Gareth's Blog

Installing HP SIM Agents to ESX 5i using Host Bundles

garethhwilson — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 08:11:33 +0000

First you need to download and install the vSphere command line software from here http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vcli/

Once that is installed get the latest bundle from hp.com for the blade

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=uk&prodNameId=3621782&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=3621769&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=4115

2. Pop this file on a local webserver you can get at

3. Place the server that you want to update in to “Maintenance Mode”

4. Launch the vSphere command line utility and execute the following command

5. esxcli –s yourESXserverName/IP software vib install –d http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/esx5/index.xml

In our case we use the command :

esxcli –s yourESXserverName/IP software vib install –d http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/esx5/index.xml (as we extracted the saved zip file from hp.com to the folder esx5 on the webserver)

6. You will then be prompted for the root username/password to allow the software to install.

7. Setup will then report back if the offline bundle was installed correctly or not.

8. Reboot the server to complete the installation

Installing NIC Drivers for HP BL460 G7 on ESX4i

garethhwilson — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 08:24:33 +0000

We found after installing ESX4.1 Update 1 to our new HP BL 460 G7 blade servers that the installation did not detect the onboard 10GB NICs that the server gets shipped it only detected the extra nics we had installed on a mezzanine card in the blade. To get the 10GB onboard NICs working with ESX4i I did the following

First you need to download and install the vSphere command line software from here http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vcli/

Once that is installed get the drivers from VMWare
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/esx_esxi41_serverengines_dt/ZHcqYmRAaGViZHdlZQ==
Pop this file on a local webserver you can get at (we extracted the iso and pulled the zip file out of the offline bundle folder)
Place the ESX server that you want to update in to “Maintenance Mode”
Launch the vSphere command line utility and execute the following command
vihostupdate.pl –server –install –bundle http:///rollup.zip

In our case we use the command :

vihostupdate.pl –server myserbername –install –bundle http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/cli/hpbl460g7.zip (as we saved the offline bundle to the webserver in the cli folder and called it hpbl460g7.zip)

You will then be prompted for the root username/password to allow the software to install.
Once the software has finished installing you can check it has installed by executing the command :

vihostupdate.pl –server –query

This will respond with the list of offline bundles installed on that server, more info on the command lines can be found here http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=uk&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=3884098&swItem=MTX-b98795300e7947d88f19ab56d6&prodNameId=3884099&swEnvOID=4091&swLang=13&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=1

Reboot the Server to complete the installation
Once the server has rebooted the onboard nics should now show up.

Installing HP SIM Agents to ESX 4i using Host Bundles

garethhwilson — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 08:16:40 +0000

First you need to download and install the vSphere command line software from here http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vcli/

Once that is installed get the latest bundle from hp.com for the blade http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=uk&prodNameId=3884099&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=3884098&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=4091
Pop this file on a local webserver you can get at
Place the server that you want to update in to “Maintenance Mode”
Launch the vSphere command line utility and execute the following command
vihostupdate.pl –server –install –bundle http:///rollup.zip

In our case we use the command :

vihostupdate.pl –server myservername –install –bundle http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/cli/hp.zip (as we saved the offline bundle to the webserver in the cli folder and called it hp.zip)

You will then be prompted for the root username/password to allow the software to install.
Once the software has finished installing you can check it has installed by executing the command :

vihostupdate.pl –server –query

Reboot the Server to complete the installation

Removing Server from DPM Console

garethhwilson — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 13:22:42 +0000

Open the DPM Powershell and run the command

Remove-ProductionServer.ps1

Connecting Non-domain (Workgroup) Server to DPM

garethhwilson — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 12:02:42 +0000

On the computer that you want to install the protection agent map a network drive to the DPM server

net use z: \dpmservername\c$

On the computer that you want to install the protection agent change to the following directory:

z:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\DPM\Agents\RA\latestversion\i386 (if running 32 bit OS)
z:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\DPM\Agents\RA\latestversion\amd64 (if running 64 bit OS)

Then type DpmAgentInstaller.exe (for 32 bit OS)

or type DpmAgentInstaller_amd64.exe (for 64 bit OS)

Once you have rebooted the server after installing the agents open a command prompt on the server in the workgroup that you want to backup and change to the following directory :

cd C:\Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\bin

Then go back to the command prompt and execute the following command

Setdpmserver –dpmservername MYDPMSERVER –isNonDomainServer – username msdpm-user

You will then be prompted for the password for that user, if successful the server will then auto configure the dpm server settings and the firewall.

Then switch over to your dpm server and open the DPM Powershell icon on your desktop and run the following command :

.\Attach-NonDomainServer.ps1 -dpmservername MYDPMSERVER -psname MyWorkgroupServerName -username msdpm-user

Enter the password when prompted and the shell should come back and say “Attached Non Domain Server successfully”

The Workgroup server should now should in the DPM GUI.

Installing VMWare Tools on Ubuntu

garethhwilson — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:59:11 +0000

Mount the VMWare Tools cd by right clicking the machine in Virtual Center and then selecting “Guest – > Install VMWare Tools”

sudo apt-get install build-essential
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`
sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom (note on some boxes it shows up as cdrom0 and not cdrom)
cp /media/cdrom/VMware*.tar.gz /tmp
sudo umount /media/cdrom
cd /tmp
tar xzvf VMware*.gz
cd vmware-tools-distrib/
sudo ./vmware-install.pl

When the installation scripts promps for answers, Press Enter since all the defaults are OK.

VMware ESX logfiles

garethhwilson — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:45:10 +0000

• Vmkernel – /var/log/vmkernel – records activities related to the virtual machines and ESX server.

• Vmkernel Warnings – /var/log/vmkwarning – This log is a copy of everything marked as a warning or higher severity from vmkernel log. It is much easier to look through this for warnings and errors, instead of filtering through the full information in the vmkernel logs.

• Vmkernel Summary – /var/log/vmksummary – Used to determine uptime and availability statistics for ESX Server; human-readable summary found in /var/log/vmksummary.txt

• ESX Server host agent log – /var/log/vmware/hostd.log – Contains information on the agent that manages and configures the ESX Server host and its virtual machines (Search the file date/time stamps to find the log file it is currently outputting to).

• Service Console – /var/log/messages – This log is the log from the Linux kernel (service console), which is generally only potentially useful in the case of a host hang, crash, authentication issue, or 3rd party app acting up. This log has NOTHING to do with virtual machines. The SERVICE CONSOLE (red hat kernel) has NO awareness of the VMs (worlds) running on the VMKERNEL.

• Web Access – /var/log/vmware/webAccess – Records information on Web-based access to ESX Server.

• Authentication log – /var/log/secure – Contains records of connections that require authentication, such as VMware daemons and actions initiated by the xinetd daemon.

• VirtualCenter agent – /var/log/vmware/vpx – Contains information on the agent that communicates with VirtualCenter.

• Virtual Machines – The same directory as the affected virtual machine’s configuration files; named vmware.log – Contain information when a virtual machine crashes or ends abnormally.

Log File	Name	Details
/var/log/vmkernel	Vmkernel	Records activities related to the virtual machines and ESX host
/var/log/vmkwarning	Vmkernel Warnings	A copy of everything marked as a warning or higher severity from vmkernel log. Easier to look through than vmkernel log
/var/log/vmksummary	Vmkernel Summary	Used for avaialability and uptime statistics. Human-readable summary in vmksummary.txt
/var/log/vmware/hostd.log	Host Agent Log	Contains information on the agent that manages and configures the ESX host and its virtual machines
/var/log/vmware/vpx	VirtualCenter Agent	Contains information on the agent that communicates with VirtualCenter
/var/log/messages	Service Console	Log from the Linux kernel. Useful for underlying Linux issues. The kernel has no awareness of VMs running on the VMkernel
/var/log/vmware/esxcfg-boot.log	ESX Boot Log	ESX Boot log, logs all ESX boot events
/var/log/vmware/webAccess	Web Access	Records information on Web-based access to ESX Server
/var/log/secure	Authentication Log	Contains records of connections that require authentication, such as VMware daemons and actions initiated by the xinetd daemon
/var/log/vmware/esxcfg-firewall.log	ESX Firewall Log	Contains all firewall rule events
/var/log/vmware/aam	High Availability Log	Contains information related to the High Availability (HA) service
/var/log/vmware/esxupdate.log	ESX Update Log	Logs all updates completed using the esxupdate tool

There’s a new Knowledgebase article on this here: VMware KB: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1021806 Location of log files for VMware products

This info was gathered from vmwarewolf @ http://www.vmwarewolf.com/which-esx-log-file/

Killing a Windows Service thats is stuck on Stoping

garethhwilson — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:40:47 +0000

1. Go to the command-prompt and query the services running by using sc:

sc queryex > C:\services.txt

This will create a dump of all the services running on your windows server to a file called C:\services.txt

2. Open C:\services.txt and search for the service name you are looking for and make a note of the SERVICE NAME and the PID of this service

e.g. SERVICE_NAME: cpqvcagent
       DISPLAY_NAME: HP Version Control Agent
        TYPE               : 110 WIN32_OWN_PROCESS (interactive)
        STATE              : 3 STOP_PENDING
                                (STOPPABLE, NOT_PAUSABLE, ACCEPTS_SHUTDOWN)
        WIN32_EXIT_CODE    : 0 (0×0)
        SERVICE_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0×0)
        CHECKPOINT         : 0×1
        WAIT_HINT          : 0x9c4
        PID                : 1284
        FLAGS              :
3. type the following

taskkill /PID 1284 /F

where the 1284 is the PID of the HP Version Control Agent Service and the /F flag is needed to force the process kill

4. The Service should then stop successfully

5. Go into Services and erstart the service that we killed.

Installing eDirectory on Windows 2008

garethhwilson — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:44:24 +0000

Installing eDirectory on Windows Enough about requirements–let’s install eDirectory on Windows. You can download eDirectory from Novell at http://www.novell.com/download . The installation program for eDirectory isn’t that different from an eDirectory installation on NetWare or a typical Windows installation for any other Windows program. You need to specify whether to create a new tree, an existing tree, and specify the license as well as the ports you’ll want the server to use for administrative services and for LDAP services.

To install eDirectory on Windows, follow the steps below:

1.Download eDirectory 8.8.5 from Novell’s web site.

2.Extract the contents of the ZIP file to a directory on your computer.

3.Browse to the NT directory and launch the setup.exe file.

4.Mark the box to install Novell Directory Services and ConsoleOne. You can install an SLP DA (Service Location Protocol Directory Agent) at a later time if you need SLP services on the Windows box.

5.Click Next.

6.Click I Accept.

7.Mark English as your language and click Next.

8.Select the path where to install eDirectory. The default is fine.

9.I selected Install into an Existing Tree since I already have a NetWare 6 server running as shown in the Figure 1. Installing eDirectory for Windows into an existing tree.

10.Fill out the information for your tree name and context for the server object.

11.Click Next to select the LDAP ports

12.Select all methods of authentication for NMAS.

13.Click Finish.

Continue and install ConsoleOne so you can manage eDirectory on the Windows platform. With those things done, you have now installed eDirectory on Windows.

Recovering DPM Database After Server Rebuild

garethhwilson — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:05:14 +0000

To recover the DPM database when the database is corrupt or you have had to rebuild your DPM server for whatever reason

Install DPM 2007.
Restart the computer.
On the DPM server, create a folder to which you can restore the files.
Insert the tape with the latest backup of DPMDB into the tape library.(or copy the database .mdf and .log file if you made a manual backup of these files before you rebuilt your server)
Open the Libraries tab on the Management tab of DPM Administrator Console.
Click Rescan on the Actions pane.Go to Updating Tape Library Information for more information on using the Rescan option.
Insert the tape with the latest DPMDB backup in the tape drive/library. You can find the tape having the latest DPMDB backup using the last tape management report.
Select the library from the list and click Inventory libraries… and perform a detailed inventory from the Actions pane.
Select the imported tape from the list and click Recatalog imported tape on the Actions pane.
Open the Recovery tab from DPM Administrator Console.
Select the DPMDB by expanding the External Tapes node.
Click Recover on the Actions pane.
Using the Recovery wizard, recover the database to a network folder. This folder will be the recovery folder you created in Step 6.Go to How to Inventory Tapes for more information on the procedure to inventory tapes.
Use DPMSync to attach the database to DPM.

DPMSync –RestoreDB –DBLoc location of folder created in Step 3\name of DPMDB

DPMSync takes the DPM service offline and attaches the backed up database to SQL Server.

Run DpmSync -sync
Load DPM Management Console and your data should be back in the console
Click the “Management” Tab and then click “Libraries” and tell it to do an inveentory scan on your tape/virtual tape libraries
Jobs Done