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I wrote a script to list virtual disk information for a specified VM, including VMDK path, SCSI IDs and more. It is loosely based on this script but excludes all WMI info.

Download here.

It is possible to install the integration plugins for VMware on an ESX host directly from the Nimble website, provided your hosts have internet access:

1. Place the host into maintenance mode.
2. Connect to the host through a shell (e.g. SSH).
3. Run the command:

   esxcli software vib install -d http://update.nimblestorage.com/esx5/ncm

   Wait for the installation to complete.
4. Take the host out of maintenance mode and continue with the configuration.

With PowerCLI, you can generate all sorts of lists. To retrieve the configured and reported OS version of your VMs, try running this one-liner:

Get-VM | Sort | 
   Get-View -Property @("Name", "Config.GuestFullName", "Guest.GuestFullName", "Guest.IpAddress") | 
   Select -Property Name, 
       @{N="Configured OS";E={$_.Config.GuestFullName}},
       @{N="Running OS";E={$_.Guest.GuestFullName}},
       @{N="IP Address";E={@($_.Guest.IpAddress)}} | 
   Export-CSV -Delimiter ";" -Path "vms.csv"

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Found this interesting read on VMFS Extents and some of the (negative) myths that have arisen over the years:

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/02/vmfs-extents-are-they-bad-or-simply-misunderstood.html

You can quickly get a list of VMs, the datastores they are using and the logical folder they are in through PowerCLI:

Get-VM | Select Name,@{N="Datastore";E={[string]::Join(',',(Get-Datastore -Id $_.DatastoreIdList | Select -ExpandProperty Name))}},@{N="Folder";E={$_.Folder.Name}}

Combine it with Export-CSV to export the results to a CSV file.

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You can download installation files and ISOs of any of the latest versions of VMWare Tools for each released version of ESX:

→ https://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/index.html

This is useful if you need support for a certain OS version but are not able to upgrade the ESX host in order to get it (e.g. Windows 10 support on ESX 5.5 "non-u3").

Note that, although officially unsupported, VMWare Tools is technically backwards compatible, meaning you can install a newer version on a guest running on an older ESX host.

Windows 10 is not out of the box supported on ESX 5.5, unless you're running 5.5u3. One of the issues is that earlier versions do not have a compatible video driver for Windows 10.

However, for older versions of ESX 5.5, you can manually download the VMWare Tools and install them:

→ https://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/5.5u3/windows/index.html

If your vCenter server has a self-signed certificate, you will get a warning about this when connecting to it from vSphere PowerCLI. You can disable this warning through PowerCLI with the Set-PowerCLIConfiguration cmdlet.

1. Start an elevated vSphere PowerCLI (right-click, Run as Administrator).
2. Enter the following cmdlet:

   Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction Ignore

   Press Enter again to confirm the change.

After making the change, new connections to the vCenter server will no longer produce a warning about the certificate.

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You may have noticed that running the VMWare vSphere client on a display with higher DPI settings causes problems with the mouse cursor alignment when working inside a VM. This is because of a mismatch between the DPI settings of the VM and the DPI settings of your computer.

To resolve, right-click the shortcut to the client, go to the Compatibility tab, and enable Disable display scaling on high DPI settings.

The downside of this method is that there will be misalignment of some parts in the client, but it is still workable and moreover, it solves the mouse issue in a VM.