Why do you need to add drivers to a VMware ESXi ISO? VMware ESXi 5.5 was recently released, unfortunately ESXi 5.5 removed a lot of drivers for previously supported hardware. The drivers for the hardware that were removed still work fine on ESXi 5.5, you will just need to add the drivers for your hardware to the ISO before installing. A lot of methods exist for adding ISO’s on Linux, however for Windows users a tool called ESXi Customizer appears to be the easiest way to add drivers to an VMware ESXi ISO. ESXi Customizer is a user-friendly windows application that automates the process of customizing the ESXi ISO with drivers that are not originally included with ESXi. Download: ESXi Customizer 2.7.1 Visit: ESXi-Customizer homepage Using ESXi Customizer to add drivers to a VMware ESXi ISO: When you have loaded ESXi Customizer it’s a simple case of selecting the source ISO, this been your ESXi install iso. Next you can select the drivers you wish to include in the iso, usually distributed as a VIB file. Finally you must select an NTFS formatted working directory, this will also be where your customised ISO will be saved. In the example below i am customing…
Why the Highpoint Rocket 2720SGL? The Rocket 2720 SGL is an ideal SAS / SATA controller to use with VMware ESXi, it is a cost-effective, high-performance PCI-Express 2.0 6GB/s SAS controller. The 2720SGL supports up 8x SATA3 6gbs hard drives and is compatible with large drives above 3TB in size, prefect to use if your not after RAID and wish to use something like Windows Storage Spaces for example, or simply connect a lot of hard drives to a Virtual Machine and have off site backups. I personally dont feel i need a raid setup at home, however i shall leave my reasoning for that to another blog post. When purchasing the card i was unsure if it work when passed through to a virtual machine running on VMware ESXi, however i can confirm the Rocket 2720SGL works perfectly when passed through to a VMware ESXi virtual machine. ESXi recognises the card as a Marvell 88SE9480 SAS / SATA 6Gb/s RAID controller. However despite this please keep in mind the Rocket 2720SGL is not directly usable in ESXi, it can only be utilised when passedthrough to a Virtual Machine. My ESXi setup consists of Gigabyte GA-Z77N-WIFI motherboard and an Intel CPU Core i7 3770T Quad Core…
The Vmware ESXI Upgrade Process Vmware ESXi has a simple upgrade process that can be carried out either from a CD or USB Memory Stick. As i had never upgraded ESXi since my original install i decided to do a quick blog showing how the Vmware ESXI upgrade process should go. I will presume you either have ESXi on a CD or USB memory stick, however if not the latest version can be downloaded here. to start the Vmware ESXI upgrade process boot off either the CD or USB drive, then select the drive which contains your ESXi install. In the screenshot below i’m running the ESXi upgrade from a USB Memory stick, my ESXi is installed on another USB Memory Stick which i have selected to be upgraded. You have the choice to carry out a new install or upgrade an existing installation, here I am upgrading my existing install. The installer confirms that ESXi can be upgraded from 5.1.0 to 5.5.0 The upgrade process will start and take a couple of minutes to complete All been well you should be informed that the ESXi has been upgraded successfully After the reboot the Vmware ESXI upgrade process had been compleated, ESXi 5.5…
Why enable SSH Two-Factor Authentication on your server? SSH Two-Factor Authentication add’s an additional layer of security to your server / network. If your anything like myself you probably have your network locked down from the outside world, with just an SSH server accessible from the internet. Once I’m authenticated and logged in to SSH i can then open a secure tunnel to browse the web at a remote location, or even forward a port and connect to another service, or PC via remote desktop. I have always used a long but complex password I had memorised. It has always been at the back of my mind that I should try and increase the security on the server. given its the only way in to my network from the outside world. When I log in to Dropbox, My Windows Live, Google, Facebook and Steam account I have Two-Factor Authentication enabled, basically meaning I get a text message with a code I have to enter to log in. Even if someone was to finds out my password, that alone is useless without an authentication code which is constantly changing. For my Windows Live and Google accounts i use Google Authenticator to generate a login code.…
The 1997 blockbuster Half Life has been ported to Windows RT, meaning it owners of ARM based Windows RT tablets, such as the Surface RT can play Half Life. In order to play Half Life your tablet will need to be jail broken as third party desktop applications are not allowed to run as standard on Windows RT. The Half Life for Windows RT port was created by S1yRuleZ over at XDA-Developers Presuming you have a Jailbroken Windows RT device you can do the following to play: Download Half-Life for Windows RT Unzip the files Copy the Pak0, Pak1, Pak2 .PAK files from an install of the origional Half-Life in ID1 folder contained within the files you unzipped Start the game from “Run Half-Life.bat” Note: You need to obtain the Pak0, Pak1, Pak2 .PAK files from an original copy of Half-Life, not the steam version or demo of the game. Half Life RT Controls: W,A,S,D = walk F = use LMOUSE = fire SPACE = jump N = noclip P = console 0 = change weapon So there we have it, some glassic gaming on Windows RT for people who want something more than modern apps.