Virtual Tips

根据ESXi Arm Edition | VMware Flings，带来了一些bug fix，支持vTPM, virtual Secure Boot和加密虚拟机等，并且增加了Windows的VMware Tools。

Oct 26, 2022 – v1.11

Note: Upgrade is NOW supported from earlier ESXi-Arm 1.x Fling releases

• Support CPU accelerated crypto (e.g. NEON, Armv8 Cryptographic Extensions) for built-in ESX services
• Fixed ESXi xterm-256color terminfo. Terminal.app in macOS (or any modern terminal, on any OS) now properly renders esxtop
• Updated the virtual UEFI ROM to match the version used by VMware Fusion for Apple silicon
• Support for virtual HTTP boot
• Support for virtual TPM, virtual Secure Boot, and encrypted VMs
• Support for physical GICv4 systems
• Added VMware Tools for Windows
• Fixed issue with ixgben driver

Known Issues:

• Ampere Altra-based systems may PSOD when AHCI disks are used
• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS installer graphics do not work. Please use Ubuntu 22.10
• Windows SVGA driver does not work and must not be installed (or use safe mode to uninstall the svga device)

Build 20693597
VMware-VMvisor-Installer-7.0.0-20693597.aarch64.iso

因为1.x版本之后可以更新，所以我就通过更新安装升级到了1.11。

Win11 Arm版ISO可以通过UUP dump这个网站去抓取。

对于安装Win11 Arm版 VM，有几个问题要解决：

1. vTPM，这个需要使用vCenter中的Configure->Security->Key Providers 添加一个Standard Key Provider. 而这个Provider本身可以通过一些开源的KIMP项目实现。这里不详细说明，感兴趣的可以github里搜索些KIMP相关的repos。
2. Windows 11安装过程中，可能会提示找不到网络而无法继续（这个在X64下也会遇到），这里需要Shift+F10进入命令行，使用OOBE\BYPASSNRO命令来增加无网络安装。
3. Windows 11 Arm版没有内置VMXNET3驱动，ESXi Arm Edition里所谓的Windows版VMware Tools，再mount到VM后，里面就内置了一个VMXNet3驱动。
4. ESXi Arm Edition上面更新日志里提到了SVGA driver不支持，奇怪的是上面提到的VMware Tools里就有SVGA driver，我就没有安装。

最终，Windows 11 Arm版就在ESXi Arm Edition上安装成功了。（由于我的ESXi Arm Edition是装在树莓派4上的，所以性能还是有些吃紧的。）

​

2022.07.20，VMware Flings上，ESXi Arm Edition 又更新了，此次1.10版本有以下更新：

Note: Upgrade is NOW supported from earlier ESXi-Arm 1.x Fling releases

• Upgrade from earlier ESXi-Arm 1.x Fling is now supported
• Support for Arm DEN0115 (PCIe config space access via firmware interface, tested with Raspberry Pi)
• Report L3 cache info for Ampere eMAG
• Minor improvements to non-cache coherent DMA support
• Raspberry Pi NIC (genet) statistics
• GOS: use VNXNET3 and PVSCSI as default for freebsd12
• Support for RK3566 SBCs (e.g. Quartz64)
  • PCIe support (NVMe not supported at this time)
  • EQOS (onboard) NIC support
• Fix missing barriers for Intel igbn NIC driver, improving stability
• Return zero for unknown sys_reg(3, 0, 0, x, y) accesses from VMs
• Telemetry reporting – Collect statistics on what kind of systems the Fling is being run on, to best gauge interest
  • No PII is collected. Here are items collected:
    • CPU info: core count, NUMA, manufacturer, etc.
    • Firmware info: vendor, version
    • Platform info: vendor, product, UUID, PCI device list
    • ESXi-Arm info: version, patch level, product build
    • The /bin/telemetry script runs on every boot and at 00:00 every Saturday

      Build 20133114
      VMware-VMvisor-Installer-7.0.0-20133114.aarch64.iso 

其中最重要的就是，从这个版本开始，支持从旧版本更新安装了。（此前只能全新安装新版本。）本人把两个树莓派从旧版本直接更新安装到1.10. 

另外changelog 中提到了此版本会对系统的统计数据进行收集

• Telemetry reporting – Collect statistics on what kind of systems the Fling is being run on, to best gauge interest
  • No PII is collected. Here are items collected:
    • CPU info: core count, NUMA, manufacturer, etc.
    • Firmware info: vendor, version
    • Platform info: vendor, product, UUID, PCI device list
    • ESXi-Arm info: version, patch level, product build
    • The /bin/telemetry script runs on every boot and at 00:00 every Saturday

虽然提到了 No PII (Personal Identifiable Information) is collected. 但如果对此数据收集有担心的话，可以去crontabs里禁用此计划任务。

​

也可以去/bin/telemetry.py 进行修改，或者把发送数据的方法调用注释掉，不被main执行就可以了。查看此python脚本我们也间接的学会了一些系统统计数据的查看办法。