Ubuntu 9 Released on our VPS Plans

We have made Ubuntu 9 available on our VPS plans, you can rebuild your current VPS with the image, or order a new VPS via our website to take advantage of the new OS: http://www.crucialp.com/virtual-dedicated-servers-vds/index.php

Filed under: Uncategorized by — aaron @ 4:20 pm

VMware ESXi/CentOS: Your cpu does not support long mode. Use a 32bit distribution.

If you receive the following error while you are installing CentOS on VMware ESXi:

Your cpu does not support long mode. Use a 32bit distribution.

Then you probably need to enable Intel VT (virtualization) or AMD-v in the BIOS.

If you are still having problems, make sure you have Paravirtualization disabled (VMI) as this is only supported by 32-bit guests.

Filed under: Uncategorized by — aaron @ 12:42 am

How to change an existing vmdk to thin provisioned on VMware ESXi?

If you need to convert a existing vmdk to thin provisioning on VMware ESXi you can do the following:

1. Login via SSH
2. Run the following command: vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/large-disk.vmdk -d thin /vmfs/volumes/thin-disk.vmdk

Filed under: Uncategorized by — aaron @ 9:33 pm

How to thin-provision on a VMware ESXi

Are you wondering how you can create a virtual machine which only uses the amount of space that is actually being used in the Virtual Machine?  You can do this by using thin provisioning, and following the following steps:

1. First you need SSH access enabled on the server.
2. Run the command: vmkfstools -c 10G -d thin /vmfs/volumes/test1.vmdk
3. If you receive the error:
   Failed to create virtual disk: The destination file system does not support large files (12).
   Then make sure you run the create command in the datastore you have created already.

Filed under: Uncategorized by — aaron @ 9:28 pm

How to enable ssh login on VMware ESXi

By default VMware ESXi does not have external SSH access enabled, to enable it you can do the following:

1. Login to the server via the Console.
2. Type: Alt + F1
3. Type: unsupported
4. Type: (your root password)
5. edit /etc/inetd.conf: vi  /etc/inetd.conf
6. Remove # sign in front of ssh, by moving down to the SSH line and type 1x, and then :wq
7. Run: /sbin/services.sh restart

You should now be able to login via SSH.

Filed under: Uncategorized by — aaron @ 5:41 pm

What is HVM?

HVM stands for Hardware Virtual Machine, and is usually used in reference to AMD’s and Intel’s Virtualization technology included in their new processors (Intel VT and AMD Pacifica).

The XenSource website has listed some of the processors which are compatible with this technology: http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/HVM_Compatible_Processors

Filed under: Uncategorized by — aaron @ 5:46 pm