VMware ESXi: Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer (Windows XP)

Posted on October 23rd, 2008 webmaster 20 comments          Print

Error Message:

Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.

If you get this error when installing Windows XP in VMware ESXi, simply do the following:

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

Converting Physical Citrix Server to VMware Using VMware Converter

Posted on September 14th, 2008 webmaster 2 comments          Print

We converted one of our physical Citrix servers yesterday to VMware ESXi also and it went smoothly as well.  No issues so far, so if you’re thinking of doing the same thing I can confirm that it works.

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 .

Converting Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Virtual Machines to VMware

Posted on September 14th, 2008 webmaster No comments          Print

We just converted 3 of our virtual machines running on Virtual  Server 2005 R2 to VMware ESXi yesterday and it went pretty smoothly with just a couple of minor issues.

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