How to Configure ESX VM Size

Name

The display name of the VM.

Description

Used to provide more information about the VM profile.

Series

The lab series that VM profile will be available to.

Organization

: The organization that the VM profile will be available to.

Platform

Select the virtualization platform that the VM profile will use. Available platforms include: Hyper-V, ESX, Azure and AWS. Each platform will have different options available. The next set of options on the basic information tab are different, based on the Platform used. This document will provide details for selecting ESX.

Size

Select the size of the VM. These size profiles will set the amount of RAM, number of processors, and will govern the number of NICs allowed to be configured on the machine.

Licensing considerations when using ESX; traditional ESX allows the control of physical CPU sockets and number of CPU cores allocated evenly to each socket. With some software products licensed is based on physical CPU sockets therefore, it is important to know how Skillable allocates the physical CPU sockets on ESX hosts. If you select a virtual machine size that uses 24 or less vCPU cores the virtual machine will run on a single physical CPU socket. If a virtual machine size with more than 24 vCPUs is selected, then the vCPUs will be split evenly across two physical CPU sockets.

Hardware Version

Select the hardware version that the VM will use. Each hardware version allows for more features to be available to the guest operating system. Some features may not be available on older hardware versions, such as nested virtualization. For learn more about ESX hardware features, read ESX documentation on hardware features.

Operating System

Select the operating system that the VM will use.

Username

Enter a username for the VM.

Password

Enter a password for the VM.

Video RAM

Select the amount of video RAM the VM will use. Video RAM is specified in MB.

Screen Width

Enter the screen width that the VM will use, measured in pixels.

Screen Height

Enter the screen height that the VM will use, measured in pixels.

Enabled

Check to enable the VM profile for use in lab profiles.

Host Integration Enabled

This enables additional features on the VM, depending on if VMTools is installed on the VM. VMTools is installed on the VM in a launched lab, from the DVD drive drop-down menu on the Resources tab of the lab. VMTools must be added to the lab profile on the Removeable Media tab, for it to be available in the lab.

 - With VMTools installed it will enable: Improved visual performance of the VM, improved mouse performance, graceful shutdown and the ability to pixel-perfect resize the VM to fit the lab window.
- Without VMTools installed it will enable time synchronization with host.

Use Enhanced Session Mode

Enables Enhanced Session Mode.

Enable Dynamic Screen Resizing

2 vCPU, 2048MB RAM, 32MB video RAM recommended.

Enable Nested Virtualization

Allows the VM profile to perform nested virtualization and run another VM on the VM.

Enable 3D Video

Allows 3D video to be viewed on the VM. 64MB video RAM recommended.

Use EFI

Enables Extensible Firmware Interface on the VM. This is most often used when it is necessary for EFI system partition is required for a VM's bootload to function.

Enable Disk UUID

Assigns a unique identifier to disks attached to the VM.

Add Network Adapter

Select to add a network adapter, and configure adapter settings.

Type

Specifies the VMWare Network Adapter Type.

Specify ethernet (MAC) address

Allows the MAC address to be set to a unique value, or generate a random MAC address.

Add Hard Disk

Select to add a virtual hard disk for the VM to use. A new virtual hard disk (VMDK) can be created, or an existing VMDK can be used.

Add Disk Controller

Allows a Disk Controller to be added to the VM profile. Multiple Disk Controllers are supported. The first Disk Controller has an ID of 0, and subsequent Disk Controllers added to the VM profile will have an ID incremented by 1.

Type

Specifies the VMWare Disk Controller Type.

Add DVD-ROM Drive

Select to add a DVD-ROM drive for the VM to use and configure it's channel.

Available channels include

- Primary 0
- Primary 1
- Secondary 0
- Secondary 1

UUID

this controls the UUID set within the virtual machine's configuration. The UUID is a 128-bit integer. The 16 bytes of this value are separated by spaces, except for a dash between the eighth and ninth hexadecimal pairs. Setting a custom UUID is optional and under normal circumstances, this does not need to be used and can be left blank.
An example UUID looks like this: 00 11 22 33 44 55 66 77-88 99 aa bb cc dd ee ff.
For more information about setting a custom UUID, read - Custom UUID Documentation.

Allow Updates in Lab Client

This must be enabled for differencing disk capture or start states on the VM, in a lab.

Connect via Remote Desktop Connection (external to lab client)

allows the VM to be connected to by an RDP connection. This is used in conjunction with the Has Virtual Machines Pool checkbox on the Virtual Machines tab of a lab profile. A VM profile is required for each concurrent user, otherwise each user will receive the same RDP file and only 1 user will be able to connect to the VM at a time.