Somewhere out there!

From the vmware blog:

Conclusion

A 1vCPU Xeon X5500 series based Exchange Server VM can support 50% more users per core than a 2vCPU VM based on previous generation processors while maintaining the same level of performance in terms of Sendmail latency.  This is accomplished while the VM’s CPU utilization remains below 50%, allowing plenty of capacity for peaks in workload and making an FT VM practical for use with Exchange Server 2007.

According to this thread, if you need to use the linux-image-virtual package on ubuntu then it only supports the “bus logic” scsi controller with ESX.

Need to access the ESX console with the Virtual Infrastructure Client in some remote location where your VPN does not work.  Forward ports 443, 902 and 903 with putty.  Port specifics for ESX can be found on page 179 of the ESX Server Config guide.

In my case I additionally need to forward from a boundary machine:
ssh -L 8443:localhost:443 -L 8902:localhost:902 -L 8903:localhost:903 node2

Here are a couple useful ESXi hints:

• ESXi 3.5 does ship with the ability to run SSH, but this is disabled by default (and is not supported) – from.
• ESXi and what it does NOT have compared to regular ESX 3.5
• Upgrade ESX eval to ESXi.
• Some Basic ESXi questions.
• 8.04 and ESX.
• Motherboards and unsupported servers that work with ESX 3.5 and / or ESXi 3.5 Installable
• 
  Running ESX 3i Installable from a USB Flash Drive

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Market is changing constantly – this is a big move on VMwares parts but follows on their previous strategy with GSX/Server and VMware player:
VMware ESXi Hypervisor Now Free – VMware

Check out the download link at the end of the press release.

Some links on migrating from Vmware to XenServer. Particularily converting vmdk to xva, and dealing with removing Vmware Tools.

• Thread: Howto for migration from VMWare ESX
• Virtual Disk Migration Utility 1.1
• Converting a Physical Disk to a VMWare Virtual Disk
• Thread: VMware Linux guest to Xen
• VMWare to Xen Migration
• Thread: Migrate VM under VMWare Workstation 6 to XenServer
• Thread: v2xva failure in converting .vmdk files? – phantom disks in vmx can make v2xva fail.
• VMware KB #1308 – Cleaning Up After Incomplete Uninstallation on a Windows Host– removing Vmware Tools can be troublesome. Check this kb article and also note the following location in the registry.
• VMware server memory controller service failed to start

The vmmemctl.sys driver is missing from your system or the registry contains the wrong image path. The \??\ is normal in the path.

If you selected the default path for the VMware Tools, your registry imagepath should look like the example below.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VMMEMCTL]

I missed this in the morning, but saw it later on Daniel’s post.

In September, possible with a launch at VMworld 2007, VMware will announce a new promotion called Foundation, bundling together three ESX Servers Started Edition and one VirtualCenter (capped to manage those three virtualization hosts) for $3,000.

Read the rest of this entry »

A discussion and tips on optimising VMWare Server on NFS & RedHat Cluster Suite. Similar methods will be useful for XenEnterprise v4.

Couple useful articles on running windows with an existing install.

Early drafts avaliable online.