What causes VDI client to prompt logon twice?

check for other remote desktop / access software installs such as citrix, novel neo clients...

How to set up load balancing for Virtual Machines:

1) make sure the servers to be load balanced are on the same vSwitch
2) install and configure Microsoft NLB (see related articles)

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

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!

"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

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...