add VMWare ESXi documentation

This commit is contained in:
Jose Carlos Venegas Munoz
2016-02-19 13:45:19 -06:00
parent cd3da2553b
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.. _vm-vmware-esxi:
Using Clear Linux* as VMware* ESXi guest
========================================
This documentation explains how to use Clear Linux as ESXi Guest.
This docuemnt is based on VMware vSphere 6.
****************
Run Clear Linux*
****************
1. In order to boot Clear Linux* download the latest_ live disk image from
https://download.clearlinux.org/image/
2. Create and configure a virtual machine with the following configuration:
- Guest Operating system: **Linux, Distribution Other 3.x Linux (64-bits)**
- **UEFI support**: Clear Linux uses as default bootloader systemd-boot a
UEFI boot manager for EFI images
.. tip::
In VMware vShere GUI go to the configuration settings of the
virtual machine->General Tab-> And select **EFI boot firmware**
- **IDE disk**: Convert to vmdk and attach the Clear Linux image downloaded
above. To convert Clear Linux image to VMWare* disk (vmdk) you can use
qemu-img command::
$qemu-img convert -f raw -O vmdk -p clear-vmware.img clear-vmware.vmdk
3. Start the Clear Linux* virtual machine
*********************************
Using optimized kernel for VMware
*********************************
Clear Linux provides a bundle called *kernel-vmware* that contains a specialized
kernel that uses an specific configuration for *VMware hypervisor* such as:
- **vmw_balloon**: Use a technique for memory reclamation that works a "balloon".
The guest can be inflated to reclaim physical memory. The balloon can also be
deflated to allow the guest free memory pages
- **vmw_pvscsi**: A driver that allows to use a paravirtualized SCSI provided by
VMware* hypervisors
- **vmxnet3**: Allows to use VMware virtual ethernet NIC
- **vmwgfx**: Allows to use DRM driver for the VMware virtual hardware
In order to use this features install the kernel-vmware bundle in you Clear
Linux using a virtual machine configured in the previos version::
# swupd bundle-add kernel-vmware
Turn off virtual machine and change the virtual machine configuration as follow:
- Guest Operating system: Linux, Distribution Other 3.x Linux (64-bits)
- UEFI support: Clear Linux use as default bootloader systemd-boot a UEFI boot
manager for EFI images. To add UEFI support go to:
.. tip::
Go to "Configuration settings of the virtual machine" -> "General Tab" ->
"And select EFI boot firmware"
- SCSI Paravirtualized disk: Convert the Clear Linux image to a SCSI VMWare*
disk imagek and attach it again
To do this you can follow this steps:
1. Extract the image from the EXSi server to one Linux machine and use
qemu-img command::
$ qemu-img convert -f raw -O vmdk -o adapter_type=lsilogic -o compat6 -p
clear-vmware.img clear-vmware.vmdk
2. Transfer the Clear Linux* image to the VMware* ESXi server and use
:command:`vmkfstools` command (you need to access to ESXi command line )::
$ vmkfstools -i clear-vmware.vmdk -d zeroedthick clear-vmware-fix.vmdk
3. Add the converted image to the guest by using VMware* vSphere virtual
machine settings
- Start the modificated virtual machine
.. _latest: https://download.clearlinux.org/latest