Louisiana VMware Users Group

Linux: Extending “root” partiton with LVM

wsellers — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 19:11:24 +0000

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

VMware Communities Roundtable: ESXi

wsellers — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:53:23 +0000

Checkout this great VMware Communities Podcast, regarding ESXi — hosted by @jtroyer. Here’s the links for DOWNLOAD and to LISTEN NOW.

John Troyer (http://twitter.com/jtroyer) runs the VMware Communities Podcast at: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/19367 – Please stop by and participate in these live podcasts, hosted at Talkshoe.

Enjoy,
Will

Welcome to the new LAVMUG.ORG

wsellers — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:12:49 +0000

Greetings,

In order to better maintain this site, we’ve moved to a new web/blogging software. Please be patient while we update the site back to a usable format. If you are interested in participating in this site, please login with a new account you create here — or use the facebook connect feature.

Thanks for your patience,
Will

Restarting the VMware Management service

wsellers — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:11:01 +0000

From time to time, you will need to start/restart the VMware Management service.

Here is the command you would use:

# service mgmt-vmware stop

# service mgmt-vmware start (can take up to 1 minute before fully online)  OR
# service mgmt-vmware restart

This might be a handy command if you are experiencing problems with your ESX host connecting to the VMware Virtual Center server. Also, if you having problems when “kill -9 ” does not stop a VM guest.

Please see this related VMware discussion topic. Be aware of the specific settings your VM guests MUST have before issuing this command.

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=631729򚎱

Thanks,
Will

Could not power on VM : No swap file. Failed to power on VM

wsellers — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:07:03 +0000

“Could not power on VM : No swap file. Failed to power on VM” – This issue is caused when a VM guest tries to power on and some other ESX host has one or more guest files open. This is usually due to a crash or fault in the ESX Cluster that HA did not complete successfully.

Here is how to fix:

#1) Login to each ESX’s service console and issue this command: is case sensitive.

For ESX2.x and 3.0.x type: ps -ef | grep vm_guest_name For ESX3.5.x type: ps -efwww | grep vm_guest_name

If the VM is not running on the ESX host you are on, you will get something like:

root 3483 3217 0 10:38 pts/2 00:00:00 grep vm_guest_name

If you get something like this: (This is the process that has your file open in ESX)

root 1092 1 0 10:33 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmkload_app /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx -ssched.group=host/user -# name=VMware ESX Server;version=3.5.0;licensename=VMware ESX Server;licenseversion=2.0 build-82663; -@ pipe=/tmp/vmhsdaemon-0/vmx6a6188c22e804baf; /vmfs/volumes/48729e6e-7cf3b2df-6ca0-001ec9b1b30a/vm_guest_name/vm_guest_name.vmx

#2) You will want to kill the process that is still holding your VM guest files open. You can do this by typing:

kill -9 pid Example using above VM: kill -9 1092 ( you will notice the pid/process ID in bold)

#3) After doing this, you should be able to Power On your VM guest.

*** Please remember that some HA/DRS issue could have caused this error. Please take a close look at your guest/hosts logs OR call VMware support.

-Will

Cannot Deploy Template / Orphaned Template

wsellers — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:04:51 +0000

I’ve found that from time to time, “Deploy virtual machine from this template” will be grayed-out and prevents me from deploying a new VM from template.

This is a known issue: http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=51923&start=0&tstart=0

Quick fix: Right click on your orphaned template 
Select “Remove from Inventory”  From the host you would like the template to reside on… 
Select you host Select the “Configuration” tab 
Select “Storage” under the Hardware pane Double click on the storage device in the right pane..this will bring up the “Datastore Browser” 
Browse to your orphaned template’s location Right click on the template file..it will have a “.vmtx” extention with the Type displayed as “Template VM”  Choose “Add to Inventory” Go through and answer the wizard information to complete the “fix”

Thanks, Will

LINUX: File system goes read-only

wsellers — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:00:59 +0000

I’ve run into an issue where from time to time, Red Hat Linux servers will start getting the following errors at console: “EXT3-fs error (device sdxx) in Start_transaction: Journal has aborted” This is due to an issue with the scsi driver and the file system becoming read-only.

Here is a link to a VMware KB article that fixed my problem:  http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=51306

Here is a link to the patch:  http://ftpsite.vmware.com/download/RHEL4mptscsiRPM/mptscsi-rhel4gos-3.02.62.01-0vmw.i386.rpm
I would say it is best practice to patch your Linux servers at install time.

Thanks, Will

Snapshots: Leaving active snapshots for a long time.

wsellers — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:56:04 +0000

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

http://www.vmwarez.com/2006/11/beware-long-snapshot.html

* 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

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

wsellers — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:54:24 +0000

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

How to disable IPv6 on Red Hat

wsellers — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:51:33 +0000

If you ever wanted to disable IPv6 OR remove that annoying “sit0″ network interface: — as seen on: http://www.vincentverhagen.nl/2007/06/22/disable-ipv6-on-red-hat/

If, for some reason, you want to disable IPv6 on a Red Hat environment, here’s how to do it. I’ve tested this with FC4, FC5, FC6, RHEL 4(.4), RHEL 5, CentOS 4(.4), CentOS 5.0. Oh, you need to do this as root…

Edit /etc/sysconfig/network and change

NETWORKING_IPV6=yes

NETWORKING_IPV6=no

Edit /etc/modprobe.conf and add these lines (if they’re not in it):

alias net-pf-10 off alias ipv6 off

Stop the ipv6tables service by typing:

service ip6tables stop

Disable the ipv6tables service by typing:

chkconfig ip6tables off

After these changes, IPv6 will be disabled after the next reboot of your system.