I picked up these links from my friends over at Virtual Insanity.

First off Mike DiPetrillo has a posting on how to build a VMware ESXi server for less than $500! http://www.mikedipetrillo.com/mikedvirtualization/2008/10/building-a-500-vmware-esxi-host.html

Secondly, there is a community run site that claims to have an unofficial Hardware Compatibility List for VMware ESX and VMware ESXi.  While this may not be supported it sure will make for cheaper labs and testing environments.  Check out the unofficial HCL over at vm-help.com

My steps below assume the usage of the nano text editor however you could certainly choose a different text editor.  For help with using nano see the nano Command Manual or this quick Introduction.

Modify the NTP config file:
nano /etc/ntp.conf

Contents of ntp.conf should look like:
restrict 127.0.0.1
restrict default kod nomodify notrap
server tick.usno.navy.mil
server tock.usno.navy.mil
driftfile /var/lib/ntp/drift

Modify the NTP Step Tickers config file:
nano /etc/ntp/step-tickers

Contents of step-tickers should look like:
tick.usno.navy.mil
tock.usno.navy.mil

Enable NTP in the firewall
esxcfg-firewall --enableService ntpClient

Restart the NTP service
service ntpd restart

Set the NTP service to start automatically at system startup
chkconfig ntpd on

After getting logged into the Service Console you will need to delete the existing vSwitch that contains the service console:

esxcfg-vswif -d vswif0

Once the vSwitch has been deleted we will then re-create the vSwitch with the new IP information.  Note this command should be entered with the forward slash and space between the words Service and Console.

esxcfg-vswif -a vswif0 -p Service\ Console -i 10.1.1.1 -n 255.255.255.0 -b 10.1.1.255

There is one final step that is often overlooked or forgotten.  If you don’t update the hosts file then the Service Console “splash” screen will display the incorrect IP address the next time your ESX server boots.  This elusive hosts file can be modified using the nano text editor.  The exact command would be:

nano /etc/hosts

Once the file has opened its really a simple matter of changing the line that lists your ESX server name and its corresponding IP address.

From http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_installation_guide.pdf

To upgrade using esxupdate

1. Download the esxupdate tar archive bundle.
2. Extract the compressed tar archive (gtar xvzf file.tar.gz) and change to the newly created directory.
3. Type esxupdate -n update.
4. When the update command completes, reboot the ESX Server host.

• Solid State Drive (SSD) boot support  As initially discovered last month, VMware will make available a special version of ESX Server (mentioned with terms like ESX Lite and Embedded ESX) for OEM vendors, to be installed into bootable Solid State storage devices (flash drives, etc.). This option will allow creation of ESX Server hardware appliances for easy jumpstart, granting smaller form-factors and improved reliability.  Dell, IBM and possibly other vendors will offer this option at announcement time in Q3 2007.
• DMotion  Unofficially introduced with ESX Server 3.0.1, in its first version DMotion is a special VMotion operation only capable of moving running virtual machines from an ESX Server 2.5.x host to a new ESX Server 3.x., without shared SAN LUN mandatory requirement.  In ESX Server 3.1 this capability will be extended, allowing hot migration of running virtual machines between ESX 3.1 hosts through the Ethernet cable.
• Patch management system for host and virtual machines (UpdateManager)  ESX Server 3.1 will finally introduce an automated patch management system called UpdateManager. This solution will be able to update both host itself and virtual machines (both Microsoft Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux).  UpdateManager will feature security backup before patching and automated rollback if something goes wrong.
• VMware Consolidate Backup (VCB) and VMware Converter integration  VirtualCenter 2.1 will now allow restoring VCB images with an integrated version of VMware Converter.
• Server consolidation advisor  VirtualCenter 2.1 will expose a server consolidation assistant able to analyze which physical machines should be converted in virtual ones, and where to move existing VMs among available hosts.  (note that with this feature VMware is further extending competition with PlateSpin, covering both features with PowerRecon and PowerConvert)
• Guest OS disaster recovery capability  VirtualCenter 2.1 will be able to recognize a failure inside a virtual machine and restart it through VMware HA module.
• Power saving capability (Distributed Power Management)  VirtualCenter 2.1 will introduce a new resources utilization analysis feature, able to verify when a physical host can be powered off, VMotion-ing its virtual machines on other hosts without impacting performances.
• Support for Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)  VirtualCenter 2.1 will be able to recognize and use CDP to discover physical and virtual network topologies.  It stays unconfirmed if ESX Server 3.1 will already expose new virtual network architecture, allowing 3rd party virtual switches, as it will be announced by Cisco CEO at VMworld 2007.
• Support for 10Gbit Ethernet network cards
• Support for TCP/IP Offload Engine (TOE) network cards
• Support for network load balancing algorithms
• Support for 200 hosts and 2000 virtual machines
• Support for 128GB RAM per host and for 64GB RAM per virtual machine
• Support for SATA storage devices
• Support for N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV)
• Support for VCB over iSCSI SANs
• Support for IPv6 in virtual networking

Resolution
You can edit your Ciphers list to include 3des-cbc by doing the following:

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

at the end of the file you should see a line like:

Ciphers aes256-cbc,aes128-cbc

Change this line to:

Ciphers aes256-cbc,aes128-cbc,3des-cbc

Once the file has been updated run the following command to restart the sshd service.

service sshd restart