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Run ESX 3.5 lab in ESX 3.5!

mrx9000mrx9000 Member Posts: 37 ■■□□□□□□□□
in Virtualization
This may sound strange, I have been trying to build a ESX test environment and it seems that my T5750 CPU without VT cannot handle running ESX 3.5 from Workstation icon_sad.gif

We have a ESX cluster in work so I am considering running a ESX lab from there - but I do not know if it is likely to work?

Has anyone given this a try?
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    blargoeblargoe Member Posts: 4,174 ■■■■■■■■■□
    I don't *think* that's possible... but I don't know that I'd mess with the production cluster anyway. Don't you have a spare machine laying around at work on which you can install ESX or ESXi? That seems the best option to me.
    IT guy since 12/00

    Recent: 11/2019 - RHCSA (RHEL 7); 2/2019 - Updated VCP to 6.5 (just a few days before VMware discontinued the re-cert policy...)
    Working on: RHCE/Ansible
    Future: Probably continued Red Hat Immersion, Possibly VCAP Design, or maybe a completely different path. Depends on job demands...
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    tierstentiersten Member Posts: 4,505
    What version of Workstation are you using? Also, are you trying to run a 64 bit guest?
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    tierstentiersten Member Posts: 4,505
    And as Blargoe said, probably not a good idea. Never tried personally...
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    astorrsastorrs Member Posts: 3,139 ■■■■■■□□□□
    Without VT you're not going to be able to start guest VMs within ESX (so no VMotion tests, etc). Also ESX will take literally an hour or two to boot.

    You need VT if you really want to consider making "ESX in a box" work.
    twitter: @astorrs
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    tierstentiersten Member Posts: 4,505
    astorrs wrote: »
    Without VT you're not going to be able to start guest VMs within ESX (so no VMotion tests, etc)
    From what I understood, no Intel VT or AMD-V support just means you can't run a 64 bit guest OS?
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    astorrsastorrs Member Posts: 3,139 ■■■■■■□□□□
    tiersten wrote: »
    From what I understood, no Intel VT or AMD-V support just means you can't run a 64 bit guest OS?
    Without it running a hypervisor in a hypervisor is painfully slow. Remember he's trying to run ESX from within VMware Workstation.
    twitter: @astorrs
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    tierstentiersten Member Posts: 4,505
    astorrs wrote: »
    Without it running a hypervisor in a hypervisor is painfully slow. Remember he's trying to run ESX from within VMware Workstation.
    Ah about the hypervisor in a hypervisor part. I think he's trying to run ESX inside his work ESX system though.
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    astorrsastorrs Member Posts: 3,139 ■■■■■■□□□□
    tiersten wrote: »
    Ah about the hypervisor in a hypervisor part. I think he's trying to run ESX inside his work ESX system though.
    Ah I see. Thanks.

    To the OP No that wouldn't work. You can only run ESX/ESXi 3.5 from within VMware Workstation 6.5 or VMware Fusion 2.0. The other hypervisors lack the required hooks.
    twitter: @astorrs
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    mrx9000mrx9000 Member Posts: 37 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Thank you for info!

    I have found a quad core PC that can be used, will just need some extra RAM and a VMware compatible NIC.

    It is amazing how much of a difference VT makes.

    MrX

    P.S. On the laptop I was trying to create a 32bit VM and using Workstation 6.5.0 118.166 following guide on Xtravirt.
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