Notes, Solutions, and Rants

VMware script remove CD media

Mikeal — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:03:00 +0000

Often I forget to go back and unmount ISO files in VMware. This isn't normally a problem unless you want to do something like delete a storage target, but it is a pain to try and location which VM has the ISO mounted by hand in the vSphere client. This script will remove the ISO media from all VMs. You will need the VMware Power CLI installed to use this script.

Code:

$server = "server IP"
$user = "domain\user"
$pwd = "user's password"
 
Connect-VIServer $server -User $user -Password $pwd
 
$vms = Get-VM
write "`nVM's with CD-ROM device type set to 'Datastore ISO file' :"
foreach ($vm in $vms | where { $_ | Get-CDDrive | where { $_.ISOPath -like "*.ISO*"} | Set-CDDrive -Nomedia -confirm:$false })  {
                write $vm.name
               
}

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Deploying software with scripts

Mikeal — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 17:29:00 +0000

Not everyone has fancy(read: expensive) enterprise software to automatically deploy software to desktops. Installing software by hand is time consuming, boring, and unnecessary with a little help from the pstools suite.

This is pretty basic, but it gets the job done. All we need is 2 batch files, 1 txt file with a list of the desktops we want to install on, and the psexec.exe file from the pstools suite.

Make a batch file for software installation like:
install.bat

Code:

Net use z: \\software\location
z:
cd sub\folder\if\needed
mkdir c:\software
copy *.* c:\software /y
c:
cd c:\software
msiexec /i something.msi /qn (install software with msi)
msiexec /update something.msp /qn (for updating software, like adobe reader)
setup.exe /veryquiet (or something similiar depends on the .exe)
rmdir c:\software
net use z: /delete /y

workstations.txt

Code:

workstation1
workstation2
workstation3

process.bat

Code:

psexec @workstations.txt -s -c install.bat >> install.log

Copy psexec.exe into the same folder, then just run process.bat from dos and watch the installs. I normally keep a second window open and 'type install.log' to see the results.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

FreeNAS 8 Troubleshooting / Dell PERC5

Mikeal — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 20:57:00 +0000

By default FreeNAS 8 does not have the driver enabled for PERC5 and PERC6 RAID controllers commonly found in 1850/1950/2850/2950 Power Edge servers. If you want to correct this, boot off the installation CD, and go into the shell. From the shell you need to mount your already installed FreeNAS parition.

mount /dev/usf/FreeNASs1a /mnt

If your booting FreeNAS of a device not connected via the PERC you can modify the /boot/loader.conf with:

mfi_load="YES"

If booting from a USB device change kern.cam.boot_delay=1000 to kern.cam.boot_delay=2000

You may also want to change /etc/fstab to make the file system writable by changing:

/dev/ufs/FreeNASs1a / ufs ro 1 1

to

/dev/ufs/FreeNASs1a / ufs rw 1 1

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Reverse DNS / PTR records with Windows 2008

Mikeal — Thu, 17 May 2012 01:24:00 +0000

The Windows 2008 DNS Manager does not work correctly for reverse DNS zones outside of the typical classes. I recently had to enable reverse DNS for a /25. The DNS Manager creates the zone correctly, but then doesn't allow you to enter the PTR records in the correct format.

To enter your PTR records correctly you have to use an elevated command line with the dnscmd tool.

example:

For a reverse DNS of 111.111.111.10

dnscmd 127.0.0.1 /recordadd 128/25.111.111.111.in-addr.arpa 10 PTR subdomain.domain.com

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Who do these replica folders belong to?

Mikeal — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 05:52:00 +0000

Cleaning up some LUNs so I can resize them and after rebalancing all the pools the LUN I was going to remove still had some folders on it. Most of the folders only contained a .hlog file, but a few replica folders still existed and those are a reason for concern. Using the following SQL commands you can determin if the VM associated with the replica folders still exist, and what VM it is or was in some cases.

SELECT *

FROM [vmwvdb].dbo.VPX_ENTITY

where [NAME] ='replica-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx'

Copy the ID for use in the next query as 'VM-###'

SELECT *

FROM [vmwv composer db].dbo.SVI_REPLICA

where [REPLICA_MOID] = 'VM-###'

Copy the Replica_ID for use in next query

SELECT [VM_NAME]

,[GUEST_COMPUTER_NAME]

,[REPLICA_ID]

FROM [vmwv composer db].dbo.SVI_SIM_CLONE

where [REPLICA_ID] ='11111111-aaaa-1111-aaaa-111111111111'

You should now have the VM name if it still exists in the database.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

MySQL Backup script

Mikeal — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 02:19:00 +0000

Doing this on FreeBSD so you might need to modify the bash location for other OS choices

#!/usr/local/bin/bash
backupdir=/home/backup/
backupfile=`date +backup-%d-%m-%y_%H.sql`
tarfile=mysqlbackup.tar
cd $backupdir
mysqldump --opt -A -h localhost --password=***** -u root > $backupfile
gunzip "$tarfile".gz
tar rf $tarfile $backupfile &> /dev/null
gzip $tarfile
rm $backupfile

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

VMworld 2011 EUC3163 VMware View Performance and Best Practices Notes

Mikeal — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 06:08:00 +0000

vSphere 5.0 for VDI
- 30% performance improvement measured by consolidation rati
- Better out of the box CPU scheduling for VDI workloads
- No special tuning required

Memory
- Per VM allocation reduced significantly
- Allows better memory over-commit/higher consolidation ratios
- 60% less book keeping memory per 1GB RAM VM
- transparent page sharing

Graphics
- 3D support
  - 3D graphics is rendered using CPU resources
  - Eliminates cost for GPUs and special devices
  - Good for light 3D apps/Aero
  - PCoIP Server offload cards w/Teradici
    - Improved performance
    - better consolidation from offloading

Protocol Enhancements
- WAN Bandwidth optimizations
- Lossless CODEC for text improvement
- 30% bandwidth improvement
- client side caching
- Build to lossless
  - Render initial image
  - Build up to lossless
  - Build until fully lossless
  - Up to 75% bandwidth improvement if disable build to lossless

CPU optimizations
- Negligible PCoIP overhead for idle VMs
- Optimizations of algorithms and core functions at a lower level
- Reduced compression library overheads
- Better Session Resilience
  - Session recovery during loss of network up to 30 seconds is seamless to users
- PCoIP performance counters for session stats/performance monitoring
  - WMI based
Provisioning
- Faster operations in 5.0
- More parallelism with config parameters

Loading boot drives from SSD is a major performance improvement to combat boot storms

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

VMworld 2011 VSP3255 VMware Storage vMotion Deep Dive and Best Practices Notes

Mikeal — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 03:58:00 +0000

Storage vMotion in 5.0 does IO Mirroring
Migration is almost 2x faster than 4.1

Empty disk is created on target vmfs, IO is written to both disks, and mirroring is started to move disk
Pause and resume time for VM moving over storage vMotion is now controlled and never more than 2 seconds

Snapshots
Preserve the state of a VM
config state
memory state
disk state

Components:
Snapshot descriptor file *.vmsd
Snapshot config file *.vmsn
snapshot delta disk *-delta.vmdk

Snapshot File Placement:
Descriptor and config file in VM home or SnapshotDirectory
Delta disk in same location as the parent disk

vSphere 5.0 supports storage vMotion for linked VMs

RoadMap:
Simultaneous vMotion and Storage vMotion
Inter-vDS vMotion and Storage vMotion
Inter-vCenter vMotion and storage vMotion
vMotion and Storage vMotion across geographies

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

	`$server = "server IP"`
	`$user = "domain\user"`
	`$pwd = "user's password"`

	`Connect-VIServer $server -User $user -Password $pwd`

	`$vms = Get-VM`
	write "`nVM's with CD-ROM device type set to 'Datastore ISO file' :"
	`foreach ($vm in $vms \| where { $_ \| Get-CDDrive \| where { $_.ISOPath -like ".ISO"} \| Set-CDDrive -Nomedia -confirm:$false }) {`
	`write $vm.name`

	`}`

	`Net use z: \\software\location`
	`z:`
	`cd sub\folder\if\needed`
	`mkdir c:\software`
	`copy . c:\software /y`
	`c:`
	`cd c:\software`
	`msiexec /i something.msi /qn (install software with msi)`
	`msiexec /update something.msp /qn (for updating software, like adobe reader)`
	`setup.exe /veryquiet (or something similiar depends on the .exe)`
	`rmdir c:\software`
	`net use z: /delete /y`

	`workstation1`
	`workstation2`
	`workstation3`