Questions tagged [vmware-esxi]

VMWare ESXi is an installable/embeddable virtualization platform based around the ESXi Hypervisor.

VMWare ESXi is a type 1 hypervisor based virtualization platform that installs on bare hardware (no host OS required) that allows running multiple guest virtual machines simultaneously.

ESXi is available freely with basic single-server functionality, but more advanced functionality requires licensing commercial versions of VMWare vSphere (formerly known as VMWare Infrastructure prior to version 4.0). ESXi lacks the linux-based service console included with VMWare ESX, further reducing install footprint and attack surface.

3219 questions
23
votes
1 answer

How to describe VMware performance requirements for our application to a VMware admin?

Often, an installation of our on-site, debian-stable based application runs in a virtual machine - typically in VMware ESXi. In the general case we do not have visibility into or influence over their virtualization environment and do not have access…
Peter V. Mørch
  • 852
  • 7
  • 15
23
votes
8 answers

How to backup virtual machines on a standalone ESXi host?

Standalone ESXi (4.1) host without any vCenter Server. How to backup virtual machines as quickly and storage-friendly as possible? I know I can access the ESXi console and use the standard Unix cp command, but this has the downfall of copying the…
Massimo
  • 70,200
  • 57
  • 200
  • 323
22
votes
4 answers

What are the benefits of "enterprise-level" virtualization?

For a company with modest virtualization needs - VirtualBox is currently doing fine at hosting a few light servers - what would some of the benefits be of moving to a more robust platform? I'm hoping to shortcut my research a bit - to get a short…
Ward - Trying Codidact
  • 12,899
  • 28
  • 46
  • 59
22
votes
3 answers

How to disable swap files in ESXi?

We are running a few Solaris / Linux VMs on ESXi that contain very sensitive encrypted data that eventually get decrypted as required in memory. Everything is fine, except for the ESXi swap files which could potentially store some of the decrypted…
Marius Burz
  • 331
  • 1
  • 2
  • 6
20
votes
9 answers

Is it possible/advisable to run VMware Server ESX/ESXi on a laptop?

The idea of having a small footprint hypervisor as the primary OS on a laptop or desktop where every "real" OS is a guest appeals to me. Now I realize this software is more typically used on blades and the other servers but can it be done on a…
cletus
  • 9,999
  • 9
  • 37
  • 40
20
votes
9 answers

VMware ESXi shutdown triggered by APC UPS connected via USB

I am shipping a bunch of ESXi 5.1 servers to remote offices where they will be powered via APC UPS. I would like to have the UPS trigger a shutdown of the connected server - I would then rely on the ESXi configuration to take care of the…
dunxd
  • 9,632
  • 22
  • 81
  • 118
20
votes
6 answers

Should Linux VM's in VMware/ESX have a swap partition?

On a VMware ESX setup what is the difference of these options?: a Linux VM with 1GB RAM and 1GB swap partition and the VM uses 1.5 GB ram a Linux VM with 1GB RAM and no swap partition and the VM uses 1.5 GB ram I mean, in both cases swap is being…
Sandra
  • 10,303
  • 38
  • 112
  • 165
19
votes
3 answers

VMware Snapshot Longer than 3 days

Referring to this article https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1025279 I know it is not good practice to keep a snapshot longer than a day or two because the performance can degrade. The…
Anthony Fornito
  • 9,546
  • 1
  • 34
  • 124
19
votes
3 answers

Is running permanently in a VMWare snapshot bad for performance?

I understand that the VMWare KB frowns upon long running snapshots mainly due to two things (In my opinion) Taking tons of snapshots can fill up the data store. Snapshots are simply delta files. Let's say you have a 50 Gig VMDK, near full, and…
18
votes
3 answers

Understanding the VMware ESXi limitations of the free Version

I am running an ESXi Vsphere Client Version 6.0.0 but with all the different documentation and changes I have trouble to understand my limitations. From the official documentation I see that my limit for physical CPU should be unlimited but I can…
RayofCommand
  • 1,451
  • 8
  • 26
  • 36
18
votes
1 answer

vSphere - Why upgrade VM Hardware Version?

At the beginning of the year we performed an upgrade of our vSphere environment from vSphere 5.0 to vSphere 5.1 U1 Build 1063329 compromised of about a dozen ESXi hosts and a vCenter instance hosted on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. One of the…
user62491
18
votes
9 answers

Hyper-V vs. ESXi vs. XenServer

Can anyone share their experiences (for example, this was great! This failed miserably!) with using the Hyper-V, ESXi, and XenServer virtualization platforms? Cost? Management? features? Handling load and backups and recovery? And also minimum…
Bart Silverstrim
  • 31,172
  • 9
  • 67
  • 87
18
votes
7 answers

Nested RDP and VMWare and ILO console sessions: keystroke repetition and latency

I'm working on a remote server installation entirely through ILO (but this also applies to IPMI and VMWare console sessions). Due to the software application and environment, my access is restricted to a Windows server that I must access through…
ewwhite
  • 197,159
  • 92
  • 443
  • 809
17
votes
3 answers

How is memory allocated in ESXi server?

We have an ESXi 4.1 server with 48 GB RAM. For each VM, we are allocating 4GB of memory. Since the server will have 13 virtual machines, my manager thinks this is wrong. I am going to explain to them that ESXi will actually manage memory itself, but…
Samselvaprabu
  • 1,311
  • 5
  • 14
  • 27
17
votes
5 answers

Best Practices for virtualizing servers onto the SAN?

Alright, so I want to start leveraging my SAN a little more than I have been, and at the same time, take advantage of ESXi. Currently, I've got an array of Dell PowerEdge 1955 blades connected to a single-enclosure EMC AX4-5 FC storage array. I'm…