Vmware Survival Guide

These are my personal notes that I use as a quick help in my work.
You are welcome to read them.

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UML	Lang.		Net8	Portal
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Git
More technical pages here

Introduction
Disks and files
Hardware Mapping
VM Management
Miscellaneous

Introduction

Management User Interface (MUI) at http://servername

Switch between VM and host: ^G / Ctrl+Alt
Alt+Ctrl+Del = Alt+Ctrl+Ins

What are the different VM files: see "VM files" in the section "Disks and Files".

Disks and Files

VM Files

*.vmx (configuration file) located locally
nvram (BIOS configuration file) located in same sub-directory as *.vmx. If deleted, revert to default BIOS configuration.
*.vmdk (or *.dsk): virtual disks for VMs, located tipically on the external disk.
*.vmsd ??? (empty)
It is best if the file names correspond to the machine names

/boot	50MB	On primary partition
swap	2*service console memory size	Best on primary partition
/		Best on primary partition
/home	nvram and *.vmx (configuration files, see below)	exteneded local partition
/vmimages	Disk ISO files, templates for VMs	Files in pieces of no more than 2GB exteneded local partition
swapfile.vswp	Swap for vmkernel on vmfs partition	Used for overcommitment on VM memory
core dump	vmkcore	100 MB on vmfs partition, in case of crash (very rare)
vmfs (file system on external disk)	.vmdk (or .dsk) = the virtual disks of the VMs	No sub-dir

Some Notions

Hyper Threading: A CPU looks like two CPUs
APIC: Full APIC mode

Hardware Mapping

Most configuration changes must be made when the machine is turned off.
Except attaching/detaching CD-ROMs and floppys, changing the mappings, or changing virtual switch connectivity, which can be done when the machines are on.
Disks can be copied but not moved when the machine is on.

NIC

Two types: vlance (default) or vmxnet (not all OSs have the necessary drivers)

Minimum two network cards, because one is for the service console (NIC=Network Interface Card)
The service console does not need a connection to the SAN (HBA), unless a backup agent is used or unless it boots on the SAN (not ideal)
Local SCSI for VMs, but share with service console

The VMs are connected to virtual switches. Depending on the number of outside adaptors (NICs), the virtual switches are of the following types:

vmnet (no outbound adaptor)
vmnic (one outbound adaptor)
vmbond (two or more adaptors: NIC teaming)

The virutal switches are visible as a switch or, if "port groups" are defined, they are visible as VLANs.

Disks

Physical disks have names:
device:t:n:m
where:

device is the SAN adaptor for the kernel,
t is the target or port on the SAN
n is the LUN or the logical unit number
m is the partition

See disks with vdf -h (equivalent to df -k)

Extend disk size:
vmkfstools -X nG vmfs_partition:virtual_file.vmdk where n is the new size

Four types of virtual disks:

persistant: all changes are written to the disk
non persistant: all changes in the redo file, which is dropped at shutdown
append: changes in redo file and committed at shutdown
undoable: option to commit the changes or to discard them

SCSI

Two options: vmxlsilogic (default, only option for w2k and xp) or vmxbuslogic (best for other OS)

VM Management

Connect to the Service Console:

The little icon allows a connection to the machine (Remove Console). In the Remote Console, the settings allow modification of the configuration.
Click on the name of the VM: leads directly to the configuration.

Exit the Remote Console with "Detach and Exit"

Export to Change on Write (COW) format. Pieces of at most 2 GB. Only data is exported, not the empty space.
Export: vmkfstools -e cowformat_file.vmdk vmfs_partition:vmfs_disk_file.vmdk (note: target comes first)
Import: vmkfstools -i cowformat_file.vmdk vmfs_partition:vmfs_disk_file.vmdk (note: target is second file)

Cloning

Machine name: potential conflict
Network address: put in DHCP first
SID (entry in Active Directory): potential conflict

Two methods:
run sysprep to empty the registry, but this also removes the configuration of the language and the keyboard
or use "ghost walker"

VM Sizing

Note that memory overcommitment is possible because of:

the sharing of the same processes if multiple VMs have the same OS;
ballooning (underutilized VM lends memory to another VM)
swap to disk (bad performance)

Resource management is done by percentages. Each VM starts with 1000 (default). If this is increased, the VM gets more of the resource.

Backup / Restore

1. Put the backup agent in the VMs, just like a physical machine --> fine control
Best for application data

2. Put the backup agent on the Service Console --> backup the VM files as seen by the Service Console (VM must be shut down)
Best for full backup of the VM

3. Backup the files on the SAN.

Miscellaneous

No support for USB at current time.
Remember that there is a maximum of 4 primary partitions, so create 3 primaries and the rest are extended partitions.
Don't allocate all the disk space, leave some free.
Use SFTP (secure FTP) to connect
Unregister a VM does not delete the corresponding files

Copy of Disks

dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/vmimages/...iso bs=32k dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/vmimages/...flp bs=1k

bs not necessary
No need to mount

Sample configuration file (.vmx)

config.version = "8"

virtualHW.version = "4"

scsi0.present = "TRUE"

scsi0.virtualDev = "lsilogic"

memsize = "512" <--

Look at this so that it is less than the local RAM. Can also be changed in GUI (menu / player / troubleshoot / change memory allocation)



MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"

scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:0.fileName = "Whatever the VM files are called.vmdk"

ide1:0.present = "TRUE"

ide1:0.fileName = "auto detect"

ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"

ethernet0.present = "TRUE"

usb.present = "TRUE"

sound.present = "TRUE"

sound.virtualDev = "es1371"

sound.fileName = "-1"

sound.autodetect = "TRUE"

displayName = "Whatever the VM files are called"

guestOS = "winnetenterprise"

nvram = "Whatever the VM files are called.nvram"

ide1:0.autodetect = "TRUE"

scsi0:0.redo = ""

ide1:0.startConnected = "FALSE"

ethernet0.addressType = "generated"

ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:56:ad:56:bc:56"

ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

tools.syncTime = "FALSE"

checkpoint.vmState = ""

floppy0.startConnected = "FALSE"

floppy0.fileName = "A:"

Problems and Solutions

The virtual machine seems to be in use: rename the lock file "....lck"