Install ESXi VMWare tools on Ubuntu Server Edition

1. sudo su
2. apt-get update
3. apt-get upgrade
4. apt-get install build-essential binutils linux-headers-`uname -r`
5. mount /dev/scd0 /cdrom
6. cp -a /cdrom/VMwareTools* /tmp/
7. cd /tmp/
8. tar -vxzf VMwareTools*.gz
9. cd vmware-tools-distrib/
10. ./vmware-install.pl

All the defaults are fine.

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Vmware: “SIOCSIFADDR: No such device eth0″ after cloning

from: http://muffinresearch.co.uk/archives/2008/07/13/vmware-siocsifaddr-no-such-device-eth0-after-cloning/

This is specifically for ubuntu.

sudo mv /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules.old
sudo reboot

May need to edit /etc/network/interfaces eth0 or eth1 to match detected adapter, restart the network, and it should be back to normal.

VMWare ESXi working on a Dell Optiplex GX280

It is pretty easy to get VMWare ESX installable working on a GX280. Boot from a CD burned from the ISO, and hit tab at the first prompt.

Add  nocheckCPUIDlimit  as a boot option. Here is the whole string:

mboot.c32 vmkernel.gz nocheckCPUIDlimit — binmod.tgz — ienviron.tgz — cim.tgz — oem.tgz — license.tgz — install.tgz

Proceed with the install.

When the system reboots, you will get an error message about the CPUID. The boot option needs to be changed again on the installed system.

Boot from a linux livecd (I used Ubuntu 8.04 desktop), and navigate to the “HYPERVISOR1” partition. Edit boot.txt

Add the boot option there are well:

kernelopt=nocheckCPUIDlimit

Reboot and it should start right up.

Then connect to the server with VMWare Infrastructure Client

Click on the server name, then the Configuration tab, and advanced settings.

Click on VMKernel and uncheck the VMKernel.Boot.checkCPUIDlimt checkbox, and hit OK.

Now you can reboot it in the future without problems.

fast network file copying using tar and nfs

Configure an NFS export on the remote machine (e.g. 192.168.1.3) to copy to (e.g. /remotedir).

Create empty directory on local machine, and mount remote directory to it:

mkdir /remotedir

mount 192.168.1.3:/remotedir /remotedir

tar -c localdir/ | tar -C /remotedir/ -xv

That will copy contents of localdir to /remotedir on remote machine.

I used the above method to quickly copy some vmware images to a new server. scp copies were taking way too long. I was using ubuntu dapper servers, but it will work basically the same on any linux machines.

Install VMWare server on Ubuntu 7.0.4 Feisty Fawn

It’s not exactly difficult to install VMWare Server, but this howto has all the info you need in one place.

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Making VMware Keep Correct Time

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Making VMware Keep Correct Time. Until recently, the only sure-fire way to make sure VMware kept the same time as your hardware clock was to use a cron job which polled a time server for the correct time and then reset the VMware/Linux clock every few minutes. That’s been fixed, and we’ll show you how to patch the boot loader to fix it. But, first, while you’re using WebMin, let’s disable the time-setting cron job. From the main WebMin menu, choose Hardware->System Clock. In about the middle of the page is an option to Synchronize (the time) on Schedule. Just set it to No and Save your change. Now go to the command prompt on your server and make certain you are logged in as root. Edit the boot loader (nano -w /boot/grub/grub.conf) and move down to line 16 which begins with the word “kernel.” Edit that line so that it looks like the following and save your change (Ctrl-X, Y, then Enter). Then reboot your system (shutdown -r now). HINT: Everything after “noapic” is new stuff to be added, and it all must be appended to the end of the existing line.kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-34.0.2.EL ro root=LABEL=/ acpi=off noapic nosmp nolapic clock=pit

VMWare Time Drift

VMWare guests can incur significant time drift. Installing VMWare tools enables you to have the guest sync its clock with the host. There is a GUI applet called vmware-toolbox. You can check the “Time synchronization between virtual mmachine and the host operating system.” checkbox to enable it.

If you have a linux server installed without X, you can still install vmware tools, thought it is not as automatic as systems with a GUI. Once it is installed, shut the guest down, and locate the .vmx file for the guest. Look for the line:

tools.syncTime = “FALSE” and change that to tools.syncTime = “TRUE”

You can add the line in if it is not there. Start up the machine and the clock should be correct, or at least in sync with the host system.

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