Kill Stuck VM tools installation task in ESXi

While installing VM tools, on one of the virtual machines tools installation task was getting hung. 

Was not able to cancel the task using vCenter or directly connecting to the host. Due to this all the features like Snapshot, Migrate were disabled on the VM.

To kill the VM tools installation task through command line, we need to identify VMID and kill the vm tools insall for the corresponding VM. 

Please follow the below steps. (applicable to ESXi).

1. Enable ssh on the host holding the VM.

2. Login to the host using SSH client. eg., Putty

3. Run the command line /usr/bin/vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms

This will return list of the VMs with VM ID. Then run the below command to kill the VM tools install process for the VM facing issue.

4. /usr/bin/vim-cmd vmsvc/tools.cancelinstall VMID

Hope this quickly helps in getting the VM back to normal.

--Alternate way of achieving the same using PowerCLI would be:
get-vm "VMname" | Dismount-Tools

Thanks!

Achieved Rackspace CloudU Certification

Recently I was searching for some good course to understand the cloud computing key elements, delivery models etc.,. I came across the article that details about different courses/certifications available to get good idea of Cloud Computing Fundamentals. 

As Rackspace has strong market base in Cloud Computing and also providing vendor-neutral Cloud Computing curriculum 'CloudU' thought will take up the CloudU Training (online). Moreover, the course/exam is free of cost. The course curriculum is good and the author Ben Kepes has excellently presented the key elements of cloud computing in a course that consists 10 lessons.


What is CloudU all about: According to Rackspace, Cloud U is a vendor-neutral curriculum designed for IT professionals and business leaders that covers and certifies knowledge of the fundamentals of Cloud Computing. Cloud U content is available to any professional at any time, but if you want a formal recognition of your knowledge about Cloud Computing, you should complete the courses and requirements for a certificate.

How to prepare: Study each Cloud U lesson whitepaper, and then successfully complete each of 10 Cloud U lesson quizzes based on the whitepaper's content. Successfully complete a 50-question final exam drawn from materials covered in the 10 Cloud U lessons. More details are here

Here's my certificate :)  

vCenter Service not starting after the windows vCenter server restarts

I have experienced this on vCenter Server 5.5.0b. When the windows server is restarted, the vcenter servies does not come up automatically when the service startup type is set to Automatic. When the service is set to Automatic, there are possiblities that the SQL Server/database might not be completely loaded before the vCenter Server service trys to get started. It can be fixed by setting the service startup type to Automatic (Delayed Start).

VM - Multiple Networks displayed, but only one NIC is configured on the VM

If the VM has active snapshots, till the time snapshot is deleted, VM will display the multiple networks that were used on the VM. The host stores the multiple networks information which would be required if you plan to revert to the snapshot which might need the particular network.

VMware VirtualCenter Server service fails with the error: Windows could not start the VMware VirtualCenter Server on Local Computer (1038138)

VMwareKB

This issue occurs when transaction log (.ldf ) size of the vCenter Server database exceeds the maximum limit.

To resolve this issue, change the recovery model to simple and shrink the transactional logs. For steps to troubleshoot transaction log issues in the Microsoft SQL database server, see Troubleshooting transaction logs on a Microsoft SQL database server (1003980).

This issue may also occur if the password for the account on the SQL database server used to connect to the vCenter Server database has expired.

To resolve this issue, ensure that the account password is valid. For more information, see VirtualCenter Server service fails to start with the error: The password for user account ' ' has expired (1012498).

For a vCenter Server installation with a database on an embedded SQL Server Express, the issue might occur if the transaction log size is reached.

To resolve this issue, verify the name of the SQL Server instance and change the transaction log size.
To verify the name of the SQL Server instance and change the transaction log size:

1.Verify the actual name of the SQL Server instance used with vCenter Server.
1.Start the ODBC Data Sources manager from the Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC).
2.Select VMware VirtualCenter DSN in the System DSN tab and click configure to see the details.
3.The server name is shown in the Server edit box.

2.Use the SQL Server command line tool to change the transaction log size limit.
1.Start the command prompt.
2.Run the command osql -S -E
3.Run next SQL:
a.go
b.ALTER DATABASE [VIM_VCDB]
c.MODIFY FILE ( NAME = N'VIM_VCDB_LOG', MAXSIZE = UNLIMITED )
d.go
4.Exit the command tool by typing exit.

vmware - A general system error occurred, authorize exception

Recently when I tried connecting to the vCenter (5.1) using vSphere Client, I experienced the below error:
A general system error occurred authorize exception.You would get the above error sometimes (in my case it was due to this) if the account (that is being used to pull the user and groups identification details from AD Identity Source under vSphere Web Client, explained below)had the password changed or some unexpected issues with the account.
To verify and fix it, followed the below procedure.
1. Logged into the Web Client console eg., https://virtualcentername:9443/vsphere-client using the SSO admin account - admin@System-Domain
2. Click Administration Tab
3. Click ConfigurationTab under Sign-on and Discovery
4. Select the identity source from the right pane. Right click and select Edit Identitiy Source.
5. Verify the account (which is specified under Authentication type) is working by using the Test Connection feature.
6. Tried connecting to the virtual center using the vSphere client, it worked fine

Shared RDM LUN between non-clustered vmware virtual machines

Requirement:

Have 2 VMs based on OS Oracle Enterprise Linux that will host oracle 10g database. The requirement is to share multiple LUNs between these two nodes (VMs).

I implemented 'sharing RDM Luns' by following the below procedure.

1. Create the required LUNs on SAN and present it to the ESX hosting the VM1.
2. ESX --> configuration --> Storage Adapters --> Scan for newly presented LUNs.
3. VM1 -->
       Edit Settings -->
         Add Hard Disk -->
            Raw Device Mappings -->
              Select and configure a LUNx -->
                Select a Datastore (Store with the VM1, for ease access later) -->
                  Select Compatibility Made (Physical or Virtual, Anything is fine) -->
                    (Imp) Advanced Options --> Virtual Device Node should be different controller than what is used by the base OS Disk (usually OS disk uses 0:0). So, select 1:0 from the drop down

                     Finish --> You will see a new SCSI Controller added on the Edit Settings window just above the new Mapped RDM LUN.

(Imp) Select the new SCSI Controller, on the right pane you will see SCSI Bus Sharing, Change it to Virtual (if the VMs sharing the RDMs will be on same host). Choose Physical (if the VMs are/will be hosted on different hosts).
Click OK on the Edit Settings screen.

To add the same LUN to VM2:
VM2 -->
       Edit Settings -->
         Add Hard Disk -->
            Existing Disk -->
              Browse the Datastore (or the VM folder within) and select the RDM (vmdk file) which was added to VM1.
                    (Imp) Advanced Options --> Virtual Device Node should be different controller than what is used by the base OS Disk (usually OS disk uses 0:0). So, select 1:0 from the drop down

                     Finish --> You will see a new SCSI Controller added on the Edit Settings window just above the new Mapped RDM LUN.

(Imp) Select the new SCSI Controller, on the right pane you will see SCSI Bus Sharing, Change it to Virtual (if the VMs sharing the RDMs will be on same host). Choose Physical (if the VMs are/will be hosted on different hosts).
Click OK on the Edit Settings screen.

Login to VM1 --> Make the disks online and create required partition.
Login to VM2 --> The same shared disks need to be detected and brought online.

Now you can use these shared disks between the 2 VMs.

In case if you want to share multiple RDM LUNs, then choose the Virtual Device Node as 1:1 1:2 1:3 so on.

Thanks for reading the post!