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Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘ESXi5.1’ Category

esxi what is my ip – Google Search

Posted by jpluimers on 2021/06/25

[Archive.is] esxi what is my ip – Google Search:

esxcli network Commands
Command Description
network ip dns server remove Remove a DNS server from the list of DNS servers to use for this ESXi host.
network ip get Get global IP settings
network ip interface add Add a new VMkernel network interface.
network ip interface ipv4 get Get IPv4 settings for VMkernel network interfaces.

60 more rows

More columns and rows of that table in

[WayBack] vSphere Documentation Center: vSphere 5 Command Line Documentation > vSphere Command-Line Interface Documentation > vSphere Command-Line Interface Reference: esxcli network Commands

Not much has changed since, so this still works:

[root@ESXi-X9SRI-3F:/] esxcli network ip interface ipv4 get
Name  IPv4 Address   IPv4 Netmask   IPv4 Broadcast  Address Type  Gateway       DHCP DNS
----  -------------  -------------  --------------  ------------  ------------  --------
vmk0  192.168.71.94  255.255.255.0  192.168.71.255  DHCP          192.168.71.1      true
[root@ESXi-X9SRI-3F:/] network ip interface ipv6 get
Name  IPv6 Enabled  DHCPv6 Enabled  Router Adv Enabled  DHCP DNS  Gateway
----  ------------  --------------  ------------------  --------  -------
vmk0          true           false                true     false  ::

If the box has IPv6 configured, the last command would have shown the IPv6 vmdk information as well.

–jeroen

Posted in ESXi5, ESXi5.1, ESXi5.5, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

Running ArchiveTeam Warrior version 3.2 on ESXi

Posted by jpluimers on 2021/05/05

A while ago I wrote about Helping the WayBack ArchiveTeam team: running their Warrior virtual appliance on ESXi.

Since it was scheduled before my cancer treatment started and got posted when still recovering from it, I missed that version 3.2 of the [Wayback] ArchiveTeam Warrior appliance appeared in the [Wayback] Releases · ArchiveTeam/Ubuntu-Warrior at [Wayback] Release v3.2 · ArchiveTeam/Ubuntu-Warrior. You can download it form these places:

These two sites have not yet been updated, so they contain the older versions:

The source code now has been moved three times:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, ArchiveTeamWarrior, Cloud, Containers, diff, Docker, ESXi5, ESXi5.1, ESXi5.5, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Infrastructure, Internet, InternetArchive, Kubernetes (k8n), KVM Kernel-based Virtual Machine, patch, Power User, VirtualBox, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi, VMware Workstation, WayBack machine | Leave a Comment »

Using telnet from the VMware 5.x and 6.x ESXi shell: use nc

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/08/03

The short answer is: you can’t use telnet. But you can use alternatives, obviously. For instance, to troubleshoot some iSCSI connectivity problems, you would be used to doing something as this. ~ # telnet 10.0.2.3 3260 -ash: telnet: not found Instead, you can use netcat to test the connectivity. ~ # nc -z 10.0.2.3 3260 […]

Source: [Archive.is/WayBackUsing telnet from the VMware 5.x ESXi shell

The VMware knowledgebase mentions a few other alternatives as well (of which telnet obviously does not work):

–jeroen

Posted in ESXi5.1, ESXi5.5, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

Always use SCSI for your VM guest disks – Jeroen Wiert Pluimers – Google+

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/01/20

Rephrased from [WayBackJeroen Wiert Pluimers – Google+:

If you install a virtual machine, ensure the disk controller and disks are SCSI based.

This has many advantages, including:

  • speed (usually the SCSI drivers can be paravirtualised)
  • hot addition of new disks

It holds for virtually any virtualization platform including all non-ancient (less than ~10 year old) versions of:

  • VMware (Workstation, Viewer, but I expect this also to work on vSphere, ESXI, Fusion)
  • Hyper-V
  • KVM (and therefore Proxmox)
  • VirtualBox

Based on my notes in the above link and the links below:

Note this isn’t just for Linux guests/hosts: Most guests (including Windows) can do a SCSI bus re-scan and detect new SCSI devices.

The trick here is that the guest must already have a virtual SCSI controller (adding that will require a reboot of the guest).

Then adding a new SCSI disk on that controller from any host (Windows, Mac, ESXi, vSphere) should work fine.

–jeroen

Posted in ESXi4, ESXi5, ESXi5.1, ESXi5.5, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, Fusion, Hyper-V, KVM Kernel-based Virtual Machine, Power User, Proxmox, View, VirtualBox, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi, VMware Workstation | Leave a Comment »

Some wizardry: vmkfstools | virtualhobbit

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/05/24

Some wizardry: [WayBackvmkfstools | virtualhobbit.

This includes:

  • finding which VMFS partitions are there the hard way
  • initialising partitions from known good data
  • vmkfstools -V (yes, capital V is for VMFS rescan, as lowercase v is for verbose)

Found after reading [WayBackDatastore not mounted after reboot of ESXi5.5 |VMware Communities

Then found this: [Wayback] VMware Knowledge Base: Performing a rescan of the storage on an ESXi host (1003988); Using the ESXi Command Line Interface

  1. To search for new VMFS datastores, run this command:
vmkfstools -V

Note: This command does not generate any output.

That solved my problem!

# vmkfstools -V
# esxcfg-volume --list
Scanning for VMFS-3/VMFS-5 host activity (512 bytes/HB, 2048 HBs).
VMFS UUID/label: 532cd010-6e8c01d1-45be-001f29022aed/Raid6SSD
Can mount: Yes
Can resignature: Yes
Extent name: naa.600605b00aa054a0ff000021022683ae:1 range: 0 - 1830143 (MB)
# esxcfg-volume --mount 532cd010-6e8c01d1-45be-001f29022aed
Mounting volume volume 532cd010-6e8c01d1-45be-001f29022aed

And there it was:

# df -h
Filesystem   Size   Used Available Use% Mounted on
...
VMFS-5       1.7T   1.6T    169.6G  91% /vmfs/volumes/Raid6SSD
...

Note you can mount non-persistent (--mount) or persistent (--persistent-mount) by both UUID and label, so there are four choices for mounting:

esxcfg-volume --mount UUID
esxcfg-volume --mount label
esxcfg-volume --persistent-mount UUID
esxcfg-volume --persistent-mount label

–jeroen

Posted in ESXi5, ESXi5.1, ESXi5.5, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

VMFS metadata files

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/05/09

For my own ference:

disk space under VMFS-3 is organized according to four resource types. They are : blocks, sub-blocks, pointer blocks, and file descriptors. Resources are grouped into clusters, which form cluster groups. Every resource type is administered by one or a number of system files. Lets have a look at what those abbreviated file names stand for:

  • fbb.sf = file block bitmap.sf
  • fdc.sf = file descriptor cluster.sf
  • pbc.sf = pointer block cluster.sf
  • sbc.sf = sub-block cluster.sf
  • vh.sf = volume header.sfs
  • dd.sf = scsi device description.sf

The VMFS-5 uses one more system file:

  • pb2.sf = pointer block 2.sf

Source: [Archive.isVMFS metadata files

Posted in ESXi4, ESXi5, ESXi5.1, ESXi5.5, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

ESXi: console commands to digging through your hba/disk/datastore configuration

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/05/07

Two posts with interesting commands to help digging through your hba/disk/datastore configurations from the console:

One day I will write a script that – per datastore – lists all the devices related to it including their HBA and LUN.

For that, I will likely need these references:

For now this works:

  • Get the list of data stores (note the Device Name column has the NAA_ID you need below):
    esxcli storage vmfs extent list
  • Get the path information to find HBA, Channel, Target and LUN:
    esxcli storage core path list --device NAA_ID
  • Get the list of HBAs:
    esxcli storage core adapter list
  • Get device details (including Model and Revision):
    esxcli storage core device list --device NAA_ID

The example below (with most important output bolded) shows a drive connected to a SAS3008 based controller which storcli cannot access (nor MegaCli), but MegaRAID Storage Manager (MSM) can.

MSM allowed me to find the serial number of the drive by the Target Transport Details value 4433221106000000 as being on Slot number 6 (which seems to indicate Target numbers are 1-based whereas LUN is 0-based).

# esxcli storage vmfs extent list
Volume Name                     VMFS UUID                            Extent Number  Device Name                                                                 Partition
------------------------------  -----------------------------------  -------------  --------------------------------------------------------------------------  ---------
...
ST6000VX0001-1SH                59a33f7b-66df7c00-11b0-0cc47aaa9742              0  naa.5000c50087762d1b                                                                1
# esxcli storage core path list -d naa.5000c50087762d1b 
sas.500304801ce1d700-sas.4433221106000000-naa.5000c50087762d1b
   UID: sas.500304801ce1d700-sas.4433221106000000-naa.5000c50087762d1b
   Runtime Name: vmhba0:C0:T7:L0
   Device: naa.5000c50087762d1b
   Device Display Name: Local ATA Disk (naa.5000c50087762d1b)
   Adapter: vmhba0
   Channel: 0
   Target: 7
   LUN: 0
   Plugin: NMP
   State: active
   Transport: sas
   Adapter Identifier: sas.500304801ce1d700
   Target Identifier: sas.4433221106000000
   Adapter Transport Details: 500304801ce1d700
   Target Transport Details: 4433221106000000
   Maximum IO Size: 4194304
# esxcli storage core adapter list
HBA Name  Driver        Link State  UID                   Capabilities  Description                                                           
--------  ------------  ----------  --------------------  ------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
vmhba0    lsi_msgpt3    link-n/a    sas.500304801ce1d700                (0000:01:00.0) Avago (LSI Logic) Fusion-MPT 12GSAS SAS3008 PCI-Express
...
vmhba32   vmkusb        link-n/a    usb.vmhba32                         () USB  
# esxcli storage core device list --device naa.5000c50087762d1b 
naa.5000c50087762d1b
   Display Name: Local ATA Disk (naa.5000c50087762d1b)
   Has Settable Display Name: true
   Size: 5723166
   Device Type: Direct-Access 
   Multipath Plugin: NMP
   Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.5000c50087762d1b
   Vendor: ATA     
   Model: ST6000VX0001-1SH
   Revision: VN02
   SCSI Level: 6
   Is Pseudo: false
   Status: on
   Is RDM Capable: true
   Is Local: true
   Is Removable: false
   Is SSD: false
   Is VVOL PE: false
   Is Offline: false
   Is Perennially Reserved: false
   Queue Full Sample Size: 0
   Queue Full Threshold: 0
   Thin Provisioning Status: unknown
   Attached Filters: 
   VAAI Status: unsupported
   Other UIDs: vml.02000000005000c50087762d1b535436303030
   Is Shared Clusterwide: false
   Is Local SAS Device: true
   Is SAS: true
   Is USB: false
   Is Boot USB Device: false
   Is Boot Device: false
   Device Max Queue Depth: 32
   No of outstanding IOs with competing worlds: 32
   Drive Type: physical
   RAID Level: NA
   Number of Physical Drives: 1
   Protection Enabled: false
   PI Activated: false
   PI Type: 0
   PI Protection Mask: NO PROTECTION
   Supported Guard Types: NO GUARD SUPPORT
   DIX Enabled: false
   DIX Guard Type: NO GUARD SUPPORT
   Emulated DIX/DIF Enabled: false

–jeroen

Posted in ESXi5, ESXi5.1, ESXi5.5, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

bash – aliasing cd to pushd – is it a good idea? – Unix & Linux Stack Exchange

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/04/30

On my research list: [WayBackbash – aliasing cd to pushd – is it a good idea? – Unix & Linux Stack Exchange

It has a nice discussion on complements to pushd/popd/cd/dirs including a very nice set of navd scripts that eases the navigation of the directory stack.

I found it because the ESXi busybox does not have pushd and popd and a cd won’t work from inside a shell script: [WayBacklinux – Why doesn’t “cd” work in a bash shell script? – Stack Overflow

It also made me find out that the ESXi busybox does support cd - to go to the previous directory. More info on that cd syntax is at [WayBack] bash – Difference between “cd -” and “cd ~-” – Unix & Linux Stack Exchange

–jeroen

Posted in *nix, bash, Development, ESXi5, ESXi5.1, ESXi5.5, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

lamw/ghettoVCB: ghettoVCB

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/04/29

I found out that I had some very old draft notes below, but since then the source has moved to github: lamw/ghettoVCB: ghettoVCB.

Since I find VIB easier to use than the Offline Bundle (for differences see [WayBackVIB vs. Offline Bundle and [WayBack] VMware Front Experience: ESXi Community Packaging Tools) these are the VIB steps to get it installed:

  1. Download https://github.com/lamw/ghettoVCB/raw/master/vghetto-ghettoVCB.vib
  2. Put it in the /tmp directory on your ESXi box (using for instance FileZilla, WinSCP, SCP or other tools)
  3. Install it using esxcli software vib install -v /tmp/vghetto-ghettoVCB.vib -f

Then use it to make backups or restores as described at:

Note that contrary to the documentation, the config file has moved to /etc/ghettovcb/ghettoVCB.conf.

Because of Keeping your root visorfs clean: point the path to your own binaries stored on a vmfs volume I’m using a copy of that stored in my local-bin directory (which is backed-up by rsync to another disk) and a small ghettoVcb.sh bootstrap script referencing that config-file, so the backup command for one command now is this:

ghettoVcb.sh -m diaspore.opensuse-Tumbleweed-x64

or this for all VMs (about 2 hours from NVME SSD to HDD; will probably make this a 2 stage thing):

ghettoVcb.sh -a

VMs are backed-up under the directory specified in VM_BACKUP_VOLUME(below that’s ./) in a schema like this:

./diaspore.opensuse-Tumbleweed-x64
./diaspore.opensuse-Tumbleweed-x64/diaspore.opensuse-Tumbleweed-x64-2017-09-24_16-07-08
./diaspore.opensuse-Tumbleweed-x64/diaspore.opensuse-Tumbleweed-x64-2017-09-24_16-07-08/diaspore.opensuse-Tumbleweed-x64.vmx
./diaspore.opensuse-Tumbleweed-x64/diaspore.opensuse-Tumbleweed-x64-2017-09-24_16-07-08/diaspore.opensuse-Tumbleweed-x64-flat.vmdk
./diaspore.opensuse-Tumbleweed-x64/diaspore.opensuse-Tumbleweed-x64-2017-09-24_16-07-08/diaspore.opensuse-Tumbleweed-x64.vmdk
./diaspore.opensuse-Tumbleweed-x64/diaspore.opensuse-Tumbleweed-x64-2017-09-24_16-07-08/STATUS.ok

In the future, I might move to an NFS based back-up based on these links:

–jeroen

Very old notes:

 

–jeroen

Posted in ESXi4, ESXi5, ESXi5.1, ESXi5.5, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

Keeping your root visorfs clean: point the path to your own binaries stored on a vmfs volume

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/04/26

Some interesting commands derived from [WayBackESXi/ESX error: No free space left on device (1007638) | VMware KB:

  • finding large files:
    find / -path "/vmfs" -prune -o -type f -size +50000k -exec ls -lh '{}' \;
  • finding space on the root file system (which is not listed in df -h):
    stat -f /

This was in the process of trying to keep my local binaries out of [WayBackVisorFS: A Special-purpose File System for Efficient Handling of System Images – VMware Labs as it is inherently small in size (both total size and number of inodes) as it is a RAM disk based file system.

Based on that, at [WayBackTrouble shooting – esx.problem.visorfs.ramdisk.full – DefinIT I found this even more useful statement vdf -h | grep "%\|Ramdisk" which shows the exact usage of what’s in this filesystem. Example output on one of my systems:

# vdf -h | grep "%\|Ramdisk"
Ramdisk                   Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
root                       32M        1M       30M   6% --
etc                        28M      184K       27M   0% --
opt                        32M        0B       32M   0% --
var                        48M      352K       47M   0% --
tmp                       256M        4K      255M   0% --
iofilters                  32M        0B       32M   0% --
hostdstats                678M        4M      673M   0% --

The easiest is not to store them in the root file system at all, but then you need to alter the default path:

# echo $PATH
/bin:/sbin

Since my local binaries are at /vmfs/volumes/Samsung512NVME/local-bin/, I wanted to persist this path change:

export PATH=$PATH:/vmfs/volumes/Samsung512NVME/local-bin/

Basically you can do this with any current directory on your system: export PATH=$PATH:`pwd`

The easiest way to persist that path is to ensure you can shoehorn the effect in a file that gets started during bootup.

The standard – but unsupported – way to do that is shown for instance by:

Final solution

So, edit vi /etc/rc.local.d/local.sh, then shutdown all your VMs and reboot the system to verify the effects. However inserting that export isn’t enough. This is the line you need to add before the exit 0:

sed -i -e 's!PATH=/bin:/sbin!PATH=/bin:/sbin:/vmfs/volumes/Samsung512NVME/local-bin/!' /etc/profile

Related

  • [WayBack] ESXi: Aliases definieren › /dev/blog/ID10T
  • [Archive.is] Solved: How to keep a .profile in / of ESXi? |VMware Communities

    ESXi does not remove that file on boot-up, it simply does not save it. ESXi runs from memory. So if you created some file (i.e. /.profile) it is only in “memory-disk”, not in disk-image which is loaded again at the next boot-up.

    Either create custom vib and install it as every other, or use rc.local which is persistent (any changes you make to this file survive boot-up). You can create & save that file somewhere else and use rc.local to copy it to /, or use rc.local with shell commands to create .profile at every boot-up.

    Wait a minute, you are using ESXi 6.0, right? I’m not sure if there is /etc/rc.local, but it used to be in 5.0/5.5…

    I edited /etc/rc.local.d/local.sh to copy the file that I keep on one of my datastores. After reboot, it worked fine. (So, yes, this does work in 6.0.) Thanks!

    I’m glad it worked for you. BTW you are right: instead of single file /etc/rc.local (as in 5.0) there is now the whole sub-dir /etc/rc.local.d/ but functionality is the same…

–jeroen

Posted in ESXi5, ESXi5.1, ESXi5.5, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »