Tag: VMware

VMware ESXi host tips

On By Hans-Henry JakobsenIn Virtualization

Some of my VMware notes in short form, just publishing it since it has been in my drafts folder too long.

Remove virtual adapter ala vmk0
# esxcli network ip interface remove -i vmk1

Configure IP on vmk
# esxcli network ip interface ipv4 set -i vmk3 -I 10.255.2.37 -N 255.255.255.0 -t static

List vmk
# esxcli network ip interface ipv4 get

# esxcfg-route

# esxcli software vib list

Remove vib on VMware host
# esxcli software vib remove -n=”vcloud-agent”

Removing of inaccessible NFS datastore
# esxcli storage nfs list

On the ESXi host
# /etc/init.d/storageRM stop

In the vSphere Client
“Rescan All” storage på host

# /etc/init.d/storageRM start

In vSphere Client
Remove inaccessible datastore

Check MTU values on ESXi host
# esxcli network nic list
Name PCI Device Driver Link Speed Duplex MAC Address MTU Description
—— ————- —— —- —– —— —————– —- —————————————————————-
vmnic0 0000:002:00.0 bnx2 Up 1000 Full a4:aa:aa:ab:aa:33 1500 Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T
vmnic1 0000:002:00.1 bnx2 Up 1000 Full a4:ae:aa:ab:aa:35 1500 Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T
vmnic2 0000:003:00.0 bnx2 Down 0 Half a4:ae:aa:ab:aa:37 1500 Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T
vmnic3 0000:003:00.1 bnx2 Down 0 Half a4:ae:aa:ab:aa:39 1500 Broadcom Corporation Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709 1000Base-T
vmnic4 0000:045:00.0 ixgbe Up 10000 Full a0:ae:aa:ab:aa:4c 1500 Intel Corporation 82599EB 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection
vmnic5 0000:045:00.1 ixgbe Up 10000 Full a0:ae:ba:ab:aa:4d 1500 Intel Corporation 82599EB 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection
vmnic6 0000:046:00.0 ixgbe Up 10000 Full a0:ae:aa:ab:aa:e0 1500 Intel Corporation 82599EB 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection
vmnic7 0000:046:00.1 ixgbe Up 10000 Full a0:ae:aa:ab:aa:e1 1500 Intel Corporation 82599EB 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection

Install NetApp plugin on ESXi host
# cd /vmfs/volumes/
# esxcli software vib install -d file://$PWD/NetAppNasPlugin.v20.zip

VAAI
On ESXi 5.x hosts, to determine if VAAI is enabled, run these commands and check if Int Value is set to 1 (enabled):

# esxcli system settings advanced list -o /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedMove
# esxcli system settings advanced list -o /DataMover/HardwareAcceleratedInit
# esxcli system settings advanced list -o /VMFS3/HardwareAcceleratedLocking

DELL
Dell support: generate DSET file. Requires that DELL OpenManage is installed on the ESXi host
C:\Program Files (x86)\Dell\AdvDiags\DSET\bin>DellSystemInfo.exe -s 10.255.2.3 8 -u root -p password -d hw,sw -r c:\temp\dell\dset-20131115.zip

DELL OpenManage (ESXi host)
# /opt/dell/srvadmin/bin
# ./dataeng status

Backup VMware ESXi using BazaarVCB

On By Hans-Henry JakobsenIn Backup, Scripting, Virtualization

This post describes how you can backup your VMware ESXi home installation with free license using BazaarVCB if you do not have a vCenter Server available. Bazaarvcb is the fastest backup solution I have used on the free VMware hypervisor.
Download the latest version from the download page.

The backup script is run by crontab every night and looks like this

#!/bin/bash
bazaarvcbPath="/media/backup/bazaarvcb-0.9.7b-linux-i386/bazaarvcb"
backupsPath="/media/backup"
hostname="192.168.0.222"
username="root"
password="password"
rollOut="30"
vmNames="vm-guest1 vm-guest2 vm-guest3"

for VM in $vmNames; do
        `$bazaarvcbPath backup -H $hostname -u $username -p $password --roll-out $rollOut $VM $backupsPath/$VM`
done

The backups are full so make sure you have enough disk space available.

bazaarvcb options

$ bazaarvcb -h
usage: bazaarvcb [-h]  ...

optional arguments:
  -h, --help   show this help message and exit

valid commands:
    checkhash  check .hsh files integrity in one directory
    listvm     list registered VMs on the ESXi host
    queryvm    display VMs informations
    listbackup
               search for backups in local and remote directories
    querybackup
               display report file of one particular
    backup     backup a VM
    restore    restore a backup

Open TCP port 31031 in your firewall to ensure that you have a high transfer rate, otherwise the backup will be transferred over SSH protocol and will be capped in speed to about 7MB/s (on the free hypervisor).
Bazaarvcb cannot backup a VM with snapshot(s).

Warning!
I have not tested this on a host connected to a vCenter server and can not confirm that it will work or not.

Mount VMware virtual disk VMDK-file in a physical linux machine

On By Hans-Henry JakobsenIn Linux, Virtualization

This example has been used on a machine with VMware Workstation 9 installed locally.
To mount a VMDK-file you can use the VMware command vmware-mount like this

$ sudo vmware-mount /path/to/vmdk/file/name-of-vmdk-file.vmdk 1 /path/to/mount/point
In the example above we have mounted partition 1 in the VMDK-file from the disk /path/to/vmdk/file/name-of-vmdk-file.vmdk
The files are now accessible from the mount point /path/to/mount/point.

This has been tested in Ubuntu Linux 12.04 LTS.
This command is also available in the Windows version of VMware Workstation.

Add new harddisk to linux without reboot

On By Hans-Henry JakobsenIn Linux

This is a short post on how you can add a new SATA og SCSI harddisk in your running/live linux machine without a reboot.
The BIOS of the machine is not aware of new hardware being added, but you can ask the disk controllers to rescan and become aware of new harddisks.

This is how you force a rescan of the SCSI controller in your linux machine
$ sudo echo "- - -" > /sys/class/scsi_host/host3/scan
I used host3 because the disk was connected to that controller, but you should replace it with the controller you use.

To see the result of the rescan you can issue the dmesg command
$ sudo dmesg
[ 3117.041231] ata3: hard resetting link
[ 3117.371445] ata3: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
[ 3117.371464] ata3: EH complete
[ 3128.224802] ata4: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4050000 action 0xf
[ 3128.224809] ata4: SError: { PHYRdyChg CommWake DevExch }
[ 3128.224818] ata4: hard resetting link
[ 3129.100450] ata4: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[ 3129.108545] ata4.00: ATA-8: ST31500341AS, HP23, max UDMA/100
[ 3129.108550] ata4.00: 2930277168 sectors, multi 0: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
[ 3129.140500] ata4.00: configured for UDMA/100
[ 3129.151034] ata4: EH complete
[ 3129.151159] scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA ST31500341AS HP23 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 3129.151491] sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
[ 3129.151568] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] 2930277168 512-byte logical blocks: (1.50 TB/1.36 TiB)
[ 3129.151895] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 3129.151900] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[ 3129.152052] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 3129.176718] sdb: sdb1
[ 3129.178535] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
[ 3571.306535] ata4: hard resetting link
[ 3571.781238] ata4: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[ 3571.821270] ata4.00: configured for UDMA/100
[ 3571.831850] ata4: EH complete
[ 3756.103000] ata4: hard resetting link
[ 3756.574619] ata4: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[ 3756.614674] ata4.00: configured for UDMA/100
[ 3756.625209] ata4: EH complete

This example has been tested on Ubuntu 12.04, but should work on any other linux flavour available.
This post was highly inspired by http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/vmware-add-a-new-hard-disk-without-rebooting-guest.html that also describes how you remove devices etc withour reboot. This is a great way to add new harddisk to a virtualized linux server that cannot be rebooted.

Install free VMware 5.1 Hypervisor on HP Z600

On By Hans-Henry JakobsenIn Virtualization

This is just some short notes on how you can manage to install the free VMware 5.1 Hypervisor on a HP Z600 Workstation.
I assume you have already downloaded the installer from http://vmware.com

As always when you would like to utilize virtualization in your CPU you have to enable the following BIOS settings

  • Advanced Chipset settings > Intel VT-D > Enabled (Allows passthrough of hardware to a VM)

 

  • Update your BIOS to the latest version
  • Disable “Max CPUID Value Limit” option in BIOS

Without making this change in BIOS the installer would stop with the Purple Screen Of Death (PSOD) and the error message “can’t detect the last level cache”.

If you have a old BIOS that does not support booting from a GPT partition then you need to change this at the beginning of the installation.

Press Shift+O during and type in space and

formatwithmbr

The boot option will now look like

runweasel formatwithmbr

You should now be able to install ESXi 5.1 on you HP Z600.
This might work on other HP models as well.