How to Upgrade VMware ESXi 3.5 to ESXi 4.0

To upgrade from VMware ESXi 3.5 to VMware ESXi 4.0 you first need to install the VMware vSphere Host Update Utility:

1. VMware ESXI 4 upgrading release, and extract the file ESXi-4.0.0-0.4.164009-upgrade-release.zip\VMware-viclient.vib\data.tar.gz\data.tar\.\4.0.0\client\VMware-viclient.exe
2. Run the executable to install the VMware vSphere Client 4.0, be sure to select the Install vSphere Host Update Utility 4.0.
3. Run the vSphere Host Update Utility 4.0.
4. Select the server you wish to upgrade, then click Upgrade Host.
5. Select the VMware ESXi 4.0 Upgrade file (for example: ESXi-4.0.0-0.4.164009-upgrade-release.zip)
6. Run VMware vSphere client, login to the host you wish to upgrade. Right click on the server, and click Enter Maintenance Mode.
7. Return back to the vSphere Host Update Utility 4.0, and Accept the agreement.
8. Enter host login details, and click next.
9. Once this has been completed, go back to VMware vSphere client, and Exit Maintenance Mode.

Filed under: Uncategorized by — aaron @ 4:59 pm

Howto Disable Firewall (iptables) in Linux (Redhat/Fedora/CentOS)

You can run the following to stop iptables from running, by default on Redhat Entrprise Linux 4 and 5, Fedora, and CentOS the firewall is enabled:

chkconfig iptables off
service iptables save
service iptables stop

Filed under: Uncategorized by — aaron @ 12:49 am

XenServer VM/VPS Will Not Reboot/How to force a shutdown

We have had an issue on a number of occasions where a VPS will not shutdown while using XenCenter, and just appears to freeze.  Even using the xe vm-shtudown command via the console does not work.

If you are having this issue you can run the following command:

xe vm-shutdown vm=[uuid] --force

Filed under: Uncategorized by — aaron @ 12:47 am

How to find out which processes are using RAM in Linux?

An easy quick way to find out which processes are using RAM in linux is the following:

top -c

Then

Shift + M

This will list the top processes using the most RAM.

Filed under: Uncategorized by — aaron @ 12:46 am

How to install Sendmail on a new server?

yum install sendmail

If you are getting the following error in /var/log/maillog while sending an email
————————–
Dec 4 09:01:28 servername sendmail[12467]: iA4H1SCV012467: to=whoever@domain.com, ctladdr=whatever
(whatever/groupid), delay=00:00:00, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=relay, pri=30059, relay=[127.0.0.1]
[127.0.0.1], dsn=4.0.0, stat=Deferred: Connection refused by [127.0.0.1]
——————————-

1) Make sure that 127.0.0.1 is listed in /etc/mail/access and /etc/hosts.

2) In the file /etc/mail/sendmail.mc comment out the line below by prepending it with ‘dnl”,like

dnl DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Port=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA’)

3 Rebuild sendmail.cf

m4 /etc/mail/sendmail.mc > /etc/mail/sendmail.cf

4)Restart sendmail

service sendmail restart

While rebuilding, some times we may encounter the following error:
=======================
/etc/mail/sendmail.mc:10: m4: cannot open `/usr/share/sendmail-cf/m4/cf.m4′: No such file or directory
======================
Then

>> yum install sendmail-cf

After that repeat, step 3 and 4. Now try to send mail using “mail -v” and it should work fine.

Thanks Gopi for this article!

Filed under: Uncategorized by — aaron @ 12:44 am

VMware ESXi/CentOS: Your cpu does not support long mode. Use a 32bit distribution.

If you receive the following error while you are installing CentOS on VMware ESXi:

Your cpu does not support long mode. Use a 32bit distribution.

Then you probably need to enable Intel VT (virtualization) or AMD-v in the BIOS.

If you are still having problems, make sure you have Paravirtualization disabled (VMI) as this is only supported by 32-bit guests.

Filed under: Uncategorized by — aaron @ 12:42 am

How to change an existing vmdk to thin provisioned on VMware ESXi?

If you need to convert a existing vmdk to thin provisioning on VMware ESXi you can do the following:

1. Login via SSH
2. Run the following command: vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/large-disk.vmdk -d thin /vmfs/volumes/thin-disk.vmdk

Filed under: Uncategorized by — aaron @ 9:33 pm

How to thin-provision on a VMware ESXi

Are you wondering how you can create a virtual machine which only uses the amount of space that is actually being used in the Virtual Machine?  You can do this by using thin provisioning, and following the following steps:

1. First you need SSH access enabled on the server.
2. Run the command: vmkfstools -c 10G -d thin /vmfs/volumes/test1.vmdk
3. If you receive the error:
   Failed to create virtual disk: The destination file system does not support large files (12).
   Then make sure you run the create command in the datastore you have created already.

Filed under: Uncategorized by — aaron @ 9:28 pm

How to enable ssh login on VMware ESXi

By default VMware ESXi does not have external SSH access enabled, to enable it you can do the following:

1. Login to the server via the Console.
2. Type: Alt + F1
3. Type: unsupported
4. Type: (your root password)
5. edit /etc/inetd.conf: vi  /etc/inetd.conf
6. Remove # sign in front of ssh, by moving down to the SSH line and type 1x, and then :wq
7. Run: /sbin/services.sh restart

You should now be able to login via SSH.

Filed under: Uncategorized by — aaron @ 5:41 pm

Cisco ASA Error: ASDM is unable to read the configuration from the ASA.

If you are receiving the following error:

ASDM is unable to read the configuration from the ASA.

Then you can try the following:

1. In Cisco ASDM: File -> Clear ASDM Cache
2. File -> Clear Internal Log Buffer
3. File -> Refresh ASDM with the Running Configuration of the Device

Filed under: Uncategorized by — aaron @ 4:47 pm