You’ve probably seen this message before while working with VMware, especially if you’ve done physical to virtual migrations.

As a best practice, it is recommended to always start with only 1 vCPU when creating virtual machines and only increase the number of vCPUs if you think it’s necessary and if the virtual machine is actually running applications that can utilize multiple processors to avoid wasting resources.

Increasing the number of processors from 1 to 2 or more is actually not a problem with Windows Server 2003 because it will automatically change the HAL to ACPI Multiprocessor PC.  But setting the number of virtual processors back to 1 won’t automatically change the Windows 2003 HAL back to ACPI Uniprocessor PC.

According to Microsoft, “If you run a multiprocessor HAL with only a single processor installed, the computer typically works as expected, and there is little or no affect on performance.”  But if you’re like me and just want to be absolutely sure that there won’t be issues, switching back to the uniprocessor HAL in Windows Server 2003 is pretty easy:

1. Make sure you have at least Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 installed.
2. Shut down the virtual machine.
3. Change number of virtual processors to 1.
4. Power on the virtual machine.
5. In Windows, go to Device Manager -> Computer.
6. Right-click “ACPI Multiprocessor PC” and choose “Update Driver…“.
7. Select “No, not this time” option -> “Install from a list or specific location” -> “Don’t search.  I will choose the driver to install.” -> select “ACPI Uniprocessor PC.”
8. Reboot the virtual machine.

That’s it! You’re all set!

They pretty much talked mostly about the benefits of virtualization and Microsoft System Center.  They showed live demos on how to use System Center and its interoperability with VMware ESX Server.  They also showed demos for application virtualization and there are hands on labs if you want to try out the products.

For the free stuff, you get a T-Shirt, a voucher for prep course collection #6319 and exam #70-652 ($316 value), and a Microsoft Virtualization Evaluation Kit (will be mailed to you).

1. Download this floppy image which contains the VMware SCSI drivers: vmscsi-1.2.0.4.flp.
2. Upload the floppy image to the datastore using the VI Client.
3. Edit the virtual machine settings and select Floppy Drive 1, then choose the option on the right to “Use existing floppy image in datastore:” and select the floppy image.
4. Power on the virtual machine.
5. Press F6 when you see the message “Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver…” at the bottom of the screen.
6. Connect Floppy Drive 1.
7. Press S, then press Enter to select the VMware SCSI Controller driver, then press Enter again to continue with the setup.

That’s it! The Windows XP setup should now be able to detect the hard drives .

Source: VMware Knowledgebase Document

Check it out here.

Here are the sessions:

Session I: Server Virtualization and Management
An inside look at Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager from an architectural and a real world point of view. Complete with live demo’s of real life scenarios, and even a look at SCVMM managing VMWare ESX servers.

Session II: How Microsoft IT builds Dynamic Data Centers
A look at the current and future Microsoft Data Center. See how Microsoft IT, one of the world’s largest IT organizations, uses Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V to provide dynamic, scalable, and real-time adjustment to business needs.

Session III: Understanding Virtualization at the Desktop Level
The future of the Enterprise Desktop is very exciting, and Microsoft Virtualization technologies like Softgrid (App-V), Med-V, MDOP, VECD and Terminal Services are in the middle of it all. This session will provide an understanding of the directions of the industry, and highlight the capabilities of the technologies available, as well as look at what the future will bring.

I’m planning on going to the one in New York on November 3 if my manager approves it.  If not, then I’ll take a day off so I can attend the event .

We also use RSA SecurID for authentication and it still works after the conversion with no changes made to the RSA Authentication Manager or RSA ACE Agent (using the same IP address after the conversion of course).

More P2V conversions next week .

The first issue is the mouse cursor not working in VMware console after installing the VMware tools.  The fix is just a simple registry edit:

1. Open Registry Editor (regedit)
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{4D36E96F-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
3. Double-click on UpperFilters and delete msvmmouf.
4. Reboot the VM.

Source: http://www.petri.co.il/forums/archive/index.php/t-19387.html

The second minor issue is when you try to set the static IP address to the same IP address before it was converted, you might receive a message similar to this:

The IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX you have entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter Name of adapter. Name of adapter is hidden from the network and Dial-up Connections folder because it is not physically in the computer or is a legacy adapter that is not working. If the same address is assigned to both adapters and they become active, only one of them will use this address. This may result in incorrect system configuration. Do you want to enter a different IP address for this adapter in the list of IP addresses in the advanced dialog box?

This is probably not a big deal, but if it bothers you just do the following:

1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd.exe, and then press ENTER.
2. Type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1, and then press ENTER.
3. Type Start DEVMGMT.MSC, and then press ENTER.
4. Click View, and then click Show Hidden Devices.
5. Expand the Network Adapters tree.
6. Right-click the dimmed network adapter, and then click Uninstall.

Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/269155

Installation was very easy: download and burn the ISO image, boot from it, follow the installation instructions on the screen (which is pretty much next, next next), set the root password, and set a static IP address if you want.

To manage it, open your web browser, point it to the IP address of the ESXi server, download the free VMware Infrastructure Client from there and install it on your computer.  You pretty much do everything here: creating and managing virtual machines, data stores, upload/download files, resource allocation, etc.

VMware also has a very cool free tool called VMware Converter for converting physical machines, backup images, and other virtual machine formats (such as Microsoft Virtual Server 2005) to VMware virtual machines.  You can run this while the machine you’re converting is running and you can even convert the machines directly to the VMware ESXi server! Very cool!

So far I’ve converted a virtual machine created by VMware Server and our physical desktop deployment server (BDD 2007) and they both converted successfully with no problems.

I’ll be doing more testing this week and we’re most likely going to be moving our production servers running on Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 and other physical servers to VMware ESXi.  It’s pretty much a no-brainer, especially since ESXi is now free.