VMware: Windows 2008 R2 SP1 memory issues on VMware ESX 3.5

Definitely there is an issue running Windows 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) VM on ESX 3.5.

We have several VMs running SQL Server, IIS, SharePoint and Project Servers. After lot of timeout issues, I decided to spend a couple of hours to research where the issue is.

I saw the VM is using almost all memory and only 25MB of free memory is available.

I started disabling all services (IIS, SharePoint, SQL, Antivirus) and rebooted server. Server still using around 3.8 GB of RAM of 4GB.

Rebooted on safe mode, using 380 MB! Rebooted on safe mode with networking around 460 MB!

Then I compared with others servers (1 VM and 1 physical server). Same issue on the VM, but physical server was using around 800MB of RAM.

I decided to uninstall VM Tools and viola! Issue resolved.

VMware: Error The specified parameter was not correct: "." on VMware Converter

When you try to P2V a Windows 2008 R2 or Windows 7 x64 using VMware Converter 4.3 you receive following error: The specified parameter was not correct: "."

Solution: right click on VMware Converter icon on the desktop and choose Run as administrator

Note to VMware: UAC is around since Windows 2008 and Windows Vista (probably +3 years), will be nice if your development team learn about it!!!!!

VMware: How to Install VMware ESX 3.5 or VMware ESXi v3.5 on VMware Workstation 7.x

Detailed instructions to Install VMware ESX 3.5 or VMware ESXi v3.5 on VMware Workstation 7.x available as a PDF at:

http://technotes.musumeci.com.ar/How_to_Install_VMware_ESX_3.5_on_VMware_Workstation_7.pdf

VMware: Turn vCPU’s into vCores

The procedure below will "convert" vCPUs into vCores

Example: we have software product licensed for 2 CPUs. We add 4 vCPU to VMWare VM.
Using the procedure below, we can convert these 4 CPU as 2CPU of 2 Cores each.

1.Power off the VM
2.Right click on the VM and select “Edit Settings…”
3.Select the “Options” tab
4.Click on “General” (in the “Advanced” options section)
5.Click “Configuration Parameters…” (in the pane on the right)
6.Click “Add Row”
7.Enter “cpuid.coresPerSocket” in the “Name” column
8.Enter a value, like 2 or 4 in the “Value” column
9.Click “OK”
10.Power on the VM

Based on a post from Duncan at YellowBrick

CTX: How Much Bandwidth Do I Need for My Virtual Desktop?

How Much Bandwidth Do I Need for My Virtual Desktop?
http://virtualfeller.com/2010/05/20/how-much-bandwidth-do-i-need-for-my-virtual-desktop

Detect running inside a Virtual Machine

In December 2008, I wrote a tool to detect if we are running inside a Virtual Machine, this small application called DetectVM works fine for a several months until I received a few complains about it: not working on x64 systems and don't detect VMware ESX 4.0 vSphere.

Today I rewrite the whole application for scratch on Visual Studio.NET. The new version DetectVM 2.0 works on x86 and x64 systems and detect ESX 4.0 vSphere.

Detect VM 2.0 detect Virtual Machines running on Microsoft Virtual Server and Hyper-V, VMware and Citrix XenServer.

When you run DetectVM 2.0, the application return a code so we can run on silent mode (use /quiet or /q parameter) on a batch file.

Below is a script example:

---- Start Script ----

@ECHO OFF
DetectVM /QUIET
IF ERRORLEVEL 100 GOTO ErrorVM
IF ERRORLEVEL 3 GOTO Xen
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO VMware
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO Microsoft

REM No Virtual Machine
ECHO Not running inside a Virtual Machine
GOTO End

:Microsoft
REM Microsoft
ECHO Running Inside a Microsoft Virtual Machine
GOTO End

:VMware
REM VMware
ECHO Running Inside a VMware Virtual Machine
GOTO End

:Xen
REM Citrix XenServer
ECHO Running Inside a Citrix XenServer Virtual Machine
GOTO End

ErrorVM
ECHO Error Detecting Virtual Machine
:End

---- End Script ----

You can download DetectVM for FREE, the script and source code from http://ctxadmtools.musumeci.com.ar

CtxAdmTools: Clone XenApp VM v1.0 Updated

Clone XenApp VM v1.0 Updated (New Build 1.00.28 released December 26, 2008)

This FREE tool clone Citrix XenApp (formerly Citrix Presentation Server) Virtual Machines

Deploy XenApp Virtual Machines in Virtualization Environments (VMware, XenServer, Hyper-V).

Clone XenApp was tested succesfully on Citrix XenServer 5.0 (Should be work 4.x version too), VMWare Server, VMware ESX 3.x and Microsoft Hyper-V.

New Feature:

Update AU Client (WSUS): Update Registry Keys and re-register Automatic Update Client with WSUS.

http://ctxadmtools.musumeci.com.ar

CtxAdmTools: DetectVM v1.0 Released!

DetectVM v1.0 is a virtual machine detection tool.

This FREE tool detect Virtualization Technology installed (Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Virtual Server/Hyper-V and VMware Server/ESX/Workstation Virtual Machines only).

Detect Virtual Machine execution. DetectVM only run Windows x86 systems.

If you run DetectVM Client from Windows Explorer:

If you run DetectVM Client from Command Line:

More Info: http://ctxadmtools.musumeci.com.ar/

VMWARE: VMware Released VMware Server 2.0

VMware Released today the VMware Server 2.0 (Build 122956)

What's New

VMware Server 2.0 is a free virtualization product for Microsoft Windows and Linux servers that enables you to provision new server capacity by partitioning a physical server into multiple virtual machines.

New Key Features

VI Web Access: VI Web Access enables you to perform host and virtual machine configuration on VMware Server 2.0. This intuitive web-based interface provides a simple and flexible tool for virtual machine management.

VMware Remote Console: VMware Remote Console enables you to interact with the guest operating system on the host or a remote system. After you install it as a Web browser add-on, it can run independently from VI Web Access. VMware Remote Console also allows you to connect and disconnect client CD/DVD and floppy devices.

USB 2.0 Device Support: VMware Server now supports faster data transfer with USB devices plugged into the host system. If the guest operating system has appropriate USB 2.0 device drivers, you can use peripherals that require high-speed performance, such as speakers, webcams, next-generation printers and scanners, and fast storage devices.

Increased RAM support: The maximum amount of memory that can be allocated per virtual machine has been raised from 3.6GB to 8GB. The amount of memory used by all virtual machines combined is limited only by the amount of the host computer's RAM.

Improved 64-bit guest support: 64-bit guest operating systems that run on Intel EM64T VT-capable or AMD64 revision D or later processors are fully supported.

Native 64-bit host support on Linux: VMware Server now runs natively on 64-bit Linux host operating systems.

Quiesced backups of virtual machines: On Windows hosts, you can enable the VMware VSS Writer, which uses snapshots to maintain the data integrity of applications running inside the virtual machine when you take backups.

VMCI Sockets interface: This feature provides a sockets interface for the Virtual Machine Communication Interface, which provides a faster means of communication among applications running on the host and in virtual machines. For more information, see the VMCI Sockets Programming Guide.

Hot add and remove for SCSI hard disks: You can now add and remove SCSI virtual hard disks while the virtual machine is running in hardware version 7 virtual machines.

MS: Microsoft Server Software And Supported Virtualization Environments

Microsoft Server Software And Supported Virtualization Environments

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957006

This article discusses the support policy for running Microsoft server software in the following supported virtualization environments:

Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008

Supported partners' virtualization software

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
944987 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944987)
Support partners for non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software.

MS: Windows 2008 Hyper-V RTM!

Today, Microsoft released Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, the hypervisor-based virtualization feature included in select versions of Windows Server 2008. Those who have already deployed the x64 versions of Windows Server 2008 can receive Hyper-V from Windows Update beginning July 8, while new customers and partners can Download Hyper-V from Microsoft Hyper-V Web Site.

Be sure to visit the Windows Virtualization Team blog to see daily spotlights on specific features and benefits of Hyper-V technology, as well as to read about customer stories and see postings from guests.

Guest operating systems that are supported on a Hyper-V virtual machine host
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954958