Joe's Tech Blog

Change Nic Pol

MR.Admin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:36:55 +0000

Thanks to http://blog.scottlowe.org/ who saved my life with this post

http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/12/16/using-vmware-vim-cmd-to-modify-a-portgroup/

Using vmware-vim-cmd to Modify a Portgroup

While creating a command-line configuration guide for a design that I’d prepared, I found myself in need of a command that sets the NIC failover order explicitly for a portgroup. I suspected—and was correct—that vmware-vim-cmd would do the job, but was having a hard time finding documentation on the correct syntax. Even the extensive XtraVirt vimsh white paper did not have information on the syntax. After a little bit of digging around, I found the information for which I was looking. Here it is for future benefit.

The syntax for using vmware-vim-cmd to modify the NIC failover order for a portgroup looks like this:

vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set –nicorderpolicy-active=

If the portgroup name includes spaces, then wrap the portgroup name in double quotes, like this:

vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set –nicorderpolicy-active=vmnic0 vSwitch0 “Service Console”

That sets only the active NICs. Any NICs not included in the command above are set to Unused, which is generally not the desired result. Usually, we’d want those to be Standby NICs. To set the standby NICs, use this command:

vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set –nicorderpolicy-standby=

Run the command to set the active NICs first, then run the command to set the standby NICs. The following example will set vmnic0 as Active and vmnic1 as standby for the Service Console port group on vSwitch0:

vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set –nicorderpolicy-active=vmnic0 vSwitch0 “Service Console”
vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set –nicorderpolicy-standby=vmnic1 vSwitch0 “Service Console”

I hope this is helpful to some readers.

UPDATE: A reader clarified in the comments that the parameters can actually be combined into a single command, like so:

vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/net/portgroup_set –nicorderpolicy-active=vmnic0 –nicorderpolicy-standby=vmnic1 vSwitch0 “Service Console”

Active Directory Web Services fails to read the settings for the specified Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services instance

MR.Admin — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:21:48 +0000

Active Directory Web Services fails to read the settings for the specified Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services instance

Symptoms

After installing vCenter Server, the Active Directory Web Services (ADWS) is unable to read the settings for the specified Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) instance
You see the error:
Active Directory Web Services encountered an error while reading the settings for the specified Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services instance. Active Directory Web Services will retry this operation periodically.
Microsoft Event ID: 1209

Resolution

This issue occurs if ADWS is unable to read the ports that AD LDS is configured to use for LDAP and Secure LDAP (SSL) services.

ADWS reads these registry entries to check for the configuration settings:

Key: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\\Parameters
Value: Port LDAP
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 1 – 65535 (default: 389)

Key: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\\Parameters
Value: Port SSL
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 1 – 65535 (default: 636)

To resolve this issue:

Verify that the above registry keys exist and have appropriate values.
Ensure that the NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM account has permission to read the values.
Verify that ADWS runs under the Local System account.
Ensure that the \System\CurrentControlSet\Services\\Parameters\Port SSL
key is of type REG_DWORD. If the value is REG_SZ, you must delete it and create a new REG_DWORD with the value 636 (decimal).

vCenter Server 4.1 running with Oracle, DB2, or MSSQL causes tempdb to grow Out of control

MR.Admin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:23:07 +0000

If you are running vCenter Server 4.1 with Oracle, DB2, or MSSQL, you may experience running out of space.

I have found this has Help fix the issue

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1033925

Stop the E-PARASITE Act.

MR.Admin — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:37:49 +0000

This Bill would allow essentially allow A Great Firewall of America and would be a shameful desecration of free speech and any sort of reasonable copyright law. The new Law would allow copyright holders to force websites which have any copyrighted material to be blocked by ISP companies around the country, without requiring that the websites be given time to take the offending material down. It would also put pressure on ISP companies to monitor their users like never before, a gross invasion of privacy. This bill is a direct assault on a free internet and a shameful attempt by copyright lobbyists to destroy net neutrality. Essentially it’s a censorship law that would end the internet as we know it in America.

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/stop-e-parasite-act/SWBYXX55

vOPS ISSUE

MR.Admin — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:35:47 +0000

You install the appliance, but can’t connect to it. The browser returns “connection reset” or “unreachable” (depends on the browser). If you used another client system, and it worked, and you connected the appliance to your VCenter, the original system’s VCenter Client still shows that the plugin is disabled due to connection error. Network dump shows that the TCP handshake succeeds, but the appliance resets the connection after the first HTTPS packet.

Cause: The appliance is configured using default SUSE security settings, which include “ALL : KNOWN” line in /etc/hosts.allow. This line dictates that the client IP must be reverse resolvable to a name and then back from the name to the same IP. If your environment doesn’t have reverse DNS that matches exactly with direct DNS, the check may fail, and the server will close the connection.

Resolution: Use the console to connect to the command line (login as “root” / “admin”), and change the above line to “ALL : ALL”. You need to know how to use vi.

Save Your Friends and Family From Malware! (UPDATED)

MR.Admin — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 23:18:44 +0000

If you’re at all competent with a computer, chances are you’ve had requests from people to fix these problems. I’ve heard different programs mentioned (XP Antivirus, Antivirus 2009, etc.), but it usually goes like this: “Hey, I’m getting this messages from [program] that I’m infected, can you fix that?”
Note: run the first two in safe mode, if possible!

1. Combofix. This one has seen some major upgrades recently, and I use it on every cleanup. Where the old version just gave you a blue screen and said “Hang out for about ten minutes,” the current version provides feedback about what’s going on. Before any changes are made, ComboFix backs up the registry. Based on the comments, BE CAREFUL. Combofix has never caused me any issues, but your experience may be different.

2. SmitFraudFix. I’ve used it for ages, but there was a brief span where it wasn’t doing such a great job (that’s when I started with ComboFix again). Things are back in order, and SmitFraudFix is doing a bang-up job once again. Make sure you run all the options with it (update, dns hijack, trusted zone, clean) and answer yes to “Clean the registry?” when asked. Nothing to install here, either, it’s portable.

3. SuperAntiSpyware. When I first saw this one, I thougt it was bogus. It looked like some of the rogue apps I was trying to remove – now I know better. While I’m sure some people think this is a crap choice, it’s been working great for me. It’s got a lot of nice features, and it catches damn near everything that ComboFix and SmitFraudFix don’t. Follow-up scans with Malwarebytes and Ad-Aware never turn up more than a few cookies.

4. CCleaner. Crap Cleaner bats cleanup. It’s a great final, general cleanup to run on a system that you’ve just scanned. Keep the portable version handy for fast cleanup jobs.

5. Malwarebytes Malwarebytes works for most of the time

Update from AOL- downloadsquad original posted

View Composer Agent Initialization Error (16)

MR.Admin — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:21:49 +0000

Last week doing a demo I Found View Composer Agent Initialization Error (16) causing me an issue. the Quick fix is

To bypass license activation by QuickPrep:

In the guest operating system on the parent virtual machine, start the Windows Registry Editor and navigate to this registry key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vmware-viewcomposer-ga
Navigate to the SkipLicenseActivation registry value. The default value is 0.
Set the value to 1.

VMware vSphere 5 Licensing & Pricing Update

MR.Admin — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 01:41:43 +0000

So after a few weeks of chatter We have some new Licensing and i think this will make more people happy

•

Increased vRAM entitlements for all vSphere editions, including the doubling of the entitlements for vSphere Enterprise and Enterprise Plus. This change addresses concerns about future-looking business cases that were based on future hardware capabilities and the previous vSphere licensing model. Below is a comparison of the previously announced and the new vSphere 5 vRAM entitlements per vSphere edition:

vSphere edition	Previous vRAM entitlement	New vRAM entitlement
vSphere Enterprise+	48 GB	96 GB
vSphere Enterprise	32 GB	64 GB
vSphere Standard	24 GB	32 GB
vSphere Essentials+	24 GB	32 GB
vSphere Essentials	24 GB	32 GB

•

Capped the amount of vRAM we count in any given VM, so that no VM, not even the “monster” 1TB vRAM VM, would cost more than one vSphere Enterprise Plus license. This change also aligns with our goal to make vSphere 5 the best platform for running Tier 1 applications.

•

Aadjusted model to be much more flexible around transient workloads, and short-term spikes that are typical in test & development environments for example. We will now calculate a 12-month average of consumed vRAM to rather than tracking the high water mark of vRAM.

VMware vSphere 5 Whats new!!!

MR.Admin — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:19:59 +0000

So for a quick rundown of some of the cool new things coming with vSphere 5. In the coming weeks I will have more tech savvy Post but for now enjoy

vSphere 5.0 – Scaling Virtual Machines

Create virtual machines with up to:

32 vCPU
1 TB of RAM

New Virtual Machine Capabilities

3D graphics
Client-connected USB devices
USB 3.0
Smart Card Readers
Multi-core virtual CPUs (in GUI)
Extended VMware tools compatibility
Mac OS X server support

Profile-Driven Storage and Storage DRS

Tier storage based on performance characteristics (i.e. datastore cluster)
Simplify initial storage placement
Load balance based on I/O
Eliminate VM downtime for storage maintenance
Reduce time for storage planning/configuration
Reduce errors in the selection and management of VM storage
Increase storage utilization by optimizing placement

vSphere 5.0 – Auto Deploy

Deploy and patch vSphere hosts in minutes using a new “on the fly” model
Coordination with vSphere Host Profiles
Rapid provisioning: initial deployment and patching of hosts
Centralized host and image management
Reduce manual deployment and patch processes

vSphere 5.0 – View Accelerator

Caching data on a vSphere Host rather than requesting at boot time from a storage array
Faster boot for virtual desktop
More efficient use of existing storage arrays
Enhanced scalability
Acceleration of new or existing View deployments

vSphere 5.0 – vCenter Server Appliance (Linux)

Run vCenter Server as a Linux-based appliance

Simplified setup and configuration
Enables deployment choices according to business needs or requirements
Leverages vSphere availability features for protection of the management layer

vSphere 5.0 – Web Client

Run and manage vSphere from any web browser anywhere in the world (Windows, OSX, Linux)

vSphere 5.0 – The Best of the Rest

Platform

Hardware Version 8 – EFI virtual BIOS

Network

Distributed Switch (Netflow, SPAN support, LLDP) Network I/O Controls (per VM), ESXi firewall

Storage

VMFS 5

iSCSI UI

Storage I/O Control (NFS)

Array Integration for Thin Provisioning,

Swap to SSD, 2TB+ VMFS datastores

Storage vMotion Snapshot Support

Availability

vMotion with higher latency links

Management

Inventory Extensibility

Solution Installation and Management

iPad client

Raising the Bar, Part V

MR.Admin — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 15:07:02 +0000

Raising the Bar, Part V

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Time: 9:00 AM (PT) | 12:00 PM (ET)

Please join VMware executives Paul Maritz, CEO and Steve Herrod, CTO for the unveiling of the next major step forward in Cloud infrastructure.

Paul & Steve’s 45 minute live webcast will be followed by additional online sessions where you can learn more about the industry’s most trusted virtualization and cloud infrastructure products and services.

Join us and experience how the virtualization journey is helping transform IT and ushering in the era of Cloud Computing.

Join at https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=registration.jsp&needuserinfo=y&eventid=319982&sessionid=1&key=82E09EE9B6FB6F29E31FB41998C23C79&sourcepage=register