VMware ThinApp provides agentless application virtualisation. Applications are provided as single executable files (including any modifications you have made to the program after install).

It also allows for applications to run on different operating systems. For example it is possible to package and run a legacy application from Windows XP on a Windows 7 desktop.

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Before performing a piece of network maintenance I wanted ensure I had an up-to-date list of network information for all ESXi servers.

I was apprehensive to refer to old documentation incase something had changed.

To do this I used PowerCLI, specifically "Get-VMHostNetworkAdaptor" to retrieve a current set of information from all VM hosts containing networking information.

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When a recovery plan runs, groups of virtual machines are started according to priority. Before a priority group
is started, all machines in the next-higher priority group must have recovered or failed to recover. As long as
dependancies have been met, the recovery engine attempts to power on as many virtual machines in parallel
as vCenter supports.

 

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Here we are right at the beginning of a multi part how to series I'm putting together on vSphere 5.5.

 

If you missed any of the previous parts of the series or want go back/forward here is the jump list:

• vSphere 5.5 - Part 1 - ESXi Server 5.5 (inc U1) Install
• vSphere 5.5 - Part 2 - vCenter Single Sign On (SSO) Install
• vSphere 5.5 - Part 3 - vCenter Inventory Service Install
• vSphere 5.5 - Part 4 - vCenter Server Install
• vSphere 5.5 - Part 5 - vSphere Web Client Install
• vSphere 5.5 - Part 6 Creating a Datacenter, HA/DRS Cluster and Adding a Host 

 

First things first we are going to install ESXi Server 5.5.0. This is the baremetal hypervisor that will run our VMs and may be one of several servers you wish to build into a cluster managed by vCenter server to provide HA, DRS and vMotion features for VMs.

The ESXi server installation is straightforward, at this initial stage all we need to do is get the hypervisor installed, give it an IP address and password before proceeding with the various steps for the vCenter Server install.

 

 

1. Check the server hardware you are installing ESXi 5.5 onto is supported and on the VMware HCL.

 

2. Login to the VMware license portal to check/upgrade/buy your vSphere licenses.

 

3. Read the ESXi Setup Guide to ensure you understand the pre-requisites.

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