VMWare 6

Remember to set this:
Multipath errors in /var/log/syslog

By default VMWare doesn’t provide information needed by udev to generate /dev/disk/by-id. This can be done by setting the following:

Start the vSphere Client, and log in to a vCenter Server.

  1. Select Virtual Machines and Templates and click the Virtual Machines tab.
  2. Right-click the virtual machine for which you are enabling the disk UUID attribute, and select Power > Power Off.
    The virtual machine powers off.
  3. Right-click the virtual machine, and click Edit Settings.
  4. Click the Options tab, and select the General entry in the settings column.
  5. Click Configuration Parameters. The Configuration Parameters window appears.
  6. Click Add Row.
  7. In the Name column, enter disk.EnableUUID.
  8. In the Value column, enter TRUE.
  9. Click OK and click Save.
  10. Power on the virtual machine.

How to keep VMWare on the latest patches and firmware.

VMware ESXi Patch Tracker

Imageprofile ESXi-6.0.0-20190304001-standard (Build 13003896) includes the following updated VIBs:

I just finished upgrading my HP DL360e Gen8 server to the latest build.   My HP DL360e Gen8 server was first installed using the HP VMWare image for VMWare 6.   I have an 8GB SD card in a slot on the motherboard for VMWare 6.    I followed the VMWare Cookbook an installed the patches and firmware for all the hardware.  I like to keep my server running optimally.  

How to clean up and shrink the thin provisioned disks.  

When I moved stuff from one web site to another and deleted it.  I needed to run this to reclaim the space in eSXi.    It will save on backups.  

/var/www is the apache2 folder for the virtual hosts or all my web sites.   In VMWare 6, when you delete files, it doesn’t clean up after itself.  The thin provisioned disks don’t shrink back down.   You need to do two things.  zero out each partition or disk and run the vmkfstools -K command to shrink it. 

Linux

$ dd if=/dev/zero of=/[mounted-volume]/zeroes && rm -f /[mounted-volume]/zeroes

vmkfstools -K [disk].vmdk

On my Ubuntu server, I did something different.  I created 4 virtual hard drives for / , /boot, /var, and swap.   UbuntuwebWP is the VM.   VMWare 6 created. 

UbuntuwebWP.vmdk
UbuntuwebWP_1.vmdk
UbuntuwebWP_2.vmdk
UbuntuwebWP_3.vmdk

These are the 3 hard drives for /. /boot, and /var.  /swap is not touched.

I shutdown the VM.  Placed it in maintenance mode.   SSH into eSXI on the host.   went to /vmfs/volumes/datastore and found the server directory.  

dd if=/dev/zero of=/zeroes && rm -f /zeroes

dd if=/dev/zero of=/boot/zeroes && rm -f /boot/zeroes

dd if=/dev/zero of=/var/zeroes && rm -f /var/zeroes

I verified the zeroes files was removed and trash was removed and emptied.

vmkfstools -K UbuntuwebWP.vmdk

vmkfstools -K UbuntuwebWP_1.vmdk

vmkfstools -K UbuntuwebWP_2.vmdk

vmkfstools -K UbuntuwebWP_3.vmdk

I ran the command on the 3 partitions.  Took about an hour to do all 3.   Took it down from 511 GB to 175 GB.

/var had the trash file from the web sites files moved. 

I have many Linux Server VMs running on my HP DL360e Gen8 server.   Cisco Virtual Lab for my Cisco CCNP simulations. My linux servers keep changing and evolving.   I need to buy a newer server to support the latest version of VMWare.   My Gen8 server can do VMware 6.  Gen9 can do VMWare 6.5.  Gen10 can do VMWare 6.7.