1. Allow SSH access to the VMware host you are about to access.
   • This can be done in the vSphere Client: Choose the VMware host you would like to access.
   • Go to the Configuration tab and select Security Profile under Software. Edit Services Properties and start the SSH daemon.
   • Verify that the firewall allows SSH traffic
2. All the VMware Tools are located in the /vmimages/tools-isoimages/ folder on the host. Download the ISO-image with the tools you need
   • Issue this command from a machine that has access to the VMware host.

      sftp username@vmhost.tld:/vmimages/tools-isoimages/linux.iso

     Type in your password and the download will start

3. Mount the ISO-file and copy the VMware Tools installer file to the desired VMware linux guest using SSH

   • # mount linux.iso /media/cdrom/ -t iso9660 -o loop
     # scp /media/cdrom/VMwareTools-8.6.5-652272.tar.gz username@vmguest.tld:

4. Manual install of VMware Tools on a vmguest as a privileged user

   • # tar xfz VMwareTools-8.6.5-652272.tar.gz
     # cd vmware-tools-distrib
     # ./vmware-install.pl

     Follow the instructions and finish the installer. A reboot may be required to load the necessary kernel modules.

Your VMware Tools are now installed and should work as it would on a normal VMware Tools installation.

This procedure can also be used on other operating systems. This is a list of all the VMware Tools ISO-images available in the /vmimages/tools-isoimages/ folder on a ESXi 5.0 host

sftp> ls -l
-rwx------    1 root     root     12576768 Apr 13 09:17 darwin.iso
-rwx------    1 root     root          256 Apr 13 09:17 darwin.iso.sig
-rwx------    1 root     root     16021504 Apr 13 09:16 freebsd.iso
-rwx------    1 root     root          256 Apr 13 09:18 freebsd.iso.sig
-rwx------    1 root     root     65200128 Apr 13 09:15 linux.iso
-rwx------    1 root     root          256 Apr 13 09:17 linux.iso.sig
-rwx------    1 root     root         1738 Apr 13 09:17 linux_avr_manifest.txt
-rwx------    1 root     root       540672 Apr 13 09:17 netware.iso
-rwx------    1 root     root          256 Apr 13 09:16 netware.iso.sig
-rwx------    1 root     root     13006848 Apr 13 09:17 solaris.iso
-rwx------    1 root     root          256 Apr 13 09:16 solaris.iso.sig
-rwx------    1 root     root          451 Apr 13 09:17 tools-key.pub
-rwx------    1 root     root     13664256 Apr 13 09:18 winPre2k.iso
-rwx------    1 root     root          256 Apr 13 09:17 winPre2k.iso.sig
-rwx------    1 root     root           49 Apr 13 09:18 winPre2k_avr_manifest.txt
-rwx------    1 root     root     62128128 Apr 13 09:17 windows.iso
-rwx------    1 root     root          256 Apr 13 09:18 windows.iso.sig
-rwx------    1 root     root         1069 Apr 13 09:17 windows_avr_manifest.txt

The swappiness parameter controls the tendency of the kernel to move processes out of physical memory and onto the swap disk. Because disks are much slower than RAM, this can lead to slower response times for system and applications if processes are too aggressively moved out of memory.

• swappiness can have a value of between 0 and 100
• swappiness=0 tells the kernel to avoid swapping processes out of physical memory for as long as possible
• swappiness=100 tells the kernel to aggressively swap processes out of physical memory and move them to swap cache

The default setting in Ubuntu is swappiness=60. Reducing the default value of swappiness will probably improve overall performance for a typical Ubuntu desktop installation. A value of swappiness=10 is recommended, but feel free to experiment. Note: Ubuntu server installations have different performance requirements to desktop systems, and the default value of 60 is likely more suitable.

To check the swappiness value

# cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

To change the swappiness value A temporary change (lost on reboot) with a swappiness value of 10 can be made with

# sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=10

To make a change permanent, edit the configuration file with your favorite editor:

# gksudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf

Search for vm.swappiness and change its value as desired. If vm.swappiness does not exist, add it to the end of the file like so:

vm.swappiness=10

Save the file and reboot.

-2011
--2011-01
--2011-02
--2011-03
...
-2012
--2012-01

I avoid duplicate symlinks by using file names like 20110102-1234_DSC…JPG or YYYYMMDD-HHMM_OriginalFileName.JPG

The script looks like this

#!/bin/bash 

SRC="/media/Images"
DEST="/media/SymlinkTarget"

# Create a symlink under $DEST for each JPG file under $SRC
find $SRC -type f | grep -i jpg | while read PATHNAME; do
        NEW="$DEST";
        echo "$NEW";
        ln -s "$PATHNAME" "$NEW";
done

Installing Lsyncd 2.0 from source on CentOS 6
Lsyncd is not included as a package in CentOS 6, so you need to download the source file from http://code.google.com/p/lsyncd/downloads/list.
You should have rsync, GCC and lua-devel installed on your system before you continue installing Lsyncd.

# yum install rsync lua-devel

Unpack the lsyncd source file and run the following commands from the unpacked file

# configure
# make
# make install

make install copies the compiled files and install them to the right directories in your system.

I need to configure a non password SSH communication between the two servers with a shared SSH key.
On the source server run the following command to generate a SSH key, if you have not done this already.
Remember to do this as the user you are going to perform the sync with.

# ssh-keygen

Secure copy the generated SSH key from the source server to your target server

# scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub root@remoteserver:/tmp

On the target server you need to add the copied SSH key to your existing authorized keys file.
Also remember to do this with the user you are going to connect with from the source server.

# cat /tmp/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

If you do not have this file, just create it using the touch command described below

# touch ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Test if you can ssh without a password from your source server to the target server.

I have made a config file, /root/scripts/lsyncd.conf that tells Lsyncd where to put the log- and statusfile. That it should be running as a daemon in the background, and a sync should occur after 900 seconds (15 minutes) if there have not been any filesystem changes and there should not be more than 6 parallell Lsyncd processes.

settings = {
   logfile      = "/tmp/lsyncd.log",
   statusFile   = "/tmp/lsyncd.status",
   nodaemon     = false,
   maxDelays    = 900,
   maxProcesses = 6,
}

sync{default.rsyncssh, source="/path/on/source/", host="hostnam.target.server.tld", targetdir="/path/on/target/"}

To start lsyncd you run the command

# lsyncd /root/scripts/lsyncd.conf

You should now see a Lsyncd process running as a daemon on your system. It performs a sync when you start and then waits for any filesystem changes or sync after 900 seconds.

If you would like Lsyncd to start at boot, just add the following line to the bottom of file /etc/rc.local

lsyncd /root/scripts/lsyncd.conf

You do now have a working secure rsync syncronization between two servers.

What directories you are syncing

# tail -f /tmp/lsyncd.status

What is happening now

# tail -f /tmp/lsyncd.log

# cat filename.avi.* > filename.avi

The .001 .002 .003 files can be deleted after you have verfied that the files have merged together successfully to one file.

If you were using Windows you would normally use a software like HJSplit or similar.