Tag: VMWare

IT

Change VMWare Data Recovery 2.0 report mail

As I may have mentioned before VMWare Data Recovery is not my favorite backup solution. I'm pleased to report that VDR2.0 is a LOT better than 1.x ever was. Since upgrading, my backups haven't failed once. And it even has a built-in email reporting system.

Unfortunately, this mail system isn't too customizable. Since I'd like my subjects to be clear they need extra attention, I made a little fix. This script is started by socat.

Install socat

Socat handles incoming connections on port 25 for me.
rpm -i http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/x86_64/socat-1.7.1.3-1.el5.x86_64.rpm

Get my script

cd /usr/local/bin ; wget https://www.geeklab.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/smtp-filter.sh
You should put your own mailserver in the script on line 7.

Start it automatically

echo "socat TCP4-LISTEN:25,fork EXEC:/usr/local/bin/smtp-filter.sh &" >> /etc/rc.d/rc.local

Now change your settings

Change the outgoing mailserver to localhost and test it. If everything's ok, you'll get a mail with 1 warning and 2 error-message, as the test-mail doesn't contain the fields that indicate no backups failed.

Security

The iptables firewall does not allow incoming connections to port 25, so you will not become an open relay using this script.

© GeekLabInfo Change VMWare Data Recovery 2.0 report mail is a post from GeekLab.info. You are free to copy materials from GeekLab.info, but you are required to link back to http://www.geeklab.info

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IT

Using Ctrl+Alt+F1 in a VMWare Virtual Machine

When you're running Linux, pressing CTRL+ALT+F1 will bring you to console #1. If you want to go to the console of a vmware guest, this won't work, because the host will go to the console instead of the guest. Making it pretty hard to get to a console.

The correct combination for linux-in-vmware-on-linux is CTRL+ALT+SPACE, release space while holding down CTRL+ALT, then add the F1 key.

© GeekLabInfo Using Ctrl+Alt+F1 in a VMWare Virtual Machine is a post from GeekLab.info. You are free to copy materials from GeekLab.info, but you are required to link back to http://www.geeklab.info

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IT

VMWare Data Recovery is crap

VMWare Data Recovery is crap:

  • VMWare Data Recovery cannot be monitored and does not send out any warnings.
  • Running one instance of VMWare Data Recovery is too heavy for the appliance, causing the backups to be corrupted all the time
  • When running multiple instances of VMWare Data Recovery, say one instance per host, the whole thing is still slow as hell
  • Every few weeks, one backup gets corrupted. Of course the appliance does not notify you, no, instead you must login to the appliance to check the logs.
  • When you find a backup that is corrupted, you need to manually flag the restore point as "marked for deletion" and then start the integrity check.
  • When doing the integrity check, better pray that none of the other instances starts using the same nas/fileserver, as it gets so slow that the whole integrity check never gets completed.
  • I just tried to split the backups to multiple destinations, so that we can backup each virtual machine to its very own destination, and reduce the shitload of work the integrity check has to do when another backup is broken. Appears that VMWare Data Recovery only supports 2 destination per appliance instance.

I seriously consider VMWare Data Recovery to be the worst backup solution I've ever used.

© GeekLabInfo VMWare Data Recovery is crap is a post from GeekLab.info. You are free to copy materials from GeekLab.info, but you are required to link back to http://www.geeklab.info

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Virtualization

Enabling root SSH login on an ESX host

Starting with ESX 3.0, the ESX Server by default no longer allows root login over ssh. How to 'fix' this?

Warning: ssh root access isn't disabled (just :P ) to annoy to. It's to protect you. Before enabling ssh root access, make sure nobody you don't trust can connect to the ssh server.

  • Login on the console of the esx host
  • Press alt+f1 to get a login screen
  • Login as root
  • Type: sed -i "s/PermitRootLogin.*/PermitRootLogin yes/g" /etc/ssh/sshd_config
  • Type: service sshd restart
  • Logout and get yourself a cup of coffee.
© GeekLabInfo Enabling root SSH login on an ESX host is a post from GeekLab.info. You are free to copy materials from GeekLab.info, but you are required to link back to http://www.geeklab.info

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Virtualization

VMWare Data Recovery default password

If you surf to http://[vdr-host]:5480 you will be asked for a password.
user: root
password: vmw@re

Not very secure. Better make sure the VDR is firewalled.

© GeekLabInfo VMWare Data Recovery default password is a post from GeekLab.info. You are free to copy materials from GeekLab.info, but you are required to link back to http://www.geeklab.info

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Virtualization

Firefox 3.6 update broke VMWare WebAccess

I already covered how to run VMWare Remote Console outside the browser. But the latest Firefox update broke more. It appears that Firefox is no longer connecting to SSL2 websites anymore.

The problem accessing the console is that FF 3.6 now has SSL2 disabled by default. Open about:config and change security.enable_ssl2 from false to true.

But that won't help with the console plugin, which although it installs, won't work from the "Console" tab. The workaround here is to generate a shortcut on your desktop and launch your session from there. -- mozilla.com

© GeekLabInfo Firefox 3.6 update broke VMWare WebAccess is a post from GeekLab.info. You are free to copy materials from GeekLab.info, but you are required to link back to http://www.geeklab.info

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Linux

Running VMWare Remote Console outside the browser

Firefox 3.6 update broke my VMWare WebAccess.

Since I updated to Firefox 3.6, I have not been able to run the vmware remote console plugin anymore. Running Linux, this is a pretty important program, as there is no vSphere client for Linux.

How to run VMWare Console from the bash shell?

cd /tmp
IP=the.esx.srv.ip # < fill in esx server ip address here
wget --no-check-certificate https://$IP/ui/plugin/vmware-vmrc-linux-x86.xpi
mv vmware-vmrc-linux-x86.xpi vmware-vmrc-linux-x86.zip
cd ~
mkdir -p bin/vmwareconsole # make directory bin in your own homedir
cd bin/vmwareconsole
unzip /tmp/vmware-vmrc-linux-x86.zip
cd ~/bin
ln -s vmwareconsole/plugins/vmware-vmrc . # make a symlink for easy access
vmware-vmrc # run the console

© GeekLabInfo Running VMWare Remote Console outside the browser is a post from GeekLab.info. You are free to copy materials from GeekLab.info, but you are required to link back to http://www.geeklab.info

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