Massive CPU Usage with Ubuntu Server guest

[pcmd]

Hi Guys.

I have a problem (I think).

I've noticed that since installing a copy of Ubuntu Server (the latest available: 8.04) in a new VM, it's using the CPU like it's going out of style.

I will list the details here and upload some screenshots (3 in first post and the other 2 in second post).

What do you think?

steven

Core hardware

Brand/Model of Server: Dell PowerEdge 2900

HD: 800 GB RAID 5

RAM: 8 GB (I know, I want more, but...)

CPU: 2 quad core 64bit Xeons @ 1.6 GHz

Core Virtualization system

VMware's ESX Server version 3.5

the VM

RAM: 512 MB

CPU: 1

NIC: E1000

SCSI cntrlr: LSI (best match for the actual hardware)

HD: 4 GB

the OS

(installed via ISO attached as CD-ROM drive within ESX configs)

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server Edition - Supported to 2013

64bit AMD and Intel computers

other installed software

ebox (as per Ubuntu documentation)

nothing else yet

<br><br><br><br><br>:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,~`:

Thanks for your kindness and patience as I continue this adventure in the world of virtualization.

Bullies need not reply

[pcmd]

Here are the other two screenshots...

:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,~`:

Thanks for your kindness and patience as I continue this adventure in the world of virtualization.

Bullies need not reply

[kjb007]

Do you have vmware tools installed in the vm?

-KjB

[pcmd]

Well, good question.

When creating the VM, I chose to install the tools, but now when I look on the summary page for this VM where it says, "VMware Tools:" it says, "not installed".

So, I guess I'll shut it down and install them manually, and then report back...

Thanks.

:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,~`:

Thanks for your kindness and patience as I continue this adventure in the world of virtualization.

Bullies need not reply

[pcmd]

I shut it down, then right-clicked on the entry in the main inventory window to go install the tools, but the item named "Install/Upgrade VMware Tools" is greyed out.

Now what?

steven

:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,~`:

Thanks for your kindness and patience as I continue this adventure in the world of virtualization.

Bullies need not reply

[kjb007]

The tools install on a linux platform only mounts the tools iso to the cd. You have to manually run the setup. Check the guest guide for Ubuntu on the install for the tools.

-KjB

[pcmd]

Aha!

I got it...

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=340

Thanks!

I'll report back after installing.

steven

:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,~`:

Thanks for your kindness and patience as I continue this adventure in the world of virtualization.

Bullies need not reply

[pcmd]

Ok, now I've hit another stumbling block.

I suspect this will all be 'old hat' at some point, but I'm a bit lost...

I have the guide open...

i.e. http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=524232...

In step 4, it tells me to cd to the mount point for the CD ISO image.

In the VI Client, it looks like it's at /dev/cdrom

However, when I try to cd there, it says, "bash: cd: cdrom: Not a directory".

Then, also in step 4, where it says to do "cp VMwareTools-3.0.x-nnnnn.tar.gz /tmp"

I have no idea what's supposed to be there, but I'm assuming that's not actually the name of the file.

How do I know what to put there (sorry if it says elsewhere in the guide)?

I'm thinking it should reflect my version/build of ESX (which would make it "cp VMwareTools-3.5.0-64607.tar.gz /tmp"), but not sure.

More hand-holding?

steven

:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,~`:

Thanks for your kindness and patience as I continue this adventure in the world of virtualization.

Bullies need not reply

[kjb007]

After you open the terminal. Run 'mount', and you should see if the cd is mounted in a location other than /dev/cdrom. It may be /mnt/cdrom, or something like that. From there, you should be able to continue with the remaining task. When you run the 'cp' command, you should end up with a file name vmwaretools- in your /tmp directory, copied from the cd location you cd'd to earlier.

-KjB

[pcmd]

I guess the problem is that when I run mount, I don't see any cdrom at all.

Do you want me to post the readout?

:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,~`:

Thanks for your kindness and patience as I continue this adventure in the world of virtualization.

Bullies need not reply

[kjb007]

Edit your vm settings, and make sure you are able to access the virtual cd drive. Mount an iso from the vi client, or a cd, and see if that shows up correctly in the vm. If it does, you should have an entry in your messages log stating that vmware virtual cd drive was mounted, and it should also list the device name it used. Then, start the tools install, and cd to that location, and continue forward.

When you mount a iso/cd from your vi client and make sure it shows connected, post the messages log and the mount output.

-KjB

[pcmd]

Ok. So, I mounted an ISO image (of an Ubuntu install CD), then looked in the messages log, but there's nothing there about it. I just did it now (well, @~10:35), but the last entry in the messages log is from 10:21; like fifteen minutes ago.

Now what?

:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,~`:

Thanks for your kindness and patience as I continue this adventure in the world of virtualization.

Bullies need not reply

[wila]

HI,

Steps for an Ubuntu VM on installing the VMware tools are like this (from the top of my head)

1. initialize the tools OR if that doesn't work then navigate the CD to the linux.iso file on your host

2. open a terminal and start typing...

  cd ~
  mount /dev/scd0
  cp /media/cdrom0/* .

You should now have copied the VMwaretools packages in your home folder. We are going to use the .tar.gz install as the .rpm install won't work (you can remove that now)

But first make sure you have some essential building tools and that you are completely up-to-date (You need to have internet access here)

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

If the above installs a new kernel then reboot your guest now so that you are running the new kernel and then:

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`

Watch the back-ticks!

Here you want to create a snapshot so that you can get back to a working VM in case the next steps during the install of vmware tools goes hayward.

While in your home folder run:

tar xvf VMwareTools-3.5.0-xxxxx.tar.gz

xxxxxx is the number of the VMware tools that you are installing

now cd into the folder you just created:

cd vmware-tools-distrib/
ls
sudo ./vmware-install.pl

keep all the defaults to the questions asked, if everything works out there you have a working installed VMware-tools after this.

You might want to install the vmxnet driver after this and steps for that are:

 sudo /etc/init.d/networking stop
 sudo rmmod pcnet32
 sudo rmmod vmxnet
 sudo depmod -a
 sudo modprobe vmxnet
 sudo /etc/init.d/networking start

Hope this helps

--

Wil

[pcmd]

Hi guys.

wila,

I'm not sure if you read the preceding conversation, but I can't even get an ISO image attached here.

I did it via the 'Edit Settings' area, but it does not show up.

Also, I have no idea what "the CD to the linux.iso file on your host" is.

Can you clarify?

KjB,

here is the output from mount...

/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)

proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)

/sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)

varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755)

varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)

udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)

devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)

devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)

securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)

steven

:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,~`:

Thanks for your kindness and patience as I continue this adventure in the world of virtualization.

Bullies need not reply

[kjb007]

Can you run 'dmesg |grep -i cd' to see if anything shows up in the output. This will scan your boot log to see if a cd was recognized. If it does not come back with anything, I would edit your vm settings, remove the cd, let the vm startup. Shut it down, and then add the cd again to try and force a hardware rescan.

-KjB

[wila]

Also, I have no idea what "the CD to the linux.iso file on your host" is. -> should be: Navigate the CDrom drive to the...

Well the vmware tools are loaded from a CD image and that image is stored on your host. I've seen it happen that the vmware-tools update process didn't offer the CD image and in such a case I' ve forcefed it manually. On the host I just looked at down here, it is under /vmimages/tools-isoimages/linux.iso

I selected this in the Virtual Infrastructure Client, made sure the Connected checkbox is ticked and browsed to the location above under the DataStore ISO file option.

--

Wil

[pcmd]

I forgot to run it first....just removed the cd, halted, started it up again, added cd, restarted, and then ran the command you gave, and here are the results (I'm assuming this means it sees it now)...

17.478115 ata1.00: ATAPI: VMware Virtual IDE CDROM Drive, 00000001, max UDMA/33

17.658919 scsi 1:0:0:0: CD-ROM NECVMWar VMware IDE CDR00 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5

18.934883 sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 1x/1x xa/form2 cdda tray

18.934891 Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20

18.934956 sr 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0

However, after that, it's still (as far as I can tell) not showing up when I run mount...

/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)

proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)

/sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)

varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755)

varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)

udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)

devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)

devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)

securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)

:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,~`:

Thanks for your kindness and patience as I continue this adventure in the world of virtualization.

Bullies need not reply

[pcmd]

Next....

This time I halted,

removed the cd (which I had added previously),

added a new cd; pointing to the ISO image (yes, it is where you suggested),

and now, here is the output from mount and the other command suggested earlier...

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

this is from "dmesg |grep -i cd"

14.795993 ata1.00: ATAPI: VMware Virtual IDE CDROM Drive, 00000001, max UDMA/33

14.977767 scsi 0:0:0:0: CD-ROM NECVMWar VMware IDE CDR00 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5

16.443619 sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 1x/1x xa/form2 cdda tray

16.443625 Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20

16.443701 sr 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

this is mount...

/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)

proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)

/sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)

varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755)

varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)

udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)

devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)

devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)

securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Oh....still no CD access.

:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,_`:`.:,~`:

Thanks for your kindness and patience as I continue this adventure in the world of virtualization.

Bullies need not reply

[rengler]

How can you tell if the CDROM is mounted or not? Can you cd /mnt/cdrom or similar?

These are the beginning steps I have in my manual for building VMWare Tools on Ubuntu 8.04/Server.

Start the Tools install from the VM context menu
On the command line:
mount /dev/cdrom
cd ~
mkdir vmtools-install-tmp
cd vmtools-install-tmp
cp /media/cdrom/VMware.gz ~/vmtools-install-tmp

Can you get this far?

-Rob

[wila]

Hi,

The mount command needs a parameter, the device node otherwise its fairly useless to call it in my opinion.

From the dmesg output it appears your device node is sr0, so you would then mount it using:

mount /dev/sr0

After it is mounted it will normally make the CDrom contents available under /media/cdrom, this all depends a bit on what is in your /etc/fstab file. On my ubuntu 8.0.4. it has a line:

/dev/scd0   /media/cdrom0  udf,iso9660 user, yadda yadda yadda

I was assuming here it contains the defaults, which is why my original reply suggested you to mount /dev/scd0

So if the above mount command doesn't throw an error, you should be able to list the content under /media/cdrom using ls (otherwise try the command from my first suggestion)

ls /media/cdrom

If that's still empty, check if there's another folder under /media and list the contents of that one.

What if that doesn't work? Then please list the contents of /etc/fstab by typing:

cat /etc/fstab

hth,

--

Wil