VMware Communities : Thread List - User Solutions

VDI: Free Connection Broker

nick.couchman — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 20:18:07 GMT

This solution covers creating a VDI connection broker for a set of Windows XP VM's with tools provided in most standard Linux installations.

Here's are a list of assumptions and requirements:
1) Linux server, stock kernel with LVS/IPVS enabled.
2) IPVSADM installed on Linux server (check your package manager).
3) VM's set up on one or more servers in bridged mode.

How-To:
1) Create your VM's, set up in bridged mode, and assign them IP addresses.
2) Go to the server you're going to make the connnection broker, and use the IPVS admin tool to create a new virtual server service with a virtual IP and port number. If the virtual IP is different from this servers real IP address, the virtual IP will have to be added to the network card as an IP alias. For this document, we'll say that your connection broker and your virtual IP address are both going to be 192.168.10.10.
[code]
ipvsadm -A -t 192.168.10.10:3389
[/code]
This will create a new virtual service on port 3389 (the MS Terminal Services port) listening on the IP address associated with the connection broker.
3) In each of your XP VM's, go to the "Add Hardware" wizard, add a new device, and don't let XP search for the device (say that you'll specify the device). Select "Network Adapters" and then locate and select the "Microsoft Loopback Adapter." Once you've added this piece of hardware, go to the TCP/IP properties for the new network interface and assign a static IP address. The static IP should be the IP of your virtual service - in this case, 192.168.10.10.
4) On your connection broker machine, add each of the XP VM's to the IPVS table as real servers for this virtual service. In our case, we'll assume that the XP VM's have IP's 192.168.10.20 through 192.168.10.29. The commands would go something like this:
[code]
# ipvsadm -a -t 192.168.10.10:3389 -r 192.168.10.29:3389 -x 1
[/code]
Notice the "-x 1" on the end of each command. This option sets the "upper threshold" (maximum number of connections to the service) to "1" so that each of your XP VM's only gets 1 connection. Additional users that attempt to connect after all of the servers have 1 connection will be denied a connection.
5) All done - you should be able to open an RDP connection to 192.168.10.10 (insert your virtual IP address here) and get connected to one of the XP VM's. Use the "ipvsadm -l" command to see which of your real servers has a connection to it. Open multiple connections to see that you get placed on a different VM each time!

-Notes-
*) If you're familiar with other high-availability/load-balancing projects, like keepalived, you can use these programs to dynamically add and remove XP VM's from the list of available VM's as the VM's are brought online or taken offline. Also, many of these programs feature the ability to have multiple "connection brokers" that can back each other up in case one of them goes down (a good idea in a production environment).
*) This little how-to assumes a lot about knowledge of Linux and administration tasks of Linux. More detailed information on LVS/IPVS can be found at http://www.linuxvirtualserver.org. Information on keepalived can be found at http://www.keepalived.org. For Linux administration information of all kinds, see http://www.tldp.org.

VMware Visio Stencils

sherold — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:31:53 GMT

My most popular download... VMware Visio Stencil sets for Visio 2003 and <=2002. My stencil sets are below:

Vsio 2003
http://www.vmguru.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=4&ttitle=Visio_Stencil_-_Visio_2003_Version_2#dldetails

Visio <=2002
http://www.vmguru.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=6&ttitle=Visio_Stencil_-_Visio_2002_Version_2#dldetails

Roelf Zomerman's Studiographic.nl Visio 2003 Stencil Set
http://www.vmguru.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=16&ttitle=Studiographic.nl_Visio_Stencil_Set_-_2003#dldetails

Roelf Zomerman's Studiographic.nl Visio <=2002 Stencil Set
http://www.vmguru.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=15&ttitle=Studiographic.nl_Visio_Stencil_Set_-_2002#dldetails

Scott - Come visit www.vmguru.com for details on how you can become a community contributor with us!

How to repeatedly upgrade Windows 2003 to SMP and revert to uniprocessor

paulo.meireles — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 13:39:10 GMT

Problem description
It's commonly heard that you cannot revert a Windows Server 2003 back to Uniprocessor after upgrading to Multiprocessor - and then upgrade to Multiprocessor again. There are some "hacks" that involve manually replacing system files or editing .inf files, but these are, of course, unsupported. The solution described here involves no hacks, no scripting, no manual file replacement, no file editing, and even no command line! It only uses supported mechanisms available on the GUI, so I guess it should be a supported operation.

Warning: The solution described here has only been tested on Windows Server 2003 machines on ACPI VMs.

Common pitfalls
It's considered good practice to start with uniprocessor machines and, only if needed, upgrade them to SMP. This is usually done by powering off the VM, adding a second CPU and powering it on. Windows Server 2003 does, then, detect the second CPU and convert it to an ACPI Multiprocessor PC by itself, and all sems to be OK. The problem is, if we ever need to downgrade back to ACPI Uniprocessor PC, we will no longer be able to; if we go back to one CPU, the machine won't "autoconfigure" itself again; it will remain as ACPI Multiprocessor PC. When this happens, the only options we have are either:
- "Update Driver" to the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC HAL/Kernel. Although all seems to work (and, as far as I know, there are no reports of problems arising from its use), there is a lot of FUD about doing this; an official clarification from Microsoft would be nice to have. Moreover, if we install this HAL/Kernel, we won't be able to "Update Driver" to the multiprocessor HAL/Kernel again.

The solution
The trick, if it can be called so, it to use the Roll Back Driver feature on the Device Manager instead of Update Driver. It must, however, be used with caution, and there are some operations that must be done previously or it won't work. Step-by-step, here's how it's done:

- Upgrade to SMP is complete!

- Downgrade to Uniprocessor is complete!

These two operations may now be repeated over and over again.

How to handle machines that already have the SMP HAL/Kernel
The "roll back" trick only works if - expectedly - there's something to "roll back" to. When we install a uniprocessor VM, shut it down, add a second CPU and let plug-n-play do its magic, Windows doesn't make a copy of the previous Kernel/HAL to which we can revert. Also, when we create an SMP VM or P2V an SMP server - which were both installed with the Multiprocessor kernel - there's no Uniprocessor to roll back to. So, the lack of a Uniprocessor HAL/Kernel to which to roll back happens in two scenarios:
- if the Kernel and HAL have been upgraded "by themselves", by just adding a second CPU and rebooting the machine.
However, if you're comfortable with running with the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC Hal/Kernel instead of ACPI Uniprocessor PC, here's what you can do:

- Downgrade to Uniprocessor is complete!

- Rollback to Multiprocessor is complete!

Again, these operations may be repeated as many times as you like.

Last thoughts
If you're building a physical Windows 2003 server with only one single-core Intel CPU, you might want to disable HyperThreading before installation, manually select ACPI Multiprocessor PC after installation and only then enable HyperThreading, so you can later revert to ACPI Uniprocessor PC if needed.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that the VM should never be powered on with 2 CPUs and the Uniprocessor HAL, or Windows will upgrade to Multiprocessor by itself and there will be no way back to ACPI Uniprocessor PC.

Paulo

VMware Server 1.0.2 and LEAF Bering uClibC 3.0.2

aenagy — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:24:21 GMT

I have figured the process to create a bootable LEAF Bering uClibC 3.0.2 floppy image that will work with VMware Server 1.0.2. Many thanks to KP Kirchdoerfer-2.

Goal

Create a bootable floppy image of LEAF Bering uClibC 3.0.2 that will work with VMware Server 1.0.2. This boot floppy is a bare minimum configuration to establish TCP/IP connectivity and therefore confirm compatibility.

All other modules and tools have been removed for simplicity. This means that there is no firewall, routing, SSH client or server, DHCP, DNS, etc. It will be up to the user to configure or add any additional functionality. Information on configuring or adding additional functionality can be found on the LEAF Bering uClibC web site (http://leaf.sourceforge.net/doc/index.html) on in various news groups (http://www.nabble.com/LEAF---Linux-Embedded-Appliance-Firewall-f4454.html). Follow the instructions for Bering uClibC 3.

Assumptions

1. This procedure assumes that the user is new to LEAF Bering uClibC and may be unfamiliar with some of its subtlities. For example, the bin 'Bering-uClibc_3.0.2_iso_bering-uclibc-iso.bin' file on the download page (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=13751&package_id=67534) is actually an ISO file. Renaming the file with a .ISO extention makes it usable as a boot media for VMware Server. Its contents can be extracted using WinImage.
2. The entire procedure as explained here assumes that the user is operating from Microsoft Windows. In the author's case Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 is used. The version of Microsoft Windows must be compatible with the VMware product being used, in this case Server 1.0.2.
3. Even though VMware Server 1.0.2 is used in this example there is no known reason why this could not equally well in other VMware products such as Player, Workstation or ESX Server. This solution has not been tested on other VMware products or other virtualization solutions.
4. VMware products do not recognize floppy images or physical floppy disks larger than 1.44 MB. Therefore the 1.68 MB floppy image available for download is not suitable. The user will be directed to extract the file 'bootdisk.ima' from the ISO file Bering-uClibc_3.0.2_iso_bering-uclibc-iso.bin as this image is already formatted for 1.44 MB. See the procedure section on how to do this.
5. The author's test network consists of a DSL router with the LAN interface configured for the subnet 192.168.1.0 and subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and default gateway of 192.168.1.1. The reader will need to adjust the procedure below to account for any differences where shown.
6. Setting up or troubleshooting network connectivity of the user's Windows system out of scope for this document.

Prerequisites

1. Microsoft Windows. The user may consider downloading a trial version of Windows Server 2003 from http://www.microsoft.com. This has not been tested by the author. The version of Windows must be compatible with VMware Server 1.0.2.
2. The Windows system must be properly configured for network connectivity. The default gateway must be pingable.
3. VMware Server can be downloaded from http://www.vmware.com.
4. A floppy disk image editor. The author used a trial copy of WinImage which can be downloaded from http://www.winimage.com.
5. A text editor suitable for modifying Linux/Unix text files. Microsoft WordPad might work, but was not tested by the author. The author used PSPad for editing text files. It is available for download from http://www.pspad.com.

Procedure

1. Download 'Bering-uClibc_3.0.2_iso_bering-uclibc-iso.bin' from the LEAF Bering uClibC download site (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=13751&package_id=67534).
2. Download and install the necessary tools.
3. Open the file 'Bering-uClibc_3.0.2_iso_bering-uclibc-iso.bin' with WinImage.
4. Extract the 'bootdisk.ima' file and save to your working folder such as 'E:\my_new_boot_disk'. This is now the start of the new floppy image.
5. Extract or edit a copy of 'syslinux.cfg' in floppy image to look like the text below and save in work folder. Remember to use a Linux/Unix compatible file editor such as PSPad or WordPad. The last line starts with 'default linux' and may be wrapped as shown below.

display syslinux.dpy
timeout 0
append reboot=bios
default linux initrd=initrd.lrp init=/linuxrc rw root=/dev/ram0 LEAFCFG=/dev/fd0:msdos boot=/dev/fd0:msdos

6. Extract or edit 'leaf.cfg' in floppy image to look like this and save in the work directory. Remember to use a Linux/Unix compatible file editor such as PSPad or WordPad.

LRP='root config etc local modules'
PKGPATH=/dev/fd0:msdos
syst_size=16M
log_size=4M

7. Extract the modules 'configure.lrp', 'etc.lrp', 'initrd.lrp', 'local.lrp', 'moddb.lrp', 'modules.lrp' and 'root.lrp' from the same bin/ISO file from which the initial floppy image was extracted in step 1 and save in work folder.
8. Open the working copy of 'bootdisk.ima' using WinImage. Add the extracted modules plus the new 'syslinux.cfg' and 'leaf.cfg'. Overwrite files when prompted. Save and close floppy image file to work folder.
9. Create a new floppy image using WinImage.
10. Find the module 'pcnet32.o' from the bin/ISO image and add it to this new floppy image. Save and close this floppy to work folder. Do not add this module to the 'bootdisk.ima' floppy image.
11. Create a new virtual machine in VMware Server 1.0.
12. Copy the two floppy image files to the new virtual machine folder.
13. Configure the virtual machine for:

CPU = one
RAM = 32 MB
NICs = 2 or more. The first NIC must be configured as 'Bridged' so that it has connectivity to DSL router
HDD = none
Floppy = boot floppy file 'bootdisk.ima' in the virtual machine folder
Add Floppy 2 = second floppy device to use the second floppy image created in step 6.

14. Power on the virtual machine. If the virtual machine is configured correctly it will boot from the 'bootdisk.ima' in the virtual machine folder.
15. Log in as root. The tool 'lrcfg' will launch automatically.
16. In lrcfg enter '3' for 'Packages configuration', '3' for 'modules', '1' for 'kernel modules to load at boot' which brings up '/etc/modules/' in the e3 editor.
17. Remove comments for 'crc32', 'mii' and 'pcnet32'. Save (<Ctrl-s>) and exit (<Ctrl-q>) editor.
18. Quit back to main lrcfg screen.
19. Enter '1' for 'Network configuration'. Enter '1' for 'interfaces file'. The file '/etc/network/interfaces' is opened in the e3 editor. Make changes to to match the following:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.3
#or some other IP address not in use and on the same subnet as the DSL router
netmask 255.255.255.0
#must be same as LAN subnet of DSL router
broadcast 192.168.1.255
gateway 192.168.1.1
#or whatever the default gateway is for your DSL router

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet static
#address can be changed to suite user's requirements for private subnet
address 10.1.1.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
broadcast 10.1.1.255

# repeat for each NIC configured on the virtual machine

20. To save the changes press <Ctrl-s>, to quit press <Ctrl-q>.
21. Quit back to main lrcfg screen.
22. Enter 's' to 'Save configuration'. Enter 'y' when prompted.
23. Exit to command prompt.
24. Mount second floppy disk which contains a copy of pcnet32.o with the command:

mount -t msdos /mnt /dev/fd1

25. Copy 'pcnet32.o' from second floppy to '/lib/modules' with the command:

cp /mnt/pcnet.o /lib/modules

26. Launch lrcfg, enter 'm' for 'Backup modules'. Enter 'y' when prompted.
27. Reboot the system with the command:

init 6

28. Once the system reboots log in as root again and exit from lrcfg.
29. Check the configuration of the network interfaces with the command:

ip address show

30. Check connectivity to the DSL router by pinging the default gateway with the command:

ping 192.168.1.1

Acknowledgements

KP Kirchdoerfer-2 provided key information in cracking this case.
http://www.nabble.com/Does-Leaf-works-on-VMWARE-tf3138468.html

LEAF COMMAND FAQ
http://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=9267&group_id=13751

New Submission: P2V Scripts - Post-Configuration Scripts

Mike_Laverick — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 23:14:26 GMT

Hi there

I've collated and created some P2V scripts that handle the "clean up process" for a recently P2V'ed virtual machine.

Most of these I have "poached and modified " from various websites (all in the public arena) such MS "Scripting Center". Most of the scripts run with little user interaction and contain some rudimentary syntax checks.

The main "innovation" is using Microsoft DevCon utility (a command-line version of Device Manager) to create a report of all the hardware on the physical machine and all the hardware on the virtual machine - then I work out all the "phantom hardware" that needs to be removed - and devcon does the rest.

The helper is set up with 2 NICs and as NAT - to allow communication between the VM and PM to stop any IP/NetBIOS conflicts.

The clever part of the scripts were worked on in conjunction with Rob van der Woude of:

http://www.robvanderwoude.com

The scripts are held on an ISO file which you attach to the P2V Virtual Machine. The ISO file can be downloaded here:

p2v-scriptsiso

I also have created a PDF file which explains each of the scripts and what they were meant to do:

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/docs/vmwdocs/p2v-scripts.pdf

Regards
Mike Laverick
RTFM Education - VMware

ps I should add that I've never been able to get the devcon side of my scripts working on winxp. I think this service pack2/security issue. DevCon will run locally on WinXP.

ps thanks ken!

ps if you like my P2V scripts - then why not subscribe to my free weekly email circular on "new stuff" I learn about Vmware. Subscribe by sending an email here: subscribe@rtfm-ed.co.uk

Message was edited by: Daryll (formatting)
Mike_Laverick

Link to p2v-scripts changed due to site redesign

VISBU - Free easy-to-use VI3 backup utility

mittell — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:42:42 GMT

I've written a backup utility, it's currently still in 'beta' but I think I've worked out most of the bugs and it's been working very well for me, so I thought I'd share my work with the community.

I'll be trying to update it fairly regularly as and when I have time, hot-clone of a VM or specific VMDK attached to a VM planned for next version.

Please see the readme file here for some initial instructions: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~alexm/README

You can download the utility here: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~alexm/visbu-0.8.4.tar.gz

Once you've extracted the archive, please read the README file in the directory created for instructions on using the utility.

Alex

New free utility - Snapshot Hunter

mittell — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 17:24:30 GMT

Hi Guys,

I've written a free utility, Snap Hunter, to search all VMFS volumes viewable by a host and email a report of which VMs have snapshots, how many layers deep the snap is on each VMDK, when it was created and how large the delta's are. It also reports current snaphot name and SsId and includes a menu driven schedule configurator.

http://www.xtravirt.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=75&func=fileinfo&id=19

Comments suggestions welcome. Hope it's useful.

Cheers,

Alex

vmktree - track resource usage of an ESX Server

larstr — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 13:54:33 GMT

vmktree is a web application that provides graphs of the resource usage of an esx server. vmktree uses the databases that are created by vmkusage, but unlike vmkusage it will generate graphs only when requested to.

vmktree:
- provides real time statistics by having a web frontend for esxtop (not full featured)

http://tihlde.org/~larstr/vmktree/

Lars

fastest network copy of .vmdk files between 2 esx servers

iaco — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 09:38:18 GMT

scp is indeed the safest way, but it's slow especially if the image files are half empty like a tipical server
here is a way to copy files while compressing on the fly:
let's say you want to copy "file" from "machine1" to "machine2":

ssh machine1
gzip -1 </path/file | ssh machine2 gunzip ">" /path/file

on a standard 2000 server installation 4G vmdk, with a 100Mb ethernet link, using scp you can have a throughput of 8MB/sec
with the above command I've obtained 13MB/sec.

Whitepaper guide to setting up VI3 on Workstation 6.

mittell — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 23:22:18 GMT

Hi all,

I've written a follow up white paper to the Xtravirt "ESX3 on Workstation 6" white paper, outlining the steps to install an iSCSI Enterprise Target Server in a VM and configure your ESX3 VMs to use this iSCSI storage for a 'VI3 in a box' configuration.

Great if you want to demo VI3 Enterprise features like VMotion, HA and DRS without having demo server kit available - you can run all of the required compenents on a single physical machine. This will also run on well specced laptop for mobile demonstrations.

Download it here: http://www.xtravirt.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=75&func=fileinfo&id=16

Hope it's useful, comments and suggestions welcome.

Cheers,

Alex

EZP2V Plugin for BartPE

EZP2V — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 00:16:20 GMT

For those that have tried this plugin, thanks for your feedback and suggestions! For those that have not given this tool a try, I encourage you to take a look at it.

I have added many suggested features since the initial release, and am still working on more. One of my most desired features, a freeware imaging utility, is currently in the works and I hope to have this available in the next release.

You can get the plugin and further information at http://www.ezp2v.net.

Keep the feedback coming!

Thanks,
B-Mann

Script to disconnect CD-rom devices and floppy drives

Gabrie — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 06:49:25 GMT

Hi

I found that project admins who install VM's often forget to disconnect CD-rom or floppy drives after they have been used. And because according to the VMware docu, CD-rom and floppy drives use extra resources through the COS, I started looking for a script that could disconnect all CD-roms and floppy at night.

Through the VMware community forum I received a script from Stuart Thompson which I editted for personal use. The result is below.

Gabrie van Zanten

[code]

#!/bin/bash

# forgotten devices.

# Edit by: Gabrie van Zanten (LogicaCMG)

vmwarelist=`vmware-cmd -l`
vmwarelist=`echo $vmwarelist | sed -e 's/ /*/g'`
vmwarelist=`echo $vmwarelist | sed -e 's/.vmx/.vmx /g'`

for vm in $vmwarelist
do
vm=`echo $vm | sed -e 's/*/ /g'`
vm=`echo $vm | sed -e 's/ \//*/g'`

if [ `vmware-cmd "$vm" getstate | sed -e 's/getstate() = //'` = "on" ]
then
echo Looking @ $vm
IDEBUS=`seq 0 1`
for i in $IDEBUS;
do
echo BUS : $i
IDEDEVICE=`seq 0 1`
for j in $IDEDEVICE;
do
PRESENT=`vmware-cmd "$vm" getconfig ide$i:$j.present | cut -f3 -d " "`
if [ $PRESENT = "true" ]
then
TYPE=`vmware-cmd "$vm" getconfig ide$i:$j.deviceType | cut -f3 -d " "`
if [[ $TYPE == "atapi-cdrom" || $TYPE == "cdrom-image" ]]
then
echo Found CDROM on IDE$i:$j
vmware-cmd "$vm" disconnectdevice ide$i:$j
fi
fi
done
done

FLOPPYDEV=`seq 0 1`
for f in $FLOPPYDEV;
do
echo FLOPPY $f
PRESENT=`vmware-cmd "$vm" getconfig floppy$f.present | cut -f3 -d " "`

if [ $PRESENT = "true" ]
then
echo Found FLOPPY on floppy$f
vmware-cmd "$vm" disconnectdevice floppy$f
fi
done
fi
done

[/code]

Access VM Serial Console - Named Pipe TCP Proxy Utility

shvechkov — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 23:37:46 GMT

Hi all!

Ive created small utility that will ease access to VMs serial consoles (com ports emulated as named pipes) on Windows.
Driver developers for Linux/BSD/Solaris will most likely benefit from this utility: number of popular kernel debuggers makes use of serial console kdb on Linux, kmdb/mdb on Solaris x86 etc. (there was no way to access data from the named pipe by existing terminal clients)

The utility allows QA environment where one runs a farm of virtual machines with easy access to every machines serial console (crash -> kernel gets into debugger -> connect vm console using terminal client -> debug session)

What additional functionality is needed here? Is there a need for Linux support?

Ideas and feedback are welcomed.
Please find below utility description or go to http://shvechkov.tripod.com/nptp.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Challenge
To date of this writing there was no terminal client capable of connecting to named pipes on Windows (neither locally nor remotely). There may be various reasons for such type of access. In my case I was doing some kernel debugging on Linux/Solaris virtual machines that were running under supervision of VMware(or Virtual PC) software and I needed to access Guest OS serial consoles (virtual com ports emulated as named pipes) from the Host OS or remotely using TCP connection.

Solution
Named Pipe TCP Proxy - utility which provides access to named pipes on Windows (special files with names built using the following rule -\\<server_name>\pipe\<pipe_name>) via TCP/IP. Utility has intuitive GUI and allows to create "tcp port" <=> "named pipe" mappings. To access certain named pipe you need to create such a mapping and then connect to assigned tcp port using any terminal client program. For example one may access named pipe locally by issuing the following command:

telnet 127.0.0.1 <TcpPort>
where TcpPort is the port assigned in the GUI for a given named pipe.

Attention
This software is provided as is. Use it at your own risk. Author does not take any responsibility for anything related to aforementioned utility.

If you want to redistribute this software you must provide the link to original developer's site. All of the associated and implied rights reserved.

Feedback and Support
However, in spite of paragraph above, I'll be glad to get feedback on the subject. Proposals, ideas and bug reports are highly appreciated. You may contact me at shvechkov@yahoo.com
/Alexey Shvechkov/

Message was edited by:
shvechkov

storageim Monitoring for ESX and SMI-S SAN Equipment

kurtkrems — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 07:06:14 GMT

storageim is an open source GPLV3 web based application that is using VMWares CIM SDK provider along with other SMI-S providers for monitoring and management. SMI-S providers include storage arrays, HBAs, host(SBLIM), and storage media libraries.

storageim monitors VMWares ESX disks, VMFS volumes, virtual disks and virtual machines. Suggestions are welcome based on VMWares CIM SDK.

VMWare Screen Shot: http://screens.storageim.com/vmware.html.

web site: http://www.storageim.com

download: http://sourceforge.net/projects/storageim/

kkrems@storageim.com

Kickstart script usinf FTP server for source files

FLuna — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 19:15:31 GMT

Here is my kickstart script for automating ESX 3.0.1. It uses ftp server for source files and does the following:
1. creates vmkernal portgroup and enables vmotion
2. populates host file
3. populates resolv.conf
4. populates syslog.conf
5. creates all vswitches COS,VMotion and VMNetwork
6. configures firewall
7. installs insight manager agents and installs trusted certificate
8. Sets console memory to 512MB
9. configures ntp services
10. enable root login thru ssh
11. patches server for updates

###############################################
# This file is used for VMware ESX Server Scripted Install Deployment

# Installation Method
url --url ftp://10.x.x.x/kickstart/

# root Password
rootpw --iscrypted $1$/NZm0rle$nmc.O2RBMzG/esAgGD.kO1
#$1$Rihg62Vt$ndyTLuNbedcUEq.sTx1Qf/

# Authconfig
auth --enableshadow --enablemd5

# BootLoader ( The user has to use grub by default )
bootloader --location=mbr

# Timezone
timezone America/Phoenix

# X windowing System
skipx

# Install or Upgrade
install

# Text Mode
text

# Network install type
network --device=eth4 --bootproto static --ip 10.x.x.x --netmask 255.255.0.0 --gateway 10.x.x.x --nameserver 10.x.x.x --hostname servername.widget.microsoft.com --addvmportgroup=0 --vlanid=0

# Language
lang en_US

# Langauge Support
langsupport --default en_US

# Keyboard
keyboard us

# Mouse
mouse none

# Reboot after install ?
reboot

# Firewall settings
firewall --disabled

# Clear Partitions
clearpart --all --drives=cciss/c0d0 --initlabel

# Partitioning HP Only
part /boot --fstype ext3 --size 100 --ondisk=cciss/c0d0 --asprimary
part / --fstype ext3 --size 10240 --ondisk=cciss/c0d0 --asprimary
part swap --size 544 --ondisk=cciss/c0d0 --asprimary
part /var/log --fstype ext3 --size 2048 --ondisk=cciss/c0d0
part /home --fstype ext3 --size 1024 --ondisk=cciss/c0d0
part /tmp --fstype ext3 --size 1024 --ondisk=cciss/c0d0

# VMware Specific Commands
vmaccepteula
vmlicense --mode=server --server=VC.Licensing.Server.Hostname --edition=esxFull

%packages
@base
%vmlicense_text

%post

#####################################################
cat > /tmp/esxcfg.sh <<\EOF3
#!/bin/sh
# Configure ESX Server
########################################
#Set console memory to 512M
########################################
/bin/sed -i -e 's/272/512/' /etc/vmware/esx.conf
/bin/sed -i -e 's/272M/512M/' /boot/grub/grub.conf
/bin/sed -i -e 's/277504/523264/' /boot/grub/grub.conf

########################################
# Configure VSwitches WIP
########################################
#Removes VSwitch0 Pnics#
esxcfg-vswitch vSwitch0 -U vmnic0
esxcfg-vswitch -A COS vSwitch0
esxcfg-vswif -p COS vswif0
esxcfg-vswitch -D "Service Console" vSwitch0
#Add Pnics 4 and 5 to VSwitch0#
esxcfg-vswitch vSwitch0 -L vmnic4
esxcfg-vswitch vSwitch0 -L vmnic5
#Create Vswitch1 and add pnics 0 and 3 to it#
esxcfg-vswitch -a vSwitch1
esxcfg-vswitch -A VMotion vSwitch1
esxcfg-vswitch vSwitch1 -L vmnic0
esxcfg-vswitch vSwitch1 -L vmnic3
#create vmkernal portgroup and enable vmotion capability
esxcfg-vmknic -a VMotion -i 192.168.1.4 -n 255.255.255.0
esxcfg-route 192.168.1.4
sleep 30
service mgmt-vmware restart
sleep 30
vimsh -n -e "/hostsvc/vmotion/vnic_set portgroup3"
#Create Vswitch1 and add pnics 1 and 2 to it#
esxcfg-vswitch -a vSwitch2
esxcfg-vswitch vSwitch2 -L vmnic1
esxcfg-vswitch vSwitch2 -L vmnic2
#Add portgroup VMotion to vSwitch1 and set vlan disabled#
#esxcfg-vswitch vSwitch1 -A "VMotion"
#esxcfg-vswitch vSwitch1 -p "VMotion" -v 0
#Add portgroup VMNetwork to vSwitch2 and set vlan disabled#
esxcfg-vswitch vSwitch2 -A "VMNetwork"
esxcfg-vswitch vSwitch2 -p "VMNetwork" -v 0

########################################
# where to get time when starting
/bin/echo "DNSserver.widget.microsoft.com" >> /etc/ntp/step-tickers
/bin/echo "DNSserver.widget.microsoft.com" >> /etc/ntp/step-tickers
/bin/echo "DNSserver.widget.microsoft.com" >> /etc/ntp/step-tickers
/bin/echo "DNSserver.widget.microsoft.com" >> /etc/ntp/step-tickers
/bin/echo "DNSserver.widget.microsoft.com" >> /etc/ntp/step-tickers
/bin/echo "1.widget.microsoft.com" >> /etc/ntp/step-tickers
/bin/echo "2.widget.microsoft.com" >> /etc/ntp/step-tickers
/bin/echo "3.widget.microsoft.com" >> /etc/ntp/step-tickers
/bin/echo "4.widget.microsoft.com" >> /etc/ntp/step-tickers
/bin/echo "5.widget.microsoft.com" >> /etc/ntp/step-tickers
/bin/echo "widget.microsoft.com" >> /etc/ntp/step-tickers

# /etc/ntp.conf
/bin/cp /etc/ntp.conf /etc/ntp.conf.orig
/bin/cat /dev/null>/etc/ntp.conf
/bin/cat <<EOF >>/etc/ntp.conf
# Prohibit general access to this service.
restrict default ignore

# the administrative functions.
restrict 127.0.0.1

# permit the source to query or modify the service on this system.
restrict 10.x.x.x mask 255.255.255.255 kod nomodify notrap noquery
nopeer
server 10.x.x.x

restrict 10.x.x.x mask 255.255.255.255 kod nomodify notrap noquery
nopeer
server 10.x.x.x

restrict 10.x.x.x mask 255.255.255.255 kod nomodify notrap noquery
nopeer
server 10.x.x.x

restrict 10.x.x.x mask 255.255.255.255 kod nomodify notrap noquery
nopeer
server 10.x.x.x

restrict 10.x.x.x mask 255.255.255.255 kod nomodify notrap noquery
nopeer
server 10.x.x.x

# fudge 127.127.1.0 stratum 10

#
driftfile /etc/ntp/drift

# authenticate yes

# keys /etc/ntp/keys

EOF

########################################
# Configure hosts GOOD
########################################
# /etc/hosts
/bin/cat /dev/null>/etc/hosts
/bin/cat <<EOF >>/etc/hosts
# that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
10.x.x.x servername.widget.microsoft.com servername
10.x.x.x SEREVRNAME.widget.microsoft.com SEREVRNAME
10.x.x.x SEREVRNAME.widget.microsoft.com SEREVRNAME
10.x.x.x servername.widget.microsoft.com servername
10.x.x.x SERVERNAME
10.x.x.x servername
10.x.x.x 1.widget.microsoft.com
10.x.x.x 2.widget.microsoft.com
10.x.x.x 3.widget.microsoft.com
10.x.x.x 4.widget.microsoft.com
10.x.x.x 5.widget.microsoft.com
widget.microsoft.com

EOF

########################################
# Firewall configuration
########################################
# We need to enable ntpClient, sshClient, snmpd, HP SIM, SSH Server,Syslog
esxcfg-firewall -e ntpClient
esxcfg-firewall -e sshClient
esxcfg-firewall -e snmpd
esxcfg-firewall -e sshServer
esxcfg-firewall -e CIMSLP
esxcfg-firewall -e LicenseClient
esxcfg-firewall -e CIMHttpServer
esxcfg-firewall -e CIMHttpsServer
esxcfg-firewall -e vpxHeartbeats
esxcfg-firewall -e ftpClient
esxcfg-firewall -o 2381,tcp,in,hpim
esxcfg-firewall -o 280,tcp,out,sim-cert
esxcfg-firewall -o 514,udp,out,Syslog

########################################
# NTP Hardware Sync
########################################
/sbin/chkconfig --level 345 ntpd on
/etc/init.d/ntpd start
/sbin/hwclock --systohc

########################################
# Enable root access thru SSH
########################################
# WARNING: This is not the most secure course of action!
sed -e 's/PermitRootLogin no/PermitRootLogin yes/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config > /etc/ssh/sshd_config.new
mv -f /etc/ssh/sshd_config.new /etc/ssh/sshd_config
service sshd restart

########################################
# Secondary Resolv.conf entry
########################################
/bin/cat /dev/null>/etc/resolv.conf
echo "nameserver 10.x.x.x" >> /etc/resolv.conf
echo "nameserver 10.x.x.x" >> /etc/resolv.conf
echo "search widget.microsoft.com microsoft.com" >> /etc/resolv.conf

########################################
# Ftp urlgrabber.py to allow ESX patching script to execute GOOD
########################################
#!/bin/sh
esxcfg-firewall -allowOutgoing
ftp -n ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP << "EOF"
quote user anonymous
quote pass anonymous
get urlgrabber.py /tmp/urlgrabber.py
quit
EOF

esxcfg-firewall -blockOutgoing
cp /usr/share/yum/urlgrabber.py /usr/share/yum/urlgrabber.ks
cp /tmp/urlgrabber.py /usr/share/yum/urlgrabber.py
rm /tmp/urlgrabber.py

########################################
# Patch Server
########################################
esxcfg-firewall -allowOutgoing
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch1/ESX-2158032 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch2/ESX-1410076 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch3/ESX-1006511 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch4/ESX-9986131 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch5/ESX-2066306 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch6/ESX-6856573 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch7/ESX-5885387 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch8/ESX-5031800 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch9/ESX-3199476 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch10/ESX-9916286 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch11/ESX-6431040/ESX-1161870 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch11/ESX-6431040/ESX-3416571 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch11/ESX-6431040/ESX-5011126 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch11/ESX-6431040/ESX-7737432 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch11/ESX-6431040/ESX-7780490 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch11/ESX-6431040/ESX-8174018 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch11/ESX-6431040/ESX-8852210 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch11/ESX-6431040/ESX-9617902 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch12/ESX-2559638 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch13/ESX-2257739 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch14/ESX-1541239 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch15/ESX-7302867 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch16/ESX-6704314 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch17/ESX-5140477 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch18/ESX-5095559 update
esxupdate --noreboot -r ftp://ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP/Patch19/ESX-4825991 update
esxcfg-firewall -blockOutgoing

########################################
#Syslog.conf modification for syslog logging to 10.x.x.x
########################################
# /etc/syslog.conf
/bin/cp /etc/syslog.conf /etc/syslog.conf.ks
/bin/cat /dev/null>/etc/syslog.conf
/bin/cat <<EOF >>/etc/syslog.conf
# Logging much else clutters up the screen.
#kern.* /dev/console

# Don't log private authentication, cron, or vmkernel messages!
*.info;mail.none;authpriv.none;cron.none;local6.none;local5.none /var/log/messages
*.info;mail.none;authpriv.none;cron.none;local6.none;local5.none @10.x.x.x
# The authpriv file has restricted access.
authpriv.* /var/log/secure

# Log all the mail messages in one place.
mail.* /var/log/maillog

# Log cron stuff
cron.* /var/log/cron

# Everybody gets emergency messages
*.emerg *

# Save news errors of level crit and higher in a special file.
uucp,news.crit /var/log/spooler

# Save boot messages also to boot.log
local7.* /var/log/boot.log
local7.* @10.x.x.x

#send all local6.info messages to special summary log only.
#loclocal6.info;local6.!notice /var/log/vmksummary
#loclocal6.info;local6.!notice @10.x.x.x

#send all vmkernel .warning messages to warnings logs.
local6.warning /var/log/vmkwarning
local6.warning @10.x.x.x

#send all local6.notice and higher messages to vmkernel log.
local6.notice /var/log/vmkernel

#send all userworld proxy messages to proxy log
local5.* /var/log/vmkproxy

#send all storage monitor related messages to storageMonitor log
local4.* /var/log/storageMonitor
local4.* @10.x.x.x
EOF

########################################
#Install IM agents
########################################
esxcfg-firewall -allowOutgoing
ftp -n ftpserver.widget.microsoft.com.IP << "EOF"
quote user anonymous
quote pass anonymous
binary
get /imagent/hpmgmt-7.7.0-vmware3x.tar /tmp/hpmgmt-7.7.0-vmware3x.tar
get /imagent/hpmgmt.conf /tmp/hpmgmt.conf
get /imagent/insightmanagertrustedcertificatename.pem /tmp/insightmanagertrustedcertificatename.pem
quit
EOF
export PATH=$PATH:/tmp
cd /tmp
chmod +x hpmgmt-7.7.0-vmware3x.tar
tar -xzvf hpmgmt-7.7.0-vmware3x.tar
cp /tmp/hpmgmt.conf /tmp/hpmgmt/770/hpmgmt.conf
cd /tmp/hpmgmt/770
./installvm770.sh --silent --inputfile /tmp/hpmgmt/770/hpmgmt.conf
rm -f -r /tmp/hpmgmt
rm -f /tmp/hpmgmt-7.7.0-vmware3x.tar
rm -f /tmp/hpmgmt.conf
cp /tmp/insightmanagertrustedcertificatename.pem /opt/hp/hpsmh/certs/insightmanagertrustedcertificatename.pem
rm -f /tmp/insightmanagertrustedcertificatename.pem
esxcfg-firewall -blockOutgoing
EOF3
# make configuration script executable
chmod +x /tmp/esxcfg.sh

#####################################################

# save a copy of rc.local
cp /etc/rc.d/rc.local /etc/rc.d/rc.local.sav

# add esxcfg.sh to rc.local
cat >> /etc/rc.d/rc.local <<EOF
cd /tmp
/tmp/esxcfg.sh
EOF>

vmware tools 5.5.3, linux 2.6.19 (ubuntu feisty), vmxnet compile fix

tje — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 00:10:13 GMT

vmxnet.c in 5.5.3 vmware tools includes a check for kernels predating 2.6.19 and compiles the vmxnet_interrupts routine with different arguments (one less) for 2.6.19 and above. Except it was neglected to do do this to the only invocation of the function as well as its definition, hence a compile error for "wrong number of arguments" at line 1058 of vmxnet.c

Fix:
wrap the invocation in the same #define as the definition, exclude the offending argument and all is fine. tested it and everything
#if LINUX_VERSION_CODE < KERNEL_VERSION(2, 6, 19)
vmxnet_interrupt(dev->irq, dev, NULL);
#else
vmxnet_interrupt(dev->irq, dev);
#endif

to fill in the dots:
- unpack vmtools into tmp.
- mkidr /tmp/vmxnet
- cd /tmp/vmxnet
- tar xf /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib/lib/modules/source/vmxnet.tar
- fix vmxnet.c
- tar cf vmxnet.tar vmxnet-only
- cp vmxnet.tar /tmp/vmware-tools/distrib/lib/modules/source/vmxnet.tar
rerun the installation.
Yes, there is probably a shorter more elegant way of doing that.

Cheers
Tom

vmware-tools installion for virtual win98 fails

gerhard_wien — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 08:27:46 GMT

Host: Suse 10.0
VMware: WM-Server
Guest: Windows 98

Iso- image needed to install the VMware-tools is seen by guest as an audio-cd.

Solution:
Power of the virtual machine.
Edit the configuration of this virtual machine to add a second cd-drive that uses the iso-image .
Start guest and install from the second cd-drive.
Shutdown guest, remove additional cd drive.

Gerhard

Ultimate-P2V Available for Download

Mike_Laverick — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 12:29:45 GMT

Created by Qui Hong (The Developer), Chris Huss and Mike Laverick (Value-Add and Documentation)

Ultimate-P2V is a BartPE free plug-in that allows you to clone a physical machine to virtual machine - and perform the neccessary system reconfiguration required to make it bootable. Without this tool or a commerical P2V tool the virtual machine would just give a blue screen of death. It has been tested with Symantec Ghost 8 in mind, but it should be configurable with other cloning software and BartPE Plug-ins

Also included are plug-ins for

LSILogic Drivers
VMware Tools
VMware SVGA Drivers
Downloads for popular network and storage drivers for physical machine

For more details and downloads click here

Ultimate-P2V

Kind Regards
Mike Laverick, Chris Huss, and Qui Hung

RTFM Education
Have you RTFM'd today?

Create linked clone on Vmware Server

rmitura — Tue, 30 May 2006 15:16:04 GMT

This example shows how to clone RedHat9 installation on vmware server working on Linux Host. Assume you are working on shell console on server in virtual OS directory - in this case RedHat9.

1. First you need working virtual machine configured and ready to make as template.
2. Shut down virtual OS and turn of virtual machine.
In my example following files exist on vm directory:
RedHat9.vmsd - empty file for snapshot management
RedHat9.vmx - virtual machine configuration
RedHat9_root.vmdk - virtual disk with RedHat 9 OS
nvram - cmos of virtual machine
3. Make snapshot from server console - this will be template for clones.
vm directory will contain some new files:
RedHat9.vmsd - snapshot management file
RedHat9-Snapshot1.vmsn - additional file for snapshot purposes
RedHat9_root-000001.vmdk - RedHat9_root.vmdk disk extention for shanshot
4. Create directory that will contain cloned machine
mkdir ../RedHat9_cl1
5. Copy configuration and snapshot disk image to the clone directory
cp RedHat9.vmx RedHat9_root-000001.vmdk ../RedHat9_cl1
6. Change directory to the clone directory
cd ../RedHat9_cl1
7. rename clone disk with vmware-vdiskmanager
vmware-vdiskmanager -n RedHat9_root-000001.vmdk RedHat9_root-cl1.vmdk
6. in vmx file change line that refer to RedHat9_root-000001.vmdk to RedHat9_root-cl1.vmdk
in example change:
scsi0:0.fileName = "RedHat9_root-000001.vmdk"
to
scsi0:0.fileName = "RedHat9_root-cl1.vmdk"
7. in vmx file change line responsible for name displayed on console
in example change:
displayName = "RedHat9"
to
displayName = "RedHat9_cl1"
8. add lik to the parent disk
ln -s ../RedHat9/RedHat9_root.vmdk RedHat9_root.vmdk
9. run cloned machine (generate new uuid and reconfigure system to your needs - for example chane IP if set statically, hostname, etc)

Maybe this is not perfect and have some disadvantages but it works.
NOTE: If you make snapshot on cloned machine you can't revert it back from the server console - you have to modify vmx file to point previous file).

P2PI2V GPL Open Source GNU/Linux P2V solution based on System Rescue CD

osde.info — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 10:13:33 GMT

http://www.p2pi2v.org.uk is a P2PI2V GPL Open Source GNU/Linux P2V solution based on System Rescue CD and partimage

The ultimate VBScript for VM backup on Windows hosts (VMWare Server)

saxa — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 22:47:36 GMT

I made my dream to reality: I written a script which makes backup of virtual machine by shutting down, copying and compressing of .vmx and .vmdk files.

Please read the long comment at the beginning of the code to understand what it does and how it works.

Sorry for bad formatting

[code]

' Please save this as vm-backup.vbs
'
' Copyleft saxa, 2006
'
' Written for fun and for functionality; total Open Source.
' Tips and suggestions are welcome.
' Use it at your own risk.
'
' The script uses the VmCOM API for the virtual machine operations.
'
' The virtual machine *must* have the VMware Tools installed, in order to perform the
' shutdown and heartbeat operations correctly.
'
' DON'T APPLY THIS SCRIPT ON RUNNING VIRTUAL MACHINES WHICH DON'T HAVE THE VMWARE TOOLS INSTALLED.
'
' It works on Windows 2000 SP4 and newer; it doens't use the NTBackup utility.
'
' The script runs on the local host only; it cannot be used to connect to a remote VMware Server.
' The script *can* backup to the network share, if you have the appropriate permissions to do it.
'
' For the backup jobs it uses the command line version of 7zip: get it on http://7zip.org/download.html.
' You need the "7-Zip Command Line Version". Unfortunately there is only 32 bit version available now.
'
' We assume that the 7zip executable is included in your %PATH% variable.
' Most probably you already have a folder with your tools, where you will also save this script.
' We have on each of our servers the folder C:\Program files\myTools created and it is added to %PATH%.
'
' Please see Windows Help on how to add a folder to %PATH%.
'
' Here I go again (c) ;))
'
' To use the command line version of this script (non-interactive mode):
' We assuming that all of our .vmx files are named vm.vmx.
' The name itself doesn't matter, but it must be the same for every virtual machine.
' If you don't like vm.vmx, please change the following variable correspondingly.

vmfile = "vm.vmx"

' We also assume that all of your virtual machines are located in the appropriate subdirectories
' of *one* directory; in other words, we need a flat structure.
' See the variable "vmpath" and change it to your needs.
' Here is a sample of correct directory layout:
'
' D:\Virtual Machines\
' Virtual Machine 1\
' vm.vmx
' hdd1.vmdk
' hdd1-flat.vmdk
' hdd2.vmdk
' hdd2-flat.vmdk
' other_file.ext
' Virtual Machine 2\
' vm.vmx
' disks\
' some weird disk 1.vmdk
' some weird diskette.flp
'
' As you can see, subdirectories are also allowed. It's only important that your .vmx file is placed
' on the (in this sample) second level, say, the full path to .vmx must be
' D:\Virtual Machines\Virtual Machine X\vm.vmx for every virtual machine.
'
' The subdirectory where the virtual machine is located is very important for this script:
' it's the virtual machine's identifier.
' In our sample these are "Virtual Machine 1" and "Virtual Machine 2" respectively.
'
' You will start the script as follows:
'
' vm-backup "Virtual Machine 1"
'
' or
'
' vm-backup "Virtual Machine 2"
'
' to backup the Virtual Machine 1 or Virtual Machine 2.
'
' The script does the following:
'
' The virtual machine gets the command to shut down it's operating system.
' The script waits 60 seconds and than checks the state of the virtual machine.
' If the vm still runs, the script waits 60 seconds more and so on.
' As soon as the vm is off, the script copies the vm's folder into the backup location
' (see the "bkpath" variable and change it if you would like to; UNC-Paths are accepted).
'
' If the vm couldn't be shut down, the mail is sent to the admin,
' the error is written in the Windows application log.
'
' After the copying is done, the vm receives the command to start, if if was running before the operation has begun.
' 30 seconds later, and then every 30 seconds, the script checks the heatbeat of the vm.
' As soon as the vm at 300 or more units of heartbeat, the script starts to create
' a compressed archive from a previously copied vm directory.
' At that point of time is the vm already up and running.
' A .zip archive receives the following name: YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS-Virtual Machine 1.zip
' The creation of the .zip file takes it's time: on Pentium 4 (with Hyperthreading, single core)
' 2.8 GHz machine with 3 GB RAM is the duration of compress operation on a virtual machine
' having 2 virtual HDDs at 16 and 36 GB was 2 hours. Though it is worth the effort:
' the resulting file has the size of 3.6 GB: compare it to 52 GB uncompressed .
' So, after the .zip file is ready, the script checks if there were any errors produced by 7zip.
' If there are some, the Windows Application log is misused for the registration of them.
' If not, then we can safely delete the copy of the vm used as a source for compression and create the record
' of successful backup operation in the Application log.
'
' The interactive mode (if you start the script without any parameters) does the same.
' You can manually name your zip file.

vmpath = "D:\Virtual Machines\"

' Please don't forget the ending backslash!
' vm -> Directory where the VM files are located: the machine name is received from the argument.

' bkpath -> Destination directory; here are temporary backups created,
' and here you will find your .zip files.
' The user who runs the script must have the write permissions on directory / network share.

bkpath = "E:\backups\"

' In the variable seven_zip_switch you can provide the additional switches for the command line of 7zip.
' The most thinkfully switch is " -v4g" (don't forget the leading space!). It causes the splitting of your
' archive into volumes at 4 GB. Please read the 7zip's manual about the -v switch.

seven_zip_switch = ""

adminmail = "admin@domain.tld" 'Here you'll receive mail messages.

smtp = "smtp.domain.tld" 'Your SMTP server must be able to relay the mails for you.

On Error Resume Next

' Common definitions...

Set wshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set cp = CreateObject("VmCOM.VmConnectParams")
Set server = CreateObject("VmCOM.VmServerCtl")
Set thevm = CreateObject("VmCOM.VmCtl")
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set wshNet = CreateObject("WScript.Network")
Set mailing = CreateObject("CDO.Message")

mailing.From = lcase(wshNet.UserName & "@" & wshNet.ComputerName & "." & wshNet.UserDomain)
mailing.To = adminmail
mailing.Configuration.Fields.Item ("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing") = 2
mailing.Configuration.Fields.Item ("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver") = smtp
mailing.Configuration.Fields.Item ("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport") = 25

header = "Backup Script for VMware Virtual Machines" 'Just the title for message boxes...

Function iso_date(byval dt)

' The function does nothing interesting...

dim y: y=year(dt)
dim m: m=month(dt)
dim d: d=day(dt)
dim h: h=hour(dt)
dim n: n=minute(dt)
dim s: s=second(dt)

if m < 10 then m="0" & m
if d < 10 then d="0" & d
if h < 10 then h="0" & h
if n < 10 then n="0" & m
if s < 10 then s="0" & s

iso_date = y & "-" & m & "-" & d & "-" & h & n & s

end Function

' Here we are getting the name of the VM delivered by the script argument; it must be only one. Or, no one.

Set args = WScript.Arguments

If args.Count=1 Then 'We are in the mode with predefined vm by parameter, way = "a(utomatic)"
vm = args(0)
vmfolder = vmpath & vm
vmfile = vmfolder & "\" & vmfile

zipfile = bkpath & vm & "-" & iso_date(now) & ".zip"

tmpfolder = bkpath & vm

way = "a"

ElseIf args.Count=0 Then 'We are in the interactive mode, way = "i(nteractive)"

vmfile = inputBox("Please enter the full path to the .vmx file of the virtual machine you want to backup:",header,vmpath)

vmfolder = fso.GetParentFolderName(vmfile)

vmparent = fso.GetParentFolderName(vmfolder)

vm = Replace(Replace(vmfolder, vmparent, ""),"\","")

bkfile = bkpath & vm & "-" & iso_date(now) & ".zip"

zipfile = inputBox("Now, please enter the full path to the .zip file the script will create:",header,bkfile)

tmpfolder = fso.GetParentFolderName(zipfile) & "\" & vm

way = "i"

Else

' There is more than one argument provided: write the error message into the application log and bye.
' There is no message box / email here.

errNoVMfile = "Incorrect Input." & VbCrLf & "The directory where the Virtual Machine files" & VbCrLf & "are resided must be provided as argument." & VbCrLf & "If the directory name contains spaces," & VbCrLf & "please add the " & Chr(34) & " sign at the beginning" & VbCrLf & "and at the end of the Virtual Machine's name." & VbCrLf & "The reading of the source code" & VbCrLf & "of the vm-backup.vbs script may help "

wshShell.LogEvent 1, errNoVMfile

WScript.Quit

End If

' Try to connect to server 10 times

connected = False
For tries_srv = 1 To 10
server.Connect cp
If Err.number = 0 Then
connected = True
Exit For
End If
WScript.Sleep 10000
Err.clear
Next

If Not connected Then

'Connection to server couldn't be established; we write something into the application log or/and send a message...

errNoConnectSRV = "The Backup Script for VMware Server couldn't create an appropriate connection." & VbCrLf & "Please check if all of the VMWare Services are up and running." & VbCrLf & "Please keep in mind, you can run this script on the local host only."

wshShell.LogEvent 1, errNoConnectSRV

mailing.Subject = header & ": Critical Error"
mailing.TextBody = errNoConnectSRV
mailing.Configuration.Fields.Update
mailing.Send

if way = "i" Then
crySRV = msgBox(errNoConnectSRV,vbCritical,header)
end if

WScript.Quit

End If

' Connect to the virtual machine. You remember, what the "vmfile" is?

' Try to connect to vm 10 times

connected_m = False
For tries_vm = 1 To 10
thevm.Connect cp, vmfile
If Err.number = 0 Then
connected_m = True
Exit For
End If
WScript.Sleep 1000
Err.clear
Next

If Not connected_m Then

'Connection to vm couldn't be established; we write something into the application log or/and send a message...

errNoConnectVM = "The Backup Script for VMware Server couldn't connect to the virtual machine " & vmfile & "." & VbCrLf & "Please check if the path to .vmx file correct is and if the virtual machine is registered on your server." & VbCrLf & "Please keep in mind, you can run this script on the local host only."

wshShell.LogEvent 1, errNoConnectVM

mailing.Subject = header & ": Critical Error"
mailing.TextBody = errNoConnectVM
mailing.Configuration.Fields.Update
mailing.Send

if way = "i" Then
cryVM = msgBox(errNoConnectVM,vbCritical,header)
end if

WScript.Quit

End If

' Enough with checking
' Get the ExecutionState of the vm to know if it must be started after backup complete

' Const vmExecutionState_Off = 2
' Const vmExecutionState_On = 1
' Const vmExecutionState_Stuck = 4
' Const vmExecutionState_Suspended = 3
' Const vmExecutionState_Unknown = 5

' now we need only 2 states

ps = thevm.ExecutionState

if ps = 1 then

was_on = true ' It must be powered on after backup

elseIf ps = 2 then

was_on = false ' After backup do nothing

else

' If vm stucks, suspended or in unknown state... Who needs such backups? We create some errors.

errState = "The Backup Script for VMware Server couldn't get the correct state of the virtual machine " & vmfile & "." & VbCrLf & "Correct states are on and off only." & VbCrLf & "A vm with pending question, such as new SID after copying or moving, cannot be backed up, too."

wshShell.LogEvent 1, errState

mailing.Subject = header & ": Critical Error"
mailing.TextBody = errState
mailing.Configuration.Fields.Update
mailing.Send

if way = "i" Then
cryVM = msgBox(errState,vbCritical,header)
end if

WScript.Quit

end If

' Heartbeat. It's the approximate number of seconds from the start of VMWare Tools inside the vm.

hb = thevm.Heartbeat

if was_on = true then

if hb < 1 then ' VMWare Tools not installed or cannnot be contacted...

' VM without VMWare Tools can only be backed up if it was off...

errTools = "The Backup Script for VMware Server couldn't contact the VMWare Tools on the virtual machine " & vmfile & "." & VbCrLf & "Therefore it cannot be shut down correctly." & VbCrLf & "Please shut down the vm manually. Afterwards it can be backed up."

wshShell.LogEvent 1, errTools

mailing.Subject = header & ": Critical Error"
mailing.TextBody = errTools
mailing.Configuration.Fields.Update
mailing.Send

if way = "i" Then
cryTools = msgBox(errTools,vbCritical,header)
end if

WScript.Quit

end if

end if

' start/stop
' Const vmPowerOpMode_Hard = 1
' Const vmPowerOpMode_Soft = 2
' Const vmPowerOpMode_TrySoft = 3

' Now stopping...

getoff = thevm.stop(2)

isoff = False

For tries_off = 1 To 10
ps = thevm.ExecutionState
If ps = 2 Then
isoff = True
Exit For
End If
WScript.Sleep 60 * 1000
ps = 0

Next

If Not isoff Then

'The vm couldn't be shut down: very critical...

errNoShutDown = "The Backup Script for VMware Server couldn't shut down the virtual machine " & vmfile & "." & VbCrLf & " in a reasonable time." & VbCrLf & "Please check it's state."

wshShell.LogEvent 1, errNoShutDown

mailing.Subject = header & ": Critical Error"
mailing.TextBody = errNoShutDown
mailing.Configuration.Fields.Update
mailing.Send

if way = "i" Then
cryNoShutDown = msgBox(errNoShutDown,vbCritical,header)
end if

WScript.Quit

end if

' Machine is shut down and can be copied

copyVM = fso.CopyFolder(vmfolder,tmpfolder) 'checked

' Machine copied!

if was_on = true then 'Power on the vm if it was on

geton = thevm.start(2)

' Wait until the heartbeat becomes more than 300

ison = False

For tries_on = 1 To 20
hbs = thevm.Heartbeat
If hbs > 300 Then
ison = True
Exit For
End If
WScript.Sleep 30 * 1000
hbs = 0

Next

If Not ison Then

'The vm couldn't be start up: very critical...

errNoStart = "The Backup Script for VMware Server couldn't power on the virtual machine " & vmfile & "." & VbCrLf & " in a reasonable time. Maybe the machine could not start the VMWare Tools." & VbCrLf & "Please check it's state and / oder configuration."

wshShell.LogEvent 1, errNoStart

mailing.Subject = header & ": Critical Error"
mailing.TextBody = errNoStart
mailing.Configuration.Fields.Update
mailing.Send

if way = "i" Then
cryNoStart = msgBox(errNoStart,vbCritical,header)
end if

WScript.Quit

end if

end if

' Now the vm is up and running. It is copied and ready to be compressed

backup_string = "7za a -tzip " & chr(34) & zipfile & chr(34) & " " & chr(34) & tmpfolder & "\*" & chr(34) & seven_zip_switch

' Now create the archive...

backup_vm = wshshell.Run(backup_string,0,true)

if backup_vm > 0 then

' The zip file wasn't created

errNozip = "The Backup Script for VMware Server couldn't create a zip file." & VbCrLf & "Please check if you have enough disk space on " & tmpfolder & " and run / shedule the backup script again."

wshShell.LogEvent 1, errNozip

mailing.Subject = header & ": Critical Error"
mailing.TextBody = errNozip
mailing.Configuration.Fields.Update
mailing.Send

if way = "i" Then
cryNoZip = msgBox(errNozip,vbCritical,header)
end if

WScript.Quit

end if

' Now delete the temporary backup folder...

deltmp = fso.deleteFolder(tmpfolder) 'should be ok

' And send some messages.

success_message = "The Backup Script for VMware Server backed up the virtual machine " & vmfile & " successfully." & VbCrLf & "Backup is saved as " & zipfile & "."

wshShell.LogEvent 0, success_message

mailing.Subject = header & ": Operation Successfully Completed"
mailing.TextBody = success_message
mailing.Configuration.Fields.Update
mailing.Send

if way = "i" Then
cryS = msgBox(success_message,vbExclamation,header)
end if

WScript.Quit
[/code]

Comments are appreciated.

Message was edited by: oreeh

Modified the adminmail and smtp variables by request from saxa

Oliver
VMTN User Moderator

VMWare Workstation 6 Direct3d x86_64 Linux

Kim Botherway — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 03:39:19 GMT

If you are running a 64Bit version of linux and you want VMWare Workstation 6 to support Direct3d you will need to do the following (Tested on Ubuntu Feisty x86_64, instructions may need to be altered for other distributions)

1. Downloaded 32Bit nVidia drivers
2. Extract Drivers
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.11-pkg1.run -x
3. Copy Libs to /usr/lib32
cp NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.11-pkg1/usr/lib/* /usr/lib32
cp NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.11-pkg1/usr/lib/tls/* /usr/lib32
4. Create sym links
cd /usr/lib32
ln -s libGLcore.so.100.14.11 libGLcore.so
ln -s libGLcore.so.100.14.11 libGLcore.so.1
ln -s libGL.so.100.14.11 libGL.so
ln -s libGL.so.100.14.11 libGL.so.1
ln -s libnvidia-tls.so.100.14.11 libnvidia-tls.so
ln -s libnvidia-tls.so.100.14.11 libnvidia-tls.so.1
5. Run ldconfig -v
Check for libGL* and libnvidia* in the /usr/lib/32 directory
5. Install linux32
apt-get install linux32
6. Edit your vmx file and add
mks.enable3d = "TRUE"
svga.vramSize = "67108864"

When you start Windows you can now install dx9

\[solved] Windows NT4 multiprocessor HAL gives 100% CPU load

DoctorNet — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 01:13:45 GMT

Hi all,

After searching on the forum and on google I found, that I am not the only one to have the problem of Windows NT4 mith multiprocessor HAL eating up 1-2x100% CPU in a virtual machine.

Ref:
http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=415307
http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=418909&#418909
http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=37856

While forum user nick.couchman pointed me in a good direction (Thanks Nick if you read this), I couldn't find a HOWTO writeup anywhere. So here we go:

1.) Disclaimer
This worked for me on vmware server 1.01 running on openSUSE 10.2 i586 on a quad-cpu Proliant. It might or might not work for you, it might eat your servers and data - use at your own risk!

2.) The problem and alternative solution
When running Windows NT4 Server (afaik also Workstation) as a guest with the multiprocessor HAL installed (i.e. surely if you assign 2 virtual processors) this virtual machine will allways use 100% CPU time on as many processors as it has assigned.

This is bad, especially since vmware has no chance to figure out, if this CPU-consumption is really needed, or if it is just a guest OS Bug i.e.: An idle virtual NT4 machine will create havoc on the scheduling algorithms, potentially affecting other virtual machines. This interaction between the schedulers of guest, vmware and host really do hurt: see the end of this posting for performance numbers.

Repeat: This problem happens ONLY if you use Windows NT4 SP6a as a guest OS with the multiprocessor HAL installed.

The background seems to be, that the idle process in NT4 SP6a MPHAL does not correctly issue the HLT command to the CPU(s) on idle. This makes the CPU work full power, even when idling - the big amount of heat produced by idle MP NT4 Servers is a hint, that this might really be the issue.

If you have the choice to use a single virtual processor, consider using a singleprocessor HAL (as in http://www.vmware.com/support/ws3/doc/ws32_disks7.html) and get rid of the problem - this is the clean way.

There are some scenarios where the clean way is blocked. Performance is one, in our case we were forced to give 2 virtual processors to NT4 for stupidity reasons of a legacy application: There vendor sold us a license for an application to run on 2 processors some years ago, explicitly allows usage in a virtual environment, but the application will not start on a single processor system for licensing reasons ...

3.) Prerequisites
You will need:
- SrvStart by Nick Rozanski (http://www.nick.rozanski.com/software.htm, GPL-licensed) or another "Run application as service"-tool of your choice

4.) How to

We solve the problem (better: we work around it) by running "CpuIdle" which does in fact nothing but issue HLT to the CPU when it is scheduled, but always remains runnable. So all unused CPU time is soaked up by CpuIdle which has become de facto a new idle process

The HLT goes down to vmware and reduces (heavily) the CPU-consumption.

- Watch CPU usage on Host and Guest: On the guest you will see 100%, most of it for CpuIdle, but on the host you will see CPU consumption by this NT4 instance drop from 100% (200% for 2 virtual processors) to the same level as would be used by W2k.

Until now, this works only while you are logged on interactively, as CpuIdle is an application, not a service. To have it run automatically on startup we need to make it a service: I like SrvStart better than SrvAny - it allows for monitoring of the service, so that when you accidentally open CpuIdle on the console and then end it, it is restarted in the background

- "Install" SrvStart by copying it and its 2 DLLs to a convenient place, I chose C:\Programme\srvstart (C:\Programme is C:\Program Files on a german version of NT4)

- write a control file - here is mine:

#C:\Programme\srvstart\srvstart.ini
debug_out=%TEMP%\myservice.log
[cpuidle]
path=C:\WINNT;C:\WINNT\system32
priority=idle
startup_delay=2
wait_time=2
startup=C:\Programme\CpuIdle\cpuidle.exe
startup_dir=C:\Programme\CpuIdle
shutdown_method=kill
auto_restart=y
restart_interval=30

- register the service:

srvstart.exe install_desktop cpuidle -c C:\Programme\srvstart\srvstart.ini

We need to install the service with desktop interaction, at least as long as it is configured to show the splash screen - this is always during evaluation and after registration as long as you don't explicitly turn it off in the configuration.

The service is created with manual startup mode - so don't forget to set it to automatic.

4.) Performance

A (very) quick and rude benchmark shows the following (remember that the physical host has 4 CPUs), 2 vCPUs are given to the only NT4 virtual machine (processing heavy), 2 vCPUs to a WinXP instance being the only other virtual machine running at the time of the benchmark (IO and processing balanced), RAM is not an issue (6GB present, 1.5 GB for the two running VMs)

- Load average dropped from ca. 1.5 to 0.4

I do not pretend to understand this, but I like it: I can reduce from 3 physical servers to 2 and still survive a desaster.

5.) Further suggestions

I will post to the "user suggestions" of this forum: Would be nice if VMware could include the functionality created by this hack into the VMware Tools

6.) About

Eugen Rieck, Dr. Net! Netzwerkservice, Vienna, Austria
eugen@drnet.at
Programmer and system engineer.

Sorry for the long post!

Best regards, Eugen

This post is in the public domain, but I would appreciate you voluntarily using it in a "Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike" manner.

Cut & Paste Trick

davidm52 — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 22:34:15 GMT

So, as a fairly recent VmWare Server user, I immediately saw a need to easily cut & paste between my native OS (WinXP Pro) and my Virtual Machine OS (Redhat). I was told that there was currently no facility to do that.

My simple work-around was to leave a Yahoo! IM window open in both environments so when ever I need to do a simple cut & paste from/to WinXP & Linux environments I use the IM.
Formatting gets lost but it generally does what I need.
David

howto change BusLogic to LSI Logic - SLES 9

wg_krieger — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 09:12:18 GMT

I searched really long for a solution to change the scsi controller type from BusLogic (recommended with ESX 2.5x) to LSI Logic (recommended in ESX 3.01) in a Suse Linux Enterprise Server 9 SP2 VM with LVM activated (without logical volumes it is possible to use the standard option system repair if you boot from cd, but with logical volumes my machine wasn't able to read these mount points) . So here is my solution:

Migrate the VM from ESX 2.5 --> ESX 3.01

Boot the VM with the old BusLogic Controller

change the modules in /etc/sysconfig/kernel (other distributions may use /etc/modules.conf):
from original:
INITRD_MODULES="Buslogic.............."
to:
INITRD_MODULES="mptbase mptscsih mptspi"

bash:# mkinitrd

bash:# lilo

then power down the VM and change the SCSI Controller type to LSI Logic and reboot the VM

- thats it

(sorry for bad english, I always slept at english lessons at school)

ESX 3.0.1 Hangs on Install - BIOS Boot other devices: YES to fix

AnonymousOne — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 13:12:34 GMT

FIX: Make sure your BIOS setting is Boot other devices: YES or ENABLE

I am the guy who shuts off everything I can in the bios to prevent operating systems like windows from installing extra drivers that I don't need or use.

So I did the same with ESX. Opps.

ESX 3.0.1.32039 will hang on install with out any error message feed back if you have your BIOS set to not allow other boot devices.

I understand that this makes no sense when isntalling / booting from an IDE CD and SCSI disks. But thats what my ESX install did for me.

It hangs in the first minute of the install (graphic or text).... I think after detecting the mouse that it will use to do the install.

My board:
Phonix Award Bios 6.x / AMD - AM2 Socket / ATI motherboard chip set
ECS Elite Group Motherboard KA3 MPV www.ecsusa.com

Document your ESX hosts.

A.Mikkelsen — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 07:55:01 GMT

Looking for a way to automatically document ESX 3.x hosts?
Look no further.
The healthcheck script is a free script that automatically creates documentation for ESX 3.x hosts. The output is in HTML format and can be emailed to you directly.
Some of the information gathered is:
- PCI devices
The script is free to use without any limitations. However, we would appreciate some feedback so we can keep updating the script.

You can download the healthcheck script at:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/esxhealthscript/
If you have and suggestions to how to improve the script please let us know through the projects forum at:
https://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=687179

Regards

A. Mikkelsen & DAFA
Developers

List VMs with connected Cdroms

hicksj — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:43:43 GMT

There are a couple reasons this may be interesting:

- A caveat of DRS is that Virtual machines that have CD-ROMs
connected to them will not be migrated to another host by DRS.

- Unintentionally leaving a CDROM configued with "Connect at poweron"
could cause unintended consequences... such as the VM boots an
Installation process instead of the actual guest OS

So I just put together this script for use with viperltoolkit:
[code]
#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use warnings;
use Getopt::Long;
use VMware::VIRuntime;

my $username = "user";
my $password = "pass";
my $service_url = "https://virtualcenter/sdk/vimService";

# Login to VI3 Service Interface
Vim::login(service_url => $service_url, user_name => $username, password => $password);

#Find VMs
my $vm_views = Vim::find_entity_views(view_type => 'VirtualMachine');

#Check each VM...
foreach (@$vm_views) {
my $count = 0;
#walk through each VM's device list
while ($_->config->hardware->device->[$count]) {
#if the device is a CDROM
if ($_->config->hardware->device->[$count] =~ /VirtualCdrom/) {
#and if its connected, or set to start connected
if ($_->config->hardware->device->[$count]->connectable->connected || $_->config->hardware->device->[$count]->connectable->startConnected) {
#list the vm and details of the CD
print $_->name . ": " . $_->config->hardware->device->[$count]->deviceInfo->summary . "\n";
}
}
$count++;
}
}

Vim::logout();

[/code]

Adding code to build this into an email alert is very easy,
which in turn will keep support staff informed on the state of VMs.

Note: I'm no kungfoo master when it comes to viperltoolkit
and referencing/extracting data out of VI3. If anyone has a
more elegant or streamlined way to check the connected
states of CDs, I'd suggest any pointers.

Regards,
J

Automated VMware Update Script

Tenser234 — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 22:32:24 GMT

http://mytenser.com/Stuff/Updater_for_ESX.tar.gz

I wrote this script that has three options. Since it uses wget and ESX server 3.0.1 does not have wget, this script must initially be run on a secondary linux server. This script will read from a users maintained configuration file in the form of "url to update%md5 hash" Both can be obtained from vmwares download site and it is simple to add a new line.
The goal of this script is to speed up / automate the setup process that contains the update of patches and fixes. Since by hand this can take a large part of time that may be better spent on a different server.

The three options, --scp, --download, --install

scp:

--scp is called from download as well as it can be ran from the command line. This will copy the script, configure files, temp files, and all of the downloaded patches to a secondary host. It can be called from the command line as "./patches.sh --scp 'IP of Host' "

download:

--download will read through the configuration file and every line that begins with a "http:" it will take as a url to a patch. It will then download the patch with wget and compare the md5 as specified in the configuration file to a fresh calculation of it using md5sum. If the md5sum check fails, the file will automatically be redownloaded and recalculated until the correct sum is found. Be careful if you update the configuration file to get the md5 exact.
Once download has finished it will ask the user if they wish to copy all the pertinent files to another host, namely an ESX Server.

install:

--install will move to the directory that the files were copied to with --scp, enter the directory, then extract and install the patches from oldest to newest. After a patch has been installed, the script will by default wait for 120 seconds (this can be changed in the script by modifying a variable) for esxupdate to finish before moving to the next update. A vmware tech recommended atleast 60seconds on newer servers.

A script that does documentation

thedafa — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:44:10 GMT

Hi,

The Danish VMware User Group has started a project called 'ESX Healthcheck Script'.

This is a script that generates a HTML page with documentation of a ESX host.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/esxhealthscript/

Hope people will find it usefull. Any inputs are very welcome - Please use the forums at Sourceforge for this.

--
dafa

WinImage beta 8001 open and browe VMDK image file

gvollant — Wed, 30 May 2007 01:44:56 GMT

I just released at http://www.winimage.com/beta.htm a new WinImage beta 8.01.8010 with VMWare VMDK support.

This is a public URL, so anyone can try it.

WinImage can open FAT and NTFS partition. FAT are read/write, NTFS read only

So you can start WinImage, open a VMDK file, select a partition, and you'll see all directory and file on this partition.

On both FAT and NTFS partition, you'll be able to copy files from the VMDK file to your hard disk (just "Extract" file from the VMDK) On FAT partition, you'll be able to copy files from you host hard disk to the VMDK file (just "Inject" file)

This is the first WinImage beta which support VMDK file. So, before use WinImage to modify a very important VMDK file, I suggest you make backup of this file.

Veeam Reporter Visio Stencil set for Visio 2003

Max_am — Mon, 28 May 2007 15:19:45 GMT

MS Visio stencil set used in Veeam Reporter for VI3.

http://www.veeam.com/veeam_reporter_stencil.asp

Your suggestions and feedback are greatly appreciated!

Dramatically increase performance of copying data into vmfs

InsaneGeek — Tue, 22 May 2007 18:24:12 GMT

This may sound kind of "wonky" but try this procedure if you are using ftp, ssh or just copying files around in the service console and it's taking longer than it really should.

1) Get the file onto an ext3 or a nfs filesystem visible on the esx server
2) ls -l the file in the ext3/nfs filesystem and write down the number of bytes
3) run "vmkfstools -c <ls -l bytes> /vmfs/volumes/<volumename>/<target filename> " to create a filename-flat file
4) dd if=<input file> of=/vmfs/volume/<volumename>/<target filename> bs=2048k conv=notrunc
5) mv the file to rename it if you wish

This performs significantly faster for me (an order of magnitude 3-4x or better), it additionally causes significantly fewer locks in vmfs to update the metadata since the file doesn't "grow" as it's being moved in; which means any other VM's on that filesystem are also much less affected.

--Thomas Suiter

Virtual Appliance for Chargeback and Capacity reporting

AlexBakman — Sun, 20 May 2007 10:33:04 GMT

All

Vkernel at www.vkernel.com is a simple to use virtual appliance for generating Capacity and Chargeback reports. We are looking for beta users and lots of feedback. You can download it from www.vkernel.com

Thanks

Alex

VMPlayer Inventory satellite software for VMware Player

akella — Fri, 04 May 2007 10:20:15 GMT

VMPlayer Inventory is a lightweight application designed to work jointly with VMware Player. Inventory extends Players abilities and supplements it with graphical interface for managing virtual machines and editing their settings. Inventory organizes virtual machines in list, allows to launch them, reset, or power off. Program can hide plural Player windows from taskbar while providing easy access to any launched virtual machine from machines list or through system tray menu. Minimized Inventory resides in system tray. At any time it visually shows number of launched virtual machines. Inventory also provides familiar graphical interface for editing virtual machines settings and configuration. Inventory also includes graphical interface for VMware mount utility an easiest way to access the virtual machines disk data.

Site: http://vmunit.blogspot.com/
Download: http://vmunit.com/VMPlayerInventorySetup1.0.exe

Easy backup script for use with ESX 3.0

rmuniz9336 — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:49:27 GMT

Hi everyone,

If you're like me, have some great toys, but not enough budget to buy all the bells and whistles that would make life so much easier, here's a little script I wrote, that is designed to backup VMs to an exteranl storage device (in this case a hard disk connected via the USB ports on my host server). The script is designed to do 4 things:

1: Delete the old backup

2: Shutdown the VM to be backed up

3: Create the backup (clone actually).

4: Restart the machine.

Note that this backup is for one VM. You can extend it for more machines, or simply have 2 or more Cronjobs setup to run.

I want to thank Daniel a dbis for adding a ten cent peice of code that made this thing work like a charm:

#!/bin/sh
# Specifies PATH
PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/root/bin:
# This part of the script is designed to delete the old backup.
rm /backups/testbed/*.*
echo y
echo y
echo y
echo y
# This command pauses evertyhing for 60 seconds
sleep 60
# This command shuts the system to be backed up down.
vmware-cmd "/vmfs/volumes/storage1/testbed/testbed.vmx" stop trysoft
# This command pauses the script for 60 seconds
sleep 60
# This command backs the system up
/usr/sbin/vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/storage1/testbed/testbed.vmdk -d 2gbsparse /backups/testbed/testbed.vmdk
# This command builds a 30 minute wait time while the system backs up
sleep 1800
# This command strats the system up once the backup is finished.
vmware-cmd "/vmfs/volumes/storage1/testbed/testbed.vmx" start

Enjoy!

XP batch script to start necessary services on demand

DAE51D — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 05:00:29 GMT

I've always found it incredibly annoying that VMWare starts four services taking up 12MB of RAM for no reason, when Workstation isn't even running. These just sit there dormant wasting valuable resources (RAM/CPU/startup-time/etc).

vmware.exe isn't smart enough to start said services when it starts, if they're not running either. *sigh*

So... What I do is find the four offending services in XPs Service Manager and set them to start MANUALLY (not Automatic anymore).

Then I create a C:\VMWare\VMWareStart.bat file that contains this
[code]
sc start VMAuthdService
sc start VMnetDHCP
sc start vmount2
sc start "VMware NAT Service"
C:\Utils\Trayconizer.exe C:\VMWare\vmware.exe
[/code]

Oh yeah, it's also very irritating that VMWare doesn't minimize to the tray despite everyone asking for it (http://www.vmware.com/community/search.jspa?q=minimize+to+tray) when you shrink it (or have the option to), so I use this Trayconizer tool to fix that short-coming.

http://www.whitsoftdev.com/trayconizer

French documentation on creation of Windows Cluster with VMware Server

dominik38 — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 19:41:08 GMT

Maybe somebody would be interested by the French documentation I wrote in a Focus published by O'Reilly.

The subject is the creation of a high availability Windows 2003 cluster with VMware Server, with the example of SQL Server 2005.

Some information in French are here : http://www.oreilly.fr/catalogue/235402018X

VM Clone Script for SDK 2.0

Dave Jaffe — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 01:55:40 GMT

This script, for VMware SDK 2.0, clones multiple VMs using an input file that specifies the source VM, the target VM name and datastore, and (optionally, for Windows VMs) the target IP address, default gateway, DNS server and DNS domain. For Linux VMs only the target name and datastore can be specified since the SDK does not support Linux customization.

The code and supporting files are available at http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/solutions/clonevm.zip

Complete instructions are included in the readme in the zip file.

Requires VMware SDK 2.x

P2V from Linux Machines

zenariga — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 19:43:59 GMT

Hello,

This is a URL to a P2V Linux machines:

http://www.vmwiz.com/

Enjoy!!!!

Script to install patches in ESX 3

zenariga — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 19:29:07 GMT

I found a link that learn who to create a update script to ESX 3

http://virtrix.blogspot.com/2007/03/vmware-autopatching-your-esx-host.html

Enjoy!!!!

Network copy failed for file. \[vmfs] esxserver/disk.vmdk

bwilliamsdc — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 02:22:08 GMT

Thought this might be helpful. I was trying to move a virtual machine off of an ESX 3.0.1 server and I couldn't cold-migrate it no matter what I tried; I kept getting the above error.

After much forum searching, I found that most people get this error because of DNS, but some early posts that I don't think got answers were because of a different reason -- the VM was large, in excess of 300GB. So was mine!

And so, I'm happy to report a new reason to see this error -- when you have a virtual machine in excess of 250GB and try to migrate it to an ESX 3 host set up by default, which means the VMFS file system has a 1MB block size. In this case, the maximum VMDK you can have is 250GB.

My VM at 300GB wouldn't go until I migrated it to a host where I'd custom-set a 2MB block size (the host could thus accept up to 500GB VMDKs). Just thought I'd throw out the tip for anyone who's problem isn't fixed by the DNS trick!

EDIT: This appears to have been fixed in the newly-released VC 2.0.2:

VirtualCenter Server Checks the Block Size of the VMFS Partition on the Target ESX Server Host Before Moving the Virtual Machine
In this release, VirtualCenter Server checks the block size of the VMFS partition on the target ESX Server host and calculates the maximum virtual disk size supported by the partition. If the size of the source virtual disk is greater than the maximum size supported on the target ESX Server host, VirtualCenter Server sends an error message indicating that the file is too large. In earlier releases, this check was not performed and migration failed without sending any error message.

http://www.vmware.com/support/vi3/doc/releasenotes_vc202.html

diskreport

oreeh — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:43:30 GMT

Diskreport is a set of tools designed to help advanced VMware users in troubleshooting snapshot and disk problems.

It started with the You should do this yourself-post
and "grew up" from this discussion.

You can download it here.

To keep the development going we need input from users.
Please give us your opinions, suggestions and bug reports.

At the moment these tools are only available for Windows systems, but we plan to add the Linux counterparts shortly.

If you have questions, thoughts, ... either post them here or at sanbarrow.

Special thanks to Petr Vandrovec, Robert D. Petruska and Ulli Hankeln.

Oliver

ESX Manager 2.1

manfred9999 — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 23:08:16 GMT

Im proud to announce the next version of ESX Manager 2.1

Installation Requirements
- FTP Connection for the Public Repository
All version of ESX 3.x are supported

I invested a lot of time to make the new version fast, stable and of course to add all the new features.

I also created a new forum on the website to request and discuss about SSH Custom Tasks (can be accessed through the ESX Manager).

Features:

Download PDF with screenshuts http://www.esxguide.com/Files/FeaturesAndScreenshuts.pdf

- Publish and share custom SSH commands with other ESX Administrators.
I hope the exchange of SSH Custom tasks in the public repository will be used frequently.

The new release is still free to use without any limitations. However, I depend on some donations and sponsors to keep things going.
I hope you enjoy the new version und would appreciate to have some feedback and your support.

You can download ESX Manager 2.1 at:

http://www.esxguide.com

Thank you for all your feedbacks

Regards

Manfred Meier
ESXGuide Developer

Free VI3 Security Risk Assessment Template

mittell — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:18:51 GMT

Hi all,

Gavin over at Xtravirt written an excellent document VMware® VI3 Security Risk Assessment Template, which is a MS Word document designed to:

·Provide detail of around security measures designed into each major component of VMware VI3

·Provide a best practice security framework for VI3 designs that can be repeated again and again

·Detail real world scenarios that IT Security personnel can relate to their environment, including built-in countermeasures and additional configuration options.

·Significantly reduce the time and stress involved with gaining design approvals.

You can download it here:

http://www.xtravirt.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=85&Itemid=88

Hope you find it useful. Comments/suggestions welcome.

Cheers,

Alex

Stever Beaver's LDAP SEARCH

sherold — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:19:28 GMT

Steve Beavers LDAP script that runs on a regular basis and automatically updates local ESX groups and allows for user authentication based on AD Group Membership. Kerberos authentication must be in place and functioning before this authentication can take place.

From what I understand by reading the Forums, There are issues with this script and Windows 2003 SP1. Let's use the community space here to fix this issue and get this updated!

http://www.vmguru.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=10&ttitle=LDAP_SEARCH#dldetails

Scott - Come visit www.vmguru.com for details on how you can become a community contributor with us!

Howto use vmware-vdiskmanager on a LiveCD to import physical disks ...

continuum — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 13:44:11 GMT

Though the procedure is quite straight forward I have not seen it documented or discussed ... so I created a Video (VMware-codec) that demonstrates how to do it.

(For the Video the example-computers are VMs - but that really doesn't matter ...)

The steps in short:

go to a physical box
boot into your favorite LiveCD which has VMware-workstation installed
map a networkshare to a local server
create a new VM
add a new disk (type physical disk - rawdisk) and store it in RAMdrive
use vmware-vdiskmanager with -r option to convert the raw-disk into a regular vmdk and store it in the local server

Watch the movie - it is quite self-explaining ....

(host 10.0.0.11 is the local server - writeable share: pub)

LiveCD can be Windows or Linux-based - that really doesn't matter.

Video about 20Mb is located here:

http://sanbarrow.com/vdiskmanager-as-ghost.zip

Ulli

Short version with screenshots:
http://sanbarrow.com/moa-video-vdiskmanager-as-ghost.html

Message was edited by:
continuum

VMware Server Console - Password Management

neillans — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 11:31:22 GMT

Hi all,

I got fed up trying to remember all my VMware console details, so I wrote something to do it for me

It's quick and dirty, but I thought it might be of use to some people here.

Any comments, changes etc will be appreciated (and will eventually be implemented time permitting!)

http://www.neillans.co.uk/?p=144

Andy

Pointer on increasing user speed on VM machine

rmuniz9336 — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 19:32:46 GMT

Hi Everyone,

We have not tested this in every type of enviornment, but, it works pretty good for a Windows XP machine. All our XP machines are part of our domain. What we were seeing was that remote users that access them through VIC, RDP, Web, or WebEx session, were complaining that the systems were slow. We of course disabled all the various services it didn't really need, and that helped. Perhaps the single biggest thing that helped us was we went into Network Connections>TCP/IP Properties>Advanced Settings and under DNS, noted that our domain name was entered in. We unchecked the Domain Suffix, and then under WINS, unchecked the LMHOSTs file, and entered in the IP address for our WINS server.

This increased our response time considerably. Hope it helps.

Rich

Thomas Bryant's FreeSCO Router Image

sherold — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:08:56 GMT

Thomas Bryant (Now a RapidApp employee!) has provided a FreeSCO floppy image that is compatible with the vlance driver for virtual machines.

It may be downloaded from here:

http://www.vmguru.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=6

Scott - Come visit www.vmguru.com for details on how you can become a community contributor with us!

Basic VMDK-repair know-how

pbJalas — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 10:41:56 GMT

Okay - I had a VMDK crash and I would like to provide some information and instruction about VMDK repair here.

First of all:

As KevinG told me in this topic:
http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=23014&tstart=15

The basic repair attempt is alsway done by your VMware Server during startup of the virtual machine.
VMware checks the disks and if there are some inconsistencies which can be done by a basic repair VMware will do this.

If there are severe errors in the VMDK file, VMware won´t mount the disk. And VMware provides NO tool like "chckdsk" or "vrepair" etc.

So, what to do?

1.) Consider a restore from your backup.

2.) Install the VMware diskmount utility found under the Utilities section on the Workstation download page at http://www.vmware.com/download/ws/. On a Windows machine, make available the corrupted VMDK file to the Windows machine and try to mount the disk.

How to?

Install the driver using the installer. Change to the directory where you installed it.

Syntax:

[code]vmware-mount /p[/code]
This shows the partitions/volumes within the vmdk.file. Determine which partition to mount. Call this partition N.

[code]vmware-mount /v:N R: <diskfile>[/code]
Substitute N with the partition number determined in the step before.

<diskfile> has to be substituted by the VMDK file.
This may be a local or a network drive. I think that accessing the VMDK file through a local drive is the safest way.

In this case, the disk will be mounted as drive R.

3.) If the VMware diskmount utility does not mount the VMDK, try Ken Kato's virtual disk driver: http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vdk.html

(If Ken Kato´s tool helps to recover your data, do a paypal donation for him.)

How to?

Install the driver using the installer. Change to the directory where you installed it.

Syntax:
[code]
vdk start
vdk open 0 <diskfile> /L:R:
[/code]

<diskfile> has to be substituted by the vmdk-file.
/L:R: says: mount it as drive R:

4.) If you succeed in mounting the VMDK file, copy the data to a new virtual disk. Use, for example, robocopy for this. It is included in Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools at

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd&displaylang=en

5.) If you´re still not able to mount your disk, I don´t know, what else you can do.

Best regards
Thorsten Jalas

Message was edited by:
pbJalas

Message was edited by:
jbrodeur: changes in grammar and formatting

VMware MAC Generator

sherold — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 23:57:16 GMT

This is a small binary application written by Parag Mehta from VMware that randomly generates a valid MAC address that can be utilized by VMware ESX Server. The MAC addresses generated falls within the valid range of "Static" MAC Addresses that may be manually assigned in the virtual machine's VMX file.

http://www.vmguru.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=18&ttitle=VMware_MAC_Generator#dldetails

Scott - Come visit www.vmguru.com for details on how you can become a community contributor with us!

VMfind.com - Virtual Appliance Search Engine

enomaly — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 20:48:09 GMT

Enomaly is proud to announce the launch of VMfind.com, a search network for virtualization technology with a focus on, pre-configured virtual appliances, tech papers, documentation, forums and blogs.

Please feel free to visit http://www.vmfind.com

Sample Search - CRM

http://www.vmfind.com/results/?cx=013016304745066933641%3Afgkwqhelqim&q=crm&sa=Search&cof=FORID%3A10#1290

Reuven Cohen
Enomaly Inc > http://www.enomaly.net

Easy ESX Server and Guest Monitoring...

Low_Key — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 17:18:31 GMT

Hello,

I thought I would send out a shameless self-promoting plug for my Virtual Appliance. The nsmon virtual appliance makes it very easy to monitor many different types of servers including an ESX Server and guests.

It can be found at:

http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/295

This is a Groundwork Opensource and Nagios based implementation.
You might say, "Wait there are many Nagios implementations, why is this one different?"

Here are some of the reasons, I think Groundwork Opensource augments Nagios very well:

1) Consistent interface.

2) Reduces complexity of configuring Nagios directly.

3) Provides a "Discovery" feature to make adding host in bulk much simpler.

Number three is a big one for me since I have 100's of hosts and devices in my environment.

In the past I had tried using Nagios console but it's very difficult to configure. In contrast Groundwork once installed is a breeze.

Here are some screen shots for the nsmon virtual appliance running Groundwork/Nagios:

Host Status:
http://www.geocities.com/lowkey_7af/nsmonHostStatus.jpg

Device Map:
http://www.geocities.com/lowkey_7af/nsmonMap.jpg

Take a look and let me know what you think.

-Earl

Securing VMware Workstation files.

brainy — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 18:32:29 GMT

The following solution was discovered after some experimenting on how to secure the VM files for workstation.

First, it appears that the nvram file must be writable, or the VM will not even start. Also, if there is a snapshot, it seems that the snapshot information file needs to be writable. Since the purpose of this is to 'lock down' the VM files, it is not possible for the user of a VM to revert to a snapshot. However a workaround is listed.

First, I create a parent VM with similar settings:

Parent VM:
Path: d:\vm\xp
Working: d:\vm\xp
Disk: Dependant
Two Snapshots (Snap1 and Snap2)

Since the VM is going to be locked down (read only) it is not possible to select the snapshot to use. Clones are created for each desired snapshot.

Clone1: From Snap1
Path: d:\vm\xp\clone1
Working: d:\vm\tmp\clone1
Disk: independant non-persistent
Snapshots: Disabled

Clone2: From Snap2
Path: d:\vm\xp\clone2
Working: d:\vm\tmp\clone2
Disk: independant non-persistent
Snapshots: Disabled

After I create the clones and configure them, I shut down VMware WS and delete any lock files. Then I configure the permissions:

d:\vm\xp: read only
d:\vm\tmp: write

d:\vm\xp\clone1\vmxp.nvram read/write
d:\vm\xp\clone2\vmxp.nvram read/write

Basically, the d:\vm\xp directory is locked down. No files can be added/deleted/or modified by users. Only the nvram files can be written to, but not deleted. This way a user can not accidentally delete it and the VM not run since it would not be able to create it.

When running the VM, the clone for the desired parent snapshot is used. A warning is issued about not being able to write the log in the normal place and instead using a temporary directory. All other files are written to the d:\vm\tmp\ directories. The only files changed in the locked down VM directory is the nvram file of the clone used.

When the VM is powered off, any changes are lost since the disk is non-persistent. However, if the machine is connected to a domain controller or any other roaming profile, the profile of the user will be saved/loaded to/from the network, just not saved to the VM disk.

Lab Manager: Mercury Quality Center and fenced configurations

skishi — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 18:40:03 GMT

Mercury Quality Center can launch Quick Test Pro scripts remotely on a VM in fence mode. However, there are a couple of things that need to be setup properly on the MQC server:

1. Make sure that both machines (the MQC server and the VM where the script is to be executed) use the same windows login name and password. (unless both machines are part of the same domain).

2. On the MQC server add the following line into the file \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts:

<external ip of the fenced VM> <hostname of the fenced VM>

Example:
10.6.1.2 qa20-21

Everything should then work fine!

Replacing X Login Manager with VMware Server Console

nick.couchman — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 16:31:39 GMT

This solution is for the VMware Server product running on Linux. Most people who run VMware Server on Linux probably don't want a full X login manager (XDM, GDM/Gnome, KDM/KDE) running on their VMware Servers. It may be useful, however, to have the VMware Console available directly on the server in case you can't access it remotely for one reason or another. Using this solution, you can have the Linux machine start the VMware Console instead of the standard X login manager so that you can use VMware Console to manage the VM's without having to have a bulky window manager running.

--Prerequisites--
1) You must have the X server from your Linux distribution installed. VMware Server requires the X libraries, but not the X server. Please make sure the X server is installed.
2) Make sure your Linux host is in runlevel 3. Often times, if you install X components, Linux defaults to runlevel 5. Put your host in runlevel 3 by typing "init 3" from the command line. This will make sure than any X logins are shut down. You can do this permanently by editing /etc/inittab and changing the line:
[code]
id:5:initdefault:
[/code]
to
[code]
id:3:initdefault:
[/code]

3) You have already configured X with the video card, monitor, screen resolution, etc., for your setup. If not, find the tool that your O/S uses to configure the X display and configure it. See host O/S documentation for more info.

--Solution--
1) Create a new user on the local system. I've called my user account "vmconsole" and with a home directory of /home/vmconsole. Make sure to either set a good password on the user account or set the account such that the login shell doesn't allow the user to actually log in. We don't want someone using this account to exploit the system!
2) Edit the new user's .xinitrc file in the home directory. In my example, this would be /home/vmconsole/.xinitrc . Don't worry if the file doesn't exist, just create it, anyway. The file should look something like this:
[code]
#!/bin/bash

xsetroot -solid black &
vmware -m
[/code]
This is a simple .xinitrc file - it sets the background color to black, then starts VMware Console in quick-switch mode.
3) Change the .xinitrc file to have execute permissions using "chmod +x". Example:
[code]
# chmod +x /home/vmconsole/.xinitrc
[/code]
4) Add an entry to /etc/inittab and add the following line at the end:
[code]
VM0:345:respawn:su - vmconsole -c "/usr/X11R6/bin/startx"
[code]
This line will cause init to change to the vmconsole account and start X windows. This will most likely be on Console 7 (Alt+F7). Also, this line of code respawns the Console when it exits - so, if you exit the Console, it will pop right back up.

--Notes--
1) Since this uses the default Console installed with Server, when the Console comes up you can select "local host" instead of actually logging in. Therefore, do not do this on servers that are accessible to people who shouldn't be modifying your VM's! I will try to find a way around this - maybe using X screensaver or something similar, but I'm not sure exactly how at this point.

zerotools - utilities to keep Linux virtual machine disks clean

czr — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 12:58:52 GMT

Hello all, just released a toolset which I find useful when working with VMware server and players when running Linux as the guest operating system.

If you make backups / compress vdisks containing Linux virtual machines, you might find this useful: http://koltsoff.com/pub/zerotools/ . The site contains instructions and examples. Released under GPLv2, written in C, distribution agnostic and automatically fills removed files with binary zero before the removal. Compressing zero is normally more efficient than compressing "random" stuff left on the image.

Integration instructions for Debian package management tools is also provided (they apply to Ubuntu as well).

ak.

VMware Server Console slow over WAN network link - \resolved

devzero — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 23:09:59 GMT

you ever being annoyed about VMWare Server Console being so slow when used over a WAN connection, especially when low bandwidth or high latency ?

no more - at least if you use VMWare Server on Linux.

the "simple" solution: Nomachine NX !

For some time, there is a free edition at www.nomachine.com you may use.

download 3 packages:

- NX Free Edition:
http://www.nomachine.com/select-package.php?os=linux&id=1

- NX Node:
http://www.nomachine.com/download-node.php?os=linux

- NX Client:
http://www.nomachine.com/download-client-linux.php

If you have Windows as your desktop OS (not Linux), then also download NX Client for Windows:
http://www.nomachine.com/download-client-windows.php

- after download, install NX Free, NX Node and NX Client on the (remote) VMWare SERVER.

- also install VMWare Console on the (remote) VMWare SERVER

- install Nomachine NX Client on the (local) client

- configure NX client and connect to the VMware Server - just launch a vmware-server-console via desktop session, terminal session or launch it directly.

have fun!

roland

Power On/Off virtual machines with Local System Account (W2k3 Server Host)

Confucious — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 04:58:10 GMT

Server: W2K3 Enterprise SP1
Virtual machines: Windows XP Pro SP2
GSX Server 3.2 but also applies to 3.1

Ensure that this registry key has the correct info:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWSNT\CURRENT VERSION\PROFILES LIST\(System Profile SID; should be first one on list)

ProfileImagePath REG_EXPAND_SZ %systemroot%\system32\
config\systemprofile

We were unable to start our virtual machines using the local system account, some how we ended up looking for the local system profile and noticed that on one of our servers, there was an ntuser.dat in the systemprofile folder listed in registry path and on the other server it did not exist. We located where this servers system profile was and modified the registry key listed above and local system was able to power on virtual machines.

Hope this helps someone

copy ISO files from win to esx 6 times faster than winSCP

Vlada — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 15:31:04 GMT

Veeam FastSCP for VMware is a tool that will allow you to deliver your ISO files without using WinSCP. Veeam FastSCP ensures security by using a one-time password feature and works more than 6 times faster than SCP.

On my 100MB switch i spent more than 7 minutes delivering a 660-meter ISO file through WinSCP, while with FastSCP it took me only 58 seconds to deliver the same file.

The tool is free, and you can download it here: http://www.veeam.com/veeam_fast_scp.asp

\!Solution! No Keyboard and Mouse when booting into real XP raw disk

Muschl — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 18:57:39 GMT

Hi,

i would like to run my real Windows XP installation under Ubuntu VMWare Server.
With the help from the following sites you can configure your VMWare Server to boot into raw disks.

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-246371-highlight-ntfs%20vmware.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?s=46db455bc6e67786a2203087e5cd11d3&t=183209

Now the Solution for No Keyboard and Mouse in VMWare.

1. Download the PE HWPnP Tool from Paraglider
http://www.paraglidernc.com/plugins/HWPnP.cab

2. Create the directory C:\fixvm\ on your Windows XP System Disk (C:\)
mkdir /media/hda1/fixvm

2. Extract the Files to the folder C:\fixvm\ on your Windows XP System Disk (C:\)
cabextract -d /media/hda1/fixVM HWPnP.cab
mkdir /tmp/iso
mount -t iso9660 windows.iso -o loop /tmp/iso
cp -r /tmp/iso/* /media/hda1/fixvm
echo FixVM Stage 1 start > /media/hda/fixvm/stage1.txt

3. create the C:\fixvm\fixvm.cmd file on your Windows System disk and inject the following content

echo Searching for FixVM Stage
if exist C:\fixvm\stage1.txt {
echo FixVM Stage 1 found
msiexec -i "C:\fixvm\VMware Tools.msi" ADDLOCAL=ALL /qn
del C:\fixvm\stage1.txt
echo Stage 1 finished successfully > C:\fixvm\stage2.txt
shutdown -r -f -t 30
}
if exist C:\fixvm\stage2.txt {
C:\fixVM\HWPnP.exe +all
del C:\fixvm\stage2.txt
echo.
echo Please check the function of your Mouse and Keyboard
echo.
pause
}
end

4. reboot into your real Windows

5. Change the following Registry Keys (start/run/regedit.exe)
\HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
- AutoAdminLogon = 1
- AutoLogonCount = 5

(remember the Administrator must have a Password set)

(i think the next entrys are not needed, use it when you have problems)
- DefaultUser = *your USERNAME*
- DefaultUserName = *your USERNAME*
- DefaultPassword = *your Password*

6. Create fixvm.cmd shortcut in Startmenu/Programs/startup Folder (start/run/cmd)
ln -s C:\fixvm\fixvm.cmd "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\fixvm"

7. configure Windows for automated driver installation (start/run/cmd)
sysdm.cpl
- on tab Hardware klick the Button DriverSigning and set it to Ignore

8. After all this steps reboot into the VMWare Server running OS and start the VMWare raw disk WindowsXP.

- auto Plug and Play Hardware detection

Improving Intel Duo Cores Performace (video & redrawing)

wooyay — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 20:26:10 GMT

PROBLEM: Bought an Acer 8200 nice duo core laptop, wanting to run WinXP with my UNIX's in VMware Server. I had lots of CPU, lots of RAM no problem running VMware..! Installed everything correctly, VMware, using the vmware_drv.o etc But getting horrible refresh/redraw/slow video performance and generally un-usable other than through CLI.

SOLUTION: It's a problem in VMware using both cores, you need to tell VMware to only use 1 of them and everything will perform a lot faster.

Steps to sort this out:

1) Start up your virtual machine.
2) Identify your "vmware-vmx.exe" process that is running your currently open virtual machine inside the task manager process tab.
3) Right click this process and select "Set Affinity"
4) Ensure that only 1 CPU is checked and click OK
5) Your virtual machine should be a lot more responsive in terms of it's video/redrawing!!

I assume if you have more than 1 VM up you're best to load each VM on to separate CPU's to even out the balance.

ADDITIONAL NOTES: I have heard there is a way of permanently setting the affinity of processes, I need to look into how this works and how this might even work with multiple VM's.. I will post an update to this if I find anything of any worth.

This is of course just a temporary thing as I'm sure the VMware guys are already working on factoring in an update to make it play nicely with both cores... aren't you Mr. VMware *nudge* *nudge*

Drive Space for servers

kix1979 — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 15:45:47 GMT

This VBS script will query any Windows machine on your network that you have permissions to and find the disk space for all drives, but M.

Copy the text and save it as Drivespace.vbs

Usage: cscript drivespace.vbs servername1 servername2 ....
Usage to save to text file: cscript drivespace.vbs servername1 servername2 .... > textfile.txt

[code]
'Declarations
Const HARD_DISK = 3
Const CONVERT_GB = 1073741824

'Setting Arguments
Set objArgs = Wscript.Arguments
If ObjArgs.Count > 0 Then
Arg1 = objArgs(0)
End If

'Checking if Help file is needed
HELP = 0
Select Case Arg1
Case "help"
HELP = 1
Case "/?"
HELP = 1
Case "-?"
HELP = 1
Case "?"
HELP = 1
Case ""
wscript.echo "Please specify all required arguments. Run this script again "
wscript.echo "with a /? as the first argument to see the help file"
wscript.Quit
Case Else
End Select

' Help and Purpose of script REMARKS
If HELP = 1 then

wscript.echo " ******************************"
wscript.echo " * Script: diskspace.vbs"
wscript.echo " * Description: Displays Logical disk information in cscript"
wscript.echo " *"
wscript.echo " * Limitations: Any logical drive with the letter M has been excluded from"
wscript.echo " * this script. The assumption is that an M: partition"
wscript.echo " * is used for Exchange"
wscript.echo " *"
wscript.echo " * Usage: diskspace.vbs [arguments]"
wscript.echo " *"
wscript.echo " * Example: diskspace.vbs server1 server2 server3 ..."
wscript.echo " *"
wscript.echo " ******************************"

Wscript.Quit
End If

'Main Body of Script
For Each Server in objArgs

Set objWMIService = GetObject ("winmgmts:" & "{impersonationlevel = impersonate}!
" & Server _
& "\root\cimv2")
Set colDisks = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("SELECT * FROM Win32_LogicalDisk WHERE DriveType = " _
& HARD_DISK & "")

Wscript.Echo Space(23) & Server & VBCrLf
Wscript.Echo " DRIVE" & Space(10) & "FREE" & Space(10) & "USED" & Space(10) & "TOTAL" & Space(6) & "PERCENT USED"
Wscript.Echo " --------------------------------------------------------------------"

For Each objDisk In colDisks
If objDisk.DeviceID "M:" Then
Free = FormatNumber(objDisk.FreeSpace/CONVERT_GB,2)
Total = FormatNumber(objDisk.Size/CONVERT_GB,2)
Used = FormatNumber (Total - Free,2)
Percent = FormatNumber((Used/Total) * 100,1)
VolName = objDisk.VolumeName

VolLength = Len(VolName)
FreeLength = Len(Free)
UsedLength = Len(Used)
TotalLength = Len(Total)
PercentLength = Len(Percent)

wscript.Echo " " & objDisk.DeviceID & VolName & Space(15 - FreeLength - VolLength) & Free & " GB" & _
Space(12 - UsedLength) & Used & " GB" & Space(11 - TotalLength) & Total & " GB" & _
Space(13 - PercentLength) & Percent & "%"
Else

End If

Next
Wscript.Echo VBCrLf
Next

'Functions and Subs
[/code]

APC PowerChute Network Shutdown Installation

sbeaver — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 18:25:54 GMT

Kim Wisniewski from the land down under has provided a step-by-step installation guide for the APC PowerChute Network Shutdown Agents for an ESX host. The document was created utilizing information provided by Steve Beaver...

Also included in the document is the information necessary to customize the information to fit your environment's needs. The document may be downloaded at VMGuru here

Fedora Core 4 based iSCSI target

DaveP — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 14:44:50 GMT

Hi

I needed an iSCSI target system to test some clustering work in Windows 2003. I achieved this by using Fedora Core 4 with the iSCSI Target open source project, http://iscsitarget.sourceforge.net/. As many people try clustering in VMware, I thought it should be made available to all so here it is.

http://itservices.ne-worcs.ac.uk/pub/vmware/iscsitarget.zip
http://itservices.ne-worcs.ac.uk/pub/vmware/iscsitarget.md5

or via

http://chaz6.com/static/files/vmware/hosted/iscsitarget.zip
http://chaz6.com/static/files/vmware/hosted/iscsitarget.md5

I would like to thank Chris Hills (c_g-hills) for kindly providing the web space to host the files.

Dave

GUI wrapper for vmware-mount

Max_am — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 11:32:12 GMT

Vmount is a free GUI wrapper for command line tool vmware-mount. Setup puts a shortcut to the utility on the desktop and creates file association for .vmdk files. Double clicking the shortcut will start the utility. Context menu can then be used to mount or unmount virtual disks. The drive letter for the mounted disk is picked up automatically from configurable letters pool. Double-clicking a vmdk file from Windows Explorer will automatically map the file.
The utility is useful if you map/unmap drives often.

URL: http://www.abinsight.com/vm/

Author: http://www.abinsight.com

Veeam Monitor for VMware Server and VMware Workstation

Max_am — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 05:36:05 GMT

Veeam Monitor provides a unified view of the performance and resource usage of all Virtual Machines running on a VMware Server or VMware Workstation. Running Veeam Monitor is similar to running multiple Windows Task Managers on each virtual machine and combining the result into a single monitoring console. In addition, it provides a view of the specific usage of the subsystems such as the CPU, Memory, the Disk, Network and Pagefile.

Visit http://www.veeam.com to download Veeam Monitor

Hosting "N" vm web server, in separate DMZs and application proxy (squid)

raniero.net — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 12:00:49 GMT

HOW-TO hosting "N" virtual web server, with separate DMZs and application proxy (squid)

Preface: I'm italian, and i write bad in english , please excuse me for grammatical errors, email me if you find something that don't understand

1) Take a machine whit some network adapter (at least 1 for lan with private IP address and 1 for internet whit public IP address), I have used a P4 dual core 3.0 ghz, 160 gb S-ata2 HD, 1 gb ram
2) Install Debian Sarge and upgrade it
3) We assume that (for example) domains www.first.com and www.second.com is correctly register in internet at the same public ip address 80.81.82.83
4) squid is installed whit default settings (apt-get install squid)

During setup of VmWare host machine we must create 2 "HOST ONLY" network, in my case:

vmnet 1 -> 172.16.102.0/24
vmnet 5 -> 192.168.134.0/24

Now let's go to install os in guest machine, my case I've used windows 2000 server, but you can use linux, iis or apache in linux or windows is the same

settings www.first.com in vm machine in vmnet 1 and www.second.com in vm machine in vmnet 5, and after configure, setting the ip address of virtual macchine in agreement with vmnet mask:

at the machine in vmnet1 set ip address 172.16.102.2
at the machine in vmnet5 set ip address 192.168.134.2

If the virtual machine do not have to go in internet NOT set default gateway, the will be excluded from any network (lan or internet).

In the host machine make this change in the squid.conf file:

# Squid listen on the public ip address, at the 80 ports in host machine
http_port 80.81.82.83:80

# Disable query ICP from and to other proxyes
icp_port 0

# Create access log
emulate_httpd_log on

# Allow access from internet
http_access allow all

# The domain name of the REAL domain
httpd_accel_host www.first.com

# Address or domain name of the REAL domain
httpd_accel_host www.second.com

# Port of the web server in virtual machines
httpd_accel_port 80

# Set OFF if we have more than 1 web server
httpd_accel_single_host off

# Set ON if we want cache the virtual web servers
httpd_accel_with_proxy off

# Set ON if the web server use virtual host
httpd_accel_uses_host_header on

For more security use disableip forwarding with

echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

and use netfilter on host machine to block forward

iptables -P FORWARD DROP

In hosts file (/etc/hosts) on host vm machine we must set the private address of domains

172.16.102.2 www.first.com
192.168.134.2 www.second.com

to this point we have obtained that:

- the servur on the VM cannot never approach internet or lan

Now we can setting access list in squid. For example this access list:

acl iis_nocmd urlpath_regex i cmd.exe
http_access deny iis_nocmd

block the bug that permit browse of server files through IIS

in this way can set squid ACL to be avoided the sql injection.

Another advantage: we can register some domains on the same public ip address, even windows or linux, even IIS or apache.

That'all folks, for question you can post in forum or email me at raniero.net at gmail.com

best regards

A script to automatically add VMs to the autostart list on ESX 2.5.x

mattpound — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 14:55:08 GMT

Hi,

I've been finding that server admins have been deploying VMs and forgetting to set them to autostart. So in the unlikely event of an ESX server failing the VM would not automatically power on.

So I wrote this script that scans the VMs once a day (13.00PM) and sets any running VMs to autostart. This way it should capture all VMs and hopefully make sure they restart if there is a failure.

Cheers

Matt

[code]
#!/bin/sh

# is set to on it assumes that the machines should be removed from the autostart list.

# This script is best run every day during at a time that assumes normal operation so that is captures the machines that are normally run.

# Script by: Matt Pound

VERSION=1.0

vmwarelist=`vmware-cmd -l`

vmwarelist=`echo $vmwarelist | sed -e 's/[ ]/\&/g'`
vmwarelist=`echo $vmwarelist | sed -e 's/.vmx/.vmx /g'`

for vm in $vmwarelist
do
vm=`echo $vm | sed -e 's/&/ /g'`
vm=`echo $vm | sed -e 's/ \//*/g'`
if [ -a "$vm" ]
then
vmname=`vmware-cmd "$vm" getconfig "DisplayName"`
disname=`echo $vmname | sed -e 's/getconfig(DisplayName) = //g'`
echo "$disname -> $vm "
vmstate=`vmware-cmd "$vm" getstate`
vmonoff=`echo $vmstate | sed -e 's/getstate() = //g'`
vmpath=`echo "$vm" | sed -e 's/\/home\/vmware\///g' | cut -f1 -d"/" `
AUTOSTARTSET=`grep "autostart = " "$vm"`

if [ -n "$AUTOSTARTSET" ]
then
if [ "$AUTOSTARTSET" = "autostart = \"true\"" ]
then
echo "Auto start is set"
if [ $vmonoff = "off" ]
then
echo "VM is OFF"
echo "Changing $vm to remove because VM is off."
cat "$vm" | sed -e 's/autostart = \"true\"/autostart = \"none\"/g' > "$vm"
vmware-cmd "$vm" setconfig autostart none
fi
elif [ "$AUTOSTARTSET" = "autostart = \"none\"" ]
then
echo "Auto start is not set/removed"
if [ $vmonoff = "on" ]
then
echo "VM is ON"
echo "Changing $vm to set because VM is on."
cat "$vm" | sed -e 's/autostart = \"none\"/autostart = \"true\"/g' > "$vm"
vmware-cmd "$vm" setconfig autostart true
fi
fi
else
if [ $vmonoff = "on" ]
then
echo "VM is ON"
echo "Changing $vm to set because VM is on."
echo "autostart = \"true\"" >> "$vm"
vmware-cmd "$vm" setconfig autostart true
fi
fi

else
echo "$vm is not a valid Virtual Machine on this server."
fi
done
[/code]

Virtinium VM Manager

VMGrendal — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 05:00:20 GMT

Free Download of a Web Based Virtual Machine Management Application that supports Virtual Center 1.3X and ESX 2.X Servers! Gives real time performance Stats and Session brokering with the VMware Remote Console. Complete Virtual Machine and Host Management without having to load the Virtual Center Application everywhere. Installs in 5 Minutes!on Windows or Linux

Get it at Http://www.Virtinium.com then Click on the Free Download

Monitoring VMware ESX from Nagios and MRTG

sshipway — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 01:20:51 GMT

I've created a Nagios/MRTG plugin - check_esx2 - which will allow Nagios to monitor an ESX server for such things as CPU, memory etc and check for situations such as excessive readytime, swapping, ballooning etc. The MRTG mode allows graphing of memory, cpu and so on for a VM or for the overall server.

I also have a more complex script - vmware_gather - which will collect a large amount of information from the ESX server and will generate MRTG/RRDTool files and dummy MRTG .cfg files for displaying these via a MRTG frontend (eg, routers2 or mrtg-rrd). This generates graphs similar to the vmkusage graphs, but they will tie in with your existing MRTG setup.

These are available from my web site http://www.steveshipway.org/software and also from the Nagios Exchange www.nagiosexchange.org as well as in the extras directory of the routers2.cgi package.

They work via SNMP, and there is an add-on (perl plugin) for the UCD SNMP daemon on the ESX server to allow the detailed data to be collected.

What I'd like to do next is to make it check for excessive system calls in a VM (some of our virtualised hosts are inappropriate for virtualisation due to this) but I can't find any documentation on the /proc/vmware filesystem to identify where this data could be found...

Accessing a serial console on a VM

jackalope — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 06:16:29 GMT

Hello,
After digging around I found a way to get at a serial console on a Linux VM server (GSX or VMware server) running one or more linux VM clients. It requires a program called socat ( http://www.dest-unreach.org/socat/) to communicate to/from the named pipe.

I've used this method and can verify it works. There are rough edges. I can't get ctrl-c, ctrl-d or otherwise to work. The login prompt fails to supress echoing the password. I don't find these problems to be bad enough to prevent me from doing what I need.

Steps involved:
Create the serial ports within the VM
Start the VM
Connect to the Special File on the VM host
----

Create the serial ports within the VM

1. With your virtual machine stopped and using the GUI vmware console click on the "add hardware" button
2. Add a serial port with the following parameters
* The other end is an application
3. You may want to add a second serial port now.

Note: At this point you have told vmware to create the file ./serial1 in the directory containing the other files for this VM. This file won't be created until you start the VM the next time.

Start the VM

1. Start the VM. As soon as the VM reaches the BIOS prompt it will have created the special file ./serial1 on the VMware host machine.

Connect to the Special File

VMWare calls this a "Named Pipe", but it's actually a Unix Domain Socket. A named pipe can be opened as a file, but a UDS cannot. Instead, I use this hackish command to get to the UDS.

socat -d -d -d /var/lib/vmware/Virtual\ Machines/vmtestcli5/serial2tcp4-listen:9988

This links the Unix Domain Socket to port 9988 on the local machine.

1. Using telnet open port 9988 on the vmware host machine. You will be able to communicate into and out of the serial port.
* Any control characters do not get passed through appropriately.

Networking with VMplayer

continuum — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 23:59:27 GMT

If you want the same connectivity with VMplayer that you got with Workstation
use a detailed vmx-file:
Add
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.connectionType = "custom"
ethernet1.present = "TRUE"
ethernet1.connectionType = "custom"
ethernet2.present = "TRUE"
ethernet2.connectionType = "custom"
(ethernet3.present = "TRUE"
ethernet3.connectionType = "custom")

first and then enter the vmnets like
ethernet0.vnet = "vmnet0"
ethernet1.vnet = "vmnet2"
ethernet2.vnet = "vmnet1"
(ethernet3.vnet = "vmnet8")

This will show up in the Player's GUI as connected - BUT none of the Bridged, NAT or Hostonly signs are checked.

You are NOT limited to ONE bridged, or NAT or hostonly-network.

Ulli

How to run very old VMs in current VMserver, WS or Player

continuum — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 23:47:39 GMT

This site describes how to run a WS 3.2 or GSX 2.5 VM in current versions without upgrading the virtual hardware.
This is very useful if you have to migrate GSX 2.5 VMs that have REDO-logs.
Useing this enables you to commit the REDO-logs in a clean way.
It is also very useful if you need to run very old guests like DOS 3 - which will not work when they are forced to use modern disk-geometries.

This is very useful if you want to create ESX 2.5 compatible VMs with VMserver - which no longer offers this via GUI.

http://sanbarrow.com/vmx-virthw-modes.html

Screenshot:
http://www.sanbarrow.com/img/grandpa-mode.jpg

Wonder if this passes the test - though it is very useful

Ulli

Pocketlinux 1.5.3

mcp5 — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 14:00:36 GMT

I made a preconfigured virtual machine with Pocketlinux 1.5.3 (http://gnulinux.de/pocketlinux/). Pocketlinux is a lightweight linux distribution based on KDE light. Preinstalled are applications like Firefox 1.5, KMail, KWord, KSpread, KPDF and some more.

You can download a self extracting exe (330 mb) here: http://www.homepagemagazinforum.de/tausch/addendum/pocketlinux.exe

Password for root is leser

More details in my weblog:

http://www.smokinggun.de/?p=219

OpenEMR Medical Practice Management Software Appliance

bradymiller — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 19:57:52 GMT

The goal of this project was to build a comprehensive Open Source Medical Practice Management Software Appliance. OpenEMR is an open source medical practice software package hosted at http://sourceforge.net/projects/openemr/ . OpenEMR is configured with Freeb(insurance billing), SQL-Ledger(accounting), and php-GACL(access controls). This appliance will have many possible applications, such as a fully functional demo, a testing/developing platform, and also possibly as the starting point in a real world clinic application. The detailed installation of this appliance is included in the manual below, which will allow simple transition to a native server, if required. Instructions on installing printers, configuring the email server, and setting up an automatic backup scheme are also included.

The OS is Mandriva2006. File is a tarball(.tgz), is 1GB, and extracts to 3GB.

1. The manual can be downloaded at: http://www.bradymd.com/appliance/

2. The OpenEMR Appliance can be downloaded via torrent (this file is 1 GB, and extracts to 3 GB): http://www.bradymd.com/OpenEMR-2-8-1-Appliance-1.torrent

thanks,
-brady

VMotion Using Shared SCSI

Matt Meyer — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 00:13:39 GMT

VMotion Using Shared SCSI

Please use the following link. I will periodically update should new versions of ESX cause issue with this configuration. This has been tested to work successfully with ESX 3.0/VC 2.0.

http://www.mattmeyer.net/blog/archive/2005/08/31/243.aspx

Virtualization Industry Roadmap

Alessandro_Perilli — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 00:31:15 GMT

I'm not sure this can be considered a solution in the strict sense of the word, but I received so many good feedback about it I believe all VMTN readers could find useful.

virtualization.info is happy to present its Virtualization Industry Roadmap.

The following map contains old (since 2005) and future (up to 2008) release dates for many virtualization products and technologies from most important market players, divided in 4 categories:

- OSes with Virtualization

It's useful to identify most important segment's vendors, to consider the right time to adopt (or to wait for) a solution, to find release patterns (and discover which company is lacking of innovations), to better understand how the market has changed and how is changing in the near future.

Download it here:
http://www.virtualization.info/2006/04/virtualization-industry-roadmap.html

Alessandro Perilli, CISSP, MVP
IT Security and Virtualization Technology Analyst
http://www.alessandroperilli.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alessandroperilli

Blogging about IT Security on http://www.securityzero.com
Blogging about Virtualization on http://www.virtualization.info

PXE Virtual Appliance

bigbull266 — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 18:22:00 GMT

Zipped the file is about 1 GB so it is quite large. It will not be entered into the Virtual Appliance Challenge. Here are some notes from the readme file.

http://www.cygem.com/downloads/PXE-FC4_Readme.pdf We will try to keep the PDF on the website as the most up to date.

Partial Read Me File Contents
================================

- All files/applications used for this Virtual Appliance are publicly available. Most, if not
all, applications in this virtual appliance use the GNU public license. Therefore, if there is
a specific set of files/image that you would like that are not here, they may not have been
accessible via a public license. However, I have included instructions on adding further
images to the virtual appliance that you may have licenses for.
- This virtual appliance is for the use of network boot access. This can include
network installations, using floppy based utilities, diskless thin clients, etc.
- The benefits
o You do not need to carry a set of floppies/CDs with you when you work
on machines within your organization
o You always install/work from the same images increasing consistency
with the tools and installations.
o Installation or loading of floppy utilities is much faster than from CD or
Floppy.
o Data is more reliable. No bad floppies or scratched CDs
o If you have remote console access, you can do these activities remotely.
- What you need
o The PXE Virtual Appliance Files and a VMWare machine to install them
on.
o Existing DHCP server that gives out addresses on the network segment
you are using.
o No other PXE servers on the same network segment.
o The FC4 DVD ISO files in their structure on an FTP server. DVD ISO is
only available from one of the mirror sites.
http://fedora.redhat.com/Download/mirrors.html
o Any other bootable images that you would like to include as options.
- What the PXE Virtual Appliance includes
o Installed OS Linux Redhat Fedora Core 4
o PXE Application installed and configured.
o Files to start the Installation of X86 Fedora Core 4 via PXE (this works
well)
o A FreeDos system boot (just like using a floppy. It just boots, no network
drivers or utilities at this time)
o Thin Client Boot from PXES (This has mixed results. RDP works good)
o Template for adding more images
o VMWare Tools
- Security is not strong on this. It is expected that the PXE appliance will be behind
a strong firewall without exposure to the internet. No security updates have been
installed. It was installed with SE(Security Enhanced) Linux but not the Firewall.
There are no accounts other than root on this appliance and it is expected that
the end user change the password of the root account. The default password is
password.

vdf+

manzi — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 21:49:47 GMT

this script show mounted device including VMFS formatted device, as standard ESX vdf, plus various options, like one to see the VMFS alias

You can find it on http://www.vmts.net/vdf.htm

Massimiliano Daneri

VMware m0n0wall images

CPa — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 11:19:11 GMT

" m0n0wall is a project aimed at creating a complete, embedded firewall software package that, when used together with an embedded PC, provides all the important features of commercial firewall boxes (including ease of use) at a fraction of the price (free software).

m0n0wall is based on a bare-bones version of FreeBSD, along with a web server, PHP and a few other utilities. The entire system configuration is stored in one single XML text file to keep things transparent.

m0n0wall is probably the first UNIX system that has its boot-time configuration done with PHP, rather than the usual shell scripts, and that has the entire system configuration stored in XML format."

( http://www.m0n0.ch/wall/index.php )

VMware m0n0wall images -> http://chrisbuechler.com/index.php?id=18

VM Cloning Script

Dave Jaffe — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 18:50:16 GMT

A C# cloning program using the VMware Virtual Infrastructure SDK, vmclone1.cs, is available at

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/solutions/vmclone.zip

This program, which enables cloning of Windows VMs, was discussed in our talk at VMworld 2005, "Managing Virtual Machines Using the VMware Virtual Infrastructure SDK with Dell OpenManage and Altiris Deployment Solution". The program assigns specified hostnames, IP addresses, and storage to each clone and causes the sysprep program to be run on each new VM. You will need to modify the program to include your own DNS server and gateway addresses, as well as your 25-character Windows Product ID. Complete instructions for compiling the script are included in the header.

VMware Tools for Solaris

Winkelmann — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 20:25:08 GMT

Due to the many request concerning my implementation of VMware Tools for Solaris through the lxrun Linux emulation (as posted in thread http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=20328), I've published an installation instruction and installers for VMware Workstation and VMware ESX on http://wotho2.ethz.ch/vmware/tools.

This implementation can of course not enable the complete VMware Tools functionality. The following features are working:

- delivery of heartbeats and configuration information to the host system through vmware-guestd

Have Fun!

Juergen

VMCL Beta 1

manzi — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 23:19:50 GMT

VMCL is the first cluster free product for VMWARE ESX based on Linux-HA
Note: I think that it's better than commercial (very few) solution

You can find its on http://www.vmts.net

This is a BETA product don't use in a production enviroment

Massimiliano Daneri

vmbk.pl

manzi — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 21:44:31 GMT

It's most famous and used product to perform online hot backups of guest operating systems on VMware ESX Server.

You can find it on http://www.vmts.net/vmbk.htm

Massimiliano Daneri

get workstation 5.5.1 to work on Debian Sarge amd64

eiz — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 21:22:25 GMT

To get vorkstation 5.5.1 to work correctly with Debian Sarge amd64 :

- apt-get install ia32-libs
- get ia32-libs-gtk_7_amd64.deb (or later) from
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/i/ia32-libs-gtk/
and install it
- to run vmware without Glib and GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL errors run :

GCONV_PATH=/usr/lib32/gconv vmware

Without this solution, widgets are not displayed.

Original idea from http://lists.debian.org/debian-amd64/2005/05/msg00703.html

APC Powerchute Network Shutdown in ESX

kimono — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 00:06:52 GMT

Document on how to install and configure APC Powerchute Network Shutdown in an ESX environment.

http://www.vmguru.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=49&mode=&order=0&thold=0

Question about Content Submission?

Mike_Laverick — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 16:09:08 GMT

Daryl,

I've been working on the documentation for a home grown P2V solution - its along the lines of the usual suspects - BartPE, Ghost and scripts that correct the BSOD problem...

Given that VMware retails a fully support P2V product. I wasn't sure if it was worth submitting such a solution to the User Solutions area?

What would be VMware's/Forum's position on such a submission?

Regards
Mike

Fast creation of preallocated disks (Windows only)

continuum — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 16:46:22 GMT

flatmaker.cmd creates preallocated disks from scratch

Available disksize: 1,2,4,6,8,12,16,32,64,128 GB
Available types: ide and scsi

It creates preallocated disks much faster than VMware.
Another advantage is the contigious diskcreation.

If you like it I can easily add more disksizes.
Use at your own risk.

Please give feedback
Download at http://sanbarrow.com/

Ulli

Kevin Hilscher's Check_VMFS Nagios Script

sherold — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:22:38 GMT

Check_vmfs is a nagios plugin that monitors VMFS disk free space and will report warning and critical status back to nagios based on defined thresholds. Must be called using check_ssh plugin. eg: check_using_ssh!10.1.3.1!root!/usr/lib/nagios/plugins/check_vmfs

http://www.vmguru.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=11&ttitle=check_vmfs#dldetails

Scott - Come visit www.vmguru.com for details on how you can become a community contributor with us!

How to install VMware Workstation on Ubuntu Linux host

jasonboche — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 03:43:08 GMT

None of this content my own. I collected pieces of this information on the internet in order to successfully install VMware Workstation 5.5 on Ubuntu Linux 5.10 "The Breezy Badger" edition.

1. Download and install the latest vmware-any-any patch (unsupported) from the following website: http://platan.vc.cvut.cz/ftp/pub/vmware/
-to install, extract the tarball to the Ubuntu Linux host in a temporary directory, and run ./runme.pl as sudo or root.
-failure to follow step 1 will result in an unsuccessful vmware-config.pl (complaints of missing vmmon kernel modules and the inability to find "make")

2. Follow the instructions for VMware Workstation on Ubuntu Linux host at this website: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/VmWare

In case the content is removed from the website, here is a text dump of the steps as well as a .PDF version of the web page:

http://www.boche.net/dropbox/vmware_on_ubuntu.pdf

UBUNTU as a VMware host
For VMware-workstation-5.5.0-18463.tar.gz

Steps required to get VMware Workstation 5.5.0 installed on Ubuntu 5.10 system on i686.

Install the required compiler and kernel headers needed to compile the vmware kernel module.

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential g++-3.4

Download VMWare Workstation 5.5 from VMware and upack.

tar xzf VMware-workstation-5.5.0-18463.tar.gz
Run the VMware install script.

( cd vmware-distrib && sudo ./vmware-install.pl )
It is safe to take all the defaults.

UBUNTU as a VMware host (older)
The following instructions are may no longer be required if installing VMware-workstation-5.5.0-18463.tar.gz (or possibly later). - PaulSchulz

Here are the steps I took to get VMWare Workstation 5.0 running on an Ubuntu 5.10 system on an amd64 based computer.

Install the required compiler and kernel headers needed to compile the vmware kernel module.

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential g++-3.4

Download VMWare Workstation 5.0 from VMware and upack.

tar xzf VMware-workstation-5.0.0-13124.tar.gz
Run the VMware install script, but DO NOT run vmware-config.pl (as offered by the install script).

( cd vmware-distrib && sudo ./vmware-install.pl )
You should be able to accept the default answers.

You want to use the vmware-any-any-update package (below) in place of running vmware-config.pl.

Download the current vmware-any-any-update package from http://ftp.cvut.cz/vmware/ and unpack.

tar xzf vmware-any-any-update95.tar.gz
Run the vmware-any-any-update script, with the environment variable CC set to the version of gcc used to compile the Linux kernel.

export CC=/usr/bin/gcc-3.4
( cd vmware-any-any-update95 && sudo ./runme.pl )
With any luck, the modules should be compiled and tested, and vmware should be installed and ready to run at this point:

$ /usr/local/bin/vmware

UBUNTU as a VMware guest
VMware version 5 is reported to work with Ubuntu out-of-the-box. Try using NAT rather than bridging when using VMware 5 with Ubuntu as a guest OS.

VMware Workstation 4, VMware Workstation 4.5, or VMware GSX 3.1 under Ubuntu causes some problems because of Ubuntu's use of udev. Fortunately there is a patch for VMware that solves this and many other problems. Follow the instructions below after you have installed VMware.

Open a terminal and change into a temporary directory.

Download the patch by running

wget http://platan.vc.cvut.cz/ftp/pub/vmware/vmware-any-any-update95.tar.gz
(check the directory for new versions if that wget fails).

Extract the patch by running

tar xzvf vmware-any-any-update95.tar.gz
Change into the directory where the patch was extracted.

cd vmware-any-any-update95
Apply the patch.

# sudo ./runme.pl
After the patch is applied it will prompt to run vmware-config.pl. Choose Yes and accept the defaults.

Installation tips

The install script asks for the path of gcc. If it isn't automatically found find the path on your system by running:

which gcc

Set the full path to the binary in the variable CC:

export CC=/usr/bin/gcc-3.4

When you run vmware-config.pl, if the script can't find your kernel's C headers you must install the appropriate headers package. Do this by running

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

You must then point vmware-config.pl to the appropriate directory, such as

/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.10-5-686/include

If the VMware Management Interface (MUI) for GSX complains about a lack of libdb.so.3 and instruct you to get compat-db-3.3.<##>-<#>.i386.rpm. You want the ubuntu package libdb2 for this.

Enabling Parallel Port Access
VMware allows direct access to parallel ports, which is handy if you've got a scanner that only has Windows drivers. You may need to make the following minor change to VMware's startup script.

Open /etc/iniit.d/vmware in an editor by running

sudo gedit /etc/init.d/vmware

Find the case statement that looks like this (around line 814)

# See how we were called.
case "$1" in
start)

Add the following text at the end of the case statement

rmmod lp
chgrp lpadmin /dev/parport0
chmod g+rw /dev/parport0 CategoryDocumentation CategoryCleanup

Activating Windows XP Home SP1 in VM with raw disk

kilianh — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 10:54:55 GMT

I recently installed vmware-workstation-5.0 in gentoo linux in order to run XP in a VM off the hard drive and not a virtual disk to save space and avoid duplication. When I first booted into it using my newly created virtual hardware profile (after manually setting the Standard IDE driver to get around the BOOT_DEVICE_INACCESSIBLE problem) I tried to login and it came up with a dialogue box asking me to activate the product.

It was activated beginning of 2004 by my vendor and due to the different virtual hardware (esp. BIOS) it needed to reactivate. Unfortunately, selecting 'no' got me straight back to the login screen (no grace period because I've already been using it for a while) while selecting 'yes' caused another popup "already activated" and also threw me back to the login screen. This is what I did from there:

2) Somehow the second time I booted my vm into XP with the virtual hw profile (had to use "last know good configuration" because of an IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL BSOD) it attempted the activation for real (I think I also had networking working properly then using bridge and NAT for my guest OS)

3) Get to the step where it fails to register with the original XP product key because the hardware has "changed" significantly (including new BIOS) but you've already activated the product before

4) Reboot natively into XP, realising that with even with the physical hw profile it now wants to reactivate, failing in the same way as above

5) Very frustrated I then called M$ on my local toll-free number (the one that the dialog throws up), spoke to a consultant and told her that my XP wasn't working anymore cause I fiddled with VM's. So, I gave her the hardware key it spits out, she gave me a verification code and bingo, it was activated and working again as it did before

6) When I rebooted into Gentoo and started XP in vmware I noticed - to my surprise - that it no longer complains about activation

I now have a working installation in which both cases (physical boot with physical hw profile and vmware boot in Gentoo with virtual hw profile on raw disk) work perfectly without any hassles. To the best of my knowledge this is 100% legal as I'm only using a single installation on a single physical machine, just accessing this installation differently

Oh, and like the subject says, I'm on XP Home SP1. Don't know what SP2's like or if it will behave in the same way.

In Depth Analysis: vmxnet_console

sherold — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:33:32 GMT

A very popular whitepaper! Random Trivia question for points!!

Topic: The Day the Music Died
Question: What artist passed away far too young on Oct. 29, 1971?

In Depth Analysis: vmxnet_console
Author: Scott Herold (scott@vmguru.com)

http://www.vmguru.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=29&mode=nested&order=0&thold=-1

Scott - Come visit www.vmguru.com for details on how you can become a community contributor with us!

smtp_send.pl

sherold — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:17:27 GMT

This is a small script that can send emails through an external smtp gateway. This is useful when sending log files from an ESX host to an administrator or group on a scheduled basis.

Updated October 3, 2005 by Jeremy Pries to allow the script to accept command line arguments.

http://www.vmguru.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=5&ttitle=smtp_send.pl#dldetails

Scott - Come visit www.vmguru.com for details on how you can become a community contributor with us!

libview: VMware's Incredibly Exciting Widgets (GTK+)

JMills — Sat, 22 Oct 2005 22:39:05 GMT

libview is VMware's Incredibly Exciting Widgets, a useful collection of GTK+ widgets used within VMware products, free for everybody's use.

http://intr.overt.org/blog/?p=7
http://sourceforge.net/projects/view

VMware ESX: Advanced Technical Design Guide

sherold — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:12:14 GMT

We have combined the FrontMatter and both sample chapters into a single download for convenience. The chapters are 100% identical to the final book release.

http://www.vmguru.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=8&ttitle=VMware_ESX_Server:ATDG_Sample_Pack#dldetails

Scott - Come visit www.vmguru.com for details on how you can become a community contributor with us!

VMGuru.com Classifieds Now Open for Business

sherold — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:40:58 GMT

After tossing around some ideas internally and working with members of VMware's internal staffing department, we are happy to announce the VMGuru.com job classifieds...

http://www.vmguru.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=41&mode=nested&order=0&thold=-1

Scott - Come visit www.vmguru.com for details on how you can become a community contributor with us!

VMware ESX Tip/Trick: Loading the VMkernel Manually for Debugging

sherold — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:38:55 GMT

VMware ESX Tip/Trick: Loading the VMkernel Manually for Debugging
Author: Steve Beaver (sbeaver@vmguru.com)

http://www.vmguru.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=36&mode=nested&order=0&thold=-1

Scott - Come visit www.vmguru.com for details on how you can become a community contributor with us!

Stever Beaver's Sample Script for VM Failover

sherold — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:27:48 GMT

These scripts give an example on one way to get a VM failover to a standby VM.

http://www.vmguru.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=13&ttitle=Development_Script_--_VM_Failover_to_Standby_VM#dldetails

Scott - Come visit www.vmguru.com for details on how you can become a community contributor with us!

VMware Communities : Thread List - User Solutions

VDI: Free Connection Broker

VMware Visio Stencils

How to repeatedly upgrade Windows 2003 to SMP and revert to uniprocessor

VMware Server 1.0.2 and LEAF Bering uClibC 3.0.2

New Submission: P2V Scripts - Post-Configuration Scripts

VISBU - Free easy-to-use VI3 backup utility

New free utility - Snapshot Hunter

vmktree - track resource usage of an ESX Server

fastest network copy of .vmdk files between 2 esx servers

Whitepaper guide to setting up VI3 on Workstation 6.

EZP2V Plugin for BartPE

Script to disconnect CD-rom devices and floppy drives

Access VM Serial Console - Named Pipe TCP Proxy Utility

storageim Monitoring for ESX and SMI-S SAN Equipment

Kickstart script usinf FTP server for source files

vmware tools 5.5.3, linux 2.6.19 (ubuntu feisty), vmxnet compile fix

vmware-tools installion for virtual win98 fails

Ultimate-P2V Available for Download

Create linked clone on Vmware Server

P2PI2V GPL Open Source GNU/Linux P2V solution based on System Rescue CD

The ultimate VBScript for VM backup on Windows hosts (VMWare Server)

VMWare Workstation 6 Direct3d x86_64 Linux

\[solved] Windows NT4 multiprocessor HAL gives 100% CPU load

Cut & Paste Trick

howto change BusLogic to LSI Logic - SLES 9

ESX 3.0.1 Hangs on Install - BIOS Boot other devices: YES to fix

Document your ESX hosts.

List VMs with connected Cdroms

Automated VMware Update Script

A script that does documentation

WinImage beta 8001 open and browe VMDK image file

Veeam Reporter Visio Stencil set for Visio 2003

Dramatically increase performance of copying data into vmfs

Virtual Appliance for Chargeback and Capacity reporting

VMPlayer Inventory satellite software for VMware Player

Easy backup script for use with ESX 3.0

XP batch script to start necessary services on demand

French documentation on creation of Windows Cluster with VMware Server

VM Clone Script for SDK 2.0

P2V from Linux Machines

Script to install patches in ESX 3

Network copy failed for file. \[vmfs] esxserver/disk.vmdk

diskreport

ESX Manager 2.1

Free VI3 Security Risk Assessment Template

Stever Beaver's LDAP SEARCH

Howto use vmware-vdiskmanager on a LiveCD to import physical disks ...

VMware Server Console - Password Management

Pointer on increasing user speed on VM machine

Thomas Bryant's FreeSCO Router Image

Basic VMDK-repair know-how

VMware MAC Generator

VMfind.com - Virtual Appliance Search Engine

Easy ESX Server and Guest Monitoring...

Securing VMware Workstation files.

Lab Manager: Mercury Quality Center and fenced configurations

Replacing X Login Manager with VMware Server Console

zerotools - utilities to keep Linux virtual machine disks clean

VMware Server Console slow over WAN network link - \*resolved*

Power On/Off virtual machines with Local System Account (W2k3 Server Host)

copy ISO files from win to esx 6 times faster than winSCP

\!Solution! No Keyboard and Mouse when booting into real XP raw disk

Improving Intel Duo Cores Performace (video & redrawing)

Drive Space for servers

APC PowerChute Network Shutdown Installation

Fedora Core 4 based iSCSI target

GUI wrapper for vmware-mount

Veeam Monitor for VMware Server and VMware Workstation

Hosting "N" vm web server, in separate DMZs and application proxy (squid)

A script to automatically add VMs to the autostart list on ESX 2.5.x

Virtinium VM Manager

Monitoring VMware ESX from Nagios and MRTG

Accessing a serial console on a VM

Networking with VMplayer

How to run very old VMs in current VMserver, WS or Player

Pocketlinux 1.5.3

OpenEMR Medical Practice Management Software Appliance

VMotion Using Shared SCSI

Virtualization Industry Roadmap

VMware Server Console slow over WAN network link - \resolved