>1) if you right click the VM under Guest you
>will see install/upgrade vmware tools. This >will mount the tools iso within the cdrom on
>the VM.. if it doesnt autostart go to my >compuer and manually run it.
This is on an ESX 4u2 server. Automated Tools installation inside of the VSA fails w/ the following, very descriptive message in Vcenter: "The Vmware Tools Upgrade operation was cancelled".
Since the VSA runs Linux, I suppose I could hack into it via Single User mode, get a root shell and install them manually, but that would assume that the pre-compiled binaries that are distributed by Vmware will load properly into the VSA's kernel, which is a stretch. It would also assume that all of the necessary dependencies (such as Perl etc..) are installed on the VSA console. From past experiences, it appears to use an RPM based distribution.
But seriously, doesn't HP recognize that customers are going to need to upgrade their VSAs on a fairly regular basis? Several times a year, based on the last 18 months of releases/patches from Vmware.
>2) I presume you meant version 7? If you >shutdown the VM then right click there is >an option to upgrade the hardware of the VM.
Yes. I will look into that.
>3) Have you tried removing it and adding in >a E1000 network card? Not sure if the VSA >has the driver but you could try on a test >VSA.
E1000 is not the VMXNET3 driver. The VMXNET3 driver is significantly faster in many test cases, and would reduce overall Storage I/O latency when communications stay within the same vSwitch.
Also, mucking around w/ the Network driver might potentially cause license key issues for me.
It's looking more and more like I'll need to just take a VSA, break into it and see what kernel drivers / etc. are hanging around in it.
Or maybe it's just time to switch the lab to the new, free EMC VSA:
http://nickapedia.com/2010/05/01/celerra-vsa-uber-smaller-faster-easier-geekier/At least with that I can get in and actually do some work under the hood.
