Tag Archives: virtualization

Virtualising Hyper-V ‘Validation Fails’

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KB ID 0001580

Problem

Normally if you saw this error, it would mean that you didn’t have the advanced virtual extensions turned on, in the physical machine’s BIOS. But here I’m installing on Hyper-V in a vSphere/ESX environment;

Validation Results
The validation process found problems on the server which you want to install features. The selected features are not compatible with the current configuration of your selected server. Click OK to select different features.

Hyper-V cannot be installed: The processor does not have required virtualisation capabilities.

Solution

The VM in question needs to be ‘Powered Off’. Then edit its settings > VM Options > Expand CPU > Hardware virtualisation > Tick “Expose hardware assisted virtualisation to the guest” > OK.

Power on the VM, and then install the Hyper-V role.

Virtualising Hyper-V on Hyper-V

You need to expose the underlying virtualisation extensions on Hyper-V as well, with the following command;

[box]

Set-VMProcessor -VMName “server-name” -ExposeVirtualizationExtensions $true

[/box]

You also need to enable ‘MAC Spoofing’ on the advanced settings of the network card of the VM.

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Upgrade ESX 3 to version 4.1.0

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to upgrade ESXi to 4.1 Click here

KB ID 0000305 

Problem

I had to upgrade some ESX hosts from ESX 3.5 the other day, as they are a long way away, and version 4.1 is hot off the presses (at time of writing) that’s what I wanted to upgrade them to.

Lessons Learned

1. At first I tried with the “Host Update Utility”.

2. But no matter what version I gave it, it gave me this error,

Unsupported ESX version: esx-4.0.0 X.X-XXXXXX-release or Unsupported product ESXi Installer vx.x.x-x-x

3. That points you HERE, and the fix is “Download the latest Version of Host Update Utility” DONT BOTHER YOU WILL NOT FIND IT.

Solution

1. First I got the hosts updated to version 4.0.0 Update 2 – To do that I used the VMware Update Manager (Install on your Virtual Center it’s on the VIM setup CD).

2. Then found out I couldn’t upgrade to version 4.1 using the same method.

3. You need to download TWO update patches,

a. pre-upgrade-from-ESX4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip b. upgrade-from-ESX4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip

4. Connect to your ESX box with an SCP client I prefer Veem Fast SCP because its free.

5. Create a folder on your ESX box and copy the two patches to this folder, with your SCP client.

6. Log onto the ESX console or connect via SSH.

7. Put the host into maintenance mode with the following command,

[box]vimsh -n -e /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter[/box]

8. The folder I created was called UPDATE change into that folder with the following command,

[box]cd /UPDATE[/box]

9. Run the “Pre-Update” package first with the following command, (that’s one command if its gets text wrapped).

[box]esxupdate update –bundle=pre-upgrade-from-ESX4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip[/box]

It’s pretty quick don’t go anywhere

10. When it’s completed, run the following command, (that’s one command if its gets text wrapped).

[box]esxupdate update –bundle=upgrade-from-ESX4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip[/box]

11. That command takes a while, go and have a coffee, when finished it will ask for a reboot you can reboot the ESX with the following command,

[box]shutdown -r now[/box]

12 Post reboot you can either exit maintenance mode from the vi client or with the following command,

[box]vimsh -n -e /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit[/box]

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VMware ESXi 5 – Applying Patches and Updates

Cannot Delete a Virtual Machine(Another task is already in progress)

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KB ID 0000376 

Problem

When you try and delete a Virtual Machine from ESX or VSphere you see the following error.

Error: Another task is already in progress.

In addition, if you try and remove the VM from the inventory you will see the following error.

Error: Call “VirtualMachine.Unregister” for object “{vm name}” on vCenter Server “{VCenter name}” failed.

 

Solution

In my case the VM in question was in the middle of a hardware upgrade (from version 4 to Version 7) that had failed/stalled.

Select the VM in question then open its summary tab. Simply cancel the the stalled upgrade and click OK.

You can now remove the VM as normal.

 

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VMware – Ubuntu Screen Resolution Problem

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KB ID 0000411 

Problem

I have a guest VM on my vSphere test rig that’s running Ubuntu 10.10. That I use for testing, for a while I could not get the screen resolution above 854×480 (For wide screen or 16:9 format).

 

Solution

Note I’m assuming you already have the VMware tools installed!

1. Shut down your guest machine, open the VMware VI client and go to the settings of the guest machine. go the the hardware tab and select video card. By default it will be set to auto detect, change it to a nice high resolution, and click OK.

Note: For VMware workstation the setting is under “Display” see below.

2. Power the guest VM back on again and now you should have a better range of resolutions.

 

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Possible bug in VMware Client

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KB ID 0000413

Problem

Unable to use multiple console sessions in Windows 7.

1. Seen on Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, with and without aero enabled, on two separate machines.

2. Happens if connected to VCenter OR directly to ESXi (build 4.1.0, 260247)

3. Does NOT happen with the same software from Server 2003. (Same systems, same vesion of the VI client).

4. Does NOT happen on Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 (Same systems, same version of the VI client).

5. Does NOT happen on Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 with Service Pack 1 (Same systems, same version of the VI client).

6. Does NOT happen on Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 aero Enabled with Service Pack 1 (Same systems, same version of the VI client).

7. Does NOT happen on Windows 7 Enterprise (Service Pack 1) x86 (Same systems, same version of the VI client).

Description

 

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