n00b ESXi 6 Help

S

SpeedyVV

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Sep 14, 2007
Messages
4,210
So I figured I'd give EXSi a try coming from a Win10 +VMWare Workstation setup.

After reading a bit about ESXi and Installing it, it looks like it is not what I bargained for :(

The idea was to run all the VMs I previously ran under Windows 10 + VMWorstation under ESXi.

Hardware:
mobo: ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS
CPUs: 2 Xeon E5-2699v3
ram: 64GB (more planned for later)
Storage: 3xSamsung 850 EVO 250GB + 5 SATA HDDs (all NTFS)
Backup: USB 3.0 DAS with 4 SATA HDDs (all NTFS)

In the Windows 10 setup the 3xSSDs were in RAID for the boot drive.

All my data and Virtual Machines (.vmx,.vmdk) are in a HDD, and all my other data (ISOs, media, documents, user files) are in the other 3 HHDs

Step 1: used a vm to install ESXi to a usb drive. Worked
Step 2: Deleted RAID partition. Worked
Step 3: Booted ESXi from USB stick. Worked
Step 4: Installed vSphere Client on my laptop. Worked
Step 5: Create 3 datastores with the 3 SSDs. Worked
Step 6: Used putty to run vmfstools to create a RDM to access my .vmx and ISOs. OH NO!

So you EXSi guys are probably having a good laugh now!

Yes, I just thought from the reading about ESXi that I would be able to access my NTFS drives to create new VMs from ISOs, and to clone my old VMs.

But from what I can tell, is that vSphere Client will not allow me to look at the contents of my NTFS drive where my ISOs and VMs are stored!

So what now? This is where I am hoping to get some help before trying the following:
1: Download a Linux iso to my laptop
2: Upload ISO to datastore with vSphere Client
3. Create a Linux VM from iso and add my RDMs so I can see my VMs
4. Clone my a Windows 7 VM to act as a NAS by loading all my RDMs and sharing all the drives.

I am worried this will not work, so any advice would be really appreciated. Also I am really not keen to create a new VM to install FreeNAS or something like that. I would prefer to keep my NTFS drives as NTFS drives.

NOTE: I am assuming that I can take my VMW Workstation VMs and get them working in ESXi. How is that done? Do I have to convert them? I hope not.
 
So you were simply wanting to move your VMs from Workstation to ESXi? I've never worked with VMWare Workstation but couldn't you have exported each VM as an OVF file and then imported them into ESXi via the client? Cloning them would have also worked. You would have just imported the clone into ESXi via the client.

So do you still have the .vmdk for each VM? Can you simple not copy them to your new datastore and then add them to inventory? Using the datastore browser, you could create a directory for each VM, copy the proper .vmdk to each directory, and then right click each VM and choose "Add to Inventory".

Your storage is on those 5 SATA drives? They need to also be added as datastores to ESXi so the VMs on your SSD can access them.
 
Hmmm, just stick the NTFS drives in a ESXi box and go? Sorry but no not going to happen. I have already been where you are.

vmware workstaiton VMs CAN be exported to work over in ESXi but you are going to have to go about it in a slightly round about method. ESXi won't just up and read NTFS like that. What you probably need to do is put a new blank drive into ESXi, then copy over your VMs to it via the vshphere client from another working PC. As you empty your NTFS drives then put them into the ESX server and keep copying data over til everything is on the ESXi server.

If you want to be able to have drives on the ESX server still under NTFS format you can, but not in a way ESX itself can use them. You can have NTFS drives in your ESX box that a Windows VM can read/write to. It is a process known as "passthrough" but that is a whole different can of worms that you can look into.

Don't give up on ESX cause of the small issue. It is wonderful once you get it fully running.
 
koolaidkitten said:
Don't give up on ESX cause of the small issue. It is wonderful once you get it fully running.
Click to expand...

OMG, it is NOT a small issue!

being a n00b and tackling migrating to ESXi is a road full of apparent roadblocks!

but i'm trying... i'm trying real hard!

1 Restored my old Windows 10 from backup!
2 Copied a Win 10 VM to a 2nd PC
3 Upload as per documentation...failed "incompatible hardware version" (version 12)
4 Cloned to hardware version 11.
5 Uploading as I write this...
6 Let's see!

EDIT: In a way, I am glad I am doing a "migration" as opposed to clean start. I'm learning lots on the way.
 
Finally made it work after another embarrassing n00b mistake.

Could not for the life of me get the Win 10 VM to boot properly...

Finally on the 2nd day, I realized that I had assigned Video passthrough, so it actually had been working all along.

I just did not see it, because it was displaying on the ESXi system itself in the other room!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Wow, it turns the SATA controller on the ASUS Z10PE-D8 mobo does not support ESXi passthrough!

It was a great learning experience, but I am going back to regular Windows + VMWare Workstation as I am not ready to ditch my NTFS drives just yet :-(
 
SpeedyVV said:
Wow, it turns the SATA controller on the ASUS Z10PE-D8 mobo does not support ESXi passthrough!

It was a great learning experience, but I am going back to regular Windows + VMWare Workstation as I am not ready to ditch my NTFS drives just yet :-(
Click to expand...

I HIGHLY suggest either a RAID card or a HBA card to passthrough mode for your NTFS drives. My sig shows the card im using currently. Works great.
 
koolaidkitten said:
I HIGHLY suggest either a RAID card or a HBA card to passthrough mode for your NTFS drives. My sig shows the card im using currently. Works great.
Click to expand...

Just saw your post.

I was about to jump on this, until I saw the price :-(
 
Get an IBM M1015 and crossflash it to LSi 9211-8i.

They are on eBay for a reasonable price.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top