vmware

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VMWare ESXi is a FREE bare-metal hypervisor that lacks the plethora of management tools found in the commercial version. That being the case, you can still find some powerful yet hidden features behind the command line. If you feel comfortable at the command line, VMWare ESXi will not disappoint you.

One of the hidden features is the act of cloning a virtual machine. This is one of the places virtual machines shine in comparison to the traditional act of building a server. You take the time to build parent VMs that are than cloned every time you need a new server. I loved the reaction I got from a developer who asked for a server and I delivered his IP Address and login within 15 minutes.

In VMWare ESXi, the documentation directs cloning to VMWare vCenter Server (formally called VMWare Virtual Center). Unfortunately for me, this costs money and I can't afford it. If you would like to clone virtual machine on an ESXi server without the help of vCenter here are the instructions to do so.

In my quest to upgrade ESXi 3.5 to 4.0, I found a few gotcha's. The first one was the fact that the Intel e100 drivers were no longer being supported. So I ran over to my local geek shop and picked up two Intel® PRO/1000 GT Desktop Adapters for $32 a pop ($27 on newegg.com).

My second dilemna occurred after installing the 4.0 VMWare vSphere client and attempting to upgrade with the before mentioned e100 adapters. I used the vSphere Update Utility unsuccessfully at first, but that somehow broke my connection from the vSphere client.

This is in response to Mike D's Blog post:
http://www.mikedipetrillo.com/mikedvirtualization/2008/10/building-a-500-vmware-esxi-host.html

In Mike's post he builds a computer for about $500. In as little as a few months the costs of many parts have decreased in price. I wanted Quad-core and 8 GB of RAM for my rig. This is what I came up with for a bit over $600.