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Xendesktop / VMWare

Hi

I have Dell Tower Server with 32 Gb Ram and 1 TB of hard disk space and I wanted to set up home lab to practise both Xendesktop and Vmware.

Here is my current setup:
I have installed 2008 R2 on the Server, installed vmware workstation 7.1 and created 3 vm's
1- esx5
2- esx5 and
3- 2008R2 as a Vcenter to manage both esxi's .
I got C drive with 80gb and the rest as D drive for data. I managed to point 3 vm's from vmware workstation to D drive.

Now my requirement is to setup Xendesktop lab on those 2 esxi's. I am trying to create a new VM on one of the esxi but it is not showing my D drive storage.

How to i use D drive as a common storage for both esxi's ?

Nagendra Pratap Singh

You may need to use iscsi based storage as a Datastore to show it for ESXi.

There are multiple choices for iscsi targets for free/trial use.

coolsport00

When you created the ESXi Host VMs, what you should've done was make the ESXi VM reside on D: & the virtual disk (VMDK) size somewhat substantial.... say, 100GB (if you have the space on D:\ ). Then, when you add the Host to vCenter, or log into the ESXi Host VM directly, you will notice a "Local" Datastore of probably about 80GB. Another option, though I haven't done it much myself, is download a free storage SAN tool and configure iSCSI storage on your D: drive to be seen by vSphere. @hanccocka has an article on how to do so:
http://andysworld.org.uk/2011/06/24/new-hd-video-adding-iscsi-storage-to-a-vmware-vsphere-esxesxi-4x-host-server/

Regards,
~coolsport00

jafrullahm

ASKER

I am not sure if I made it clear with my requirement. I dont want storage just for one esxi available. With the above steps i could get storage for the esxi. But, i want common storage for both esxi's so I can try vmotion etc.

Does anyone have clear step by step instructions of setting up shared iscci storage ?

coolsport00

Did you view my link? You will be able to add 'shared storage' for the purpose of testing advanced features that require it.

~coolsport00

jafrullahm

ASKER

I did not quite understand the link, it has only one ESXi host and one vm. I need step by step details of creating shared storage for 2 esxi hosts. I found some article on openfiler and could not get it working. Anyone has detailed steps ?

coolsport00

The link above should work. You configure each of your ESXi Host VMs with the shared storage you created using the Starwind tool used in the video. Enable iSCSI in the ESXi VMs and add the storage as 'shared'.

~coolsport00

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jafrullahm

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coolsport00

That is a whole other question; but, if you have x64 Win7 host, all you need to do is enable "Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI" setting for the Processors 'device' in the VM's Edit Settings area. I'm not sure WS7 supported that option... been a few yrs :) I know WS8 and WS9 do support it. And last... why would you be taking VCP4 cert? I'm not even sure VMware offers that any longer. I would stick to VCP5. The exams are virtually (no pun intended) the same.

Best of luck on your exam!

~coolsport00

jafrullahm

ASKER

I am already VCP4 , will give vcp 5 exam soon. I spoke to VMware and they confirmed WS7 does not support this function so I have to upgrade it to WS10. I am installig Oracle Virtual Box instead , hoping it should work as expected.

coolsport00

WS8 (I think...again, been a while) "should" be a free upgrade. Virtualbox is ok, though. I use it minimally.

~coolsport00

jafrullahm

ASKER

I managed to get Openfiler working.