730 Days Later - Replace The VirtualCenter Default SSL Certificate

Posted on June 25th, 2008 in vc2, vc2.5, vi client by Rich

Yes, this post uses another movie reference.

In the film 28 Days Later the Rage virus infects the Island of Great Britain turning all but a few survivors into zombie-like monsters called “The Infected”. The virus was unleashed when animal activists released medical research chimpanzees which ended up attacking the activists and scientists. This post is about what could cause a similar rage 730 days after installing VirtualCenter, potentially causing VI administrators to become lifeless, rabid, and insane.

After installing VirtualCenter (VC), you should check the installed SSL certificate used by the VI Client because you will most likely need to manually replace it. After a fresh installation the default certifcate expires in 730 days (or 2 years). If the certificate expires you will be unable to log in to the VirtualCenter Management Server using either the VI Client or the web administration interface.

Unfortunately, it is unclear to me at this writing if upgrading the VC Server within the 730 day period updates the certificate store.

Use the VI Client Datastore Browser to Upload Files to ESX Hosts

Posted on June 4th, 2008 in esx3.5, how to, vi client by Rich

Running the latest version of ESX3.5 enables a lot of usability enhancements in the VI Client. Many of the administrative tasks and configurations previously performed on the Service Console or by third party tools are now accessible as new options directly from the GUI. For example, you previously could not use the Datastore Browser to upload files such as ISOs to the ESX hosts, but instead had to use a tool such as WinSCP or other similar methods. With the ESX3.5 VI Client you can now transfer files right from the client. What makes this native ability even cooler is the fact that you no longer have to enable remote root access or create a special user. If you connect the VI Client to VirtualCenter as a local administrator, or if you connect to the ESX host as root you can use the VI Client to upload files without any other configurations.

The following screenshot of the VI Client is showing the Summary Tab of the ESX host.

VI Client Open Console Attempt Fails

Posted on June 2nd, 2008 in esx, esx3.5, vi client by Rich

I ran into an issue today with the open console command from the VI Client. I was already connected to a stand alone ESX3.5 host. I had just finished creating a new VM, configuring the virtual CD to use the OS install media .iso, and I had powered on the new virtual machine. When I right clicked on the VM and selected “open console” I got the following error message:

“error connecting: can not connect to host x.x.x.x: a connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.”

Once again the VMware Communities forum came to the rescue.

Cloning a running Virtual Machine using the Service Console

Posted on May 26th, 2008 in esx, how to, vi client by Rich

To clone a virtual machine with VirtualCenter you have to power off the guest, but what if your next maintenance window isn’t any time soon, you can’t afford to schedule the outage, or you just need a copy of the VM during normal business hours? Did you know that making a copy of a running, powered on VM is possible. At a high level the process requires a snapshot to freeze the VM’s original disk which in turn allows you to clone the frozen disk. This is essentially the way VCB, vRanger, or any of the live VM backup products work. Therefore, cloning a powered on VM can be accomplished with a little Console command magic.

I want to acknowledge that researching this method was inspired by the VMTN Virtualization Roundtable Episode 1 Podcast’s coverage of snapshots. Specifically Eric Siebert mentions that using VMware Converter as an alternative to committing snapshots is not the best option and offers the idea of using vmkfstools to do the job.

Use the VI Client to grow a virtual disk

Posted on April 24th, 2008 in esx3.5, how to, vi client by Rich

Some of the following text and instructions were copied in part from the post VMware ESX 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5 small features guide by Eric Siebert found on searchvmware.techtarget.com.

“Prior to 3.5 you had to use the Service Console vmkfstools command to increase the size of a vmdk file. But now the VI Client can be used to grow virtual disks. Keep in mind that growing a virtual disk only increases the size of the vmdk disk file. It will not automatically increase the size of your OS disk partitions. This must be done manually afterwards. A variety of methods can be used, including OS tools, boot CD’s (e.g. Knoppix) and other utilities.”

Personally I recommend the GParted LiveCD for working with your OS disk partitions. It is an open-source utility similar to Partition Magic that will work on all file systems.

Use the VI Client to configure ESX NTP time sync

Posted on April 24th, 2008 in esx3.5, how to, vi client by Rich

Up until ESX version 3.5 you had to modify various config files to configure ESX NTP time sync. This process was previously automated by the set_ntp.sh script, but now it is even easier because the VI Client can now configure the necessary NTP settings for the ESX host natively.

Use the VI Client to change DNS, gateway, and hostname

Posted on April 24th, 2008 in esx3.5, how to, vi client by Rich

if you just need to change an ESX server’s DNS servers, default gateway, or hostname you can use the VI client to make the changes. This might be a rare scenario, but it happens every once in a while.