News

http://vmguy.com has a great write up on vSphere 4.0, and what is new titled : vSphere 4.0: What’s new

So much new, they had to put the What’s new from the release notes in it’s own doc.

Here’s the whole thing copied for those on the RSS feed:

 

Source Post http://vmguy.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/852

Just like in ESXi 3.5, you need to enable SSH in ESXi 4.o , Remember this voids any support.

http://malaysiavm.com has a write up on it, http://malaysiavm.com/blog/how-to-enable-ssh-in-vsphere-4i/

1. First, you press Alt + f1 then type “unsupported” and press enter.
2. You will see the prompt for password after this. Key in the root password you had previously configure, and you will be able to log in to the service console.
3. Follow by that, do a vi /etc/inetd.conf and look for #ssh. Remove the # and save the file after this.
4. Go to /sbin, and run this command ./services.sh restart

Source Post http://malaysiavm.com/blog/how-to-enable-ssh-in-vsphere-4i/

I found this helpful when planning a New Install of VSphere or vCenter.

KB Article
1009080

Updated
May 27, 2009

This article provides quick reference to the information needed for a trouble free installation of vSphere ESX 4.0 and vCenter 4.0.

Full Post, http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1009080&sliceId=2&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&dialogID=21124828&stateId=1%200%2021132008

Lot’s of good info here. I wanted to post it as a reference.

http://blog.colovirt.com/ has a nice write up on running ESXi via booting from USB 2.0 USB Stick, titled : VMware/Linux/ESXi: Running ESX4i From Bootable USB

I like running ESXi via booting from USB 2.0 memory sticks.  This makes it that much easier for my home lab.  Especially since I mainly use ISCSI VMFS datastores.  Not to mention that “in a pinch”, having ESXi on memory sticks can aide in disaster recovery (DR) scenarios for small businesses.  Of course the requirement here is that the server MUST be able to boot from USB!  Also, get a big memory stick.  Each time an upgrade is performed to ESXi, the version being upgraded from is still stored on the memory stick in case a “roll back” is needed.  At least this is my understanding.  Larger memory sticks are pretty cheap now.  Below outlines the steps to creating a bootable ESX4i memory stick.  The main reason for me writing this up is that the process turns out to be different from ESX3i.

Check out the full post http://blog.colovirt.com/2009/06/01/vmwarelinuxesxi-running-esx4i-from-bootable-usb/

Thanks to the Author.

I am going to walk you through setting up open filer 2.3, ( after a openfiler 2.3 64 bit, install with Static IP. * note, do not use openfiler VM ) to work with vSphere’s latest VMware tools, and VMXNET3, Paravirutal SCSI adapters.

Why write this? the openfiler 2.3 kernel is build with open VMware tools installed, which do not support the above, and we will need to remove these to get them working.

When I refer to console, I am talking about Linux console, not VMware’s.

1. To Start, Create a Server 2008, 64 bit Guest, remove the NIC, and add a new Nic, Select VMXNET3 from Adapter Type, click ok, add a VMDK with 1:0 SCSI, change SCSI to Paravirtual (i’ll assume you know how ) and hit ok.
2. Edit the Guest, go to options, and change the Guest Operating System to the Linux 64 bit, 2.6x OS. ( doing this allows you to later install VMware tools )
3. go into console, type conary update kernel:build-tree
4. type conary update gcc
5. reboot
6. go into the web UI of openfiler, and update to the newest version. ( system, system update )
7. reboot
8. go into console, type nano /boot/grub/grub.conf
9. Change change “default=0” to “default=1” ( to use the older kernel, needed because devel is older)
10. reboot
11. in VI, Select Install VMware tools to the guest ( i’ll assume you know how )
12. Go into console, type the following lines 12 – 18 :
13. mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
14. cp *.gz /tmp
15. cd /tmp
16. tar zxvf *.tar.gz
17. cd vmware-tools-distrib
18. cd bin
19. ./vmware-uninstall-tools.pl ( follow any prompts )
20. type ..
21. now, run ./vmware-install.pl, and it will give you a execution aborted, and list the following modules that are installed.
22. write down the modules names.
23. type find /lib/modules | grep nameofmodule ( example find /lib/modules | grep vmmemctl), ( this will display somthing like /lib/modules/2.6.26.8-1.0.11.smp.gcc3.4.x86_64/misc/vmmemctl.o /lib/modules/2.6.26.8-1.0.11.smp.gcc3.4.x86_64/misc/vmmemctl.ko
24. You need to remove all finds and directories listed when you run find /lib/modules | grep nameofmodule . Do this by using RM, and RM dir, ( example rm /lib/modules/2.6.26.8-1.0.11.smp.gcc3.4.x86_64/misc/vmmemctl.o rmdir /lib/modules/2.6.26.8-1.0.11.smp.gcc3.4.x86_64/vcmmemctl ) * note * if the file doesn’t have a . it’s a folder .
25. run ./vmware-install.pl ( follow any prompts ) ( you will see it compile support for vmxnet3 and paravirtual scsi.)
26. reboot
27. In console, cd to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts
28. type nano ifcfg-eth0 , change the IPADDR, DEVICE to eth1, and the HWADDR = to the address of your virtual nic. ( see the guest’s nic in VI), hit Ctrl X, yes, and type ifcfg-eth1
29. reboot.
30. in console, type nano /etc/modprobe.conf
31. make sure that( alias eth1 vmxnet3 ) is a line.
32. test the IP you assigned in eth1 and make sure it’s alive ( ping )

You are set, you can now use the IP of the VMXNET3 nic for your NFS or ISCSI, and the other static ip for management.

You should also see the vmdk under block devices in openfiler UI in the volumes section.

Roger L.

As a follow up to vSphere Paravirtual SCSI testing , I ran the test for three minutes, and outputted to csv.

http://educait.wikispaces.com/file/view/LSI_vmdk_3disk.csv

http://educait.wikispaces.com/file/view/rdm_3disk.csv

http://educait.wikispaces.com/file/view/paravirtualvmdk_3disk.csv

http://educait.wikispaces.com/file/view/paravirtualrmd_3disk.csv

Next on to more testing.

It’s a Girl, 5 pounds 14 Ounces, 18″, Maizie Jean Lund

W00T!!!!!!!

I am a very Proud Daddy.

A ton of Hype about the Launch of vSphere around the web.

I thought this PPT was helpful. http://educait.wikispaces.com/file/view/vSphere+features+Chart.ppt

As time permits, I’ll post more on vSphere.

I updated my Wiki with Supported Virtualization products, this was a question I had at our First Local IT & Virtualization user group.

http://educait.wikispaces.com/SupportedVirtualizationProducts

Here are links to info about the user group.

http://rogerlunditblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/httpwwweducaitnet-launched-based-on.html

http://rogerlunditblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/st-cloud-minnesotas-it-virtualization.html

http://centralmnit.com

http://www.educait.net/