What the.....?

What the.....? is now polarclouds.co.uk

2015-11-12T23:49:00.001+00:00

Yep, it's true, this blog is closing soon. All content previously available here is available at polarclouds.co.uk

Check it out!

polarclouds.co.uk

MS15-034 Patch NOW!

2015-04-20T13:43:00.000+01:00

So I finally had a chance to test this little doozy of an issue this lunchtime. Crash a webserver by issuing a simple wget command? Yep, I can confirm that this is a good 'un against a Windows 2012R2 server as you can see in my screenshot above.

wget --header="Range: bytes=18-18446744073709551615" http://[ip address]/

Find out more here from the SANS Internet Storm Center here:
https://isc.sans.edu/forums/diary/MS15034+HTTPsys+IIS+DoS+And+Possible+Remote+Code+Execution+PATCH+NOW/19583/

And here:

Microsoft MS15-034 Security Bulletin:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/ms15-034.aspx

-Chris

Monitor Your ADSL / VDSL Connection Statistics via Twitter

2015-04-13T20:44:00.000+01:00

Just under a year ago now I was fortunate enough to be able to upgrade from ADSL to FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) VDSL broadband.

Overnight my internet connection jumped from around 4Mb/s to over 60Mb/s!

Understandably internet connetivity was good:

Happy with that! pic.twitter.com/j0yv5nXuLW
— Chris Hall (@chall32) May 7, 2014

And for just under 12 months, all was good.

Just recently however, I had an issue with water ingress on my line and it became necessary once again to keep an eye on my broadband stats. But surely we can do something a bit more "web 2.0" than just running an app on a desktop / server somewhere. Apps are all well and good, but it does require a level of effort to login and check the output of the monitoring app.

Wouldn't it be good if I just received the basics via a push notification to me on my phone wherever I am?

In a twitter notification type of way....... :oD

I personally use twitter for all sorts of notifications; blog posts, traffic incidents, etc. So that I get notifications, I use a second private twitter account and suffix all my tweets @chall32 so that my phone twitter client picks up on the notifications and make the appropriate noises, buzzes etc.

Hence I came up with a very simple powershell script based on Martin Pugh's telnet Powershell script available here: http://community.spiceworks.com/scripts/show/1887-get-telnet-telnet-to-a-device-and-issue-commands

Team this with the native python twitter client https://pypi.python.org/pypi/twitter (because it's soo much easier to use than coding your own twitter o-auth stuff in Powershell) and job done. Here's how.

Step 1: Understand your Modem / Router

I now (I didn't before - but thats a different story for another day) run a Huawei HG612 Modem on my VDSL broadband connection. I've loaded custom firmware on it as detailed on the brilliant Kitz Wiki: http://www.kitz.co.uk/routers/hg612unlock.htm

My modem requires a couple of telnet commands to offer me up it's line stats:

So that's sh (to open busybox) and xdslcmd info --stats to get the goods.

Step 2: Powershell Telnet

Dead simple. I just copied one of Martin's examples. My command ended up looking like this:

Get-Telnet -RemoteHost "192.168.0.1" -Commands "admin","password","sh","xdslcmd info --stats" -OutputPath "C:\out.txt" -WaitTime 1500

Breaking this command down, the command logs onto my modem at IP address 192.168.0.1 (yours will probably be at at a different IP address) using "admin" and "password" for credentials. It then issues the commands "sh" and "xdslcmd info --stats" to the modem, saves the output of the whole telnet session to a textfile "C:\out.txt" after waiting for 1500 milliseconds, closing the telnet session and continuing with the rest of the script.

Step 3: Powershell Text File Crunching

This is the tricky part. As we are going to be notifying via twitter, we just want the salient points in our tweet - we have no need for the other gumph.

My modem returns the up and down link speed stats in this format:

Bearer: 0, Upstream rate = 20000 Kbps, Downstream rate = 67273 Kbps

So I use this command to get my download speed:

$dnspeed = (Select-String -Path c:\out.txt -pattern "Bearer: 0, Upstream rate =").Line.Split("=,")[4]

Here I'm searching the text file C:\out.txt for "Bearer: 0, Upstream rate =", once I find that line of text, I then splitting the text up into chunks using "=" and "," as delimiters. From there I grab the fourth chunk of text (text chunks start at 0) which is "67273 Kbps" and save it to the variable $dnspeed

I repeat that for upload speed, but select text chunk 2 instead:

$upspeed = (Select-String -Path c:\out.txt -pattern "Bearer: 0, Upstream rate =").Line.Split("=,")[2]

For link time, handily my modem gives me this via the same command:

Since Link time = 4 days 15 hours 19 min 11 sec

That'll do. I'll just grab that time out of that using:

$uptime = (Select-String -Path c:\out.txt -pattern "Since Link time").Line.Split("=")[1]

Split the line of text on "=" and grab the second chunk of text, chunk 1.
Finally, pull everything into one variable, called $tweet:

$tweet = "@chall32 D/L=$dnspeed U/L=$upspeed Uptime=$uptime"

Step 4: Powershell Tweeting

Rather than coding something in Powershell to handle twitter o-auth authentication and sending of tweets, I cheat and use the ready made twitter command line executable available here: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/twitter
The Steps to enable tweeting from the command line (and hence Powershell) are as follows:

Download and install python from https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-343/
Once python is installed, open a command prompt and navigate to C:\python34\Scripts
Issue the command pip install twitter
You should see the following run though:
Now issue the command twitter.exe
A browser window should open prompting you to enter your twitter account credentials (remember to use a twitter account other than you main twitter account so that twitter notifications trigger correctly)
Authorize the app and enter the pin into the command line
Quick test:
Ah yea, all good:

To tweet from powershell, we just use Invoke-Command as follows:

Invoke-Command {C:\Python34\Scripts\twitter.exe set $tweet}

Finally save the script and schedule via windows task scheduler:

That's it !!!

For a full copy of the script head on over to https://github.com/chall32/Tweet-DSLStats

-Chris

Re-Arm Remote Desktop Session Host

2015-03-16T12:16:00.000+00:00

Scenario: You have enabled remote desktop session host (also known as remote desktop terminal services mode) in trial mode on a Windows 2012 or Windows 2012R2 server some time ago and now you are receiving the error:

"The remote session was disconnected because there are no Remote Desktop Licence Servers available to provide a licence. Please contact the server administrator"

You may also notice Event ID: 1128 Source: TerminalServices-RemoteConnectionManager being logged in your system event log.

Cause: You are outside of your 120 day remote desktop session host evaluation period and / or the service has not been configured to register with a license server to install licenses. A remote desktop licensing server is required for continuous normal operation.

Resolution 1: Install a remote desktop licensing server with the appropriate number of remote desktop session host licences and register your session host server with this.

Resolution 2: re-arm your remote desktop session host evaluation to allow for another 120 days evaluation time. Here is how:

Logon to your remote desktop session host server, open up regedit and navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\RCM\GracePeriod

Right click GracePeriod key and select Permissions. Grant Administrators full control as shown below:

Delete the L$RTMTIMEBOMB value leaving only the (default) value

Reboot your remote desktop session host server

Job done. You should have another 120 days evaluation time

I understand that this resolution also works for Windows 2008, Windows 2008R2 As well as Windows 2012 and Windows 2012R2.

- Chris

Fix Boot/BCD 0xc000000f Error

2014-03-24T08:00:00.000+00:00

File this one under a post for another day / ah yes, I've seen that before, cant remember how I fixed it however.....

File: \Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: an error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data

Here is how to fix:

Step 0 - Getting to the Recovery Console

1. Insert Windows DVD* and after selecting language and keyboard, select "Repair your computer"
2. Wait for system recovery to run and fail
3. Click "No" to apply any changes
4. Cick "Next" to look for a recovery image
5. Click "Cancel" on the cannot find system image dialogue
6. Click "Cancel" to exit system image dialogue
7. Click Command Prompt

Step 1 - Ensure your system partition is marked as active

As a reminder - this is a typed command
And this is a comment.

1. Boot into the recovery console as per step 0
2. diskpart
3. select disk 0
4. list partition
5. Select the first primary partition. In the screenshot below, the partition to select is partition 2, so select partition 2:

6. detail partition
7. Ensure that the partition is marked as Active: Yes

8. If not, then active to set the partition active
9. exit to exit diskpart
10. exit to exit recovery console
11. Restart to reboot.
12. Boot and follow step 0 to enter the recovery console again

Step 2 - Repair Master Boot Record and Repair Boot Sector

1. Boot back into the recovery console, as per step 0, run the following commands

2. bootrec /fixmbr
3. bootrec /fixboot

Step 3 - Rebuild Boot files

You need to know where your Windows folder is mounted within the recovery console. Sometimes it is at C:\Windows, sometimes D:\Windows, sometimes somewhere else. If you have no idea, use the following to get you a list of drive letters currently in use:

1. diskpart
2. select disk 0
3. list volume

Then it's just a matter of looking for Windows directories on each of those volumes.

So to rebuild the boot files:

bcdboot C:\Windows /s C:

Reboot and you should be done.

*If you can't find your Windows DVD, have a look

Here for Windows 7 DVDs (Release versions)
Here for Windows 2008R2 DVD (Evaluation version)
Here for Windows 8.x DVD (Evaluation version)
Here for Windows 2012 DVD (Evaluation version)

- Chris

LDWin v2.0 Released

2014-03-21T18:04:00.000+00:00

Quick post to let you know that yes, I'm still alive and I've just released version 2.0 of my popular link discovery tool for Windows, LDWin.

What is LDWin?
LDWin is Network Link Discovery for Windows

What is Link Discovery?
Link discovery is the process of ascertaining information from directly connected networking devices, such as network switches. Consider this for a moment:

Picture: Adam Selwood via Flickr

Do you know where those network cables go?

This is where LDWin comes in!

Find out more on and download your copy of LDWin from LDWin's Github Page

- Chris

Screaming Woods Pluckley

2013-09-08T14:06:00.000+01:00

So what do you and 10 other people do in the woods at night?? No, not that... Ghost hunting of course!

Where better to find some ghosts? Why, Pluckley; often referred to (and listed in 1998 Guinness Book of World Records) as Britain's most haunted village. Why? because Pluckley boasts the following strange goings on and haunted places in and around the village:

Phantom Coach & Horses - various locations
The Colonel - Park Wood
The Highwayman - Pinnock Crossroads
The Miller - Site of Old Mill
The Monk - Greystones
The Red Lady - St Nicholas Church
The Schoolmaster - Dicky Buss Lane
The Screaming Man - Pluckley Brickworks
The Tudor Lady - Rose Court
The Watercress Woman - Pinnock Stream
The White Lady - St Nicholas Church and Surrenden Manor
The Black Horse - The Street
The Dering Arms - Station Road
The Blacksmith's Arms - Pluckley Thorne
The Screaming Woods - Dering Woods & Frith Wood
The Devil's Bush - Frith Corner

Don't just take my word for it, see:

Tonights excursion; Screaming (Dering) Woods, an area supposedly haunted by many who have become lost in deep in the woods. You can supposedly still hear their screams from inside the woods at night. An excursion run by ghosthuntevents.co.uk

View Larger Map

So fortified with a top slap up meal at the Black Horse (highly recommended) and armed with camera off we went to see what we could see. Here is what we captured:

As you can see, a nice selection of orbs and a nice bit of mist in IMG_0650 (second row, fourth picture from the left) the only mistly picture in the entire set!

Steve our guide from ghosthuntevents.co.uk bought with him a an array of ghost meters, EMF meters and a spirit box (a backwards RF scanner) which kept us all entertained and enthralled with the evenings investigation. We also completed a vigil where we were contacted by Michael, the spirit of a motorcyclist who died in an accident close to screaming woods.

Am I a believer? Well, no not quite yet, although I would like to hope and believe there is something to look forward to after you pop your clogs...

So all in all, a thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended evening with ghosthuntevents.co.uk
Looking forward to going on another event soon. Some of these locations look fantastic!

In the meantime, keep watching ghosthuntevents.tv and GhostHuntEvents Youtube Channel

- Chris

VM Snapshot Discovery and Attribution

2013-08-01T12:43:00.000+01:00

The Golden Snapshot Rule:

VM SNAPSHOTS ARE NOT BACKUPS!

What are VMware VM Snapshots?

Normal VM operation involves the virtual machine (VM) reading and writing to it's virtual disk (VMDK) file:

Upon the creation of a snapshot, the VM's virtual disk (VMDK) file is marked as read only. All changes are written to a snapshot log file, also known as a 'delta' file:

So What is the Problem Here?

The problem is that these snapshot delta files left unchecked can grow and grow and grow, consuming more and more storage space.

Surely VMware Have Some Guidelines Around VM Snapshots?

They do, and they are here: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1025279‎

Lets pick up on some salient points here as it's worth repeating this as often as possible:

Snapshots are not backups (Sound familiar?)
A snapshot file is only a change log of the original virtual disk
Snapshots are not complete copies of the original vmdk disk files
Use no single snapshot for more than 24-72 hours
Regularly monitor systems configured for backups to ensure that no snapshots remain active for extensive periods of time
An excessive number of delta files in a chain (caused by an excessive number of snapshots) or large delta files may cause decreased virtual machine and host performance
If hosts and/or vCenter Server are prior to vSphere 5.0 confirm that there are no snapshots present (via command line) before a Storage vMotion
Confirm that there are no snapshots present (via command line) before increasing the size of any virtual machine virtual disk or virtual RDM. If snapshots are present, delete them prior to increasing the size of the disk. Increasing the size of a disk with snapshots present can lead to corruption of snapshots and a potential data loss

Got it. So How do I quickly and Simply Test for VM Snapshots?

Simple. This is where Chris' VM Snapshot Discovery and Attribution Tool comes in.

Here is a screenshot of the tool in action:

So what do we have here?

Well, you can quite easily see that both the VM's SPONGEBOB and GARY have active snapshots. You can also see the details around these snapshots; their names, their descriptions and their sizes in GB.

What is super cool is we can also see who created them. In the screenshot the snapshot creator is CHLABS\Chris (me!). OK, cool, but think about it for a moment. If this was a production situation, it's more than possible that you will have multiple vSphere administrators. Any one of these administrators can create snapshots.

Say for example I found that CHLABS\Fred.Bloggs was working on a some VMs, created several snapshots and had completed his changes. Perhaps Fred did not know or understand The Golden Snapshot Rule.

With this newly discovered information now in hand, we can contact Fred, find out if he still needs those snapshots and perhaps educate him to the Golden Snapshot Rule.

Perhaps Fred forgot about the snapshots.......

Ah, the Forgotten Snapshot!

Don't joke.... it happens.

Where can I get a Copy of Chris' VM Snapshot Discovery and Attribution Tool?

Simple. Grab your copy here: https://github.com/chall32/GetSnapshot

So I Have VMs With Snapshots. What To Do?

Here are your options:

Snapshot Operation	Effect
Take	The current state of the virtual machine and its guest operating system is captured.
Revert	The state of the virtual machine and its guest operating system reverts back to what it was when a snapshot was taken. If there are multiple snapshots, the snapshot taken immediately prior to the current state is used. Warning: All current data is permanently lost.
Delete	The state of the virtual machine is changed to the current state (that is, changes made after taking the snapshot are saved to the base disk). In earlier versions of some products the menu option is named Remove.
Delete (Snapshot Manager)	The state of the virtual machine is changed to the current state (that is, changes made after taking the snapshot are saved to the base disk). The snapshot chosen to be deleted is available for selection in a graphical display that shows all existing snapshots. This is available only in products that support multiple snapshots.
Go To (Snapshot Manager)	The state of the virtual machine and its current guest operating system switches to the state of that of an arbitrarily chosen snapshot. The snapshot chosen to switch to is available for selection in a graphical display that shows all existing snapshots. This is available only in products that support multiple snapshots.

May I recommend the Delete option?
Sure it doesn't feel right to click "Delete" to carry on as normal with the VM, but it is the correct option!

What Can I Do Longer Term to Prevent Forgotten Snapshots?

Have a look at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1018029
This VMware KB article shows you how to configure VMware vCenter Server to send alerts when virtual machines are running from snapshots.

Conclusion & Troubleshooting

You now know all about VM snapshots, how to test for them, how to find out who created them, and how to delete them.

If you need to troubleshoot any issues with VM snapshots, have a look at the bottom of http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1025279‎. There are plenty of resources to look at.

- Chris

UCS Blade Discovery Failed

2013-07-03T17:43:00.001+01:00

A simple job then; lift and shift some Cisco UCS blades from a legacy site to into the Datacentre to help with capacity for consolidation in the Datacentre.

Unfortunately a simple job turned into a bit of a nightmare with the destination UCS deciding not to play nicely with the recycled blades.

Don't get me wrong here folks, Cisco Unified Computing System is a cool piece of kit that is challenging the way we look at hardware nowadays. It is however not without it's foibles of which this is just one.

Thanks go to @brettchannon and the guys from @VCE for helping with the solution to this issue.

SYMPTOMS

When you install a Cisco UCS blade that is has 1.x firmware installed into a chassis that is running a 2.x firmware, the following error can be seen:

(Click image for larger view)

Code: F1000034
Cause: fsm-failed
Description: [FSM:FAILED] Blade Discovery (FSM:sam:dme:ComputeBladeDiscover)

A re-acknowledge, power cycle, reseat will not allow the blade to be properly discovered. Any firmware upgrades (other than a CIMC firmware upgrade) will remain in a "Scheduled" status.

CAUSE

USB Legacy mode is set to disabled within the BIOS settings.

RESOLUTION

Complete the following resolution on each blade affected:

1. Open the KVM console of the affected blade (Equipment Tab > Chassis > Chassis containing affected blade > Servers > Affected Server > KVM Console):

2. Hit Reset and OK the following warning:

3. Choose Power Cycle and OK the following dialogue:

4. Hit F2 when prompted to enter the blade's BIOS setup:

5. Once in the BIOS setup hit right arrow key to get to Advanced and down arrow to USB Configuration.

6. Hit return to open USB configuration and hit down arrow and return to open Legacy USB Support option:

7. Set Legacy USB Support to Enabled:

8. Hit Esc and right arrow to select Exit tab and hit return to Save Changes and Exit:

9. Close the KVM console and allow UCS to rediscover server. If you cannot wait, select Recover Server > Re-acknowledge > OK to force the UCS to rediscover the blade.

MORE INFORMATION

I would love to know more about this error and how the USB mode setting within a blade can cause UCS to give up on a that blade altogether.

Seems like a crazy simple fix to what - on the face of it - seems a pretty catastrophic error message. All in all we had this issue on 12+ blades and the USB legacy mode fix work on all of them.

Godda love UCS.....!

- Chris

VMware Component Integration & Interoperability

2013-06-17T15:06:00.000+01:00

You may have noticed VMware have been busy growing their portfolio of products.

Previously it was simple to understand VMware's software components; you effectively had just the two products to understand:

ESX (replaced by ESXi in later versions) - VMware's Hypervisor - software that hosts and runs your virtual machines

VirtualCenter (renamed vCenter in later versions) - a management application that allows you to manage all of your ESX/ESXi host servers as a single entity, be that as a collection of stand alone host servers or a fault tolerant cluster of ESX/ESXi hosts.

Collectively ESXi and vCenter became known as vSphere.

Fast forward to 2013, and here you have it, VMware software components offerings today. Also shown is how these components operate together:

VMware Component Integration and Interoperability Today (Click image for larger copy)

So what are all these products and what do they do? Follows is simple one liner list detailing at a very high level what each VMware component brings to the table. Click the application names to find out more.

.....oh and I promise to to use the fluffy word (cloud) as little as possible....

vSphere - As discussed, your ESXi and vCenter instances.

vCNS Manager - Used to manage your software defined networking and security solutions (including virtual firewall, VPN, load balancing and VXLAN implementations).

vCloud Director - Used to create multiple virtual datacenters using multiple separate vSphere instances.

vCenter Orchestrator - Used to automate workflows (including virtual infrastructure provisioning) either within or outside of your virtual environment.

vCenter Operations Manager - Used to proactively manage, monitor and drive efficiency into your vSphere and / or vCloud infrastructure.

vCenter Configuration Manager - Used to ensure configuration and compliance management of both your virtual and physical infrastructure.

vCenter Infrastructure Navigator - Used to discover application services, visualize relationships and map dependencies of applications on your virtual infrastructure

vCenter Chargeback Manager - Used to track and provide costings of virtual solutions hosted on shared physical infrastructure.

AMQP (Rabbit MQ) - Used to provide message queueing and handling allowing your virtual infrastructure to interface with a wide range of other software products.

vFabric Application Director - Used to deploy applications in a repeatable, supportable and standards compliant manner within your virtual infrastructure.

vCloud Automation Center - Used to rapidly deploy services (potentially consisting of several individual applications). Also provides client self service portal to allow clients to deploy services on their own.

vCloud Connector - Used to connect your vCloud Director managed virtual datacenters together for datacenter extension, content sync, unified management and / or datacenter migration.

Site Recovery Manager - Used for automated disaster recovery of your virtual infrastructure.

ISV Backup Application - Independent Software Vendor backup application, typically leveraging vSphere Data Protection (VDP)

So there you have it, and now you know what each application is and what it can be used for in your virtual datacenter, private and/or public clouds. Just think about it for a moment:

Your VMware admin just became your most valuable asset.

Why? Here's why. With the above, your VMware administrator can:

Deploy configure and create fully resilient hardware using Cisco UCS
Create your new virtual infrastructure using vSphere
Connect your virtual infrastructure using Cisco Nexus 1000v switching
Create your new virtual datacenter using vCloud Director
Firewall and gateway your virtual infrastructure and datacenter using VCNS Manager
Create separate client use and management access VPNs using VCNS Manager
Rapidly deploy industry supportable applications and virtual machines into your virtual infrastructure and datacenter using vFabric Application Director and verify the deployment using vCenter Configuration Manager
Rapidly deploy industry supportable services (consisting of multiple applications based on multiple virtual machines) into your virtual infrastructure and datacenter using vCloud Automation Center and verify the deployment using vCenter Configuration Manager
Orchestrate repeatable maintenance / deployment / day to day operations using vCenter Orchestrator
Monitor, proactively manage and drive efficiency in your virtual infrastructure and datacenter using vCenter Operations Manager
Map dependencies between and mitigate 'pinch points' in your virtual infrastructure and datacenter using vCenter Infrastructure Navigator
Configure vCloud Automation Center to allow your trusted clients to create their own infrastructure
Connect, deploy and migrate to other virtual infrastructure and datacenters using vCloud Connector
Provide automated billing information to your clients using vCenter Chargeback Manager
Ensure rapid Disaster Recovery planning and execution using Site Recovery Manager and vSphere Data Protection

Plus if there is enough time, it's just possible your VMware administrator could sweep the datacenter floor too... if there is enough time.... ....virtually of course....

- Chris

LDWin: Link Discovery for Windows

2013-03-18T17:28:00.000+00:00

Brand New!!!

So you regularly use and enjoy using my WinCDP program. You wish it could also discover link information for devices connected to devices that support Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) as well as Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)?

Well dear reader, you are in luck!

Hot off of the coding press is LDWin: Link Discovery for Windows:

LDWin supports the following methods of link discovery:

CDP - Cisco Discovery Protocol
LLDP- Link Layer Discovery Protocol

So what are you waiting for?

Check out LDWin's Github page for further information and full ReadMe.

- Chris

Cisco UCS: What The?

2013-02-22T12:50:00.000+00:00

A quick non-too-technical post detailing the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) and how it works. No, I'm not affiliated with Cisco, I just work on UCS a lot!

What is a UCS?

Ok, well that's simple. It's a blade server system comprising of the following components:

The power of the UCS is that it uses service profiles.

What is a Service Profile?

OK,well that's simple enough too. A service profile tells the UCS that a particular blade has a particular configuration. Here is an example service profile:

As you can see, in my service profile above I have a server with two fibre cards (vHBAs) and two network cards (vNICs).

The USP (Unique Selling Point) of the UCS is that these service profiles are MOBILE
Yes, the service profiles can be moved from blade to blade.

Think about it. MYSERVER1 uses UCS chassis 1, blade 1. UCS chassis 1, blade 1 suffers a hardware issue and dies a death.

No problem. I can move and apply the service profile for MYSERVER1 to another physical blade (say UCS chassis 3, blade 2), boot it up and away we go, we are back in business - service resumed no screaming users. I can then get the faulty blade's hardware fixed in slow time.

How is This Possible?

If you look again at my service profile screen shot above again, you will see that the NICs and HBA's are all prefixed with ' v '.

This means that they are virtual.

Virtual Hardware (have you lost it Chris)?

Not quite. Bear with me.

Each UCS blade is fitted with a Virtual Interface card. One of these:

The power of this card is that it can be configured through software to present physical hardware to the blade. In my case, two fibre cards (vHBAs) and two network cards (vNICs). Clever a?

Mobile Ports

So looking deeper into the service profile for MYSERVER1, you will see that the Service Profile also includes the physical addressing of the vHBAs, their WWPNs (World Wide Port Names) and vNICs, their MAC Addresses (Media Access Control Addresses):

Also included in the Service Profile is MYSERVER1's UUID (Universally Unique Identifier):

Tying it All Together

So to recap, the WWPNs, MACs and UUID of MYSERVER1 are all held in a software (aka service) profile that is used to configure the hardware.

So assuming all my blades have the correct amounts of CPU and memory, I can then apply that service profile to any physical blade I like.

Nice!

From the comfort of my armchair in Cassa-Del-Chris, I have fixed a hardware issue and I have saved the day.

Boot Note

What about the local disks installed in MYSERVER1? Looking at this picture of a Cisco UCS blade it has local disks installed:

Yes, it does.

If you move your service profile to another blade, don't you have to also physically move the local disks too?

Yes you do. And that means a trip to the datacentre just to move two disks, and an extended outage as far as the users are concerned. NOT GOOD!!!

Back to MYSERVER1 and the simple answer is that I'm not using the local disks. I have no local disks installed in any of my blades.

MYSERVER1 boots via it's vHBA cards direct from the SAN (Storage Area Network). Therefore to recover service to the users, I don't need to visit the data centre to swap any physical hardware.

No need to move from my armchair in Cassa-Del-Chris. Another Beer anyone?

- Chris

Adding VLANs to Cisco Nexus 1000v

2012-11-08T12:25:00.000+00:00

Having scoured the internet and drawing a blank when looking for a simple process to follow when adding a VLAN and subsequent VMware VM access port group and to a Cisco Nexus 1000v switch, I ended up stitching together the Cisco commands after reading lots and lots of Cisco Nexus configuration guides.

The annoyance is that whilst you can monitor the configuration of your Nexus 1000v through VMware Virtual Center, you cannot configure it. All Nexus 1000v configuration must be done at the command line.

In this post I present to you the configuration commands I use when adding an additional VLAN to a Nexus 1000v switch.

First off - What is a Cisco Nexus 1000v?

Well if you have a spare 5 minutes and 17 seconds, have a watch of the following:

If not, put simply a Nexus 1000v replaces / augments a standard VMware distributed switch as shown below:

A single Nexus 1000v consists of a minimum of 2 modules:

VEM = Virtual Ethernet Module - Installed on the ESXi host itself
VSM = Virtual Supervisor Module - The 1000v management VM

Setting up a Nexus 1000v

Have a read of Kendrick Coleman's excellent guide here: Standing Up The Cisco Nexus 1000v In Less Than 10 Minutes

Of course, if you were setting your Nexus 1000v from scratch, you would know which VLANs to add 'right off the bat', so would have no need to add additional VLANs.

However as we all know change happens.

Adding VLANs to Cisco Nexus 1000v

Yes, I'm not a network administrator, however these commands work for me. They should work for you too.

Create a VLAN and name it correctly:

First step is to create a VLAN and give it a name. I like to name my VLANs in line with their VMware port group name. Here I'm creating VLAN 456 and calling it "VM_Prod_VL456":

     conf t
     vlan 456
     name VM_Prod_VL456
     end

Create a VMware Access Port Group and give it a friendly name

Next step is to create the VMware port group as it would appear in Virtual Center Networking. Here I'm calling my VMware port group "VM_Prod_VL456" and hooking it to my VLAN 456. I'm also going to give my "VM_Prod_VL456" port group 512 access ports to plug my VMs into:

     conf t
     port-profile type vethernet VM_Prod_VL456
     vmware port-group
     switchport mode access
     switchport access vlan 456
     vmware max-ports 512
     no shutdown
     state enabled
     end

Add VLAN to the trunk port group

Final step is to allow the newly crated VLAN 456 access to the rest of the network via the ESXi physical network cards. Sometimes referred to as the Nexus 1000v trunk ports. In my example, these ports are called "SYSTEM-UPLINK". I'm also going to save my configuration via "copy run start":

     conf t
     port-profile SYSTEM-UPLINK
     switchport trunk allowed vlan add 456
     end
     copy run start

Job done. Time to start creating some VM's and hooking them into my newly created "VM_Prod_VL456" port group.

- Chris

BSOD Debugging Part 2: Debugging

2012-10-23T17:18:00.000+01:00

Check out BSOD Debugging: Part 1 if you missed it. OK, so you have your Windows debugging environment set up and you have a dump file to analyse. Lets get on with it!

Here I will show you how I use the debugger to get to the bottom of a BSOD issue I was having. Your BSOD issue(s) will be completely different, however the basics of using the Windows debugger and investigating the Windows debugger output will be the same.

Using Windows Debugging tools to find a BSOD root cause

Start up WinDbg, and choose File - Open Crash Dump...

Open your MEMORY.DMP file.
Wait whilst the the debugger to does it's thing:

If you have set up your debugging environment as described in part 1, you will be using the Microsoft symbols server. This is confirmed by the debugger when a debug is under way, as highlighted in the screenshot above.

Symbol search path is: SRV*c:\Symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols

OK so what can we see then?

Firstly the details of the BSOD, or BugCheck as the debugger calls it:

BugCheck 9F, {3, 84abc530, 82b65ae0, 86116de0}

OK, a STOP 9F... What is that?

Looking at this handy list of BSOD codes (pcsupport.about.com) a STOP 9F is described as follows:

STOP Error 0x0000009F: DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
STOP error 0x9F means that the driver is in an inconsistent or invalid power state. STOP code 0x0000009F may also display "DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE" on the same STOP message.

So some sort of driver issue when the system is changing power state.

Next the debugger is suggesting that the BSOD was probably caused by ntkrpamp:

Probably caused by : ntkrpamp

OK, whats a ntkrpamp? Searching for ntkrpamp at processlibrary.com shows the following:

So ntkrpamp is the NT Kernel. That's not a driver! However it is the kernel's job to run drivers. We are going to need to do some further digging with the debugger.

Luckily, the debugger makes it easy for us. Simply click the blue text !analyze -v in the debugger results window to perform some further analysis.
Here is the output:

Right, now we are getting there.

FAULTING_MODULE: 93d04000 dne2000

and

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: WIN7_DRIVER_FAULT

WIN7_DRIVER_FAULT that ties in with the BSOD being caused by a driver power state failure. However, what is this FAULTING_MODULE dne2000 ?

Lets click on the dne2000 link in the debugger window to find out:

Oh look. dne2000.sys, a driver located in C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS folder.

Wa-hey! Root cause found: The driver dne2000.sys is having issues, causing the BSOD.

Fixing the Root Cause

So we know that there is an issue with the driver dne2000.sys that is causing the Windows BSOD. Lets get Google (other search engines are available) to take the strain from here on in.

Something like dne2000.sys bsod should do us nicely.

The very first google search result points us to this discussion thread on MS Technet Forums Which in turn links us to this page discussing an available DNE update

Following the advice and completing the installation of the DNEUpdate and after a bit of extensive testing, my STOP 9F BSOD's are a thing of the past. Job done!

Conclusion

As I said at the top of the post, your BSOD may - probably will - be completely different to mine. However the basics of using the Windows debugger and investigating the Windows debugger output will be the same. The take away from this post is as follows:

How to use the Windows debugger to open a BSOD crash dump
How to find out more about the BSOD here
How to find out about Windows processes here
How to use the Windows debugger !analyze -v function to find out more about the BSOD crash dump
How to use other links offered by the Windows debugger to find out more, such as file names etc
Finally, once you have an idea of BSOD the root cause, use a search engine to investigate further. Chances are you are not the first person to suffer with the issue!

Happy debugging.

- Chris

BSOD Debugging Part 1: Setup

2012-10-16T17:59:00.000+01:00

By now I'm sure we are all familiar with the humble Windows 'Blue Screen Of Death' (BSOD), displayed when windows crashes. No? Strange as they do tend to pop up in the most unlikely places. Have a look at these examples (click for larger images):

Pic: Clefty

Pic: Steve Hoang

Pic: Ged Carroll

Absolutely anywhere!!!

So what can be done to get to the bottom of these BSOD's, how can Windows be fixed so as not to suffer another BSOD in the future? Simple. Use debugging tools for Windows. Here is how.

Capturing a Memory Dump File

First off, you are going to need to capture a memory dump file from the BSOD. A complete memory dump records all the contents of system memory when the system stops unexpectedly. A complete memory dump may contain data from processes that were running when the memory dump was collected. Here is how to configure Windows to dump it's memory to disk:

Windows 2000/2003/XP: Right-click the My Computer icon, click Properties and then click the Advanced tab. In the Startup and Recovery section, click the Settings... button.

Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8: Right-click the Computer icon, click Properties and then click the Advanced system settings link on the left pane. Click the Advanced tab and in the Startup and Recovery section, click the Settings... button.

From the drop-down menu in the Write debugging information section, you can select one of the following options:

Small memory dump – 64 KB in size, records the most important information about the problem

Kernel memory dump – A complete record of system memory; creates files at the size of the operating memory

Here is my setting:

All you need to do now is wait for your system to crash again!

OK, so you've created your MEMORY.DMP dump file. Now we need to examine it using the Microsoft Debugging Tools for Windows.

Installing Debugging Tools for Windows

First off, you do not need to install the debugging tools on the system that is having the BSOD problem. Use another system if possible. The system will need to have around 200Mb free disk space and be able to access the internet.

Microsoft, in their wisdom, have decided to bundle the debugging tools in with their Windows Software Development Kits (SDK). But have no fear, we don't have to download the whole SDK!

But before we can get to the SDK, we first have to install MS .NET Framework 4.5. Grab the Web installer or Offline installer from here (Microsoft)

Once you have .NET 4.5 installed, you can go ahead and grab the Windows 8 SDK installer from here (Microsoft)

Launch the SDK installer, and choose "Install to this computer":

Choose whether to join CEIP:

Accept the license agreement. Now select ONLY "Debugging Tools for Windows" and click Install:

Once installation is complete, click Close to finish.

Using the Windows Debugging Tools

Windows Debugging tools will buried away in your start menu under "Windows Kits":

Don't worry if you only have X86 version installed. This version will debug 64bit crash dumps without issue. The program you are looking to run is WinDbg(x64) or WinDbg(x86)

Next you need to set the debugging symbol file path:

Whats a debugging symbol? Here you go (Wikipedia). We need to set the debugger to use Microsoft's very own symbols server and cache them locally in C:\Symbols. This is entered as follows:

The text entered is:

SRV*c:\Symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols

Click OK, then click File - Save Workspace to save. Open Windows explorer and create a new folder in the root of C:\ called Symbols:

That is it for this part folks.

You have your MEMORY.DMP dump file and you have setup your Windows debugging environment. Carry on to part 2: Debugging available here

- Chris

Clone Windows Installed Roles and Features

2012-10-10T17:39:00.000+01:00

Mmmm a Roll with a Ham Feature...

Quite often I'm asked to build servers that need to have identical configurations in terms of the Windows roles and features installed.

Firstly, What are server roles, role services, and features? Have a look at this article to understand roles and features and the difference between a Windows role and a Windows feature.

Export and Import of Windows Roles and Features

OK, so I've manually installed a selection of required roles and features on the first of my servers and that server is working perfectly. How can I export a list of roles and features installed on the working server so that I can build the second server?

Powershell to the rescue!
This is where the powershell Server Manager Module comes into it's own. It has three handy cmdlets, they are:

Add-WindowsFeature
Get-WindowsFeature
Remove-WindowsFeature

Lets look at the Server Manager Module in action:

PS> Import-Module Servermanager
PS> Get-Command -Module Servermanager

So if we list all installable modules:

PS> Get-WindowsFeature

Lots and lots! OK lets pair this down and see if we can list only those roles and feature installed. We use this command:
PS> Get-WindowsFeature | ? { $_.Installed }

Nice. Now we know which roles and features are installed. Handy for documentation or comparison.

HOW TO: Export Installed Roles and Features to File

Firstly you need to export that nice list obtained above into something structured that can be used by the other server to install the required roles and features. For this we use the Export-Clixml cmdlet. This will allow us to export the list of installed roles and features into an xml file. Here is the command with the xml creation:

PS> Get-WindowsFeature | ? { $_.Installed -AND $_.SubFeatures.Count -eq 0 } | Export-Clixml .\RnF.xml

The resulting xml file looks like this:

OK, lets copy this xml file over to our target server ready for the import.

HOW TO: Install Roles and Features from File

Dead simple, using the Import-Clixml cmdlet:

PS> Import-Module Servermanager
PS> Import-Clixml .\RnF.xml | Add-WindowsFeature

Quick check in Server Manager GUI:

Looks Good. Job done!

So there you have it then. Two commands, one piece of xml, two servers running the exact same set of roles and features.

- Chris

New Release: Cisco Discovery for Windows v1.3

2012-10-02T17:41:00.001+01:00

Yes, that is correct dear reader, your favorite cable tracing tool just got a version bump.

Whats new in this release? Here you go:

Release 1.3 - 02 Oct 2012

Move GUI elements around to better handle longer switch names
Saving CDP data will now also append to an existing file

The full change log is available here on github

Download the new v1.3 version here from github

New to CDP? Find out more here

- Chris

vSphere 5.1 Update to Build Number

2012-09-12T11:58:00.001+01:00

Once again, continuing series of VMware vSphere update to build number tracking.

As always, it's a simple bit of info, often hard to find.

ESXi 5.1:

ESXi 5.1 = Build 799733 - Released 10 September 2012

vCenter 5.1:

vCenter 5.1 = Build 799735 - Released 10 September 2012
vCenter 5.1b = Build 947939 - Release 20 December 2012

For previous versions, see these posts:

ESX / ESXi 3.5 : Here
ESX / ESXi 4.0 : Here
ESXi 4.1 : Here
vSphere 5.0 : Here

If you need the vSphere Client see Here

- Chris

What Do You Expect?

2012-06-18T23:38:00.000+01:00

Watch it. Do more. Get involved. I have.

- Chris

What The Blog Reader v0.7 (Beta 3)

2012-05-18T21:57:00.000+01:00

Yep all 'pimped out' and looking good in its new Android Ice Cream Sandwich compliant style, checkout beta 3 of What The.....? Blog Reader for android. Fully backwards compatible for those not yet running Google's latest version Android operating system.

For more detail, checkout WTB4A's very own page here

As usual, details as follows:

Change log: github

Latest installer (whatthe.apk 34kb): github

- Chris

Easy Bootable Antivirus CD/USB: UPDATED

2012-05-02T20:23:00.000+01:00

Weighing in at fourth place most popular post on this site is Easy Bootable Antivirus CD/USB written in April 2010, just over two years ago (yes, time does fly!)

Recap:
With the prevalence of Viruses / Rootkits / Spyware and all sorts of other malware these days, quite often I get asked to take a look at machines that are suspected of infestation with one or more of the above "nasties".

Quite often this comes about because the nasties have "grown resistant" to the antivirus tool being used - that is they do not clean as expected. Sometimes this can be because the nasty hooks itself deep into the operating system or it locks itself as in use and hence cannot be deleted.

One way around this is to boot the computer from an alternative operating system located on a device such as a CD or USB pen drive. This will get around both issues, thus making the removal much easier.
/Recap

Many tools have come and gone over the last two years, however luckily for us an even easier CD/USB based anti-virus tool has been released. Surprisingly it's written by Microsoft.

Windows Defender Offline
Follows is the process to create and use a Windows Defender Offline (WDO) CD/USB.

Prerequisites:

Find out if the infected (or suspected infected) machine is running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows. See Is my PC running the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows?
The infected (or suspected infected) machine must have a minimum of 512Mb memory
A blank CD, DVD, or USB flash drive(250Mb minimum)
500Mb free hard disk space to download to and create the CD/USB
Download the appropriate version of the WDO creation tool from here (download links are at the bottom of the page)

Prerequisites satisfied, lets get on an use the tool.

Process:
Launch the downloaded executable (mssstool32.exe or mssstool64.exe). You will be presented withe the following welcome page:

Click Next

Choose the media to create, CD or USB or create an ISO image file. I chose to create an ISO file to burn to CD later.

Choose the location of the ISO file

The tool will now download the required files from the Microsoft website. Remember that at this point the WDO creation tool is downloading the latest version of the WDO boot media and the very latest anti-virus definition files for use with WDO.

All done. Click finish.

I burnt my ISO image onto a CD using the excellent free ISO burning tool ImgBurn

Upon booting the infected (or suspected infected) machine from the WDO CD/USB, you are presented with the following:

The tool will boot into a quick scan. This will scan only areas of the computers hard disk that are known to potentially harbor nasties.

I chose to cancel the quick scan and run a full scan instead.

All being well you will / will not (depending whether you were expecting to) be notified with details of an infection and that WDO has cleaned the infection.... or infections plural!

Shut down, eject the CD / remove the USB, and boot back up as normal.

Final word:
As most nasties spread due to lack of security patching, upon first boot I would highly recommend a visit to Windows Update to install all missing security patches as soon as possible.

Perhaps even look at running Microsoft Security Essentials anti-virus instead of whatever windows anti-virus application you were running.

Update:
If you find that your WDO CD/USB is not working as expected, have a look at this post over at Alex Verboon's blog: How to add drivers to the Windows Defender Offline Tool

- Chris

Fixing Remote Desktop Annoyances

2012-04-25T11:31:00.000+01:00

Please don't get me wrong, Microsoft Remote Desktop is a great tool for remote control / administration of Windows Servers and desktops.

However in later versions of the remote desktop client, a couple of 'features' have crept into the tool making it increasingly both annoying to use and slow to connect to remote desktops.

So, object of this post then is to look at the features that I find most annoying and perhaps more importantly, how to FIX THEM!

Firstly, is the ultra annoying prompt for credentials before attempting to connect, each and every time I connect to a remote desktop:

Having to enter the user name and password for the remote computer BEFORE the client will even try to connect is ultra annoying. Having to enter the same credentials each and every time I connect is a killer. 99.999% of the time I'm connecting to a computer on the local area network (or via VPN), so I'm not using a remote desktop gateway. Because I'm not using a gateway, we can switch this feature off.

Here is how:

Close all remote desktop connections and exit the remote desktop client.
Click Start, click Run, type notepad, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Open.
In the Files of type list, click All Files.
In the File name box enter Default.rdp (The full path to this file would be similar to the following: C:\Users\<your username>\Documents\Default.rdp)
A file similar to the following should open:

At the bottom of the Default.rdp file, add the following text:
enablecredsspsupport:i:0
Save the file, exit notepad and test remote desktop. You should no longer be prompted to enter credentials before connecting to remote desktops.

Next up is the also annoying remote identity pop up:

Not quite as annoying, but getting there... Here we go then:

Open your Default.rdp file again (as per steps 1-6 above)
Add the following to the bottom of Default.rdp:
authentication level:i:0
Save the file, exit notepad and test remote desktop. You should no longer be prompted confirm that you do indeed intend to connect.

As a freebie bonus, completing the above tweaks speed up the initial connection. That is you spend less time looking and waiting at:

and more time getting on with your remote desktop session. Bonus!

For further reading, have a look at Microsoft KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941641: Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 prompts you for credentials before you establish a remote desktop connection

Job done. Remote desktop annoyances dealt with.

- Chris

vSphere 5.0 Update to Build Number

2012-04-11T10:24:00.001+01:00

Once again, continuing series of VMware vSphere update to build number tracking.

As always, it's a simple bit of info, often hard to find.

ESXi 5.0:

ESXi 5.0 = Build 469512 - Released 24 August 2011
ESXi 5.0 Update 1 = Build 623860 - Released 15 March 2012
ESXi 5.0 Update 2 = Build 914586 - Released 20 December 2012

vCenter 5.0:

vCenter 5.0 = Build 456005 - Released 24 August 2011
vCenter 5.0 Update 1 = Build 639890 - Released 15 March 2012
vCenter 5.0 Update 1b = Build 804276 - Released 16 August 2012
vCenter 5.0 Update 2 = Build 923238 - Released 20 December 2012

For previous versions, see these posts:

ESX / ESXi 3.5 : Here
ESX / ESXi 4.0 : Here
ESXi 4.1 : Here

If you need the vSphere Client see Here

- Chris

Cloud: What is it? Free Cloud?

2012-03-12T20:33:00.002+00:00

OK lets cut the jargon, the buzz words, the misconceptions, the downright rubbish. What is this 'cloud' all about? What exactly is cloud computing (to give it it's correct name) is and is available to me today - for free?

First, what is cloud computing? Finding the answer to this question is easier than you would have at first thought. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines cloud computing in their publication SP 800-145 - A NIST Definition of Cloud Computing (Sept 2011), available here (PDF)

So using the NIST cloud definition document as a basis - specifically the three cloud service models - lets look at cloud and where we can use it for free.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s
applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through either a thin client interface, such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email), or a program interface. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings.

This is perhaps the easiest area to find free services. Free examples include:

Email = Gmail / Hotmail / Yahoo mail
Blogging = Blogger / Wordpress.com / Twitter
Image Hosting = flikr / Picasa / Imgur
Social Networking = facebook / Myspace

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages, libraries, services, and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly configuration settings for the application-hosting environment.

A little harder to find. Free examples include:

Application hosting = Google apps
Build your own application = Yahoo pipes
ISPs (Some ISPs allow you run your own apps on their platforms as part of your internet subscription)
Predetermined application hosting = host1free.com

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

The capability provided to the consumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, and deployed applications; and possibly limited control of select networking components (e.g., host firewalls).

Not easy to find - well for free at least! I couldn't find any free providers of IaaS, which kind of makes sense as I don't believe there are the alternative revenue streams available yet allow the provision of IaaS for free.

So all in all a very quick look into the cloud. Minus the garbage and the jargon. Not all that hard to comprehend now is it?

- Chris

ESXi Command Line Networking Configuration

2012-02-17T17:26:00.001+00:00

Ages and ages ago, I posted an article detailing ESX Command Line Networking Configuration, and at the bottom of the post I added the sign off "Next time.... ESXi." Well, finally here is said ESXi post: How to configure ESXi networking from the command line.

Why? Because there doesn’t appear to be any single place (that I can find at least) where all of the this is detailed. So hold onto you hats, again, here we go... Again!

Changing IP Address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, Hostname and DNS Settings (All Versions)
Very simple. Use the console configuration tool:

OK, whilst strictly not "command line", why not use the built in configuration tool? It is far simpler!

Word of warning - Whilst not prompted for a reboot when changing the ESXi's Hostname, I would complete a reboot anyway. I and others have seen spurious issues later on through ESXi configuration when a post rename reboot has not been completed.

Linking and Unlinking Physical Network Cards to Virtual Switches and Network Card Teaming (All Versions)
Again sure you can do this through the console configuration tool for the service console / management vSwitch. However, what happens if you want to make changes on other vSwitches?

First lets look at how the vSwitch is configured post install. Screenshot from a VI Client:

If you were to view the same information at the service console command line we would use the following command to list the virtual switches configured:

esxcfg-vswitch -l

To connect a physical adaptor to a virtual switch, you need to Link it, using the following command:

esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic1 vSwitch0

Where vmnic1 is the physical network card being connected to the virtual switch vSwitch0.

To disconnect a physical adaptor to a virtual switch, you need to Unlink it, using the following command:

esxcfg-vswitch -U vmnic1 vSwitch0

Where vmnic1 is the physical network card being disconnected from the virtual switch vSwitch0.

Basic network card teaming is achieved by having two or more physical adaptors connected to the same virtual switch. From the VI Client:

Which in turn looks like this from the console:

Further reading on Linking and Unlinking Physical Network Cards to Virtual Switches: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1000258

NIC Teaming Policy and Load Balancing (ESXi 4.1 and Earlier)
First lets look at how the vSwitch load balancing configured post install. Screenshot from a VI Client:

Which in turn looks like this from the console:

To specify the NIC teaming load balancing policy on a vSwitch, run the command:

vim-cmd /hostsvc/net/vswitch_setpolicy --nicteaming-policy='[policy]' vSwitch0

Where [policy] is one of these NIC teaming policies:

loadbalance_srcid (Route based on the originating virtual switch port ID)
loadbalance_srcmac (Route based on source MAC hash)
loadbalance_ip (Route based on IP hash)
failover_explicit (Use explicit failover order)

For example, to set the NIC teaming policy to route based on IP hash, run the command:

vim-cmd /hostsvc/net/vswitch_setpolicy --nicteaming-policy='loadbalance_ip' vSwitch0

To confirm the setting, run the command:

vim-cmd /hostsvc/net/vswitch_info vSwitch0 | grep policy

When run on console:

NIC Teaming Policy and Load Balancing (ESXi 5.0 and Later)
To specify the NIC teaming load balancing policy on a vSwitch, run the command:

esxcli network vswitch standard policy failover set -l [policy] -v vSwitch0

Where [policy] is one of these NIC teaming policies:

portid (Route based on the originating virtual switch port ID)
mac (Route based on source MAC hash)
iphash (Route based on IP hash)
explicit (Use explicit failover order)

For example, to set the NIC teaming policy to route based on originating switch port ID, run the command:

esxcli network vswitch standard policy failover set -l portid -v vSwitch0

To confirm the setting, run the command:

esxcli network vswitch standard policy failover get -v vSwitch0

When run on console:

Further reading on NIC Teaming Policy and Load Balancing: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1011520

VLAN Tagging (All Versions)
Use the following command to assign a VLAN to a console port / port group

esxcfg-vswitch -v [VLANID] -p "Management Network" vSwitch0

Where [VLANID] is the VLAN number, "Management Network" is the console port / port group name and vSwitch0 is the virtual switch the console port / port group is connected to. A zero [VLANID] here specifies no VLAN.

Further reading on VLAN Tagging: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1000258

Overview
In this post we looked at how to configure the following, all from the ESXi console, no VI client required!

Changing IP Address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, Hostname and DNS Server Settings
Linking and Unlinking Physical Network Cards to Virtual Switches and Network Card Teaming
NIC Teaming Policy and Load Balancing
VLAN Tagging

- Chris