Hi.
On my new job we use VMware ESXi (Free version), but my colleagues use Windows on their PC's. I am allowed to use CentOS Linux, but I have no prior experience with WMVare.
I now (today) have to install CentOS 6.x minimal on that ESXi server, so I am trying to wrap my head around whole ecosystem.
What should I install on my CentOS 6.x so I can access/manage ESXi server and manage it? Direct link or nice howto would help me immensely. When ever I search the net, I get how to install CentOS client (they mean guest) ON VMware.
On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 2:59 AM, John R Pierce pierce@hogranch.com wrote:
plans.movement for vmware to move to 'any generic browser' for management in the future, and there are nice perl module tools that you can install to get access to some API calls/do things like deploy VMs from the command line (http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/sdk_pubs.html), but for general management, in my experience you still need the windows based client. of course one way around that is to build a management VM with client software and use rdesktop when you need that sort of tool.
On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 4:25 AM, Ljubomir Ljubojevic centos@plnet.rs wrote:
if you find some trickery that makes that usable, I'd be curious to hear about it. I tried to go the wine route some time back, never got anything usable, but I'm far from a wine expert.
On Thu, Sep 05, 2013 at 05:49:50AM -0400, zGreenfelder wrote:
At one point, it would work, but not with https. 5.1 and up can have everything managed from the web browser--they're actually dropping the client, I believe, and having you do everything from the browser. With CentOS, (as opposed to Fedora) one needed to add some keyboard trickery to get the arrow keys to work in the web console though.
On Thu, Sep 05, 2013 at 06:52:30AM -0400, Scott Robbins wrote:
Here is said trickery. This can be added to /etc/vmware/config.
xkeymap.keycode.108 = 0x138 # Alt_R
xkeymap.keycode.106 = 0x135 # KP_Divide
xkeymap.keycode.104 = 0x11c # KP_Enter
xkeymap.keycode.111 = 0x148 # Up
xkeymap.keycode.116 = 0x150 # Down
xkeymap.keycode.113 = 0x14b # Left
xkeymap.keycode.114 = 0x14d # Right
xkeymap.keycode.105 = 0x11d # Control_R
xkeymap.keycode.118 = 0x152 # Insert
xkeymap.keycode.119 = 0x153 # Delete
xkeymap.keycode.110 = 0x147 # Home
xkeymap.keycode.115 = 0x14f # End
xkeymap.keycode.112 = 0x149 # Prior
xkeymap.keycode.117 = 0x151 # Next
xkeymap.keycode.78 = 0x46 # Scroll_Lock
xkeymap.keycode.127 = 0x100 # Pause
xkeymap.keycode.133 = 0x15b # Meta_L
xkeymap.keycode.134 = 0x15c # Meta_R
xkeymap.keycode.135 = 0x15d # Menu
Note that I haven't worked with the free version, this was paid version of ESXi 5.1, which I _think_ is the first one that VMware says should be run entirely from the browser, as opposed to a client. Like another poster, it was the one reason I kept a Windows VM at my old job, our 3.5-5.0 VMware systems, I needed the Windows client.
On 09/05/13 03:56, Scott Robbins wrote:
In order to manage ESXi from a browser, you need a vCenter Server Appliance (SuSE or Windows), because that's what hosts the web server to provide that functionality. $$
If you want to use only the free stuff, you can, but you must manage ESXi using the Windows viclient, of if you're up to it, ssh in and use esxcli commands. You can connect to your ESXi host with a browser and download the viclient from the main page.
Jack
On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 10:19 AM, John R Pierce pierce@hogranch.com wrote:
I'd look at it the other way and say that the free version of ESXi, the client and the conversion tool is really very nice to give away for free... In many ways it is more convenient to use than KVM and very, very stable. But, I haven't had any trouble getting KVM (or a recent virtualbox) to run the same vmdk images, so you aren't completely tied to it.
enable ssh on esxi and use commandline tools on esxi?
-- Eero
2013/9/5 Ljubomir Ljubojevic centos@plnet.rs
On 05.09.2013 11:01, Joseph W. Joshua wrote:
Best way would be to install a windows VM in the server, then u can rdesktop into it to install your CentOS VM.
Stupid vmware vsphere is the sole reason I'm using a windows VM on my centos (ahem, stella) workstation. Luckily we just moved all our vms from esxi to xenserver 6.2, citrix have some migration tools that seemed to work fine, recommended.
On 05.09.2013 11:27, Nux! wrote:
And forgot to add that with this move I can use native tools such as OpenXenManager to manage XenServer. Also Citrix is in the process of adapting XenCenter in Mono so it can be run on Linux.
On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 1:52 AM, Ljubomir Ljubojevic centos@plnet.rs wrote:
What I use - and recommend - in that environment is to run windows on your desktop, but commandeer at least one of the VM's for your own use and testing, and once that VM is up on the network, run freenx and use the window NX client to access it. The performance under NX will nearly match a local console without ever having to worry about linux video drivers, plus you can suspend your session and resume it later, even from a different host. You can access the VM console from the vmware client (using right-mouse in the navigation pane to pop a separate window is nicer than working in the tab in the main screen) but after the network is up, ssh or freenx is nicer.
Also, export an NFS filesystem from a Centos box (or VM) and mount in the ESXi servers. Then you can download install isos into that area, and map then directly into the client as you create/install a new VM. If you aren't using something like puppet or chef, you can just do the initial install from the Centos 'minimal' iso, then 'yum install ' whatever other packages or groups you want.
If you ever get servers that exceed the resources permitted for the free version of ESXi (or just get tired of it), you will find that Centos/KVM will host and run the same images, even in the vmdk format. But, the VMware console and the conversion tool really are pretty nice to work with - and if the company has an experienced Windows admin and uses a good anti-virus you may find you don't really hate using it to host your VMware client and NX sessions.
How about installing virtualbox with windows on your Linux laptop so that you can get to the vmware management console!
vojin
On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 9:52 AM, Ljubomir Ljubojevic centos@plnet.rs wrote:
On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 11:42 AM, Vojin Urosevic vu@linuxusers.com wrote:
How about installing virtualbox with windows on your Linux laptop so that you can get to the vmware management console!
That (or KVM) will work, but you'll have to relicense the copy of windows after virtualizing even if it was the same copy originally installed on the native hardware - and display performance won't be as good, so I don't see a win there.
-
Eero Volotinen -
Jack Bailey -
John R Pierce -
Joseph W. Joshua -
Les Mikesell -
Ljubomir Ljubojevic -
Nux! -
Scott Robbins -
Vojin Urosevic -
zGreenfelder