CentOS - Sep 2013 - Help with VMware ESXi manager for CentOS - newbie level

Hi.

On my new job we use VMware ESXi (Free version), but my colleagues use 
Windows on their PC's. I am allowed to use CentOS Linux, but I have no 
prior experience with WMVare.

I now (today) have to install CentOS 6.x minimal on that ESXi server, so 
I am trying to wrap my head around whole ecosystem.


What should I install on my CentOS 6.x so I can access/manage ESXi 
server and manage it? Direct link or nice howto would help me immensely. 
When ever I search the net, I get how to install CentOS client (they 
mean guest) ON VMware.




-- 

Ljubomir Ljubojevic
(Love is in the Air)
PL Computers
Serbia, Europe

Google is the Mother, Google is the Father, and traceroute is your
trusty Spiderman...
StarOS, Mikrotik and CentOS/RHEL/Linux consultant

On 9/4/2013 11:52 PM, Ljubomir Ljubojevic wrote:
> What should I install on my CentOS 6.x so I can access/manage ESXi
> server and manage it? Direct link or nice howto would help me immensely.
> When ever I search the net, I get how to install CentOS client (they
> mean guest) ON VMware.
afaik, the free vServer Manager is MS Windows only.



-- 
john r pierce                                      37N 122W
somewhere on the middle of the left coast

enable ssh on esxi and use commandline tools on esxi?

--
Eero


2013/9/5 Ljubomir Ljubojevic <centos at plnet.rs>
> Hi.
>
> On my new job we use VMware ESXi (Free version), but my colleagues use
> Windows on their PC's. I am allowed to use CentOS Linux, but I have no
> prior experience with WMVare.
>
> I now (today) have to install CentOS 6.x minimal on that ESXi server, so
> I am trying to wrap my head around whole ecosystem.
>
>
> What should I install on my CentOS 6.x so I can access/manage ESXi
> server and manage it? Direct link or nice howto would help me immensely.
> When ever I search the net, I get how to install CentOS client (they
> mean guest) ON VMware.
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Ljubomir Ljubojevic
> (Love is in the Air)
> PL Computers
> Serbia, Europe
>
> Google is the Mother, Google is the Father, and traceroute is your
> trusty Spiderman...
> StarOS, Mikrotik and CentOS/RHEL/Linux consultant
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>

> Hi.
> 
> On my new job we use VMware ESXi (Free version), but my colleagues
> use
> Windows on their PC's. I am allowed to use CentOS Linux, but I have
> no
> prior experience with WMVare.
> 
> I now (today) have to install CentOS 6.x minimal on that ESXi server,
> so
> I am trying to wrap my head around whole ecosystem.
> 
> 
> What should I install on my CentOS 6.x so I can access/manage ESXi
> server and manage it? Direct link or nice howto would help me
> immensely.
> When ever I search the net, I get how to install CentOS client (they
> mean guest) ON VMware.
> 
Best way would be to install a windows VM in the server, then u can rdesktop
into it to install your CentOS VM.

On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 1:52 AM, Ljubomir Ljubojevic <centos at plnet.rs>
wrote:
> Hi.
>
> On my new job we use VMware ESXi (Free version), but my colleagues use
> Windows on their PC's. I am allowed to use CentOS Linux, but I have no
> prior experience with WMVare.
>
> I now (today) have to install CentOS 6.x minimal on that ESXi server, so
> I am trying to wrap my head around whole ecosystem.
>
>
> What should I install on my CentOS 6.x so I can access/manage ESXi
> server and manage it? Direct link or nice howto would help me immensely.
> When ever I search the net, I get how to install CentOS client (they
> mean guest) ON VMware.
>
What I use - and recommend - in that environment is to run windows on
your  desktop, but commandeer at least one of the VM's for your own
use and testing, and once that VM is up on the network, run freenx and
use the window NX client to access it.  The performance under NX will
nearly match a local console without ever having to worry about linux
video drivers, plus you can suspend your session and resume it later,
even from a different host.  You can access the VM console from the
vmware client (using right-mouse in the navigation pane to pop a
separate window is nicer than working in the tab in the main screen)
but after the network is up,  ssh or freenx is nicer.

 Also, export an NFS filesystem from a Centos box (or VM) and mount in
the ESXi servers.  Then you can download install isos into that area,
and map then directly into the client as you create/install a new VM.
 If you aren't using something like puppet or chef, you can just do
the initial install from the Centos 'minimal' iso, then 'yum install
'
whatever other packages or groups you want.

If you ever get servers that exceed the resources permitted for the
free version of ESXi (or just get tired of it), you will find that
Centos/KVM will host and run the same images, even in the vmdk format.
  But, the VMware console and the conversion tool really are pretty
nice to work with - and if the company has an experienced Windows
admin and uses a good anti-virus you may find you don't really hate
using it to host your VMware client and NX sessions.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com

Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 10:19 AM, John R Pierce <pierce at
hogranch.com> wrote:
>> On 9/5/2013 3:52 AM, Scott Robbins wrote:
>>> At one point, it would work, but not with https.  5.1 and up can
have
everything managed from the web browser--they're actually dropping the
client, I believe, and having you do everything from the browser. 
With CentOS, (as opposed to Fedora) one needed to add some keyboard
trickery to get the arrow keys to work in the web console
though.
>>
>> but VMware ESXi 5.x is very crippled in its free configuration, with
draconian limits on how much RAM is allowed before you have to start
paying for licenses.
>
> I'd look at it the other way and say that the free version of ESXi, the
client and the conversion tool is really very nice to give away for
free...  In many ways it is more convenient to use than KVM and very,
very stable.  But, I haven't had any trouble getting KVM (or a recent
virtualbox) to run the same vmdk images, so you
aren't
> completely tied to it.
I'd also add that the o/p said this was what they used at his job, and I
find it highly unlikely that he's going to be able to convince management
to move to a VM system that they're not familiar with, esp. when all of
his co-workers, and presumably management, run Windows. Given that, I
think the answers he needs are how to deal with VMware ESXi as it is.

And yes, I'm well aware that ESXi is a modified version of, mmm, is it
still RHEL 3, or have they gone up yet?

         mark

How about installing virtualbox with windows on your Linux laptop so that
you can get to the vmware management console!

vojin


On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 9:52 AM, Ljubomir Ljubojevic <centos at plnet.rs>
wrote:
> Hi.
>
> On my new job we use VMware ESXi (Free version), but my colleagues use
> Windows on their PC's. I am allowed to use CentOS Linux, but I have no
> prior experience with WMVare.
>
> I now (today) have to install CentOS 6.x minimal on that ESXi server, so
> I am trying to wrap my head around whole ecosystem.
>
>
> What should I install on my CentOS 6.x so I can access/manage ESXi
> server and manage it? Direct link or nice howto would help me immensely.
> When ever I search the net, I get how to install CentOS client (they
> mean guest) ON VMware.
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Ljubomir Ljubojevic
> (Love is in the Air)
> PL Computers
> Serbia, Europe
>
> Google is the Mother, Google is the Father, and traceroute is your
> trusty Spiderman...
> StarOS, Mikrotik and CentOS/RHEL/Linux consultant
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>