Tools

The new SolarWinds free VM Console enables you to bounce your virtual machines without ever logging into VMware! Plus, you can track up/down status, take snapshots, and restart VMs even if you’re not a VMware administrator. Be a VM superhero with the ability to:

• Shutdown & restart VMs without logging into vCenter or vSphere
  
  
• Take snapshots of your VMs before bouncing them
  
  
• Get end-to-end visibility into your VMware environment — from vCenter through ESX hosts to VM guests
  
  
• Track the up/down status of your VMs without logging into VMware apps

I just downloaded a new FREE network tool from SolarWinds which you might like. SolarWind's VM Console Free Tool lets you monitor, and restart virtual machines without logging into VMware vCenter or Vsphere! You can download it here: http://bit.ly/93WjRH

VMware Auto Deploy supports automatic PXE boot and customization of large numbers of ESXi systems. Auto Deploy allows rapid deployment and configuration of a large number of ESXi hosts. After a DHCP server has been set up, Auto Deploy PXE boots machines that are turned on with an ESXi image. Auto Deploy then customizes the ESXi systems using host profiles and other information stored on the managing vCenter Server system. You can set up the environment to use different images and different host profiles for different hosts.

System Requirements

• ESX/ESXi system to install the virtual appliance on. This system must be able to connect to the vCenter Server system on which you want to create and store the host profiles.
• Static IP address to assign to the VMware Auto Deploy appliance during startup.
• vCenter Server system to manage the auto‐deployed ESX/ESXi systems and to store the host profiles.
• MAC address or asset tag of each ESXi system you want to PXE boot.
• DNS Server that maps IP addresses to host names. (Optional)

Quickstart instructions

1. Deploy the OVA file on an ESX/ESXi server. The autodeploy VM should have a NIC connected to the management network.
2. Boot the new VM.
3. Go to the VM's console and answer any questions.
4. If the management network has no DHCP server, login as vi-admin and run 'sudo deploy-cmd dhcpconfig'. Otherwise, consult the manual for setting up the DHCP server.
5. Network boot the machine to be used as an ESXi server. It should contact autodeploy and start booting ESXi.

Version: 1.0 | File size: 1.18GB | Date uploaded: 08/12/2010

AnywhereUSB products are network-attached USB hubs that connect USB peripheral devices to a PC over a Local Area Network. The AnywhereUSB TS model also adds four RS-232 serial ports, enabling the mixing of USB and serial ports over the same network connection. Relocating the host PC to a remote location translates to smaller workstations, enabling deployment without a local PC in kiosks, ATMs, restaurant kitchens, manufacturing lines or any hostile or non-secure area where having a local PC is not practical.

New 19'' Rack model

VMware ESX Server Using AnywhereUSB to Connect USB Devices

The ESXGuide Website is now owned by the newly founded Company VMVision GmbH. Manfred Meier over at VMVision reports:

After a long time taking a deep dive into development of my new Virtual Infrastructure Management solution, I finally have a Beta Version ready which I will distribute to a limited number of users. The Beta Version has been tested and used in a production environment for some month. Please be aware, the registration for the Beta download will only be available for a limited period!  Registration is requiered to access the download section.

If you like to give it a try you can download it from http://www.vmvision.com

• VMVision Manager Integrates multiple vCenter Server and ESX Hosts
There's support for the integration of multiple vCenter Servers and ESX Hosts. This allows a fast integration of an existing VMware Infrastructure environment.
• Recieving Tasks and Events
VMVision Manager receives all tasks end events from all integrated vCenters and ESX Hosts. With this solution, you can keep track of all modifications and system states.

With the Single-Sign-On solution you get fast access to all entities (vCenter, ESX Hosts, Virtual Machines) is simplified. Access with the SSH protocol and Terminals allows an easy management of the ESX Hosts.

With vSphere 4 it is possible to create your own vSphere Plug-ins based on the .NET framework. These plug-ins work in combination with the vSphere Client, like the Update Manager or VMware Data Recovery. So the plug-ins enhance the vSphere Client to a single management tool for different business needs.

Christian Johannsen over at mightycare:

In the past some of our customers ask for integrations of their management tools or own web application in the vSphere Client. The easiest way to include web applications into the vSphere client is to use the .xml definition. The problem with this solution is the static definition of the contents. So we decide to develop a webservice plugin which is dynamic, based on the clicked object in the vSphere client (MoRefID) and allows you to define which application is deposited for this object. The plugin consist of two parts:

• the plugin for the vSphere client
• an example WebPage (index.php)

The plugin is used to configure the path to the webserver and the webpage is used to show an example for the MoRefID (Managed Object Reference ID) handling.
In this version the following managed objects could be used for web-applications:

• virtual machines
• resource pools
• host systems
• cluster

http://www.mightycare.de/aktuelles/mcswebserviceplugin_veroeffentlicht

Fellow vExpert Jakub Felinski over at the weblog “Virtualization in Practice” has posted a really nice article about using Nagios to monitor a VMware vSphere environment. Nagios is a popular open source computer system and network monitoring software application. It watches hosts and services, alerting users when things go wrong and again when they get better. Jacub has added all the necessary VMware modules to the Nagios virtual appliance which can be downloaded in OVF format at his website. He also created a description with the configuration changes at ESX level, it’s real easy to get it up and running. The original Polish article with download link can be found here and the Google translation can be found here.

By default, each ESX host gets a set of basic tests which include:

•  CPU usage
•  Disk latency (read write)
•  Hardware sensors
•  Disk operations canceled
•  State of network cards
•  Memory swapping
•  Free space in each Datastore

The Operations Panel is a script tool, which runs on the client browser and extends the default ESX server web page with a short list of all available virtual machines. It gives the user the ability to perform simple power operations (start, stop, suspend, resume). Easily accessible user interface for some of the most common operations on an ESX host, available directly from the ESX home page.

This online training video will show you how to embed the Ops Panel into your existing ESX landing page.

Scott Herold is happy to announce the release of the vEcoShell 1.2.6. It’s out of beta and officially has been deemed as a stable release. The list of features is quite limited, but the biggest change is multi session management which makes copying and pasting from the web and PS1 files possible. Under the hood every single script in the function library was re-written from scratch. Scott also has transferred the community homepage of The vEcoShell Initiative to Vizioncore’s vCommunity.



What's New with 1.2.6?

•Completely rewritten PowerPack to support VMware PowerCLU 4.0 Update 1 and its ability to manage connections to multiple $viServer objects.
•Ability to copy and paste code from "PowerShell Code" tab directly into standalone PS1 files (Will still need to Add-PSSnapin and Connect-VIServer for script to function).
•Ability to copy and paste code snippets from the internet and they will work without needing to add the $managedHost.connection code everywhere.

Download the latest version of vEcoShell and additional PowerPacks here.

Scott Herold about the GA: I am happy to announce that the 1.2.6 version of vEcoShell is now available on the Downloads Page. This update brings us into full compatibility with VMware PowerCLI 4.0 U1. In addition, we have decided to remove the product from beta and have provided our first stable release , which has been rigourously tested by the Vizioncore QC team. vEcoShell will remain Freeware, and continue to have a community support policy. The major difference in 1.2.6 is in how connections to multiple vCenter or ESX Servers are managed. In previous versions, vEcoShell maintained all session management and required custom code in nearly all of it's scripts to function properly. These scripts could not run externally to vEcoShell, so the PowerShell Code tab provided limited value. With the 1.2.6 release, vEcoShell now lets PowerCLI manage all connections. This means we were able to remove all custom code from our script library. Nearly every script that is in vEcoShell today can be run externally. Simply copy a code block from the "PowerShell Code"...

YouTube user eitang8 from Israël has created a nice VMware AppSpeed demo.

DOSBox emulates an Intel x86 PC, complete with sound, graphics, mouse, joystick, modem, etc., necessary for running many old MS-DOS games that simply cannot be run on modern PCs and operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux and FreeBSD. However, it is not restricted to running only games. In theory, any MS-DOS or PC-DOS (referred to commonly as "DOS") application should run in DOSBox, but the emphasis has been on getting DOS games to run smoothly, which means that communication, networking and printer support are still in early development.

DOSBox is a DOS-emulator that uses the SDL-library which makes DOSBox very easy to port to different platforms. DOSBox has already been ported to many different platforms, such as Windows, BeOS, Linux, MacOS X...

DOSBox also emulates CPU:286/386 realmode/protected mode, Directory FileSystem/XMS/EMS, Tandy/Hercules/CGA/EGA/VGA/VESA graphics, a SoundBlaster/Gravis Ultra Sound card for excellent sound compatibility with older games...

http://www.dosbox.com

While I was doing a quick scan on the most recent Twitter activity, I noticed one Tweet by William Lam that caught my attention: This is a very nice find, Troubleshooting VM snapshot problems, very extensive doc put together by VMware emp - http://is.gd/ckwDc

The link leads to a real cool troubleshooting guide with everything you want to know about snapshots. It’s written by Ruben Garcia who’s working as a Technical Support Engineer at VMware.

This troubleshooting guide explains basic concepts about Virtual Machine snapshots and different troubleshooting paths depending on the problem. This guide was designed for ESX3.5 and extra considerations have to be taken if working with ESX3.5i or ESX4(i).  The formulas and most of the procedures described in this document were created by Ruben as part of a continuous troubleshooting improvement process.

Ruben is also the creator of the SnapVMX utility.

While troubleshooting Virtual Machine (VM) snapshot problems sometimes it is important to retrieve a lot of information in order to take the most appropriate decision in accordance with the situation. That collection and arrangement of information may take a long time especially if the VM has many snapshots.

SnapVMX was created to speed up the troubleshooting process bringing you instantaneously all the information that you need to evaluate the situation and take the correct decision, reducing the downtime to the bare minimum needed to solve the problem, because after all "time is money".

Ruben’s blog can be found at: http://vmutils.blogspot.com/

Did you know that there are several free tools available from SolarWinds?  Recently they compiled a list of their customers’ favourite FREE network tools including: Real-time NetFlow Analyzer, TFTP Server, Exchange Monitor, IP Address Tracker and more. Check out their Top 5 Free Tools.