Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion – 50% Off, couple days left…

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Just a couple of days left:

You didn’t pay attention during Cyber Monday and forgot to order your copy of VMware Fusion and/or VMware Workstation? Well here’s your chance to pick it up with a 50% discount, keep in mind that there are only a few days left to pick it up with this holiday reduction coupon!

This is a special discount for “Friends and Family” from VMware. In order to receive the reduction coupon just drop me an email on duncan [@] yellow-bricks.com, or send me a Direct Message on Twitter. And if your not on Twitter by now, start checking it out.

Rotating Hostd, VPXD and VPXA log files

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If your hostd, vpxd and or vpxa log files are rotating to quickly or not quick enough check out this great KB article on how to set this up. The most important thing to set is the maximum amount of logfiles and the size. Be sure to do a basic calculation so your logging partition won’t fill up completely! And while your at it, might be worth setting up the rotation scheme for vmkernel, messages etc. If I can find the time I will do a blog article on that one later this week.

UPDATE: ESX Deployment Appliance 0.85

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Like I told you guys in my post on the ESX Deployment Appliance, Herco keeps developing / tweaking the ESX Deployment Appliance. Two days ago 0.85 was released. This new version contains:

  • ESXi support (it works, just not unattended yet. hints appreciated!)
  • New scriptbuilder interface. Makes building scripts even easier and more accessible
  • Scriptpart editor. rudimentary but working nicely 😉

For version 0.9 Herco has got the following features / additions on his todo list:

  • Boot from SAN support
  • Editing the order of the scriptparts
  • Hopefully, unattended ESXi installations

So keep checking the VMware virtual appliances section or Herco’s blog for information on new releases. Start checking it out and keep giving feedback so Herco can keep improving his excellent appliance!

ESX Deployment Appliance

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A couple of weeks ago I was working on a project together with a consultant from PQR, Herco aka Brugh. He told me about a Virtual Appliance he created called “EDA”. It took a couple of minutes before I knew what he was talking about… ESX Deployment Appliance. I’ve played around with it for a while about half a year ago but because we were actively using UDA(ultimate deployment appliance) I didn’t had much time to actually get used to it and introduce it to my colleagues.

During the project Herco showed me what he had actually created and how easy it was to deploy ESX with his appliance. I don’t think there’s a reason to tell you guys again why you need to do a scripted install. EDA is a PXE Boot Virtual Appliance build on JeOS. In other words, boot your ESX installer / iso via the PXE appliance. So no need for burning modified iso’s or hosting your scripts on a random webserver. EDA does all of that for you. Because JeOS was used the appliance is small and doesn’t contain any slack.

The cool thing about EDA compared to UDA is that EDA is specifically created for ESX. It contains a lot of sample code which will make your life a lot easier when creating scripts. EDA also works a lot more intuitive than UDA in my opinion, the GUI looks solid. Besides that, EDA is actively being developed and UDA seems to have died.

If you want to have a better understanding of what EDA is take a look at this video that Herco made:

Herco also started a topic on the VMTN forums, if you’ve got any questions contact him via the forums. He usually responds very quick. And if you’ve got good tips / scripts / modification he will look into it and might integrate it with the new upcoming version. For a short guide on howto install and using the appliance check Herco’s blog. Herco told me that there’s a new version coming up soon. Add his blog to your favorites and keep checking it.

By the way, Herco is also the guy who created the X-M0n0wall Virtual Appliance. His colleague Ruben Spruijt also wrote an article on EDA a couple of months ago, you can find read it here.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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2008 was a very busy year for me and my family. I started working for VMware and we moved to a new house in June, and just around VMworld Europe my Blog really kicked off. Because of that I wasn’t able to have a decent holiday this year. I took two weeks off around Christmas just to spend some time with the kids and my wife, and we’ve decided to visit Disneyland Paris during Christmas.

As you can imagine the volume of blogs over the next two weeks will be low. I’m going to try to keep my laptop off for most of the day, well at least until the kids go to bed. If you don’t want to miss out on any of the Virtualization tech blogs or news sign up to the Planet V12n RSS Feed!

Anyway I want to wish all of you a merry Christmas and a happy new year! Let’s hope 2009 will be just as great as 2008 has been so far. Thanks for an awesome year and thanks for all the support and visiting / reading my articles!