For anyone stumbling on this, here are instructions for ESXi v5.0.0 515841 I do not take credit for this, I simply went through the thread/links and compiled this. Worked on my ESXs Enable SSH on host and connect to it Find the required file: find / -name s.v00 Copy s.v00 to datastore Extract the vmtar: vmtar -x s.v00 -o output.tar move output.tar to a new folder 'temp'(it will create a folder structure once untarred) untar it: tar xf output.tar delete output.tar: rm output.tar (else it will be included when we retar) Go in folder "temp/bin" , move vmx to a windows host (copy to datastore then download it) Use EsxBiosTools.v1.1.4 to extract the bios file On a VM running on the ESX, run RW everything, click ACPI Tables, save all. Load PhoenixBiosTools, load bios, slic and RW report. Create SLIC bios. Use EsxBiosTools.v1.1.4 to inject the new bios into the vmx file Copy vmx file back to /temp/bin, overwritting the old one. Change permissions on vmx file: chmod 775 vmx Change owner on vmwx file: chown 201:201 vmx Set suiid bit: chmod u+s vmx Go back to folder temp: cd .. Tar the files: tar -cf /PATH/TO/NEW/TAR/FILE.tar * Vmtar the file: ./vmtar -c FILE.tar -o output.vtar Gzip the file: gzip output.vtar Rename output.vtar to s.v00: mv output.vtar s.v00 Replace s.v00 in your ESX Reboot Thanks for the great info!
Forgot to inject SLP string, but the option is greyed out in the phoenix tool. Crawled a bit, unable to figure out how to add it. Any pointers? Thanks
It seems that any change to integrity of the ESXi 5 files (SLIC/SLP and/or MAC Unlocker mod) causes vCenter to NOT perform live host migration (and HA migration) correctly every time. Sometimes it works, most times it hangs at 9% & times out eventually. To bring such host to behave normally again /etc/init.d/hostd restart is needed. I have tested with & without mods (no mod = no problem ever, mod = migration problems) The mod does NOT affect working of ESX itself ! sebus
Hi, Have you tried instead of modifying the files, upload to the datastore a modified bios440.rom (SLIC+SLP) and modify the vmx file to add the line bios440.filename = "bios440_SLIC_SLP.rom" (it can be done via vcenter, too)
I will try later when can reboot one of the servers... EDIT Yes, that works just fine (for SLIC /SLP mod) Ofcourse it does not work for Unlocker (as the data is NOT stored in the bios) sebus
I do notice something that gets broken with ESXi 5.0 SLICed whether it is 5.0.0 with patch1, patch2 or update1: when you want to autoinstall the VMtools in Windows, it will after SLICing complain the iso file is missing: Call "VirtualMachine.MountToolsInstaller" for object "SERVER" on vCenter Server "vc5.abc.com" failed. Unable to install VMware Tools. An error occurred while trying to access image file "/usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/windows.iso" needed to install VMware Tools: 0 (No such file or directory). If your product shipped with the VMware Tools package, reinstall VMware ESX, then try again to install the VMware Tools package in the virtual machine. The required VMware Tools ISO image does not exist or is inaccessible. seems the symbolic link /usr/lib/vmware/isoimages -> /productLocker/vmtools/ is broken, as it is shown but the target directory is not there to fix it, use putty to do this: Code: ln -s /locker/packages/5.0.0 /productLocker no reboot required, fixes it on the fly. I had this with USB and HDD based installs, so something removes the symbolic link when s.v00 is replaced and host rebooted.
Did not notice anything of this nature at all. On many installs (so it must be unique to you in some way) Good to know anyway! But changing the executables brings all sorts or problems with vCenter (HA, VM on, migrate etc) sebus