You try to install a Vmware Server 2, and get an error claiming that software restriction policies prohibit this installation.
In the eventvwr (application log) you find an entry like this :
The installation of C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\1\{AF08C71F-F822-4416-87A9-2BBF5A8A5F12}~setup\VMware Server.msi is not permitted due to an error in software restriction policy processing. The object cannot be trusted.
Solution : KB9253326
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925336
How to configure VMWARE networking from the command line.
see vmware KB 1000258
1.
Ensure the network adapter you want to use is currently connected
[root@server root]# esxcfg-nics –l
Name PCI Driver Link Speed Duplex Description
vmnic0 06:00.00 tg3 Up 1000Mbps Full Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5721 Gigabit Ethernet
vmnic1 07:00.00 tg3 Up 1000Mbps Full Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5721 Gigabit Ethernet
Up indicates that the network adapter is available and functioning.
2.
List the current virtual switches
[root@server root]# esxcfg-vswitch –l
Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports Configured Ports Uplinks
vSwitch0 32 3 32 vmnic0
PortGroup Name Internal ID VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
VM Network portgroup2 0 0 vmnic0
In the above example, there exists a virtual machine network named “VM Network” and no Service Console portgroup. For illustration, we will create a new virtual switch and place the service console portgroup on it.
3.
Create a new virtual switch:
[root@server root]# esxcfg-vswitch –a vSwitch1
4.
Create the Service Console portgroup on this new virtual switch:
[root@server root]# esxcfg-vswitch –A “Service Console” vSwitch1
Because there is a space in the name we chose (Service Console), we must enclose it in quotation marks.
5.
Uplink vmnic1 to the new virtual switch:
[root@server root]# esxcfg-vswitch –L vmnic1 vSwitch1
6.
If you need to assign a VLAN, use the command:
[root@server root]# esxcfg-vswitch -v <VLAN> -p “Service Console” vSwitch0
where <VLANID> is the VLAN number. A zero here specifies no VLAN.
7.
Verify the new virtual switch configuration:
[root@server root]# esxcfg-vswitch –l
Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports Configured Ports Uplinks
vSwitch0 32 3 32 vmnic0
PortGroup Name Internal ID VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
Service Console portgroup5 0 1 vmnic0
Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports Configured Ports Uplinks
vSwitch1 64 1 64 vmnic1
PortGroup Name Internal ID VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
Service Console portgroup14 0 1 vmnic1
8.
Create the vswif (Service Console) interface. For example:
[root@server root]# esxcfg-vswif –a vswif0 –i 192.168.1.10 –n 255.255.255.0 –p “Service Console”
[‘Vnic’ warning] Generated New Mac address, 00:50:yy:yy:yy:yy for vswif0
Nothing to flush.
9.
Verify the configuration:
[root@esx]# esxcfg-vswif –l
Name Port Group IP Address Netmask Broadcast Enabled DHCP
vswif0 Service Console 192.168.1.10 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.255 true false
10.
Verify the networking configuration on the ESX Server host. See Verifying ESX Server host networking configuration on the service console (1003796) .
What if a task submitted from the Virtual infrastructure client hangs ? Reboot the vmware management service with this command :
service mgmt-vmware restart
There are multiple ways to resize or enlarge a disk in Vmware ESX.
One way would be by using the vmware converter. Easy! This enlarges your disk both on the ESX as on Windows.
If you’re using ESX 3.5, you can resize the disk using the VI client, while the VM is online! After this, you still have to resize the disk in Windows. (or *nix.)
If you’re using a previous version of ESX, you can resize the disk with this command.
After this you still have to resize the volume by using a disk management / partition utility. You could also boot with Bartpe and use diskpart, or add the disk to another VM, and run diskpart from there.
However you cannot resize the active boot volume. In this case, boot with a BartPE cd of add the disk to another machine).
Another way is to resize the disk with vmkfstools, as described above, and then resize the disk in windows using extpart (tool from dell). works on VM’s http://ftp.dell.com/app/ExtPart.exe
Another solution, would be to resize the disk with vmkfstools, and then resize the disk with Gparted. You can download a bootcd here : http://gparted.sourceforge.net/
Doesn’t matter how you do it, just always take a good backup!!!!
Categories: vmware
Tagged: esx, resize disk, vmware
I recently added an article on how to change the ipaddress of the service console.
But what if the service console has another name then service console?
you can get a list of all port groups by typing this command :
esxcfg-vswitch -l
Categories: vmware
Tagged: esx, service console, vmware
with thanks to the great post on yellow-bricks.com
I was P2Ving a Windows 2000 machine (yes, i know), and the Vmware Converter tool kept on asking to push the vmware converter agent.
Turned out, my client had disabled the eventlog service. Just make sure the eventlog service is running before you do a P2V with the vmware converter.
According to Vmware only the following services need to be running for a P2V :
Categories: vmware
Tagged: converter agent, P2V, vmware
If you’re trying to restore / import a virtual machine with the vmware converter, and you get the error
“Unable to determine Guest Operating System”, have a look at your vmware converter logs.
if you can find something like this in your logs
[#7] [2008-09-22 10:42:15.816 'App' 632 verbose] [,0] DISKLIB-LINK : “scsi0-0-0-nameofyourvmdk.vmdk” : failed to open (The system cannot find the file specified).
[#7] [2008-09-22 10:42:15.816 'App' 632 verbose] [,0] DISKLIB-CHAIN : “scsi0-0-0-nameofyourvmdk” : failed to open (The system cannot find the file specified).
then an easy fix is just to rename your vmdk file, append scsi0-0-0- to the beginning of the filename.
from the service console
Categories: vmware
Tagged: esx, service console, vmware
Possible fixes for Windows XP and Windows 2003
Possible fixes for Windows 2000
investigate the logfiles on both the server running vmware converter as on the target!!!
for example i found this in a failled converter log :
[#2] [2008-09-24 14:29:53.625 'App' 2824 verbose] [snapshotVolumeFactory,148] Creating snapshot using vsnap
[#2] [2008-09-24 14:29:53.625 'App' 2824 verbose] [snapshotVolumeVSNAPWin32,124] Vsnap does not have admin rights
=> in this case, uninstalling the converter, and pushing it again with a local admin fixed this.
The virtual datacenter OS enables a dramatically simpler and more efficient model of computing that meet customers’ needs. In this new model customers define the desired outcomes and the computing infrastructure guarantees these outcomes precisely. For example, IT professionals would like to provision an application, specify the application service levels, response time, security protection, and availability level– and the infrastructure should deliver and assure these service levels, at the lowest possible cost with minimal maintenance effort required.
There is a nice post about it @ yellowbrick.com
- Synchronization and a single-console view of inventory, configuration, roles and permissions between multiple vCenter instances with vCenter Linked Mode.
So no more maintaining and configuring several VC’s, just link ‘em up!
- Monitoring and automated remediation of VMware ESX physical host configurations for compliance with standard baseline profiles.
This is the future, real plug and play, define your ESX host once and just roll it out! I’m starting to see the big picture with ESXi… no more installing at all, just plug it in!
- Paravirtualized storage device enables over 200,000 i/o operations per second.
High i/o servers? No problem…- Distributed Switch simplifies the setup and change of virtual machine networking.
A single point of administration for your vSwitches, or should I say dSwitches in this case…- Network VMotion enables network statistics and history to travel with a virtual machine as it moves from host to host for better monitoring and security.
- Third party virtual switches plug into virtual networks and deliver value added network monitoring, security and QoS.
So this would be that Cisco vSwitch that everybody was talking about these last couple of days?- VMware Fault Tolerance, a groundbreaking new product provides zero downtime, zero data loss and availability to all applications against x86 hardware failures without the cost and complexity of hardware or software clustering solutions.
No more need for any other way of clustering, zero data loss, no more down time!- vStorage Thin Provisioning enables users to reduce storage required for virtual environments by up to 50% by allocating storage only as required while providing the reporting and alerting capabilities needed to track actual usage.
Besides power, rack space and cooling, save on storage as well!- vStorage Linked Clones reduce the storage required for virtual machines by sharing common OS images while still retaining user specific profile and application data.
Think about rapid deploying a 1000 VDI desktops… and saving on disk space.
- Virtual machines increase in size from 4 way to 8 way SMP, from 64 GB to 256GB of RAM, enabling even the largest, most resource intensive applications to run on VMware.
- Hot add of virtual CPU, memory and network devices enables applications to scale seamlessly without disruption or downtime.
No more downtime.- vCenter Data Recovery provides quick, simple and cost effective backup and recovery for all applications through:
Agentless disk based back up and recovery of virtual machines, Incremental backups and dedupe to save disk space, vCenter – integrated virtual machine level or file level restore.
Doing backups and restores from the same console you are already used to, VirtualCenter!- vApp turns new and existing applications into self-describing and self-managing entities. vApp leverages OVF, an open industry standard, to specify and encapsulate all components of a multi-tier application as well as the operational policies and service levels associated with it. Just like the UPC bar code contains all information about a product, the vApp gives application owners a standard way to describe operational policies for an application which the Virtual Datacenter OS can automatically interpret and execute.
So basicly, downtime is a thing of the past?
Categories: vmware
Tagged: virtual datacenter os, virtualization, vmware
When you create a VMFS datastore on your VMware ESX servers many administrators select the default 1MB block size without knowing when or why to change it. The block size determines the minimum amount of disk space that any file will take up on VMFS datastores. So an 18KB log file will actually take up 1MB of disk space (1 block) and a 1.3MB file will take up 2MB of disk space (2 blocks). But the block size also determines the maximum size that any file can be, if you select a 1MB block size on your data store the maximum file size is limited to 256GB. So when you create a VM you cannot assign it a single virtual disk greater then 256GB. There is also no way to change the block size after you set it without deleting the datastore and re-creating it, which will wipe out any data on the datastore.
Because of this you should choose your block size carefully when creating VMFS datastores. The VMFS datastores mainly contain larger virtual disk files so increasing the block size will not use all that much more disk space over the default 1MB size. You have the following choices when creating a datastore:
• 1MB block size – 256GB maximum file size
• 2MB block size – 512GB maximum file size
• 4MB block size – 1024GB maximum file size
• 8MB block size – 2048GB maximum file size
Besides having smaller files use slightly more disk space on your datastore there are no other downsides to using larger block sizes. There is no noticeable I/O performance difference by using a larger block size. When you create your datastore, make sure you choose your block size carefully. 1MB should be fine if you have a smaller datastore (less than 500GB) and never plan on using virtual disks greater then 256GB. If you have a medium (500GB – 1TB) datastore and there is a chance that you may need a VM with a larger disk then go with a 2MB or 4MB block size. For larger datastores (1TB – 2TB) go with a 4MB or 8MB block size. In most cases you will not be creating virtual disks equal to the maximum size of your datastore (2TB) so you will usually not need a 8MB block size.
So remember, choose carefully, once you create your datastore there is no changing it later.
vmkfstools --createfs vmfs3 --blocksize 8M vmhba0:0:0:3
however this will destroy all data, so you might just recreate the volume
