ESXi host upgrades via vSphere Update Manager (VUM, now Lifecycle Manager in newer versions) are routine operations that usually go smoothly. When they don’t, the failure modes can range from easily recoverable to genuinely painful. Here’s what I’ve encountered and how to handle it. Before You Start The things that should happen before any ESXi … Read more
ESXi 5.5 reached end of general support in September 2018, creating real urgency to move environments that had been running the same version for three to four years. The upgrade path to 6.5 (the stable target at the time) had some gotchas that weren’t clearly documented in a single place. Here’s what the actual upgrade … Read more
EMC storage arrays (VNX and VNXe in particular) were a common pairing with VMware in the 2015-2019 era for mid-market organizations. They’re capable arrays with good VMware integration, but the integration requires correct multipath configuration on the VMware side to behave reliably. Getting it wrong produces intermittent storage errors that are difficult to reproduce and … Read more
In a two-host cluster, keeping ESXi hosts configured identically is manageable manually. By the time you have six or eight hosts, configuration drift is inevitable unless you have a systematic approach. Host Profiles are VMware’s mechanism for capturing and enforcing ESXi host configuration state. What Host Profiles Cover A Host Profile captures the configuration of … Read more
At some point the XenServer environments I deployed for cost reasons hit a wall — either the organization’s needs grew beyond what XenServer’s ecosystem could support cleanly, or a strategic decision to standardize on VMware made the migration necessary. Moving workloads between hypervisors isn’t trivial, but with the right approach it’s manageable. The Core Challenge: … Read more
VMware’s virtual networking model is one of the most powerful things about the platform and one of the most common sources of misconfiguration in smaller deployments. The concepts are learnable in an afternoon, but the consequences of getting them wrong can be subtle and persistent. Standard vSwitch vs. Distributed vSwitch ESXi standalone hosts use Standard … Read more
The question I got asked most often when starting ESXi deployments for small and mid-size businesses: what hardware should we buy? The honest answer is “it depends,” but there are enough consistent patterns across successful SMB deployments to give useful guidance. The VMware HCL Is Not Optional The VMware Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) exists because … Read more
I’ve deployed both XenServer and VMware ESXi for small-to-medium businesses, sometimes switching between them for the same client as their needs evolved. The right choice depends on several factors that vendor marketing rarely addresses honestly. Where XenServer Wins Cost: XenServer’s free edition covers the core features needed by most SMB deployments — live migration (XenMotion), … Read more