[gentoo-user] Which 'tools' package for VMware DomU?

[gentoo-user] Which 'tools' package for VMware DomU?

[Pandu Poluan]

Hello, list!

I want to deploy some Gentoo-based VMs on VMware. From portage-search,
I see some 'tools' related to VMware, namely:

* vmware-tools

* open-vm-tools

* open-vm-tools-kmod

What are the differences? And which one should I use if I want to use
VMware's PVSCSI and VMXNET?

Thank you for your assistance.

Rgds,


-- 
--
Pandu E Poluan - IT Optimizer
My website: http://pandu.poluan.info/

Re: [gentoo-user] Which 'tools' package for VMware DomU?

[Mike Edenfield]

On 3/30/2011 12:55 PM, Pandu Poluan wrote:
> Hello, list!
> 
> I want to deploy some Gentoo-based VMs on VMware. From portage-search,
> I see some 'tools' related to VMware, namely:
> 
> * vmware-tools
> 
> * open-vm-tools
> 
> * open-vm-tools-kmod
> 
> What are the differences? And which one should I use if I want to use
> VMware's PVSCSI and VMXNET?

As I understand things, open-vm-tools is just an open-source version of
vmware-tools, but uses the same code base and is managed by VMWare. Both
of them should have the modules you want. Unless you have a compelling
reason to use the pre-built stuff from the vmware-tools tarball I'd go
with the open-vm-tools one.

--Mike

Re: [gentoo-user] Which 'tools' package for VMware DomU?

[Mike Edenfield]

On 3/30/2011 2:57 PM, Mike Edenfield wrote:
> On 3/30/2011 12:55 PM, Pandu Poluan wrote:
>> Hello, list!
>>
>> I want to deploy some Gentoo-based VMs on VMware. From portage-search,
>> I see some 'tools' related to VMware, namely:
>>
>> * vmware-tools
>>
>> * open-vm-tools
>>
>> * open-vm-tools-kmod
>>
>> What are the differences? And which one should I use if I want to use
>> VMware's PVSCSI and VMXNET?
> 
> As I understand things, open-vm-tools is just an open-source version of
> vmware-tools, but uses the same code base and is managed by VMWare. Both
> of them should have the modules you want. Unless you have a compelling
> reason to use the pre-built stuff from the vmware-tools tarball I'd go
> with the open-vm-tools one.

Teach me to read more carefully...

The specific modules you mentioned are included in your kernel already,
assuming you are using at least a 2.6.34 kernel. You'll still want to
install open-vm-tools, which installs the other modules via
open-vm-tools-kmod, like vsock and vmci, plus the user-space daemon.

Device Drivers  -->
  [*]   Misc devices  --->
    <M>   VMware Balloon Driver
  SCSI device support  --->
    [*]   SCSI low-level drivers  --->
      <*>   VMware PVSCSI driver support
  [*]   Network device support
    <M>   VMware VMXNET3 ethernet driver

(That first one is the vmmemctl driver, which helps improve the memory
management between host & guest).

--Mike

Re: [gentoo-user] Which 'tools' package for VMware DomU?

[Pandu Poluan]

On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 05:58, Mike Edenfield <kutulu@kutulu.org> wrote:
> On 3/30/2011 2:57 PM, Mike Edenfield wrote:
>> On 3/30/2011 12:55 PM, Pandu Poluan wrote:
>>> Hello, list!
>>>
>>> I want to deploy some Gentoo-based VMs on VMware. From portage-search,
>>> I see some 'tools' related to VMware, namely:
>>>
>>> * vmware-tools
>>>
>>> * open-vm-tools
>>>
>>> * open-vm-tools-kmod
>>>
>>> What are the differences? And which one should I use if I want to use
>>> VMware's PVSCSI and VMXNET?
>>
>> As I understand things, open-vm-tools is just an open-source version of
>> vmware-tools, but uses the same code base and is managed by VMWare. Both
>> of them should have the modules you want. Unless you have a compelling
>> reason to use the pre-built stuff from the vmware-tools tarball I'd go
>> with the open-vm-tools one.
>
> Teach me to read more carefully...
>
> The specific modules you mentioned are included in your kernel already,
> assuming you are using at least a 2.6.34 kernel. You'll still want to
> install open-vm-tools, which installs the other modules via
> open-vm-tools-kmod, like vsock and vmci, plus the user-space daemon.
>
> Device Drivers  -->
>  [*]   Misc devices  --->
>    <M>   VMware Balloon Driver
>  SCSI device support  --->
>    [*]   SCSI low-level drivers  --->
>      <*>   VMware PVSCSI driver support
>  [*]   Network device support
>    <M>   VMware VMXNET3 ethernet driver
>
> (That first one is the vmmemctl driver, which helps improve the memory
> management between host & guest).
>
> --Mike

d`oh~~ ... count me in among those who can't read properly >.<

So, I should emerge open-vm-tools and it shall pull in open-vm-tools-kmod, too?

Rgds,
--
Pandu E Poluan
~ IT Optimizer ~
Visit my Blog: http://pepoluan.posterous.com

Re: [gentoo-user] Which 'tools' package for VMware DomU?

[Mike Edenfield]

On 3/31/2011 4:31 AM, Pandu Poluan wrote:

>> The specific modules you mentioned are included in your kernel already,
>> assuming you are using at least a 2.6.34 kernel. You'll still want to
>> install open-vm-tools, which installs the other modules via
>> open-vm-tools-kmod, like vsock and vmci, plus the user-space daemon.
>>
>> Device Drivers  -->
>>   [*]   Misc devices  --->
>>     <M>     VMware Balloon Driver
>>   SCSI device support  --->
>>     [*]   SCSI low-level drivers  --->
>>       <*>     VMware PVSCSI driver support
>>   [*]   Network device support
>>     <M>     VMware VMXNET3 ethernet driver
>>
>> (That first one is the vmmemctl driver, which helps improve the memory
>> management between host&  guest).

> So, I should emerge open-vm-tools and it shall pull in open-vm-tools-kmod, too?

Yes. And you'll need to add a few of those drivers to your 
/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 or /etc/conf.d/modules 
(whichever you have). Mine currently loads:

vmxnet3 vmw_balloon fuse vsock vmblock vmsync

Re: [gentoo-user] Which 'tools' package for VMware DomU?

[Pandu Poluan]

On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 19:10, Mike Edenfield <kutulu@kutulu.org> wrote:
> On 3/31/2011 4:31 AM, Pandu Poluan wrote:
>
>>> The specific modules you mentioned are included in your kernel already,
>>> assuming you are using at least a 2.6.34 kernel. You'll still want to
>>> install open-vm-tools, which installs the other modules via
>>> open-vm-tools-kmod, like vsock and vmci, plus the user-space daemon.
>>>
>>> Device Drivers  -->
>>>  [*]   Misc devices  --->
>>>    <M>     VMware Balloon Driver
>>>  SCSI device support  --->
>>>    [*]   SCSI low-level drivers  --->
>>>      <*>     VMware PVSCSI driver support
>>>  [*]   Network device support
>>>    <M>     VMware VMXNET3 ethernet driver
>>>
>>> (That first one is the vmmemctl driver, which helps improve the memory
>>> management between host&  guest).
>
>> So, I should emerge open-vm-tools and it shall pull in open-vm-tools-kmod,
>> too?
>
> Yes. And you'll need to add a few of those drivers to your
> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 or /etc/conf.d/modules (whichever you
> have). Mine currently loads:
>
> vmxnet3 vmw_balloon fuse vsock vmblock vmsync
>
>

Ahhh, okay. Gotcha.

Thanks for the clear explanation :-)


--
Pandu E Poluan
~ IT Optimizer ~
Visit my Blog: http://pepoluan.posterous.com

Re: [gentoo-user] Which 'tools' package for VMware DomU?

[Pandu Poluan]

On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 19:57, Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 19:10, Mike Edenfield <kutulu@kutulu.org> wrote:
>> On 3/31/2011 4:31 AM, Pandu Poluan wrote:
>>
>>>> The specific modules you mentioned are included in your kernel already,
>>>> assuming you are using at least a 2.6.34 kernel. You'll still want to
>>>> install open-vm-tools, which installs the other modules via
>>>> open-vm-tools-kmod, like vsock and vmci, plus the user-space daemon.
>>>>
>>>> Device Drivers  -->
>>>>  [*]   Misc devices  --->
>>>>    <M>     VMware Balloon Driver
>>>>  SCSI device support  --->
>>>>    [*]   SCSI low-level drivers  --->
>>>>      <*>     VMware PVSCSI driver support
>>>>  [*]   Network device support
>>>>    <M>     VMware VMXNET3 ethernet driver
>>>>
>>>> (That first one is the vmmemctl driver, which helps improve the memory
>>>> management between host&  guest).
>>
>>> So, I should emerge open-vm-tools and it shall pull in open-vm-tools-kmod,
>>> too?
>>
>> Yes. And you'll need to add a few of those drivers to your
>> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 or /etc/conf.d/modules (whichever you
>> have). Mine currently loads:
>>
>> vmxnet3 vmw_balloon fuse vsock vmblock vmsync
>>
>>
>
> Ahhh, okay. Gotcha.
>
> Thanks for the clear explanation :-)
>

Hmmm... I've compiled VMXNET into the kernel, but can't get VMXNET to
perform; booting complained of inexistent network.

Adding e1000 into the kernel works though.

Could it be because the Cloud Provider has preconfigured my VMware
vSphere with non-VMXNET vNICs?

Or is there a 'trick' to activate VMXNET?

Haven't emerged open-vm-tools, though. Will that help in activating VMXNET?

Rgds,
--
Pandu E Poluan
~ IT Optimizer ~
Visit my Blog: http://pepoluan.posterous.com

Re: [gentoo-user] Which 'tools' package for VMware DomU?

[Mike Edenfield]

On 4/1/2011 2:09 AM, Pandu Poluan wrote:

> Hmmm... I've compiled VMXNET into the kernel, but can't get VMXNET to
> perform; booting complained of inexistent network.
> 
> Adding e1000 into the kernel works though.
> 
> Could it be because the Cloud Provider has preconfigured my VMware
> vSphere with non-VMXNET vNICs?

Yes. You need to specify the vmxnet3 device instead of e1000 in the
virtual machine configuration. Same goes for the pvscsi device instead
of lsi.

In vSphere, there will be options to specify vmxnet3 and pvscsi when
adding hardware to the VM. It may be necessary to run the "Upgrade
Hardware" process if the VM doesn't already have the v7 hardware. You
can at least ask your cloud provider if they're willing to switch.

--Mike