Following is the steps I used to solve installing VMware Tools on CentOS
1.In Sphere Client: Guest > Install/update VMware Tools
2. On the VM console in command line, being a server I do not have a GUI installed:
3. mkdir /cdrom, or any other mount point you like
4. mount the vitural cdrom from step 1; mount /dev/cdrom /cdrom
5. cd /tmp
6. tar -xvf /cdrom/VMwareTools (tab to auto-complete)
7. cd vmware (tab to auto-complete)
8. ./vmware-install.pl; accept defaults, you might have to install perl as well
9. umount /cdrom
10. In Vsphere Client: Guest > Install/upVMware Tools > OK
11. To confirm the install; in the client > VM Summary tab and look for OK next to VMWare Tools
Port Mirroring on a Force10 S50v
I wanted to mirror the traffic received and sent on port 0/48 of the Force10 S50v switch to port 0/44 on the same switch. Notice that I do not have to add port 0/44 to any vlan in order to use it for the destination for port mirroring; however, I do have to make sure it has “no ip address” and “no shutdown” configured. Now that all the physical connections are made, I setup port mirroring on the Force10 S50v switch as shown below.
————————————————————————————————————
– enable
– config
– monitor session 0
– source gigabitethernet 0/48 destination gigabitethernet 0/44 direction both
Once I get around to setting up the lagg, I would change the monitor session 0 to
source port-channel 128 destination gigabitethernet 0/44 direction both
VMware iSCSI Configs
To install the Equallogic Multi Pathing Module
SCP the zipped vib to a location accessible by your vHost.
dell-eql-mem-esx5-1.2.0.365964.zip to vHost01
Then SSH to the vHost and run the following command, editing for your location
~ # esxcli software vib install –depot /vmfs/volumes/*****/dell-eql-mem-esx5-1.2.0.365964.zip
You’ll see the result similar to below (from an older version installed)
Installation Result
Message: Operation finished successfully.
Reboot Required: false
VIBs Installed: Dell_bootbank_dell-eql-host-connection-mgr_1.1.1-268843, Dell_bootbank_dell-eql-hostprofile_1.1.0-212190, Dell_bootbank_dell-eql-routed-psp_1.1.1-262227
Once you’re running equallogic storage multi pathing module run
esxcli equallogic param list
————— —– —– — ———————————————
TotalSessions 512 1024 64 Max number of sessions per host.
VolumeSessions 12 12 1 Max number of sessions per volume.
MemberSessions 4 4 1 Max number of sessions per member per volume.
MinAdapterSpeed 1000 10000 10 Minimum adapter speed for iSCSI multipathing.
~ # esxcli equallogic param set -n=VolumeSessions -v=12
~ # esxcli equallogic param set -n=MemberSessions -v=4
run those two esxcli statements on ssh.
your member sessions are probably 2 and the volume sessions are probably 4 or 6
then rescan the paths on ths iscsi software adapter, you should triple the paths
MPM
After updating the mpm config on my vhosts
vhost01-iscsi-network
Shadow a VMware View Desktop Session
In VMware View there is no central way shadow a desktop session such as for example in Citrix XenApp. It would be nice if in the future it is possible to shadow a desktop from for example the VMware View Connection server. This is a frequently asked question by customers where VMware View is implemented.
The following steps must be taken to shadow a PCoIP session from the vSphere Console by using a GPO:
Use VMware vSphere 5 and VMware View 5 or greater (in vSphere 4 there is a registry hack available)
For Windows 7 be sure to use Hardware Version 8. For Windows XP or Vista you can use any hardware version
Create a new Group Policy Object (GPO)
Add the “pcoip.adm” file to the Computer Configuration. The ADM file can be found on the VMware View Connection server in the “C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Server\extras\GroupPolicyFiles” folder
Enable the “Enable access to PCoIP session from a vSphere console” in the Computer Configuration settings.
pcoip1
Link the GPO to the OU were the VMware View Windows 7 desktop resides
Sync Domain Controllers
Restart the VMware View desktop
After configuring this, it is possible to shadow a PCoIP session from the vSphere Console. The user doesn’t need to approve the shadow session so this could be security and privacy issue. The keyboard and mouse movements are displayed on the two screens synchronously, although, there is a bit of a delay.
Locked Out of WordPress due to Google Authenticator
Locked OuI got locked out of my WordPress Site recently due to messing about with Google Authenticator and I needed to disable the plugin.
To do this, open an FTP session to your WordPress and locate the folder below
/wp-content/plugins/google-authenticator
If you rename the ‘google-authenticator’ folder to ‘_google-authenticator’ this will disable the plugin.
Login to your WordPress as normal then open the plugins.
Now from the FTP rename the ‘_google-authenticator’ back to ‘google-authenticator’ and in your web-browser click the plugins tab again the google-authenticator plugin will now be de-activated, you can re-activate it and go into your user account to re-configure.
If you watch this video from beginning to end on Google Authenticator it does step you through setting-up another admin account while you test everything in case this happens so you do not lock yourself out. You then delete the second (non Google Authenticator active) admin account once you have everything verified working okay.
See the video guide here :- http://www.mocialsedia.com/installation-essentials-for-wordpress/ it is the last one on the page video 3 on Google Authenticator.
Disable OTP Sophos UTM 9.2 via Shell
Dang it! I also locked myself out of the webadmin on Sophos UTM 9.2 while trying out their OTP function with Google Authenticator.
Here’s how I fixed this problem:
Login to the Firewall Console Interface as root
at the / type
cc
then auth and press enter,
it will list out:
ad_sso
auto_add_to_facility@
auto_add_users$
block
cache_lifetime$
edir_sso
otp
servers@
Type otp and press enter,
it will list out:
auto_create_token$
default_timestep$
facilities@
require_all_users$
required_users@
status$
Type facilities@ and press enter,
finally listing:
0 webadmin
1 portal
2 ipsec
3 openvpn
Type -0 and press enter, where it will redisplay (in this case)
0 portal
1 ipsec
3 openvpn
Login as admin to your firewall via the webadmin!!!
How to Change Port RDP Listens On
To change the port that Remote Desktop listens on, follow these steps.
1. Start Registry Editor.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\PortNumber
3. On the Edit menu, click Modify, and then click Decimal.
4. Type the new port number, and then click OK.
5. Quit Registry Editor.
6. Restart the computer.
Note When you try to connect to this computer by using the Remote Desktop connection, you must type the new port. Maybe you have to set the firewall to allow the new port number before you connect to this computer by using the Remote Desktop connection.
Bootable USB Sticks, the Easy Way.
I can’t stand remembering how to do certain tasks, I mean to say, I want things to work right, automatically… can’t stand it when you have to fuss about clicking here, there, etc.
That’s when I found Rufus. Rufus is an awesome utility found here:
http://rufus.akeo.ie/
You can download that utility, and use it to transform your USB Memory stick to do something useful other than just host files. Give it a shot!
Multiple-NIC vMotion in vSphere 5
- Log into the vSphere Client and select the host from the inventory panel.
- Click the Configuration tab and select Networking.
- Click Add Networking and choose VMkernel as the Connection Type.
- Click Next.
- Add two or more NICs to the required standard switch. You can create a new vSphere standard switch or use an existing vSwitch.Note: Ensure that all adapters are on the same network when connected to a physical Ethernet environment. If the adapters are split across switches, then all adapters must be able to communicate across those switches.
- Name the VMkernel portgroup (for example,
vMotion-01), and assign a VLAN ID as required. - Click Use this port group for vMotion, then click Next
- Configure the IP address and subnet mask, then click Next..
- Click the Properties tab of the vSwitch, select the
vMotion-01portgroup, and click Edit. - Click the NIC Teaming tab.
- Under Failover Order, select Override switch failover order.
- Configure the first adapter (for example,
vmnic1) asactiveand move the second adapter (for example,vmnic3) toUnused Adapters. - Click OK.
- Under the vSwitch Properties, click Add to create a second VMkernel portgroup.
- Name the VMkernel portgroup (for example,
vMotion-02), and assign a VLAN ID as required.Note: Ensure that both VMkernel interfaces participating in the vMotion have the IP address from the same IP subnet. - Click Use this port group for vMotion, then click Next.
- Configure the IP address and subnet mask, then click Next.
- Click the Properties tab of the vSwitch, select the
vMotion-02portgroup, and click Edit. - Click the NIC Teaming tab.
- Under Failover Order, select Override switch failover order.
- Configure the second adapter (for example,
vmnic3) asactiveand move the first adapter (for example,vmnic1) toUnused Adapters. - On the Properties tab of the vSwitch, select each vMotion portgroup in turn and confirm that the active and standby adapters are the reverse of each other.
- I repeated the tasks above two more times because I have four nics for iSCSI traffic. Each nic went to its own physical network card, which was further bound to the Software iSCSI HBA.
In the below picture, you can see an inbound migration at the beginning of the graph, and later after the configuration you can see the same machines migrated outbound post configuration on both vHosts.
Frickin vRanger
I’ve updated our system to 7.0.0.37394 of vRanger Backup and Replication and found a really confounding bug – or problem with it.
We were rolling along just fine with 6.1.0.35402 backups worked, Everyone was happy. Then disaster happened: we lost a drive in the SAN and the database that held our logs was gone. I’m the kind of guy that likes to make things better, so with a chance to upgrade our software, since our backup logs were lost, I thought what better time to do so than now. YAY. Well when you go to make a new repository in vRanger, you’ve got to pay attention to the CaPiTaLiZaTiOn of your path, such that \\backupdevice\dir\backupfolder is not by chance \\backupdevice\dir\BackupFolder as was my case using either NFS or CIFS. Backups were failing with the message: “Backup failed: Error: 2258 – FATAL cifs_cant_mkdir CIFS can’t create the directory cifs:localhost;admin@backupdevice/public/backup/* (No such file or directory) [at cifs_mkdir:615″ where I should have had “backupdevice/public/Backup”
Oh the maddness ensues because when I went back through the installation, vRanger validates the path as correct!!! This happens on the vRanger Virtual Appliance (vRanger-VA). SO, if you get that message on a fresh install, check your path statement. – OR just use all lower case letters.