vCenter Converter 4.0 Sysprep warning

When trying to convert Windows2k3 Standard server using VMware vCenter Converter, I got following warning message:

Warning: Unable to locate the required Sysprep files. Please upload them under ‘c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\sysprep\svr2003′ on the Converter server machine.

Go to CD1, Win2003-R2-i386std-cd1\SUPPORT\TOOLS, copy and extract DEPLOY.CAB to the above mentioned folder, then restart vCenter Converter session, the warning will go away ..

ESX 3.5 license error

Keeps getting the following errors:

“Information needed to acquire the correct set of licenses not provided”

No CPU or Memory information displayed for this ESX host

Fix: /etc/init.d/mgmt-vmware restart

# /etc/init.d/mgmt-vmware restart
Stopping VMware ESX Server Management services:
VMware ESX Server Host Agent Watchdog [ OK ]
VMware ESX Server Host Agent [ OK ]
Starting VMware ESX Server Management services:
VMware ESX Server Host Agent (background) [ OK ]
Availability report startup (background) [ OK ]

another one to try: /etc/init.d/vmware-vpxa restart

vmware converter error

vmware-converter-server-1.log:[#9] [2009-10-26 10:15:48.402 F07AEBA0 error 'App'] System PAM libraries are unusable: libpam.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Fixed: apt-get install pam.32bit

32bit PAM module needs to be installed on this 64bit RHEL4 OS

VMware shared disk for guest cluster

refer: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/vi3_35_25_u1_mscs.pdf

First use VI GUI to create shared disk, with scsi1:0, pick “Physical” since in my case both VCS guest nodes run on top of different ESX hosts. VI GUI can’t be used for the following:

vmkfstools -w /vmfs/volumes/vol_name/servername/servername_2.vmdk

VMware Storage Vmotion

[root@ttest session]# svmotion –username=hwu –server vc_servername –portnumber 8443 –datacenter=’Equinix CH3′ –vm=’[1TB Datastore 1] Joe-test/Joe-test.vmx: 400GB Datastore 1′
Enter password:

Check the progress status in VI GUI.

It does work.

Ran the above in Xen Centos5.2 x86 guest, no problem ..

VMWare Guest Time Drifting Issue

Under heavy load today, VMWare guest (Centos5.0, 64bit) time drifts a lot, sometimes 5 or 10 minutes earlier, after restarting ntpd (and guests are configured with right ntpd.conf), the time would be good for a few seconds, then quickly drifts away. Later the time becomes 30 seconds ahead.

The quick fix:
1. notsc kernel parameter added;
2. tools.synctime set to TRUE in .vmx file

ESX “not responding”, vmware guest “disconnected”

# vmware -v
VMware ESX Server 3.5.0 build-110268

refer to http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003490

service mgmt-vmware restart
service vmware-vpxa restart

after did the above, it works fine.

Here is a list of possible cases from vmware on this issue:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003409

I tried the following one, by disconnect and connect again, initially it seems it is going to work, after connecting to ESX host, but it failed after trying to start up the guest.
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003480

Vmware ESX 3.5 – Solaris 10 (x86) guest

Just installed 2 Solaris 10 (x86) guests inside Vmware ESX 3.5 evaluation version. I had to do the following workaround for xorg to work properly:
Run /usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl multiple times, and have to delete /etc/X11/xorg.conf file first. Sometimes this conf file is corrupted. After installing vmware tool, it would automatically run this vmware-config-tools.pl file, but that is NOT enough in my case.

Another thing is I need to manually change /etc/hostname.pcn0 to /etc/hostname.vmxnet0

vmware open ntp sync port

esxcfg-firewall –enableService ntpClient

Otherwise, you will get the following error when restarting ntpd: ‘/etc/init.d/ntpd restart’:
ntpd: Synchronizing with time server: [FAILED]