WilliamLam.com

  • About
    • About
    • Privacy
  • VMware Cloud Foundation
  • VKS
  • Homelab
    • Hardware Options
    • Hardware Reviews
    • Lab Deployment Scripts
    • Nested Virtualization
    • Homelab Podcasts
  • VMware Nostalgia
  • Apple

Using vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) to remediate Nested ESXi host with CPU on the host is not supported 

10.24.2022 by William Lam // 4 Comments

If you are running a Nested ESXi VM on top of a physical ESXi host that does not have a supported CPU and you are using vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM), the pre-check and/or remediation will fail due to the following error:

The CPU on the host is not supported by this image


The solution is actually quite simple and is similiar to what you had to do for your physical ESXi host by adding the ESXi kernel boot option allowLegacyCPU=true to successfully boot and install ESXi as recently explained in this blog post. To emulate this setup, I am using my trusty 2011 Apple Mac Mini which is running ESXi 8.0 with the kernel boot option and it is then running a Nested ESXi 7.0 Update 3g VM.

[Read more...]

Categories // Automation, Home Lab, Nested Virtualization, vSphere 8.0 Tags // ESXi 8.0, Nested ESXi, vSphere 8.0, vSphere Lifecycle Manager

Enabling vSAN 8 Express Storage Architecture (ESA) using Nested ESXi

10.13.2022 by William Lam // 17 Comments

To get the full benefits and support of the new vSAN 8 Express Storage Architecture (ESA), you will need modern hardware from the official vSAN ESA Ready Node HCL. However, from an education and learning point of view, you may want to explore some of the VSAN ESA workflows and easiest way to do that, well you probably know the answer .... it is using Nested ESXi of course!

With my recently published vSphere and vSAN 8 Lab Deployment Script, you can use that as the base and the Nested ESXi 8.0 IA Virtual Appliance to setup vSAN 8 ESA using virtual hardware 😀


There are only a couple of things to be aware of prior to setting up vSAN ESA using Nested ESXi.

[Read more...]

Categories // Home Lab, Nested Virtualization, VSAN, vSphere 8.0 Tags // Express Storage Architecture, Nested ESXi, nested virtualization, VSAN 8, vSphere 8.0

Emulating a Virtual USB storage device using Nested ESXi

07.11.2022 by William Lam // 3 Comments

My buddy Alan Renouf had pinged me earlier today and asked whether it was possible to emulate a USB storage device that could aide him in the testing the installation of ESXi from a USB device but without having to use a real USB device. I honestly was not aware of any mechanisms that would allow for this and I normally would just passthrough a real USB device to a Nested ESXi VM for this type of testing purposes.

While thinking about his question, I also recall we had made some enhancements to our Virtual USB interface that would allow user to back it using a disk file. While searching further, I came to learn that not only was this possible, but it was also a common method for testing USB-based installation without the hassle of messing with physical hardware. It turns out you can just present a Virtual Disk (VMDK) to a VM running ESXi (Nested ESXi) and through a special driver, it will recognize the device as a USB storage device!

I definitely wish I had learned about this earlier and it goes to show, all the hard engineering efforts made by our VMware Engineers to make testing and using our software as easy as possible even without needing real physical hardware 😀

[Read more...]

Categories // Automation, ESXi, Nested Virtualization Tags // Nested ESXi, usb

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • …
  • 26
  • Next Page »

Search

Thank Author

Author

William is Distinguished Platform Engineering Architect in the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Division at Broadcom. His primary focus is helping customers and partners build, run and operate a modern Private Cloud using the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform.

Connect

  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • GitHub
  • LinkedIn
  • Mastodon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo

Recent

  • Automating the vSAN Data Migration Pre-check using vSAN API 06/04/2025
  • VCF 9.0 Hardware Considerations 05/30/2025
  • VMware Flings is now available in Free Downloads of Broadcom Support Portal (BSP) 05/19/2025
  • VMUG Connect 2025 - Minimal VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 5.x in a Box  05/15/2025
  • Programmatically accessing the Broadcom Compatibility Guide (BCG) 05/06/2025

Advertisment

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Copyright WilliamLam.com © 2025

 

Loading Comments...