ESXi 6.7 - ESXCLI Command Mindmap

Posted by on April 27, 2018 3 comments

In vSphere 6.7 the command line interface esxcli has 62 new commands. Esxcli is a complete set of commands that you can use for troubleshooting, configuration or kickstart files. I have created and printed a mindmap to navigate through the namespaces more quickly. This post covers only basic namespaces, available on all ESXi 6.7 hosts. If you've installed additional software you might see more namespaces. I've also created mindmaps for ESXi 5.1, ESXi 5.5, ESXi 6.0 and ESXi 6.5.

ESXCLI in version 6.7 has 15 namespaces: Read more »

VMware ESXi 3.5 - 6.7 Hypervisor Size Comparison

Posted by on April 23, 2018 1 comment

The VMware bare-metal hypervisor ESXi is in the market for over 10 years now. During that time it has been continuously refined and added with new features. Since vSphere 5.0, the hypervisor size is very constant and has not increased severely. In this post, I am going to have a look at how much the hypervisor footprint has been changed from ESXi 3.5 to ESXi 6.7.

  • ESXi 3.5 - 46,01 MB
  • ESXi 4.0 - 59,99 MB
  • ESXi 4.1 - 85,19 MB
  • ESXi 5.0 - 132,75 MB
  • ESXi 5.1 - 125,85 MB
  • ESXi 5.5 - 151,98 MB
  • ESXi 6.0 - 154,90 MB
  • ESXi 6.5 - 135,39 MB
  • ESXi 6.7 - 129,51 MB

Read more »

VMware ESXi 6.7 - ESXCLI Command Reference

Posted by on April 23, 2018 1 comment

ESXCLI is a powerful command line tool on an ESXi host. You may need it for troubleshooting, configuration or for automated ESXi installations by using a kickstart file. I'm having an esxcli command line reference on my desktop since vSphere 5.x and I am using it quite often. Here is the command line reference for the latest release of vSphere ESXi 6.7.

Download: esxi67-esxcli-command-reference.txt Read more »

New ESXCLI Commands in vSphere 6.7

Posted by on April 20, 2018 4 comments

esxcli-65In vSphere 6.7 the command line interface esxcli has been extended with new features. This post introduces the new and extended namespaces.

Quick Summary
62 new ESXCLI commands including:

  • 3 Device
  • 6 Hardware
  • 1 iSCSI
  • 14 Network
  • 14 NVMe
  • 2 RDMA
  • 9 Storage
  • 6 System
  • 7 vSAN

Read more »

VMware vSphere 6.7 introduces Skylake EVC Mode

Posted by on April 18, 2018 No comments

To simplify vMotion across CPU generations VMware has introduced Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC). EVC automatically configures server CPUs with Intel FlexMigration or AMD-V Extended Migration technologies to be compatible with older servers. In vSphere 6.7 a now EVC mode has been introduced.

Intel Skylake Generation
Compared to Intel "Broadwell " EVC mode, the Skylake EVC mode exposes additional CPU features:

  • Advanced Vector Extensions 512
  • Persistent Memory Support Instructions
  • Protection Key Rights
  • Save Processor Extended States with Compaction
  • Save Processor Extended States Supervisor

For more information about EVC Modes see Intel CPU EVC Matrix

VMware vSphere 6.7 Download Links Available

Posted by on April 17, 2018 2 comments

Today VMware made vSphere 6.7 bits available for everyone to download. VMware vSphere 6.7 is now GA.

VMware vSphere 6.7 Release Notes and Download Links

Development time
Since vSphere 6.0 VMware started to extend their major release cycles. With 518 days, the development time of vSphere 6.7 was 3 months shorter than the previous version but is still much longer than the release cycles in the vSphere 5 era. Let's hope for smooth upgrades in the next couple of weeks.

ESX Release Date Days since
prior release
6.7 2018-04-17 518
6.5 2016-11-15 614
6.0 2015-03-12 536
5.5 2013-09-22 376
5.1 2012-09-11 384
5.0 2011-08-24 407
4.1 2010-07-13 418
4.0 2009-05-21 456
3.5 2008-02-20 615
3.0 2006-06-15 563
2.5 2004-11-29 244
2.1 2004-03-30 253
2.0 2003-07-21 434
1.5 2002-05-13 416
1.0 2001-03-23

VMware ESX History Diagram

How to Install VMware vSphere Perl SDK on Debian 9 (stretch)

Posted by on February 7, 2018 No comments

Download the latest Perl SDK for your vSphere version from code.vmware.com and copy it to the system. The download is free, but an My VMware account is required.

Make sure that your system up to date:

# apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y

Read more »

Homeserver - ESXi on HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10

Posted by on November 2, 2017 20 comments

After Hewlett Packard Enterprise has missed offering a Microserver in their 9th Generation, it is now back in Gen10. The Microserver series provides affordable servers intended to be used in SMB and as home servers. Due to its low price and power consumption, you can find this system in many virtualization home labs as ESXi hosts or Storages.

The HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 is available with two different CPUs - AMD Opteron X3216 and X3421. Both models a SoC which means that the CPU cannot be changed like the Intel CPUs in Gen8. They support up to 32GB of unbuffered DDR RAM. The server can be equipped with 4 hard drive from the front.

  • HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10, Opteron X3216 (2x 1.6 - 3.0GHz / 15W TDP)
  • HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10, Opteron X3421 (4x 2.1 - 3.4GHz / 35W TDP)

Read more »

Fix for FreeNAS on HPE MicroServer Gen10 X3216 Stuck Console Issue

Posted by on October 26, 2017 12 comments

When you try to install FreeNAS 11 on the new HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 X3216, the installer stops booting and appears to be stuck at:

pcib0: <ACPI Host-PCI bridge> port 0xcf8-0xcff on acpi0
pcib0: _OSC returned error 0x10
pci0: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib0

This article explains how to fix the issue during the installation and how to apply the fix at an installed system using the FreeNAS Web Interface.

Read more »

Get- and Set-VMLatencySensitivity PowerShell Function

Posted by on October 15, 2017 No comments

The Get-VMLatencySensitivity, Get-VMLatencySensitivityBulk and Set-VMLatencySensitivity PowerShell functions configure can return and set the latency sensitivity level of a virtual machine. You can adjust the latency sensitivity of a virtual machine to optimize the scheduling delay for latency sensitive applications.

The function is part of my Virten.net.VimAutomation module, which is a set of PowerShell function built for managing, troubleshooting and automating VMware based platforms. The module can be easily obtained from the PowerShell Gallery and is available on GitHub.

Read more »