Zeal's Blog

Done with my linux distro ...... beta is out

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:35:00 +0000

Hi to all.

I have my distros beta version out .

Thr are 2 versions i have built on one with lock-down enabled and other without it .

The one with lock-down is a os that will not allow any change to the os , i.e once installed the os will not allow the user to change any settings or even it wont allow them to store anything on the os disk . For example the user changed a settings of the os the change will be gone once the system is rebooted just like a live cd but the difference is the os will be installed and run from local hard disk hence it works at the same speed as of any other os installed on hard disk will perform oh btw it supports ext4 .If user wants to store data a external device like a pen drive or external hdd is needed and again it supports ntfs drive mount in RW mode out of box.

In other words once installed it stays the way it is .

The second one is a normal one works just as any other os should work.

If any one wants land me a helping hand by testing it out then plz contact me .

cheers

My Own Linux Distro

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 12:56:00 +0000

- Ok Guys and Gals after countless sleepless night and tiring days ...............
I have finaly being able to build my own ubuntu based DISTRIBUTION ready .
It is named as "iBOX".
It is now a Alpha Build

Extreme light weight with all the apps needed for a common person who wants to browse the net , chat , use skype , play movies and music , basic word processing .
Though it is ubuntu based(i just took thr base kernel and basic networking stack as my base build )I have recompiled the kernel tried to twik it as much as i could , quiet a few apps are recompiled also remember the swiftfox way ............

At present i m running it on a via 800 Mhz system with 256 Mb ram , one thing though HD DVD Playing is very sketchy ..... Normal DVD/CD or .AVI files downloaded from various torrent sites are working gr8.
I played Farm-ville also on this
Oh yes i forgot to tell you i downloaded My Name is Khan and i m going to watch it on this .

Later tonight i will install it on an old P3 666 Mhz box with 128 Mb ram and check out the performance .

Waiting for a atom platform (hope to get it tmrow) to test it out and to configure a new desktop User interface (Planing a cross between E17 and xfce) . I am planing to recompile all aps wrt to Atom Platform with -O3.

If some one wants to give me a hand by testing it out then please contact me

setup jumbo frames in esx 4 for iscsi

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:25:00 +0000

Jumbo frames are Ethernet frames with more than 1,500 bytes of payload (MTU). Conventionally, jumbo frames can carry up to 9,000 bytes of payload.

Jumbo Frames allow ESX Server to send larger frames out onto the physical network. The network must support Jumbo Frames end‐to‐end for Jumbo Frames to be effective.

Iscsi with jumbo frames gives better or rather much better performance .If you are getting sluggish performance then try enabling jumbo frames

So lets activate it , I have used Jumbo frames only with SW initiator not HW one so if some can comment on how it works on HW it would be in for a grate benefit.

Most probably you might have your VMkernel setup with 1500 MTU so we need to delete it and start over agin .

In my case vSwitch1 was used as VMkernel for iscsi .
[root@esx sysconfig]# esxcfg-vswitch -d vSwitch1

Then I went ahead and did a listing

[root@esx sysconfig]# esxcfg-vswitch -l
Switch Name    Num Ports   Used Ports Configured Ports MTU     Uplinks
vSwitch0       32          3           32                9000    vmnic0

PortGroup Name      VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
VM Network          0        0           vmnic0
Service Console     0        1           vmnic0

As it can be seen no VMkernel

Then lets start the stuff .........

Add a vSwitch

[root@esx sysconfig]# esxcfg-vswitch -a vSwitch1

List it....

[root@esx sysconfig]# esxcfg-vswitch -l
Switch Name    Num Ports   Used Ports Configured Ports MTU     Uplinks
vSwitch0       32          3           32                9000    vmnic0

PortGroup Name      VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
VM Network          0        0           vmnic0
Service Console     0        1           vmnic0

Switch Name    Num Ports   Used Ports Configured Ports MTU     Uplinks
vSwitch1       64          1           64                1500

PortGroup Name      VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks

Lets set the jumbo frames AKA MTU

[root@esx sysconfig]# esxcfg-vswitch -m 9000 vSwitch1

List it to see the diference

[root@esx sysconfig]# esxcfg-vswitch -l
Switch Name    Num Ports   Used Ports Configured Ports MTU     Uplinks
vSwitch0       32          3           32                9000    vmnic0

PortGroup Name      VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
VM Network          0        0           vmnic0
Service Console     0        1           vmnic0

Switch Name    Num Ports   Used Ports Configured Ports MTU     Uplinks
vSwitch1       64          1           64                9000

PortGroup Name      VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks

As it can be seen MTU is now 9000 not 1500

Lets assign a NIC to the newly created vSwitch

[root@esx sysconfig]# esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic1 vSwitch1

The result

[root@esx sysconfig]# esxcfg-vswitch -l
Switch Name    Num Ports   Used Ports Configured Ports MTU     Uplinks
vSwitch0       32          3           32                9000    vmnic0

PortGroup Name      VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
VM Network          0        0           vmnic0
Service Console     0        1           vmnic0

Switch Name    Num Ports   Used Ports Configured Ports MTU     Uplinks
vSwitch1       64          2           64                9000    vmnic1

PortGroup Name      VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks

Lets give it a port group

[root@esx sysconfig]# esxcfg-vswitch -A VMkernel vSwitch1

Lets see Whether we got desired output

[root@esx sysconfig]# esxcfg-vswitch -l
Switch Name    Num Ports   Used Ports Configured Ports MTU     Uplinks
vSwitch0       32          3           32                9000    vmnic0

PortGroup Name      VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
VM Network          0        0           vmnic0
Service Console     0        1           vmnic0

Switch Name    Num Ports   Used Ports Configured Ports MTU     Uplinks
vSwitch1       64          2           64                9000    vmnic1

PortGroup Name      VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
VMkernel            0        0           vmnic1

Now lets give it IP

[root@esx sysconfig]# esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 192.168.0.11 -n 255.255.255.0 -m 9000 VMkernel

Hmm the output is ........

[root@esx sysconfig]# esxcfg-vswitch -l
Switch Name    Num Ports   Used Ports Configured Ports MTU     Uplinks
vSwitch0       32          3           32                9000    vmnic0

PortGroup Name      VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
VM Network          0        0           vmnic0
Service Console     0        1           vmnic0

Switch Name    Num Ports   Used Ports Configured Ports MTU     Uplinks
vSwitch1       64          3           64                9000    vmnic1

PortGroup Name      VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
VMkernel            0        1           vmnic1

Property of vmknic

[root@esx sysconfig]# esxcfg-vmknic -l
Interface Port Group/DVPort   IP Family IP Address                              Netmask         Broadcast       MAC Address       MTU     TSO MSS   Enabled Type
vmk0       VMkernel            IPv4      192.168.0.11                            255.255.255.0   192.168.0.255   00:50:56:71:18:14 9000    65535     true    STATIC
[root@esx sysconfig]#

We are done :)

Enjoy ......

I am Back

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:24:00 +0000

Hello to All

Well it would be my first post after almost 7 Months . I was real busy working my butt off kind of 18 hours days . I had some personal issues to take account of these things pretty much took all my time and i was left with no time at all for my blog . Now as things started looking good i am back and hope probably i wont have these kind of troubled times again both personally and profesionally .

In midst of all this chos I was able to do one good thing for myself ............ I finally broke my sekels and became free ............. I completely ditched M$ windOZ and moved to Linux rather freedom .

Now I use Ubuntu on All my desktops as well as Laptops ...........

So cheers to all

Esx 2.5.5 Patch/Update Procedure

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:34:00 +0000

I was recently involved in a update of Esx 2.5.5 yes guys it was ESX 2.5.5.

Unlike Esx 3.x or 4 it does not have a update manager or Maintenance mode.

To apply patch on Esx 2.5 what needs to be done is reboot the server to Linux mode .

So stop all Vms running .

#/sbin/lilo -R linux-up then

#/sbin/reboot

Now our server will boot in to Linux mode. The Esx cannot be upgraded or patched while the vmkernel is loaded.

Ok once we are up and running on Linux mode ether login via the console or do a ssh to the server .

Go to the directory where the patch/update is stored and execute

#./upgrade.pl

You should see something similar

This script will upgrade VMware ESX server to version 2.5.5 patch.

Verifying files ... done

Upgrading packages ................... done

Running vmware-config.pl ... done

*** You must reboot the system to finish the upgrade ***

Reboot the server now[y|n]? y

Please remove any CD-ROMS from the drive now.

Rebooting ...

Ok now the server will reboot to Linux mode .To have vmkernel execute

#/sbin/lilo -R esx then

#/sbin/reboot

We are good to go the update is done.

When I did this and went to the web interface to start the vms it happened so that only one vm will start others wont and thr was no error msg.

So I sshed to the esx server .

Tried to start the vms from cmd line

#service vmware restart

#vmware-cmd –l To get the .vmx path

#vmware-cmd /path to vmx/ start –soft

This solved my problem

Esx server How to Rewrite Vmfs Metadata

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:24:00 +0000

I had this strange issue , A Lun went inaccessible on one of my Esx box .

Ok i checked it out and saw this in vmkernel

Jun 22 18:41:22 VMCENT vmkernel: 0:00:08:58.983 cpu4:1061Vol3: 578: [label: ONE, uuid:
35ec41b2-0c2d71cb-z7ec-00145a1c952c] detected as a snapshot file system.
Disallowing access since resignaturing is turned off

I was unable to resolve the issue with a resignature. The same error shows up again

The lun was under 2 GB size

Verified that the Lun is not masked by the ESX Server.

Verified that write caching is not disabled on the array .

Now what the metadata has gone for a walk .... so i copied the first 20 megabytes from a different volume of the same size over top of the bad one and then resignatured and renamed it back. This resolved the problem and all the files on the volume remainded intact.

To copy the Metadata run this

dd if=/dev/sda of=/tmp/zeal bs=1M count=20

Running VMFS3 FS Checker

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:07:00 +0000

Hum we all are very much familiar with FS check on what so ever os we use . So how do we do this in ESX read on

Stop all virtual machines on the esx

Next we need to Unload the vmfs2 and vmfs3 drivers so run

# vmkload_mod -u vmfs2
# vmkload_mod -u vmfs3

Load the fsaux module

# vmkload_mod fsaux fsauxFunction=check

This is going to do the job Invoke Read-Only check on volume:

# vmkfstools -H vmhba0:0:0:1

Invoke Fix check on volume:

# vmkfstools -H vmhba0:0:0:1 fix

OK we are done so unload the Auxiliary Files System Driver,
and reload your VMFS2 and VMFS3 driver with:

# vmkload_mod -u fsaux
# vmkload_mod vmfs2
# vmkload_mod vmfs3

Manually Creating VMFS Volumes Labels in COS

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:02:00 +0000

Ok so how do we do this !!!!! It is very simple just follow these steps .

Before we go forward some will ask me why am i writing this one ????? well i have got some 20 mails asking how it can be done , so hear it is
enjoy

Step 1

Determine the UUID that you want to assign a volume name:

# ls -l /vmfs/volumes <-- datastores

Create soft link:

# ln -sf /vmfs/volumes/UUID label1

At volume creation time:

# vmkfstools -S -C vmhbax:x:x:x

View the partition table inside a virtual disk from ESX

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:47:00 +0000

To display the partition table inside a virtual disk:

#vmware-mount.pl –p /vmfs/sanjat/test.vmdk

Nr Start Size Type Id System
-- ----- ------- ---- --- ---------------
1 63 4176837 BIOS 7 HPFS/NTFS

# vmware-mount.pl –p /vmfs/sanjat/rhel5.vmdk

Nr Start Size Type Id System
-- ----- ------- ---- --- --------------
1 32 81888 BIOS 83 Linux
2 81920 262144 BIOS 82 Linux swap
3 344064 972800 BIOS 83 Linux

Nicest article on Network Analysis of ESX to Virtual Center Communications

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:50:00 +0000

Well Virtualbox has written an article on "ESX to Virtual Center Communications" .... so u will say whats new on that rite !!!!!

If u ask me this would be one hack of an effort to put so many info in one place , it is a very long and detailed article describing a lot about esx and Vc communication . The knowledge learned will help in solving half of the issues we normally get on Vc&Esx .

These are some Questions answered over thr

1. How exactly does the ESX Host determine that it is no longer communicating with the VC server?
2. What is the exact process that restarts ‘hostd’ or other services to re-establish ESX to VC communications?
3. What is the timeline of ESX Host determining there is an issue and the restart of the ‘hostd’ process to re-establish VC communications?
4. What is the normal timeline for VC to ESX Host heartbeats?
5. What is the normal timeline for ESX to VC Heartbeats?
6. Why is there a small and large UDP 902 packet from each ESX host?
7. Why is the small UDP 902 packet always 71 bytes?
8. Why is there variation in the order of the large/small pattern?
9. Why do different ESX hosts use a different large UDP 902 size?
10. Why does the size of the large UDP 902 packet for a given ESX host change?
11. Does the TCP 902 traffic from the VC server play any role in the hostd restart?
12. Why do we see gaps as long as 3,384 seconds with no VC to ESX TCP 902 traffic?

Have a look u wont be disappointed.

If u ask personally i did not like the way the article was written to me and to some who are working or have worked in HP, this looks like as if he is writing a SAW(The Boo ring SAW).....

The link to the post ::

http://virtualbox-provenpractice.blogspot.com/2009/06/network-analysis-of-esx-to-virtual.html

Have a happy time in learning as i did.

Virtual Center Most Common Issues

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:53:00 +0000

If the VC service starts but stops immediately, a Windows error will be
presented

"Some services stop automatically if they have no work to do, for example
the Performance Logs and Alert service."

This is a security or permission problems.

We get this when the DB has been initialized by a user with different
permissions from the service account. Check the owner of the DB tables
(in the VCDB\tables directory).

We can reinitialized the DB as the proper user with the following:

vpxd.exe -b

VC Service will not start

Check vpxd logs and Windows event logs for clues

Sometimes, VC terminates before adequate info is written to logs

Invoke vpxd in stand-alone mode: vpxd -s

Windows Service Recovery

If the VC service occasionally stops because of DB issues you may want to
change the recovery options (in the Recovery tab of the VC Properties)

First Failure
Second Failure
Subsequent Failure

These are some issues what i could think of if u have some more then plz post along .

Upgrading to VMFS-3 from the Service Console

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:55:00 +0000

Before file system upgrade can begin the vmfs2 and vmfs3 driver must be unloaded and the auxiliary file system driver, fsaux, should be loaded.

Logon to the Service Console as ROOT

Unload the vmfs2 driver with:

# vmkload_mod -u vmfs2

Unload the vmfs3 driver with:

# vmkload_mod -u vmfs3

Load the FS Auxiliary Driver with the upgrade function

# vmkload_mod fsaux fsauxFunction=upgrade

Run the first stage of the upgrade with

# vmkfstools -T /vmfs/volumes/local -x zeroedthick

-x zeroedthick (default) . Retains the properties of VMFS-2 thick files. With the zeroedthick file format, disk space is allocated to the files for future use and the unused data blocks are not zeroed out.

-x eagerzeroedthick . Zeroes out unused data blocks in thick files during
conversion. If you use this sub-option, the upgrade process might take
much longer than with the other options.

-x thin . Converts the VMFS-2 thick files into thin-provisioned VMFS-3
files. As opposed to thick file format, the thin-provisioned format doesn't allow files to have extra space allocated for their future use, but instead provides the space on demand. During this conversion, unused blocks of the thick files are discarded.

Now it will ask u wether u want to continue or not say yes

Now step one is completed. Step two must be completed after
the vmfs2 and vmfs3 modules are reloaded. Run

vmkfstools -u /vmfs/volumes/local' to complete the upgrade."
Once this part has completed confirm that your format is VMFS-3

# vmkfstools -P /vmfs/volumes/local

U should get something like this:

VMFS-3.21 file system spanning 1 partitions.
File system label (if any): local
Mode: public
Capacity 36238786560 (34560 file blocks * 1048576), 5511315456 (5256
blocks) avail
UUID: 44a38c72-156b2590-be15-00065bec0eb7
Partitions spanned:
vmhba0:1:0:1

Next, unload the Auxiliary Files System Driver and reload you
VMFS2 and VMFS3 driver with:

# vmkload_mod -u fsaux
# vmkload_mod vmfs2
# vmkload_mod vmfs3

Restart the hostd service for these changes to be reflected in the VI client with:

# service mgmt-vmware restart

VMFS gone for a toss with Device size mismatch

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:15:00 +0000

I had an issue reported to me today. One of my many esx hosts, saw one lun under a particular name whereas others managed to see it using a different reference name.
So I removed or rather unpresented it .So far so good. Now when it is represented to a host, it can be seen under Storage Adapters as expected. If I then go into Storage & refresh the lun does not reappear. If I click add storage the disk is available, but it asks me to format it. It lists the disk as being as formatted as vmfs with 155.99 GB as a partition and 4MB free .
Well I thought this might be a resigneturing issue so

Enabled Resignature and rescanned HBA and disabled it
#esxcfg-advcfg -s 1 /LVM/EnableResignature
#service mgmt-vmware restart
#esxcfg-rescan vmhba0
#esxcfg-rescan vmhba1
#esxcfg-rescan vmhba2
#esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /LVM/EnableResignature
#service mgmt-vmware restart
Still the lun is MISSING or I should say MESSING .
Ok now what lets chk the logs and wht I get thr wow
WARNING: LVM: 1632: vmhba1:2:0:1 Device size mismatch (actual xxx blocks, stored xx1 blocks)

So what the hack is this chalo lets go and talk to google . Coz as I understand this means that the partition size does not reflect the size stored in the lvm header.

This is a Kb article which talks the same

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=1003133&sliceId=1

Great Article on VimSh

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:26:00 +0000

My friend Lipika has started Blogging !!!!!!! and what topic she chooses to blog about again open source and Virtualization !!!!!!!!! gr8 rite !!!!!

U can follow her blog at http://opensourcenvirtualization.blogspot.com

The first post is about vimsh , which she is expert on !!!

When she says "Vimsh is probably one of the worst documented one i completely agree with her.

She has posted about install "VMware tools installation using vimsh" . Please have a look and she has allso promised to write more on vimsh .

so lets say CHEERS .

The link to the post

http://opensourcenvirtualization.blogspot.com/2009/06/using-vimsh-command-to-install-vmware.html

The day i was free

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:38:00 +0000

Well today is the day when i am free, free from worrying about my job . Frankly i did not had any work to do at all .

I came to office switched on my laptop and went out for a nice little smoke which lasted 45 minutes then came back opened my mail/orkut and what so ever :) then again went out for a smoke it was short this time 15 :)

Then i thought lets post some thing (Thr was no mail no scrap no IM what has happened to every one )

i saw a mail in my office mail box about some one thanking me for blogging .wow U get awards for writing garbage i didn't knew that ok checked the mail closely it asked me to login to some ibm official site which i did and it asked me to select a gift from thr :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

I selected a watch set , mailed a thanks to that Guy and i even fwded the original mail to some of my friends to show off hehehehehe.

OK i am tiered i should again go out and pollute the environment (as if it is less polluted )so went off for a smoke , called some friends and believe it every one was busy no one picked up my phone no one (:

chalo lets go back to my workstation and lets see any work has come up , i thought and came back , no luck......

So started browsing saw some sites and felt tiered so went out for a smoke .

Then i thought of doing some exercise so i claimed up to my third floor office via stares not by lift and again came down did the same thing 5 times .

Ok it is 9 i should have some food . so tried calling some friends who are around for company no luck again ... what has happened no one is free other then me . God !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Had some junk food like panipuri chat bread butter chips om-let and came back

Got a friend on chat and we played chat chat for some time she gave me a link to a video on you tube which was awesome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xceiMJSunIg

I got hold of a friend , he was asking me to install a template for his blog as he DID NOT HAD TIME TO DO SO he gave me the go ahead and i started working on his blog and it was done so called him back and gave him the good news.

Now what another smoke...

One of the guy to whom i called earlier called back and we had an argument on EVC(enhanced VMotion).

One more friend called me (i did not call him he called me see ) got some news from him that 3 of my friends are changing Job and are coming to my company wow who says recession .

so went out and chatted with him for an hour with smoke again lol.

OH i am so tiered with so much work i should go home now as this is end of shift.

You saw rite how hard and how much i worked today ....
I need rest , a lot of rest hehehehehehe.

Reducing A LVM with os on it .

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:34:00 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

I had this issue today don’t ask me the reason as I still do not understand it.

A friend of mine had this issue .

A disk which had RHEL 4 with default layout of two volumes, one for / and one for swap, occupying most of the disk in a single group was installed. Due to some business justification/reason beyond my understanding it has to be shrinked or resized so that another os can be installed……………………. Why can’t they just add a new disk!!!!!!!!!!! God!@#@#$%.

I suggested him to find a system with running linux (rhel 4 +) and attach this disk as secondary disk and modify it.

But again due to some crap business justification/reason he was not able do so .

Well so I turned to my friend Google for help !!!! after several searches and a lot of brain storm I got through .

Ok if ur also in this situation then………..

Boot the system in to rescue mode. And When a prompt is given asking whether you want it to find and mount partitions, select "skip".

In rescue mode, the vgscan, etc commands are not directly present, but the executable lvm is, which can
do all those things. When you run lvm, you will get a new prompt, where you type lvm commands.

When we skipped allowing linux rescue to find and mount the logical volumes, it also did not create
device files we will need to use. So the first task to be accomplished is to use lvm to create those
device files.

So type
Lvm

Then

vgscan

It should should show the existing group or groups. The first task required is to activate the group.

vgchange -a y VolGroup00

Then generate the device files.

vgmknodes
exit

Now shrink the existing filesystem to something a bit smaller than what you want the final filesystem size to be. You will first need to run fsck on the filesystem. For example, my friend wanted a 56 GB size, so I used:

e2fsck -f /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00
resize2fs /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00 55G
Now we can shrink the volume to the desired size.

lvm
lvreduce –L56G /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
exit

Now expand the filesystem to the full size of the volume. Notice that no size parameter is used in the resize command this time.

# resize2fs /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00

Now you can try to mount and look at it.

# mkdir /mnt/sysimage
# mount /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00 /mnt/sysimage
# df
# ls /mnt/sysimage

It should show up with the right 56GByte size and everything intact.

Some Tips and Tricks On Firefox or whatever ....

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:04:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

I am a Firefox user and I have done some changes to my likening . These are the changes I have done. U can also do it ………… if u wish to ………LOL

Go to the Firefox address bar and type about:config. This page is not so much a page as it is a somewhat hidden configuration section. It's hidden because it's fairly powerful and not nearly as simple to use as the standard Preferences window. In the about:config page, you have to know what you are doing or you can mess things up a bit. In fact, when you attempt to go to that page for the first time, you have to accept an agreement (which is really just a warning) before you can continue.

Now as we are at this awesome page lets go and do the job .

Lets speed up Firefox

You would see something called “Filter” just below the address bar. Copy paste these thr and change accordingly.

network.http.pipelining: Change this to true.
network.http.proxy.pipelining: Change this to true.
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests: Change this to 8.
Now search for max-connections and you should see:
network.http.max-connections: Change this to 96.
network.http.max-connections-per-server: Change this to 32.

If a popup window lacks the features of a browser window, Firefox will handle it like a popup. If you would prefer to open all windows, including popups, as new tabs, you need to tell Firefox in about:config.

Search for newwindow and you will see three entries. Of those three entries, to modify:

browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction: Change this to 0.

By default, Firefox checks spelling only in multiple-line text boxes. You can set it to check spelling in all text boxes.

Search for spellcheckdefault and you should see:

layout.spellcheckDefault: Change this to 2.

When you use the search bar, the results display in the current tab. This can be a nuisance because you will navigate out of the page you're currently in. To make sure Firefox always opens search results in a new tab,

Search for openintab and you should see:

browser.search.openintab: Change this to true
One of the few gripes I have with Firefox is the silly countdown you must endure every time you want to install an extension. Fortunately, this can be disabled.
Search for enable_delay and you should see:

security.dialog_enable_delay: Change this to 0.

When you need to view the source of a page, it opens up in browser popup. We can use ur favorite editor instead of having to cut and paset. To do this, there are two entries to modify.

Search for view_source.editor and you will see:

view_source.editor.external: Change this to true.

view_source.editor.path: Change this to the explicit path to your editor of choice

When you do a search in the Add-on window, you'll see just five results. You might find it more efficient to increase this number.

Search for getAddons and you should see:

extension.getAddons.maxResults: Change this to 10 (or higher, if you want to see even more).

WHY vmware update manager Hates Linux

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:40:00 +0000

Well it all started with a big dream ............................. and ended with a fu***** CRASH.......

The patching of Linux vm is a big issue around in my organization (Just like yours) . We get mails which says xxx servers are need to be patched with yyyy patches and we patch them .
Now who decide what patches to be installed is some team who sits some where else not related to my team sends a patch file list to my manager after they check those patches and my manager sends them to the client who again validates them and removes some and sends back then we have to patch them accordingly.

So how we do that tada "up2date" i.e go to each server and run up2date for the specific patches or write a script . on script be prepared to have errors like ssh errors and so on ....

I thought why not use vmware's UPDATE MANAGER to do the job.

The plan was

*Create a base line with the specific updates only.........
**Add the base line to specific servers only ...........
***Then remediation process ..........
Coll Hun ????? but alas

When i tried to remideate it gave me a tiny winy error "REMEDIATION OF LINUX VMS IS NOT SUPPORTED "

so what the hell that meant ?????????

might be my vmware tools version is wrong so upgraded it ............ the same issue persists ...

might be vmware server or update manager issue so restarted them ..... same

Picked up my phone and started calling people and started screaming HELP HELP SOS HELP .... STILL NOTHING .......

Then suddenly out of nowhere i saw this

in http://www.vmware.com/support/vi3/doc/vi3_vum_10u4_rel_notes.html#patchable

under
Virtual Machine Scanning and Remediation

No Linux

But Linux is listed under

Virtual Machine Scanning

and

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/update_manager_datasheet.pdf

Just below

How Does Update Manager Work?

in tiny letters

*Linux virtual machines can only be scanned, not remediated.

So moral of the story

UPDATE MANAGER AND LINUX DO NOT GO HAND IN HAND ....

I am off for a very long long walk .

How to Recreate VMDK File when Corrupt/VMDK from Flat.vmdk

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:24:00 +0000

These are steps given by lipika so if does not work for you then go and kill her NOT ME
LOL

On ESX 3, VirtualMachine(VM) has one or more VMDK files (extension .vmdk) and one or more flat vmdk files (last characters flat.vmdk ).
In some cases, you may corrupt, lose, or accidentally delete your VMDK files. The VMDK’s contain metadata for the flat.vmdk files. Without VMDK’s, you cannot load the flat.vmdk-files.

Consequence: You cannot load the VM in VirtualCenter and cannot start the VM.

There are two ways to recreate the vmdk files (.vmdk):
I> Creating a new virtual disk.
* Create a new virtual disk of the same size as old ones for the "VM A" as vmA1-flat.vmdk which in turn will create a new vmdk descriptor file and refer that file for the old one.
Command:
#vmkfstools -c 8192m /vmfs/volumes/100GB-Tru64-EVA/vmA/vmA1.vmdk

where, 8192MB is the virtual disk size and vmA1.vmdk is the descriptor file for the newly created disk "vmA1-flat.vmdk".

Edit the VMDK’s with a text editor(vi/nano):
This will now refer to the vmA1, but it should refer to you're the old one, vmA. You need to replace the vmA1 descriptor file with the correct file names; that is, vmA.

For example: # mv vmA1.vmdk vmA.vmdk
# vi vmA.vmdk
The file will look like:
# Disk DescriptorFile
version=1
CID=6479ab28
parentCID=ffffffff
createType="vmfs"
# Extent description
RW 4194304 VMFS "vmA1-flat.vmdk"
# The Disk Data Base
#DDB
ddb.virtualHWVersion = "4"
ddb.uuid = "60 00 C2 9a dc 6c 31 eb-81 6f f1 a1 ca 2d 7b 37"
ddb.geometry.cylinders = "261"
ddb.geometry.heads = "255"
ddb.geometry.sectors = "63"
ddb.adapterType = "lsilogic"

Edit the line: RW 4194304 VMFS "vmA1-flat.vmdk"
TO
RW 4194304 VMFS "vmA-flat.vmdk"

* Save the file.
* Load the VM from the VirtualCenter; that is, Power ON VM A.

II> Creating a new virtual machine.
1. Determine the hard disk sizes of your original VM. (Lets call this VM as “VM A”).

2. Create a new VM (called “VM B”) from VirtualCenter with the same number of hard disks as the old VM, and the exact same sizes.
Steps:
a) Login to VirtualCenter. Select the ESX host.
b) Select "CREATE A NEW VIRTUAL MACHINE". A "New VM wizard" will appear.
Select "VM Configuration" as "Typical". Click NEXT.
c) Give a name to the VM; for eg: vmB. Click NEXT.
d) Select the datastore and click NEXT.
e) Select the Guest OS as the VM A "vmA" was installed with. Click NEXT.
f) Select the no. of virtual processors. Click NEXT.
g) Select the memory as required, click NEXT.
h) Create Network Connections as required, click NEXT.
I) Select the Virtual disk size same as "VM A". Click NEXT.
j) Click FINISH.

3. After the VM B has been created, use Putty (or a similar tool) to navigate to the ESX server. Then navigate to the location/directory where your VM B is stored.
For example:#cd /vmfs/volumes/100GB-Tru64-EVA/vmB

4. Copy all VMDK’s (not the flat ones, but only the metadata files) to VM A directory. The filesize of your META-data files should be a few KB.
For example: # cp vmB.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/100GB-Tru64-EVA/vmA/

5. Navigate to VM A directory where the *.VMDK file/s are copied.
Edit the VMDK’s with a text editor(vi/nano):
They will now refer to the VM B, but they should refer to your old VM A. You should replace the VM B filenames with the correct file names; that is, VM A.

For example: # mv vmB.vmdk vmA.vmdk
# vi vmA.vmdk
The file will look like:
# Disk DescriptorFile
version=1
CID=6479ab28
parentCID=ffffffff
createType="vmfs"
# Extent description
RW 4194304 VMFS "vmB-flat.vmdk"
# The Disk Data Base
#DDB
ddb.virtualHWVersion = "4"
ddb.uuid = "60 00 C2 9a dc 6c 31 eb-81 6f f1 a1 ca 2d 7b 37"
ddb.geometry.cylinders = "261"
ddb.geometry.heads = "255"
ddb.geometry.sectors = "63"
ddb.adapterType = "lsilogic"

Edit the line: RW 4194304 VMFS "vmB-flat.vmdk"
TO
RW 4194304 VMFS "vmA-flat.vmdk"

5. Save the file.
6. Load the VM from the VirtualCenter; that is, Power ON VM A.
You should now be able to Power ON the VM A and recover the data.

ESX 4 AKA VMware vSphere 4 Whats NEW

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 08:02:00 +0000

Thanks to Kamesh who attended the VMware vSphere 4 training recently, These are the points what i got from him about kind of WHATS NEW

Storage Vmotion is available on NFS
no need to use rcli for sVmotion

no license server, vc will act as license server - license key model

performance monitor - can compare performances of 2 vms
Permissions at datastore and Network level
Host Update Utility / update manager
-------------------------------------
upgrade esx3.5 using the iso of esx4 on the desktop
rollback can be done for failed upgrades
guided consolidation is now a plugin
COS management - like services running
VIrtual Machine communication interface (VMCI)
Upgrade / install vSphere 4
==============================
u have to have the db backup to go back to VI 3.5
IBM DB2 is now supported
SQL - Make sure bulk logging enabled
.ESX Installation
==================
partitions
/boot
/vmfs
/vmcore
Booting from ATA disk or supported, but cann't crete vmfs on ATA drives
8 vcpus per vm ----> earlier it was 4 vcpu per vm
/vmfs/volumes - require at least 8gb free space
new intallation log - /var/log/weasel.log

. vCenter 4.0
==============
DB2 only supports for VC, not supported for any other plugins which requires database. ex update manger.
Ports - 389 and 636
can't install vc on a domain controller (because vc uses the ports - 389 and 636 )
vCenter Server should be configured with static ip address

.HA
====
increase das.failuredetectiontime setting to 20000 (20 sec).Default 15 Sec
local swap file for cluster
FT or fault tolerant
===
SMP vms are not supported
cpu must be of same family
Hardware virtualization must be enabled in BIOS
Turn off power-management in the BIOS
disk type Thick-eager zeroed disks
FT VM can not be used with DRS. we can do manual vmotion
storage vmotion not supported
no support for NPIV
can not enable FT on vm with snapshots
vApp
====
can create on a single esx host
but, in cluster DRS should be enabled to create vApp
Update Manager
==============
create baseline groups
can upgrade the hosts
rollback facility is there
Storage
=======
Multipath RR is fully supported now
PSP - Path Selection Policy
iSCSI
=====
Multipathing introduced
service console port is not required now
10gig nics are supported
Jumbo frames are now supported
iSCSI log /var/log/vmkiscsid.log
SVmotion
========
GUI Support
RDM to VMDK
RDM to RDM
support for FC,iSCSI & NAS
doesn't use snapshot technology any more, uses change block tracing
vSphere automatically creates thin disk if the underlying storage is NFS
Volume Grow
===========
we can extend the vmfs file system
hot extend vmdk is possible now

Networking
==========
Distributed vSwitch

Watch this space for more on these new features , As i understand them i will put more info about the new features ...

Till Then TATA

The Argument

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 01:29:00 +0000

Yesterday night i had an argument with one of my friend , it was all about HA&DRS working together.

She had a view on ha and drs working together and she wanted it to confirmed by me so she asked me about it and as my view on the matter differed from her so the argument began .

She :

When u have a cluster with ha and drs and the esx fails NOT DUE TO POWER OUTAGE then the vms are vmotioned on to another esx by drs .

But in her words "ME AS ME WHO HAS TO OPPOSE HER WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING THE POINT " opposed :)

Me:

VMWARE Ha does not work that way if the esx goes down then the vms are un registered from that esx and are registered with another esx server and the vms are restarted .

She

This might be true but if nw fail happens or some thing similar then DRS migrates the vm to best available server .

At this point i did not dare to tell her that drs only places the vm after fail over to the best possible esx interims of resources and starts the vms depending on the policy .The reason being a big fool since last couple of days was arguing with her about drs saying that drs means resource pool and i did not want to raise her already sky rocking temper by saying that drs places the vm depending on resource utilization .
Well another friend was there who suggested us to refer white paper on this .

So i thought why not and went in to a shell and afterwards when i had time i looked up and made my opinion on this

So I refereed these Links

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmware_ha_wp.pdf

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/ha_datasheet.pdf

http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9413.pdf

http://kb.vmware.com/KanisaPlatform/Publishing/894/2956923_f.SAL_Public.html

So my understanding of ha in elaborative way

VMware HA continuously monitors all ESX Server hosts in a cluster and detects failures. An agent placed on each host maintains a “heartbeat” with the other hosts in the cluster and loss of a heartbeat initiates the process of restarting all affected virtual machines on other hosts. You create and manage clusters using VirtualCenter. The VirtualCenter Management Server places an agent on each host in the cluster so each host can communicate with other hosts to maintain state information and know what to do in case of another host’s failure. (The VirtualCenter Management Server does not provide a single point of failure.) If the VirtualCenter Management Server host goes down, HA functionality changes as follows. HA clusters can still restart virtual machines on other hosts in case of failure; however, the information about what extra resources are available will be based on the state of the cluster before the VirtualCenter Management Server went down. HA monitors whether sufficient resources are available in the cluster at all times in order to be able to restart virtual machines on different physical host machines in the event of host failure. Safe restart of virtual machines is made possible by the locking technology in the ESX Server storage stack, which allows multiple ESX Servers to have access to the same virtual machines file simultaneously.

Host failure detection occurs 15 seconds after the HA service on a host has stopped sending heartbeats to the other hosts in the cluster. A host stops sending heartbeats if it is isolated from the network. At that time, other hosts in the cluster treat this host as failed, while this host declares itself as isolated from the network. By default, the isolated host powers off its virtual machines. These virtual machines can then successfully fail over to other hosts in the cluster. If the isolated host has SAN access, it retains the disk lock on the virtual machine files, and attempts to fail over the virtual machine to another host fails. The virtual machine continues to run on the isolated host. VMFS disk locking prevents simultaneous write operations to the virtual machine disk files and potential corruption.

If the network connection is restored before 12 seconds have elapsed, other hosts in the cluster will not treat this as a host failure. In addition, the host with the transient network connection problem does not declare itself isolated from the network and continues running. In the window between 12 and 14 seconds, the clustering service on the isolated host declares itself as isolated and starts powering off virtual machines with default isolation response settings. If the network connection is restored during that time, the virtual machine that had been powered off is not restarted on other hosts because the HA services on the other hosts do not consider this host as failed yet. As a result, if the network connection is restored in this window between 12 and 14 seconds after the host has lost connectivity, the virtual machines are powered off but not failed over.

I am not at all saying that i am rite or she is rite i have given my understanding of the topic , SO GUYS AND GALS IF U CAN SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS THEN U R MORE THEN WELCOME .

ESX disconnects randomly from VirtualCenter “An error occurred communicating to the remote host”

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 01:18:00 +0000

Well in my last days in hp i had these new problems being reported very frequently by some customers

* ESX disconnects randomly from VirtualCenter
* ESX disconnects when performing VI Client tasks from VirtualCenter.
* Tasks randomly timeout after a long idle time
* “An error occurred communicating to the remote host” pops up.

The VC in question is VC 2.5U3.

The problem occurs because of VC timeouts, which according to vmware release notes The communication Mechanism is changed in U3 i heard some where it is some kind of SOAP Mechanism which is being used now by vmware.

The work around as suggested by a friend of mine who has done a extensive research on this(15 days minimum ) is

* Create a dummy VM on each host (e.g. 16 MB RAM, no disk, no network).
* Set CPU affinity to the last core to prevent VMotion.
* Create a new Scheduled Task that performs:
o Change power state: Power-on dummy VM. Every hour, on the hour.
* Create another Scheduled Task that performs:
o Change power state: Power-off dummy VM. Every hour, 30 minutes after the hour.

Hope We get a KB article very soon .

Adding a VMFS Extent using vmkfstools

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:17:00 +0000

Extending an Existing VMFS-3 Volume

vmkfstools -Z --extendfs

This option adds another extent to a previously created VMFS volume

. You must specify the full path name, for example
/vmfs/devices/disks/vmhba0:1:2:1, not just the short name vmhba0:1:2:1. Each
time you use this option, you extend a VMFS-3 volume with a new extent so that the
volume spans multiple partitions. At most, a logical VMFS-3 volume can have 32
physical extents.

Example for Extending a VMFS-3 Volume:

vmkfstools -Z /vmfs/devices/disks/vmhba0:1:2:1 /vmfs/devices/disks/vmhba1:3:0:1

This example extends the logical file system by allowing it to span to a new partition.
The extended file system spans two partitions.vmhba1:3:0:1 and vmhba0:1:2:1. In
this example, vmhba1:3:0:1 is the name of the head partition.

Listing Attributes of a VMFS Volume

vmkfstools -P --queryfs [-h --human-readable]

When you use this option on any file or directory that resides on a VMFS volume, the
option lists the attributes of the specified volume. The listed attributes include the
VMFS version number (VMFS-2 or VMFS-3), the number of extents comprising the
specified VMFS volume, the volume label if any, the UUID, and a listing of the device
names where each extent resides.

You can specify the -h suboption with the -P option. If you do so, vmkfstools lists the capacity of the volume in a
more readable form, for example, 5k, 12.1M, or 2.1G.

For example:

# vmkfstools -P /vmfs/volumes/MSALUN12/AM_W2k3/AM_W2k3-flat.vmdk
VMFS-3.31 file system spanning 1 partitions.
File system label (if any): MSALUN12
Mode: public
Capacity 83214991360 (79360 file blocks * 1048576), 8964276224 (8549 blocks) avail
UUID: 47669f06-beeb8164-ed10-000e7fb4371c
Partitions spanned (on "lvm"):
vmhba1:0:12:1
(One or more partitions spanned by this volume may be offline)

Creation of VMFS volumes and virtual disk files by using the fdisk and vmkfstools CLI commands

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:09:00 +0000

In the absence of the VI Client's ability to change the installation
vmhba's VMFS partition without modifying the entire install disk and thus
corrupting the install, you can manually create VMFS volumes and virtual
disk files by using the fdisk and vmkfstools CLI commands.

The vmkfstools does allow you to operate on a partition. In this way, you
can modify the attributes of a single-disk ESX installation to allow for a
large block size of your single VMFS partition.

To create a VMFS volume you must first of all use fdisk to create a
partition with a tag of type "0xfb" and properly align to a 64KB boundary

Note: By default, ESX Server will create VMFS that are misaligned. It is
preferred to use the VI client to create VMFS partitions for this reason.
However, when it is necessary to do this manually, execute the following
steps to align VMFS:

vmkfstools can then be used to build the VMFS volume.

Using fdisk on Service Console to Align VMFS filesystem manually:

On the service console, execute "fdisk , where
the argument to fdisk is the device on which you would like
to create the VMFS partition.
Type "n" to create a new partition
Type "p" to create a primary partition
Type "3" to create partition #3
Select the defaults to use the complete disk

Now, we need to align on a 64KB boundary:

Type "x" to get into expert mode
Type "b" to specify the starting block for partitions
Type "3" to select partition #3
Type "128" to make partition #3 align on a 64KB boundary
Type "r" to return to main menu

Now, we need to change the parition type to "fb" for vmfs

Type "t" to change partition type
Type "3" to select partition 3
Type "fb" to set type to fb (VMFS volume)
Type "w" to write label and the partition information to disk

NOTE: if you have previously created this via an install or the viclient,
you don't need to use fdisk on the partition. You can simply overwrite the
vmfs filesystem with the command below. So, in the instance of modifying
the block size, you won't need to perform the above on an existing vmfs
partition.

Now you can create the VMFS volume with the "vmkfstools -C" command.
Note: the lower-case 'c' option creates a vmdk, not a VMFS filesystem.

The long and short (single letter) forms of options are equivalent. For
example, the following commands are identical:

# vmkfstools --createfs vmfs3 --blocksize 2m vmhba1:0:0:3
# vmkfstools -C vmfs3 -b 2m vmhba1:3:0:1

To create a short name, or symbolic link to the filesystem, use:

# vmkfstools -C vmfs3 -b 2M -S localstorage vmhba1:0:0:3

This creates a vmfs filesystem on vmhba1:0:0:3 (partition 3) with a
symbolic or short name of "localstorage".

WARNING: Be very careful here. The argument must be the proper partition
if you are operating on a partition and not an entire device. The above
commands will not warn you that there is an existing vmfs partition before
creating a new one.

If you are unclear, use the "esxcfg-vmhbadevs -m" command to see existing
VMFS filesystems. If one doesn't exist, then you must be clear on the
partition name. Use "fdisk -l" to see the partition (type fb). The
corresponding vmhba device would be listed as

/vmfs/devices/disks/vmhbaA:T:L:P.

From the vmkfstools man page:

The PARTITION argument is used for specifying partitions, and should be
of the form vmhbaA:T:L:P where A, T, L and P are integers representing
adapter, target, LUN and partition respectively. The partition digit must
be greater than zero. For example, vmhba1:0:0:3 refers to the third par-
tition on LUN 0, target 0, HBA 1.

Some more vmkfstools

To build a new VMFS:

# vmkfstools -C vmfs2 vmhba0:8:0:1

To set the volume label

# vmkfstools -S sanV3 vmhba0:8:0:1

To create a new virtual disk:

# vmkfstools -c 4096 sanV3:websvr.vmdk

To export:

# vmkfstools -e /vmimages/ws.vmdk sanV3:ws.vmdk

To extend the virtual disk:

# vmkfstools -X 8192M sanV3:windata.vmdk

To import:

# vmkfstools -i /vmimages/disk2.vmdk sanV3:other.vmdk

Resetting root password in ESX

noreply@blogger.com (SANJAT KABI) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:02:00 +0000

IF you have lost ur root passwd then follow these 3 steps .
Restart the ESX host

At the main bootloader screen where it states “Press Tab to toggle
verbose mode” - press shift+O

Note: This is O for orange on the keyboard, not 0 for zero on the keyboard. This
enters the “Enter Advanced Options” session

Type the option passwdReset=TRUE