ESX4i Installation

BIOS Settings

• Execute Protection should be Enabled
  • Also known as: eXecute Disable (XD - Intel), or No-Execute Page-Protection (AMD)
• CPU Virtualisation Assist should be Enabled
  • Also known as: Intel VT, or AMD-V
• Node Interleaving of memory should be Disabled
• CPU Power Management should be set to OS Control

Installation

Basic Install

1. Connect ISO / Load CD-ROm and boot ESX
2. Follow on screen prompts to install to local disk/USB/SD-card
3. Once installed, remove install media and reboot
4. Connect to console and configure
   • (root) password
   • IP address and default gateway
   • Hostname and DNS servers
5. ESX should now be pingable

Basic Config

1. Connect vCentre to ESX
2. Add shared VMFS storage (at least scratch disk)
3. Configure NTP servers
4. Update the local hosts file /etc/hosts with the names & IP's of all ESX's in the same cluster and the vCentre

Scratch partition config

1. Create a directory for the ESX on the Scratch VMFS (use the ESX’s hostname for directory name)
2. In the vSphere client go to Inventory > Hosts and Clusters and select an ESX
3. Go to the Configuration tab, and within Software click on Advanced Settings
4. Select ScratchConfig
5. Set ScratchConfig.ConfiguredScratchLocation to /vmfs/volumes/<Scratch Datastore>/<ESX Dir>
6. Check ScratchConfig.ConfiguredSwapState
7. Reboot host to apply

Syslog config

1. In the vSphere client go to Inventory > Hosts and Clusters and select an ESX
2. Go to the Configuration tab, and within Software click on Advanced Settings
3. Set Syslog.Local.DatastorePath to [<Scratch Datastore>]/<ESX Dir>/log/messages
4. Set Syslog.Remote.Hostname to <IP address>

Migrate to dvSwitch

1. Create dvSwitch and Uplinks
   1. In the vSphere client go to Inventory > Networking
   2. Right-click over the Datacentre and select New vNetwork Distributed Switch…
   3. Use version 4.1.0
   4. Give the switch an appropriate name, and leave with 4 uplink ports
   5. Add all relevant ESX’s and select the vmnics to be used for each
   6. Uncheck Automatically create a default port group
2. Enable Network I/O Control
   1. In the vSphere client Inventory > Networking view
   2. Select the dvSwitch in the left-hand pane, and click the Resource Allocation in the right-hand pane
   3. Click Properties, and tick Enable network I/O control on this vDS
   4. Click OK to apply
3. Create a management port group
   1. In the vSphere client Inventory > Networking view
   2. Right-click over the dvSwitch and select New Port Group…
   3. Give the port group an appropriate name (eg ESX_Mgmt)
   4. Leave the number of ports as is
   5. Change VLAN type to VLAN, and enter the VLAN ID
4. Migrate ESX management network to the dvSwitch (repeat for each ESX)
   1. In the vSphere client go to Inventory > Hosts and Clusters and select an ESX
   2. Go to the Configuration tab, and within Hardware select Networking
   3. Change to the vNetwork Distributed Switch view, and click Manage Virtual Adapters…
   4. Click Add, then select Migrate existing virtual adapters
   5. Change the Port Group option to name chosen before (eg ESX_Mgmt), and click Finish to apply
   6. Once completed, select vmk0, and click Edit
   7. Check Use this virtual adapter for vMotion, and click OK to apply
5. Tidy up each ESX’s vSwitches (repeat for each ESX)
   1. Within the vSphere client go to Inventory > Hosts and Clusters and select the ESX
   2. Go to the Configuration tab, and within Hardware select Networking
   3. Within the vNetwork Distributed Switch configuration view of an ESX
   4. Click Manage Physical Adapters…
   5. Edit the uplinks so that dvUplink1 is using vmnic0, dvUplink2 is using vmnic1, etc
      • No changes are made until you click OK to apply, you won’t lose contact with the ESX whilst editing the config
      • When adding vmnic0, confirm that you want to remove vmnic0 from vSwitch0
   6. Click OK to apply the changes
   7. Switch to the Virtual Switch view
   8. Remove vSwitch0 (which should have no connected adapters or VM’s etc)
6. Add VM Port Groups (repeat for each VM VLAN)
   1. Still within the vSphere client Inventory > Networking view
   2. Right-click over the dvSwitch and select New Port Group…
   3. Give the network an appropriate name
   4. Leave the number of ports as is
   5. Change the VLAN type to VLAN
   6. Set an appropriate VLAN ID tag
   7. Confirm settings are correct and click Finish to create.