[HECnet] Sort of off-topic, co-locating area 8

[Brian Hechinger]

On 1/23/2013 6:37 PM, Dave McGuire wrote:
On 01/23/2013 06:47 AM, John H. Reinhardt wrote:
HP DL360 Gen 5.   I have two I got on Ebay.   Total cost about $1100 US.
If my Pounds/Dollar conversion is about right, that's about the same as
the DL380 you found.   Two DL360's would fit in the same 2U rack space
and give you some redundancy. Plus a lot more horsepower.
...
I run VMWare ESXi 5 on both.   Why?   Because it's free, it works
reasonably well and I'm lazy.
    There's an even better reason: It's a buttload more efficient, and a
WHOLE lot more stable. (I'm not saying Linux isn't stable, mind
you...but VMware ESXi is absolutely rock-solid and a whole lot simpler.)

This. :)

but it's nice to be able to just
create a VM with a few measly clicks.   The downside is that I have to
run the VMWare vSphere Client on a Windows platform.   In this case it's
Windows 7 running on my Mac Pro inside a VMWare Fusion VM.
    You can do a lot of stuff from the BB shell within ESXi, though the
command structure is somewhat obtuse.   It's handy in emergencies.   If
you're just bringing up or shutting down VMs, etc, it's very easy to
deal with, and you don't need to sully yourself with Winblows and end up
with that "not so fresh" feeling.

With the move to ESXi from "full blown" ESX VMware has been moving more and more out of the ESXi host.

The things you can do in BB are *very* limited.

However, you can download the API tools (perl or PowerShell versions available) or install the VMA (Virtual Management Appliance, just a linux box with the tools already installed) you can do everything you need to do from the CLI of your favorite OS.

If you can use vCenter, the web based GUI in 5.1 is FANTASTIC and only required flash. Works fine in Chrome.

If you need keys for 5 I might *cough* know *cough* where *cough* to get some. *cough cough*. :)

I haven't played with the vCVA (virtualCenter Virtual Appliance) in 5.1 so I'm not sure if they made it better or not. I'm hoping so.

Also, if anyone needs any VMware help please feel free to email me off list. It's what I do for a living these days you know. :)

-brian