How to configure ESX 3.5 (3.x) Service Console networking:

1) This command "esxcfg-vswif -i <10.10.10.1> -n <255.255.255.0> vswif0" modifies the network configuration file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-vswif0

# Broadcom CorporationNetXtreme BCM5754 Gigabit Ethernet
DEVICE=vswif0
BOOTPROTO=static
ONBOOT=yes
PORTGROUP="Service Console"
MACADDR=00:50:56:4f:12:ae
BROADCAST=172.17.10.255
IPADDR=172.17.10.201
NETMASK=255.255.255.0

2) Edit the route file /etc/sysconfig/network

NETWORKING=yes
GATEWAYDEV=vswif0
GATEWAY=172.17.10.1
HOSTNAME=vinycesxtest.valiantinsurance.com

3) Edit the DNS resolver file /etc/resolv.conf

nameserver 172.16.2.4
nameserver 172.16.2.5
search valiantinsurance.com

SQL Problem installing WSS 3.0 - 'min server memory':

weird error when installing WSS 3.0 (during SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard) with SQL 2005. to fix it so that wizard can complete, execute the following on the SQL server:

use master;
go
exec sp_configure 'min server memory','256';
reconfigure with override;

How to upgrade VMware VirtualCenter 2.5 SQL Express to SQL 2005:

1. Step 0: BACKUP or SNAPSHOT your VC server!
2. Stop VirtualCenter service
3. Stop VMware Update service
4. Stop License Server service
5. Stop SQL Express service
6. copy the SQL data files to the new SQL 2005 location. Example below:
7. 
8. on the new SQL 2005 server, start Management Studio and use "attach database" function import the migrated data files. Name the new database VIM_VCDB (or any other name).
9. identify or create a SQL user (vmware is recommended, but anything will work) on the SQL 2005 server to have db_owner role for the VIM_VCDB database.
10. on the VirtualCenter server, modify the both of the VMware DSNs in "Administrative Tools -> Data Source (ODBC)", see below:
11. 
12. 
13. 
14. 
15. take defaults for the rest of the steps.
16. Edit registry key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware VirtualCenter\DB\2" with the SQL user name.
17. at cmd prompt, run "vpxd -p" from the VirtualCenter folder under "c:\Program Files" (or the equivalent) and supply the password.
18. start Licensing Server
19. start VMware Update Manager
20. start VirtualCenter Service
21. test connection and functionality from a VI Client and you are done. if it works with no glitch, pat yourself on the back!

How to build a VMware VDI environment (simple):


Prerequisite: ESX host (or cluster) 3.5, Virtual Center 2.5, a Windows XP template, a Customization Specification (basically a sysprep.inf, but configured through VC), a VM running 2003 (for the VDM server).

1. on the VDM server, run the VDM Connection Server setup and take all defaults
2. browse to the admin console http://vdmserver/admin

How to enable the NetApp java shell:

An extremely neat command (undocumented) in NetApp DataOntap OS is "java netapp.cmds.jsh" which enables a command shell much like a stripped down version of linux. in this shell, you can use commands like "cd", "ls", "cat", etc.

"host currently has no management network redundancy" warning in Virtual Center 2.5:

this warning happened after I created a HA cluster with 2 ESX hosts. they are
basically white boxes I run development VMs on. after the cluster creation, one
of the hosts had this in the summary display. This turned out to be a
configuration issue with the network adapters. VC 2.5 expects the Service
Console attached to at least 2 nics to avaid isolation response.

to add a user on ESX to have access to console (shell, ssh):

1) login to console with root
2) adduser -g users -d /home/ -s /bin/bash

How to clone a Windows Virtual Machine in VMware Server 2.0 (or 1.0):

many believe that the free VMware Server 2.0 does not have cloning capability. but it does! though it's quite easy as far as the concept goes, it is troublesome in certain ways. here is what you can do to clone a VM in Server 2.0:

1. shutdown the VM you want to clone
2. copy the VM to a new folder in the datastore (usually in "C:\Virtual Machines") using your favorite copy utility - mine is ROBOCOPY
3. after you copy the VM, rename all the files in the new VM folder to the new VM name, for example: rename oldvm.vmx to newvm.vmx
4. edit the vmx, vmdk (only the virtual disk configuration text files) and vmxf files, and replace the old VM name with the new VM name
5. in the VI Web Access client (aka VMware Server Home Page link), click on "Virtual Machines", then "Add Virtual Machine to Inventory"; browse to the new VM folder, click on the new VM vmx file and click OK to register the new VM
6. power on the new VM and choose "copied_it" option if prompted
7. log on and rename the guest OS (reboot needed) then run NEWSID utility (downloadable) to regenerate the SID (reboot needed)
8. at this point, you nave a fully functional cloned VM in the VMware Server 2.0 environment

notes: many of the steps can be automated - using VB Script, I have automated 3, 4 just because they are really manually intensive. ideally, the whole process short of shutting down the inital VM should be scripted.

- Kenny

Journey to Active Directory - Exchange reinstall:

today's topic is about upgrading AD and Exchange to Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 from 2003 SP2. since my test exchange server crashed due to "running out of HDD space", i am taking two approach to deal with this in parallel - 1) resizing the c:\ crashed exchange server (2003 sp2, we shall call it exchange1), and 2) building a new exchange server with sufficient c:\ (LOL).

while doing 2), i chose to deploy Server 2003 R2, and this presented a problem: the installation program doesn't work and gave a funny error about DNS incompatibility. after some troubleshooting, it was evident that the DC (schema master) needed to be upgraded to R2 first. with this requirement comes the requirement to upgrade all DCs to R2.

the following steps must be completed before these Domain Controllers can be upgraded to R2:

1. D:\CMPNENTS\R2\ADPREP\ADPREP.EXE /forestprep
2. SETUP2.EXE /quiet /accepteula /productkey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX /suppressreboot

after bringing the whole domain to R2 and fixing the DNS architecture (removing dead DNS servers and records), exchange 2003 could finally be reinstalled.

- Kenny

Active Directory - Accessing AD:

while VBscript supports LDAP querying and objects right out of the box, Powershell needs to ADSI Type Adapter (type cast, basically). the following are examples of how to connect to LDAP using both methods.

• VB - SET objContainer = GetObject(ldap://cn=username,ou=abc,dc=xyz,dc=com/)
• PS - $objContainer = [ADSI]ldap://cn=username,ou=abc,dc=xyz,dc=com/

the rest is usual.

VMware VIX:

to list VMs on local computer (VMware server 2.0), use the following vmrun command syntax:

• vmrun -T server -h https://:8333/sdk -u -p List
• vmrun -T server -h https://:8333/sdk -u -p ListRegisteredVM

to start a VM, use:

• vmrun -T server -h https://:8333/sdk -u -p start "[] \\"

for remote host, you must use FQDN (not the hostname) or IP address, otherwise it doesn't work.

VMware VI Client: add an existing vm to inventory:

1. (VI 2.5, ESX 3.5) open VI Client
2. click on the esx server in the inventory panel
3. click on the "configuration" tab
4. click on "storage" in the hardware section
5. right-click on the datastore in the "storage" area
6. choose "browse datastore"
7. browse to vmx file and right-click
8. choose "Add to Inventory" menu command

VMware Remote CLI - register vm:

• vmware-cmd --server --username --password -s register --resourcepool
• note: there was not a lot of documentation on --resourcepool parameter, strange...

SMTP forwarding doesn't work with Roadrunner ISP:

when setting up exchange internet mail connector, use smtp-server.nyc.rr.com (smart host) for smtp forwarding.