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This article details steps for connecting to an ESX host using an SSH Client. This video uses the PuTTY SSH Client, but a number of different clients work similarly. The steps in the video are the same for different versions of ESX, but for the video, we used ESX 4.
For more information and context, continue reading Connecting to an ESX host using a SSH client
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Our latest video details how to find your VMware product license key on the Account Management portal. As an example, you can find the product license key for your vSphere, VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation, VMware View, or VMware Lab Manager license. Further, the video provides steps for finding the serial number or serial key for legacy VMware products, like Virtual Infrastructure 3, or Lab Manager 2.
For more information and context, continue reading Finding your VMware licenses on the Account Management Portal.
Note: You must be the Primary License Administrator or the Secondary License Administrator to view licenses for datacenter products. If you are the Support Administrator, you cannot manage licenses, however you can file a support request.
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We have received several requests from customers asking us to clarify our support status of running older versions of Virtual Machine Tools on newer versions of ESX hosts. To help clear up any confusion we are now stating this:
It is strongly recommended that the version of VMware Tools running in the VM match the version of ESX/ESXi on which the VM is running. It is also recommended that after ESX/ESXi is upgraded, that VMware Tools in all the VMs on that host be upgraded at the earliest opportunity. VMware Global Support Services (GSS) will assist customers even if they have mismatched versions of Tools and ESX/ESXi, however GSS may require that the appropriate version of Tools be installed in the guest if GSS suspects that the mismatched version of Tools may be contributing to the issue being reported, if it makes debugging the issue easier or for any other reason.
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The shared folders feature provides a great way to share files between virtual machines and the host computer—you can designate folders on your computer that you can see and use from within your virtual machines. We occasionally get feedback from users who are having problems setting up and using shared folders. If you're having problems using shared folders, here are a few things to check:
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In just two days the new VMware Support Toolbar has been installed over 1,600 times by customers, tech support engineers, technical account managers, trainers, and more.
It is amazing to see the kinds of conversations going on in the chat room that comes standard with the toolbar. Just look at this precious nugget of knowledge from Daniel on our Storage support team-
Daniel@VMware: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1008205 is your friend in regards to storage performance.
Daniel@VMware: DAVG/cmd is the key one for performance issues outside of the VMKernel…
Daniel@VMware: As per the article… DAVG/cmd is the average response time in milliseconds per command being sent to the device is the average response time in milliseconds per command being sent to the device
Daniel@VMware: In regards to the size of HBA queues vs. the size of your Storage Controller Queues, it’s more difficult to troubleshoot or diagnose.
Daniel@VMware: most of those types of components are external to VMware ESX… we only see one side of the puzzle (HBA), so it’s a bit tricky.
Daniel@VMware: For sense codes, there is another article Interpreting sense codes KB 289902. IT will tell you how to decode SCSI specific error messages.
Daniel@VMware: generally if it’s that bad, we rely of SCSI sense codes to tell us what’s going on at the SCSI layer…
Daniel@VMware: For sense codes, there is another article Interpreting sense codes KB 289902. IT will tell you how to decode SCSI specific error messages.
nirvy: good stuff, cheers for that!
wondernerd: yes props for that!!!
We hope Daniel spends more time in the chat room. 
Be sure to not miss out on this opportunity to talk directly to your peers and VMware employees 24×7
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Here’s a couple of tips for users of our new VMware support toolbar.
There are now two variations of the toolbar catering to different types of customers. Learn about the two different versions; one for the Datacenter crowd, and one for desktop virtualization users. They look very similar to one another, but the content is definitely different.
Also learn how to change the default search engine. We like setting this to search our KB and leaving it there, but you have the option.
If you don’t have the cross-platform browser toolbar installed yet click to get it now!
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From time to time, we get feedback from users who are having trouble connecting to or using printers from their VMware Fusion virtual machines. Here are some excerpts from the help, Knowledge Base articles, and Communities to collect the best answers for VMware Fusion printer issues.
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The Knowledgebase Team at VMware is happy to announce the immediate availability of a brand new browser toolbar:
Another cool new capability the toolbar gives us is the ability to send a desktop alert to all customers with the toolbar installed. Under strict circumstances, we'd be able to popup a small window on your screen with important information. Of course, we'd never use this to spam our customers, its use would be restricted to critical messages.
Give the toolbar a try – we think you'll like it. And spread the word!
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A few customers have contacted us recently about problems with our website when attempting to open a support request. You may see the message: wrong field values or value types detected in field. Trying different browsers does not help.
If you encounter this our customer service folks are able to correct this immediately once we know your customer number. You can contact Customer Service by phone by calling 1-877-4VMWARE or you can send us a Twitter message @vmwarecares and we will have it corrected immediately.
Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you.
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Today’s video by Stephen Gardner from Fusion support details finding the virtual machine bundle in VMware Fusion. A virtual machine bundle is what VMware terms a collection of files that are logically dependent on each other. That is, they function together as a group. Each virtual machine bundle contains the virtual machine’s virtual disks (data) and settings files.
Note: Before you alter the virtual machine’s files, VMware recommends copying the virtual machine’s bundle to a safe location (either on an external hard drive or anywhere else on the Mac’s hard drive) to backup the virtual machine. For more information, see Best practices for virtual machine backup (programs and data) (1013628).
For more information and context, continue reading Locating the virtual machine bundle in VMware Fusion.
