ESXi-Arm Fling Doc

1. Downloading ESXi-Arm Fling

1.1. Useful References
2. Supported platforms
3. I/O options
3.1. Supported storage
3.1.1. Disk size
3.2. Supported networking
3.3. USB devices
3.3.1. Storage
3.3.2. Networking
3.3.3. Keyboards
3.4. Supported plug-in PCIe adapters
4. Preparation
4.1. iSCSI
4.1.1. Sorting out your LUNs.
4.1.1.1. QNAP
4.1.1.2. Synology
4.1.1.3. Others
4.1.2. Configuring firmware
4.1.3. What could go wrong?
5. Create ESXi Installer USB Key
5.1. Using balenaEtcher on Linux, Mac or Windows
5.2. On macOS
6. Installing ESXi-Arm
6.1. Basic installation
6.2. Operation with a video console
6.3. Headless operation
6.4. After installation
6.4.1. Changing NIC and TCP/IP configuration
6.4.2. Enabling SSH or console shell
7. VMware ESXi Host Client
7.1. Login and host configuration
7.2. Virtual Machine Creation
7.3. Guest OS support
7.4. See also
8. VMware vCenter Server Basics
8.1. 1. Add a Datacenter and a Cluster
8.1.1. 1.1. Adding a Datacenter
8.1.2. 1.2. Adding a Cluster
8.2. 2. Add an ESXi-Arm Fling host to vCenter Server
8.3. 3. Create a Virtual Machine
8.4. 4. Access VM Remote Console
9. Enabling vMotion
9.1. Tested Platforms
9.2. Pre-requisites
9.3. VM migration with vMotion
10. Enabling vSphere HA
10.1. Tested Platforms
10.2. Pre-requisites
11. Enabling vSphere Fault Tolerance
11.1. Tested platforms
11.2. Pre-requisites
 12. VMware Tools
13. Applications and Functionality to Test on ESXi-Arm
13.1. Datacenter and Near Edge
13.2. Mid-Edge (HoneyComb LX2K, Tegra Xavier AGX)
13.3. Far Edge (Raspberry Pi 4, NXP FRWY, Tegra Xavier NX)
14. Troubleshooting
14.1. Support
14.2. Generating Support Bundle
14.2.1. ESXi Host Client UI
14.2.2. ESXi Shell
15. Known issues
15.1. ESXi
15.1.1. Network and disk monitoring may not be accurate
15.1.2. Virtualization
15.1.2.1. Performance Monitoring Counter support in VM
15.1.2.2. vMotion is not supported between hardware with different SoCs
15.1.2.3. ACPI operating systems are not supported
15.1.2.4. Fixed-size frame buffer graphics
15.1.2.5. Guest VM hangs with black screen after a while
15.1.2.6. Paravirtualized drivers are not built in Linux
15.1.2.7. USB1.1 is not supported in Debian
15.2. vCenter
15.2.1. A general system error occurred: Unable to push signed certificate to host
15.2.2. vSphere Auto Deploy is not supported for arm64 hosts

1. Downloading ESXi-Arm Fling

To access ESXi-Arm Fling, you'll need to register for a MyVMware account. Registration is free - https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware
/registration
To download ESXi-Arm Fling and Documentation, please head to https://flings.vmware.com/esxi-arm-edition

1.1. Useful References

William Lam's Raspberry Pi BOM for ESXi-Arm Fling
Cyprien Laplace’s BOM for ESXi-Arm Fling
How to copy the Raspberry Pi UEFI files and boot ESXi-Arm using just USB device?
Install ESXi-Arm with iSCSI
vSAN Witness using Raspberry Pi 4 & ESXi-Arm Fling
ESXi-Arm Fling as a lightweight vSphere Automation environment for PowerCLI and Terraform
How to run Raspberry Pi OS as a VM on ESXi-Arm
Installing VMware Tools on Raspberry Pi OS for ESXi-Arm
Installing VMware Tools on Ubuntu for ESXi-Arm
Installing VMware Tools on Photon OS for ESXi-Arm
Installing VMware Tools on Alpine Linux 3 for ESXi-Arm
Installing VMware Tools on Fedora 32 for ESXi-Arm
Installing VMware tools on CentOS 8 for ESXi-Arm
Installing VMware Tools on FreeBSD for ESXi-Arm
Installing VMware Tools for Debian 10 for ESXi-Arm
Installing VMware Tools for OpenSUSE for ESXi-Arm
Kubernetes on ESXi-Arm using k3s
PhotonOS Arm NFS Virtual Appliance using OVF properties for ESXi-Arm
Automated network scripted installation of ESXi-Arm without SD Card
Stateless ESXi-Arm with Raspberry Pi
UEFI-less VMs with ESXi-Arm Fling 1.1
Running ESXi-Arm under QEMU
Get Your Rasbperry Pi’s Temperature and More
Setting virtual screen resolution for ESXi Arm VMs
ESXi-Arm Licensing Options
How to run Kali Linux on ESXi-Arm
Rocky Linux RC1 on ESXi-x86 & ESXi-Arm

2. Supported platforms
The Fling is launched with platforms across a wide range of foot prints and use cases, spanning from servers and datacenters to single-board computers
and far edge use cases.

Ampere Computing eMAG 8180-based servers

Ampere Computing Altra-based servers (1P and experimental 2P systems support)
Arm Neoverse N1 Software Development Platform
NXP LayerScape 2160A-based SolidRun HoneyComb LX2K mini-ITX platform.
NXP LayerScape 1046A-based FRWY (4GB only)
NXP LayerScape 1046A-based RDB
 Raspberry Pi 4B (4GB and 8GB only)
Raspberry Pi 400
NVIDIA Tegra Xavier-based Jetson AGX Xavier Developer Kit (experimental)
NVIDIA Tegra Xavier-based Jetson Xavier NX Developer Kit (experimental)

3. I/O options
3.1. Supported storage
iSCSI LUNs, NVMe and SATA drives are supported, as is USB storage. On some platforms, like the Raspberry Pi 4B, USB storage and iSCSI are the only
options.

3.1.1. Disk size

The ESXi-Arm Fling is based on ESXi 7.0 and thus has a new partition scheme which consolidates VMware Tools Locker, Core Dump and Scratch
partitions into a new ESX-OSData volume (based on VMFS-L). By default, the ESXi installer is expecting a disk that is 128GiB or larger.

If you insist on using a disk that is smaller than or equal to 128GiB, be sure to pass autoPartitionOSDataSize when the installer boot screen prompts for
options (Shift-O).

E.g. autoPartitionOSDataSize=8192 for an 8GB VMFS-L partition, and the remainder space will be used to create VMFS datastore.

For more details on changing the default OSData volume, please see this blog post.

3.2. Supported networking

PCIe and USB networking is supported. On the Raspberry Pi 4B, the onboard NIC is also supported.

3.3. USB devices

The list below is not exhaustive, but are some storage/networking options that has been tested to work with the Raspberry Pi 4B.

3.3.1. Storage

VID PID Description Product Comments

154b f009 PNY Elite 240GB USB 3.0 Portable Solid State https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product
Drive /B01GQPXBQC

1f75 0621 Innostor Technology Corporation SATA Bridge https://www.amazon.com/gp/product

/Enclosure /B07CVXS2L8

152d 0583 JMicron NVMe Bridge/Enclosure https://www.amazon.com/gp/product Must be used with a powered USB hub on the
/B07HCPCMKN Raspberry Pi 4B

090c 1000 Samsung MUF-256AB https://www.amazon.com/gp/product (So far) Only tested with a powered USB hub
/B07D7Q41PM

0930 6545 Toshiba TransMemory (So far) Only tested with a powered USB hub

13fe 5700 Kingston Technology Company Inc USB Stick from Microcenter DO NOT USE, I/O errors formatting

3.3.2. Networking
Raspberry Pi 4B note: For performance reasons, we recommend using the on-board gigabit ethernet port for ESXi host networking.

VID PID Description Product Comments

0bda 8153 Realtek RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet https://www.amazon.com/gp/product Not recommended with a stock power supply on the
Adapter /B01J6583NK Raspberry Pi 4B

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product
/B00BBD7NFU

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product
/B01KA0UR3O

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product
/B01M7PL2WP

Note: USB RTL8153 NIC will show up in ESXi-Arm incorrectly as 100Mbit, although speeds can be faster it can be constrained further when using it with
Raspberry Pi due to hardware/software constraints.

3.3.3. Keyboards
Generally, any USB keyboard should work.

VID PID Description Product Comments

04d9 0006 Raspberry Pi Keyboard https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-keyboard-and-hub/

3.4. Supported plug-in PCIe adapters

Every other platform outside of the Raspberry Pi requires a bring-your-own solution for networking. It is recommended that PCIe NICs are used where
possible. While most platforms have on-board SATA controllers, plug-in SATA adapters are supported as well. The tested drivers are a subset of the 7.0.

Type Vendor Driver Comments

NIC Intel ne1000 https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?

deviceCategory=io&details=1&partner=46&releases=448&keyword=ne1000&deviceTypes=6&driverModel=2&page=1&display_interval
=10&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc

NIC Intel ixgben https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?

deviceCategory=io&details=1&partner=46&releases=448&keyword=ixgben&deviceTypes=6&driverModel=2&page=1&display_interval
=10&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc

NIC Mellanox various https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?

deviceCategory=io&details=1&partner=55&releases=448&deviceTypes=6&driverTypes=1&driverModel=2&page=1&display_interval=1
0&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc

NVMe various nvme_pc https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?

ie deviceCategory=io&details=1&releases=448&keyword=nvme_pcie&deviceTypes=22&driverTypes=1&driverModel=2&page=1&display
_interval=10&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc

SATA various vmw_ah https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?

ci deviceCategory=io&details=1&releases=448&keyword=vmw_ahci&driverTypes=1&driverModel=2&page=1&display_interval=10&sortC
olumn=Partner&sortOrder=As

4. Preparation
Follow the hardware-specific guides around configuring the system.

4.1. iSCSI
This is a non-exhaustive guide to using iSCSI and installing ESXi to an iSCSI LUN.

4.1.1. Sorting out your LUNs.

Everyone’s SAN is a bit different.

4.1.1.1. QNAP
Note: QNAP’s LUNs start at 0.
The most important item here is the IQN. For the sake of this example, authentication is left disabled.

I do set a few advanced settings and these appear to be okay.

4.1.1.2. Synology
Synology tells you what number to use for your created volumes. If you have multiple LUNs in the same target, you need to match the value in Number col
umn.

Note: Synology LUNs start at 1.

4.1.1.3. Others
FreeNAS, etc, configuration will be different. You may have different or additional settings. Experiment, especially if you start seeing “strange” behavior,
such as the target not visible in UEFI, or having “read-only” access in ESXi, such as the installer failing to format the LUN.

4.1.2. Configuring firmware

The following directions apply to any system using Tianocore edk2-based UEFI, provided iSCSI support is compiled into the firmware. For systems with
commerciial UEFI, the UI will be different.

Start at the main UEFI setup page. On the Pi, you can reach this screen by mashing the ESC key. Use arrow keys to select Device Manager.

Press ENTER. Now select iSCSI Configuration.

Press ENTER. Now select the iSCSI Initiator Name field. Press ENTER. A text entry box will pop up. Enter something here that matches IQN format
(usually in the format iqn.year-month.your.domain:machine-id). Press ENTER.

Now select Add an Attempt and press ENTER.

Select the NIC that you will use for the iSCSI boot attempt. On the Pi, there’s only one on-board NIC, so just press ENTER.
Now, navigate to the iSCSI Mode field, press ENTER, and select Enabled, pressing ENTER to complete selection. For the sake of this example, use IPv4.
Navigate to Enable DHCP and press SPACEBAR to enable.

This is the most important info: enter the IQN correctly under Target Name. If you mistype it here, don’t correct it as it won’t “stick”. Exit out and try re-
entering the entire form (it’s a TianoCore bug). You also need the server connection info and the LUN ID.

For the sake of keeping things simple, disable CHAP.

Now navigate to Save Changes.

Press ENTER. You should see your added iSCSI boot attempt listed.

Exit out (ESC) all the way to the main setup screen and select Reset.
Press ENTER. Your Pi will reboot. Hit ESC to enter UEFI setup again. It will take a bit of time (it's connecting to the iSCSI target). Select Boot Manager.

Press ENTER. You should see the iSCSI target listed here.

Of course now you can boot the ESXi installer (e.g from USB drive).

4.1.3. What could go wrong?

If there are networking connectivity issues the iSCSI boot option will not be listed in the Boot Manager. This includes obvious stuff (NIC cable fell out, SAN
is off) but also invalid IQN configuration.
Note that the attempt is still listed in the iSCSI Configuration portion of UEFI setup!

Important: if you made any errors in the config, delete and re-create the attempt. There’s a UEFI bug where the attempt configuration won’t be updated.

As soon as the problem is fixed (i.e. NIC cable is back), the boot option will re-appear, even at the same spot/ordering as it was before.

Note: if you got the wrong LUN number, the entry may appear but be non-functional.

Also, if you configure iSCSI with DHCP, note that the boot entry will change if the DHCP offer (IP address) changes. This means that the boot order will
change, as the old entry will be removed and the new entry added at the bottom of the list. Caveto!
5. Create ESXi Installer USB Key
For this you'll need the ESXi-Arm Fling ISO, of course.

5.1. Using balenaEtcher on Linux, Mac or Windows

Download balenaEtcher from https://www.balena.io/etcher/, and choose the Fling ISO and USB key target. Hit Flash!

You can ignore the warning about the missing partition table, it's an ISO.
5.2. On macOS
Identify the disk using the following command and make note of the disk path (e.g. /dev/diskX), and make sure any existing partitions are unmounted.
 $ diskutil list

/dev/disk4 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *256.6 GB disk4
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk4s1
2: Apple_HFS Untitled 256.3 GB disk4s2

$ diskutil unmount /dev/disk4s2

Volume Untitled on disk4s2 unmounted
$ diskutil unmount /dev/disk4s1
disk4s1 was already unmounted

Raw-write the ISO file to the drive, using the disk identified above. Note the use of the raw device (/dev/rdisk4, not /dev/disk4)

$ sudo dd if=~/VMware-VMvisor-Installer-7.0.0-16966451.aarch64.iso of=/dev/rdisk4 bs=$((16 * 1024 * 1024))

Eject the drive:

$ hdiutil eject /dev/disk4

6. Installing ESXi-Arm
Make sure to also follow the notes in the the hardware-specific guides for installation and post-installation steps.

Fling on Raspberry Pi
Fling on Ampere eMAG 8180-based Servers
Fling on Ampere Altra-based Servers
Fling on Arm Neoverse N1 SDP
Fling on SolidRun HoneyComb LX2K
Fling on NXP LS1046A FRWY
Fling on NXP LS1046A RDB
Fling on Jetson Xavier AGX Developer Kit
Fling on Jetson Xavier NX Developer Kit

6.1. Basic installation

After booting the installer ISO, you will see the installer:

After accepting the EULA, the installer will list available storage media for installation. Use the arrow keys to select the drive to install it.
Select your keyboard layout:

Choose a password:

Press F11 to confirm the install.

Note: If you're using the Raspberry Pi USB keyboard, F11 is the combination of Fn and F1.
Installation should be complete. Press ENTER to reboot.

6.2. Operation with a video console

If you're installing ESXi-Arm on a system with a video adapter (or you're plugging a screen into a Raspberry Pi), ESXi will default to using the video and
USB keyboard for its console.

This how DCUI (console UI) looks on boot-up:

The video console has a notion of virtual terminals, which can be switched between using key combos:

Key combo Description Comments

ALT-F2 DCUI Or installer when installing

ALT-F1 ESXi Shell If ESXi Shell access is enabled

ALT-F11 Kernel status

ALT-F12 Kernel log messages dmesg

6.3. Headless operation

If you're installing ESXi-Arm on a system without a video adapter (or you're not plugging a screen into a Raspberry Pi), ESXi-Arm will use a serial port for
its console. Usually, systems will have only one such port. In case there are several, system UEFI may have additional Serial Port Console Redirection
configuration.

Like a system with a video console, ESXi will boot up to a DCUI (console UI) screen, although this will look a bit different:

ESXi actually supports several different "roles" for the serial port. These roles are like virtual terminals and can be switched between using key combos:

Key combo Description Comments

CTRL-G CTRL-B 3 DCUI Or installer when installing

CTRL-G CTRL-B 2 ENTER ESXi Shell If ESXi Shell access is enabled

 CTRL-G CTRL-B 1 Kernel message log dmesg

6.4. After installation

Now you're ready to check out the VMware ESXi Host Client.

There are a few settings you can change directly from DCUI (console UI).

To customize configuration press F2. You will be asked to authenticate.

6.4.1. Changing NIC and TCP/IP configuration

Note: The system will default to DHCP on the first NIC detected during install that had a link up.

Use arrow keys to navigate to Configure Management Network:

Press ENTER. The rest of this should be fairly self-explanatory.

6.4.2. Enabling SSH or console shell

Note: ESXi Shell (from console) and SSH access are disabled by default.

Use arrow keys to navigate to Troubleshooting Options:

Press ENTER.
You can toggle ESXi Shell or SSH support by selecting the entry and pressing ENTER.

7. VMware ESXi Host Client

This is a web UI to your installed ESXi-Arm system. This is where you can configure ESXi-Arm and create and access VMs.

7.1. Login and host configuration

1. Access ESXUI from a browser with https://<esx-host-ip >/ui and login with root privileges.
2. Setting up NTP: It is especially important to make sure that the host has clock synchronized, if you plan to connect to vCenter later.
a. Under Host Manage System, select Time & date and click Edit NTP Settings.
b. Select Use Network Time Protocol (Enable NTP client).
c. Enter the IP address or fully qualified domain name of one or more NTP servers to synchronize with.
(You can use pool.ntp.org)
d. Save
e. Under Networking Firewall rules, select the NTP Client line, and choose Enable in the Actions menu.
f. Under Host Manage Services, select the ntpd line and click on Start.

7.2. Virtual Machine Creation

1. Right click Host Select Create/Register VM
2. Select creation type Create a new virtual machine
3. Enter Name and Guest OS details
a. Compatibility: ESXi 7.0 virtual machine
b. Guest OS family: Linux
c. Guest OS version: <any from the below supported guest list>

4. Select storage Standard: <choose from the available datastores> (Note: If you're using the Pi and installing the ESXi-Arm bits on a usb stick, and
the usb stick is <128GB, and you do not see an available datastore at this step, it's possible that you may have neglected the autoPartitionOSDat
aSize during the initial boot-install. Unfortunately the only way to correct this is to redo the installation. This time make sure to append the field
along with the size. See the Pi installation guide Section 4 for details)
5. Customize settings
a. CPU: <choose from available list>
b. Memory: <within available limit>
c. Hard disk: <within available limit>
d. USB controller: <default> (USB 3.1)
e. Network Adapter: <default> (E1000e)
f. CD/DVD Drive: Choose "Datastore ISO file" Browse datastore to upload/find the required ISO
g. Video Card: <default>
Additional hardware can be added with "Add hard disk", "Add network adapter" and "Add other device" options.
Note: The USB controller is required to use the keyboard and mouse to interact with the Virtual Machine.
 6. Review settings Finish

7. Powering on the VM should take you to the OS installer.

7.3. Guest OS support

These operating systems have been tested to properly install with the following basic configuration:

Virtual Hardware

CPU 4

Memory 4 GB

Hard disk 16 GB

SATA Controller

USB controller USB 3.1

Network adapter E1000e

CD/DVD Drive Datastore ISO file

Video Card Default settings

These operating systems support both the UEFI firmware in the virtual machine and the DT (device tree) method of describing virtual machine hardware.

Distribution URL Verified By

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS https://ubuntu.com/download/server/arm VMware

CentOS Linux 8 http://isoredirect.centos.org/centos/8/isos/aarch64/ VMware

openSUSE Leap 15.2 http://download.opensuse.org/ports/aarch64/distribution/leap/15.2/iso/ VMware

Photon OS 3.0 https://github.com/vmware/photon/wiki/Downloading-Photon-OS VMware

Debian 10.x https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/arm64/iso-cd/ VMware

Fedora 32 Server https://getfedora.org/en/server/download VMware

FreeBSD https://vincerants.com/freebsd-under-vmware-esxi-on-arm-fling/ Community

NetBSD https://twitter.com/jmcwhatever/status/1317138758559465472 Community

Alpine https://alpinelinux.org/downloads/ Community

Devuan https://devuan.org/get-devuan Community

 RHEL 8.3 Beta https://access.redhat.com/products/red-hat-enterprise-linux/beta Community

Oracle Linux 7 https://www.oracle.com/linux/ Community

Raspberry Pi OS https://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2020/10/how-to-run-raspberry-pi-os-as-a-vm-on-esxi-arm.html VMware

Many guest operating systems will also support booting with ACPI.

7.4. See also

Add a CD or DVD Drive to a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.
hostclient.doc/GUID-132901CE-AE24-4A61-B8CB-55CF6489A8A7.html
General guide to managing a VM from VMware Host Client: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.hostclient.
doc/GUID-4ECD8CE7-6362-4FC3-A2DA-CD3D68882306.html

8. VMware vCenter Server Basics

The vCenter Server and Host Management full documentation is available at https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.
vcenterhost.doc/GUID-3B5AF2B1-C534-4426-B97A-D14019A8010F.html

8.1. 1. Add a Datacenter and a Cluster

When vCenter Server is just installed you need to create a Datacenter object, and eventually a Cluster to add your ESXi hosts to.

8.1.1. 1.1. Adding a Datacenter

On the Host and Clusters page, select the VC address and click on New Datacenter... in the ACTIONS drop down menu. Choose a name and validate
the popup.

8.1.2. 1.2. Adding a Cluster

Still on the Host and clusters page, select the Datacenter and click on New cluster... in the ACTIONS drop down menu. Choose a name and validate
the popup.
For more information on clusters, please see the Creating and Configuring Clusters documentation: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0
/com.vmware.vsphere.vcenterhost.doc/GUID-F7818000-26E3-4E2A-93D2-FCDCE7114508.html

8.2. 2. Add an ESXi-Arm Fling host to vCenter Server

On the Hosts and clusters page, select the Datacenter and click on Add Hosts... in the ACTIONS drop down menu.

1. Name and location: enter the IP address of the host

2. Connection settings: enter the host credentials
3. Host summary: review the information
4. Assign license: choose a license to use for the host
5. Lockdown mode: let on Disabled (default)
6. VM location: choose the Datacenter
7. Ready to complete: Click Finish to add the host

Here is a Ampere Computing eMAG added to the Datacenter:

8.3. 3. Create a Virtual Machine

On a Datacenter, a Cluster or a Host, choose New Virtual Machine... from the ACTIONS drop down menu.

1. Select creation type: Create a new virtual machine

2. Enter Name and a location for the virtual machine
3. Select a compute resource: the host
4. Select storage: datastore1
5. Select compatibility: ESXi 7.0 and later
6. Select a guest OS:
a. Guest OS Family: Linux
b. Guest OS Version: <any from the below supported guest list>
7. Customize hardware:
a. CPU: <choose from available list>
b. Memory: <within available limit>
c. Hard disk: <within available limit>
d. Network Adapter: <default> (E1000e)
e. USB controller: <default> (USB 3.1)
f. CD/DVD Drive: Choose "Datastore ISO file" Browse datastore to upload/find the required ISO and click on Connect At Power On.
g. Video Card: <default>
Note: The USB controller is required to use the keyboard and mouse to interact with the Virtual Machine.
8. Ready to complete Finish

Powering on the VM should take you to the OS installer:

8.4. 4. Access VM Remote Console
Clicking on Launch Web Console opens a new browser window with the Web Console. Use the keyboard and mouse to interact with the VM.
9. Enabling vMotion
9.1. Tested Platforms
Platform Supported

Ampere eMAG Yes

Ampere Altra Untested, should work

Arm Neoverse N1 Software Development Platform Untested, should work

NVIDIA Tegra Xavier-based platforms Untested, should work

HoneyComb LX2K Yes

NXP FRWY Yes

Raspberry Pi Yes

General guide to vMotion on virtual machines:

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.vcenterhost.doc/GUID-D19EA1CB-5222-49F9-A002-4F8692B92D63.html

Note: Do not mix systems in the same cluster. E.g. do not mix eMAGs and Pies in the same cluster. Also, do not mix x86 and Arm systems in the same
cluster.

9.2. Pre-requisites
1. It is recommended that a separate NIC be configured for vMotion and FT logging to ensure that sufficient bandwidth is available.
a. From the vSphere Web Client navigate to the host Configure Networking Vmkernel adapters
b. Choose the vmkernel port group to be configured for vMotion and select Edit
c. Enable vMotion from the list of available services

2. When you migrate virtual machines with vMotion and choose to change only the compute host, the VM needs to be on shared storage
to ensure that it is accessible to both source and target hosts. Shared storage can be configured with a SAN, or implemented using iSCSI and
NAS.

9.3. VM migration with vMotion

1. Navigate to the VM you want to migrate, right-click and select Migrate...
2. Select a migration type
a. Change compute resource only (VM needs to be on shared storage)
b. Change storage only (Migrate VM to a different datastore, but same host)
 c. Both (Migrate VM to a different host and datastore)

3. Select destination host

4. Select destination storage

 5. Select destination network

6. Select vMotion Priority: <recommended>

7. Review and finish

10. Enabling vSphere HA

10.1. Tested Platforms
 Platform Supported

Ampere eMAG Yes

Ampere Altra Untested, should work

Arm Neoverse N1 Software Development Platform Untested, should work

NVIDIA Tegra Xavier-based platforms Untested, should work

HoneyComb LX2K Yes

NXP FRWY Yes

Raspberry Pi 4B an Pi 400 Yes

10.2. Pre-requisites
1. Download the specific FDM VIB from the ESXi-Arm Fling site for your version of your vCenter Server. At launch of the fling, vCenter Server 7.0d
(Build 16749653) and vCenter Server 7.0c (Build 16620007) are supported.

Step 1 - Upload the FDM VIB to ESXi host via SCP or vSphere Datastore Browser

Step 2 - Install the FDM VIB

[[email protected]:~] esxcli software vib install -v /vmware-fdm-7.0c-16620014.arm64.vib --no-sig-

check
Installation Result
Message: Operation finished successfully.
Reboot Required: false
VIBs Installed: VMware_bootbank_vmware-fdm_7.0.0-1620014
VIBs Removed:
VIBs Skipped:

Step 3 - Enable vSphere HA on the vSphere Cluster

Step 4 - If you wish to get rid of "The number of vSphere HA heartbeat datastores for this host is 1, which is less than required: 2" message, you can add
the following Advanced Setting das.ignoreInsufficientHbDatastore = true and then right click on one of the ESXi hosts and select "Reconfigure for
vSphere HA" operation the message to go away
11. Enabling vSphere Fault Tolerance
11.1. Tested platforms
Platform Supported

Ampere eMAG Yes

Ampere Altra Untested, should work

Arm Neoverse N1 Software Development Platform Untested, should work

NVIDIA Tegra Xavier-based platforms Untested, should work

HoneyComb LX2K Untested, should work

NXP FRWY No

Raspberry Pi 4B 8GB Yes

Raspberry Pi 4B 4GB and Pi 400 No

11.2. Pre-requisites
0. Suggested reading - General guide to FT on virtual machines: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.avail.doc
/GUID-7525F8DD-9B8F-4089-B020-BAA4AC6509D2.html

1. It is recommended that a separate NIC be configured for vMotion and FT logging to ensure that sufficient bandwidth is available.
a. From the vSphere Web Client navigate to the host Configure Networking Vmkernel adapters
b. Choose the vmkernel port group to be configured for FT and select Edit
c. Enable vMotion and Fault Tolerance logging from the list of available services (Yes, you need both)

2.
 2. vSphere HA should be enabled for the cluster. See Enabling vSphere HA section for detailed instructions

Step 1 - Browse to the VM in vSphere web client Right-click and select Fault Tolerance Turn On Fault Tolerance

Step 2 - Select a datastore where the Secondary VM is to be placed

Step 3 - Select a host where the Secondary VM is to be placed

Step 4 - Review and finish

Step 5 - Testing FT with failover

1. Make sure the VM configured for FT is turned on

2.
 2. Browse to the VM in vSphere web client Right-click and select Fault Tolerance Test Failover
(The secondary VM in the second host should now be the primary VM)

12. VMware Tools

ESXi-Arm does not include an installable version of VMware Tools for Arm Guest Operating Systems. To install VMware Tools, you will need to manually
compile Open VM Tools for your specific Guest Operating System.

Here is an example of compiling latest Open VM Tools 11.1.5 for Ubuntu 20.04 AARCH64. For VMware Photon OS AARCH64, you can refer to this blog
post for instructions.

Step 1 - Update and Install the following package dependencies:

apt update
apt install -y automake-1.15 pkg-config libtool libmspack-dev libglib2.0-dev \
libpam0g-dev libssl-dev libxml2-dev libxmlsec1-dev libx11-dev libxext-dev \
libxinerama-dev libxi-dev libxrender-dev libxrandr-dev libgtk2.0-dev \
libgtk-3-dev libgtkmm-3.0-dev

Step 2 - Clone Open VM Tools git repo:

git clone https://github.com/vmware/open-vm-tools.git

cd open-vm-tools/open-vm-tools/

Step 3 - Run the following commands to build and install Open VM Tools:

autoreconf -i
./configure
sudo make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

Step 4 - We need to create a systemd unit file so we can enable and start Open VM Tools Daemon upon startup. Run the following command to create vm
toolsd.service file

cat > /etc/systemd/system/vmtoolsd.service << EOF

[Unit]
Description=
Description=Open VM Tools
After=
After=network-online.target

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/vmtoolsd
Restart=always
RestartSec=1sec

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

Step 5 - Enable and Start Open VM Tools Daemon and verify using either the ESXi Host Client UI or vSphere UI that Open VM Tools is now running

systemctl enable vmtoolsd.service

systemctl start vmtoolsd.service
13. Applications and Functionality to Test on ESXi-Arm
13.1. Datacenter and Near Edge
For larger capacity servers such as those based on the Ampere Computing eMAG 8180 or Ampere Computing Altra, a number of system benchmarking
tools including https://github.com/ARM-software/meabo exist to help you understand the capabilities and performance you can obtain on your
system. VMware also offers Weathervane that can be used to stress test K8 clusters.

13.2. Mid-Edge (HoneyComb LX2K, Tegra Xavier AGX)

For smaller mid-range hardware, you can test one of several Edge computing Cloud framework such as Amazon's AWS Greengrass platform which is an
IoT Edge processing offering integrated with AWS Cloud services and capable of running offline or when networking is intermittent. Greengrass allows
execution of Lambdas, ML models, event processing and more. You can find out more about the supported Arm platforms here. Similarly, Azure IoT Edge
is the Microsoft Azure Edge processing platform for IoT offering a range of services such as Azure functions, streaming analytics, ML models and
more. Azure IoT Edge supports multiple Arm platforms including Arm64. You can find out more details on the supported Arm platforms here.

13.3. Far Edge (Raspberry Pi 4, NXP FRWY, Tegra Xavier NX)

For the RPi4, check out the various Arm compatible OS options available including Photon OS and we suggest testing various VM lifecycle operations
such as power events, snapshots, maintenance mode, vMotion, creation of clusters. Exercise the use of resource reservations to ensure the limited CPU
& memory resources go to the highest priority VMs. Test VMware HA by simulating a node failure if you have a cluster, and even test out Fault Tolerance
for a zero-downtime far Edge solution. We hope these suggestions are helpful but we know you'll have many of your own ideas about how to use this
technology and we look forward to hearing about your use-cases and experience.

14. Troubleshooting
14.1. Support
If you are running into installation or setup issues with the ESXi-Arm Fling, please use the Comments and/or Bug section of the ESXi-Arm Fling website.

In addition, you can also engage with the ESXi-Arm team and community on Slack at #esxi-arm-fling on VMware {code}

14.2. Generating Support Bundle

If you are able to install ESXi-Arm Fling and still having issues, it is recommended that you provide a support bundle which can be accessed by
Engineering. You can either share a public download URL in the Comments/Bugs section of the ESXi-Arm Fling website or you can directly share that with
someone from ESXi-Arm team via private Slack direct message.

There are two methods to generate support bundle, using either the ESXi Host Client UI or ESXi Shell.

14.2.1. ESXi Host Client UI

Open browser and login to the ESXi-Arm IP Address/Hostname. Under Actions, select "Generate support bundle" and once the support bundle has
completed, you will be provided a download link.

14.2.2. ESXi Shell

SSH to ESXi-Arm IP Address/Hostname and then type vm-support. Once the support bundle has completed, you will need to SCP it off the ESXi-Arm host
to your local desktop.

15. Known issues

15.1. ESXi

15.1.1. Network and disk monitoring may not be accurate

This is largely dependent on I/O drivers, some of which are in-development.

15.1.2. Virtualization

15.1.2.1. Performance Monitoring Counter support in VM

PMUv3 is not implemented, and is not advertised to the guest. Linux does not attempt to use it, however if another Guest OS tries to access it, the Virtual
Machine will stop immediately.

15.1.2.2. vMotion is not supported between hardware with different SoCs

Do not attempt to migrate a running Virtual Machine between different systems (e.g. Ampere eMAG and a Raspberry Pi).

15.1.2.3. ACPI operating systems are not supported

The virtual machine only models DT (device tree) today.

15.1.2.4. Fixed-size frame buffer graphics

The UEFI GOP frame buffer defaults to 1024x768. It is also not accelerated.

15.1.2.5. Guest VM hangs with black screen after a while

A Linux VM may be configured to enter a low power mode (aka "suspend to idle", nothing to do with suspending VMs).
Workaround: Make sure automatic suspend is disabled in your desktop settings.

15.1.2.6. Paravirtualized drivers are not built in Linux

VMXNET3, VMCI, PVSCSI, SVGA3 and balloon drivers are generally not available in standard Linux distributions. With the exception of Ubuntu having
VMXNET3 support.

15.1.2.7. USB1.1 is not supported in Debian

Debian does not come with the ohci-hcd driver, and will not detect the keyboard and pointing devices if virtual USB1.1/USB2 controllers are enabled.

Workaround: Only use virtual USB3 controller (which is the default when creating a Virtual Machine).

15.2. vCenter

15.2.1. A general system error occurred: Unable to push signed certificate to host
The warning message is shown in vSphere UI when adding ESXi-Arm host to vCenter Server. This occurs as there is a time skew between the ESXi-Arm
host and vCenter Server, and is exacerbated due to some systems (e.g. Raspberry Pi) not having a battery backed RTC.

Workaround: Ensure all systems sync their time from the same source. For detailed instructions on configuring NTP for ESXi-Arm host, please refer to the
"VMware ESXi Host Client" section.

15.2.2. vSphere Auto Deploy is not supported for arm64 hosts

The vSphere Auto Deploy can not be used with arm64 hosts.