vSphere Virtual Machine Administration - Documentation - VMware

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration
Procedure
u Select the datastore location where you want to store the virtual machine files.
Option Action
Store all virtual machine files in the
same location on a datastore.
Store all virtual machine files in the
same datastore cluster.
Select a datastore and click Next.
a Select a datastore cluster.
b (Optional) If you do not want to use Storage DRS with this virtual
machine, select Disable Storage DRS for this virtual machine and select
a datastore within the datastore cluster.
c Click Next.
Select the Virtual Machine Compatibility
You can accept the default ESXi host version for this virtual machine or select a different version, depending
on the hosts in your environment.
The default compatibility for this virtual machine is determined by the host on which the virtual machine is
created or by the default compatibility settings on the host, cluster, or datacenter. You can select a different
compatibility from the default.
Only host versions that are in your environment appear in the Compatible with drop-down menu. For
information about choices and compatibility strategies, see “Virtual Machine Compatibility,” on page 105.
Procedure
u Select the compatibility from the drop-down menu and click Next.
Select a Guest Operating System
The guest operating system that you select affects the supported devices and number of virtual CPUs available
for the virtual machine. The New Virtual Machine wizard does not install the guest operating system. The
wizard uses this information to select appropriate default values, such as the amount of memory needed.
See the VMware Compatibility Guide for details.
Beginning with vSphere 5.1, you cannot change the guest operating system after you create the virtual machine.
See VMware knowledge base article at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2020801.
When you select a guest operating system, BIOS or Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) is selected by default,
depending on the firmware supported by the operating system. Mac OS X Server guest operating systems
support only EFI. If the operating system supports BIOS and EFI, you can change the default from the
Options tab of the Virtual Machine Properties editor after you create the virtual machine and before you install
the guest operating system. If you select EFI, you cannot boot an operating system that supports only BIOS,
and the reverse.
IMPORTANT Do not change the firmware after the guest operating system is installed. The guest operating
system installer partitions the disk in a particular format, depending on which firmware the installer was
booted from. If you change the firmware, you will not be able to boot the guest.
The Mac OS X Server must run on Apple hardware. You cannot power on a Mac OS X Server if it is running
on other hardware.
Procedure
1 Select the guest operating system family from the Guest OS Family drop-down menu.
2 Select a guest operating system version from the Guest OS Versiondrop-down menu.
22 VMware, Inc.