Apr 05

Can’t log into your new vCloud Director VM guest?

By wsellers Guest OS, vCloud Director No Comments »

Let’s just say first: I VMware vCloud Director ROCKS! I have been using it for about 2 weeks; and, this product is going to make IT administration/automation really easy…

However, here is one of the issues that threw me off when trying to login to my newly created vCloud VM guest:

Problem: I cannot login into the OS (Linux, Windows, etc) of my newly created VMware vCloud guest.

Solution:  By default, when a new vCloud Director VM is provisioned, the default “administrator” or “root” user ID is auto-generated by vCloud Director.   This is part of the VM guest’s customization settings after provisioning.   You can find the new password by choosing the properties on the new guest.  Make sure you go to the properties of the VM guest — and not the vApp.  See Below:

 

Hope this helps…

Thanks,
Will
http://twitter.com/wsellers
http://communities.vmware.com/people/wsellers

 

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Apr 07

Linux: Extending “root” partiton with LVM

By wsellers How To, Linux No Comments »

Here’s a handy PDF, showing a step-by-step procedure for resizing the “/” root partition on a Linux VM guest.  Please note, that the guest was running a Red Hat based OS.

http://www.lavmug.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Resize-root-partition-with-LVM.pdf

Thanks,
Will

Mar 04

Snapshots: Leaving active snapshots for a long time.

By wsellers Guest OS, Site News, VMware ESX No Comments »
When using ESX VC Snapshot manager, it is a good idea not to leave your snapshot online for more than a day or two.
When a snapshot is left for more than 24-48 hours, disk “delta” files become very large and difficult to commit to the original Vmware vmdk disk file(s). This can lead to data corruption on your original vmdk file.


See the following links:
 http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=584324&tstart=0


* When you go to delete a Snapshot, via Snapshot Manager, you may see the process get to 95% and then seem to hang—-then fail with the error: “Remove Snapshot: Operation Timed Out.” DO NOT issue another delete via Snapshot manager.


There is a background process that is still removing the old snapshot. Be Patient. When the process is completed, you will NOT see the snapshot listed in Snapshot manager. The -delta.vmdk files will also be gone.
Unfortunately, I’ve experienced this first hand.


-Will
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Mar 04

Default Services/Daemons on RHEL5

By wsellers Linux No Comments »
I have noticed that with the default install of Red Hat Linux EL 5 a lot of services/daemons are running that DO NOT need to be. These services can “eat up” resources; and, in some cases, cause stability issues.
Here is the list:
* hidd – Human Interface Daemon for Bluetooth.
* bluetooth – Bluetooth Daemon.
* smartd – Disk Drive monitoring service. Not needed on VM guests.
* cups – Linux printing Daemon.
* ip6tables – IPv6 firewall Daemon.
* iptables – IPv4 firewall Daemon.
* avahi-daemon – Facilitates service discovery on a local network, Bonjour, Win-Plug-N-Play.
* libvirtd – Xen virtualization framework. Starts mDNS daemon and DHCP server. PLEASE turn this off.
* rhn-virtualization-host – Xen virtualization framework. PLEASE turn this off.


*** You can view the state of these services by typing:
# chkconfig –list | more
# chkconfig –list | grep
Ex: chkconfig –list | grep cups


You will then see the current state of each service at every run-level.


*** To disable these services type:
# chkconfig off
Ex: chkconfig cups off
Mar 04

Installing Windows Vista under ESX

By wsellers Guest OS No Comments »
FYI:
When you need to install Microsoft Windows Vista in a VM guest you will need the following file:
http://www.lavmug.org/files/vmware/vista-cdrom-drv.flp
Use this file when the installer complains that it does not have proper drivers for the CD/DVD ROM drive.
Will
Mar 04

Cold/Warm conversion stops at 2% forever.

By wsellers Guest OS, VMware Converter, VMware ESX No Comments »

There is an issue with some NICS (especially older Compaq G1 ones) where the VMware Converter process hangs at 2%, status = “In Progress”.

Setting the switch port and NIC to Auto Speed/Duplex will resolve this issue.
Please see the VMware discussion article:
  http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=641866�
This was a similar issue with VMware P2V:
 http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=503749

Thanks,
Will

Mar 04

Reset a lost VMware guest (Windows) password

By wsellers Configuration, How To, Windows No Comments »
Greetings,
If you never needed to reset a forgotten/corrup Windows administrator password, here is a link and ISO that totally works great. Works fine on Windows-based VMware guests.
http://thebackroomtech.com/2009/08/12/howto-reset-a-lost-vmware-guest-password/
The direct link to the ISO I used: http://www.piotrbania.com/all/kon-boot/data/CD-konboot-v1.1-2in1.zip
The link to the Kon-Boot site: http://www.piotrbania.com/all/kon-boot/
*** As always, use this application/method at your own risk… Always remember to do backups of your sever ***
Cheers,
Will

Greetings,If you never needed to reset a forgotten/corrup Windows administrator password, here is a link and ISO that totally works great. Works fine on Windows-based VMware guests.http://thebackroomtech.com/2009/08/12/howto-reset-a-lost-vmware-guest-pa…The direct link to the ISO I used: http://www.piotrbania.com/all/kon-boot/data/CD-konboot-v1.1-2in1.zipThe link to the Kon-Boot site: http://www.piotrbania.com/all/kon-boot/*** As always, use this application/method at your own risk… Always remember to do backups of your sever ***Cheers,
Will

Mar 04

HGFS is disabled in the host (on boot, in logs, when restarting NFS/mounts)

By wsellers Guest OS, Linux No Comments »
HGFS is disabled in the host (on boot, in logs, when restarting NFS/mounts)
SR Description: Getting error on a Linux VM guest, kernal vmware HGFS, HGFS is disabled in the host.
*** HGFS mounts allow the VM guest to connect to a share hosted on the ESX server/host. It is installed when the VMware Tools service is installed. This is a non-essential process and can be removed from /etc/fstab on the VM guest.
You can comment out the line that starts with .hosts…
Thanks,
Will
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