Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab – Part 9: ESXi
Now that we have our vCenter running, it’s time to deploy our ESXi hosts.
Depending on the amount of memory you have, you can deploy as many ESXi hosts as you want. Personally (I have 16 GB), i will install 2 of them.
Start by creating a new Virtual Machine. Take Custom for the type of configuration.
Hardware Compatibility is Workstation 8.0.
Attach the ISO of VMware ESXi 5.0. The wizard will detect ESXi automatically for you!
Call it ESXi1 and place it on HDD storage. There is no use on putting it on SSD storage since ESXi has no real important data to store which is important from a performance point of view.
You can play around with the CPUs/Cores, but i give it a Dual Dual-Core (so cores in total). Gives you some more cores to play with if you want to dive into the CPU scheduler details.
Give the ESXi host 4GB of memory.
Select Do not use a network connection as we will add it later on.
Accept the standard LSI Logic SCSI controller.
Create a new virtual disk and pick SCSI as the type.
Use a 40GB disk and store it in a Single File.
Complete the wizard and click Finish.
Edit the settings of you newly created VM. Remove the Floppy and USB Controller.
Click Add and add a Network Adapter. Attach it to the VMnet2 network.
Repeat the procedure and add a second Network Adapter to the VMnet2 network. This will give you a screen like this:
Select the Processor item, and select Virtualizae Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI. This allows you to run x64 guests on these ESXi hosts.
Now before starting and installing ESXi, take a Full Clone of this VM and name it ESXi2. You can create a fresh VM as well, but cloning it will go faster.
Now, Power On you ESXi1 host.
The ESXi Installer will boot.
Follow the wizard and install ESXi on your 40GB local disk.
Use the same root password as you always do.
The installer will wipe your hard disk… Let him do so by clicking F11.
After the installation, the host will reboot. Press F2 to customize it. You will need to login with root.
Select Configure Management Network. First, go into Network Adapters and add vmnic1 to the list.
Give it IP 10.0.0.10/24 and set the default gateway to 10.0.0.1 (DC).
Get into DNS Configuration and set the DNS server (should already be set through DHCP but verify) and change the hostname to esxi1.labo.local. Do not use capital letters here!
Exit the screens and enter Y to restart the Management Network.
That’s it for the basic ESXi installation… Quite easy eh?
Now repeat this part for ESXi2 (IP = 10.0.0.20).
After the two ESXi hosts have been installed, log on to the DC and open Server Manager – Roles – DNS Server – DNS – DC – Forward Lookup Zones – labo.local. Create a A Record for both ESXi hosts.
Create a PTR Record as well!
You DNS should like like this:
Move over to the vCenter server. You must be able to ping both machines using their FQDN now!
Open up vSphere Client.
First, create a new Datacenter and below it, create a new Cluster.
Turn on HA & DRS.
Leave all other settings to default and complete the wizard.
Now, add the two ESXi hosts to the cluster:
That will give this cluster layout in vSphere:
Both hosts will have errors (HA related, but it’s no big deal as we’ll solve them later on).
If you ESXi hosts disconnect continually, check Administration – vCenter Server Settings – Runtime Settings and fill in the IP of vCenter.
Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab – Part 1: The Story
Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab – Part 2: The Hardware
Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab – Part 3: VMware Workstation 8
Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab – Part 4: Base Template
Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab – Part 5: Prepare the Template
Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab – Part 6: Domain Controller
Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab – Part 7: SQL Server
Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab – Part 8: vCenter
Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab – Part 9: ESXi
Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab – Part 10: Storage
Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab – Part 11: vMotion & Fault Tolerance
Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab – Part 12: Finalizing the Lab
Boerlowie's Blog 
Hello
I guess my CPU Xeon E5345 doesn’t support Intel VT-x/EPT option. Is this only going to affect ability to run x64 OS on both ESXi hosts? They installed fine but gave me the warning
Thank you
Yups,
you can’t run nested x64 VMs on vSphere then (including VDR, …). Fault Tolerance and all other features will work without problems.
Hi,
i am trying to build a lab as per your info.I have intel i3 with 2 core and 8 GB ram will that affect me lab .will i be able to build the whole lab or not. i am using a laptop.
Thanks
Abyakta
If you can’t upgrade the hardware, you can try the following as memory is your biggest limiting factor:
– Combine DC, SQL and VC on 1 server. You have to take special actions to install SQL and VC on a Domain Controller. Search the internet for some KB articles
– Your biggest issue is that if you give your ESXi VMs 3 GB or less, than HA will fail. I don’t know the minimum amount of memory you need, but start with 3 GB and try to enable HA. If it fails, give it some more memory until HA enables just fine.
Performance will be affected with this config, but if you are lucky, it should work.
Thanks for the suggestion
combining DC, SQL and VC will really affect my performance. but what memory i should give to that VM then as VC 5 will require a lot of memory. so i am thinking of taking the inbuild database comes with VC will it affect my lab.
Thanks
Abyakta
If anyone is interested in running nested x64 VMs and you keep getting the error
“Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT is disabled for this ESX VM. You will only be able to run 32-bit nested VMs”
Though you your process is VT capable, after a lot of digging around found this thread
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/330916
What worked for me was the following from the thread.
Create a new VM
Choose > Custome (advanced)
Choose > I will install the operating system later
For the Operating System Choose > Linux
Version> Red Hat Linux Enterprise Version 4 64-Bit
Keep going thru the setup for your VM and when you get to the end Click on the Customize Hardware button
Click the the Processors and choose Preferred mode: Intel VT-x or AND-V (leave the other two options uncheked)
Click on Display and uncheck 3D graphics if checked
Click on the CD Rom and mount the ESX iso
Remove any un-needed hardware
At this point click finish and make sure you dont turn on the VM.
Close vmworkstation (make sure vmworkstation is not running before going to the next step)
Go edit the VMX file of your new VM and add the line below and save the file.
monitor_control.restrict_backdoor=”true”
Run vmwaorstation and install esx!
This worked for me and I’m able to run 64 Bit OS’s inside my ESX VM on vmworkstation 8.
I hope this helps someone…
First off, thanks for the step by step instructions. They have been super helpful. But I am having an issue with adding the esxi hosts. I can add them, they work fine for 5 mins and then they stop responding (error message says host not responding). Which means I can no longer make and changes or view the settings. Any ideas? I have had a look on the web and think it maybe due to CDP
Most likely a firewall config issue on the vCenter server.
Easiest step is to disable it and see if that solves it. If it stays connected then, follow this KB to set your firewall correctly:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2002056
I could not ping esxi1/esxi2 from vcenter server then I had set vlan :4095 in esxi 1 and esx2,then i could ping them from vcenter.Even when i power ON esx servers,i get message saying “The virtual machine’s operating system has attempted to enable promiscuous mode on adapter Ethernet0. This is not allowed for security reasons.
Please go to the Web page “http://vmware.com/info?id=161” for help enabling promiscuous mode in the virtual machine”This error appears even if the VLAN 4095 is NOT selected.
Am i doing anything wrong here ???Thanks in advance
Regards
sarain
That’s weird as you don’t have to specify a VLAN normally. Esxi and the vCenter were in the same VMnet network? Then normally you should be able to ping them at the least (verify your subnets as well). And make sure you use the correct vmnic’s on esxi as well.
U rock. thanks for this. it was unbelievably helpful!
Nice stuff and really helpful. Kudos and my thanks. I ran across a new problem with the new licensing server requirements. You might want to install ESX5i and see what happens with the new requirement to install the vSphere Web Client – once that’s done, a browser opens to run a script, and it requires a flash upgrade to run. Since that’s not possible without a network to the world, you either have to add one, or follow KB 2007713. If you don’t care about licenses, then disregard.
My Hosts in my cluster (at the end of the tutorial) still have errors. Maybe I missed a step somehow? Other than that seems like everything is now ok.
What error do you get? Check the Alarms tab when you have selected the host. That should give you a list of triggered alarms.
the hosts keep disconnecting from vcenter and I have to keep connecting it back, its getting annoying? anything I can check for?
Thanks
Probably a Windows Firewall issue. I have seen this once where vCenter setup didn’t automatically configure Windows Firewall completely.
Check http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1029919 to enable the correct rule. You could also disable the Firewall completely, but let’s keep it nice and enable just the rule 🙂
My hosts keep disconnecting from vCenter as well. The firewall on SQL and vCenter are completely disabled. Any other ideas?
That’s weird. Look at the following setting and fill in the IP of your vCenter:
From the vSphere Client, log in to vCenter Server
Navigate to Administration > vCenter Server Settings > Runtime Settings and review the Managed IP Address setting.
hi there again, it seems there still seems a prob with disconnecting hosts.few things i have to mention, i guess i wasn’t being completely honest.
1) i have only 12 gb memory(waiting for the additional 4gb which i have ordered). do you think its coz of memory?
2) can i set DC, VC and sql vms to use NAT instead of the recommended vmnet2, vmnet 3? Does it matter in terms of the lab?
3) what version of workstation 8 are u using? any specific build? Can i use workstation 9, read somewhere its more suitable for esxi 5
i dont have a ssd yet and running them on a 7200 rpm hd, maybe that’s why they are disconnection?
It’s great stuff for some one new to VM. I have completed my Home Lab with the help of your this step by step instructions. Thank you very much. Just a question. I have got my vSphere or vCenter 5.1 envirnoment where I created datacenter, imported two ESXI, created data storage. Now do I need to import SQL and DC in to vCenter as well. Do I need to create a new DC and SQL in Datacenter. Please advise, thanks.
No, in this setup you don’t import the SQL and DC in the vCenter.
You could do it theoretically, but then you would have to migrate the DC, SQL (and VC as well) to the virtualized ESXi hosts. It is doable, but makes i more complicated and more important, slower as well.
Now your infrastructure (DC, VC and SQL) runs directly in VMware Workstation. If you run it on the virtual ESXi hosts, they will perform slower.
What happens if your eval period expires for the ESXi servers?
What do I connect my vsphere client too? I can get to either ESXi host, but can’t connec to the vsphere server. How would I go about making the clusters? I have 5.1 versions, but so far the lab setup has worked to this point.
Ok I figured it out I think. The FQDN and IP of the server didn’t seem to work. So I put in 127.0.0.1 with labo\vcadmin and type in PW. 127.0.0.1 also works with the windows login check box. So I take it this is correct since I’m on the vSphere server already?
It is indeed correct, but it should work using the IP and FQDN of the vCenter as well.
Anyway, from the vCenter you can always use localhost or 127.0.0.1.
Thanks for the post. I have been looking for this for long time. I have followed your instruction to do the setup, but after all, I am getting a alarm on the ESXi2 server saying that vSphere HA detected that this host is in a different network partition than the master to which vCenter Server is connected. Please help how can I solve this.
Thank you in advance.
That’s a weird one… never saw it actually.
Do you run 5.0 or 5.1?
I was wondering when building out your ESXi hosts, i noticed you allocated 40GB to them, do you really need to allocate that much space? I know at my current employer, when we set up ESXi 5 on physical boxes for our clients, we are loading it usually on a 4GB SD card. I am about to being building out this lab at home, which by the way, thank you for creating this, so i was wondering, do we really need to allocate 40GB to the ESXi hosts.
Thanks,
JC
No not at all, even 4 GB will be more than enough.
40 GB is a bit overkill, but since VMware Workstation does a good job in Thin Provisioning, you don’t actually lose that space in the lab.
But indeed a good and valid remark!
Thank you very much for the quick reply. Again, i love what you did here, finally got my 16GB and SSD drive yesterday, i am now starting to attempt to build the lab, currently my only issue is getting a 2008 R2 ISO… i have server 2003 on CD, and can prob burn an ISO, but i want to do BOTH 2003 and 2008 in my lab. Any suggestions on how i might “procure” an “offsite backup” of server 2008? My only reasoning is if the zombie apocalypse comes, and EVERY copy of server 2008 is rendered useless, i would like to try to preserve a copy for future generations……