Suresh Kumar Pakalapati's Linux Administration: 02/19/12

Sunday, February 19, 2012

RHEL6 Official Training Collection (2011)

ESX/ESXi/vCenter 4.1 Installation Guide in pdf (Good!)

Step 1. Lab Manager Deploy
Step 2. Installation of ESX 4.1
Step 3. Installation of ESXi 4.1
Step 4. Installation of vCenter Server 4.1
Step 5. Installation of vSphere 4.0 Client
Step 6. Completing the Installation

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8MiFxCPETmdZTcyZTEzN2QtNzc2Zi00NGFmLTkxMjctYjM5ZDFmMTkxODY3

Creating custom esx installation iso (Cool!)

ex) custom ESXi 4.1 iso with realtek 8169 drv

1. Download files below

- the ISO (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-4.1.0.update1-348481.x86_64.iso
- the script (mkesxiaio_4.2.sh) from http://code.google.com/p/mkesxiaio/
- inetd.conf from http://code.google.com/p/mkesxiaio/
- mymod-network.new2.tgz from http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1670

(refer to http://www.vm-help.com/esx40i/customize_oem_tgz.php)

2. Make the mkesxiaio script executable

chmod +x mkesxiaio_4.2.sh

3. Rename mymod-network.new2.tgz

mv mymod-network.new2.tgz mymod-network.new2.oem.tgz

4. Execute the script

./mkesxiaio_4.2.sh

5. Following the steps in http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4

6. Burn CD/DVD with custom .iso from save dir

How to clone a VM manually without using the converter

Simply browse to the datastore:

0. Power off the VM
1. Click on the host > Configuration tab
2. Right-click on the datastore with the VM you want to clone > Browse Datastore
3. Create a new folder in the store
4. Right click on the VM folder and select Copy (must be done in the right pane of the Datastore Browser)

or copy the files in the VM folder if you're not able to copy the folder
5. Paste the VM to a new sub folder (otherwise the VM will overwrite itself)
6. Once copied, rename and move the folder if desired
7. Select the .vmx file within the cloned VM and select 'Add to Inventory'

VM Network Adapters (NIC)

Vlance — An emulated version of the AMD 79C970 PCnet32 LANCE NIC, an older 10 Mbps NIC with drivers available in most 32bit guest operating systems except Windows Vista and later. A virtual machine configured with this network adapter can use its network immediately.
VMXNET — The VMXNET virtual network adapter has no physical counterpart. VMXNET is optimized for performance in a virtual machine. Because operating system vendors do not provide built-in drivers for this card, youmust install VMware Tools to have a driver for the VMXNET network adapter available.
Flexible — The Flexible network adapter identifies itself as a Vlance adapter when a virtual machine boots, but initializes itself and functions as either a Vlance or a VMXNET adapter, depending on which driver initializes it. With VMware Tools installed, the VMXNET driver changes the Vlance adapter to the higher performance VMXNET adapter.
E1000 — An emulated version of the Intel 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet NIC. A driver for this NIC is not included with all guest operating systems. Typically Linux versions 2.4.19 and later, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and later, and Windows Server 2003 (32-bit) and later include the E1000 driver.
VMXNET 2 (Enhanced) — The VMXNET 2 adapter is based on the VMXNET adapter but provides some high-performance features commonly used on modern networks, such as jumbo frames and hardware offloads. This virtual network adapter is available only for some guest operating systems on ESX/ESXi 3.5 and later.

VMXNET 2 is supported only for a limited set of guest operating systems:
- 32 and 64bit versions of Microsoft Windows 2003 (Enterprise and Datacenter Editions).
  
  Note: You can use enhanced VMXNET adapters with other versions of the Microsoft Windows 2003 operating system, but a workaround is required to enable the option in VMware Infrastructure (VI) Client or vSphere Client. See Enabling enhanced vmxnet adapters for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (1007195) if Enhanced VMXNET is not offered as an option.
- 32bit version of Microsoft Windows XP Professional
- 32 and 64bit versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0
- 32 and 64bit versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
- 64bit versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0
- 64bit versions of Ubuntu Linux

In ESX 3.5 Update 4 or highter, these guest OS are also supported:

Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit)
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (64-bit)
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003

VMXNET 3 — The VMXNET 3 adapter is the next generation of a paravirtualized NIC designed for performance, and is not related to VMXNET or VMXNET 2. It offers all the features available in VMXNET 2, and adds several new features like multiqueue support (also known as Receive Side Scaling in Windows), IPv6 offloads, and MSI/MSI-X interrupt delivery.

VMXNET 3 is supported only for virtual machines version 7 and later, with a limited set of guest operating systems:
- 32 and 64bit versions of Microsoft Windows XP,7, 2003, 2003 R2, 2008,and 2008 R2
- 32 and 64bit versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0 and later
- 32 and 64bit versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 and later
- 32 and 64bit versions of Asianux 3 and later
- 32 and 64bit versions of Debian 4
- 32 and 64bit versions of Ubuntu 7.04 and later
- 32 and 64bit versions of Sun Solaris 10 U4 and later

Notes:
Jumbo frames are not supported in Solaris Guest OS with VMXNET 2 or VMXNET 3.

Fault Tolerance is not supported on a virtual machine configured with a VMXNET 3 vNIC in vShpere 4.0, but is fully supported on vSphere 4.1.

VMWare: Windows 7 Ethernet is Missing

I recently created a VM for Windows 7 and proceeded to waste hours trying to figure out why the Ethernet controller was missing from the Device Manager. Installing VMWare Tools didn't fix the issue, tracking down the correct Ethernet driver didn't help; other people that created the same Virtual Machine were not having problems (of course), just me. Fixing the problem is easier than you may think...

Shut Down your Virtual Machine completely, suspending it will NOT work!
Find the main .vmx file for your Virtual Machine, right click, and choose Edit
Look for the line:

1 ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
Once you've located the line, ABOVE it enter the following code:

1 ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
Save the file and power on your Windows 7 Virtual Machine. It should automatically detect the network adapter and install the components.
Join your domain (if necessary)

ESXi 5 Download

https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/p/activate.php?p=free-esxi5&lp=default

Adjusting ESX host Time Zone

ESX

To change the time zone:

Note: It is not necessary to reboot the ESX host after following this procedure.

Log into the ESX service console as root.
Find the desired time zone under the directory /usr/share/zoneinfo . Some regions have multiple files in a subdirectory. For example, US contains several files, each representing a time zone.

Note: The example below uses /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Pacific as the new time zone file.
Use nano ( or another text editor) to open /etc/sysconfig/clock . At the command prompt, type:
nano /etc/sysconfig/clock

Edit this file to show the relative path to the file representing the new time zone, and ensure that UTC and ARC are set as shown:ZONE="US/Pacific"
UTC=false
ARC=false
Copy or link the desired time zone file to /etc/localtime . Continuing the example using US/Pacific :
- To copy, run:
  cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Pacific /etc/localtime
- To link, run:
  ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Pacific /etc/localtime
  
  Note: If you receive a overwrite `/etc/localtime'? prompt, answer y to replace the file representing the old time zone. Again, it is not necessary to reboot the ESX host after updating/etc/localtime .
Confirm that /etc/localtime has been updated with the correct zoneinfo data:
1. Reference the zoneinfo file used in step 2 and compare it to / etc/localtime using the diff command:[root@esxhost]# diff /etc/localtime /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Pacific
  If the files are identical, your prompt returns without any output.
2. If /etc/localtime is not the same as the /usr/share/zoneinfo/ , the output from the diff command appears similar to:Binary files /etc/localtime and /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Pacific differ
  
  If the files are not the same, repeat step 4.

After updating /etc/localtime with the correct zoneinfo data, confirm the system and hardware clocks are correct. Use the Linux date command to check and set the correct time if necessary. Set the hardware clock to match the correct system time:

Set the system clock to the local date and time:
date MMDDhhmmYYYY
Update the hardware clock with current time of the system clock:
/sbin/hwclock --systohc

Notes:

Upon booting, ESX runs /etc/rc.d/init.d , which reads /etc/sysconfig/clock to set the system clock based on the hardware clock's current time and the configured time zone information. To synchronize ESX to an external time reference, see Installing and Configuring NTP on an ESX host (1339) .
You may be required to restart the vSphere Client for the timezone information to be updated within the GUI.

For more information about timezones, including issues with Daylight Saving Time (DST), see the VMware Knowledge Base.

ESXi

ESXi uses UTC time and does not support changing time zones.

In ESXi 3.5, you see the message:

Note: The date and time of the host have been translated to the local time of this VI Client.

In ESXi 4.0, you see the message:

Note: The date and time of the host have been translated to the local time of this vSphere Client.

In ESXi 4.1, you see the message:

Note: The date and time of the host have been translated to the local time of this vSphere Client.