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Installing ESXi 5.1 Update 1 on Mac Mini is Now a Breeze! (No Custom ISO/patches Needed!)

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ESXi 5.1 Update 1 was just released by VMware and similar to the ESXi 5.0 Update 2 release last year, the tg3 (Broadcom) driver has now been updated to 3.123b.v50.1 which is required to support network connectivity on the Apple Mac Mini's. Prior to this, to install ESXi on an Apple Mac Mini, users were required to build a custom ISO that included the updated tg3 driver and I am happy to say this is no long necessary! In addition, having the latest driver also provides out of the box support for the Thunderbolt ethernet adapter which is great if you are looking to add an additional ethernet connection to the Apple Mac Mini.

Disclaimer: The Apple Mac Mini is not officially supported by VMware.

Here is a quick screenshot of the networking details including the Thunderbolt ethernet adapter on my Apple Mac Mini 5,3 running ESXi 5.1 Update 1:

Apple Mac Mini 6,2 Users

If you have an Apple Mac Mini 6,2 the workarounds described in this article are still required as well as an additional issue regarding the on-board NIC for the Apple Mac Mini 6,2. The issue is that the on-board NIC is not recognized and claimed by the tg3 driver because there is not a PCI ID entry in the tg3 map file. Note, BCM57766 driver is supported, just that it was missing the mapping (I believe this was the case in 5.0 as well). Working with VMware engineering, I was able to obtain the SMC fix and along with the workarounds that I built earlier for ESXi 5.0 and I have created a custom ESXi 5.1 Update 1 ISO that includes all the fixes and you will be able to install it on your Apple Mac Mini 6,2 without any further modifications.

Download: ESXi-5.1u1-MacMini-SMC-BOOT-FIX-6-2.iso

Note: From my understanding, some of these issues have been fixed but just did not make it in time for the Update 1 release. I'm hoping that we will be able to get most of these fixed in a future patch or update. This is actually pretty awesome, given that this is NOT SUPPORTED by VMware, but engineers are still willing to help the community out!

UPDATE: When trying to enable vSphere HA, the following error "Could not find a trusted signer" is thrown. To get around this problem, you will need to manually install the vSphere HA VIB and then reconfigure vSphere HA. The easiest method is to SCP the VIB from the VCSA and then using ESXCLI and the --no-sig-check flag to install the VIB.

Here are the commands to run:

scp /etc/vmware-vpx/docRoot/vSphere-HA-depot/vib20/vmware-fdm/VMware_bootbank_vmware-fdm_5.1.0-1064983.vib [email protected]:/tmp
esxcli software vib install -v /tmp/VMware_bootbank_vmware-fdm_5.1.0-1064983.vib --no-sig-check

Additional Resources:

The New vinternals.com (The Y Hacker News Of Virtualization)

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vinternals.com was just re-launched today by Stu Radnidge ‏(no stranger to the Virtualization community) but instead of a blog as most have come to know that URL, Stu has created something even cooler in my opinion. If you are familiar with how Y Hacker News, Reddit or even sites like Digg work, Stu is basically doing the same thing but for Virtualization-related topics. It is a news website that is completely driven by the community through the submission of either a link or a question. These entries can then be voted on by the community and the top 100 current entries will be displayed on the home page.

I think most will agree that there is already too much information out there today in various forms such as: Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Socialcast, Forums, Google+, Email, Distribution Lists, RSS Feeds, etc. and having yet another place to go for information is not going to help. The reason I think this is a pretty neat idea (if successful) for the Virtualization community is that there is a wealth of information out there, why not leverage the community as a whole help surface up useful or interesting content for everyone to benefit?

Many times there are useful bits of information or articles that are not shared through the traditional channels or more often not getting enough visibility before it's lost among the cloud of information. Hopefully with a solution like this, top quality content will be surfaced to the top and significantly help reduce the number of places you need to go for your virtualization-related news.

You will notice the look and feel of vinternals is very similar to Y Hacker News:

The other really neat thing about Stu's site is that there are no passwords to manage. When you sign up, an email with a login link is provided and everything is done using cookies. After you login, you will be able to view the current entries on the home page and if you wish to submit a link or a question, just click on the Submit button at the top.

The input is pretty straight forward: A URL, title for a link or pose a question and click on submit. To vote for an entry, you just click on the green caret icon next to each entry. If you would like to learn more about the new the vinternals site and how it works, you can read about it here. 

I am looking forward to seeing more entries submitted by the community, Great job Stu! BTW - You need an RSS feed 😉

If you are not signed up, what are you waiting for? Go here to sign up now!

How To Configure vCenter Server 5.0 To Work With VIN 2.0?

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Many of you know that I am a huge fan of VIN (vSphere Infrastructure Navigator) and the value it can bring to vSphere administrators and their organizations. With the latest release of VIN 2.0, there are even more exciting features and integration with both the vSphere and vCenter Operations Manager platforms. However, one of the prerequisites for using the latest version of VIN 2.0 is that you will need to be running a vSphere Web Client 5.1 Server which can be a challenge for customers still on vSphere 5.0.

There was a question raised internally awhile back ago on whether it would be possible to have VIN 2.0 function with a vCenter Server 5.0? In the VIN 2.0 release notes, there is a statement that seems to indicate this is possible:

The user interface of the vCenter Infrastructure Navigator 2.0 virtual appliance that is deployed on vCenter Server 5.0 can only be viewed from the vSphere Web Client 5.1

A feature that may not be very well known with the release of vSphere 5.1 is that the vSphere Web Client Server also supports vCenter Server 5.0 which must be manually added through the vSphere Web Client admin application. This means that vSphere administrators not only benefit from all the new feature enhancements of the new vSphere Web Client but will would also be able to get a single view of their entire vSphere 5.x infrastructure.

Given all this information, I suspect this should work and I had an idea on how I could implement this. Since VIN 2.0 can only be used from a 5.1 version of the vSphere Web Client, we can simply deploy a VCSA 5.1 (vCenter Server Appliance) and configure it to point to our vCenter Server 5.0 environment. This will then allow us to use VIN 2.0 with our vCenter Server 5.0 environment while still maintaining our vCenter Server 5.0 environment.

Note: Though I have opted to use the VCSA as that is the simplest method IMHO, you are not required to. The only requirement is access to a vSphere 5.1 Web Client Server which you can also install on a separate Windows server.

Here is a quick diagram of what this would look like:

For some background here is what the environment looks like:

  • VCSA 5.0 managing ESXi 5.0 hosts with running VMs
  • VCSA 5.1 (configured, but no inventory)
  • VIN 2.0 deployed onto the ESXi 5.0 hosts being managed by the vCenter Server 5.0

Here are the steps to get this working:

Step 1 - Deploy the VCSA 5.1 and configure the system as you would normally. We will only be using the vSphere Web Client from this VCSA.

Step 2 - Register your vCenter Server 5.0 environment using the admin app in the vSphere Web Client. If you are using the VCSA 5.1, you will need to follow the instructions here.

Step 3 - Deploy VIN 2.0 into the vCenter Server 5.0 environment if you have not already.

Step 4 - Open a browser and connect to the VCSA's 5.1 vSphere Web Client. The URL should be https://[VC-IP]:9443/vsphere-client and provide the vCloud Suite License key which is required to license VIN 2.0

Step 5 - Enable discovery for the vCenter Server 5.0 under the "Infrastructure Navigator" tab on the left hand side of the vSphere Web Client.

Step 6 - Once the initial discovery has completed, you should now be able to see VIN information displayed for your virtual machines.

So there you have it! VIN 2.0 functioning with a vCenter Server 5.0 environment with a bit of help from the 5.1 version of the VCSA. You will still be able to connect to the vCenter Server 5.0 environment using either the vSphere C# Client and even the 5.0 vSphere Web Client. Though with so many new features in the new vSphere Web Client, this a great way to start getting comfortable with the new interface and enjoy all the benefits from VIN.