VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘management’

I first heard that the new VMware Administrator Portal (VCAP) for consolidated management of multiple VirtualCenter Servers (VC) would soon be released as a free product during VMworld 2008. True to their promise, VMware provided a technology preview version for download at the end of last week. I found out it was released when Yellow-bricks.com posted about it and then the VMTN Blog and Mike D posted about the Yellow-bricks.com update. So, I downloaded the virtual appliance and did some basic testing this weekend. Although I do not have multiple VCs or a lot of VMs to test with, the following is a summary of my notes and thoughts while setting it up. Read the rest of this entry »

VMware’s VI Client is the remote management tool for VirtualCenter Server, ESX hosts, and Virtual Machines. In a default installation of VI 3.5 it can be downloaded without user authentication from the web interface of any ESX host or instance of VirtualCenter. Assuming restricted desktop permissions are in place, users may already be prohibited from installing the VI Client, and even if the client can be installed VirtualCenter and ESX permissions prevent unauthorized user access. But what if you want to prevent users from downloading the client in the first place?

Maybe you don’t want to manage multiple copies of the VI Client on your network. Maybe you don’t want support calls from users who are trying to get rogue administrative access. Perhaps you are just trying to ensure that your users who do have access to VI components always use the web interface. Whatever your reason, there are multiple methods for disabling the VI Client download from the ESX and VC 2.5 web interfaces. Some alternatives are:

• Close the web ports on the local firewall of each VMware Server
• Restrict access from non admin computers on your network
• Stop the web services on the VMware servers

The problem with doing any of the above is that you either end up breaking or limiting other features of your virtual infrastructure solution or it could require significant planning and configuration to implement.

This post explains how to leave the default VMware web ports and services open and active, and instead modify the web interface page content so that the unwanted links are no longer available. When finished with the steps below the “Log in to Web Access” link is the only content available from the web interface. It’s a simple alternative that doesn’t have any of the “gotchas” of the previously mentioned possibilities. Read the rest of this entry »

I am getting ready for the VMworld 2008 Day 2 General Session and sitting at the official bloggers table this morning. Thanks to John Troyer and the team over at VMTN and Planet v12n for getting this set up. We even have a solid wi fi connection so live blogging looks promising. Look for updates to this post every 15 minutes or so.

Lights are down and the opening video is rolling. Today promises to be more about the new technical features.

Stephen Herrod, CTO of VMware, takes the stage and has started the session. Stephen confirms that his presentation will be about the technology behind the VDC-OS.

He is starting by going through the 3 infrastructure layers. Read the rest of this entry »

I actually have power and internet for this session thanks to the guy at the tech table In the back of the room. I will attempt to live blog this session.

The session starts off again with the disclaimer about forward looking statements again, and the presenter mentions he can talk about the features but not discuss specific version numbers. This session is about vCenter. This new suite of applications is the platform to manage and maintain the new VDC-OS. The presentation goes right into the new features. Read the rest of this entry »

Changing the ip address of your ESX host, or specifically the ip address of the ESX Service Console, can be done on the console using the esxcfg commands. The esxcfg- utilities are the console commands for many ESX configuration options. To see all these commands at the console prompt simply enter “esxcfg-” and hit the tab button.

To change the IP address of the ESX 3.x host, you need to use the esxcfg-vswif command. To see the options and syntax of the esxcfg-vswif command you can enter:

#esxcfg-vswif -?

To change the ip address of the ESX host: Read the rest of this entry »