Web access in ESX4 (vSphere)

After a default installation you will probably receive a 503 Error.

Check if the service is running “service vmware-webAccess status”
If not “service vmware-webAccess start“.
To start it automatic after a reboot “chkconfig –level 345 vmware-webAccess on

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MetaLun EMC SAN and ESX 4 (vSphere)

 imageExpand the CLARiiON LUN on the ClaRiiON  storage system to the desired LUN size, issue a rescan at the ESX level. Sometimes you have to rescan again before your metalun will be shown.(I have to find out why) Your old disk will disappear from storage adapter view and the new metalun wil be shown.

 

 

Switch over to the Storage view:

image

Right click your storage disk what needs to be increased. Select properties…

 

 

Hit the Increase button:

image

Select the volume you need:

image

And finish:

Now you have to expand your disk within the properties of the VM.

image  

The Last step go on the the console of your VM do a rescan of your disks and extend your disk on OS level.

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Using a Qlogic QLE220 HBA with ESX 4

After installing ESX4, we see that the HBA is not recognized.

Put the server in maintenance mode.

To get it working you have to modify your qla2xxx.xml file. So login to your ESX4 server using putty and change to /etc/vmware/pciid the mentioned file will be there.

copy this part

<device id=”5432″>
  <vmware label=”fc”>
    <driver>qla2xxx</driver>
  </vmware>
  <name>QLE220</name>
  <table file=”pcitable” module=”ignore” />
  <table file=”pcitable.Linux” module=”qla2xxx” />
</device>

into your qla2xxx.xml file and save it.

Now we have to run a utility that will update some files.
Run the following command esxcfg-pciid

reboot your server. And exit maintenance mode.

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Update ESX4 using the commandline.

Just starting to update a esx4 server using the commandline. I downloaded from VMWare the update I needed.

Started putty and did a copy of the downloaded zip file to the local storage.

Then run:
esxupdate check –bundle ESX400-200906001.zip
esxupdate update –bundle ESX400-200906001.zip

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Enable ssh on Esxi4

1. Press ALT-F1 to access the main console.
2. Type the word: unsupported.

You will get the nice message:

You have activated Tech Support Mode.
The time and date of this activation have been sent to the system logs.
Tech Support Mode is not supported unless used in consultation with VMware Tech Support.
VMware offers supported, powerful system administration tools. Please see www.vmware.com/go/sysadmintools for details.
Tech Support Mode may be disabled by an administrative user. Disabling requires a reboot of the system. Please consult the ESXi Configuration Guide for additional important information.

3. Enter the root password when prompted
4. Then type: vi /etc/inetd.conf
5. Scroll down the list until you find the line that begins with #SSH (for IPv4 not IPv6)
6. Delete the # sign directly proceeding SSH
7. Press ESC
8. Type: :wq! to save and exit.
9. Reboot the server.
10. SSH Root should be enabled now.

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Setting up Windows Deployment Services – Injecting drivers into Windows 7 and WIndows 2008R2

The final part about this item.

First of all we need the "Windows® Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows® 7" after installing the Kit I added the directory "C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\Servicing" to the system variables path variable. Before we are to inject some stuff. We have to export a image, so right click on your image and choose "Export Image". I’m going to place it on c:\wimedit. After doing that you have to create a folder where you are going to mount the image. In my case C:\mounted.

A wim file can contain several images, to find the index number you need. use the following command:

dism.exe /Get-WimInfo  /wimfile:"c:\wimedit\install.wim".

In my case only 1 Index is available so that’s easy.

Now we can mount the image using the next command:

dism.exe /mount-wim /wimfile:"c:\wimedit\install.wim"  /index:1 /mountdir:"C:\mounted".

This will consume some time. After a while you will see a filled directory "c:\mounted".

image

Now we can start injecting the drivers.

For that we need the following command:

dism.exe /image:"c:\mounted" /add-driver /driver:"C:\new-drivers-wds\laptop Integrated Webcam\oem1.inf"  or  dism.exe /image:"c:\mounted" /add-driver /driver:"C:\new-drivers-wds\laptop Integrated Webcam” /recurse.

If you have unsigned drivers or you receive “Error 50 The request is not supported” than you may use the "/forceunsigned" switch at the end.

image

Committing and unmount the image.

For that we need the following command:

dism.exe /unmount-wim /Mountdir:"C:\mounted" /commit

After a while you will see.

image

In our folder "c:\wimedit" you will find the updated "wim" file ready for upload or replace the original.

Well that’s it for know.

Setting up Windows Deployment Services – Capture a Windows 7 Image

Well guys it took me a lot of time (and google sessions) to solve this issue.

Having installed the Windows 7 OS and installed the complete office surrounding including additional software. After all this work started windows update so the machine is updated to the latest versions. So far so good. mmmmm now the trouble started. Starting the sysprep “Windows could not finish configuring the system error after sysprep /generalize“. Used some workarounds found on the “net” but no one gives a permanent working solution.

So we have to investigate this to get it working:

First of all I started to disable a nasty windows service (you can always enable it after deploying) The service is called (Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service) and cause sysprep to fail.

I started over again, now it seems to be running. The system is shutting down. After powering on again to see it working I received

Windows could not finish configuring the system. To attempt to resume configuration restart computer”

errorwin7

Ye restart and restart and restart it will never finish.

So I have to rollback my image again, and start digging again. After reading some google results I came on Dave Stork’s article. That saved me a lot of time.

So the final way to go:

  1. Use a third party tool to format your disk.
  2. Install Windows 7 do NOT create the additional partion from 100 Mb.
  3. Install all your software, and Installed al the updates.
  4. Disable the windows service called Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service.
  5. Reboot your system.
  6. Open a elevated Dos Prompt and run slmgr -rearm.
  7. Reboot again.
  8. Open a elevated Dos Prompt and run sysprep.exe /oobe /generalize /shutdown.

Now your ready to capture your image! Good luck

Setting up Windows Deployment Services – Creating the capture image.

Inside WDS you have to go to the boot images. Select the appropriate one and right click on it. Choose "create capture boot image", enter your image name and description and the location were to store the capture.wim file. Click on next and wait a while. When completed click on finish.

Adding the capture image to WDS. Inside WDS the boot images right click on empty space and choose add boot image. Browse to your capture.wim file and click on next, check the name given and go on using next and again next. Now the capture image is added to the store.

Now prepare your desktop/laptop/server fore capture. Search the sysprep tool. The only one I’ve used is generalize.(In the earlier years-reseal)  It makes changes so that the computer can be used as a base for imaging. It strips out all unique security descriptors and hardware specific drivers out. After that PXE boot your machine. Hit the F12 key and select your capture image from the boot menu.

Now you receive a warm welcome to the Deployment Service Image Capture Wizard. Click on next select the volume to capture, apply a image name and description and click on next. Here you can make a decision where you will save the image or on another local (usb) disk or uploading to the WDS server.

I will use the direct upload, so you have to enter a name and location, given the server name and the image group name. Hit the "Next" button and relax.

Now the image is automatic uploaded and ready to use, other wise you have to upload it to the "Install Images" by your self.

Setting up Windows Deployment Services – The Basics

First of all you have to install the appropriate "Role" on your Windows 2008 server.

After installing I would say reboot your machine. Now the nice part starts, collect your operating systems which has to be distributed. I used VirtualCloneDrive to mount the DVD. Now you can mount the iso image including your OS, Copy the contents to lets say c:\OS-source\win7x86 (Yep). If it’s ready remove the read only  attributes .(later on you will find out)

Oke now its time to add your images to the "store". First upload your "Boot Images", right click on Boot Images and choose add image. Browse to c:\OS-source\win7x86\sources" and select the boot.wim file. Click on next, there you can change the display name, by default click twice on next. This proces will take a while so grab a coffee. The same way you can add the install image select the install.wim file.

Lets try to deploy a image to a vmware workstation (virtual IDE disk). Boot it and hit F12, choose your boot image windows7 X86. Select your Locale and Keyboard. I have to login because my server is a domain server. Select the image to install windows 7 X86. Select your drive to install the OS and create the partition. After clicking on next the installation will start. Again grab a coffee ;)

Deploying a image if the hardware is not to old and not that new. (mmmm) it works cool.

If it’s ready than you have to apply your product key, right click on my computer and select properties scroll down to windows activation and select change product key. Make the change and activate your windows. Ready to go. 

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Amazon EC2, S3, EBS

Coming soon a blog post by Marc about Amazon EC2, S3, EBS. We have played around and build some machines, for now we are going to make a “cloud” simple network. Just see how it works. Later on we will post some batch scripts.

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