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VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 3 Snapshot Bug

[UPDATE 6. Oct] The Snapshot Bug has been fixed!
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VMware has a major bug in their latest ESXi 5.5 Patch, released on September 16, 2015.

Affected Product:
VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 3 (build number: 3029944)

VMware KB: KB2133118

After upgrading to VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 3 an unexpected virtual machine failure might occur after snapshot consolidation. This issues occurs due to a segmentation fault when changing the snapshot tree data-structure.Read More »VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 3 Snapshot Bug

Adding a second NIC to a 5th Gen Intel NUC (Or other PCIe Cards)

NUC5i5MYHE-with-external-nic-squareIntel NUCs with ESXi are being used as home servers and in many home labs. If you are generally interested in running ESXi on Intel NUCs, read this post first. One major drawback is that they only have a single network port. There are USB NICs in the market, but with ESXi hosts, only work in path-through mode. That means that USB NICs can only be used inside VMs and not for the hypervisor itself as vmnic.

The slightly older 4th Gen NUCs had a Mini PCIe slot that allowed an additional NIC to be installed. With that port, it was possible to install a Syba Mini PCIe NIC for example. Nevertheless, the adapter is unsupported with ESXi and did not fit into the NUC chassis, there are solutions.

Unfortunately, the 5th Gen NUC no longer has a Mini PCIe slot. Instead, it has M.2 slots. An easy solution would be a M.2 NIC, but until today there are no such cards available. In this post, I will explain the possibilities of using PCIe cards with the M.2 slot to upgrade the 5th Gen NUC with additional NICs or other cards like Fibre Channel HBAs.

Read More »Adding a second NIC to a 5th Gen Intel NUC (Or other PCIe Cards)

VCP6 Delta Part 7 - Network Enhancements

This is part 7 of the VCP6-DCV Delta Study Guide. It covers network enahncements in vSphere 6.0 including Network I/O Control Version 3 and Multiple TCP/IP Stacks. After this section you should be able to understand and configure networks in vSphere 6.0.

Read More »VCP6 Delta Part 7 - Network Enhancements

VMware vSphere 5.5 Update 3 Released

VMware has just released vSphere 5.5 Update 3. Together with the Updates, the following products were released today:

If you want to get notified about new products, subscribe to my vTracker RSS Feed.

Read More »VMware vSphere 5.5 Update 3 Released

VMware vSphere 6.0 Update 1 Released

VMware has just released vSphere 6.0 Update 1. Together with the Updates, the following products were released today:

If you want to get notified about new products, subscribe to my vTracker RSS Feed.

Read More »VMware vSphere 6.0 Update 1 Released

VMware ESXi 6.0 - Unsupported Hardware (All Vendors)

hcl-60-300x250-full-listDouble check your vendor support when updating ESXi hosts from VMware vSphere 5.5 to 6.0. There are a lot of systems that are no longer supported. The following servers were supported in 5.5 U2 but are according to the VMware HCL no longer supported in vSphere 6.0.

Your server is listed and you want to upgrade? Don't panic.

  • Not supported does not mean that it does not work.
  • Servers get certified by their vendor, not VMware. If you want a server to get certified, ask your vendor.
  • Did I miss something? Please comment.

Last Update: September 10, 2015

This post contains a sortable and searchable list containing all vendors. It extends the shortlist of widley used servers I maintain since the vSphere 6.0 release.

Read More »VMware ESXi 6.0 - Unsupported Hardware (All Vendors)

VCP6 Delta Part 5 - Management Enhancements

This is the fifth part of the VCP6-DCV Delta Study Guide. It covers management and security improvements in vSphere 6.0. After this section you should be able to understand the changes to Single-Sign on, the new Certificate Authority and to differentiate vSphere Clients.

Read More »VCP6 Delta Part 5 - Management Enhancements