Blog / Vmware

How to change from ACPI Multiprocessor HAL back to ACPI Uniprocessor HAL in Windows 2003

January 9, 2009
Warning: Changing the number of virtual processors after the guest OS is installed may make your virtual machine unstable.

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 …

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

October 23, 2008

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-1204.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 …

Converting Physical Citrix Server to VMware Using VMware Converter

September 14, 2008

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). …

Converting Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Virtual Machines to VMware

September 14, 2008

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 …

VMware ESXi First Impressions

September 3, 2008

I finally got a chance to try this out yesterday on a Dell PowerEdge 6600 server that we use for testing at work. I’ve been testing it pretty much most of yesterday and today and I have to say that I’m very impressed with it so far.

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), …

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