How to Install VMWare Workstation 9 on Windows 7 OS

How to Install VMWare Workstation 9 on Windows 7 OS Document

Hello i am explain how to install vmware workstation 9 on windows 7 OS.

VMWare workstation is base metal product. It enables users to setup multiple VM and use them simultaneously along the actual machine. VMware Workstation allows one physical machine to run multiple operating systems simultaneously.

1. You cannot install vmware workstation directly on Physical machine. To install VMWare workstation is required OS’s like, Windows, Linux and Mac OS. 
2. Here i am explain how to install vmware workstation 9 on windows 7 OS. 
3. Before download vmware workstation 9 from vmware official website, you need vmware account.
4. Download a free 30-day trial at www.vmware.com/go/tryworkstation
5. Once create the vmware account click on bellow link. https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_workstation/9_0.
6. After download is complete click on setup file.
    
   7. Click On Next 

        

      8. Choose the setup type Click on Typical and press Next

  

        9. The default path to install Workstation is C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation. Leave it as same Click on Next.

  

  10. Click Next and Again Next

     11.  It will ask for Shortcuts of workstation. Click Next

 

    12. Final step is Ready to perform Click Continue. 

 

Now the installation is sucessfully completed. You can create VM from workstation. 

VMWare Daily tasks and issues

1. Alarams are not generating from the vCenter?
Sol : Check the McAfee or any anti-virus software if its blocking it.

2.vmware-cmd stop hard

1. Log into the service console (SSH, iLO, KVM, etc)
2. Type “vmware-cmd –l” This will return a list of all VM’s & their paths
3. Check the VM’s state “vmware-cmd /the/path/from/step/two.vmx getstate”
4. Let’s try to stop stop the VM “vmware-cmd /the/path/from/step/two.vmx stop trysoft”
5. Didn’t work? Time for a larger bat: “vmware-cmd /the/path/from/step/two.vmx stop hard”

This method is the safest, as in step 4 we try to use the tools to gracefully turn the VM off. Failing that, we do the equilivant of pulling the power.
vm-support –X

This one is a bit more cumbersome as it generates a bunch of support debugging data as well, but it should be your next step in killing a stuck VM.

1. Log into the Service Console
2. We need to get the VMID of the VM that we’re killing “vm-support –x” (that’s a little x)
3. Kill the VM! “vm-support –X vmid”
4. Answer the prompts, paying special attention to the “ABORT” question, you want to answer yes to that.
5. In about 5 to 10 minutes, the VM will be off, and there will be a tar file in the directory you ran the command from that can be sent along to support.

Like I said, a bit more cumbersome, but much less likely to have any long term effects.

kill –9 pid

I hate even putting this here, but sometimes things refuse to die. Please keep in mind that this should ONLY be used as a last resort, as it is like swatting a fly with a Cadillac.

1. Log into the Service Console
2. Get the pid “ps auxwww | grep vmx”
3. Kill it with “kill –9 pid”


2. How does VMotion works? What’s the port number used for it? -- TCP port 8000

It enables live migration of running virtual machine from one ESX server to another ESX server with zero downtime.

1.       vMotion requires common shared storage between the source and destination servers.

2.       vMkernel port group should be enabled all the servers. It will require separate ip address.

3.       Both servers should be in same subnet.

4.       Both CPU’s should same compatibility.

5.        VM cannot connect with CD/DVD or Floppy.   

We can find the vmotion information from the vmware.log in the VM folder in the LUN.


What is Snapshot?

Snapshot preserves the state and data of virtual machine at specific point in time.

1. The state includes the virtual machine’s power state (power on, off, or suspended.

2. The data includes the all of the files that make up the vm. This includes memory, disks and other devices.

 

VMFS-5 Specifications

VMFS-5

Note: 1 LUN = 1 Datastore = Many VMDKs

• Unified 1MB File Block Size. Previous versions of VMFS used 1,2,4 or 8MB file blocks. These larger blocks were needed to create large files (>256GB). These large blocks are no longer needed for large files on VMFS-5. Very large files can now be created on VMFS-5 using 1MB file blocks.
• Large Single Extent Volumes. In previous versions of VMFS, the largest single extent was 2TB. With VMFS-5, this limit has been increased to ~ 60TB.
• Smaller Sub-Block. VMFS-5 introduces a smaller sub-block. This is now 8KB rather than the 64KB we had in previous versions. Now small files < 8KB (but > 1KB) in size will only consume 8KB rather than 64KB. This will reduce the amount of disk space being stranded by small files.
• Small File Support. VMFS-5 introduces support for very small files. For files less than or equal to 1KB, VMFS-5 uses the file descriptor location in the metadata for storage rather than file blocks. When they grow above 1KB, these files will then start to use the new 8KB sub blocks. This will again reduce the amount of disk space being stranded by very small files.
• Increased File Count. VMFS-5 introduces support for greater than 100,000 files, a three-fold increase on the number of files supported on VMFS-3, which was ~ 30,000.
• ATS Enhancement. This Hardware Acceleration primitive, Atomic Test & Set (ATS), is now used throughout VMFS-5 for file locking. ATS is part of the VAAI (vSphere Storage APIs for Array Integration), and will be revisited in a future posting. This enhancement improves the file locking performance over previous versions of VMFS.

VMFS-3 to VMFS-5 Upgrades

• Upgrading from VMFS-3 to VMFS-5 is an online & non-disruptive upgrade operation, i.e. VMs can continue to run on the datastore.
• Upgraded VMFS-5 can use the new 1KB small-files feature.
• Upgraded VMFS-5 can be grown to ~ 60TB, same as a newly created VMFS-5.
• Upgraded VMFS-5 has all the VAAI ATS improvements that a newly created VMFS-5 has.

Differences between newly created and upgraded VMFS-5 datastores:

• VMFS-5 upgraded from VMFS-3 continues to use the previous file block size which may be larger than the unified 1MB file block size.
• VMFS-5 upgraded from VMFS-3 continues to use 64KB sub-blocks and not new 8K sub-blocks.
• VMFS-5 upgraded from VMFS-3 continues to have a file limit of 30720 rather than new file limit of > 100000 for newly created VMFS-5.
• VMFS-5 upgraded from VMFS-3 continues to use MBR (Master Boot Record) partition type; when the VMFS-5 volume is grown above 2TB, it automatically & seamlessly switches from MBR to GPT (GUID Partition Table) with no impact to the running VMs.
• VMFS-5 upgraded from VMFS-3 continue to have its partition starting on sector 128; newly created VMFS5 partitions will have their partition starting at sector 2048.

RDM – Raw Device Mappings

• There is now support for passthru RDMs to be ~ 60TB in size.
• Non-passthru RDMs are still limited to 2TB – 512 bytes.

• Both upgraded VMFS-5 & newly created VMFS-5 support the larger passthru RDM.
• Misc.

I decided to add this section as I know many of you will have questions about it.

• The maximum size of a VMDK on VMFS-5 is still 2TB -512 bytes.
• The maximum size of a non-passthru (virtual) RDM on VMFS-5 is still 2TB -512 bytes.
• The maximum number of LUNs that are supported on an ESXi 5.0 host is still256.

These enhancements to the scalability of VMFS should assist in the consolidation of more VMs onto less datastores, reducing the number of storage objects that an administrator has to manage, and in turn making storage management that little bit easier in vSphere.

Recommendation

If you have the luxury of doing so, I would recommend creating a new VMFS-5 filesystem rather than upgrading VMFS-3 to VMFS-5. Storage vMotion operations can then be used to seamlessly move your VMs to the newly created VMFS-5. This way, you will enjoy all the benefits that VMFS-5 brings.

You can read the complete articles from following URL:

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2011/07/new-vsphere-50-storage-features-part-1-vmfs-5.html

Upgrading Matrix for both ESX/ESXi and vCenter servers

Purpose

This article provides steps which may be useful to Upgrading Matrix for both ESX/ESXi and vCenter servers

Resolution

This table outlines an upgrade matrix containing upgrade options for applicable versions of ESX/ESXi and vCenter Servers

For more referencee
http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/sim/interop_matrix.php