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VMware 1.0, GSX Server 1.0, Server 1.0 and Workstation 3.0 - Trip down memory lane

04.20.2023 by William Lam // 3 Comments

While concluding my recent personal project, a trip down memory lane with both ESX 1.0 (along with installing all subsequent major ESX and ESXi releases) and VirtualCenter 1.0, I had received a TON of positive feedback on the nostalgia and the memories that these videos had brought back, including many VMware colleagues both current and past.

For many, including myself, it was also an opportunity to experience some of the very early releases of ESX and ESXi, especially with folks starting their VMware journey at different points in time and these videos are as much educational as they are historical.

With that said, I also had bunch of folks ask what about other early VMware Hypervisors such as VMware GSX Server, VMware Server and VMware Workstation? These early VMware Hypervisors also heavily influenced the careers of many within our VMware community and it got many folks started in their IT career, so I thought it would make sense to also include these in my trip down memory lane project ... so I guess I was not done, just yet! đŸ˜…

[Read more...]

Categories // Workstation Tags // GSX Server, VMware Server, workstation

Workaround for sorry this product can not be installed inside of a virtual machine for early VMware Hypervisors

04.12.2023 by William Lam // Leave a Comment

While continuing my exploration trip down memory lane with early VMware Hypervisors such as VMware GSX Server, VMware Server and VMware Workstation, I came across the following error message when attempting to install these hypervisors within a Windows VM:

Sorry this product can not be installed inside of a virtual machine

I guess this would make sense given the ability to run a Hypervisor (Nested Virtualization) within a VM would not be possible for many more years later and this check seemed like a good way to prevent users from having a bad user experience, however it prevent me from continuing.


[Read more...]

Categories // Workstation Tags // GSX Server, server, workstation

How to deploy the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) 8.0 to VMware Fusion or Workstation?

10.04.2022 by William Lam // 41 Comments

VMware Fusion and Workstation continues to be another popular way for customers to run a VMware Homelab while leveraging a users existing desktop. In the early days of vSphere 6.5, the method to deploy the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) to Fusion/Workstation was less than ideal with a lot of manual steps. In 2017, the Fusion/Workstation team introduced native OVF support and that made deploying the VCSA much simpler, especially with the VCSA two stage installer.

Even though this is not an officially supported method from VMware for deploying the VCSA, the process has not changed for the last several releases and it just works which was great for our users. With vSphere 8, it looks like there has been a change to the VCSA installer that causes a failure during the Stage 2 configuration.


I was made aware of this issue from a colleague who was looking to setup a vSphere 8 environment using VMware Workstation.

Taking a look at the log file, he noticed the error was regarding the upgrade.import.directory OVF property not being set, which seems to be causing the issue.

# cat /var/log/firstboot/vlcm_firstboot.py_9117_stderr.log
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/vmware-vlcm/firstboot/vlcm_firstboot.py", line 167, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/lib/vmware-vlcm/firstboot/vlcm_firstboot.py", line 129, in main
    fb = VlcmFirstboot(VLCM_COMP, VLCM_SOLUSERNAME)
  File "/usr/lib/vmware-vlcm/firstboot/vlcm_firstboot.py", line 50, in __init__
    os.path.join(get_install_parameter('upgrade.import.directory'), "vlcm")
  File "/usr/lib/vmware/site-packages/cis/tools.py", line 88, in get_install_parameter
    raise InstallParameterException('Install-parameter %s not set' % param)
cis.exceptions.InstallParameterException: {
    "detail": [
        {
            "id": "install.ciscommon.internal.error",
            "translatable": "Encountered an internal error.\n\n%(0)s",
            "args": [
                "Install-parameter upgrade.import.directory not set"
            ],
            "localized": "Encountered an internal error.\n\nInstall-parameter upgrade.import.directory not set"
        }
    ],
    "componentKey": null,
    "problemId": null,
    "resolution": {
        "id": "install.default.failure.resolution",
        "translatable": "This is an unrecoverable error, please retry install. If you encounter this error again, please search for these symptoms in the VMware Knowledge Base for any known issues and possible resolutions. If none can be found, collect a support bundle and open a support request.",
        "localized": "This is an unrecoverable error, please retry install. If you encounter this error again, please search for these symptoms in the VMware Knowledge Base for any known issues and possible resolutions. If none can be found, collect a support bundle and open a support request."
    }
}

Using one of my previous blog post for guidance, he discovered a quick workaround to the problem by simply ensuring this variable is configured with a default value. After running into the problem myself and verifying the solution, I figure this might be useful for anyone looking to run vSphere 8 using VMware Fusion or Workstation, so here are the instructions to work around this issue.

Disclaimer: This is not officially supported by VMware, use at your own risk
[Read more...]

Categories // Fusion, Home Lab, vSphere 8.0, Workstation Tags // fusion, vcsa, vSphere 8.0, workstation

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Author

William Lam is a Senior Staff Solution Architect working in the VMware Cloud team within the Cloud Infrastructure Business Group (CIBG) at VMware. He focuses on Cloud Native, Automation, Integration and Operation for the VMware Cloud based Software Defined Datacenters (SDDC) across Private, Hybrid and Public Cloud

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