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VMware officially releases vibddi for vSphere 4.1

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There were several product releases last week that got a lot of buzz on the inter-tube:

However, VMware actually released an additional product last week which snuck under the radar, vibddi.

I actually wrote about this unsupported and undocumented utility last year: How to inject custom drivers into an ESXi 4.1 image using vibddi? vibddi (pronounced vib d-d-i) stands for VIB (vSphere Installation Bundle) Disk Dump Image and it is a utility to help users easily customize ESXi images with custom drivers. This utility first appeared in the vSphere Auto Deploy appliance and it looks like VMware has finally released it as an official tool to support vSphere 4.1 image customization. You also may have heard about the new Image Builder tool with the release of vSphere 5, the origins of that utility actually came from vibddi.

If you are still using vSphere 4.1 and need to inject or modify drivers, I would highly recommend you take a look at the tool as it is extremely simple to use. For more details, please check out the new VMware KB article 2003316 documenting the details of the utility or my blog post. If you are using vSphere 5, you will need to use Image Builder as vSphere 4.1 is not supported and vice-a-versa with ESXi 5 with vibddi.

Note: There are some changes in the latest vibddi utility compared to the one found in the vSphere Auto Deploy such as injecting custom kickstart configuration file or license file. If you rely on these features, you may want to use the older version or manually update these after the system build.

How to Run Windows 8 on vSphere 5

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There's been a lot of hype/talk about Windows 8 and if you wanted to test drive the new OS, you might consider using the latest release of VMware Fusion 4.0.1 or VMware Workstation 8 as Windows 8 is an officially supported guestOS. Though what if you wanted to run it in your vSphere 5 environment? Well you can with a small hack.

Even though it's not listed as a supported guestOS, you can manually tweak the .vmx configuration to get ESXi 5 host to recognize the guestOS type. You just need to create a generic Windows 2008 system and then from the commandline or by exporting the .vmx using the datastore browser and then edit the configuration file. You will need to make the following change to the guestOS paramater:

guestOS = "windows8srv-32"
guestOS = "windows8srv-64"

One you have made this change, you will need to re-register the virtual machine or reload the configuration using vim-cmd vmsvc/reload operation.

Another method just using the vSphere Client without any modifications to the .vmx is to just create a virtual machine and select any guestOS type. Once the virtual machine has been created, there is actually an option in the guestOS to select Windows 8 32 or 64bit that can be selected. If you wish to automate through the commandline, then you can use the method above or you can just use the vSphere Client.

Note: This is not officially supported from VMware of course, use at your own risk.

UPDATE1: It looks like when Windows 8 64bit is booting up for installation, the virtual machine core dumps with the following error:

vcpu-0| MONITOR PANIC: vcpu-0:NOT_IMPLEMENTED vmcore/vmm/intr/apic.c:1804

Something similar occurs with Windows 8 32bit that gets past the panic but an error message is thrown on the screen regarding HAL initialization failure. Currently there are no workarounds and I've reached out to some of the folks at VMware to see if there's any tweaks that can be made to support this. As I mentioned earlier, this is an unsupported OS/hack, so it may not work at all. Sorry to get everyone's hope up, the new Fusion 4.01 and Workstation 8 might still be your best bet to test out the new Windows 8.

UPDATE2: VMware has released a KB article http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2006859 regarding Windows 8 and vSphere 5 support. You can subscribe to the KB article for the latest update on running Windows 8 on ESXi 5.

UPDATE3:  I recently saw a tweet by Raphael Schitz and it looks like you actually CAN run Windows 8 on ESXi 5. Raphael was able to run Windows 8 by first running Xenserver as a virtual machine and then creating a Windows 8 VM that would run as a nested guestOS within Xenserver virtual machine (pESXi 5 -> Xenserver VM -> Windows 8 VM).

Note: You may need to reboot the system one additional time if it does not automatically load.

Here is a screen shot of Windows 8 64bit running on the latest release of Xenserver 6 running on ESXi 5:

How to Use Custom VM Icons in the vSphere 5 Client

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Ever get tired of the same old virtual machine icons in the vSphere Client? Ever thought about changing it? Well with vSphere 5, you can! Here is a screenshot of some the custom icons I added for several virtual machines in my development lab.

One of the major enhancement in the vSphere 5 API is the introduction of the vCenter Solutions Manager, vSphere ESX Agent Manager, and vServices SDK. These various interfaces allows ISVs, partners and end users to easily extend the functionality of the vCenter Server and provide solutions that are tightly integrated via extensions/plugins that are aware of features such as vSphere HA, DRS and DPM.

Here what each of the interfaces provides:

vCenter Solutions Manager - is a view in the vSphere client where you can monitor and interact with the solutions that register with a vCenter Server instance. Solutions Manager shows three standard tabs for each running solution. The tabs list the virtual machines that a solution deploys and manages, show the health, name, company URL, version of the solution, and show any vServices that the solution provides.
vSphere ESX Agent Manager - automates the process of deploying and managing vSphere ESX agents. The services that ESX Agent Manager provides include out-of-the-box integration of agents with vSphere features such as DRS, AddHost, High Availability, DRM, and maintenance mode. All of these features can be difficult to integrate with manually. ESX Agent Manager also allows users to monitor the health of ESX agents, and blocks users from performing certain operations on ESX agents that might affect the virtual machines that use them. For example, ESX Agent Manager can prevent an ESX agent virtual machine from being powered off or moved from an ESX host that contains other virtual machines that use that agent.
vServices SDK - is a service that a solution provides to specific applications that run inside virtual machines and vApps. A solution can provide several types of vServices. Virtual machines or vApps can have dependencies on several types of vServices. A vService is similar to a virtual hardware device upon which virtual machines and vApps can depend. Instead of providing a piece of virtual hardware, vServices typically provide access to a service across a network. By providing a vService, a solution can expose application-aware services to virtual machines and vApps. For example, a vService can provide a backup service or a logging service to virtual machines and vApps.
For more details about these interfaces and how to implement them, take a look at the documentation here.

Even though these APIs are really meant for ISVs and partners to consume, if you would like to add a splash of color to your environment, you can use the following trick. At at high level we will be adding a new extension(s) which includes a mapping of a particular solution (e.g. logical name) to a particular icon that a virtual machine or vApp can be associated with. The icons must be 16x16 PNG format referenced by a URL. Once the custom extension has been created, you will then need to reconfigure the virtual machine(s) and associate the managedBy property to the solution's logical name key to update the virtual machine's icon.

You will need access to either the vCLI or vMA and the following two vSphere SDK for Perl scripts: registerCustomSolution.pl and updateVMManagedBy.pl You will also need access to vCenter Server 5 as this is not supported on an ESXi 5 host.

There is a very simple example in registerCustomSolution.pl which creates two extensions: one that includes custom icons and tabs that can link to any webpage (vGhetto) and one that only includes custom icons (Custom Application). You will need to edit the script so it fits your environment and there is a special variable in the script called "editedScript" which is set to 0 that prevents the script from running. This will ensure you do not accidentally create these extensions based on information in my development environment. Once you have updated the script, go ahead and change the value to a 1.

When you are ready, you will use the registerCustomSolution.pl script to create the extensions, here is an example:

To verify that the extensions were created properly with the information you provide, you can use pluginExtensionManager.pl to list all registered extensions. The command is the following: ./pluginExtensionManager.pl --operation list

You should see at the bottom of the output the extensions that were just registered and the associated configurations URL + icons. It is important to make note of the extension key (e.g. com.vmware.vGhetto) and the solution type string as that will be needed in the next section.

Now all we need to do is associate a particular virtual machine with the solution to update the virtual machine's default icon. You will use the updateVMManagedBy.pl script and using the extension key and type from the output from the previous screen.

To verify the icons have been updated, you will need to login to the vCenter Server and check out your virtual machines.You will also notice that on the right hand side of the virtual machine summary screen, there is a new "Managed By" section which includes a link to the vCenter Solution Manager.

Note: If you would like to reset or revert back to the original icons, you just need to use the  updateVMManagedBy.pl script and specify a empty string for the key. If you would like to unregister and remove the extension all together, you can use pluginExtensionManager.pl and perform remove operation.

Another way to view all the vCenter Solutions is on the home page and by clicking on the vCenter Solutions Manager icon.

From here you will see all registered vCenter extensions including some information about the vendor, version and health of the extension.

Here is a drill down into one of the extensions that contains several tabs to some URLs

As you can see, you can link to some useful URLs that can easily be accessible through the vSphere Client without having to go to your browser. Another neat feature of the tabs is to include any web management interfaces for a particular solution/vApp so that you can easily configure and manage the system from a single pane of glass.

In addition to this, you can also get a summary of the registered virtual machines with a given solution by clicking on the "Virtual Machines" tab and selecting "Managed By" box, the "Server" and "Agents" are reserved for ESX Agents.

There are also two caveats to be aware of if you decide to create custom icons for your virtual machines. The first is when you edit a virtual machine, you will get an annoying pop-up that states changes to the solution is not recommended. Under normal circumstance, where a solution/extension is provided by a 3rd party, you definitely do not want to manually tweak the virtual machine but in this scenario, it is fine.

The second thing I noticed is the custom icons do not properly show up in the nextgen vSphere Web Client, a default icon is used instead for virtual machines who have custom icons. I am not sure if this is a display bug with the vSphere Web Client or with the APIs.

So there you have it, if you are bored at looking at the same old icons and would like to differentiate some or all of your virtual machines, you now have the option to use custom icons.