3.5

Cool feature of the VMware Converter plugin

Duncan Epping · Jul 30, 2008 ·

How about backing up that dreadful application/server that you couldn’t or did not wanted to virtualize to your ESX environment? It could be useful to have a copy of a server that for whatever reason you did not virtualize. The new VMware Converter plugin for VirtualCenter gives you this option. You can create a reoccurring schedule for a p2v, you can even save several version of the converted machine. How cool is that! Seems like a great way to backup a machine!

How do I do this:

click on scheduled tasks
click new and pick “import a machine”
select “physical” and enter the servers name/ip and username and password
select the disks you want to import
type a name for the VM
select the destination host
select a datastore
select a network
and schedule the task!

ESXi 3.5 Update 2 on a USB memory key

Duncan Epping · Jul 29, 2008 ·

For those like me who would like to check ESXi 3.5 update 2 but don’t want to install on a local harddisk. Here’s a good pdf about how to install it on a USB memory key. It’s fairly easy and I just booted my IBM X61 laptop with ESXi.

In short:

First get the following tools: 7-Zip(Free), WinImage(Demo)
Download the ESXi ISO
Open the ISO with 7-Zip
Extract “install.tgz”
Open “install.tgz” with 7-Zip
Click on “install.tar”
Browse to “usr\lib\vmware\installer\”
Open “VMware-VMvisor-big-3.5.0_Update_2-103909.i386.dd.bz2”
Extract “VMware-VMvisor-big-3.5.0_Update_2-103909.i386.dd”
Open WinImage and go to Disk, click on “Restore Virtual Harddisk Image on physical drive”
Select a physical drive
Select “VMware-VMvisor-big-3.5.0_Update_2-103909.i386.dd”
And click “yes” to write the DD image to the USB Disk

Done! For a more detailed procedure check the pdf above, it also includes screenshots!

High Availability change

Duncan Epping · Jul 29, 2008 ·

I just noticed the following, when creating a new(!) HA cluster on VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 2 the default isolation response is set to “Leave powered on”. In other words, when your ESX host hasn’t got a network connection any more the VM’s remain on. This is a huge change because the default used to be “Power Off”.

Besides “Power Off” and “Leave powered on” there’s a new option introduced. And this is one I was looking for, “Shutdown VM”. Shutdown VM doesn’t just pull the cord, it tries to shutdown the VM in a decent fashion, via the OS.

ESX 3.5 U2 and HA error

Duncan Epping · Jul 28, 2008 ·

Erik Zandboer just posted a topic on the VMTN forum about an HA error he received when he updates his machines to 3.5 U2. The error was one almost everyone has probably seen by now “could not contact primary HA agent”. This is normally solved by pressing “reconfigure for ha” or disabling and enabling HA. This wasn’t the case this time. after some research Erik discovered that the host file entry for the ESX host did not match the DNS name, one of them started with a capital while other did not. This caused HA to fail, after changing the hostname/dns name and a reboot everything worked fine again.

I can imagine this happens because of the fact that VirtualCenter is actually performing as a DNS/Hosts file for HA. Inconsistent naming has always been, and probably will always be a problem. So before upgrading, check your hostname and /etc/hosts file!

Previously, enabling VMware High Availability required DNS resolution of all ESX Server hosts in a High Availability cluster. This was done using configuring DNS records or by adding all of the host names and IP addresses to the /etc/hosts file on each server.
Starting with the ESX Server 3.5 Update2 release, DNS resolution or /etc/hosts file entries are no longer required to configure High Availability. The host name and IP address information will now be provided by the managing VirtualCenter Server. the source

Remote CLI Update!

Duncan Epping · Jul 26, 2008 ·

I just noticed that VMware also updated the Remote CLI, which was heavily criticized when it first came out because of the lack of commands. Now it contains almost every single command out there. And there’s a great PDF file about all the commands and the options.

I guess the Remote CLI matured, I was wondering what the benefits were of a Remote CLI. But know it makes sense. Start using ESXi, install the Remote CLI virtual appliance and you’ve got only 1 console to handle them all instead of “x”.