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homelab

Lego VSAN EVO:RACK

Duncan Epping · Jan 24, 2015 ·

I know a lot of you guys have home labs and are always looking for that next cool thing. Every once in a while you see something cool floating by on twitter and in this case it was so cool I needed to share it with you guys. Someone posted a picture of his version of “EVO:RACK” leveraging Intel NUC, a small switch and Lego… How awesome is a Lego VSAN EVO:RACK?! Difficult to see indeed in the pics below, but if you look at this picture then you will see how the top of rack switch was included.

Lego VSAN EVO Rack NUC style… Version 2.. Note top of rack switch!! @pdxvmug @vmwarevsan @IntelNUC @vExpert pic.twitter.com/SYFa6leLxX

— Nicholas Farmer (@vmnick0) January 9, 2015

Besides the awesome tweet, Nick also shared how he has build his lab in a couple of blog posts which are worth reading for sure!

  • VSAN Cluster Running On Three Intel NUCs – Part 1 (The Build)
  • VSAN Cluster Running On Three Intel NUCs – Part 2 (vCenter Deploy)

Enjoy,

Creating a vCD Lab on your Mac/Laptop

Duncan Epping · Sep 13, 2010 ·

I was just building a vCD Lab and thought I would document the process. I know Hany has done something similar recently but mine is slightly different. I wanted to have a slim config from a memory perspective and virtual machine count perspective. Before I start, let’s give a warning… ***this is totally unsupported***

Pre-requisites:

  • CentOS 5 – 64 Bit
  • Oracle 10g Express
  • Windows 2008 – 64 Bit
  • ESXi 4.1
  • vCenter 4.1
  • vCD 1.0
  • vShield 4.1

We will be creating multiple VMs but for the sake of simplicity will be combining functionality where possible. First you will need to install multiple ESXi hosts and a vCenter server. I am assuming all of you know how to do this so I won’t go into detail here. If you don’t drop me a comment. I did list some of the recommendations/requirements:

vCenter / DNS / ESXi

  • Create a VM with 1 vCPU and 1 GB of memory. I used a 20GB thin disk, which should be more than sufficient as we will not be using VUM.
  • Connect the Windows 2008 – 64 Bit ISO and walk through the standard installation process. I will not describe every step, as all of you should be able to install an OS. However the following is recommended:
    • Fixed IP Address
    • I changed the host name to “vcenter”
    • Install DNS
      • pre-populate DNS with records for your two esxi hosts, vShield Manager and your vCD server.
  • I will not tell you how to install ESXi or vCenter for that matter. Just ensure you have two ESXi hosts with shared storage in a DRS enabled cluster, those are the requirements. Preferably with some memory resource. I gave both my ESXi hosts 3GB. There are a couple of options for shared storage:
    • You could use Openfiler as your iSCSI target for ESXi hosts (preferred), if you don’t know how to set it up read this excellent this article by Kiwi_Si.
    • You could enable NFS on your CentOS which also hosts your vCD and Oracle database
    • If you are using VMware Workstation enable “clustering” of disks… I haven’t tested this in a while though.

Result: vCenter Server, 1 Cluster containing at least 2 ESXi hosts with DRS enabled.

vShield Manager

You could run vShield Manager as a VM within your virtualized ESXi host, but from a performance perspective that is probably not the smartest thing to do. So we are going to import it into Fusion. For those using Windows VMware Workstation is also fine, or even Player.

I guess this is the most tricky part of the whole setup, you will need to convert the vShield OVA to a VM. Now this is not a must, you can also run the vShield on your virtual ESXi hosts, but I like to avoid this for performance reasons. So this is how I converted it:

  • Go to the folder which contains the OVA and go into the OVA and copy all files included into a separate folder
  • Download the OVF Tool to convert the vShield Manager OVF Files to a format that Fusion supports
    • Open a terminal window and “cd” to the folder which contains “VMware-ovftool-2.0.1-260188-mac.i386.sh”
    • Make the script executable by typing the following:
      chmod +x VMware-ovftool-2.0.1-260188-mac.i386.sh
    • Run the installer script by typing the following:
      ./VMware-ovftool-2.0.1-260188-mac.i386.sh
    • Confirm the installation with “yes”
    • Accept the EULA with “yes”
    • Confirm the path by pressing enter/return
    • The install should complete literally within seconds
    • Go to the folder that contains the “OVF” file and type the following:
      /opt/vmware/ovftool/ovftool.bin “VSM.ovf” .
    • Accept the EULA by typing “yes”
    • The conversion should now start and when it is completed a new folder should be created which contains your VMX file and your VMDK files. These can be imported into Fusion.
    • Copy the VSM Folder to the place you store your local VMs and open the VM within Fusion and fire it up
  • Now that you have VSM running on your Laptop/Macbook you will need to configure it. These steps are pretty straight forward, but they will need to happen in order for VSM to function correctly:
    • Open the vShield Manager console and login with user “admin” and password “default”
    • Type “enable”, enter the password “default” again and type “setup” to configure your VSM
    • Enter your IP, Subnet, Gateway and DNS details and exit to ensure these are active
  • That is it! Now you can use your internet browser to see if you can login to your VSM “https://<ipaddress”

Result: vShield Manager running within Fusion.

vCD VM

  • Create a VM with 1 vCPU and 1 GB of memory. I used a 20GB thin disk, which should be more than sufficient.
  • Connect the CentOS 5 – 64 Bit ISO and walk through the standard installation process. I will not describe every step, as all of you should be able to install an OS. However the following is recommended:
    • Default partitioning scheme
    • Fixed IP Address
    • Disable IP v6
    • Server GUI install
  • After the install is done you will need to reboot the VM and configure the OS. I recommend the following:
    • Disable the Firewall
    • Disable SELinux
    • Enable NTP
    • Create an additional user
  • Now that the VM has rebooted again we will need to upgrade all packages to the latest version and install VMware Tools all the required packages:
    • Install VMware Tools (extract the files from the archive and run the installer via a terminal window by going to the path where you extracted it and type:
      ./vmware-install.sh
      use all the default settings
    • Open a terminal window and type the following:
      yum update
      yum upgrade
    • Now install all the Oracle and vCD required packages:
      yum install alsa-lib bash chkconfig compat-libcom_err coreutils findutils glibc grep initscripts krb5-libs libgcc libICE libSM libstdc libX11 libXau libXdmcp libXext libXi libXt libXtst module-init-tools net-tools pciutils procps sed tar which
  • Install Oracle 10g Express (again note that this isn’t officially supported):
    • Copy the Oracle RPM file to your vCD VM
    • Open a terminal window and go to the path where you copied the Oracle RPM file
    • rpm -i oracle-xe-10.2.0.1-1.0.i386.rpm
    • /etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure
    • Use the default ports (8080 and 1521)
    • Enter the password twice
    • Select “y” to ensure the database daemon is started when the VM restarts
  • After the Oracle 10g Express server has been installed test if you can actually access it by opening a web browser. Try http://<ipaddress>:8080/apex
  • I would recommend to create a new user for the vCD environment:
    • Click “Administration”
    • Go to “Database Users” and click “Create User”
    • I would recommend to give it the name “vcloud” and an easy to remember password. Also make sure you tick the “DBA” tick box.
    • Click “Create”
  • Now it is time to install vCD (copy the bin file to your vCD VM)
    • First we need to create a virtual interface so that we have two IP addresses that vCD can use. Of course you can also add a second NIC, but I use this method to keep the VM configuration as simple as I possibly can:
      • Open a terminal windows and type the following:
        nano /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:1
      • Add the following to the file you just opened, of course add the approriate IP address and net mask!
        BOOTPROTO=static
        DEVICE=eth0:1
        IPADDR=<ip address>
        NETMASK=<net mask>
        ONBOOT=yes
      • Save the file and restart the network by typing the following:
        service network restart
      • When you do an “ifconfig” it should show you two devices…
    • Open a terminal window and go to the path where you copied the vCD BIN file and make the bin file executable:
      chmod +x vmware-cloud-director-1.0.0-285979.bin
    • type the following to do the install
      ./vmware-cloud-director-1.0.0-285979.bin
    • It will ask you if you want to run the installer on an unsupported distro, type “y”
    • It will ask you if you want to run the configuration script, type “n”
    • Next we will create self signed certificates, open a terminal window and do the following:
    • Go to /etc and copy and paste the following:
      /opt/vmware/cloud-director/jre/bin/keytool -keystore certificates.ks -storetype JCEKS -storepass password -genkey -keyalg RSA -alias http -dname “cn=vcloud,  ou=vmware, o=vmware, c=US” -keypass password
      /opt/vmware/cloud-director/jre/bin/keytool -keystore certificates.ks -storetype JCEKS -storepass password -genkey -keyalg RSA -alias consoleproxy -dname “cn=vcloud,  ou=vmware, o=vmware, c=US” -keypass password
    • Now you should have a file called “certificates.ks” in /etc
    • Next we will need to configure vCD, type the following to start the configuration:
      /opt/vmware/cloud-director/bin/configure
    • Select your first IP address, this will be the IP address which is used for vCD Portal access
    • Select your second IP address, this will be the IP address which is used for the VM Remote Console
    • Type the path to your certificates store, which is “/etc/certificates.ks
    • Type the password, which is password
    • Press enter to skip the “syslog server”
    • Enter the host (or IP address) for the database
      127.0.0.1
    • Press enter/return to use default database port (1521)
    • Type the database service name
      xe
    • Type the database username, in my case:
      vcloud
    • Type the database password, in my case:
      vmware
    • Now the database will be initialized and the vCD install will be  completed
    • Type “y” to start the vCD service
    • You can monitor the progress of the vCD service start up as follows
      tail -f /opt/vmware/cloud-director/log/cell.log
    • It will show you the percentage of the initialization of the application that has completed. Of course it should say “Application Initialization: Complete. Server is ready in” at some point.

Result: VM with both Oracle 10g Express and vCloud Director 1.0.

Final Steps

That is it for the command-line stuff… All we need to do now is configure vCD through the web interface… here we go:

  • Open a browser and point it to “https://<vCloud Director Address>/cloud/
  • Click “Next” on the welcome screen
  • “Accept” the License Agreement
  • Type your license key and click “Next”
  • Create an Administrator account and type a password and click “Next”
  • Give the system a name, I called it “vCD”, and click “Next”
  • Review your settings and click “Finish” if they look okay

Now you should be presented with the following screen and you should be good to go!

So what’s next? Hany has listed a nice set of videos in his article that will describe how to create a Provider vDC, how to attach a vCenter server etc. Go ahead play around, have fun… enjoy the vCloud!

Podcast 79 – Building your homelab

Duncan Epping · Jan 21, 2010 ·

The VMTN/PlanetV12n Podcast 79 was all about homelabs. You can download the MP3 here, subscribe to the podcast via iTunes here, or listen in live here every wednesday. As always I tried to capture most links that have been posted. The link by the way also contains a summary of what has been discussed. Have fun:

  • Simon S. – VMware ESX(i) Home Lab – Why, What and How? Considerations when building your own home lab
  • Duncan – My Homelab
  • Gabe – White box ESX home lab
  • Jason Boche – EMC Celerra NS-120
  • Bouke – v-Water: ESXi overclocked, watercooled
  • Simon – vT.A.R.D.I.S – 10 ESXi node cluster on a trolley as demonstrated at London VMUG
  • Dave – Whitebox HCL
  • Eric’s articles on whiteboxes
  • Maish – Install ESX on your Laptop – I had a Crazy Idea
  • Ultimate ESX whitebox
  • Iomega IX4-200D

My Homelab

Duncan Epping · Jan 19, 2010 ·

This weeks VMTN podcast is about Homelabs. John  Troyer asked on twitter who had a homelab and if they already posted an article about it. Most bloggers already did but I never got to it. Weird thing is that the common theme for most virtualization bloggers seems to be physical! Take a look at what some of these guys have in their home lab and try to imagine the associated cost in terms of cooling, power but also the noise associated with it.

  • Jason Boche – EMC Celerra NS-120
  • Chad Sakac – Building a home lab (check the storage he has at home!)
  • Gabe – White box ESX home lab

I decided to take a completely different route. Why buy three or four servers when you can run all your ESX hosts virtually on a single desktop. Okay, I must admit, it is a desktop on steroids but it does save me a lot of (rack)space, noise, heat and of course electricity. Here are the core components of which my Desktop consists:

  • Asustek P6T WS Pro
  • Intel Core i7-920
  • 6 x 2GB Kingston 1333Mhz
  • 2 x Seagate Cheetah SAS 15k6 in RAID-0

I also have two NAS devices on which I have multiple iSCSI LUNs and NFS shares. I even have replication going on between the two devices! Works like a charm.

  • 2 x Iomega IX4-200d

There’s one crucial part missing. On my laptop I use VMware Player but on my desktop I like to use VMware Workstation. Although VMware Player might just work fine, I like to have a bit more functionality at my disposal like teaming for instance.

  • VMware Workstation 7.0

That’s my lab. I installed 3 x ESXi 4.0 Update 1 in a VM and installed Windows 2008 in a VM with vCenter 4.0 Update 1. Attached the ESX hosts to the iSCSI LUNs and NFS Shares and off we go. Single box lab!

Iomega IX4-200d

Duncan Epping · Nov 16, 2009 ·

This friday I received a package. I felt 10-years old again, it was like unwrapping a Christmas present. One hell of a Christmas present I must say and I want to thank EMC and especially Chad Sakac! I un-boxed the two Iomega IX4-200d units and turned them on.

After a couple of minutes I had them up and running. It’s a matter of turning them on and wait until they receive an ip-address from your DHCP server. Of course I changed the DHCP address to a fixed address, this is literally a couple of clicks.

I guess that’s the story of the Iomega IX4-200d, everything is just a couple of clicks. You want to enable iSCSI? Three clicks. You want to set Quotas? Three clicks. You want to add a user? Three clicks… I see a trend don’t you?!

Within a matter of minutes I did not only had both devices running I also setup a replication schedule for the CIFS share… That’s another great thing about this device: CIFS, NFS, iSCSI, Apple File Sharing and FTP. There should at least be one that fits your needs. I will try to do some decent testing soon when I receive my new desktop and a decent 1Gb switch…

For now I can recommend the Iomega IX4-200d to everyone. They are simple to use and look awesome.

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About the author

Duncan Epping is a Chief Technologist in the Office of CTO of the Cloud Platform BU at VMware. He is a VCDX (# 007), the author of the "vSAN Deep Dive", the “vSphere Clustering Technical Deep Dive” series, and the host of the "Unexplored Territory" podcast.

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