
- The physical server must have minimum of 4GB of RAM. You need at least 8GB memory to install a virtual machine after ESXi server is installed.
- The NX/XD bit must be enabled in the BIOS. Intel-VT for Intel processors and AMD-V for AMD processors.
- The physical server must have one or more Gigabit Ethernet adapter.
- Compatible disk storage.
Install and Configure VMware ESXi 6.0
There are different ways to install ESXi server. You can use interactive installation (CD/DVD, USB drive, and PXE boot), scripts or auto deploy. Here, I will use interactive method using CD/DVD media to install ESXi server. You can download installation ISO image from VMware. Let’s begin the installation. First, make sure the server is configured to boot from CD/DVD. Insert CD/DVD in to the DVD-ROM or map ISO image to virtual CD/DVD drive and boot the server from ISO image.
Once you start the server with ESXi installation media, you will be presented with ESXi standard boot menu as shown above. Choose ESXi standard installer to start the ESXi installer. Press [Tab] to toggle the selection and press [Enter] to choose the selection. As you can see above, you also have option to booth from local disk.
 Welcome screen appears as shown above. Press [Enter] to begin the installation of ESXi server.
 Press F11 to accept the license agreement.
Choose the storage and press [Enter] to continue. As you can see above the disk type is VMware Virtual S, this is because I am installing ESXi server on a VMware Workstation virtual machine. You can press F1 to see more details about the disk. If you are installing ESXi server on a local SAS storage, it will be listed as remote devices.
 Choose the keyboard layout. Press [Enter] to continue.
Enter the password for root user account. The password must be at least 7 characters long. Press [Enter] to continue.
To confirm the installation press F11.
The installation now begins.
Press [Enter] to reboot and complete the installation.
After the reboot, you can see the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) above. You can see the ESXi build number, memory and processor information and IP address. As you can see above by default, ESXi is set to receive IP from DHCP server. You can press F2 to login to DCUI to change IP address, DNS, hostname and other information.

Configure IP Address and Hostname in ESXi Server

You need to have physical access to the server to configure IP address in ESXi server. Press F2 to log in to Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) of ESXi server. You can configure DNS and hostname using vSphere client. 
 Enter the password for root user account. Press [Enter]. You will be presented with list of system customization list as shown below.
 As you can see above, the IP address 192.168.0.22 was acquired from DHCP server. Select Configure Management Network option and press [Enter].
Here, you can configure IPv4, IPv6, DNS, DNS suffixes and VLAN. To configure IPv4, select IPv4 Configuration option and press [Enter].
Choose option, set static IPv4 address and network configuration. Press [Space Bar] to make the selection. Now, type IP address, subnet mask and gateway as shown above and press [Enter]. Then press [Esc] key to go back.
You will be asked to confirm the changes and restart the network. Press [Y] to restart the management network.
Now, select DNS Configuration option and press [Enter].
Configure primary and alternate DNS server and hostname. Press [Enter]. Press [Esc] to go back, you will again be asked to confirm the changes and restart management network.
As you can see above IP address and hostname have now changed. In this way you can configure IP address and hostname in ESXi server.

10 March 2016

Configure the storage area for shadow copies to go to a different NTFS volume on a Windows 2008 and 2012 servers


Problem

Backup jobs fail due to VSS related errors indicating either a lack of disk space or IO that is too high to maintain the shadow copies.

Solution

By default, Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) is configured to write the shadow copies of a volume to a storage location on the volume itself.  This can result in very high IO or low disk space problems during the backup of a volume since the drive is experiencing load from the backup reading files, load and disk space usage from VSS reading from and writing to the shadow copy, and load and disk space usage from any other applications on the system using that same volume.  The shadow copy storage location of each volume on a Windows 2008 and 2012 servers can be configured to use a different NTFS volume.  The ideal situation would be to have a separate drive dedicated to shadow copies that is not being backed up and is also not the drive containing the paging file.  If this is not possible, specifying a separate drive that contains the paging file is typically still better than storing the shadow copy on the drive being backed up.  In order to configure the shadow copy storage location for each volume, the following steps can be taken:

1.  Open a command line as Administrator by browsing to C:\Windows\System32. Right-click on cmd.exe and pick Run as administrator

2.  Run the following command:

vssadmin add shadowstorage /for=<drive being backed up> /on=<drive to store the shadow copy> /maxsize=<percentage of disk space to allow to be used>

For Example:
If the VSS shadow copies of the C: drive will be stored on the D: drive and allowed to use up to 90% of the free disk space on D: the command would look like:

vssadmin add shadowstorage /for=c: /on=d: /maxsize=90%

If the command was performed successfully, the following message will be shown:
Successfully added the shadow copy storage association

The current shadow copy storage locations for each volume may also be confirmed by running the following command:
 
vssadmin list shadowstorage

Categories

Popular Posts

My Blog Visitors Counter

Flag Counter

Contact Me

Name

Email *

Message *

Dejan Zdraveski. Powered by Blogger.