Vmware on

You are dev to me

Sun, 11 Oct 2015 04:26:50 +0000

Introduction

The idea of keeping a production and development network always wears on me. Unless the change management is in place to offer some assurances that both threads are kept exactly in sync, they inevitably turn into a game of not good enough to buy down risk.

That was the rationale behind creating a system that allowed rapid captures of running machines, transitioning to a closed network, and with no changes to the network/systems have them be as they were just minutes earlier. Thanks to technology from EMC, Cisco, VMware, and VyOS this is all very possible.

Virtualization Tool Support Matrix

Sat, 05 Feb 2011 12:40:18 +0000

I would argue it is pretty sad that the tools needed to abstract the OS from hardware are tied to specific platforms. Companies that pride themselves on delivering “cloud services” without the constraints of operating system force us admin types to have machines we wouldn’t otherwise. Take for example my ESXi cluster in the basement. I have a single XP Virtual Machine who’s sole purpose is to admin vSphere. A company with such a rich history of Linux and OSS support drives me crazy at times. (see also PCoIP support from VMware with their Linux/Mac Client)

VMware Fusion 3.0 Quick Review

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:29:31 +0000

I was up answering emails last night well into the night and before turning in I upgraded to Vmware Fusion 3. Thought I would pro’s and con’s it here for the group:

Spiffy:

Runs MUCH better on Snow Leopard and utilizes 64bit fully. Memory utilization on my macpro was much better than with 2
Ran a few games (HL, Quake3, DoD) and they seem to have less graphic artifacts. I can’t think of a game I play that isn’t native or run in WINE, but a neat option. I see this as a big boom for those doing 3d modeling and the software not able to run any other way. Also supports Aero and Windows 7 flip. I usually turn these off by default, but someone must like them.
VNC! I missed this feature most from Workstation on Linux. You can make a vncserver so that when you start your VM you can then hookup @ the BIOS level from another machine. Great for hosting a VM as a sudo-server
I haven’t had a chance to test, but the migration tool looks to be a killer option for those moving from Windows machines. It works over a network and requires a little program install on your windows machines. I am wondering if this is based on P2V they offer for Enterprise work. I wonder how many of these little converter apps will be finding their way to corporate images :) The end result being install a little program, start the mac, and convert your whole machine to a VM with your apps and settings.

Lame:

Move from Physical to Virtual with CloneZilla

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:44:29 +0000

Just a side note for when I forget how I fixed this…

When using CloneZilla you can capture server images and redeploy them unless there are hardware differences. To fix issues with hardware changes between physical server hardware and VMware here are my fix actions:

Windows 2003 Enterprise
- Change the hard drive to IDE from SCSI. Windows will blue screen when you boot after image deployment since it cannot find the drive to boot from. You will get the error: 0x0000007b
- After booting windows 2003 you can then install the BusLogic or LSI SCSI drivers
Red Hat Linux 5
- Boot with the first CD of the install set and instead of an install, use linux rescue.
- Once booted chroot /mnt/sysimage
- Blank out the /etc/modprobe.conf
- mv /boot/initrd-2.6.18-20.el5.img /boot/initrd-2.6.18-20.el5.img.orig
- mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-20.el5.img 2.6.18-20.el5
- reboot
Windows XP
- Change the hard drive to IDE from SCSI. Windows XP in the default install does not include the two SCSI adapters VMware supports, BusLogic or LSI Logic.
- During the CloneZilla restore you are given a few options. The ones to select to ensure a successful MBR restore are:
  - -t1
  - -j1

These settings will allow you to move your physical clonezilla images to vmware.

I hate Windows

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 08:10:43 +0000

I run Windows XP in a virtual machine for those few programs that lack Linux and Mac clients. I booted my FULLY PATCHED, FIREWALLED, and Windows XP Service Pack 3 to find gay sex fetish icons. Oh, gosh, I didn’t even realize I loved me some gay pr0n. When we move to virtualized solutions and slowly get rid of Windows enviroments we often forget that it is still a vulnerable machine. More and more users are booting Windows simply to interface with their corporate enviroments and not following under the security posture they believe to be in.

Just say “NO” to OS Level Virtualization

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 13:45:12 +0000

Microsoft Patch 955020

This patch will ensure that Friendster and Obama are added to your dictionary on Vista and 2008 Server. No big deal right? This brings up a few questions for me:

Why does my server have a GUI?
Why does this patch require a reboot?
Who is typing the words Friendster or Obama on their 2008 Server?

At the root of the issue is that I will never deploy Hyper-V for enviroments I admin. I understand patching for core issues and security but this is stupid. If this server was in fact running my virtual server farm I would now be rebooting for Friendster and Obama. Yikes!

VMware Server Beta 2 Review

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 05:44:03 +0000

The Good:

Bringing it up to level of workstation/fusion virtual machine compatibility? Vix if you are into the innards of virtualization.

The Bad:

Wow I mean where do you start? Let me walk you through my install process. I upgraded from the original vmware server to beta on an Ubuntu Gutsy box. The install process was smooth as butter and worked like a champ. I expect the smoothness because VMware is the benchmark for easy installs on Linux (only behind Google for using the Loki Installer) and has always shown that. What I never expected was the actual usage of the software. Gone is your GUI console. Hold on to that for a minute. It is gone, totally non-existstent. The GUI was replaced by a Web interface using AJAX. It all feels very Web 2.0 which is great for when I log into Digg or Facebook (Ooohh Shinny!) but this is enterprise software. What makes the web interface unbearable is the speed. Has anyone used Yahoo! Mail beta AJAX interface? It has brought this quad-processor 4GiB RAM machine to its knees. That is how the VMware Web console feels. VMware! WAKE UP! Web interfaces are great and when you make it optional like you always have with WebUI packages. Optional, it only adds to the flexibility your company has given admins and architects everywhere. I understand the reasoning, web runs everywhere and gives you a lot of options for using thin clients and PDA’s.

VMWare Server + Gutsy Gibbon = Houston its a-go

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 04:57:44 +0000

Just make sure to download the latest vmware-any-any patches to deal with the new 2.6.22 and all should be well:

http://platan.vc.cvut.cz/ftp/pub/vmware/