Enabling SSH access in ESXi
Posted on 05.Aug 2010 by Ray Heffer in ESXi, VMware, VirtualisationIf you are running VMware ESXi 4.1 then you can now activate SSH access (or Remote Tech Support) easily which is documented here: http://www.thomasmaurer.ch/2010/07/activated-ssh-on-esxi-4-1/
However, if you are working on ESXi 3.5 or 4.0 then you need to enter unsupported mode:
Cloning Windows Server 2008 R2: Use Sysprep (no more NewSID)
Posted on 30.Jul 2010 by Ray Heffer in Citrix, Microsoft, VMware, Virtualisation, Windows Server 2008 R2
It is not uncommon for system administrators to clone virtual servers or take an image of physical servers running Windows Server 2008 these days. There are plenty of tools to do that these days (Ghost, Acronis, Platespin for P2V conversions, etc.) If this is something you do regularly then you won’t be unfamiliar with Sysprep or NewSID, but according to Mark Russinovich at Microsoft, the SID doesn’t matter and Sysinternals have now retired NewSID (written by Mark). NewSID isn’t supported in Windows Server 2008 and the only option now is to use Sysprep. Whilst the facts presented on Mark’s blog are correct, I have personally seen many issues cloning or imaging Windows Server 2008 machines that haven’t been cloned with Sysprep first. Let me present a typical scenario that would cause problems here.
How to turn off Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration in Windows Server 2008
Posted on 27.Jul 2010 by Ray Heffer in Microsoft, Windows Server 2008 R2Prior to Windows Server 2008, the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration (IE ESC) feature could be disabled using Add/Remove Programs and choosing Windows Components. However since Windows Server 2008, this is now only configurable using server manager.
Very dirty computers…
Posted on 27.Jul 2010 by Ray Heffer in Business & IT
Readers of The Register have sent their photos of their extreme dirty PC’s, and I had to share this on my site. X-Rated? Yes I think so!
Here are some of the offending home PC’s, and you can read the full article here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/13/ventblockers/
VMware vSphere 4.1 adds more grunt!
Posted on 16.Jul 2010 by Ray Heffer in VMware, Virtualisation
Earlier this week VMware released vSphere 4.1, a significant new version of the industry leading vSphere 4 virtualisation hypervisor. What is interesting is that from September 2010, vCenter management products will be licensed on a per VM basis. This includes: Chargeback, Site Recovery Manager, AppSpeed and CapacityIQ which are currently priced per processor. Products that won’t be included in this licensing change are: vCenter Lab Manager, vCenter Lifecycle Manager, vCenter Server Heartbeat, vCenter Server, and VMware vSphere (ESX).
Data Center & IT Infrastructure
Posted on 03.Jun 2010 by Ray Heffer in Business & IT
This is bit of a random post, but I wanted to share some of the reasons I joined IT in the first place. Lets face it, IT infrastructure hardware has evolved very well in the past 10 years. Pictured to the left is the HP c7000 blade chassis, and this was actually taken in March 2010 when I was rolling out VMware vSphere on HP BL460 G6 blades. What I like about the BL460 G6 is that it can run 6 x NIC’s (two on board and a four port card) in addition to an HBA mezzanine card. Top that off with excellent BladeSystem management, ILO and Insight Manager, you can’t get much better. These blades here have 48GB RAM per host and two quad-core Intel x5550 processors. At half-height, you can pack 16 of these in a single chassis. Excellent for consolidation, both in physical terms and virtual!
Hosting the Desktop Part 3: Planning Your Deployment
Posted on 31.Mar 2010 by Ray Heffer in Citrix, VDI, VMware, VirtualisationA few weeks ago I was reading about a recent VDI implementation that Lancashire Police had recently undertaken, where they deployed 4000 virtual desktops to address compliance issues. Their first step was to gain control of the desktop first, gaining an understanding of the applications used, and any bespoke or specialist applications being used. It is often the case that applications are installed that the IT department knows nothing about.
Hosting the Desktop Part 2: Virtual Desktop Licensing
Posted on 24.Mar 2010 by Ray Heffer in VDI, VMware, Virtualisation
It was announced last week that Microsoft have updated their VECD licensing model for VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure). These changes are welcome news as you no longer require a VECD for SA license, because under the new changes Software Assurance (SA) now incorporates virtual desktop access rights. In addition to that you can now benefit from roaming usage rights that allows non-corporate home computers to connect to a virtual desktop.
Hosting the Desktop Part 1: VMware View or Citrix XenDesktop?
Posted on 08.Mar 2010 by Ray Heffer in Citrix, VDI, VMware, Virtualisation
Since VMware View was released in November 2009 and Citrix XenDesktop 4 in the same month, you could be mistaken that this is a game of tennis at Wimbledon with all the hype about each product. I first started working with desktop virtualisation in a VDI sense (not terminal server based) when VMware VDM 2.0 beta was released in 2007 (now VMware View), and for a moment VMware seemed to be ahead of the game. Prior to that, I had to put up with Citrix Desktop Broker which was made end-of-life a short while after its release. Then Citrix released XenDesktop 2.0, and with desktop provisioning making storage issues a thing of the past thanks to Citrix Provisioning Server (formerly an Ardence product), the ball seemed to be firmly back in Citrix’s court.
VMware ESX Error: Unable to connect to the MKS: vmx connection handshake failed for mks of…
Posted on 03.Mar 2010 by Ray Heffer in VMware, VirtualisationWhen you power on a virtual machine with VMware ESX VI3 or vSphere it may reach 95% progress in the tasks, but when you open the console you’ll notice the error: “Unable to connect to the MKS: vmx connection handshake failed for mks of /vmfs/volumes…”.
