How to build your awesome virtualization home lab with VMware vSphere 6.0 (ESXi & VCSA)
May 08 2015 Update - The detailed video is finally here, with very handy chapter markers below! This new video was recorded on April 19th, and was edited down to about 1 hour 20 minutes. It's a detailed step-by-step video, geared toward those who want nice hostnames in a home lab. If you want a simpler approach, choose this earlier, shorter vSphere 6.0 beta video. It demonstrates the easier IPs (rather than host names) procedure. Also note that we're all still waiting to see what happens with 365 day licenses for vSphere 6.0 home labs under, I inquired again on May 7, 2015 with an EVALExperience contact.
Aug 24 2015 Update - The 6.0.0b versions of ESXi and VCSA are now out, but the installation instructions don't change. Also note that EVALExperience worked out fine for vSphere 6.0 users, detailed here:
Sep 26 2015 Update - The 6.0 Update 1 versions of ESXi and VCSA are now out, and as far as I can tell, the installation instructions still work, this is good!
Nov 24 2016 Update - Status of vSphere 6.5 update to this artice appears below.
Original article below:
See Disclaimer below, to help you understand the prerequisites.
I'm working hard on the full recipe for success, to build up your vSphere 6.0 home lab. The focus of this article is on fresh installs, but you can read all about more complicated upgrade options here and here. Note, while I say fresh install, that doesn't mean you are starting from scratch, if you have existing VMs. Those can easily be added back into your inventory, once you get your vSphere 6.0 environment set up, and any additional drivers you may need for networking and storage.
Overall, vSphere 6.0 is an easier install, once you get to know your way around some of the newness of it all. Installing ESXi 6.0 is much the same as it's been for years, but the VCSA (VMware vCenter Server Appliance) is different, and easier, basically consisting of these 3 steps:
- double-click to mount the VMware-VCSA-all-6.0.0-2562643.iso file (Windows 8 or later)
- install the \vcsa\VMware-ClientIntegrationPlugin-6.0.0.exe
- run \vcsa-setup.html to launch your browser, which begins the install wizard for VCSA
This recipe for all the ingredients you'll need for your own awesome home lab setup will be soup-to-nuts thorough, with a focus on simplicity, ease of deployment, and ease of use. Once you see the video, it's all so much more straightforward than all the documentation implies.
Topics will include:
- slick ways to make login easier
- FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Names) instead of ugly IP addresses...
- create shortcut for your vSphere Web Client on your Taskbar, with no URL or menus cluttering up the top of your valuable browser real estate
What I'm trying to do is get past VCSA's dislike for using DHCP (which is simplest in a home lab to use for that first install), using a custom procedure for renaming the appliance after the initial install, and re-issuing the certificate after the initial deployment. Alternatively, I may just go with the vcsa-cli-installer method.
One barrier has been lack of valid documentation this early on. For example, here's a VMware document that hasn't yet been updated since the 5.5 days. See for yourself, visit this article Error When You Change vCenter Server Appliance Host Name, then simply change the vsphere-60 in the URL to vsphere-55, and it still comes up. Yep, that ain't right, they simply haven't updated it for 6.0 yet. The main page, the VMware vSphere 6.0 Documentation Center, currently shows last updated March 12 2015.
But you don't have to wait until I have the recipe fully documented, and the solution fully baked. Especially if you're just messing around and plan to rebuild from scratch. Keep reading!
[all sections below are currently a work in progress]
Download
VMware vSphere 6.0 is now generally available, here’s how to download it fast
Rufus takes 2 minutes to create a bootable USB flash drive for ESXi installation
Install/Configure
The procedure is demonstrated in this rough-cut earlier video, from an earlier build, but it's the same install/configure procedure, if you're ok with going with IP addresses instead of host names:
My revised completely new video includes install, and configure, with a twist. I added tweaks so you have a nice looking vSphere Web Client with a FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Names) for ESXi and VCSA, instead of merely using IP addresses. Yes, it's all about that home network WiFi router, which doesn't do the forward and reverse lookups that VMware expects (in the datacenter). The work arounds are fairly straight-forward, but not as easy as I would have liked.
Install/Configure, with FQDN
Here it is, the detailed, step-by-step video that gets you an awesome home virtualization lab, with lovely names like esxi and vcenter, rather than ugly IPs.
Want chapter markers, to jump ahead to just the right spot in the video?
Well, the video is intended to be followed from start to finish, but I realize it's still awfully handy to figure out where you left off by having all the chapters nicely laid out for you.
- (0:00) Preparations and Downloads
- (0:44) Create the bootable flash drive
- (4:52) Configure BIOS and boot ESXi 6.0 installer from the flash drive, installing to same drive
- (10:22) Configure ESXi 6.0, set NTP, edit hosts file
- (13:28) Edit host file and install vSphere Client and Chrome on client Windows 8.1 PC
- (25:35) Deploy VCSA appliance, edit hosts file
- (32:45) Configure WiFi router for DHCP reservation and FQDN for VCSA
- (46:33) Create Datacenter, add host named esxi.lab.local, create a Datastore
- (48:34) Configure VCSA autostart, reboot
- (55:40) Install VMRC, test it, allowing certain pop-ups
- (1:02:58) Browse Datastore and add some VMs to inventory
- (1:04:22) Optionally install LastPass vSphere Web Client autologin administrator@vsphere.local
- (1:07:50) Optionally use WinSCP to download cert to avoid nag screen
- (1:14:32) Final login test, closing thoughts and practical lab project ideas
Adding drivers (VIB bundles)
If you want info on the optional steps needed to add drivers for typical "whitebox" home-built (unsupported) gear, it's all described right at TinkerTry's For ESXi 6.0, those ESXi 5.1 VIBs for ASMedia SATA ports and Realtek NICs still seem to be working (but unsupported)
Today’s tip is a sneak peek at what’ll probably happen once vSphere 6 finally arrives. Four simple lines of code, and a few minutes to reboot, are all it’s likely to take to get your ASMedia (ASM1061 chipset) AHCI SATA drives visible again. And those Realtek NICs. That’s a relief, ain’t it?
This entire article will, over time, become much more like my very popular Sep 30 2013 post:
Build your own VMware vSphere 5.5 Datacenter with ESXi and VCSA with step-by-step here
I want people to have the proper expectations about this video, which admittedly has some constraints. Hopefully this polite warning I have inserted into the video at 1 minute conveys the right message:
PLEASE PAUSE to read this screen. This video is geared toward experienced PC enthusiasts who may be new to VMware vSphere, and want to either create a new lab, or rebuild their existing VMware lab, re-importing existing VMs.
If you have:
chosen PC hardware that’s compatible with ESXi 6.0, particularly the network adapter, avoiding the "No network adapters found“ message, see also TinkerTry.com/superguide-whiteboxes and note that Realtek NICs have been a problem for many, see TinkerTry.com/asmedia-realtek-on-esxi-6
downloaded the 3 big files needed to get started, as explained at TinkerTry.com/downloadvsphere6
handled licensing (60 day full trial, $200/yr. EVALExperience, etc.)
an understanding that VMware vSphere 6 was intended for the enterprise, and the local monitor isn’t useful once ESXi is installed (no access VMs such as Windows, that’s done on a remote management PC on the network), see TinkerTry.com/esxi-is-designed-to-be-headless
an understanding that I cannot provide technical support answers for free, and can’t offer advice on hardware I don’t even own, see TinkerTry.com/vzilla
a way to play this video on a 1920x1080 HD monitor, ideally in full screen mode, for pixel-zperfect clarity, making it a lot easier to follow along
- a decent WiFi router (less than ~5 year old, and purchased for more than ~$100), side-stepping the vSphere requirement for a full-featured DNS server typically found in the enterprise
then you’ll next see and hear EVERY step needed to create your amazing virtualization lab.
I’m confident this video will be helpful for individuals wishing to get past some bumps in the, using a consumer WiFi router. It assumes a familiarity with creating DHCP reservations. The idea is to provide the MAC address of your new vCenter Server Appliance to your router, so it’ll then feed out a nice name like vcenter.lab.local (FQDN) and a fixed IP address. This makes VCSA, and you, happy. You can name your host (server) something like esxi.lab.local, but you’ll be to use the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client to log in using just the short names, like vcenter and esxi.
If this all seems too complex, and you don’t mind showing seeing IPs instead of hostnames for your vSphere Web client, skip the router tweaks and go with static IPs, as demonstrated in short and simple video at TinkerTry.com/vsphere6preview
Producing this video took many hours of rehearsals followed by several hundred edits, but there’s no trickery. Based on my similar vSphere 5.5 video that had 200,000 views in 18 months, I can safely say that YouTube ads provide less than minimum wages for this niche, but high-value video. I honestly had no idea what I was getting into back when I started on YouTube, yet I still try to take on such long-form videos with every major VMware release, knowing it’s of high value to the community. I’ll try to keep this video free. A tip jar of sorts is available using the easy Support button seen next to this video on YouTube, or by visiting TinkerTry.com/donate.
Please consider subscribing, sharing, and reading the main article that goes with this video at TinkerTry.com/installvsphere60 before leaving a comment. Enjoy your home virtualization lab! It’s an incredible way to get the most out of your hardware investment.
Nov 24 2016 Update
Yes, I'm working on a new version of this video, based on the recently released vSphere 6.5! Easier install, and better results with an affordable and proper DNS solution that also helps with 6.0U2.
Meanwhile, this conversation should help get you pointed in the right direction, and you might enjoy a look at the installing ESXi 6.5 video here:
That's right, it was published day-and-date of ESXi 6.5's arrival!
All Comments on This Article (89)
Thanks for sharing, I actually found this bc it came up at random on YouTube--while I was actually working on servers, I put YouTube as white noise to avoid falling asleep while waiting for progress bars. Thanks again, I already bookmarked the links to read later tonight. ⚡︎ I smell weekend project. 🤓
Hey Gustavo! Yeah, the video is getting quite old, and I didn't have built in IPMI for out of band management (for free with Supermicro) back then, but I do now:
https://TinkerTry.com/connecticut-vmug-usercon-2018-homelab#photos
and yes, NO Java, just HTML5, as you can see in my video here:
https://TinkerTry.com/how-to-install-esxi-on-xeon-d-1500-supermicro-superserver
Back then, I used something far clumsier, the Lantronix Spiderduo mentioned here:
https://TinkerTry.com/esxi-is-designed-to-be-headless
Hey I missed it and somehow I can't find it; you out-of-band mgmt , does it come with the server or was it pxe boot? On of my servers, Cisco go figure, has IP KVM as usual and it work great except that first you need Adobe Flash on the browser and then to download a Java applet, and then hunt for certificates bc Java thinks it's super secure and autodeclines everything.
Luckily as you say, it's once ever forever I had to go baremetal but the room is either freezing or burning hot--I read somewhere in the server's docs that you can actually replace the OS that runs the out-of-band management but I lost that too. There were some big names in the list, I think all 32-bit. SuSE, Red Hat, VMware, Solaris…and a version of Windows I've never heard before, don't remember though but not Datacenter/Enterprise/LTSB/etc, it was something else, 32-bit and that's as far as I can remember. 🤕
Hi Paul 2 months have passed and my NUC is working like a dream.. The biggest hurdle was VMware & Hyper V could not see my SSD drives but when i installed XenServer 7 and formatted the disks I could then see the two drives :)
Not something I've tried myself, but sure seems like that should work just fine! You'll need to use a bit more CLI than I (I ended up sticking with GUI for everything). The forums are pretty darn good:
https://community.ubnt.com/t5/EdgeMAX/bd-p/EdgeMAX
Could this also be done by creating 2 LANs on the ubiquiti router? Eth0 in from cable modem, eth1 192.168.1.1/24, eth2-4 192.168.2.1/24. Eth1 would go to my home networks switch, and eth2 would plug directly into my Dell r710 running esxi 6.5 (no center)?
I hope to have more articles and videos about how I do this with vSphere 6.5 and the Ubiquiti router I used these days, but here's the gist of it, using a $90 router that does everything I want, explained here:
https://tinkertry.com/highlights001#network
This admittedly requires intermediate levels of network admin skills (I'm no expert).
It's also pictured here, and was used at the demo I did yesterday:
https://tinkertry.com/my-tinkertry-d-xeon-d-bundle-2-supermicro-superserver-bundle-2-of-joy
To truly isolate it, one method would be if your cable company allows your cable modem to give out multiple IPs. This would mean you could leave your existing WiFi router hooked up, and you could add a 2nd connection from the ETH0 (WAN connection) of this Ubiquiti router the same cable modem, using a network switch such as the 4 port Netgear https://tinkertry.com/superguide-efficient-hardware-for-your-home-network to get multiple drops off the back of that cablemodem.
I hope this helps? There's so many options, and I'm not sure what you like to use for remote control.
I hope this helps!
How can i do this by setting it up as it's own internal test lab that does not affect mine home network.
If your VCSA isn't to your liking, best to delete it, and start again, far faster and easier than trying to troubleshoot that thing.
I have a better way in VCSA 6.5 that I will be demonstrating in my next such video, which are very ambitious in scope, and take a long time to record. Anyhow, meanwhile, I do show my router configuration here:
https://youtu.be/DSJpAH93gcs?t=7m51s
Basically, for VCSA to install smoothly with proper hostnames to show, it's easy if you have a router that allows you configure it all properly, see also my "paulbraren" post here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vmware/comments/5bmmt7/vcsacliinstaller_to_a_greenfield_no_dns_available/
and my Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite mention here:
https://tinkertry.com/highlights001#network
So the good news is that yes, given you have an EdgeRouter, following along with the above video should be enough for you to succeed, with 6.0U2 or 6.5! 6.5 has gotten easier to deploy actually, and is highly suggested at this point, while I don't have the super-easy methods documented yet, these guides might help:
https://tinkertry.com/easy-upgrade-to-vcsa-65
https://tinkertry.com/easy-upgrade-to-esxi-65
Here's the other tip. When deplying the VCSA appliance, watch carefully near the end, when it first powers up the VM. Pause that VM, check the properties of that VM, and look for the virtual network adapter's MAC address. Then put that into your UBNT router and you're good to go.
Hi Paul,
I trust you are well.
So I was lucky enough to spot a really good deal on Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X which has now been means now I can utilise the DHCP server feature in my lab environment :). I followed your video on building a ESXI 6 environment several times and pausing between critical steps or to double check my settings :) Everything is going just peachy when I notice I have a ugly IP address in my vsphere web client (192.168.1.6) mmm so I traced back my steps, checked hosts records, did pings, opened PuTTY and I cant see where I have gone wrong..192.168.1.6 is the VCSA, any tips where I could look next, very much appreciate your videos and the time and effort taken to edit them.
Jason
Sorry, been living at the leading edge for a while and forgetting which tools they've yanked support for, try consider http://wincdemu.sysprogs.org
I finally got the ISO file mounted on a Windows10 laptop... and what do you know, the vmware-clientIntegratonPlugin file is not in the folder! I am trying to install version 6.5 so perhaps the requirements have changed?
Thanks. Your google fu is stronger than mine. Unfortunately I could not get this to work. The readme.txt instructs me to copy the VCdRom.sys file to c:\windows\system32\drivers which I did. I can see it and tons of other files there in Windows Explorer, but when I try to load the VCdRom.sys file from within the app, the file does not show up as being in the file and available to open. I suspect this is a limitations of my large companies corporate restrictions. I have found a Windows10 laptop, and will transfer the files there and use that instead. Thanks for your help. Bruce.
This might work (to get to the files inside the ISO):
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=38780
Hi Bruce,
Can you mount the ISO on a DVD drive if you have one ?
Hi I am having trouble with this instruction:
-- double-click to mount the VMware-VCSA-all-6.0.0-2562643.iso file (Windows 8 or later)
I am running Windows 7, and have not been able to find any way to "Install the \vcsa\VMware-ClientIntegrationPlugin-6.0.0.exe"
Any suggestons?
Hi Paul,
Over the weekend I installed Pfsense in my lab environment but couldn't configure it to work I must admit my network skills are very basic.
To answer your question, 1) no you are right UK ISP's will not allow double NAT, I was thinking of replacing my BT Home Hub, then I started to look at the Edgemax router as the way to go.
They retail in the UK for about £90 but there are cheaper alternative routers and as long as they have DHCP server and DNS forwarding that should work ?
All this work to get XenDesktop Machine Creation Services to connect to NUC and issue a certificate...
#https://twitter.com/jasonlfarrell
Thank you for this wonderful comment.
Jason, if you have time to respond at some point, I politely ask:
1) Can UK ISPs allow a router behind a router (double NAT), especially if the WAN interface looks like any old PC?
2) I did not know that about UK, does amazon.uk stock it?
3) Does this (Amazon US affiliate via Skimlinks) work for searching on your amazon.uk too? http://fave.co/2eotp76
Anyhow, here's their product page:
https://www.ubnt.com/edgemax/edgerouter-lite/
and the $49 USD version:
https://www.ubnt.com/edgemax/edgerouter-x/
But back to the appliance post-boot of ESXi/VCSA approach, which I do hope you get to work. I had spent a lot of effort to try to get any simple free windows binary to work for DHCP forward and reverse lookup during (and after) the tricky VCSA install, but ultimately failed. I hope you do find success with pfSense for your needs.
Know that a little metal box that just works for all my gear when I travel has been a big blessing beyond what any VM can do, so I can leave everyting in DHCP mode throughout the setup and the travel. Works out great, I just clone my home's EdgeRouter Lite config to the identical travel EdgeRouter Lite, so my systems don't even know they're not home when I'm on the road, with very minimal admin (2 minutes to copy the config over), such as the demo prep seen in the tweet below:
https://TinkerTry.com/tinkertrydemos2016
https://twitter.com/paulbraren/status/796905307016429568
But I realize my approach doesn't suit everybody, including for the valid reasons you laid out. I love conversations like this!
Not sure if the UK has a Ubiquiti distributor and also it appears the UK ISP's like to tie down consumer routers, so virtual router may only be my only option.. I have seen pfSense being deployed in a lab environment and from the features it looks like it can do everything I need.
I've gone with plunking my $80 down, but very happy I did, for Ubiquiti router which works great with VCSA/vSphere 6
https://tinkertry.com/highlights001#network
which I'm thinking folks could attach just to their vSphere 6 lab (leaving their consumer stuff alone), and they have a model way down at $50 too.
Anyhow, haven't written that device up in detail (with video), someday soon I hope....
Hi Paul,
I have been following this video and I am unable to manipulate my consumer router to change the WAN host name, so I wonder if installed a virtual appliance router to get around this limitation. I will let you know how I get on.
Jason
DNS is tricky, and can cause connection issues no doubt. I plan to do better than DNS host file edits in my future vSphere 6.5 video, see also some discussion about this here:
https://TinkerTry.com/intel-nuc-compared-to-xeon-d-supermicro-superservers#comment-2983596526
Great video Paul
I have been trying to get around the issue with certificates in my XenDesktop lab with connecting vmware ESXi 6 to my site to allow MCS. Hopefully this video tutorial will get round this road block.
I will let you know how I get on..
Good point! I've been using remote ISO mounting lately though iKVM https://TinkerTry.com/how-to-install-esxi-6-on-supermicro-superserver-xeon-d https://TinkerTry.com/supermicro-superserver-ikvm-moving-from-java-to-html5
You can Network (PXE) install ESXI with Serva and avoid creating/booting from pendrives
http://vercot.com/~serva/an/NonWindowsPXE3.html
Hello Paul Braren,
Thanks for this video and documentation on how to installvsphere6. I ran into an error while installing the vsphere after following all you did.
Error is firstboot script execution error
I deleted the Vcenter and installed again, but this time I used IP address instead of FQDN. How do I solve this?
Thank you
Hello! Thank you very much for the tutorials. I have been trying to access web client from a remote or public internet connection. But I haven't been able to connect. I checked for open ports on my host firewall and also port ford warding on my router. Any ideas on how to make it succeed? I set up my esxi home lab exactly as shown in your tutorials. Thank you for your time.
Does it work if you put your vCenter IP into the router's DMZ (temporarily)?
Darn, I just don't know, did you also try to forward port 9443 as well?
At last I got a chance to try your suggestion and also looked around on google but it did not resolve my issue. My internal lab has dns server, which is abc-de.local and VCSA FQDN is VCSA.abc-de.local. Whenever I try to access it via WAN https://abcde.com:9443 it errors out and shows this address https://vcsa.abce-de.local/websso/SAML2/SSOSSL?RelyingPartyEntityId=aHR0cHM6Ly9tYWlsLndlcmxl...... Any suggestions how to resolve this issue? VCSA is fresh install not an upgrade.
Thanks,
I resolved this issue by restarting vpxd service. Putty into vCenter Appliance, run service-control --start VMware-vpxd and wait for little bit, then you will be able to log into it.
Great question! I Google around to see if somebody has writtten something up, since I last tried this a couple of years back. I was also using port forwarding on a consumer router, to see if this could work. I know I had more than just 443 to forward, as you've found too. I believe I forwarded 902 UDP/TCP and 903 TCP as well, see also:
https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-60/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.install.doc%2FGUID-5071C86E-FF1E-4E54-A424-A20917401160.html
and a more comprehensive list here:
https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.security.doc_50%2FGUID-ECEA77F5-D38E-4339-9B06-FF9B78E94B68.html
Let us know how it goes!
Hi Paul,
I am an avid follower of your blog. I am having issues to access VCSA6 over WAN. I forwarded 443 I can get to page but when I click on VSphere web client it doesn't open anything. Any ideas what I am doing wrong?
Thanks,
I no longer own the ASUS RT-AC68U
https://tinkertry.com/ac1900routers
and I'm not sure it has that ability, see also my disclaimer:
https://tinkertry.com/installvsphere60#disclaimer
I'm working on a new approach to installing vCSA where it doesn't matter what brand of router you have, even better would be no need for DHCP at all (private LAN with no infrastructure), working on that too. But honestly, VMware doesn't make it easy, so I haven't nailed that procedure down just yet.
It takes several dozen hours to put together an article and video like this, so I want to be sure I've got it before I spend the time and effort developing a new procedure with documentation.
Meanwhile, I'll admit, if you want simplicity, you're likely better off just using IP addresses for now instead of hostnames, because as you've seen, that vCSA deploy is mighty picky. I cannot claim my procedure will help you fix what you have someday, it will be focused on fresh installs, but since your VMs and VMFS datastores are still there, rebuilding isn't as bad as it sounds.
Thank you for your comments, Prashaanth and Tin, sorry I'm unable to help provide you a solution at this time. If you happen to find a good portable and free DHCP/DNS server for Windows, one that supports forward and reverse DNS lookups and DHCP reservations by name, please let me know. I went through over a dozen such utilities, and none provided the temporary functionality I needed just to get vCSA happy enough to complete its install without issues.
Hi Paul -
Thanks for the awesome tutorial. I have hit a snag though in the FQDN part though. My home router is an ASUS RT-AC68U and I cannot seem to find the entries that you had changed in your Linksys router (such as the domain name entry), when I change the WAN from automatic to static. Any other tips to get FQDN working with my router? Thanks!
Ah, good point, here's a bit more about it, scroll to the bottom:
http://xenappblog.com/2015/the-fastest-way-to-vmware-vcenter-server-appliance-vcsa/
which was based partly on a conversation Trond and I were having recently. Enjoy!
In the video you mentioned being able to bring the RAM usage down for VCSA yet from what I could tell the process was not covered. Is there a chance you could go over it either here in the comments or a new article? Thank you for your hard work!
OH MY, thanks for the heads up
Yes, $1700-2000 is well within my budget for an enterprise ESXi 6 server.
I'll check with the the Paul about 1U recommendations!
This is awesome, thanks again!
My only negative with the HCL is piecing all the pieces together and then buying them. I know, someone has to do it.
But if someone has done it, espeically for the latest vShere, I would be enternally grateful and buy exactly what they list
I didn't know about the Dell Optiplex....
Truth be told, I'm just building something I can tinker with at home (and set up a Minecraft server or two in a VM for the kids as a test bed).
No more than 2-4 VMs on the box
I'll give a used Optiplex a look, could be just what I need
Ultimately, once I get the hang of VMWare, is to build an "appliance" where I can house a VM with a linux distro and Kali Linux to do internal pen tests at client sites (maybe open source Untangle NG Firewall)
thanks for the heads up, maybe the used Optiplex will be all that i need
I've been tinkering with VMs on my Windows Desktop but the load tends to kill my Windows machines and take the VMs with it
Do you have hardware recommendations or know of anyone that lists out a set of hardware that they know to work?
went I rebooted system, vcenter web vsphere cannot be access keep getting the following error
"503 Service Unavailable (Failed to connect to endpoint: [N7Vmacore4Http16LocalServiceSpecE:0x7f52c1e25600] _serverNamespace = /vsphere-client _isRedirect = false _port = 9090)"
I can still access vcenter by SSH
Yeah, but for me, I know I needed the RAM, after 4 years stuck at 32GB max on my http://TinkerTry.com/vzilla build that had 2 Realtek ports (that would freeze up every few months), and 2 Intel I350 ports that I added via PCI.
You can get away from Realtek for even less. I have seen motherboards that cost less that have 2 Intel Nic's on board.
It's the same exact bits, so if you've already got that ISO, you're good!
Licensing it is a separate matter, EVALExperience perhaps?
https://tinkertry.com/looking-for-vcsa-or-esxi-60-365-eval-keys
Where can I get a full version of vSCA , the link to wmware is only for a trial version.
You are welcome, and thank you for coming by!
The video is now back up again.
I'm happy/relieved to announce that this temporary issue has been resolved, and the original video at the original URL has been restored https://youtu.be/Hm7kQHI4YnM
There never was a copyright issue in the first place, nor will there be, this is completely unique content I created entirely myself.
jb, thank you for your comment, the password I used throughout was Passw0rd with an exclamation afterward.
This take-down was in error, perhaps a side-effect of 264 other take-down requests for somebody that had taken all my videos, republishing them on their channel (which were appropriately removed in < 48 hours).
Notice the oddness of the error it shows:
"How to build your awesome v..." This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Paul Braren.
Sorry about that.
So it's saying I took the video down myself? Anyhow, hopefully YouTube will have this squared away soon, so sorry for the inconvenience. Here's what the reporting mechanism said a couple days ago, when I submitted this issue:
"The counter notification process takes 10 business days to complete once initiated, so please be patient"
The Youtube video for 6.0 was taken down due to a copyright claim? :( I'm trying to remember what the password was the video used for root on the ESXi install
A little more info on npapi here:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2114800&src=vmw_so_vex_pbrar_70
Welcome Alex, thanks for breaking out of the lurking mode, really appreciate the write-up.
Thank you for the rather kind flattery, but I'm afraid I don't know anybody at VMware that can give me an answer on your very good Chrome-related questions. I tend to just tinker with this stuff until I figure out a workaround. It is kind of crazy how last minute it seems VMware's browser support was for 6.0, between the flash (instead of HTML5) and the darn plugin. Somebody who blogs about this plugin stuff came up to me at a recent Connecticut VMware User Group recently to talk about the same topic. I'll need to dig a little to see if he's figured something new out.
Let me just start with this little question first, are you using ESXi 6.0.0b / vCSA 6.0.0b, and the latest vSphere Web Client Integration installer?
Hi, been lurking around for a while, following your incredible guides on ESXi since 5.5. I'm a home user, and use the 60-day evaluation method. Everytime I'm up for renewal I'll usually look through your site and http://www.v-front.de/ to see if there are any new update, tips and found your new (well to me) video, brilliant. Unfortunately I seem to have hit a snag that I think most people will be hitting. I run Windows 10 x64 RTM, and mainly use chrome myself (although, have all the main browsers installed, as some sites work better with others). I thought this time I would have a stab at installing vCentre too, as I'd not tried it for a while, and your video gave me the perfect excuse. Unfortunately I hit s snag when installing vCSA, as chrome would not recognise the integrator plugin for setup, thankfully after going through all the other browsers, Internet Explorer, surprisingly, worked a treat, and I was able to install vCSA okay. However, the plugin niggle has not gone away, and now I'm installed I can not use the Web Client fully, as IE will not allow me into the log in screen (certificate errors, even after adding my local domain to the Trusted Sites Zone, and when that didn't work, to the Local Intranet Zone). Obviously Chrome, Edge and Firefox will allow me to login, but as the integrator plugin will not load, I can;t do much. I've looked around, and see this is probably due to every browser dropping npapi plugin support. Chrome has even dropped their own workaround of letting you enable it in their chrome://flags settings. Firefox is supposed to ask, but it doesn't seem to be and Edge just doesn't want to know npapi existed. I've also tried another tip of editing the hosts file and commenting out the 2 vmware-local lines, but to no avail... Some people seem to suggest that vCentre 6 should not have this issue, only 5.5, but it obviously does. This obviously an issue that will be affecting everyone soon (google has loads of people complaining about it, with firefox being the most common solution, which now is no longer one), and is not a Windows 10 issue (as I'd originally thought). I was just wondering if you knew a more recent workaround, or if there is a new, non-npapi, version of the plugin coming out soon? Thank you for any help you can give, you are a legend in the ESXi community.
I forgot to mention, Chrome will still initally ask to access the plugin, but it will never use it (even though the vcd process is clearing running in task manager). I should also point out that the remote console plugin/program works fine in Chrome though, showing there is hope for the Integrator.
Phenomenal!
Ah, stability, always a good thing, as is hearing from you, Harold.
Hi Paul. Just getting back to this article. It has been a month and not one single lock up. Both esxi hosts running smoothly. It sure has been nice not to have to deal with this issue. I will be leaving the network port disabled on the motherboard. I just wish those supermicro systems were out when I built these systems.
Yes, I intend to test Ravello at some point, but I have a need for 3TB of on premise (in home) storage of data too, and I love to tinker with hardware, https://TinkerTry.com/superserverworkstation
but of course, that's not for everyone, cloud offerings make a lot of sense for developers, for example. Thanks for watching the video, and for your comments!
Hi, I saw your video on youtube and I was wondering if you've tried Ravello - it lets you build your ESXi lab in AWS so that you don't have to maintain hardware at home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9byjFw5omQ
Wow, fantastic information, and great story! Perhaps I still don't have enough warnings in my related articles, but I do try to say unsupported a lot. Your story is compelling in that your hardware is so similar to mine, but your experience so very different.
Anyhow, long ago I put this out, basically saying come on people, life is too short, $135 can get you away from Realtek:
https://TinkerTry.com/intel-i350t2-dual-port-ethernet-server-adapter-for-esxi-home-lab
And your power story, wow, what the heck. Geez.
Finally, this whole network driver thing, really scares folks off. But I have to say, I'm pretty happy that this new SuperServer exists, and I asked support about a memory question I had, and actually received an answer in an hour.
It's looking likely that if somebody asks me what to get for ESXi for their home, something that "just works" (with ESXi 6.0), it's this little guy:
Supermicro SuperServer 5028D-TN4T
https://TinkerTry.com/mini-tower-superserver
https://TinkerTry.com/superserver-live
https://TinkerTry.com/superserver-first-impressions
https://TinkerTry.com/intel-xeon-d-announced
with 2 lovely I-350 gigabit ports right on there. Have a great weekend, Harold!
Hi Paul
I have always enjoyed your videos. Can't wait to see what you did with this one.
BTW. I tried the ESXI customizer and imported the realtek network drivers for my system board. The nic chipset is one revision ahead of yours. I built a zfs San based on NapIt and export the whole z-2 array via nfs.
Using the 5.1 drivers caused the whole host to eventually lock up. Vms would stop running and only a reset button restart would fix this condition.
Eventually I teamed an Intel net port and the realtek port together. Though this brought about some stability, the host would still lock up from time to time.
Eventually I ended up disabling the realtek port at the bios and going with just the Intel port. If I go a month without a lockup I found my problem. I will post back to let your readers know if I resolved the issue or not.
It is important to note that these realtek drivers are not supported by VMware and your milage may vary, and buyer beware. These issues are bound to come up when you build a system with this type of equipment
I figure if I go a month without a lockup then I have resolved it. The funny part is after I implemented the change the day after the whole system went down. Come to find out it was a loss of ac mains to my building. The electric company had to replace an underground cable. Somehow the cable burned a hole in the cable the size of a quarter.
The day after it was fixed the system went down again. Again the same thing happened but this time on the next cable segment down the line
Talk about bad luck
So far it has been up for the past 4 days. It usually takes 2 weeks or so before it crashes again. So next week will tell me for sure.
It's definitely an "if you can" suggestion. If you can handle VMWare and have a compatible router then DD-WRT should be doable, though bricking your router is always a possibility during the upgrade if directions aren't followed to the letter. For all I know some of the newer, fancier routers may already let you set a LAN domain with their stock firmware. I'd like to switch over to pfSense running as a VM on my Atom server... in which case setting a static IP for ESXi would be necessary, and setting an appropriate boot delay for the rest of the VMs. I've barely begun to research that, might change my mind. I'd wanted to shove FreeNAS on there too but that looks like a supremely bad idea, especially on an Atom that doesn't do VT-d. Gonna need more servers...
Means a lot coming from you Squiid, a long-time TinkerTry visitor. Always nice to see you around, and your thoughts always appreciated.
Great feedback, and not the only person requesting I give DD-WRT another look!
https://TinkerTry.com/if-youre-using-a-802-11ac-wifi-device-you-may-want-to-avoid-80mhz-channel-width#comment-1939412271
That said, my router has been stable, and I want to create content that can help the greatest # of people, which are reasons I challenged myself to see what I could get done with "stock." Just a polite counterpoint. No single method or video can ever be right for everybody.
Perhaps they'll be a simpler way discovered, that's fine, and I'd love to find out what it is. Putting my home network's method out there for feedback or ideas for improvement is part of the fun of sharing.
I had been hoping to find something a bit more elegant than my admittedly rather strange procedure, but for folks scared away by the router tinkerering, there's always the method of using fixed IPs for everything, which works fine.
If you can run DD-WRT on your router you can set a LAN domain (separate from WAN) and static IPs. Simplifies things immensely. I should have set this up before beginning the ESXi install by looking up the MAC address on the Supermicro IPMI summary page as there are spots still reporting the old WAN domain. I may wind up redoing this install.
http://www.howtogeek.com/69696/how-to-access-your-machines-using-dns-names-with-dd-wrt/
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Static_DHCP
arp -a x.x.x.x from the Windows command prompt may be useful for retrieving MAC addresses.
I prefer using the command-line ssh client from Cygwin. YMMV.
http://cygwin.com/
I did have to give the VCSA installer the IP address to my ESXi server rather than the name. Errors otherwise. Someone else had the same problem.
https://www.opvizor.com/blog/installing-vsphere-6-vcsa-vcenter-server-appliance/
The IP address and DNS name of VCSA updated itself partway through the install after I set the static DHCP info. No need to start from scratch if you don't get the MAC address/etc entered super quick... I think/hope?
And... I'm out of time. Very much enjoying the video. I'm reading "Mastering VMWare vSphere 6" too and this video adds clarity.
Paul, thank you very much indeed for this. EXCELLENT post and video. Thank you for sharing.
Hi,
Looking forward to watching this next video. Last week did the 5.5 stuff but found the static ip stuff a bit cumbersome as opposed to setting up a quick and dirty DNS server with forwarding 8.8.8.8 if not on local subnet. Created all machines physical and virtual to same subnet - easy that way. Haven't looked at VMWare stuff since ESXI 3.5 and GSX Server. There was a VM Guru aka ROGGY on Vimeo - would love to email him.
We are an all mac home so vcenter will run under Fusion. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
Don Coleman
WinSCP
Interesting about the WinSCP tip, I'll have to look back at my video to see how I got past that.
OpenVPN
Yes, that's the right article, along with more pics at:
https://TinkerTry.com/presenting-at-new-york-city-vmug-july-24-2014-insecure-about-using-public-wifi-connect-to-your-homes-openvpn-appliance-for-free
but I'll need to revisit that article, now that no-ip.biz has changed some stuff. It does require a NIC, motherboard, and CPU that support pass through:
https://TinkerTry.com/vmdirectpath
and a cable modem that supports more than one IP, to get the greatly enhanced security (avoiding the use of my home WiFi router entirely).
My Windows7-tunnel is using Hamachi VPN
https://TinkerTry.com/hamachi
https://TinkerTry.com/homeserverfamilycloud
Glad you have found my site helpful, I'm super eager to finally finish up this video as well, it'll likely be up in the next few days (assuming hotel bandwidth holds up).
Paul, thank you for your tip to have a look at Andreas Peetz' site (he lives only one hour away from my location; What a pity we haven't met when you were here in Mainz, Germany last time :) ) Andreas' articles are also very useful.
Using "shell /usr/lib64/ssh/sftp-server" as sftp server in the advanced connection options of WinSCP didn't work. I can't connect to the vcenter/vcsa. Still the same error with the large package size.
The only thing that worked was to change temporarily the default shell of the appliance's root user to /bin/bash.
-> chsh -s /bin/bash
This was the only method that worked here. After that I was able to connect to the server and do my modifications.
Then I reverted back the shell to it's default value.
-> chsh -s /bin/appliancesh
I'm curious about your new video setting up a home lab with ESXI and VCSA/VCenter. I hope you will publish it soon.
I have used VMWare Workstation and VirtualBox before. But now I want to build my own home lab with ESXI to improve my IT-skills and knowledge. And also just as a hobby. I have already bought a little Shuttle barebone PC SZ87R6 with some SSD's, HDD and Intel NIC's to play around with.
On your screenshot I saw an VM called "OpenVPN Access Server" I think which also caught my interest to use this in my home lab.
Is this article you have written before still the way to go?
https://tinkertry.com/insecure-about-using-public-wifi-connect-to-your-homes-openvpn-appliance-for-free
What do you do with this tunnel VM "Windows7-tunnel" if I may ask?
I would be glad if you could answer some of my questions.
I have so much to learn with this new virtualization stuff :)
Thank you again for your great informative site and support.
I am very happy that I found this pearl once which I now visit regularly.
Paul keep up your excellent work! :)
Thanks, Thomas
Thomas, I should also tell you that my procedure will be focused on new installs, not upgrades. Of course, re-install still means you can keep your VMs, you just have to re-import them into inventory after the reinstall.
I have found that fixing the vCSA appliance (such as name changes and re-issuing certificates) isn't simple or well documented, and it's far easier to just re-install it (this is just a home lab after all).
Thomas, greetings right back to you, over in Germany!
https://TinkerTry.com/search?s=germany
For your question about WinSCP, good news, ran into that same issue when preparing my video, and found a great answer right here by Andreas Peetz:
http://www.v-front.de/2015/03/vcsa-60-tricks-shell-access-password.html
which I implement in the video I'm still working on editing, recorded just hours before my flight back on April 19th. It felt great, with everything "just working" (after numerous failed "rehearsals"), a process I hinted at back here:
https://youtu.be/4bDvOCYpG60?t=5m30s
I'm excited about finally getting that video edited and published, working on this this weekend (here from my hotel room in Tucson):
https://TinkerTry.com/hgg211
hoping to have it fully edited and published within a week. It'll probably be about 90 minutes in length, since vSphere 6.0 has simply gotten a bit more complicated to set up, but also more pleasant to use once installed (no cert click throughs, automatic login, etc.). See also attached screenshot I just created. It's not a "perfect" procedure. The prerequisite that I was hoping to avoid was a WiFi router that can do MAC address DHCP reservations with names (I couldn't find any affordable and simple software that would do the same). This greatly eased the vCSA install and configure, and certificate handling. So I'm glad there's interest in getting a clean FQDN install, which is much more elegant than simply hard-coding the IPs, as seen in my draft/beta video above.
Only about one in about a thousand visitors take the time to drop a comment. I really appreciate your feedback.
Hello Paul,
Thank you for your great guides and explanations. They are always helpful.
I just installed ESXI6 and VCSA with ssh active.
But now my problem is I can't ssh/sftp with winscp into the vcsa.
Error "Cannot initialize SFTP protocol. Is the host running a SFTP server?"
Reveived to large (1433299822 B) SFTP packet. Max supported package size is 1024000 B.
Any idea. What's wrong here?
Also another question. I am looking forward to use FQDN instead of ip addresses.
Can you estimate when your guide with FQDN will be ready?
Do I need to install ESXI and VCSA from scratch then or is it possible to modify the existing installation for FQDN?
Greetings from Germany.
best regards
Thomas
Glad I helped!
Thank you for taking time to reply, Paul. That's very good news, it means I'll be able to reinstall ESXi and have the vCSA every 60 days over my lab and existing VMs.
Keep it up ! Your blog is a big VMWare reference.
Nicolas.
Good news, zero linux skills required (especially if you stick with IP addresses), check out the 6.0 video I referenced above, also pasted here below, it'll then seem waaaay less intimidating, far easier than installing vCenter on Windows ever was:
https://youtu.be/EdgnCmKbpvw
Thanks Paul, when I get a moment I'll check out that link in depth. Maybe I'll try to make an appliance with what little I know about Linux if I can execute the scripts properly. But again, anything we create now with VMware has that 60 day limitation after the trial license is installed but since it would be a VM, it could be reused after 60 days and the trial license would gain another 60 days by having a copy of the appliance VM. Probably someone somewhere has already built a vCenter 6.0 appliance over Ubuntu or CentOS. Guess we'll see.
Thanks,
RT
Yes, even if you have a VMFS with VMs already on there, say from 5.5, you can do a fresh install of ESXi 6.0, using Rufus makes it tougher to accidentally delete any VMFS datastores, just carefully choose the flash drive as the ESXi install target:
"Rufus takes 2 minutes to create a bootable USB flash drive for ESXi installation"
http://TinkerTry.com/rufus-takes-2-minutes-to-create-a-bootable-usb-flash-drive-for-esxi-installation
Once done, you re-add any VMs you have on those VMFS datastores, right back into your inventory, and you're all set to fire them up, much like I did with 5.5 seen here:
http://TinkerTry.com/installvsphere55
where Chapter 11 shows how:
(if playback gives issue embedded below, click title bar instead to watch in YouTube):
http://youtu.be/iQfTuAdLfYw?t=52m40s
Hope this helps?
Haven't tried this myself, as you know, going with the physical server route.
But perhaps this post will help:
http://www.virtualizedgeek.com/2015/02/video-installing-vcenter-server-appliance-vcsa-in-vmware-workstation/
curious how this works out for you. Note, a VMware guy advised me recently, to avoid trimming the memory use for vCSA (after initial install) to anything below 6GB.
What's the easiest way, using my VMware Player to load a vCenter Linux Appliance with vCenter 6.0 on it? I could use server 2012 or 2008 as a VM built on VMware Player and install vCenter on top of it but that eats up resources since I would be doing this on my laptop, server 2012/2008 would take up too much of my resources. I know there are ready to run appliances with 5.5 out there. If I can get a Linux distro with vCenter 6.0, that would be great but installing vCenter 6.0 over Linux from scratch would be outside my Linux experience level.
RT
Hi,
You said "Note, while I say fresh install, that doesn’t mean you are starting from
scratch, if you have existing VMs. Those can easily be added back into
your inventory, once you get your vSphere 6.0 environment set up,", is this also fine with local storage ? I mean, can we re-install eventhough we have already VMs in local server ?
Thanks,
Nicolas.
ngwele tech
Hi,
Thank you for the great and well detail steps.... I am new in system admin. What type of machines would you recommend to setup my lab. do I need a bare metal server or it can work on a laptop. To install ESXi, do I need to do it on top of an OS, or I can install it on a bare metal