Tag: srm

VMware vSphere Administration using Fusion on iMac

I had a frustrating time a while back trying to do VMware vSphere admin work on an iMac. I run a Windows 7 VM using VMware Fusion. The issue I ran into was building nested VMware ESXi hosts and pressing F11. Pressing F11 natively turns up the volume, and does so also while in the Windows 7 VM. I thought to press the FN key with F11 to find out now my windows all disappear taking me to the desktop (probably some OS X term that I should know since people call me a fanboy, but not coming to mind now). I solved the issue initially by booting my MacBook Air to a BootCamp’d version of Windows 7 and doing the install there as it was quick and dirty. Today after pressing many key combinations I finally figured out the magic. After work I decided to start working on the build of a lab for Indy VMUG Demo Days 2012. I would really like to put together a lab to show off the vSphere Replication piece of VMware Site Recovery Manager 5. I think the technology to migrate to a new datacenter with unlike hardware on the other end is valuable. Well building this lab requires a few nested ESXi hosts and will require a few presses of F11. The magic key combination is COMMAND + FN + F11.

*update* it was brought to my attention to use the menu and follow Virtual Machine > Send Key > F11. For some reason or other my memories are of it not working. I will have to try it again this evening. Other articles out there say to use FN + F11, which I believe works on the Bluetooth keyboard, however with my iMac I use the full keyboard and it does not work and requires COMMAND + FN + F11

*update 2* I have verified that using the Virtual Machine > Send Key >  F11 does in fact work. I prefer the keystrokes, but to each his own.