Plain Virtualization

  Two new white-boxes purchased to add to my current whitebox. Finally I can have a cluster! Am going to try EVC for my Core2Quad box with my new i7 box. Here are the specifications of my new whitebox if you are interested in building one. Note the chipset of the mainboard which is the crucial part whether ESXi can be installed on it. So far I discover P67 chipset seems to be working for all models.  So I bought the Deluxe series as the Evo series was out of supply. I bought my Intel Dual Port from dealextreme.  It took very long to shipped and its not cheap as they are server NICs. Components Parts CPU Intel i7-2600 3.4GHz/8MB/LGA1155 Board Asus P8P67 Deluxe-B3 Memory 4 x Kingston 4GB DDR3 10600/1333 CL9 HDD Western Digital 1TB 64MB Caviar Black SATA 3 NIC Intel Pro 1000/PT Dual Port PCI-E X4 Video Asus EN210 512MB DDR2 HDMI (L/Profile) DVD Samsung SH-S243S 24x ...

Finally took some time to upgrade my ESXi whitebox which is running on ESXi 4.1 with custom driver to support the onboard Marvell LAN chipset. The installation screen was different in this case and I took some pictures using my mobile.  My CD Rom happen not to work and I need to create a ESXi installer onto an UDB Drive to install on another USB Drive. First I would just go through the tools I used to create a USB installer. I use unetbootin version 5.55 and use the ESXi 5.0 installable image to create the USB installer. This time it works.  Unlike in ESXi 4.1, it has to be using version 4.94, any higher version breaks the installation. My ESXi 4.1 was installed on a 2GB USB disk.  So with ESXi 5.0 which required 4GB scratch disk, it is definitely not possible. I did some google of cause and found USBIT .  What it does is, it creates a backup (clone image) of my 2GB disk and restore to my 8GB disk.  That boots up proper.  But my 2GB disk cannot b...

Just passed my VCP 5 today.  Didn't score really well but a pass is a pass! Before my start sharing my experience, I will answer to many who question how to be certified.  In order to be certified, you would need to take the vSphere x: Install, Configure and Manage course and the exam.  Completing either of which will not make you certified.  If your course is on vSphere 4, you would need to take the VCP 410 exam and VCP 510.  It has to be the same. VMware always introduce a What's New course for the previous VCP to attend in order to take the next VCP exam.  However promotion period will always be there so this allow previous VCP to be able to just take the new VCP exam without having to attend the What's New course.  After the promotion period, previous VCP will need to take the What's New course before attempting the exam. Now to my experience. One thing I must comment is the exam no longer test you on memorizing work e.g. in VCP3, VCP4 which...