A Technical Journey » Vmware

Disable Copy & Paste in a VMware guest Virtual machine

Paul McSharry — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 15:28:40 +0000

VMware tools provides a copy and paste function between the machine running the vSphere client and the guest virtual machine.
In some production environments this maybe inappropriate.

It is possible to disable this feature on a per virtual machine basis, by editing the guest Virtual machine configuration (.vmx) file.

Procedure
1. Log into your vCenter client
2. Power off the guest Virtual machine.
3. Open advanced options ( Edit Settings > Options > General > Configuration Parameters )
4. Add the following parameters (click Add Row),
              isolation.tools.setGUIOptions.enable = false
             isolation.tools.copy.disable = true
              isolation.tools.paste.disable = true

How to reset a forgotten or lost Root password on VMware vSphere ESX 4

Paul McSharry — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:09:12 +0000

In the event the root password is unknown, connect to the ESX host console and restart the machine.

1. When the ESX host boots to the grub menu, hit the “a” key.
2. Add the command “single” to the string and click enter
3. Wait for ESX to go through the boot process
4. At the command prompt type “passwd.”
5. Enter your new password.
6. Restart the host ie. shutdown -r now

This process is only used to reset a lost or forgotten password.
A video demo of this process is shown on my virtualisation website http://www.elasticsky.co.uk/videos

Install VMware vCenter On 64 Bit Windows Server

Paul McSharry — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:40:15 +0000

The vCenter server role is a critical component of a vSphere deployment. The role requires a database such as SQL or Oracle.

To install the vCentre a 32 bit ODBC connection is required. When installing the role on a 64 bit server OS (ie Windows 2008 R2), the installer will fail giving the error shown in the screenshot below.

To configure a 32 BIT Odbc connection on a 64 Bit version of windows use the following;

Start > Run
%systemdrive%\Windows\SysWoW64\Odbcad32.exe
Click ok
Select System DSN and complete the wizard in the normal manner.

Please note that a 32 Bit odbc connection will not be dispayed in the default 64 bit odbc data source administrator manager. Use odbcad32.exe to view the settings.

Update : This method is for vCenter 4.0, following the update of vCenter 4.1 , the application is now no longer a 32 bit application but a 64 bit version. A 64 bit system dsn is required for the 4.1 edition

Add static route to VMware ESX 4 Host

Paul McSharry — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:38:16 +0000

In a infrastructure with multiple networks, it can be necessary to configure the routing on the ESX hosts rather than at the router.

This is achieved using the below command

route add – net netmask gw

ie : route add -net 10.44.0.0 netmask 255.255.0.0 gw 192.168.0.12

In the above example, all traffic for the 10.14.X.X network will be routed via 192.168.0.12

Note: This route will not be persistent through reboots. If the ESX host is restarted the route will need to be re-added.

To ensure the route is persistent add the command to the bottom of the following config file using a text editor /etc/rc.local

For example

Change directory – cd /etc/
Open Text Editor – nano rc.local
Specfiy the route at the end of the file - route add -net 10.44.0.0 netmask 255.255.0.0 gw 192.168.0.12
Exit Text Editor - ctrl -x , Yes to confirm

Enable the Root user SSH access in vSphere ESX 4

Paul McSharry — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:35:07 +0000

As a security meaure, SSH access to the service console using the Root account is disabled by default on vSPhere ESX 4. Although not best practice, there are times you may wish to enable access to the Root user.

Method – CLI commands show in bold

Login as Root to the ESX console
Go to the SSH directory – cd /etc/ssh
Open the ssh_config file – nano sshd_config
Change PermitRootLogin no to PermitRootLogin yes
Save and exit the config file – CTRL+ X , click Y to confirm
Restart the SSHD service – service sshd restart
Amend the service console firewall rules - esxcfg-firewall -e sshClient and esxcfg-firewall -e sshServer

The Root account should now be able to connect remotely using SSH

Please note, this applies to ESX only, ESXi does not have a Service Console. Access is provided using the remote command line interface or pearl toolkit. SSH access can be configured to the support mode, however it is enabled in a different manner.

Inconsistent Virtual Machine folders after renaming a machine.

Paul McSharry — Tue, 25 May 2010 14:52:03 +0000

When a virtual machine is renamed , the underlying datastore folder is unchanged. This can cause confusion in various scenarios.

To overcome this quickly and easily, simply migrate the virtual machine datastore using storage vmotion. During the process the virtual machine files are renamed automatically.

Place an ESX Host into maintenance mode using the command line.

Paul McSharry — Mon, 24 May 2010 13:56:41 +0000

To enter maintenance mode using the command line interface,

vimsh -n -e /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter

To exit maintenance mode use

vimsh -n -e /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit

Checked Builds Of Windows 2008 BSOD STOP: 0x0000008E Error With Vmware

Paul McSharry — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 20:01:46 +0000

When creating a Vmware Virtual Machine guest, running a Windows Server 2008 checked build from sources such as technet, or MSDN, a blue screen of death may occur ( ie STOP:0x0000008E).

This is caused by the windows HAL being violated within the Virtual Machine.

A fix for this issue is to add the below line to the virtual machine’s configuration (.vmx file).

piix4pm.smooth_acpi_timer = TRUE

How To Install Vmware VSphere ESX 4 From USB Flash Drive

Paul McSharry — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 18:24:53 +0000

In case the server has no DVD/optial drive or you have an iso but no DVD-r available. It is possible to install ESX 4 using a USB flash drive.

1. Use a bootloader application such as Unetbootinto create a bootable flash drive using the iso (simply point to the iso file, specify the USB flash drive and click ok) .
2. Boot the server from the USB flash drive
3. Click Tab when the ESX install options appear
4. Add the command askmedia to the end of the syslinux bootloader string that appears.

The ESX4 installation process will continue as normal, however an additional option of selecting a media path such as USB, FTP and NFS will be available.

Useful Networking Commands In Vmware ESX CLI

Paul McSharry — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:52:21 +0000

The VI Client is excellent, however when you cannot connect to the ESX host, its time to go to the CLI.

A few useful commands shown below;

Network Card information: ifconfig

Display the network cards availible in ESX: esxcfg-nics -l

Display the network card linked to service console: esxcfg-vswitch -l

Unlink Vmnic from vswitch esxcfg-vswitch -U vmnic0 vSwitch0

link a vmnic to vSwitch0 esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic1 vSwitch0

Change the Vlan ID of the console port in ESX: esxcfg-vswitch vSwitch0 -v 15 -p “Service Console” (where 15 is the Vlan ID)