A. Mikkelsen

Offline upgrade from ESX 3.x to vSphere (ESX 4.x)

If you want to perform an offline upgrade of an ESX 3.x host to the new vSphere  host there are a few ways.

Using a DVD:

/root/esxupgrade.sh storage1

Using the DVD ISO:

esxupgrade.sh -i /vmfs/volumes/storage1/esx4.iso /vmfs/volumes/storage1

storage1 - should be a VMDK local datastore attached to the host.
storage1 - should be at least 8.4GB in size.

Read the full guide here.

ESX as a VM - Nothing new……

But ESX as a VM with running VM’s is new.

It’s now possible to run ESX as a VM on an ESX server or in a Workstation.

See howto
http://www.vcritical.com/2009/05/vmware-esx-4-can-even-virtualize-itself/

Upgrading to vSphere

Read this post before upgrading.

Top 10 of new VMware products in 2009

Techtarget.com has released their Top 10 pick from VMware to tryout in 2009.
Read it.

• Fault Tolerance (FT)
• VMsafe
• vNetvork Distributed Switch and Cisco Nexus 1000v virtual switch
• vCenter CapacityIQ
• vCenter Data Revovery
• vCenter ConfigControl
• vCenter Orchestrator
• vCenter Chargeback
• vCenter AppSpeed
• vShield Zones

VMKUSAGE is back… Can you belive it…..

VMware have included the old and trustworthy performance monitor VMKUSAGE in VC 2.5 U4.
This time the monotor has been added to VC as a plugin.

To get access to the new plugin you have to follow this knowledge base article.

If you like me upgraded your VC without stopping the Webaccess service first you have to follow this KB article before the plugin will work.

See more screenshots at www.run-virtual.com.

Powershell : List VMs with CD-ROM, Floppy, Seriel Ports and Parallel Ports

Today I had to create a script that creates lists of VMs, for each of the below statements:

• CD-ROM is ‘Connected’
• CD-ROM set to ‘Connect at power on’
• CD-ROM device type set to ‘Client Device’
• CD-ROM device type set to ‘Datastore ISO file’
• Floppy is ‘Connected’
• Floppy set to ‘Connect at power on’
• Floppy device type set to ‘Client Device’
• Floppy device type set to ‘Use excisting floppy image in datastore’
• Serial Ports attached
• Parallel Ports attached

Get it here

Microsoft is giving SharePoint Designer 2007 away for free

Finally Microsoft is giving away it’s software for free.
They are starting with SharePoint Designer 2007 (formally Frontpage).
It’s a start and I’m hoping they will keep up the “good work”

Get it from Microsoft
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=baa3ad86-bfc1-4bd4-9812-d9e710d44f42

Error encountered trying to restore cpu state from file……

Today a one of my customers encountered an error when trying to revert to an snapshot.
They recived the following error:
“error encountered trying to restore cpu state from file /vmfs/volumes/…./xxxxx.vmsn”

After a bit of googleing if came up with the problem.
The error occures when a VM with snapshots (taken when VM is PoweredOn) is migrated or moved to a host with another CPU stepping - and the VM is reverted to ine of theise snapshots.

To correct the problem you have to complete the following steps:

• Revert to the snapshot you want to use.
• Make sure the VM is powered off.
• Edit the VM’s .vmx file and remove the line “checkpoint.vmstate”
• Power on the VM
• Delete the snapshot

If you still want a snapshot of the VM in it’s current state

• Shutdown the VM
• When its powered off create a new snapshot
• Power on the VM again to start work with it

This solution has to be applied to all VM’s with snapshots taken while the VM was powered on.

Smart and simple VCB backup script for ESX & ESXi

A fellow member in the Danish Usergroup has created a very simple backup script for ESX and ESXi using PowerShell and VCB.

http://www.virtualize.dk

I like that it’s small and simple.
Keep up the good work….

Problems uninstalling VMware Tools

To night I had problems with uninstalling VMware Tools in a VM after updating to the latest ESX release.

The uninstaller kept asking me to insert the “VMWare Tools” disk and click OK”.
In the popup window there is pull-down field labeled “Use Source” and in this field is the number one (”1″).

If I tried to browse to the the “VMware Tools.msi” it returns an error: “The file ‘X:\VMware Tools.msi’ is not a valid installation package for the product VMware Tools…”

The solution I used to get around this problem was simply:

1. Open the registry
2. Locate “[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Products\8E24D35BB278E034284D0860A513CF1E” and delete it.
   (If you don’t want to delete it, just rename it or make a backup first)
3. Run the VMware Tools installation again.

And wola it nor works