Changing ESX IP Address via Service Console

Posted on March 24, 2010 by Calvin Scoltock

If you need to change the ESX (3.5 or 4.0) Service Console IP address but can not connect to it via the vSphere (or VI) Client then it can be changed from the console.

Access one of the virtual terminals, for example by pressing Alt-F1.
Login as root
Find out what virtual switch interface (vswif) the Service Console is on and what the port group is called, by defaulty vswif=vswif0 and port group=”Service Console” by issuing the command

esxcfg-vswif -l

to list the virtual switch interfaces. The output will be similar to

untitled1

In the above example the vswif name is vswif0 and the port group is “Service Console”. The current IP address is 192.168.35.166, to change it issue the command

esxcfg-vswif <swif name> -p <port group> -i <new ip address> -n <network mask> -b <broadcast address>

e.g. to change it to 192.168.25.151, netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.25.255 enter

esxcfg-vswif vswif0 -p “Service Console” -i 192.168.25.166 -n 255.255.255.0 -b 192.168.25.255

You might also need to change the default gateway. To do this edit /etc/sysconfig/network (with something like vi) and change the GATEWAY setting, once you have edited /etc/sysconfig/network you will need to restart networking with /etc/ini.d/network restart

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Location of Sysprep files with VMware Virtualcenter 2.5

Posted on March 24, 2010 by Calvin Scoltock

The Basic System Administration guide for VirtualCenter 2.5 requires that the sysprep files be extracted to the VirtualCenter server for guest customization to be available when cloning a virtual machine. Below are the download links for various Microsoft OSes and specific extraction instructions.

Sysprep 1.1 files
Location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\1.1
Download: [download]
Instructions: Extract the EXE download and copy the contents of the tools folder to the 1.1 folder.

Windows 2000
Location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\2k
Download: [ SP4 download]
Instructions: Extract the EXE download and then open this file: i386\deploy.cab. Copy the contents of the file to the 2k folder.

Windows 2003
Location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\svr2003
Download: [SP2 download]
Instructions: Run the EXE and then open this file: c:\windows\system32\deploy.cab. Copy the contents to the svr2003 folder.

Windows 2003 x64
Location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\svr2003-64
Download: [SP2 download]
Instructions: Extract the contents of the EXE and then extract the file SP2QFE\deploy.cab. Copy those files to the svr2003-64 folder.

Windows XP
Location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\xp
Download: [SP2 download]
Instructions: Open the CAB file download and copy the contents to the xp folder.

Windows XP x64
Location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\xp-64
Download: [SP2 download]
Instructions: Extract the contents of the EXE and then extract the file SP2QFE\deploy.cab. Copy those files to the xp-64 folder.

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Installing IBM Systems Director 6.1.1 Common Agent on ESX 4.0

Posted on March 22, 2010 by Calvin Scoltock

You should be able to push the IBM Systems Director 6.1.1 Common Agent out from the IBM Systems Director to the ESX Hosts.  Firstly download the IBM Systems Director 6.1.1 Common Agent for Linux on x86 from the IBM Systems Director Agents for Remote Installation with the Installation Wizard Page.  6.1.1 is the latest version of the IBM Systems Director Common Agent for Linux on x86 at the time of writting.  When I downloaded this is came down as SysDir6_1_1_Common_Agent_Linux_x86.zip.  You will find that when you attempt to import this into the IBM Director Server it will say that No agents were found.  Rename the downloaded file to SysDir6_1_1_Common_Agent_Linux_x86.tcdriver, it should then successfully import.  However, having imported it when you attempt to deploy it to an ESX 4 server you may get a message stating that it is not supported.  Best bet is to install it manually as follows: –

Extract dir6.1.1_commonagent_linux.sh from the SysDir6_1_1_Common_Agent_Linux_x86.tcdriver file (if your computer does not recognise it as a zipped file rename it to have a zip extension).
Transfer dir6.1.1_commonagent_linux.sh to the ESX host, make sure you transfer it in binary mode
Change the perfmissions on dir6.1.1_commonagent_linux.sh so that it can be executed, e.g. chmod 755 dir6.1.1_commonagent_linux.sh
If you have a Remote Supervisor Adapter installed in the server run esxcfg-module -s libsub_support=1 usb.o (you will need to restart the ESX host)
Open a number of ports on the ESX firewall with: –
     esxcfg-firewall -o 9510:9515,tcp,in,ibmdirector
     esxcfg-firewall -o 9510:9515,tcp,out,ibmdirector
Run the installer with ./dir6.1.1_commonagent_linux.sh

Once it has finished installing you should be able to discover it with the IBM Systems Director console and gain access.

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IBM System x3650M3

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Calvin Scoltock

Just noticed that a few new IBM system x servers have snuck into the Standalone Solutions Configuration Tool (SSCT), namely: –

  • x3650M3 Model Number 7945
  • x3550M3 Model Number 7944
  • x3500M3 Model Number 7380
  • x3400M3 Model Number 7379
  • x3250M3 Model Numbers 4251 (with 1 year maintenance) and 4252 (with 3 years maintenance)
  • x3200M3 Model Numbers 7327 (with 1 year maintenance) and 7328 (with 3 years maintenance)

The server I am mostly interested in is the x3650M3 as this will be a good platform for VMware vSphere.

I haven’t seen an announcement letter for these models but a quick look at the specs show that:-

  • They will use either Nehalem-EP (Intel XEON 55xx) or Westmere-EP (Intel XEON 56xx) processors.
  • It has 18 DIMM slots (an increase from 16 on the M2 server), meaning a maximum memory support of 144GB using 18x8GB DIMMs.  We are still not seeing the 16GB DIMMs available for the System x server yet but then with the 8GB DIMMs still so expensive would anyone really install 16GB DIMMs.  The 8GB DIMMs are still 4 times the price of the 4GB DIMMs.  18 x 8GB DIMMs at list price will cost you £13,446, whereas 18 x 4GB only costs you £3,366.  Therefore it is possible to purchase two servers with 2 processors each and 72GB Memory (18x4GB) than one server with 2 processors and 144GB Memory (18x8GB).  Of course if you are using these servers for VMware vSphere then you will need to purchase twice the amount of vSphere licences.  We can only wait for the x3690X5 with its 32 DIMM slots as standard and the ability to add a MAX5 Memory drawer to add an additional 32 DIMM slots.
  • Up to 16 Hot-Swap Hard Disk Drives, in increase from 12 on the M2 server.
  • Most of the models appear to come as standard with a RAID adapter support 6Gbps SAS drives, most of the M2 servers had a 3Gbps RAID adapter as standard which needed to be replaced to get the best performance out of the 6Gbps drive.  Some of the later M2 servers does start shipping with a 6Gbps M5014/5.

The rest of the specification looks the same as the M2 server.

An IBM System x3650M3 with two 6-core processors and 72GB memory (full of 4GB DIMMs) works out at about the same price of a x3650M2 with two 4-core processors and 64GB memory (full of 4GB DIMMs).  This will give you approximately 50% more processing power for the same cost (inlcuding VMware vSphere).

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New IBM Blade for Virtualisation

Posted on March 20, 2010 by Calvin Scoltock

IBM have just release a new blade aimed at running virtualised workloads, named the HS22V.  This is ahead of the soon to be released blade using IBM’s 5th generation of their Enterprise x-Architecture, the HX5.

The HS22V sports either an Intel 55xx series Nehalem-EP processor or the newly announced Intel 56xx seires Westmere-EP, including the 6 core X5650, X5670 and the low power (60w) L5640.

To allow many Virtual Machines to run on these HS22V blades making the most of the faster processors available 18 very low profile DDR3 memory  slots will be available, an improvement over the 12 available on the HS22.  As with memory on the Nehalem processors if all 18 memory slots are filled the memory will run at 800Mhz, with 12 slots filled 1033Mhz and if only 6 slots filled (assuming this is spread over 2 processors with 3 memory DIMMs per processor) 1333Mhz (as long as the processor is capable of 1333Mhz).

Whereas the HS22 uses up to 2 Hot-Swap SAS/SATA hard disk drives the HS22V uses Solid State 1.8in SATA drives. Again 2 can be installed and mirrored using the integrated RAID1 controller.  The only option currently available is a 50GB drive, which is plenty for the installation of VMware vSphere ESX or Microsoft HyperV (interestingly HyperV is not currently certified to run on this blade).  It is possible that 64GB Solid State Drives will be available later this year for the HS22V.  These Solid State Drives use a lot less power and generate less heat than traditional spinning disks.

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Installing vSphere 4 on IBM System x3650M2 via KVM Switch and IBM 17″ Rack Flat Panel Monitor

Posted on March 20, 2010 by Calvin Scoltock

When installing vSphere 4 on an IBM System x3650M2 connected via a 2×8 Local Console Switch to the IBM 17″ Rack mounted Flat Panel Monitor the display could not be displayed on the screen using the Graphic Mode, I got an “out of range” message.

Therefore the text mode had to be used.

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Setting Default Gateway on vSphere 4

Posted on March 20, 2010 by Calvin Scoltock

I had an issue recently where I had installed ESX4 on a number of hosts but had not been allocated IP addresses for them.  So I installed them using DHCP. 

Later when I had been given the IP addresses I set them on the service console via the vSphere Client, on checking the default gateway it was already set as it had been picked up from the DHCP server.  I checked connectivity to each of the hosts while I was oniste but later while working remotely I could not access the service consoles, obviously the default gateway was not correct. 

The servers were all IBM System x3650M2 servers with the IBM Virtual Media Key installed so I could access the Integrated Management Module (IMM) and access the console via the Remote Console functionality.  The default gatewayhas correctly listed in /etc/vmware/esx.conf but was not listed in /etc/sysconfig/network

The solution was to add the following to /etc/sysconfig/network (I added it as the last line)

GATEWAY=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the default gateway.

For this change to be picked up networking needed to be restarted by running

/etc/init.d/network restart

This procedure could be used if you ever need to change the default gateway on ESX4.  To should be the same for previous versions of ESX.

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vSphere 4 Partitions

Posted on March 20, 2010 by admin

The following partitions are recommended when installed ESX 4

/                ext3        5120MB
                  swap      1600MB
/home    ext3       2048MB
/tmp       ext3       2048MB
/var        ext3       4096MB
/opt        ext3        2048MB

Note that the installer will automatically also create the following but you do not specify them as you did with previous versions of ESX

/boot     ext3             260MB
                 vmkcore   100MB

Posted in Installation, VMware, vSphere | 2 Comments