Konstantin Vlasenko » WMVare

Windows Server 2008 Core DCPROMO

Konstantin Vlasenko — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:32:20 +0000

dcpromo.exe /unattend /replicaOrNewDomain:domain /newDomain:forest /newDomainDnsName:velaskec.com /domainNetbiosName:velaskec /safeModeAdminPassword:pa$$word

Removing Password Complexity Requirements from Windows Server 2008 Core

Konstantin Vlasenko — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:05:52 +0000

Use this PowerShell script if you need to remove Password Complexity Requirements from Windows Server 2008 Core:

secedit /export /cfg c:\new.cfg
${c:new.cfg}=${c:new.cfg} | % {$_.Replace('PasswordComplexity=1', 'PasswordComplexity=0')}
secedit /configure /db $env:windir\security\new.sdb /cfg c:\new.cfg /areas SECURITYPOLICY
del c:\new.cfg

Convert VMWare PowerCLI Invoke-VMScript Output into PSObjects Array

Konstantin Vlasenko — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 12:08:38 +0000

There is a very usefull CMDLet Invoke-VMScript which comes with VMWare PowerCLI. You can use it to run the PowerShell scripts against a virtual machine (VM).
The CMDLet has several advantages over native PowerShell 2.0 remoting:
1. Avoiding one hop while executing the script (on the VM, the script is executed from the first person).
2. Ability to run the script against host-only VMs.

The only trouble is that this CMDLet returns the results as raw text which is not possible to handle like a PSObjects array.

To workaround this issue, you can use the following approach:

Invoke-VMScript -VM VirtualMachineName -ScriptText “Your script here | ConvertTo-CSV -NoTypeInformation” -HostUser root -HostPassword “rootpassword” -GuestUser DOMAIN\admin -GuestPassword “adminpassword” | ConvertFrom-CSV

vSphere 4.1 is finally out

Konstantin Vlasenko — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:27:47 +0000

http://vsphere-land.com/news/vsphere-41-the-links.html

ESXTOP command line monitoring tool for ESXi

Konstantin Vlasenko — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:32:48 +0000

Esxtop allows monitoring and collection of data for all system resources: CPU, memory, disk and network. It works with the free-licensed ESXi as well.

enable remote console access to your ESXi host.
open console session or ssh to ESX(i) and type: esxtop -h … and get the basic idea of usage
then you can run the next command: esxtop -n 100 > statistics.csv
download the statistics.csv file to the windows machine
start perfmon and select this file as a source
it is also possible to use esxplot tool to analyse this file

Interpreting esxtop Statistics

vEcoShell by Quest Software

Konstantin Vlasenko — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 10:44:18 +0000

Just want to introuduce the management tool for VMWare ESXi. It works with the free-licensed ESXi as well. The main benefit is that you can manage a lot of ESXi servers from the one console. You can get the information in one window across all of your VMs from all managed ESXi servers.

To start working you need to install Windows PowerShell and VMware PowerCLI first. Then you need to install vEcoShell. Enjoy!

FEATURES

	Gather – Access data from multiple standalone ESX Servers or vCenter instances to consolidate information from every layer of the virtualization stack including the operating systems, applications and infrastructure services.
	Filter – Easily identify inconsistencies and provide “health checks” on any virtual infrastructure and multi-platform environment with powerful time-saving filters that can be tuned, saved and leverage across the organization.
	Remediate – Reduce errors and streamline repetitive administrative tasks by efficiently modifying multiple objects across the infrastructure in a single operation.
	Report – Rapidly generate and customize reports for all types of IT- and business-related processes – save and print to a variety of formats such as XML, CSV, HTML and Microsoft Visio.
	Integrate – Leverage Windows PowerShell technology across the virtual environment to provide unparalleled integration capabilities with hypervisors, operating systems and application workloads, including support for Vizioncore vControl and Vizioncore vRanger Pro.

ESXi creating virtual disk from the command line

Konstantin Vlasenko — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 08:31:25 +0000

It is usefull if you are going to create a Windows Cluster. In that case you have to create a quorum disk.

enable remote console access to your ESXi host
start putty
go to your datastore (e.g. cd /vmfs/volumes/datastore1)
mkdir CLUSTER
cd CLUSTER
vmkfstools –c 4G –d eagerzeroedthick –a lsilogic quorum.vmdk

ESXi remote console access

Konstantin Vlasenko — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 08:17:16 +0000

UPDATE (March 16, 2011):There is no need in this trick starting from the ESXi 4.1. You can configure it.

got to your VMware ESXi host
press Alt-F1
then type “UNSUPPORTED” and press <enter>
login with your root login and password
edit the inetd.conf file by typing “vi /etc/inetd.conf“
remove the comment # in front of the SSH lines
reboot your ESXi server

Use DataStore Browser if you need to upload/download file/folder from/to ESXi host

Konstantin Vlasenko — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:20:59 +0000

What should I use for Dev & Test? VMware Server 2.0 or ESXi 4.0?

Konstantin Vlasenko — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:46:16 +0000

VMware itself recommends using VMware Server for testing and development, and the commercial variant VMware ESXi for production systems.

http://www.vmware.com/products/server/faqs.html