Use the Startup Profiles option to create and modify ESX Server boot configurations. For each configuration, you can specify how you wish to allocate your devices: to the virtual machines, to the service console or shared between them.
If you add new hardware to your ESX Server system, such as extra SCSI controllers or network adapters, you can specify here whether to allocate the new hardware to the vmkernel and virtual machines, or allocate it to the service console.
If you make any changes to the startup profile, you must reboot the server in order for your changes to take effect.
Modifications to the boot configuration include changes to reserved memory, the SCSI storage controller and Ethernet controllers.
The default amount of memory reserved for the service console, 192MB, is sufficient for managing up to eight virtual machines concurrently. Change this to 272MB for up to 16 virtual machines, 384MB for up to 32 virtual machines or 512MB for more than 32 virtual machines. Choose Other to specify a different amount of memory; a range is suggested in the dialog box that appears.
Note: If you have more than 895MB of RAM installed on your server, the available memory is not reported accurately at this stage. The correct amount of memory is reported after you reboot the server.
Note: Certain storage controllers are sensitive to the memory size setting. If your server uses a PercRAID or MegaRAID controller, do not use a memory size in the range 241-271.
Allocate storage adapters to be used by the service console and virtual machines on the server. Be sure that both the service console and the virtual machines have access to at least one device.
A SCSI or RAID adapter should be shared if you want to use that adapter or array for both the service console and virtual machines. To share the SCSI controller, in the Dedicated To list, select Virtual Machines, then check Shared with Service Console.
When you are allocating SCSI or RAID devices, the unit of device allocation is a PCI card device. You may connect multiple SCSI or RAID disks, CD-ROM drives, tape drives and other devices to the SCSI or RAID adapter.
You should give as many SCSI or RAID devices to the virtual machines as possible to ensure that the majority of your mass storage resources are used by your virtual machines. If you do not have any IDE disks, you may have to allocate at least one SCSI or RAID device to the service console, since the service console needs to have a disk from which it and the VMkernel can boot.
Some adapter cards have multiple functions, which means there are multiple adapters on each card. When you allocate a SCSI or RAID device to the service console or to the VMkernel, you are effectively allocating all the SCSI or RAID disks, CD-ROM drives and other attached devices along with the adapter. As a result, you have only coarse- grained control over how you allocate SCSI and RAID devices.
Consider this example: Suppose your machine has SCSI adapters vmhba0 and vmhba1 that are on the same SCSI adapter card. If you choose to share one of the adapters, you must share both. Similarly, if you choose to allocate one of the adapters for use by virtual machines, you must allocate both for use by virtual machines.
If you have Fibre Channel adapters, you may have to perform additional configuration of the adapters and the ESX Server system. For more information, see www.vmware.com/support/esx2/doc/esx20admin_san_disks.html and www.vmware.com/support/esx2/doc/esx20admin_multipath_disks.html.
Allocate network adapters to be used by the service console and virtual machines on the server. Be sure that both the service console and the virtual machines have access to at least one device.
It is generally best to assign the first Ethernet adapter on the list to the service console and set the other adapters to be used by virtual machines. If you assign the first adapter to be used by virtual machines, the service console may try to use an inappropriate driver for its network adapter. Ethernet adapters cannot be shared between the service console and virtual machines.
It is generally good to give as many network adapters to the virtual machines as possible. Doing so helps ensure that the majority of your network resources are devoted to the virtual machines. Because the service console is intended primarily as a management interface, you should minimize resources allocated to the service console. You need to allocate at least one Ethernet device to the service console in order to manage your ESX Server machine remotely.
In the likely event that you have fewer Ethernet devices than virtual machines, you can share VMkernel Ethernet adapters among the virtual machines with little performance penalty.