Category → virtualization
VMware ESXi on Realtek NIC
VMware ESXi 4.0 doesn’t support Realtek RTL8111/8168 network cards by default. When you try to install ESXi on a computer with a Realtek NIC it will say the network card is not supported and will not allow you to proceed with the installation. Luckily you can modify the ESXi ISO to include the Realtek driver so that you’ll be able to install it without a problem. A forum post describes how to do this. I’m echoing the steps below.
- Create a folder and copy your VMware ESXi ISO file
- Download RTL8111_8168_P55_integr_SATA_Ctrl.(AHCI).oem.tgz and copy it to the folder you just created
- Download mkesxiaio_3.9.sh and inetd.conf from here and copy it to the same folder.
- Run sudo ./mkesxiaio_3.9.sh
- Burn the modified ISO
Realtek network cards are not exactly esoteric hardware. Not sure why the default installation doesn’t have support for this. If you’re trying to install ESXi better check the HCL.
Cloudapps
When the cloud buzzword hit the intrawebs, one issue I kept thinking about turned out to be more interesting than I thought. Different type of applications have varying requirements when it comes to running inside a cloud. A virtualized environment to be more precise. A virtualized environment means it’s just another computer right? So, it’s just a VPS somewhere isn’t it? Yes but there’s more to the story.
“Cloud requirements” differ from person to person and for what they’ll be using the technology. And of course, methods for reaching to the clouds are as diverse as the requirements (ahem).
- For a hosting company adopting cloud technologies means having an infrastructure that enable them to create virtual machines from a cluster of servers upon customer requests. Using Xen/KVM/OpenNebula etc… they can easily do this. Additionally what they need is a nice web based interface that they can integrate into their existing customer portals.
- A web based application vendor, changes they need to make their applications to run in the cloud is minimal. Here, a differentiation should be made for single-tenanted vs. multi-tenanted applications. Popular multi-tenanted web applications include Google Apps and Salesforce.com. SQL Azure, the popular database as a service platform runs on a multi-tenanted version of SQL Server.
- When it’s not a web based application things start to get interesting. Paul has written a wonderful post explaining the requirements that need to fulfill in order to be called a “cloud native” application.
As Paul mentions, being “on the cloud”, applications need to have features like autoscaling. Pay for what you use has a huge advantage of paying for resources depending on your daily resource needs. Several more aspects are listed on his post.