vSphere 6.7

Installing VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7 in Ravello Cloud Service

Installing VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7 in Ravello Cloud Service takes a look at the powerful Ravello Cloud Service and the installation process for ESXi 6.7

One of the really great benefits of the vExpert program is having free access to many different vendor programs, services, software, and other tools and utilities. One of the benefits that is extended is access to the Oracle Ravello Cloud Service that allows running nested VMware vSphere ESXi installations on top of the Ravello cloud. The Oracle Ravello Cloud Service is a really unique and interesting offering for both vExperts as well as production, test, DR or other environments. Kicking the tires on the service has been on my list of things to do in the past few weeks and I finally had a chance to get started with a nested vSphere ESXi 6.7 installation running on top of Ravello. Let’s take a look at installing VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7 in Ravello Cloud Service and the ins and outs of getting up and running with a nested ESXi installation.

What is Oracle Ravello Cloud Service and What Does it Do?

The use case for Ravello Cloud Service consists of a number of use cases that are advertised – includng:

It allows organizations to have the ability to seamlessly deploy VMware or KVM hypervisor based systems on top of AWS or GCP without any modification to the VMs, network, or storage. Ravello enables enterprises to leverage the public cloud for data-center applications without the need for totally reengineering systems away from their current underlying platform such as VMware.

This is accomplished by Ravello running nested virtualization (running a hypervisor within a hypervisor) and network overlay technology with their own custom hypervisor called HVX.ย  The nested virtualization technology allows not only running VMware VMs but also layer 2 network services between on-prem and the Ravello Cloud Service.

Ravello makes use of an automated flavor of provisioning called blueprinting which allows quick provisioning and deprovisioning of resources. Also, it allows organizations to make use of any cloud region needed to provide low latency and the performance needed to deploy applications.

Installing VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7 in Ravello Cloud Service

The first thing that you need to do to get ESXi 6.7 installed in a Ravello Cloud Service application is to upload the ESXi 6.7 media ISO image.ย  To do this, Ravello has a custom uploader of sorts that you install which allows uploading the ESXi ISO image.ย  Just a note here, you will have to download the installation media from VMware as this is not provided by Ravello due to licensing reasons.

Installing-the-Ravello-Import-Utility-to-upload-VMware-ESXi-6.7-ISO-media
Installing the Ravello Import Utility to upload VMware ESXi 6.7 ISO media

Once the upload utility is installed, select theย Upload a disk image (ISO, VMDK, QCOW)ย which will allow you to select the VMware ESXi 6.7 ISO.

Choosing-Upload-a-Disk-Image-to-upload-ESXi-6.7-ISO
Choosing Upload a Disk Image to upload ESXi 6.7 ISO

Below, selecting the VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.7.0-8169922.X86_64.iso file.

Select-the-disk-image-to-upload-to-Ravello
Select the disk image to upload to Ravello

The utility will begin uploading the selected VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7 ISO to the image repository with Ravello.

Upload-of-the-ESXi-6.7-ISO-to-Ravello-begins
Upload of the ESXi 6.7 ISO to Ravello begins

Once you have the image uploaded, the next step to getting up and running with VMware ESXi 6.7 in the Ravello Cloud is to create anย Application.ย  Click the +Create Application button.

Create-a-new-Ravello-application-for-ESXi-6.7
Create a new Ravello application for ESXi 6.7

Next, name the application something intuitive and be sure not to use theย From Blueprint option.ย  We are essentially creating a blank application for the purposes of installing the ESXi 6.7 hypervisor.

Create-a-blank-Ravello-application-without-using-a-blueprint
Create a blank Ravello application without using a blueprint

Now that we have created an empty application, choose theย Empty ESXย option fromย Available VMs which is a preconfigured container of sorts with the nested virtualization options needed for ESXi 6.7.

Add-the-Empty-ESX-prebuilt-VM-template-to-the-canvas
Add the Empty ESX prebuilt VM template to the canvas

Ravello Cloud Service Boot Loops with ESXi 6.7

If you attempt to use the Empty ESX preconfigured VM, you will note that you will get into aย boot loop when beginning the installation of ESXi 6.7.ย  This requires some tweaking of the application before installing ESXi 6.7.ย  If you Google the topic, there are already quite a few posts on the settings required to get ESXi 6.7 to work with the Ravello Cloud Service.ย  Below is a walk through of those settings.

On theย Generalย tab of the application, choose theย Advanced Configuration link and change the following:

  • cpu-model –ย SandyBridge
  • preferPhysicalHost –ย true

Save your changes.

Tweaking-the-General-Advanced-configuration-for-VMware-ESXi-6.7
Tweaking the General Advanced configuration for VMware ESXi 6.7

On theย System tab, change the following:

  • Platform –ย Default
  • Display – Standard VGA

Leaveย Allow nested virtualization checked.ย  Save your changes.

Tweaking-Ravello-System-configuration-to-allow-ESXi-6.7-to-run
Tweaking Ravello System configuration to allow ESXi 6.7 to run

If you haven’t already done this, on theย Disks tab, choose the VMware ESXi 6.7 ISO for theย imageย path in the CD disk settings.

Mounting-the-VMware-ESXi-6.7-ISO-to-install-in-Ravello
Mounting the VMware ESXi 6.7 ISO to install in Ravello

Now we canย Publish the application.ย  Note this will take around 5 minutes to publish according to Ravello and when I stepped through it, that seems to be about accurate.

Publishing-the-Ravello-ESXi-6.7-application
Publishing the Ravello ESXi 6.7 application

Once you click publish, you will have one more confirmation on what you want to optimize the application for.ย  The choices areย Cost andย Performance.ย  Here the default isย Cost and that is what I left in my selection before publishing.

Choosing-the-Ravello-Publish-options
Choosing the Ravello Publish options

During the 5 minute wait time or so, you will see the hour glass designation on theย Empty ESX application.

Waiting-on-the-ESXi-6.7-Ravello-application-to-finish-publishing
Waiting on the ESXi 6.7 Ravello application to finish publishing

Once the application has finished publishing, it will start automatically and boot the ESXi 6.7 host.ย  Choose theย Consoleย option to open a console to the ESXi 6.7 installation.

ESXi-6.7-application-published-started-and-ready-to-open-console
ESXi 6.7 application published started and ready to open console

As you can see, we are ready to begin the ESXi 6.7 installation.

Installing-VMware-ESXi-6.7-in-Ravello-Cloud-Service
Installing VMware ESXi 6.7 in Ravello Cloud Service

After only a few minutes, the ESXi 6.7 host is fully booted and ready for additional configuration.

VMware-ESXi-6.7-successfully-installed-in-Ravello-Cloud-Service
VMware ESXi 6.7 successfully installed in Ravello Cloud Service

Takeaways

Oracle Ravello’s Cloud Service allows essentially running enterprise applications in the cloud without any modifications whatsoever.ย  It does this by allowing organizations to run existing virtual machines and applications that have been engineered to run on their current on-prem hypervisor such as VMware and allow these to run in the Ravello Cloud Service.ย  With network overlays and layer 2 network capabilities, even at the network level, there is no reengineering needed.ย  As seen,ย Installing VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7 in Ravello Cloud Service is a simple process that includes uploading the ESXi 6.7 ISO, creating the application and installing ESXi.ย  The only caveat is at this time, it appears ESXi 6.7 is not quite fully supported by Ravello as it requires a tweak to the default application by making the changes shown above.ย  Stay tuned for future Ravello posts I dig a bit deeper into the networking side of things.

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Brandon Lee

Brandon Lee is the Senior Writer, Engineer and owner at Virtualizationhowto.com, and a 7-time VMware vExpert, with over two decades of experience in Information Technology. Having worked for numerous Fortune 500 companies as well as in various industries, He has extensive experience in various IT segments and is a strong advocate for open source technologies. Brandon holds many industry certifications, loves the outdoors and spending time with family. Also, he goes through the effort of testing and troubleshooting issues, so you don't have to.

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