customers in Harrogate, York and Skipton. Below is an extract taken from the VMWare site that we used.

Hope it Helps.

Anthony

This page

documents the process to update ESXi from version 3.5 to 4.0 if you have a standalone host or do not use vCenter Update Manager. After you have completed the

firmware upgrade, you should also upgrade the virtual hardware version of your VMs as shown at the bottom of the page and also upgrade VMware Tools.

Upgrading the virtual hardware version will allow you to take advantage of new VM features like 10 virtual NICs per VM, IDE virtual hard drives and

VMDirectPath.
This procedure to upgrade an ESXi host from version 3.5 to 4.0 requires version 4.0 of the VMware vSphere client. Typically the vSphere

client is installed after your ESXi host is installed. if you don’t have an existing install of the vSphere client v 4.0 you can extract it from the ESXi

4.0 upgrade ZIP package (VMware-viclient.vib\data.tar.gz\data.tar\.\4.0.0\client\VMware-viclient.exe) as shown in the below image.

When

installing the vSphere client, ensure that you choose the option to install the vSphere Host Update Utility 4.0.

After the install, start the

vSphere Host Update Utility application. When start the application, you will be prompted to download patches from VMware. You can manually check for patches

using File \ Download Patches from VMware.

If you ESXi 3.5 host is not shown, you can select Host \ Add.

Select

your host and then click on upgrade. The upgrade wizard will start and you may have to select an upgrade ZIP package as shown below. Click on next after the

package has been selected and the package will then be validated. After the upgrade package is validated you’ll be able to accept the ESXi EULA, followed by

a prompt for the root login to the ESXi host. Note that all VMs on the host should be stopped and the host should be in maintenance mode. It’s also a very

good idea to take a host configuration backup with vicfg-configbackup.pl from the RCLI.

If all your VMs are shutdown and

the host is in maintenance mode, the a host compatability check will run and the you can then click Finish on the Ready to Complete screen to start the

upgrade.

As the upgrade proceeds the Host Update Utility will display the progress. During the upgrade process the host will reboot and you

may experience a long delay in the upgrade process at about 34% done. It may appear that the upgrade has hung, but it will still be

running.

Once the upgrade is complete the host will be running ESXi 4.0. A reboot will not be required, but you will have to take the host

our of maintenance mode before you can start using your VMs again. It may also be necessary to update your license configuration if for example you were

using a central license host and had not upgraded that prior to the host upgrade. You can also optionally upgrade the virtual hardware of your VMs before you

power them on again but it’s best to do that after upgrading VMware Tools in the VM. Note that if the virtual hardware upgrade for your VM is taking a long

time, it’s a good idea to check the Summary page for the VM for any messages as shown in the last image below.

client in harrogate.

After mounting the CD, XP installation starts booting but then:

title="WinXP" src="http://www.comprendo.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/WinXP.png" alt="WinXP" width="400" height="97" />

Its been while

since we have seen this error as XP handles most drive controllers. Its a 5 min proccess to continue:

• Create a new Windows XP

  Virtual Machine

• Mount your  Windows XP .iso on the virtual CD Rom
• download & use a

  preconfigured .flp file from the VMware site:

  href="http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmscsi-1.2.0.4.flp">http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmscsi-1.2.0.4.flp.

• Link the .flp

  file via the floppy options. 

• Power O XP. The installation of Windows XP should begin.
• During

  setup, press F6 to select additional drivers

• Press “S” during Windows Setup when prompted to

  connect to the floppy drive

src="http://www.comprendo.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/S-Command.png" alt="S-Command" width="400" height="197" />

• The LSI

  Logic Drive Should now appear

• ALL DONE!!

Hope that helps, if not shout!

with VMWare and especially ESX-i. Its a great solution to utilise all of your available hardware. We have been able to use these technologies to save clients

1000’s of ££££’s. Which is good for everyone involved.

Normally ESX-i requires some serious hardware to run, which normally equates to a serious

outlay of cash. Thanks to a bit of digging and research done by the guys at “Techhead” there is now a way to setup this fantatstic solution on a £250

Proliant ML115 server.

I For the steps on how to install ESX-i 3.5, please visit

href="http://www.techhead.co.uk/installing-vmware-esx-and-esxi-35-on-an-hp-proliant-ml115-g5-quad-core">http://www.techhead.co.uk/installing-vmware-esx-and-e

sxi-35-on-an-hp-proliant-ml115-g5-quad-core

Thanks Guys!

For more info on the services that Comprendo offer please visit

href="http://www.comprendo.co.uk">www.comprendo.co.uk or call us on 0845 5274394

Anthony.

important technology for now and the future. Normally you need really expensive hardware to run ESX-i but I have stumbled accross a brilliant way to be able

to test and use this on a £250 HP Proliant ML115.

The first step to get started is to create a bootable vmware USB Pen. Step by step instructions can

be found courtesy of Techhead (Thanks guys, you have been a life saver) at 

href="http://www.techhead.co.uk/how-to-create-a-bootable-vmware-esxi-usb-pen-drive">http://www.techhead.co.uk/how-to-create-a-bootable-vmware-esxi-usb-pen-dr

ive

The steps are so easy that a toddler could follow them and get the pen setup.

I will update the blog with further instructions as I get

further along with setting up the ESX-i server. Wish me luck. Anthony www.comprendo.co.uk (0845 5274394)