Announcing THE video "How to build your awesome virtualization home lab with VMware vSphere 6.0 (ESXi & VCSA)"
While installing and configuring ESXi 6.0 hasn't changed much since 5.5, that VCSA sure as heck has changed a lot. In mostly very good ways, making it a much stronger contender for the enterprise. And a faster performer for the home lab, especially when run off an SSD based local datastore. But that deployment and initial configuration process, wow, it's so completely new.
If all you want is an easy install of the VCSA appliance, easy peasy, just walk right through the new html based install wizard, and type in IPs for your ESXi and vCenter. Done, and about the same level of difficulty as prior versions. All demonstrated at TinkerTry right here.
But what if what you really want is what I wanted for my home lab, that is, nice friendly names instead of ugly IP addresses, which are seen all over the GUI. Like calling my ESXi 6.0 hypervisor something creative like esxi, skipping the boring names like stormtrooper or belieber. And your vCenter Server Appliance? Why, that's vcenter. Sure makes for more logical screenshots.
So, if the OCD in you prefers logical names (remember Spock?), well, you have some prerequisites to handle first.
A "real" DNS server?
What about using a "real" DNS server, with forward and reverse lookups, and FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) capabilities. See vSphere DNS Requirements, which could be met by something like a Linux server, or a Windows Server. Physical, or a VM you'd autostart with your ESXi. Do I really want, or need, one of those? I prefer the KISS approach, wherever possible, especially when the goal is low maintenance.
Yes, an unfortunate side-effect of the new more-capable VCSA is that installing and configuring it for your home lab has gotten more complex. One reason is that it sure doesn't like it much when you rename it after deployment. Re-issuing certs is just a piece of the clean-up, and that clean-up can sure go sideways, fast. Next.
Scripted install?
Another approach would be a scripted install involving manual edits of json files for all those networking details. But that seemed like a rather strange and intimidating way for me to introduce a newbie to the wonders of having their very own virtualization lab in their home, having to roll up their sleeves and get into script debugging. A GUI for the install tends to be much preferred, especially because this is typically a small environment your setting up here.
Dedicated DNS/DHCP server?
If you go the route of a dedicated server for your home's DNS and/or DHCP duties, that could also mean downtime for your family, when you're inevitably tinkering with your vSphere environment.
Use your WiFi Router's DNS/DHCP? Yes!
What about using the WiFi Router you already have? That's the approach I took, and something similar might work for in your home. This approach is admittedly a gamble, and not something I could test on other routers. But boy, the pay-off for the temporary router tweaks to feed your VCSA appliance just the right DNS/DHCP stuff for the initial configuration is rather sweet. The fruits of those labors are seen pictured at right.
Nice thing is that I don't have to fill out change control documentation that my family would have to sign off on, for any little change I want to make to my ESXi host, including unscheduled shutdowns for my inevitable hardware tinkering.
Please read the caveats/disclaimers before you begin to follow-along with the video, to be sure this router-tweak method is the approach for you.
This link below will jump you to just the right spot in the article, and don't forget the video, complete with chapters markers:
See also at TinkerTry
Linksys EA6900 802.11ac WiFi Router security best practices
See also
My Google+ post announcing the video, with some feedback:
Chris DeCarlo
May 9, 2015
Awesome. I loved the last video you did and it helped setup my lab to get my VCP. It's about time for me to start studying to renew so I'm glad to have another great resource. Thanks so much for doing these.
I hope Chris enjoys similar success by following this new video, intended to help folks get a fresh install of vSphere 6.0 configured. I'll admit only time will tell if other folks routers can perform similarly, because checking out various instruction manuals didn't really tell me what I needed to know. Let us all know, drop a comment below!
All Comments on This Article (12)
I am a little confused about the licensing for ESXi. Currently my ESXi system is on the 60 day trial and I get the popup messages as you did during the video. Is the only license option for the home user $200 / year or is there a free option available? I will only be using it to tinker at home. Thanks again, Andrew
Thank you, so nice to hear that!
Thank you so much for the video. It took me many hours to push through it with several hurdles along the way, but I made it. Wonderful video. I never would have been able to install without your assistance. I am on my way to further learning and exploring.
Got a little behind in responding, sorry about that.
You might really like the ability to (nearly) instantly "rewind" VMs when something goes wrong that you're trying. These snapshots are available in VMware Workstation and ESXi, but not in VMware Player.
If you are not running a high CPU activity in each VM simultaneously, and if each VM has enough memory to not hit swap, then it's unlikely you'd notice a difference, whether physical or VM (probably
Same issue here - when I try to upgrade my 5.5 to 6.0 via the vcsa-setup.html
~3rd step where it attempts to connect to the host to put the new v6 appliance.
at target server section
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Found a russian post and found that running from another machine appears to resolve this issue.. https://goo.gl/wkyJko.
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I was using a shared iso - mounted from a 2003 server - mounted locally and doing better now - ISO was fine. just method using to access the ISO was possible the issue.
--- Next hurdle
Incompatible autodeploy version 5.0 registered with 5.5
https://goo.gl/NqB0xq
ran unreg command via ssh
got db not exist errno 2 but apparently proceeding now
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getting to appliance size screen and now proceeding to finish.
Thanks Paul,
I currently use VMworkstation when I want to see what the computer was set up like and like you said about the laptop, boot it up in a VM.
The problem I encounter is this limits me to usually working one case at a time. The second issue is my workstation regularly gets wiped and restored (technically after ever case). With this in mind, I though why not run my workstation as the VM to run my cases? That's was the hope of esxi was that I could load up many forensic workstation vms all working their own case. I could have a VM built specifically for examinations of mobile device and one for computer devices.. one for windows boes, one for linux etc..
One of the drawbacks may be that the software usually connects to a shared DB of it's own creation. In a perfect world, all the VMS would connect to one database for that software...
The other issue is, will a forensic workstation running in a VM be as powerful as a workstation running outside a vm?
If cloning or imaging of the raw physical device is more your goal, yeah, that can all be done when using Raw Device Mappings, and you can even run Spinrite faster when done in a VM, but again, all this gets a bit awkward. Hard to answer the question without really know too much about your use case.
See also:
https://TinkerTry.com/beyond2tbvmdisksizemaximum
https://TinkerTry.com/usb3passthru
It's along shot, but doing a little translation of this article:
https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https://communities.vmware.com/thread/507584&usg=ALkJrhhbiCUI1UJ5Yx6D3nOEZvR5EqmR2g
has me politely asking if you were deploying the appliance the way I show in the video here, just to get a better idea of when your failing:
https://youtu.be/Hm7kQHI4YnM?t=25m35s
or are you having the issue when trying to add your esxi server to your vCSA appliance?
If running many VMs concurrently is not really your thing, you'll probably be happier cramming a lot of RAM into your workstation, and simply running VMware Workstation and using its conversion utility to bring that physical into a VM.
I have actually booted a laptop hard drive in a VM (while laptop was out for repair) and it works, but ESXi isn't really geared to make that sort of tinkering easy.
See also https://tinkertry.com/vmware-workstation-10-or-vmware-player-6-plus
I hope this helps!?
"Failed to read from file: vmware-vcsa" i got stuck when i try to connect to target server. Does anyone have solution for this?
So, I am having a bit of a hard time deciding if I need to move up to vSphere or if VMworkstation will suffice. My work in the lab revolves around digital forensics. My goal is to create a VM of a forensic workstation that I can use with each new project. Would there be any benefit of using vSphere for something like this?
Paul Braren | TinkerTry.com
To go with nearly unlimited functionality, yes, 365 days of vCenter license costs $200 from EVALExperience, as confirmed just yesterday here: https://TinkerTry.com/evalexperience#below
You're right, you can go with free hypervisor (without the vCenter):
https://TinkerTry.com/best-parts-of-vmwares-esxi-5-5-free-hypervisor-rely-on-vcenter-which-isnt-free-uh-oh
which might work well for you, if your needs are limited.
Applying the free license is a procedure VMware has documented here (search for "vSphere Hypervisor - License Overview):
http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor
which doesn't expire, and allows up to 32GB of RAM per CPU.
I hope this helps clarify! You're right, this is a muddy part of VMware vSphere 6.0, and I wish I could find a single article on vmware.com that explains this all nicely.