Choosing a NIC for your VM in VMware ESXI

If you let VMware to choose a network adapter automatically while creating a VM, it will select a compatible NIC type, but it may not be the one with better performance. Each generation of virtual network adapter has different features and performance levels. Considering ESXI 5 or higher versions, following are the list of network adapters available in order preference best to worst.

-VMXNET 3
-VMXNET 2 (Enhanced)
-E1000

Reference :
VMware 

How to run Hyper-V on a VM in Hyper-V

If you try to install Hyper-V role on a VM in Hyper-V, you will get an error message mentioning that, "Hyper-V cannot be installed : A hypervisor is already running". Follow the steps given in this blog to get it installed using PowerShell commands.

Note:
It is NOT recommended in a production environment. Use this only for self study and testing in labs. 

How to run Hyper-V on a VM in ESXI 5.5

You can now virtualize Hyper-V as a VM running on VMware ESXI 5.5. Initially if you try to install Hyper-V role, you will get an error message mentioning that, "Hyper-V cannot be installed". Follow the below steps to get it installed.

1. Enable CPU/ MMU virtualization in VM settings.

2. Power off the Hyper-V VM and remove it from inventory. Browse the data store and download the VMX configuration file of the VM and save to your local machine. Open it using WordPad and change the guestOS line to :

guestOS = “winhyperv”

Save the file and upload it back to data store. Now right click on the VMX file and add it to inventory. Power on the VM and install Hyper-V role. It must now get installed without any error.

Note :
It is NOT recommended in a production environment. Use this only for self study and testing in labs. 

Windows Server 2012 R2 NIC Teaming (LBFO) Deployment and Management Guide

If anyone wants to know in detail about Windows Server 2012 R2 NIC Teaming (LBFO) deployment and management, please refer this link.

Reference :
www.microsoft.com

Best practices while creating a VM on Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V host

Open-E DSS V7 Active-Active Load Balancing iSCSI HA SAN Cluster Operations Guide

Implementing storage cluster - Open-E DSS V7 Active-Passive iSCSI SAN Failover Cluster

The setup that I used for this implementation is mentioned below :

-Two DELL PowerEdge R710 servers (ESXI01 and ESXI02)

-Implemented Open-E DSS V7 Active-Passive iSCSI Failover Cluster – using two VSA’s running on different ESXI 5.5 hosts

• Created VM and installed Open-E Node A on ESXI01
• Created VM and installed Open-E Node B on ESXI02
• Configured separate network interfaces for heartbeat, volume replication and WEB GUI management
• Configured a vSwitch on both ESXI hosts (ESXI01 and ESXI02) 
• Added direct point-to-point connection between the above two ESXI hosts for reliable volume replication
• Configured iSCSI volumes and targets on Node A and Node B
• Configured replication task
• Configured failover cluster with multiple auxiliary paths
• Configured virtual target IP address
• Added target to cluster
• Configured iSCSI initiator
• Tested failover and failback functions successfully

Note :

Detailed configuration guide is given in Open-E website itself