VM Ware ESX install

Installation Guide for MindTouch Deki on VM Ware ESX 3.x



1. Download virtual appliance from http://wiki.mindtouch.com 

1.1. Extract the following five files from MindTouchDeki.zip to a temporary location: 
Deki_Wiki_Hayes_1.8_VM.vmdk 
Deki_Wiki_Hayes_1.8_VM.vmx 
README 

2. Copy the MindTouch Deki Wiki files to the ESX host. 

2.1. On the VMware ESX Server 3.x system where the virtual machine will be hosted, log in to the Service 
Console and navigate to the VMFS3 volume where the virtual machine files will be located and create 
a new subdirectory for the files called “deki”. For example, on a VMFS3 volume named “myvmfs3”: 

mkdir /vmfs/volumes/myvmfs3/deki 

2.2. Using your preferred file transfer mechanism, e.g. ftp, scp, etc., copy the three renamed and edited 
virtual machine files, i.e. deki.*, from your local system to an ext3 formatted partition (not the 
VMFS3 volume where the files will ultimately reside) on the ESX host. 

2.3. Copy all of the files except for the virtual disk (DekiDrive.vmdk) file from the ext3 partition to the newly 
created directory on the VMFS3 volume. For example, to copy the files to a VMFS3 volume named 
“myvmfs3”, if the files were originally placed in the /tmp ext3 partition: 

cp /tmp/Deki_Wiki_Hayes_1.8_VM.vmx /vmfs/volumes/myvmfs3/deki 

2.4. Update the permissions on the copied configuration file (Deki.vmx) to include execute permissions for 
user, group, and other using the Linux chmod command. Navigate to the virtual machine’s directory, 
e.g. /vmfs/volumes/myvmfs3/deki and enter: 

chmod 755 Deki_Wiki_Hayes_1.8_VM.vmx


3. Import the virtual machine disk file into VMFS. 

3.1. Import the virtual machine’s virtual disk (DekiDrive.vmdk) file from the ext3 partition to the VMFS3 volume 
using the clone (import) function of the ESX vmkfstools utility. There are two interrelated 
considerations to be made when performing this operation: 

3.1.1. To maximize disk I/O performance with no concern about the amount of physical disk 
utilized initially, use the default virtual disk format. The virtual disk file will be fully inflated 
to consume the configured 120-GB and will not grow beyond that size. This fully-allocated 
disk format is the ESX default and is called “zeroed-thick”. Note that it will also take 
significantly longer to clone to this format. 

3.1.2. To utilize a minimal amount of disk space initially, which will result in a small I/O 
performance degradation, use the thin virtual disk format. The virtual disk file will initially 
consume approximately 2-GB and will grow up to 120-GB as additional disk is required. 
This allocate-on-use disk format is called “thin”. 


3.2. The format of the vmkfstools utility for the clone function is as follows: 

vmkfstools –i source_file [–d file_format] destination_file 
Assuming the source ext3 partition is /tmp and the destination VMFS3 volume is named “myvmfs3”, 
then the command would appear as follows for each of the two aforementioned options: 

3.2.1. Fully-allocated (“zeroed-thick”): 

vmkfstools –i /tmp/Deki_Wiki_Hayes_1.8_VM.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/myvmfs3/deki/Deki_Wiki_Hayes_1.8_VM.vmdk

Result: 

Destination disk format: VMFS thick 
Cloning disk '/tmp/Deki_Wiki_Hayes_1.8_VM.vmdk'... 
Clone: 100% done. 

3.2.2. Allocate-on-use (“thin”): 

vmkfstools –i /tmp/Deki_Wiki_Hayes_1.8_VM.vmdk –d thin 
/vmfs/volumes/myvmfs3/deki/Deki_Wiki_Hayes_1.8_VM.vmdk

Result: 

Destination disk format: VMFS thin-provisioned 
Cloning disk '/tmp/Deki_Wiki_Hayes_1.8_VM.vmdk'... 
Clone: 100% done. 


3.3. Note that the destination includes the VMFS3 volume name and the subdirectory that was created in 
step 2.1. 

3.4. Also note that for the fully-allocated virtual disk (the first option), the –d parameter is not specified. 
In this case, the default “zeroedthick” option is used. However, specifying it in the command would 
result in an error message. Again, this option will take significantly longer to complete than the 
second option. 

3.5. Inspect the virtual machine subdirectory and you should see two new files, a small file (< 1-KB) 
named DekiDrive.vmdk and another larger file named deki-flat.vmdk. Note that even for the “thinly 
provisioned” file imported using the second option, many native Linux utilities, e.g. ls, df, etc., may 
report the file usage to be 120-GB. However, using the VMware-modified versions available for 
some of these utilities, e.g. vdf, will properly report the correct disk utilization. 


4. Register and complete configuration of the virtual machine using the VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client. 

4.1. Register the virtual machine. 

4.1.1. Using the VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client application, either connect directly to the ESX 
host or to the VirtualCenter server that manages the ESX host, using an account with 
permissions to create and modify virtual machines. 

4.1.2. With the ESX host selected in the Virtual Infrastructure Client hierarchy, go to the 
Configuration tab and select the Storage (SCSI, SAN, and NFS) section. Right-click 
the VMFS3 volume containing the virtual machine files and choose Browse Datastore… 

4.1.3. Within the Datastore Browser, navigate to the directory folder containing the virtual 
machine files (/deki), right-click the virtual machine configuration file (Deki.vmx), and 
choose Add to Inventory. 

4.1.4. You can now exit the Datastore Browser. 


4.2. Complete configuration. 

4.2.1. The new virtual machine named “Deki Wiki Hayes 1.8 VM” should appear in the inventory of the 
ESX host within the Virtual Infrastructure Client. Edit the settings of this new virtual 
machine. 

4.2.2. If desired, the allocated memory may be increased from the default size of 256-MB. 

4.2.3. Remove the network adapter, as the configuration options specified in the original Deki_Wiki_Hayes_1.8_VM.vmx 
configuration file are not compatible with ESX Server. Create a new network adapter 
according to your own network configuration. 

4.2.4. Save the settings. 


5. The virtual machine can now be powered on and standard configuration of MindTouch Deki Wiki can be 
completed. The files originally copied to the ext3 partition can now be deleted from that location.