ESXi Unsupported Console Access or even SSH

 

I know it's old news but you can access the ESXi console by using this unsupported method :

• reach to your ESXi over KVMoverIP or just console and press Alt-F1
• then type "UNSUPPORTED" and press <enter>
• login with your root login and password
• and you can do your thing ... or enable SSH in the next steps
• Edit the inetd.conf file by typing "vi /etc/inetd.conf"
• remove the # in front of the SSH line
• reboot your ESXi server (or kill the inetd process and start it again)

The blogs that initially posted this info are : 
(it's where I found it as well)

• http://www.run-virtual.com/?p=223
• http://www.vm-aware.com/2008/07/17/enable-ssh-for-esxi/

Unattended setup of Virtual Center

I recently had to setup a VDI training environment which needed 6 virtual center servers.  I don't like repetitive tasks so I tried to script it a little. I would like to refer to http://www.vinternals.com/2008/01/virtualcenter-25-silent-install.html  because that kind of gave me the start I needed.

I tried to put as much variables in there as possible.

First I set some variables like where the Media is, the DBserver, ... then the script detects the hostname, I have 6 servers called VCTEAM1 ...6 and I take out the number to link the server to the right database in the back-end.  I assume the license file is called VCIlicense.lic and is in the VC_Media folder.  Then we start the installation; the installation itself doesn't initialize the database so we need to start vpxd.exe with the -b parameter to do so... and then next the install sequence for the VIclient is started, and it's done.  And most important here is the script :

#Install VC unattended
SET VC_Media=C:\VC250
SET Team=%computername:~7%
SET DBServer=SQL2005DB

#Create DSN connection
REG ADD HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI\vpx%Team% /v Driver /t REG_SZ /d C:\WINDOWS\system32\sqlncli.dll
REG ADD HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI\vpx%Team% /v Description /t REG_SZ /d vpx%Team%
REG ADD HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI\vpx%Team% /v Server /t REG_SZ /d %DBServer%
REG ADD HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI\vpx%Team% /v LastUser /t REG_SZ /d Team%Team%
REG ADD "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI\ODBC Data Sources" /v vpx%Team% /t REG_SZ /d "SQL Native Client"

#Install Virtual Center + Lic Server
start "Installing VC" /wait "%VC_media%\vpx\VMware-vcserver.exe" /s /w /v"/qr WARNING_LEVEL=0 VMLS_LICENSEPATH="%VC_Media%\VCIlicense.lic" VC_EDITION=vc DB_SERVER_TYPE=Custom DB_DSN=\"vpx%Team%\" DB_USERNAME="Team%Team%" DB_PASSWORD="vmware%Team%" INSTALL_VCI=\"\" REBOOT=SUPPRESS"

#Initiate the Database Tables
start "Creating DB tables" /wait "C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server\vpxd.exe" -b
net start vpxd

#Install VI Client
start "Installing VI Client" /wait "%VC_Media%\vpx\VMware-viclient.exe" /s /w /v"/qn /L*v "%TEMP%\vmvcc.log" WARNING_LEVEL=0"

Maybe one more point, in this script there is assumed that the connection goes to a SQL2005 database because the generated DSN is using the SQL Native Client DLL.

Create an NFS share on Windows 2003 Server R2 for use with ESX

 

Jean Yves Dumont and myself posted a little demonstration on how to create an NFS share on Windows 2003 Server R2 for use with ESX.

Here are the links :

http://www.youtube.com/user/VMwareELearning

http://vmwareelearning.blip.tv

If you want to view it offline and higher quality send a mail to : nfsw2k3@vmware.com
and you receive an automatic bounce back with a download link.

K.

Source Code available for ESXtasks tool

I uploaded the source code for my ESXtasks tool.  It's a tool made with Vmware SDK 2.5.0 on Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition that automates a few tasks in your virtual infrastructure.
This tool is the result of some playing around with VB code and doesn’t guarantee anything (not from me and certainly not from Vmware), for me the tool does its job, but off course you never know because I surely didn’t test it in all possible ways.

From now on you can download the source code with the already compiled dlls so you can reuse it to start making other projects as well.  Keep me posted about your initiatives.
The site : http://www.svmotion.com

Storage Vmotion with a GUI

Hi,

I know I'm not the first that had this idea, to create a tool like this, but it was fun to make and it's fun to share.

So if you want to do a storage vmotion without installing a remote CLI and with the ease of a GUI, check out http://www.svmotion.com

Things to know about my tool and storage vmotion :

• Storage Vmotion has a bug that crashes your VM, the tool checks if the VM is effected by this bug and cancels the SVmotion.  See also Vmware KB.
• Other functions like export settings and a multi server service console user management thingy ...

Next steps for me ... in this tool ... extend it to be able to move multi datastore VMs and select different destinations for .vmx, and .vmdk's.

any remarks can be sent to gui@svmotion.com

K.