The usual IT babble
Posts tagged VMware ESX
Using the integrated kickstart generator
Oct 14th
VMware built an kickstart generator into ESX 3.5. You just need to enable it, simply by editing an XML configuration and restarting the webAccess service. Simply edit /usr/lib/vmware/webAccess/tomcat/apache-tomcat-5.5.26/webapps/ui/WEB-INF/struts-config.xml and look for the line saying:
<action path="/scriptedInstall" type="org.apache.struts.actions.ForwardAction" parameter="/WEB-INF/jsp/scriptedInstall/disabled.jsp" />
This line needs to be commented out (<– and –>) and the lines following, having those comment marks around them needs to be removed.
<!-- <action path="/scriptedInstall" type="com.vmware.webcenter.scripted.ProcessAction"> <forward name="scriptedInstall.form1" path="/WEB-INF/jsp/scriptedInstall/form1.jsp" /> <forward name="scriptedInstall.form2" path="/WEB-INF/jsp/scriptedInstall/form2.jsp" /> <forward name="scriptedInstall.form3" path="/WEB-INF/jsp/scriptedInstall/form3.jsp" /> <forward name="scriptedInstall.form4" path="/WEB-INF/jsp/scriptedInstall/form4.jsp" /> <forward name="scriptedInstall.form5" path="/WEB-INF/jsp/scriptedInstall/form5.jsp" /> <forward name="scriptedInstall.form6" path="/WEB-INF/jsp/scriptedInstall/form6.jsp" /> <forward name="scriptedInstall.form7" path="/WEB-INF/jsp/scriptedInstall/form7.jsp" /> </action> -->
After doing that, you should be able to restart the webAccess service, and after that access your ESX host.
# service vmware-webAccess restart
Stopping VMware ESX Server webAccess:
VMware ESX Server webAccess [FAILED]
Starting VMware ESX Server webAccess:
VMware ESX Server webAccess [ OK ]
If that worked, you should see the Login to Script Installer link on the Dashboard of the Web interface.
VMware vSphere and templates
Jul 31st
I just converted one of my (old) templates, as I wanted to refresh the updates and the virus scanner. After converting, I was asked about the UUID (no clue why), and expected to be done with it. But after looking at the console, I got the following, completely cryptic message:
Unable to connect to MKS
After digging a bit deeper (that is looking at the vmware.log of the virtual machine, since the message of the GUI is *real* cryptic), I’m a bit wiser:
Jul 31 08:25:16.637: vmx| [msg.svgaUI.badLimits] Insufficient video RAM. The
maximum resolution of the virtual machine will be limited to 1176x885 at
16 bits per pixel. To use the configured maximum resolution of 2360x1770
at 16 bits per pixel, increase the amount of video RAM allocated to this
virtual machine by setting svga.vramSize="16708800" in the virtual
machine's configuration file.
After softly shutting the VM down, and the powering the VM back up everything is back to working order.
Fixing vmkernel symlinks
Jul 30th
Since I do happen to be in the situation pretty often where the kernel inside a VM is newer than what VMware currently has in their tools (as in the SUSE kernel is newer than the binary modules built by VMware), here’s a quick reminder for myself on how to to fix the .ko symlinks.
for file in /lib/modules/$( uname -r )/misc/*.ko ; \
do
rm $file && \
ln -s /lib/modules/$( uname -r )/misc/${file/.ko/.o} $file \
done
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 on VMware ESX (continued)
Jul 27th
Well, after some searching today (we applied the VMware Update 2 today, thus the VMware Tools update too), I finally found out what is causing that problem.
Though the problem seems to be not limited to virtual systems alone, I just browsed through this Novell Forum thread which pretty much describes my problem. I found the same error in the VM’s I tried to mount a CD image.
kernel: ide-cd: weird block size 524288
kernel: ide-cd: default to 2kb block size
Only difference between my behaviour and the one described, is that the virtual maschine is switched off immediately after you try to mount a CD image.
Now, this guy is saying Novell is working on it … But you’re gonna have to ask the question, why in gods name did such an update get through QA ? Or ain’t there no QA for updates ? *shrug*
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 on VMware ESX
Jul 22nd
We’re currently having a *really* weird problem with our VM’s. Sometime last week, SUSE released a kernel update. Now, once you install it and you reboot the selected VM with a DVD/CD image present, you’re gonna see this:
msg.vmxaiomgr.retrycontabort.unkown
The only workaround so far has been to unmount *any* cleanse any CD-Drives attached to the VM. And yes, this is reproduceable, even reinstalling from scratch doesn’t change the fact, that after installing the patch the VM quits working.
I also know, SLES10 SP2 ain’t officially supported yet by VMware, but I’d still suspect it to just work and not produce such weird errors. The only thing I found so far is this VMTN thread ..
Lucky us, VMware just today released Update 2 for VirtualCenter and ESX, wherein SLES10SP2 should be officially supported!