afokkema VMware

VMWare: Three new patches


Patch ESX-1000073 for VMware ESX Server 3.0.1

Security Issues

This patch provides updates to the Kerberos network authentication packages provided in the VMware ESX Server Service Console. Possible vulnerabilities have been found with the krb5 telnet daemon, the Kerberos KDC, and kadmin. Although these features are not enabled in the Service Console by default, VMware recommends that all users apply this patch.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) assigned the names CVE-2007-0956, CVE-2007-0957, and CVE-2007-1216 to this issue.

Download the patch here: http://www.vmware.com/

Patch ESX-1000070 for VMware ESX Server 3.0.1

Resolved Issues

This patch provides the following:

  • This patch resolves time loss issue in Microsoft Windows 2000 SMP (multi-processor) virtual machines running applications that use the Windows Multimedia Timer service. Java applications typically fall into the category of applications that experience the time loss without this patch. The fix does not affect single-processor virtual machines.
  • A fix for an issue where using the 32-bit version of VMware tools in a 64-bit Solaris 10 virtual machine causes high CPU usage. Users of this patch on ESX Server hosts with Solaris 10 virtual machines with 64-bit VMware tools will still experience an error stating “vmware-toolbox-gtk: 1816): Gtk-WARNING **” since no 64-bit GTK is available, but will not experience the high CPU usage. Please refer to http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6456279 for more information on Solaris 10 and the GTK for 64-bit applications.
  • Pre-built modules (PBMs) to enable VMware tools to be installed in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 3 AS 64-bit virtual machines. Without this patch, the error “None of the pre-built vmmemctl modules for VMwaretools are suitable for your running kernel.” is seen when attmempting to install VMware tools in RHEL 3 AS 64-bit virtual machines.
  • Pre-built modules (PBMs) to enable VMware tools to be installed in Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 8 Kernel v2.4.21-306 and higher virtual machines.

Download the patch here: http://www.vmware.com/

Patch ESX-1000039 for VMware ESX Server 3.0.1

Resolved Issues

This patch provides the following:

  • Fixes an issue where ESX server fails to boot on HP servers, if a drive fails from the logical volume that’s not a part of the ESX boot environment.
  • Fixes an issue where extraneous warnings are logged in /var/log/messages of ESX Server hosts running HP Insight Manager version 7.7. The warning message is the following: vmkernel: 0:00:10:43.873 cpu0:1024)VMNIX: VmkDev 3293: dev=vmnic2 cmd=0x8946 ifr=dedc1eb4 status=0x2bacffa1.
  • Fixes an issue where some ESX Server hosts stop responding for between two and five minutes during a rescan operation and on occasion, the host will completely stop responding. The diagnosis of this issue is described in detail in KB 10229. Please refer to that knowledgebase article for more information on the diagnosis of the problem and for workarounds if you do not plan to apply this patch to fix the issue.
  • Fixes an issue where NetApp’s sanlun utility fails to get the required information from NetApp filers.
  • Fixes an issue found on HP Proliant DL 380 G5 systems where valid I/O requests were marked as attempts to overwrite the partition table. This caused the file system to become “read-only” while the ext3 file-system is configured on block devices that have extended partitions.

Download the patch here: http://www.vmware.com/

afokkema Random, VMware

Template: VI3 Security Risk Assessment


De mannen van Xtravirt hebben een Word template gemaakt genaamd VI3 Security Risk Assessment.

This MS Word document template is designed to:

· Provide detail of around security measures designed into each major component of VI3

· Provide a ‘best practice’ security framework for VI3 designs that can be repeated again and again

· Detail real world scenario’s that IT Security personnel can relate to their environment, including built-in countermeasures and additional configuration options.

· Significantly reduce the time and stress involved with gaining design approvals.

The idea is to take your own VI3 design and apply it to each of the major VI3 components in this template:

· ESX Server – Service Console

· ESX Server – Kernel

· ESX Server – Virtual Networking Layer

· Virtual Machines

· Virtual Storage

· VirtualCenter

Download de template hier: http://www.xtravirt.com/

afokkema Random, VMware, Whitepaper

Whitepaper: Using MSCS to Cluster VirtualCenter


In a default installation, VMware VirtualCenter 2.x runs on a single Windows-based server. In order to provide
high availability, you can use clustering software so the VirtualCenter server process is automatically restarted
on a standby server if the primary server fails.
This document describes the use of Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) to provide high availability for
VirtualCenter. This capability is available in VirtualCenter 2.x starting with VirtualCenter 2.0.1 Patch 2. You
can implement the clustering architecture described in this paper whether VirtualCenter runs on a physical
server or in a virtual machine, although in the latter case you must adhere to the further restrictions on
clustering virtual machines as documented in the Setup for Microsoft Cluster Service guide

Download de whitepaper hier: http://www.vmware.com/

afokkema Random, VMware

Tool: VI3Patchdownloader 2


Quote van de website van Xtravirt:

The latest follow up to the well received VI3 PatchDownloader tool is now a command line executable meaning that it can be scripted and scheduled as a routine task. Additional functionality means that it is now easier than ever to keep up to date with VMware® ESX patches.

Change Log:

2.0.1.1

– Fixed minor bug which meant the script did not exit cleanly after downloading the last of the 3.0.1 patches.

Wat ik zelf wel oké vindt, is dat alles nu alles silent draait. Dus geen popup’s meer.

De tool in actie:

VI3Patchdownloader2

Download de tool hier: http://www.xtravirt.com/

afokkema VMware

VMware: Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Performance on ESX Server 3


 

Virtualization has become a mainstream technology, allowing enterprises to consolidate underutilized servers while helping to increase reliability and fault tolerance and simplify load balancing. As organizations embrace
virtualization in the data center, many may consider virtualizing Microsoft Exchange software. This paper suggests how an enterprise-critical messaging application like Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 should be sized and deployed on VMware® ESX Server1 to obtain a satisfactory Quality of Service. Specifically, we examine:

  • The performance implications of running Exchange Server 2003 on a virtual machine versus a physical system.
  • The performance of Exchange Server 2003 in virtual machine configurations when “scaling-up” (adding more processors to a machine) and “scaling-out” (adding more machines).

This paper discusses the performance and scalability of Exchange Server 2003 when it is deployed within virtual machines hosted by VMware ESX Server 3.0.1 on a Dell® PowerEdge® 6850 server with a Dell-EMC CX500 FC SAN. The Heavy user profile from Microsoft’s Exchange Server 2003 Load Simulator benchmarking tool was used to simulate the Exchange workload. Results indicated that a uniprocessor virtual machine can support up to 1,300 Heavy users. Our experiments also show that consolidating multiple instances of these uniprocessor Exchange virtual machines on a PowerEdge 6850 can cumulatively support up to 4,000 Heavy users while still providing acceptable performance and scaling.

Download de white paper hier: http://www.vmware.com/

Bron: http://vmblog.com/

afokkema Backup, Random, VMware

VMWare: DiskLib_Open() failed


Toen ik een back-up gemaakt met vmbk.pl (zie de volgende posts: backup Restore) wilde gaan restoren, liep ik tegen de volgende foutmelding aan:

vmbkimporterror2

Hier is helaas geen oplossing voor dus heb ik een workarround bedacht.

Download Veeam FastSCP hier. Upload daarna het VMDK bestand naar het VMFS volume. Maak daarna een nieuwe VM aan en koppel de VMDK aan. Nu zou de VM weer moeten werken en de restore tijd is vele malen korter.

Vergeet na het aanmaken van de VM niet de netwerkkaart om te zetten naar VMXNET.

change_vmnic

afokkema VMware

Windows: Slow Logons using Windows XP Within a domain


Het kan zijn dat het inloggen op een Windows XP machine die lid is van een domain echt enkele minuten duurt. Dit gaat als volgt: De gebruiker voert zijn of haar username en password in. Vervolgens blijft het scherm een a twee minuten staan en gebeurd er niks. Daarna werkt de PC gewoon zoals normaal.

Hoe kun je dit oplossen:

Open de desbetreffende group policy die op de pc wordt uitgevoerd. Daarna voer je de volgende instelling door:

Computer Configuration–>Administrative Templates–>System–>Logon, verander “Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon” naar ENABLED.

Bron: http://www.tweakxp.com/

afokkema VMware

VHD Testdrive: Citrix Evaluation Virtual Appliance


What is the Citrix Evaluation Virtual Appliance?

The Citrix Evaluation Virtual Appliance (EVA) is a new pre-configured, ready-to-go, virtual machine system for evaluating Citrix Presentation Server Platinum Edition™. Based on a Microsoft .VHD Test Drive base image of Windows 2003 Server R2, the Citrix EVA will enable evaluators to interact with the Citrix management interface, and evaluate our application delivery infrastructure from both the administrative and end-user perspectives within as little as 10 minutes after completing the download.

Evaluation Virtual Appliance Contents

The EVA includes all of the components needed to evaluate Presentation Server Platinum Edition. These components include:

  • Application Virtualization
  • Application Streaming
  • Application Performance Monitoring
  • SmartAccess (Access Gateway appliance not included)
  • Single Sign-On

Om de vhd te kunnen downloaden moet je wel in kunnen loggen op  mycitrix!

Download de vhd (eva) hier: http://www.citrix.com/ meer informatie vindt je hier: http://www.citrix.com/

Mocht je gebruik maken van VMware virtualisatie production in plaats Microsoft, dan vindt je hier hoe je de vhd omzet naar een vmdk: VMware Importer