esxi

Using desktop SSD in server

by iwik
November 14, 2021November 14, 2021

Five years ago before Christmas I bought my first SSD – Crucial MX300 750GB. I have put it into my linux server running some web hosting (running this blog for example), my emails. Second MX300 was put into Linux MD Raid1. Disk were running two years in this setup, then I have migrated into virtualized setup, running ESXi, booted from USB drive. SSD were re-used and running as hw Raid 1 using LSI-9211 card.

How to check CPU microcode revision in ESXi

by iwik
February 4, 2020February 6, 2020

You can check CPU microcode revision on running ESXi host this easy way. Open SSH session to host and then open vsish
Read More »How to check CPU microcode revision in ESXi

Windows 10 1809 and later slow on VMware

by iwik
April 12, 2019April 12, 2019

Recent Windows 10 (since 1809) can behave weird (slow) when running on ESXi.

Enabling WriteCache on LSI RAID adapters

by iwik
January 10, 2019September 2, 2020
1 Comment

LSI Logic SAS2008 adapters still supported in ESXi 6.7. This cards are cheap and still used in many home labs like mine. For ESXi is available management utility sas2ircu (Broadcom/Raid/SAS 9217-8I/Downloads Management Software and Tools).

Performance impact when using VMware snapshots

by iwik
May 13, 2015June 23, 2015

Using vmware and snapshots? You probably know about vmware best practices about snapshots, which includes

The maximum supported amount of snapshots in a chain is 32. However, VMware recommends that you use only 2-3 snapshots in a chain.
Use no single snapshot for more than 24-72 hours. Snapshots should not be maintained over long periods of time for application or Virtual Machine version control purposes.
An excessive number of delta files in a chain (caused by an excessive number of snapshots) or large delta files may cause decreased virtual machine and host performance.
Be especially diligent with snapshot use on high-transaction virtual machines such as email and database servers

But what is real performance inpact of snapshot?

VMware backup script

by iwik
May 30, 2014July 2, 2014
13 Comments

I have been searching for simple and easy script to backup selected virtual machines running on esxi server, which will:

run on linux – do not require windows machine; can’t use PowerCLI
do not require direct access to esxi host using ssh (as other backups scripts like ghettoVCB.sh do) and will use API
support multiple esxi hosts managed by vcenter
have clear code – that means no perl hell (including big vsphere perl sdk)
have short code
can be put into cron

I was unable to find any to comply my requirements. I’m learning python, so I searched for some python vsphere libs and found psphere. Then backup.py has born.