Cloudera Quickstart VM fails to start on VMware ESXi 5.5

[#1]

Hello,

I am trying to install : cloudera-quickstart-vm-5.1.0-1-vmware

On : VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 1 (build 1892794)

- Frst the 7zip archive for Cloudera Quickstart VM is decompressed

- I transfer the files to the VMware ESXi datastore

- In vSphere Client I go to the datastore browser and can see the files there

- I notice that the vmdk files are grouped in 1 file

- Right-clik on the .vmx file and the add to inventory

- In the inventory I try to run the VM

1st issue :

- The vSphere Client says that the VM hardware needs to be upgraded

- I right-click on the VM in the inventory and then upgrade, the virtual hardware is upgraded to version 10

2nd issue :

- I try to run the VM again, it fails with :

"Transport (VMDB) error -32: Pipe: Read failed."

"Failed to power on"

- Then the VM is grayed-out in the inventory and cannot be started again

- I have to remove it from the inventory and add it back in from the datastore

Can anyone advise on any solution please ?

Best regards

[#2]

Are you able to try the VMWare image with the Player product and let us
know if it works for you?

http://www.vmware.com/products/player
http://www.cloudera.com/content/support/en/downloads/quickstart_vms/cdh-5-1-x1.html

[#3]

Thank you for your prompt reply.

I have tested the same VM on my PC with VMware Player 6.0.3 build-1895310, it works fine.

My objective is to install it on ESXi on a server, I have even tried 3 different version of ESXi :

- ESXi 5.0

- ESXi 5.1

- ESXi 5.5 Update 1

All three of them are giving me an error when starting the VM.

The server hardware specifications I am using are :

- Intel Xeon E5-1620v2 (4cores/8threads)

- 3,7 GHz+/3,9 GHz+

- 64 Go DDR3 ECC 1600MHz

- 2x 2 To SATA3 Hard Drives with Soft Raid 1

I have tried on this same server ProxMox and the KVM virtual machine, they work fine, but I have to use VMware ESXi.

Best regards

[#4]

I am not aware of how you can get the quickstart VM to work with ESXi.

Is there anything specific you need from the quickstart VM? Why not create
a blank VM with CentOS6.4 and install CDH+CM from scratch? The whole
install process is pretty easy.

http://www.cloudera.com/content/cloudera-content/cloudera-docs/CM5/latest/Cloudera-Manager-Installat...

If you do happen to try this and run into any issues, please start a new
thread and we'll be happy to assist.

[#5]

I was going for the Quickstart edition because it deploys quickly a standalone environment for Hadoop testing.

I am not installing a Hadoop cluster, I have to install 10 VMs for a training session where each trainee will have his own CDH quickstart VM.

Do you think that installing CDH+CM from scratch will give me easily the same standalone (pseudo-distributed with HDFS) environment as the Quickstart VM, ready for use with all the services ?

Thank you.

[#6]

Since you're using VMWare, you could very well do what QuickStart basically
is.
- Create one VM and configure all services as you wish.
- Take a snapshot or export the appliance
- Clone it ten times for ten virtual machines

When you want to update CDH just update the master image and repeat the
process.

[#7 · Accepted solution]

I have managed to install the Quickstart VM on VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 1 !

It was tedious but the idea was to create an ISO clone with clonezilla from the local VMware Player and use that ISO to install the system on VM in vSphere Client.

Here are the detailed step if anyone runs into a similar problem :

## A- Creating a replica of the Quickstart VM with Clonezilla

1- Install the Quickstart VM on a local PC with VMware Player

2- Check that it runs OK

3- Turn it off then download the clonezilla ISO from the Web

4- Attach the clonezilla ISO to the CD/DVD drive of the Quickstart VM in VMware Player

5- Make sure that the CD/DVD drive is turned ON when the machine starts

6- Start the Quickstart VM in VMware Player and hit ESC as soon as it boots

7- Choose to boot from CD/DVD, this will make the VM boot into clonezilla

8- In clonezilla create a replica of the system on an external USB flash drive

9- For info 8GB flash drive is enough, and the replica of the system is a set of files created by clonezilla

10- When done turn off the VM

## B- Create an ISO of the clonezilla replica

11- Create a new VM in VMware Player with Clonezilla ISO as system

12- Run the Clonezilla VM and then choose to create an ISO from the previously created replica on the USB drive

13- Clonezilla will create the ISO on the USB flash drive (8GB was enough in my case to hold the replica and the ISO)

14- When the ISO is created turn off the Clonezilla VM

## C- Install the ISO in a VM in ESXi 5.5 using the vSphere Client

15- Upload the replica ISO to the datastore in a folder called /ISO for example

16- Create a new VM in vSphere Client using Centos 6 64-bit as system

17- Click Edit settings for that newly created VM

18- In the settings attach the ISO from the datastore to the CD/DVD drive and make sure you tick the checkbox to turn it ON at startup

19- Set 4GB of RAM and 1vCPU for the VM

20- Start the VM, clonezilla will start, then just follow the menu, it will install the Quickstart VM into the new VM in ESXi

21- When done turn off the VM

22- Start the VM, congratulations you have a Cloudera Quickstart on ESXi running fine !!

I guess using the Clonezilla technique is more general and can be applied to any other VM.

Cheers

[#8]

Thank you for the update, glad you were able to resolve the problem.

[#9]

An easier option to fix this is to use VMware Converter Standalone if you have access to that application.

You can install vmware converter standalone on any Windows machine and use it to convert the orginal .vmdk files (downloaded from Cloudera) to a new ESX host.

You will need to unzip the files that are downloaded from Cloudera to extract the .vmx and .vmdk files to a network share or put them on the same server where you install vmware converter.  Either way will work.

Install vmware converter standalone on Windows Server.

Map a drive to the .vmx files from the vmware converter server or copy the .vmx and .vmdk classroom files locally to the vmware converter server.

Start up vmware converter and choose "Backup image or third-party virtual machine"

Browse to the network share (or local drive) that has the .vmx file.

Connect to your vcenter server or a stand-alone ESXi host.

Choose your Display Name

Choose which storage volume to store the Hadoop training virtual machine on.

Configure your network settings; maybe change the storage to thin provisioned; and make any other changes to the virtual machine if you want.

After that the conversion process should run and within 10-15 minutes it should convert the files over to the new server and you should be good to go.

[#10]

Hi,

I have downloaded Cloudera Quickstart VM for Vmware player which works fine. I thought to install the same instance on the top of ESXi host. Thus I uploaded all vmdk files into datastore and once I bootup the machine it fails to start.

I tried by using clonezilla, it didn't work. Anybody please suggest me any possiblity of doing it ?