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

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

By wsellers Site News 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

Mar 04

How to disable IPv6 on Red Hat

By wsellers Site News No Comments »
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
to
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.
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

Host address lookup for server failed: No such host is known.

By wsellers Configuration, VMware ESX No Comments »
This error is caused when your Virtual Center Client application cannot directly (over IP) connect to your ESX host. I see this a lot of times when you are installing the VMVC Client on a new workstation.


The “fix” is very easy:
1) Add your ESX hosts into DNS. -not a bad idea in the first place
*** OR ***
2) Edit your Microsoft Windows hosts file to add your ESX servers for name resolution.
* Found in “C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\host” — Just edit with notepad.exe
3) Reopen your client and try again.
Now, if you are traversing a firewall, you may need to open some ports: All the ports needed are open (80, 443, 902, 903).


You may also need to take a look at this VM Communities post, if you are having problems with a “Blank” console screen: http://communities.vmware.com/message/671489 – Also, checkout http://communities.vmware.com/message/533696


Thanks,
Will
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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

VMware vSphere Client running on Windows 7

By wsellers Configuration, VMware ESX No Comments »

Greetings,
If you’ve gotten this error “error stating “Error parsing clients.xml file” when connecting to your vCenter server with Microsoft Windows 7 — Here is your fix: http://www.tinyint.com/index.php/2009/09/04/vsphere-client-on-windows-7/

*  Note, this was fixed with vSphere 4, Update 1

Cheers,
Will

Mar 04

Enter Maintenance Mode via Command Line Interface

By wsellers Configuration, VMware ESX No Comments »
If you ever wanted to enter (or exit) the VMware ESX Maintenance Mode, you can do this using the VIMSH command. See below:


- To Enter Maintenance Mode on ESX HOST:
vimsh -n -e /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter
- To Exit Maintenance Mode on ESX HOST:
vimsh -n -e /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit


Thanks,
Will
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