In my home lab, I run vCenter 6.7 with several ESXi hosts and since I built the lab I never did any backups.
Now that my VMs are not test VMs and they became fairly important, I’ve decided to take care of the backups.
Initially, I was thinking of using the Veeam Free Backup, but this program can’t do any schedules in the free version. Then I decided to play with OVF Tool, but I was having multiple issues with this tool and logging with a domain account. So, finally, I used PowerCLI and AWS CLI.
The idea is to create a OVA export of each VM and then upload it to an S3 bucket. The source is well commented, so you shouldn’t have any issues in the script’s logic.

######################################################################################################
# vCenter2AWS v0.1
# K.Andreev - 06/30/2018
# Description:  Creates an OVA backup of all or selected vCenter VMs 
#				and uploads them to a bucket in AWS (optional)
# Prerequisites: PowerCLI, AWS CLI (configured)
# NOTE: The VM being backed up will be shut down and powered up when the OVA file is complete
# 		If using PowerCLI 10.x execute this line once
# 			Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction Ignore
######################################################################################################
# Function for logging
Function LogWrite {
   Param ([string]$logstring)
   Add-content $LogFile -value ((Get-Date -format "[dd/MMM/yyyy:HH:mm:ss] ").ToString() + $logstring)
}
######################################################################################################
########## IMPORTANT PARAMETERS. DO NOT IGNORE. MODIFY TO SUIT YOUR NEEDS. ###########################
######################################################################################################
# vCenter hostname
$VCenter = "vcenter.domain.local"
# vCenter username
$Username = "myusername@domain.local"
# vCenter password
$Password = "SecretPassword"
# Destination for the OVA backup files, make sure you have trailing \ at the end of this string
$Destination = "D:\VMs\"
# Exclude the following VMs from backups
$Exclude = @("VMware vCenter Server Appliance")
# Name of the S3 bucket (make sure it exists, lower case only, starts with s3://)
$S3Bucket = "s3://vspherebackups"
# Do you want to upload to S3
$Upload = $true
# Specify if the OVA file contains a time stamp 
# e.g. vmname.YYYYMMDDHHmm.ova ($true) or vmname.ova ($fasle)
$TimeStamp = $true
# Do you want the OVA files to be deleted after upload to S3
$DeleteOVA = $true
# Log file path and name
$LogFile = "D:\VMs\vcenter2aws.log"
######################################################################################################
################### EXPORT VMs AS OVA FILES ##########################################################
######################################################################################################
# Connect to vCenter
$Server = Connect-VIServer $VCenter -User $Username -Password $Password
LogWrite ("Connected to " + $Server)
# Get all VMs
$VMs = Get-VM
# Loop through each of the VMs
Foreach ($VM in $VMs) {
# Get the name of each VMs	
$Name = $VM.Name
    # Skip the backup for the VMs that are in the array variable defined above
    if ($Exclude.Contains($Name)) {
        LogWrite ("Backup skipped for "+ $Name)
        Continue
    }
    # Stop the VM in order to take a backup
    Stop-VM -VM $Name -Confirm:$false
    LogWrite ("Stopping VM " + $Name)
    # Calculates the time stamp that will become part of the name
    if ($TimeStamp) {
        $TimeStampName = Get-Date -UFormat "%Y%m%d%H%M"
        $TimeStampName = "." + $TimeStampName
    } else
    # otherwise the time stamp will be blank
    {
        $TimeStampName = ""
    }
    LogWrite ("Backup starts for " + $Name)
    # Exports the VM as OVA file, overwrites if there is a same file at the destination
	Get-VM -Name $Name | Export-VApp -Destination ($Destination + $Name + $TimeStampName + ".ova") -Format Ova -Force:$true
    LogWrite ("Backup ends for " + $Name)
    # Once the export completes, power up the VM
	Start-VM -VM $Name -RunAsync
    LogWrite ("Starting VM " + $Name)
}
# Disconnect from vCenter
Disconnect-VIServer -Server $Server -Confirm:$false
LogWrite ("Disconnected from " + $Server)
######################################################################################################
################################ UPLOAD TO AWS #######################################################
######################################################################################################
# Exit if upload is not needed
if (!$Upload) {
    LogWrite "Upload to S3 skipped, exiting..."
    exit
}
LogWrite ("Upload to S3 bucket " + $S3Bucket + " starts")
# Use AWS CLI command to sync the destination folder and S3. 
aws s3 sync $Destination $S3Bucket
LogWrite ("Upload to S3 bucket " + $S3Bucket + " ends")
######################################################################################################
################################ DELETE THE OVA FILES ################################################
######################################################################################################
# Exit if delete is not needed
if (!$DeleteOVA) {
    LogWrite "Deleting OVA files skipped, exiting..."
    exit
}
Get-ChildItem $Destination -Include *.ova -Recurse | Foreach ($_) {Remove-Item $_.Fullname}
LogWrite ("Deleting OVA files from " + $Destination)
LogWrite "Script completed...Have a nice day!"

Recently, I wrote a blog post about migrating VMs from VMware vCenter to AWS using basic export OVA/OVF files. Amazon made a connector that ties your vCenter to AWS so the export is kind of simplified, but the configuration is not. While using the export as OVA/OVF requires you to change the NIC from vmxnet* to e1000 and changing the static IP of your server to DHCP, with AWS Connector you can leave everything as is. Also, the export as OVA/OVF requires your VM to be powered off, while with AWS Connector you can migrate your VMs while they are powered on (using snaps). I also found that AWS Connector is slower than plain export as OVA/OVF. In this post I’ll show you how to configure the AWS Connector.

AWS Connector is not just about VM migrations. It has some other useful functions. Check this web page for more information and this PDF for the install/user guide. So, head to this page first and scroll all the way down to the bottom.

Step 1, Download the AWS Connector. Step 2, click on Setup AWS Management Portal for vCenter. Log in with your AWS account. Click on Get Started Now.

I will use the first option and most likely you’ll do. Option 2 is if you have a SSO (Single Sign-On) to AWS.

Make sure you have some IAM users defined, otherwise you’ll receive this error. As a matter of fact, you’ll want a separate IAM user for this. This user acts as a proxy between AWS and your vCenter.

In my case, I’ve created a new IAM user called vCenter. Check Programmatic Access.

On the next screen, click on the Attach existing policies directly and in the Filter: Policy type, start typing AWSConnector. This is an AWS managed policy. Click on the check mark and proceed.

Make sure you download your credentials for this IAM user. They’ll be saved as credentials.csv file on your computer.

Go back to your first tab (or the initial URL) and hit refresh. Type the username vCenter and click on the check mark that you agree.

The next step tells you to add the admins for AWS Management Portal. Make sure that these accounts are admins in vCenter. In my case, my vCenter is joined to the domain and I am using my own domain account to manage vCenter. You can create a separate user for this, but make sure it’s a vCenter admin.

Now, this part is very important. I’ve spent hours troubleshooting this. It was right in front of my eyes, but I didn’t pay attention.

The easiest way is to open a command prompt from your desktop and type:

set | find "USERDOMAIN"

My domain is not andreev. It is actually ANDREEV, so I had to correct the entry.

The last entry will ask you to create an AMP-Connector Key. Just type some name.

At the end, you’ll have to download the configuration file. It’s a text file with some key text in it.
So, you have two files now, one with the credentials for the proxy user and one with the configuration key. After you are done with this, you’ll land up on this page. You can expand the settings and make sure everything looks OK. You can ignore the Configure Instance Export menu. That’s for S3 exports.

Now, you will need another proxy user, but this time on the vCenter side. It can be a local vCenter user or in my case, I prefer to have an AD account. So, I’ve created an AD account called awsconnector. No special rights needed and don’t add this account to vCenter. Just create a plain AD account as a Domain User.

At this point, you should be OK on the AWS side. Head back to your vCenter and deploy the OVA file that you’ve downloaded.

Once the appliance is provisioned, power it up. If you have a DHCP on your network and you are fine with the DHCP assigned IP on this VM, you don’t have to do anything. But, I prefer to have a static IP so open the console of this VM and log as ec2-user with ec2pass as a password. Type sudo setup.rb. Type ec2pass for password. You should see this menu. Choose option 2 to assign a static IP if you need. If you are OK with a DHCP, it’s fine. It’s up to you.

Once you have the AWS Connector on the network go to https://aws_connector_IP address. Make sure to use https. Use your vCenter admin to log in.

Click Trust when you get a certificate warning.

You’ll be prompted to change the web front-end password. There is no user name for this next time you log to your AWS Connector.

Once you log in, this will pop up.

Click Upload the configuration file, select the file that you’ve downloaded from AWS. It’s called AMP_Setup_Configuration.txt and click Next. Again, log with your vCenter admin account.

Click Trust.

Now, enter that AD account that you’ve just created.

Use the credentials from credentials.csv file to enter the username and password. The Trust Role ARN field should be automatically populated.

Click on I agree to install the vCenter SSL certificates… otherwise you won’t be able to proceed and click Register.

You should get this pop-up which means you are good.

Open the vCenter client and from the Plug-ins menu click Manage Plug-ins…The AWS Connector should be enabled.

In the web client it should look like this.

Now, it’s time to get some action. Pick a VM that you want to migrate to AWS. Did I say that you need RDP/SSH enabled?
Right-click on this VM and choose Migrate to EC2.

You’ll get this error. AWS Connector is not yet configured.

All right, so go to Home -> AWS Management Portal in vCenter and add the preferred region.

Click on Create an environment.

Select your VPC and choose all subnets.

Go back to your VM and try to migrate it to EC2.

Oh, snap!

Go to vCenter roles, and follow up the instructions from above.

Then again, go back to your VM, right-click and choose Migrate to EC2. You’ll get this warning. It pretty much tells you that while migrating the VM will be slow.

Once the migration starts you’ll see this.

Do that. Go to Home -> AWS Management Portal -> Dashboard in vCenter. You’ll see the progress. If you scroll to the right you can actually see how much is uploaded. AWS is uploading the snap, so my VM has a 30GB disk (thick provisioned), but it was a plain vanilla OS with nothing installed except a text file on the desktop. So the actual size for upload is 4GB.


Once your migration completes, you can find your instance/VM under IMAGES | AMIs in AWS console.


Right-click on the AMI, choose Launch, follow the prompts and you should be all set. You’ll have to specify a key, but you can use your local admin credentials to log in.

I needed to move some VMs from my home lab (vCenter 5.5) to my Amazon AWS cloud account. This is what I did.
First, you have to prepare the VM. If you have any vmxnet* network card, you have to delete it from the properties of the VM in vCenter. Second, make sure that you have RDP or SSH enabled on the VM and third, uninstall the VMware tools. Shut down the VM, add an E1000 NIC and power it up again. Make sure that the TCP/IP and DNS settings for the new NIC are set for DHCP. Verify that all these requirements apply and then shut down the VM again.
In vCenter, select the VM for export, click on File | Export and then Export OVF template. Choose Single file (OVA).

Once the export is completed, you have to upload the OVA file to a S3 bucket. I created a new bucket for this, called uploadvmstuff with the default settings. You’ll have to pick a unique name for the bucket, but you probably know that. Upload your OVA file to S3. It might take a while depending how big the file is.

I am using my admin account in AWS to import the VM, but I still have to assign some policies. So, when the upload is complete, go to the command prompt or PowerShell on your desktop. Make sure you have AWS CLI installed. You can check my other blog post on how to do this. Very simple.

Create these three files in Notepad and save them on the desktop. The first file is called trust-policy.json. See this link for more info.

{
   "Version": "2012-10-17",
   "Statement": [
      {
         "Effect": "Allow",
         "Principal": { "Service": "vmie.amazonaws.com" },
         "Action": "sts:AssumeRole",
         "Condition": {
            "StringEquals":{
               "sts:Externalid": "vmimport"
            }
         }
      }
   ]
}

Execute this command from the command prompt. Make sure that you are in the same folder in the command prompt where you saved your files, e.g. cd c:\users\whatever\desktop.

aws iam create-role --role-name vmimport --assume-role-policy-document file://trust-policy.json

Create the 2nd file called role-policy.json so it looks like this. Replace the two occurrences of disk-image-file-bucket with your bucket name, in my case it was uploadvmstuff.

{
   "Version": "2012-10-17",
   "Statement": [
      {
         "Effect": "Allow",
         "Action": [
            "s3:ListBucket",
            "s3:GetBucketLocation"
         ],
         "Resource": [
            "arn:aws:s3:::disk-image-file-bucket"
         ]
      },
      {
         "Effect": "Allow",
         "Action": [
            "s3:GetObject"
         ],
         "Resource": [
            "arn:aws:s3:::disk-image-file-bucket/*"
         ]
      },
      {
         "Effect": "Allow",
         "Action":[
            "ec2:ModifySnapshotAttribute",
            "ec2:CopySnapshot",
            "ec2:RegisterImage",
            "ec2:Describe*"
         ],
         "Resource": "*"
      }
   ]
}

Execute this command from the command prompt.

aws iam put-role-policy --role-name vmimport --policy-name vmimport --policy-document file://role-policy.json

The third file is called containers.json and it looks like this. Change the lines so it matches your settings. For Description use whatever you want, change the S3Bucket line and the S3Key. The S3Key is the name of the ova file that you’ve exported from vCenter.

[
  {
    "Description": "Windows 2008R2 Import",
    "Format": "ova",
    "UserBucket": {
        "S3Bucket": "uploadvmstuff",
        "S3Key": "nvm.ova"
    }
}]

Now, you are ready to import the file from S3 to EC2. Execute this line from the command prompt.

aws ec2 import-image --description "Windows 2008R2 VMDKs" --license-type BYOL --disk-containers file://containers.json

You should get your prompt back after 2-3 seconds. But, this means that the import started, not that it finished. To check the status, execute this line.

aws ec2 describe-import-image-tasks

It takes some time, for my OVA file that was created from a 40GB disk and 3.7GB OVA file it took about 20-25 mins. You will see the Status change to completed once everything is OK. Make sure that your AWS CLI is configured to do the output in JSON so it’s easy to see.

Once completed, you will see your import in the AMI section of EC2. Go to EC2 section, click Launch New Instance and choose the AMI that you just created. Follow the standard prompts for the type of the instance, security groups, volumes, etc… and once your instance is launched you can RDP to it. You will use the same admin password as before to RDP.

VMware Tools is a suite of utilities that enhances the performance of the virtual machines guest operating system. Usually, it is a very simple install, especially on Windows OS. The port for FreeBSD is also easy, but there are some quirks that needs to be resolved. First, the instructions for the install assume that you have the cdrom already installed. Second, the tools depend on Perl and since 10.1, Perl was removed from the default install and /usr/bin. So, in order to install VMware Tools on FreeBSD 10.1 or 10.2, we have to do some work. For FreeBSD 11.x and higher, scroll all the way down.

FreeBSD 10.x

First, install the compatibility libraries.

pkg install compat6x-amd64

If you have a 32-bit FreeBSD, use compat6x-i386 instead.
Then, install perl from the packages.

pkg install perl5-5.20.3_8

If there is a problem with this version, check what’s available and install the latest.

pkg search ^perl

Check the name of the cdrom drive.

dmesg | grep cd

In my case it was cd0. Most likely it’s cd0, unless you specified some SCSI cd when creating a custom VM.
Right click the VM and choose Install VMware Tools.

Create a mount point, mount the tools, copy the tools on the disk and extract them.

mkdir /tmp/vt
mount -t cd9660 /dev/cd0 /tmp/vt
cd /tmp/vt
cp vmware-freebsd-tools.tar.gz ../
cd ..
umount /tmp/vt
rm -Rf /tmp/vt
tar xzvf vmware-freebsd-tools.tar.gz
rm vmware-freebsd-tools.tar.gz
cd vmware-tools-distrib

If you try to run the tools with ./vmware-install.pl, you’ll get an error “command not found”. That’s because the provided script is looking for perl under /usr/bin. As of FreeBSD 10.1, perl is no longer a system binary and after the install, the binary is under /usr/local/bin.
So, edit the following files and replace /usr/bin/perl with /usr/local/bin/perl in the following three files. It’s the first line in all three files.

vmware-install.pl
vmware-install.real.pl (if you have VMware Workstation 12)
bin/vmware-config-tools.pl
bin/vmware-uninstall-tools.pl

Once replaced, you can start the installation with:

./vmware-install.pl

Look at the choices, but most likely you’ll accept the defaults and then reboot.

FreeBSD 11.x

If you are using FreeBSD 11.x and higher you can install it with or without X11 support (nox11).

pkg install open-vm-tools
pkg install open-vm-tools-nox11

Once installed, add these lines in /etc/rc.conf.

vmware_guest_vmblock_enable="YES"
vmware_guest_vmhgfs_enable="NO"
vmware_guest_vmmemctl_enable="YES"
vmware_guest_vmxnet_enable="YES"
vmware_guestd_enable="YES"

Reboot after making changes in /etc/rc.conf.

CentOS

The installation for CentOS is much simpler.

yum install open-vm-tools

I manage a terminal server that Service Desk is using to access some applications using RDP client. Recently, they needed audio enabled. These steps will help accomplish that goal .

First, log to the server and make sure that Windows Audio service is set to start as Automatic instead of Manual. Then, start the service.

Go to Administrative Tools, Remote Desktop and start the Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration. Select the RDP connection, right-click and choose Properties.

In the dialog box, select Client Settings and uncheck Audio and Video Playback.

You’ll get a message that you have to log off and log back on for these changes to take effect.

Also, make sure that you don’t inherit any domain policies that prevent the RDP audio settings. Click Start, Run and type:

gpedit.msc

Navigate to Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Remote Desktop Services | Remote Desktop Session Host | Device and Resource Configuration.

If it says Not Configured or Enabled, it’s fine. If it says Disabled, you’ll have to modify the domain GPO.

Finally, on the client computers, make sure that the RDP client is set to play the audio on the remote machine and not on the server.

Sources:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770631.aspx
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1004839

In my previous post, I’ve explained how to install vCenter 5.0. In this post, I’ll explain how to upgrade from 5.0 to 5.1. This version brings a new authentication Single Sign On mechanism and a new web client. Check the VMware web site for more information about these new products and features.

First, start SQL Server Management Studio and open the sql script that comes on the vCenter installation media. Single Sign On requires a separate database.

Open rsaIMSLiteMSSQLSetupTablespaces and change the file paths to suit your needs. There are three occurrences of this file path. I used C:\DATA in my case. Click Execute and make sure you get a message that the commands completed successfully.

Click on Security, then Logins and double-click the vpxuser. This is the same user that has full db_owner rights on the vCenter and Update Manager databases. Select User Mapping, RSA (Single Sign On database) and click db_owner.

Now start the vCenter installer and select vCenter Single Sign On.

Click Next.

Create the primary node.

Select the first option.

Enter a password for the admin@System-Domain user.

Select the second option.

Type RSA for the database name, the hostname of the SQL server, vpxuser for the database user and its password.

Confirm that your vCenter server is listed here.

Use the defaults.

Change or accept the defaults.

Change or accept the defaults.

Click Finish.

Next, we’ll have to upgrade vCenter Inventory Service. From the same menu where we launched the Single Sign On install, click on vCenter Inventory Service.

Choose the first option.

Verify that you have the vCenter server name correct.

Change or accept the defaults.

Change or accept the defaults.

Enter the password for the admin@System-Domain user.

Click Install certificates.

Click Finish.

Next, upgrade vCenter.

Enter the password for the vpxuser.

Upgrade the database.

Select the first option.

Choose if you want to use a domain account, local account or system account.

Change or accept the defaults.

Enter the password for the Single Sign On admin user.

Use this log file if you have any issues later.

Click Finish.

Next, we’ll upgrade the Update Manager. Start the installation.

Accept the default option.

Enter the credentials that were used to run the Update Manager service.

Enter the credentials for the vpxuser.

Upgrade the dabase.

Change or accept the defaults. Make sure the vCenter server correctly appears. Click Finish at the end.

Finally, let’s update the web client. You can run the installer from the media or you can just double-click the old client and this message will show up, prompting you to run or save the installer. Just click Run.

Change or accept the defaults.

Enter the password for the Single Sign On admin user.

If you try to use your Windows domain credentials, you’ll have to download the Client Integration Plug-In first. And, that’s it.

In this post I’ll describe how I installed vCenter 5.0 on Windows 2008 R2 server using SQL 2008 R2 database. I’ve used two servers in my lab, one for the vCenter and the other one for the SQL. I won’t explain how to install SQL server, it’s fairly straightforward.

First thing to do is to create the SQL database. VMware provides a SQL script that you can execute to create the database. The script is on the vCenter installation DVD/ISO under source\vCenter-Server\dbschema folder where source is some drive letter (D:\ or E:\). This script does not work right, so we’ll use a modified version. By default, vCenter requires full db_owner rights so it can create some scheduled jobs. If your environment doesn’t allow this type of access, see the installation guide for vCenter. In this post, we’ll grant full db_owner rights for the sql user (vpxuser) to both vCenter database (VCDB) and the msdb system database. Once vCenter is up and running, you can remove the full db_owner rights from the msdb.

Start the SQL Server Management Studio, log as the sa user or some domain user with full SQL admin rights, and click New Query.

Copy and paste the following script, but change the file path where you want your database to reside. In my case it is C:\DATA. Also, change the password for the vpxuser that we will create.

use [master]
go
CREATE DATABASE [VCDB] ON PRIMARY
(NAME = N'vcdb', FILENAME = N'C:\DATA\VCDB.mdf', SIZE = 2000KB, FILEGROWTH = 10% )
LOG ON
(NAME = N'vcdb_log', FILENAME = N'C:\DATA\VCDB.ldf', SIZE = 1000KB, FILEGROWTH = 10%)
COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
go
use VCDB
go
sp_addlogin @loginame=[vpxuser], @passwd=N'vpxuserpassword', @defdb='VCDB',
@deflanguage='us_english'
go
ALTER LOGIN [vpxuser] WITH CHECK_POLICY = OFF
go
CREATE USER [vpxuser] for LOGIN [vpxuser]
go

While in SQL Server Management Studio, expand the Security, then Logins. Double-click on the vpxuser and choose User Mapping. Select the VCDB database and put a check mark for db_owner. Put a check mark on the msdb database and do the same (check mark on db_owner).

Next thing to do is to install the SQL Server Native Client on the vCenter server. It’s a free download from Microsoft. Once installed, go to Administrative Tools | Data Sources (ODBC). Click on System DSN tab and then click Add. You should see a SQL Server Native Client 10.0 driver there. Do not use SQL Server driver. It won’t work.

Enter the name for the ODBC connection, a description and type the hostname for the SQL server. In my case, I’ll use vCenter, vCenter Database and sql.

Next, choose SQL authentication and type the SQL user that we just created with the script (vpxuser and its password).

Click the first check mark and select the VCDB database.

Leave the defaults and click Finish.

Click the Test Data Source button and make sure that it says that the connection completed successfully.

Now, it’s time to install vCenter. Insert the DVD or mount the ISO image and the installer will start.

Click the first option vCenter server and go thru the Next, Accept cycle. Once you reach the Database Options, select the second radio button and choose the ODBC connection that we just created.

If you get this error, make sure you start the SQL Server Agent on the SQL server. By default this service is disabled. You can stop this service once the installation completes.

Enter the SQL username and password that we just created.

If you receive the following error, it means that you are not a db_owner on the VCDB database.

You won’t be able to continue until you fix this. When you reach this screen vCenter Server Service, stop. You have an option to run the vCenter Server service as a local server account or you can choose a domain account. If you use a domain account, it should be a local admin on the server.

Change or accept the defaults for the vCenter program.

Select the first option.

Change or accept the default ports. If you install vCenter on a shared server with IIS installed, you’ll have port conflicts here.

Change or accept the default ports for the Inventory Service.

Estimate how many VMs you’ll have.

Click Install.

After couple of minutes, click Finish to complete the install. Your vCenter Server should be up and running, but we are not over yet.

We will install the Update Manager now. This part of vCenter is used to patch the vCenter and ESXi hosts. Log back to the SQL server and in SQL Server Management Studio, execute this script that will create a new database for the Update Manager. Make sure you change the file path for the database. In my case is C:\DATA. We’ll use the same vpxuser user for the Update Manager database.

CREATE DATABASE [VCUM] ON PRIMARY
(NAME = N'vcum', FILENAME = N'C:\DATA\VCUM.mdf', SIZE = 2000KB, FILEGROWTH = 10% )
LOG ON
(NAME = N'vcum_log', FILENAME = N'C:\DATA\VCUM.ldf', SIZE = 1000KB, FILEGROWTH = 10%)
COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
go
use VCUM
go

On vCenter server, go to C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folder and run odbcacd32.exe. The Update Manager is using a 32-bit ODBC and by default, if you go to Administrative Tools and start the ODBC manager, you’ll execute the 64-bit version.

Pick a name and description for this ODBC connection and specify your SQL server hostname.

Select the VCUM database that we just created and similarly to the previous ODBC creation, finish the rest of the steps.

Start the Update Manager install.

Accept the defaults.

Create a domain user that will run the Update Manager service. In my case I use svc_vcenter.

Specify the 32-bit ODBC connection that we just created.

Enter the same vpxuser and password.

Specify if any proxy servers need to be specified. Update Manager requires Internet connection.

Change or accept the defaults.

The rest of the steps a re just plain Next, Next, Finish.

Once installed, go back and install the vCenter client. I won’t explain how to do this. It’s trivial. Log to the vCenter with a local admin password or with a domain account (if you run vCenter service under a domain account).

Select the top left vCenter server name and then click on Permissions.

Click Add.

Type your domain, enter a user that you want to grant full admin rights and click Check Names. If everything is OK, the dialog box will just blink.

Back in the previous dialog, select Administrator and click OK. We made svc_vcenter an admin vCenter user.

From the vCenter client menu, select Plug-Ins and select the Update Manager plug-in.

Click Run.

Create a new datacenter, add the ESXi hosts and you are all set.

Linux from scratch is a web-site that gives you step-by-step instructions on how to build your own version of Linux. It’s a minimal install, without any GUI even DHCP is not configured by default. The instructions are fairly straightforward but they don’t refer to any type of hardware. In this article I’ll describe how to build a bootable Linux as a VM on VMware Workstation. I strongly suggest that you read through the entire book. I’ll use shortcuts and skip stuff that’s not necessary, so it’s better to have the book in front of you.

You’ll need VMware Workstation (I used version 9.0.2), LiveCD of CentOS version 6.4, putty and the LFS book v7.3. Make sure you can allocate 2GB of RAM, 20GB disk and if you can, add 2 CPUs for faster compilation.

Boot from the LiveCD and once you see the CentOS running, open the terminal from the Applications menu.

Then type:

sudo fdisk -l

If you see /dev/sda at the end of the output, you are OK. In addition do:

sudo ifconfig -a
sudo route -n

Make sure that you have an IP assigned to eth0 interface and that you can actually browse the internet (e.g. ping www.yahoo.com should resolve to some IP). Write down the IP, subnet mask, gateway and the broadcast IP. You’ll need these later. Then log as root.

su -
chkconfig sshd on
service sshd start
chkconfig iptables off
service iptables stop
passwd root

These commands enable and start the ssh daemon and disable and stop the firewall. The last command asks you to change the root password. We’ll use putty instead of the VM console, because it’s easier to copy and paste text from the book. Create a new putty session and log as root using the password that you’ve just changed and IP address that you got from ifconfig output. Now, copy and paste the script on page xviii from the book. Most likely, you’ll see an output like this.

This tells us that we need bison, gcc and texinfo. Install them.

yum install bison

Answer y when prompted.

ln –s /usr/bin/bison /usr/bin/yacc

Install gcc and texinfo.

yum install gcc
yum install texinfo

Mind that you are installing these programs on a RAM disk, not on a drive, so if you decide to take a break, shut down the VM and continue later, you won’t be able to do so. You’ll have to do everything from the beginning.

Now it’s time to create the partitions. We’ll create one root partition and one swap.

fdisk /dev/sda

Type n for a new partition, type p for primary, type 1 for first partition, hit enter for default 1 and type +18432M. +18432M means 18432MB or 18GB. That’s because we have 20GB drive and we’ll use 18GB for the Linux partition and 2GB for swap. If you decided to use a bigger or smaller disk, adjust your values.

Create the swap now. Again, use n for a new partition, p for a primary primary partition and use default values afterwards. This will create a swap partition using the rest of the disk. Finally, type t to change the the type of the partition number 2, and use code 82 for swap.

Write the changes using w and then do:

fdisk -l

You should have an output like this at the end.

Create the partitions.

mke2fs -jv /dev/sda1
mkswap /dev/sda2

Look at page 15, paragraph 2.4. Mounting the New Partition and execute those commands. Replace with sda1. We won’t have any separate partition for /usr, so the commands are:

Execute these three commands:

mkdir -v $LFS/sources
chmod -v a+wt $LFS/sources
cd /mnt/lfs/sources

At this point if you want to shut down the VM and continue later, you’ll still have to go through enabling sshd, disabling firewall, installing gcc, bison…and executing the commands for defining the LFS. The only thing that you don’t have to do is the fdisk part and creating partitions.

The next part deals with downloading all of the necessary programs. I made a list with the URL links, so download this file file, once it opens up in a browser, select all, copy, then go back to your putty session. There, type:

vi wget-list

Then hit i key, right-click to paste, hit ESC and then hit :wq to save and quit. You should have a file called wget-list. Type the following command to verify.

ls -l

Make sure that you are actually in sources folder by issuing pwd command.

pwd

Now, execute wget to download all of the sources.

wget -i wget-list -P $LFS/sources

The only program that I had problems downloading it was zlib, so you can execute this command below. Hit ENTER once it completes. In addition, when you start the installation of all these 71 files that you’ve downloaded, some might be missing in case some of the URLs change. In that case, just google e.g. zlib-1.2.tar.bz2 for example and once you found the link, do wget link. Same thing that I did with zlib (command below).

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/libpng/zlib/1.2.7/zlib-1.2.7.tar.bz2?r=http%3A%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Flibpng%2Ffiles%2Fzlib%2F1.2.7%2F&ts=1376492544&use_mirror=hivelocity

Once all files are downloaded, type:

ls | wc -l

You should have 72 as a result. 71 files + the wget-list file. If the number is not correct, scroll up in putty and see what failed. You might also want to increase the number of scrollback buffer lines in putty.

Finally, execute these commands.

mkdir -v $LFS/tools
ln -sv $LFS/tools /

Look at page 27, 4.3. Adding the LFS user and 4.4. Setting Up the Environment. Do exactly what they say.

Now that we have all the sources downloaded, we need to install them. This is a screenshot from the book. It says that it is very important and it is.

In other words, once you are in /mnt/lfs/sources, you’ll be doing tar xvf for all sources as described starting as of page 35. For example for the first source you’ll do:

IMPORTANT: make sure that you are in /mnt/lfs/sources, do tar xvf whatever.gz or tar xvf whatever.xz. Once the files are extracted you’ll have to cd to that directory and follow up the instructions for compiling the source. Once you are done, go back using cd .., and then delete the source extract folder with rm -Rf binutils-2.23.1 and any other directories that you were instructed to do so. If you don’t do that, you’ll have problems when compiling these same programs later.

So, for the first program we’ll have to execute:

tar xvf binutils-2.23.1.tar.bz2
cd binutils-2.23.1

follow the instructions on page 35.

mkdir -v ../binutils-build
cd ../binutils-build
../binutils-2.23.1/configure \
--prefix=/tools \
--with-sysroot=$LFS \
--with-lib-path=/tools/lib \
--target=$LFS_TGT \
--disable-nls \
--disable-werror

The book mentions something called SBU (Standard Build Unit). For Binutils, SBU is 1.0 (you’ll see SBU value for all sources in the book). The SBU value depends on your hardware. On my laptop 1 SBU is about 5 mins. To check how much is 1 SBU on your computer, do time make -j2 when compiling binutils. So, when it tells you to do make, do make -j2. If the book says it will take 5 SBUs, it means it takes about 25 minutes.

Finally, type:

make install
cd ..
rm -Rf binutils-build
rm -Rf binutils-2.23.1

If you get an error when you do make install, type exit and then:

chown -R lfs tools
su - lfs
cd /mnt/lfs/sources/binutils-build
make install

From now on, everything should be straightforward as described in the book. Follow the instructions to build the rest of the sources and stop once you reach page 74.

Once you have compiled all of the sources, type exit to go back logged as root. Make sure that echo $LFS returns /mnt/lfs. Otherwise, you’ll have to define it and make sure that the /dev/sda1 is mounted. Skip the stripping part at paragraph 5.33 Stripping and proceed with paragraph 5.34 Changing Ownership logged as root. Do:

chown -R root:root $LFS/tools

Then, follow up instructions closely up to page 85. Once you reach page 86, make sure that you are in /sources folder. This is the same /mnt/lfs/sources folder, but this time you are running in chroot environment. At this point, LFS does not have to be defined. The same rules apply here as well: Make sure you are in /sources environment, extract the tarball with tar xvf, cd to that folder and follow up the instructions. For example, for the first tarball, do:

tar xvf linux-3.8.1.tar.xz
cd linux-3.8.1
make mrporper
make headers_check
make INSTALL_HDR_PATH=dest headers_install
find dest/include \( -name .install -o -name ..install.cmd \) -delete
cp -rv dest/include/* /usr/include
cd ..
rm -Rf linux-3.8.1

Similarly to what you did before, just follow up instructions for all tarballs. Pay special attention for the checks especially for binutils, gcc and mpfr. Once you reach page 196, feel free to skip paragraph 6.63 About Debugging Symbols and 6.64 Stripping Again. Now, type:

logout

and re-enter again with:

chroot "$LFS" /usr/bin/env -i \
HOME=/root TERM="$TERM" PS1='\u:\w\$ ' \
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin \
/bin/bash --login

Create the network interface configuration file.

cd /etc/sysconfig/
cat > ifconfig.eth0 << "EOF"
ONBOOT=yes
IFACE=eth0
SERVICE=ipv4-static
IP=192.168.1.1
GATEWAY=192.168.1.2
PREFIX=24
BROADCAST=192.168.1.255
EOF

Mind that DHCP won’t work. There is a section in the book Beyond LFS that explains how to use DHCP. For now, just pick up a static IP that you can use. If your NIC in VMware Workstation is set for “Bridged”, then use an IP that’s in the same subnet as your Windows 7 host. If you use NAT, then the IP will most likely be in 192.168.something segment. Next, create the resolv.conf file. I use my provider’s DNS and one Google’s DNS. In my case it looks like this. If you are not on a Comcast network, put Google’s DNS first.

Create the /etc/hosts file as described on page 203. In my case, it looks like this.

Read everything up to page 209, when you need to install the bootscripts. Then, configure Sysvinit as described in paragraph 7.7.1 Configuring Sysvinit. Follow the instructions up to page 222 and for the locale on page 222 use en_US.iso88591.

Finally for /etc/fstab, I’ve used these settings.

Now, the most important part comes with the kernel configuration and compiling. The book is vague about what options to use, and if you don’t use the proper options, the server will boot up and stop with a kernel panic error.

So, do:

cd /sources
tar xvf linux-3.8.1.tar.xz
cd linux-3.8.1
make mrproper
make menuconfig

When this screen shows up, make sure you know how to navigate and select/deselect options. It’s fairly simple.

For LFS to work as a VM, you must select (built-in, not module):

– Device Drivers, Generic Driver Options, Maintain a devtmpfs filesystem to mount at /dev
– Device Drivers, Network device support, Ethernet Driver support, AMD PCnet32 PCI support
– Device Drivers, Fusion MPT device support (select the three drivers for SPI, FC, SAS)
– Device Drivers, SCSI device support, SCSI low-level drivers
– File Systems, Ext3 Journaling file system support

Once you exit the kernel configuration, do:

make
make modules_install
cp -v arch/x86/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.1-lfs-7.3
cp -v System.map /boot/System.map-3.8.1
cp -v .config /boot/config-3.8.1
install -d /usr/share/doc/linux-3.8.1
cp -r Documentation/* /usr/share/doc/linux-3.8.1

Finally, create /etc/modprobe.d/usb.conf by running the following:

install -v -m755 -d /etc/modprobe.d
cat > /etc/modprobe.d/usb.conf << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/modprobe.d/usb.conf
install ohci_hcd /sbin/modprobe ehci_hcd ; /sbin/modprobe -i ohci_hcd ; true
install uhci_hcd /sbin/modprobe ehci_hcd ; /sbin/modprobe -i uhci_hcd ; true
# End /etc/modprobe.d/usb.conf
EOF

Now, install the GRUB bootloader with:

grub-install /dev/sda

When it completes, create the bootloader config file with:

cat > /boot/grub/grub.cfg << "EOF"
# Begin /boot/grub/grub.cfg
set default=0
set timeout=5
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,1)
menuentry "GNU/Linux, Linux 3.8.1-lfs-7.3" {
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.1-lfs-7.3 root=/dev/sda1 ro
}
EOF

Command set root=hd(0,1) means we will use first hard drive (0) and the first partition (1). The syntax is misleading, but it’s how it works. The parameter root=/dev/sda1 means that /dev/sda1 is where our root partition is.

That’s it. Follow the simple clean-up in paragraph 9. The End, and reboot with:

shutdown -r now

At this point, you want to disconnect the ISO image that you used to boot CentOS, so the VM boots up from the HDD, not the ISO image. If everything is OK, you’ll see the GRUB loader.

….and if the kernel was properly configured and compiled, you’ll get the root prompt.

From the last screenshot, you can see that the NIC card was not recognized as eth0. But, look closer at the top of the screenshot and you’ll see that the NIC was renamed as enp2s1. That’s because of the udev scripts. I didn’t have any success in making the NIC work as eth0, so in order to make the NIC work, just log as root. Then:

mv /etc/sysconfig/ifconfig.eth0 /etc/sysconfig/ifconfig.enp2s1

Edit the ifconfig.enp2s1 file with vi or vim and change IFACE=eth0 to IFACE=enp2s1.

As previously mentioned, make sure you assign a static IP (you wrote down that IP from the beginning, right?) that can reach the outside world, either by using NAT or Bridged settings under NIC settings in VMware Workstation.

Once you are able to ping the outside world, I can only say CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Recently I needed to analyze one of my ancient C programs that was running under MS DOS. I had some problems converting it to gcc or Visual C++, because this program was written in Borland Turbo C 2.0, which uses quite non-standard procedures. So, I’ve decided to build a DOS VM and install Turbo C 2.0 which is a free download from here. In addition, I’ve decided to connect this VM box to the network. In order to do that, I needed:

• VMware Workstation (VirtualBox might also work)
• MS DOS 6.22 install files (you have to find these somehow)
• MS Network Client 3.0 for DOS (free download from here and here)
• MS DOS driver for AMDPCNet network card (attached as AMD.zip)
• WinImage (shareware version, you can use it for 30 days for free, download here)
• DOS CD driver (attached as DOSCDDRV.ZIP)

First, click on “New Virtual Machine” and select “Typical” settings. Click Next.

Choose to “Install the operating system later”

Select “Other” and “MS-DOS“, then click “Next“.

Type a name for the virtual machine, in my case it was “MS-DOS”

Select the size of the hard drive for DOS, in my case 8GB is more than enough.
NOTE: Use 2GB, DOS won’t see more than this.

Finally, click “Next” and “Finish“.

NOTE: If you have your MS-DOS files on a physical floppy, you can tell VMware Workstation to use them directly. If not, make sure that these virtual floppy files are in IMG format. Use this link to see how to make an IMG file, but pretty much, just use WinImage.

Click on “Edit virtual machine settings”, select the Floppy drive, make sure that “Connect at power on” is checked, and then select one of the two options: Use physical drive or use floppy image file. Click “OK” and click “Power on this virtual machine”, just above “Edit virtual machine settings”. You can ignore this message; you can even remove the CD/DVD and Sound Card from the list of devices so you don’t get this error.

If everything is OK, you should see this menu.

Hit Enter, accept the default to configure the disk and hit Enter again.

Hit Enter when prompted to reboot.

The install will format the drive and then prompt you to change these system settings. Hit Enter if you are OK with these settings.

Select the destination folder for the MS-DOS OS and hit Enter.

When the install requests the 2^nd disk, right-click the floppy icon in the lower-right corner of the VM, choose Settings,….

…and select the 2^nd floppy image file.

Do the same when you are prompted for the 3^rddisk. When finished, MS-DOS will tell you to remove the floppy from the drive. As you did before, right-click the floppy icon in the lower-right corner and choose Disconnect. Hit Enter twice and once the OS reboots, you’ll be greeted with plain old MS-DOS 6-22.

Now, let’s do the networking part. We need to copy MS Network Client files to MS-DOS. Both these files are self-extracting images. Start WinImage, select File | New and accept the default settings.

In the menu, click Image | Inject, select the dsk3-1.exe file, and click Yes when prompted. Then, click File | Save As, and from the drop-down menu select Virtual Floppy Image, type DISK1.FLP for the file name and click Save.

Go back to DOS VM and mount this virtual floppy as previously described. In DOS type:

C:\>A:
A:\>dir

You should see that DSK3-1.EXE is there.

A:\>mkdir c:\temp\d1
A:\>dsk3-1 c:\temp\d1

Go back to WinImage and create a virtual floppy for the second file DSK3-2.EXE. Mount the DISK2.FLP in VMware Workstation and again:

A:\>mkdir c:\temp\d2
A:\>dsk3-2 c:\temp\d2

Now, extract AMD.zip somewhere on your desktop, open the archive and create another virtual floppy. This time instead of injecting three files, just choose the option to inject the NICdrv folder. Finally, mount the virtual floppy under DOS. In DOS start typing:

A:\>cd c:\temp\d1
A:\>C:
C:\temp\d1\>setup

When prompted hit Enter, choose the default directory C:\NET and after 10-15 seconds, select *Network adapter not shown on list below.

The installer will prompt you for the path to the drivers, so just delete the default C:\temp\d1 and replace it with A:\
Hit enter twice until you are prompted to enter the username. Put whatever you want. DOS will use your username and make it also the computer name. When you reach to this screen…

… scroll up to “Change Names” and change the computer name to something else if you want. The most important thing is to change the network configuration. By default, TCP/IP is not installed, so go to “Change Network Configuration”, select “Add Protocol”…

… and select “Microsoft TCP/IP” protocol.

Use TAB between the two boxes, select the NWLink IPX protocol, TAB to the other box, and choose Remove.

Finally, select “Microsoft TCP/IP”, TAB to “Change Settings”, and use “DHCP” for the IP or you can put a static IP if needed.

Hit ENTER twice, type C:\temp\d2 when prompted for the second disk and finally, after DOS reboots log with your username. At this point, you can create a password.

To test your network settings, do ipconfig c:\net. Remember the syntax, it’s not just ipconfig.

Ping your gateway IP.

If it works you are all set. If there are any problems, you may refer to this link for troubleshooting.

If you want to add a CD-ROM to your DOS install, download the DOSCDDRV.ZIP. The link is all the way up.
Unzip it and you’ll have an IMG file. Mount the IMG file as you did with the DOS IMG floppies, copy the oakcdrom.sys file to C:\DOS folder and then add the highlighted lines to config.sys and autoexec.bat.