VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘script’

Many administrators today are testing Microsoft Server 2008, or even testing running Server 2008 as a guest hosted on various virtualization products. There are also plenty of projects not even related to virtualization involving testing applications and services on Microsoft’s newest server operating system. For those looking for a little more time, there is the option to extend the standard Server 2008 evaluation period. The Dugie’s Pensieve blog post Extend the Windows Server 2008 evaluation period (KB 948 472) first made me aware this was possible.

Normally, installing Server 2008 without a key gives you a 60 day evaluation period. As Dugie’s post point out, Microsoft has provided a KB article titled How to extend the Windows Server 2008 evaluation period which fully explains the use of the script and how many times you can “re arm” the evaluation.

From the KB article: Read the rest of this entry »

VI3 Enterprise features VMotion, DRS, and HA require identical virtual networking settings on all of your ESX hosts. Unfortunately, VirtualCenter does not apply a central configuration policy or inheritance of settings from the cluster. Maybe a future version of VirtualCenter will evolve to include global configuration abilities? Until such a version is created, each ESX server’s virtual networking settings will continue to be configured individually by most administrators. However, there are some time saving, global configuration options available today. This post summarizes two methods provided by the virtualization community for creating PortGroups simultaneously across multiple ESX hosts. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

While doing some research to get ready to implement the new ESX 3.5 storage vmotion feature I came across some helpful blog posts, and a script that will be a real time saver.

Unlike the vmotion we are used to, you can not right click on a vm in the vi client and initiate a storage vmotion. You have to download VMware-VIRemoteCLI and install it. The VIRemoteCLI can be downloaded as:

* a virtual appliance
* a windows installer
* a linux installer

Once the RemoteCLI is installed in Windows for example, Read the rest of this entry »

Even though VI 3.5 is now generally available you may not be ready to upgrade from version 3 just yet. You should, however, make sure all patches and updates are applied to your VI3 infrastructure. This post explains the upgrading and patching methods I have standardized on and provides some tips for avoiding common issues like HA agent configuration and auto applying numerous ESX patches. All scripts and files referenced are linked at the bottom of this post.

Prepare

Preparing for the upgrade and patching is critical to minimizing what can go wrong.

Upgrade Virtual Center

Read the rest of this entry »

Keeping consistent date and time between your ESX hosts is critical. You can set up NTP sync manually by following the instructions from VMware, or you can run a script to configure ESX automatically.

I first found out about the setup_ntp.sh script from VMware Support. I have since discovered VMColonel » Script to setup NTP on ESX 3.x. I’m guessing this is where the script originated from? Regardless, this script has been a tremendous time saver.

Here’s a high level overview of how to use the script: Read the rest of this entry »