Cannot login to ESX 3i 3.5 Console on local machine, am I retarded?

C

Captain Colonoscopy

2[H]4U
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Feb 19, 2004
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Okay, so I finished moving all of our servers from Hyper-V to VMware last week or so. I now have our old Hyper-V server wiped and running VMware ESX 3i 3.5. I want to move the VMs from the temp ESX server to our ESX server using VEEAM but in order to do that I need to be able to SSH into the silly things. This is where it gets fun. I CANNOT get the stupid CLI to come up on the host servers. I hit ALT+F2 to login and I login. I hit ALT+F1 to go to the CLI. I am presented with what appears to be a CLI interface but I have no flashing cursor and mashing keys on the keyboard doesn't do much. I have tried using VI to setup another user account and see if I could SSH into the hosts using that but I can't. Seems all SSH connections are being actively refused. It's like there simply isn't any service console installed on the damned things.

Anyone have any insight or run into this before? If I had any hair left I would be pulling it out right now . . . ..
 
Gott said:
Overlooked you're using 3i. :x

Check this out on VMWare's Community site:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/131362;jsessionid=3A6540386CEA12F3252C246907565F3E?tstart=0
Click to expand...

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

I have been looking around on the internets for the answer to this off and on for two days now. I can't believe all I had to do was type in "unsupported" . . . . I hope this goes away after we put in the license keys. Or maybe I downloaded the wrong damn version . . .
 
Personally/professionally, I wouldn't use ESX 3i.

Then again, I'm accustomed to ESX 3.0/3.5 and we've been using it for some time now that I find it very easy to work with and also very powerful.

ESX 3i is a pretty stripped down version of ESX 3 (3.5 being the latest) and I enjoy putting to use our Dell 2950's. :) If possible, I'd say go with ESX 3.5 from the VIF suite.
 
I've been using ESX 3.5 for about a month now and I LOVE IT!

Built a new box outa of random hardware, and its working like a charm!

SATA for all the VM's, and the IDE drive was for the ESX install.
 
Ahh, I musta downloaded the 3i by mistake. Oops, now I gotta move the 3i VMs I just made on our production server back to the test server so I can wipe it and install ESX 3.5, then move everything back again. Oh well, gives me more experience I guess . . . . :D
 
Installing ESX 3.5 is really straight-forward and simple.

You can SSH into the ESX server by using PuTTy or SecureCRT - first thing you have to do is to make a small change to the sshd_config file to allow root logins. That is of course, if you don't want to deal with users/groups and who can go inside the console. I'd say always login as the root because you'll do very little, if any, work inside the console. Everything, again for the most part, is done through Virtual Center.

Are you using the trial licenses to test run VMWare or did you purchase Virtual Infrastructure Foundation?
 
Just my .02 but choosing weather to 3i or 3.0/3.5 all depends on what you seek in your deployment. If this is production and you're not too concerned with your security of your environment then I would say skip the embedded version. This is really the only huge benefit that you gain when you run 3i over 3.0/3.5. Since the service console is no longer attached to the kernel and any other esx functions it is inherently more secure. This was the intent for 3i. With 3.0/3.5, if someone owns your service console they can own every single VM within your environment(this was shown at vmworld as well).

Gott said:
Installing ESX 3.5 is really straight-forward and simple.

You can SSH into the ESX server by using PuTTy or SecureCRT - first thing you have to do is to make a small change to the sshd_config file to allow root logins. That is of course, if you don't want to deal with users/groups and who can go inside the console. I'd say always login as the root because you'll do very little, if any, work inside the console. Everything, again for the most part, is done through Virtual Center.

Are you using the trial licenses to test run VMWare or did you purchase Virtual Infrastructure Foundation?
Click to expand...

You mean everything is done through Virtual infrastructure client ? Just want to say to the OP that Virtual Center is a completely separate application that is used to manipulate your ESX host and the VMs(this also requires a separate license). If you did purchase virtual infrastructure foundation, which is not a vmware bundle than Im fairly certain that it comes with Virtual center as well as the associated license and ESX of course :p

A bit off topic, but have any of your guys heard anything new about the network infrastructure they are building out(so we can do Routing, QoS, 802.1x, etc). Also, when you get the chance, check out Cisco VFrame.. EXCELLENT stuff... I haven't gotten to play with it yet though:(
 
xphil3 said:
A bit off topic, but have any of your guys heard anything new about the network infrastructure they are building out(so we can do Routing, QoS, 802.1x, etc).
Click to expand...
You have a link to any information about this?
 
Gott said:
You have a link to any information about this?
Click to expand...

unfortunately no, but ill tell you the story real fast. I went to the netperf and ESX presentation last year at vmworld and after the presentation(3 people, one of which was this GORGEOUS Indian girl who was pretty sharp with networking) I spoke with the lead engineer of the network R&D group. I mentioned that I had heard that they were working hand in hand with Cisco to produce a suite of network devices that you could integrate into your virtual network(routers, switches, firewalls) and YES, these devices would be running IOS and they would be fully virtualized. This was a rumor but when I said something to him, he gave me this smile, asked here I heard that from and said that he couldn't comment.

I haven't been working with this stuff in production anymore as I am a network consultant for Cisco now so I was wondering if you guys heard anything. Im still rocking my dual quad core with 12gigs of ram at home though :p
 
xphil3 said:
unfortunately no, but ill tell you the story real fast. I went to the netperf and ESX presentation last year at vmworld and after the presentation(3 people, one of which was this GORGEOUS Indian girl who was pretty sharp with networking) I spoke with the lead engineer of the network R&D group. I mentioned that I had heard that they were working hand in hand with Cisco to produce a suite of network devices that you could integrate into your virtual network(routers, switches, firewalls) and YES, these devices would be running IOS and they would be fully virtualized. This was a rumor but when I said something to him, he gave me this smile, asked here I heard that from and said that he couldn't comment.

I haven't been working with this stuff in production anymore as I am a network consultant for Cisco now so I was wondering if you guys heard anything. Im still rocking my dual quad core with 12gigs of ram at home though :p
Click to expand...
That would be very cool and awesome. This is the first I heard of any such information regarding a "network infrastructure" suite that would virtualize routers, switches, and firewalls.

Sounds very interesting - now comes the waiting game to see if any information comes up in the future.
 
Honestly, we are looking for the cheapest way to get legal VMware installed on our production server. Right now that looks to be ESXi since you can buy it without a support contract for one server with 2x CPUs for $495!
 
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