{"id":71,"date":"2019-10-18T17:12:42","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T17:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tensigh.de\/?p=71"},"modified":"2020-08-27T16:18:12","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T16:18:12","slug":"vm-ware-server-set-up-at-my-previous-employers-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/2019\/10\/18\/vm-ware-server-set-up-at-my-previous-employers-office\/","title":{"rendered":"VM Ware server set up at my previous employer’s office"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m writing this from memory so some of the details might be sketchy.<\/p>\n

At my last employer in Japan (the place where I took the intro photograph to this site), I was tasked with setting up a basic server to run MySQL. The TL;DR version was that there was a Windows 7 PC that was running MySQL that had data from which reports on Japan’s biggest convenience store chain were run. If this Win 7 PC failed the data would be lost, plus the “server” was underpowered. There was a proposal from a vendor for several thousands of dollars to set up a new server, a new UPS and backup system.<\/p>\n

Since we had a second physical server which was not even set up and it was already on the UPS, it seemed foolish to me to purchase and install another one for a PC running MySQL, particularly when it was only being used once a week. I had to set up the disk array, install ESXi, install Linux as one VM, and create a backup routine to our file server which got backed up nightly off site.<\/p>\n

Step 1: Set up the disk array<\/strong><\/p>\n

RAID 10 is all the rage these days, but this server wasn’t spec’d for that, so I figured RAID 5 would be the best choice. This server had 4 1.8 TB disks so with RAID 5 we’d have 5.1 TB of storage which was MORE than we’d ever need (the MySQL database was about 10 GB after 7 years, so even 500 GB of total space for this server would be fine).<\/p>\n

After fixing a boot issue (one of the engineers tried setting up this server earlier but he didn’t understand what UEFI is and he couldn’t get the server to boot into Linux via a USB drive), I went into the controller to set up RAID. Using the controller, I set up a RAID 5 array:<\/p>\n

\"RAID<\/p>\n

Great, all set. Now reboot and let’s run ESXi setup. I’ll select the disk volume and get going.<\/p>\n

Step 2: install ESXi manager<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"ESXi<\/p>\n

Hmmm…no array, it only sees the individual disks. Something doesn’t look right here.\u00a0 Long story short, after going back into the controller setup, RAID 5 was no longer set up and it only had individual disks again. After running around with this after several passes, I searched for help on the Lenovo forums. First thing was I booted onto a Linux boot disk and check the hardware. I needed which controller was being used, and found this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I looked up this controller on the hardware compatibility list (HCL) for VMWare, so I’m stumped. Time to turn to the Lenovo forums. This is a reply I got:<\/p>\n

(thread is short but can be found here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"\"But since I checked the hardware compatibility list, it showed this controller as being compatible. I had to reply:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Regrettably, I was still going to be sunk:<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n

According to Lenovo support apparently this server’s controller won’t support RAID arrays with ESXi and will require an expensive upgrade.\u00a0 Ugh.<\/p>\n

So skipping straight to the solution:<\/p>\n

I had to set up 4 individual disks, with the last one serving as a backup for the virtual machines on the other 3 disks. Since the backup volume ALSO maxed out at 1.8 TB, I made sure the other 3 disks were only 600 GB or less so they could back up to the fourth disk. I also ensured that the MySQL database was backed up to another file server so in case the database became corrupted it was backed up.<\/p>\n

So final tally:<\/p>\n

3 VMs x 600 GB -> Backed up to 1.8 TB volume (which itself was backed up once every 3 months). The remaining 1.2 TB per volume would be unused at the moment.<\/p>\n

1 MySQL database (roughly 10 GB) backed up to a file server once a week (it was only used once a week)<\/p>\n

Each of the backups listed above was backed up to our file server, which was backed up nightly offsite.<\/p>\n

This solution wasn’t ideal but it would work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m writing this from memory so some of the details might be sketchy. At my last employer in Japan (the place where I took the intro photograph to this site), I was tasked with setting up a basic server to run MySQL. The TL;DR version was that there was a Windows 7 PC that was … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “VM Ware server set up at my previous employer’s office”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,15,10,14],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-database","category-esxi","category-system-administration","category-vm-ware","tag-system-administration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84,"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions\/84"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}