Category Archives: VMware

VMware Workstation, ESXi

VMware ESXi: Error while cloning a Disk to 2gbsparse format

Hi,

since ESXi 5.1 it is no more possible to create or clone a disk by using the 2gbsparse disk format. Because it is not supported as a VMFS vitual disk format. This disk format is only part of the Desktop Products of VMware, like VMware Workstation or VMware Player.

However in earlier version the command line tool vmkfstools could create disks and clone disks in such format. If you try this in ESXi 5.1 or later version a

~ # vmkfstools -i Disk.vmdk clone.vmdk -d 2gbsparse
“The system cannot find the file specified.”

error occurs.
 
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VMware ESX, Workstation: Increase screen resolution on Windows Guests

Hi,

to set a higher graphic resolution in Windows guest operating system do the following steps:

Decide which resolution should be available, in this example 1680×1050 and calculate Video RAM size (default Video RAM for Workstation 16777216, for ESX 4194304):
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VMware Workstation: Boot a virtual machine from a USB drive/stick

The BIOS of the VMware Workstation does not support to boot from a USB drive or stick which is connected to a virtual machine.

But there is a workaround:-) Use the Plop Boot Manager. Download the latest ZIP File and extract the plpbt.iso file. This contains a CD image which starts plop boot manager. Connect the iso file as  a virtual CDROM to your virtual machine.
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VMware: Virtual maschine LAN Interface disconnected

Last week a customer had the problem that a virtual machine uses a NAT Network connection but the NIC Adapter in the virtual machine is in disconnected state.

C:\Users\Administrator>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration

Ethernet adapter LAN-Connection:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : localdomain

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VMware: Changing network settings in VMware Player 5

In previous version of VMware Player the NAT and the “Host only” network settings could be change by vmnetcfg.exe.

Since VMware Player 5 this tools is no longer a part of the installation, but vmnetui.dll is available. You can start the virtual network editor using the Windows rundll32.exe.

Open a command line and change  to the VMWare Player installation directory. This command bring the virtual network editor back:

rundll32.exe vmnetui.dll VMNetUI_ShowStandalone

Michael