Few days ago I read some information about memory tweaking on my PC / USB ESXi 4.0 whitebox. I got the this hardware configuration at home:

• Asus P6T SE (HCL)
• Intel Core I7 920 2.66 GHz, 4.8 GT/s, 4x 256kb, 8 MB, Boxed
• OCZ Gold 6 GB, PC3-12800, 1600 MHz, 8, Non-ECC, Kit Of 3 
• OCZ Fatal1ty 700 Watt, 20+24 Pins, 80 Plus Rating
• Network Intel® PRO/1000 PT Dual Port Server Adapter
• 2x Samsung SpinPoint F1 1 TB, 7200 Rpm, 32 MB, S-ATA II/300
• Antec Gamersgear Twelve Hundred Black
• XFX GeForce GTX 275
• Samsung SH-S222A DVD-writer 22x
• Storage ESXi: cheap NAS, nothing special, only too slow

 

The OCZ Gold 3 stripes with 2 GB each are default rated on 1066Mhz, but they can communicate with 1600Mhz (triple channel!). Time to change some settings in the bios of my Asus P6T SE motherboard.

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Some “blogging” colleagues posted their home lab configuration on the internet, see the list below:

• Simon S. – VMware ESX(i) Home Lab – Why, What and How? Considerations when building your own home lab
• Duncan – My Homelab
• Gabe – White box ESX home lab
• Jason Boche – EMC Celerra NS-120
• Bouke – v-Water: ESXi overclocked, watercooled
• Simon – vT.A.R.D.I.S – 10 ESXi node cluster on a trolley as demonstrated at London VMUG
• Dave – Whitebox HCL
• Eric’s articles on whiteboxes
• Maish – Install ESX on your Laptop – I had a Crazy Idea
• Ultimate ESX whitebox
• Iomega IX4-200D

I also give it a try and post my test lab on my blog.

I own 3 physical machines that I moved a few months ago to the datacenter at my work in Soest (the Netherlands). With a VPN tunnel from my Cisco ASA 5505 (at home) to the datacenter, my 50/50 mbit ISP, it feels like the systems are near me
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Description:

When a remote connection is established with Integrated Lights-Out/Integrated Lights-Out 2 (iLO/iLO2) using Internet Explorer 8, the browser may stop responding due to Internet Explorer 8 security features. The issue occurs while connecting to the iLO webpage and starting IRC or another iLO/iLO2 remote console client.

Scope:

Any ProLiant server using Integrated Lights-Out/Integrated Lights-Out 2 (iLO/iLO2) and connecting to a Remote Client using Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.

Resolution:

As a workaround, the iLO/iLO2 IP address or DNS name can be added to the Intranet Explorer 8 "Local Intranet" zone that lists Intranet websites.

Perform the following steps to add the DNS website name or IP address:

1. In Internet Explorer 8 click on "Tools->Internet Options" and the Internet Options pop-up will be displayed.
2. Click on the "Security" Tab.
3. Select the "Local Intranet" icon and click on the "Sites" button to the right and the "Local Intranet" pop-up will be displayed.
4. Click on "Advanced" and add the iLO/iLO2 IP address or DNS name into the blank text box and add the website to the local Intranet zone.
5. After adding the website, click on "Close" to save the website in the zone.

After adding the iLO/iLO2 IP address or DNS name in the Internet Explorer 8 local Intranet zone, all iLO/iLO2 clients will connect as expected.

 

Source: HP and for the tip Eric Gray

Jaja, eindelijk is het dan zover, vanmiddag kwam UPS mijn nieuwe (tweedehandse) server afleveren. Dit pakket kost me denk ik 3 weken ziektewet (40 kilo) maar het resultaat mag er zijn:

HP ProLiant DL585 G1

CPU TYPE : Quad (4) AMD Opteron 64-880 Dual Core

CPU Speed: 8 x 2,4 Ghz

Geheugen : 8 GB DDR PC2100 (8 x 1GB)

Schijven: 2 x 72 GB 2 x 36 GB (15K)

2 x HP NC7170 Dual Port PCI-X Gigabit Adapter

 

Kon natuurlijk niet wachten met installeren..

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Helaas is het een tijdje stil geweest op VMpros.nl, heb mijn testomgeving (HP ML350 G3) verkocht in de hoop 1:1 een nieuwe testomgeving te kunnen kopen is helaas wat moeilijker geworden als dat ik dacht.

Gelukkig heb ik sinds vandaag een nieuwe server gekocht (HP Proliant DL585-G1 Quad AMD Opteron 64 (Dual Core) – 2,4Ghz/8192MB/210GB/DVD/Rails/4U Server) en hoop deze vanaf dinsdag volledig klaar te hebben.

* Update volgt!

p.s Enneh.. collega bloggers?? Blogconccurentie ga ik dus weer met alle liefde aan!

Vandaag na een stroomstoring is bij een klant de MSA1500 uitgevallen inclusief servers. Na het opnieuw op te hebben gestart van de MSA en later de servers konden vooralsnog de LUN’s niet worden benadert vanaf de servers. Eenmaal op de HP ACU de volgende foutmeldingen:

Indien je de schijven online wil krijgen en deze komen vooralsnog niet op de juist manier online na herstart van MSA kan je er voor kiezen om de schijven op de volgende manier online te krijgen:

Tip: Let erg goed op de aangegeven meldingen die na de optie van Re enable failed logical drive wordt weergegeven. Wees zeker dat indien het fout gaat dat er juist kan worden restored van tape!

HP ACU > MSA Controller > Logical Drives > Rechtermuisknop > “Re enable failed logical drive” vervolgens Save.

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I have created some Virtual Appliances with VMware Converter 3.0 that will be imported to ESX. The Virtual Appliances are saved as OVA, it’s a zipped file that contains the vmdk and ovf.

This week VMware released vConverter Standalone 4.0. So I upgraded my version to 4.0. And I started to import my templates. I always import an XP template for testing. First I imported some windows 2k3 templates, then I started with the XP template. I was going through the steps until I got to step 3.Where the VM options can be edited, I noticed that the SCSI controller was changed from LSI Logic to Bus Logic.

This will cause XP to crash. Because of the LSI logic driver that was installed in the OS. To verify that there was no mistake, I opened the ovf file where the vmx options are stored.

<Item>
   <rasd:Caption>SCSI Controller 0</rasd:Caption>
   <rasd:Description>SCSI Controller</rasd:Description>
   <rasd:InstanceId>3</rasd:InstanceId>
   <rasd:ResourceType>6</rasd:ResourceType>
   <rasd:ResourceSubType>lsilogic</rasd:ResourceSubType>
   <rasd:BusNumber>0</rasd:BusNumber>
</Item>

Searching for the SCSI controller in the file, will show the type of SCSI controller that was used.Changing the SCSI Controller at this point was not an option, because the LSI Logic controller was not listed as an option in the dropdown list.

As workaround I had to start the VI client after the XP machine was imported. I edited the settings of the imported virtual machine to change the controller type from Bus Logic back to LSI Logic.

This will enable the virtual machine to boot again.

After some research I found that it was a know issue. Read about it after the jump.

Source:	http://www.vmware.com/support/converter/doc/releasenotes_conv40.html#knownissues
	http://blog.vmpros.nl/2009/02/16/vmware-released-new-version-vcenter-converter-40/
	http://www.vmware.com/appliances/learn/ovf.html

Today I started a new project where I had to configure 2 HP StorageWorks 4/16 SAN Switches. The firmware 5.3.0 was installed. The switches are configured with a static ip address 10.77.77.77/24 you can change your laptops ip address to an ip in the specified range and login to the java applet. Another option is to connect the console cable to the switch and configure it by console. I encountered some problems trying to upgrade the firmware by using the java applet.

After changing the ip address and starting the java applet the java applet would not start. I tried different java versions but still the problem remains. The java applet starts loading until “initializing switch details” where it will freeze to load the java applet.

Instead of trying to install all know java versions to start the java applet I had to upgrade the firmware to the latest version by using the console.

I connected the console cable to the switch and powered it up and started HyperTerminal.

1. Type in “admin” to login on to the console

2. Type in “password” to login on to the console

3. Press “Ctrl-c” at this moment we don’t want to change the password

4. Type in “ipaddrshow” to show the default ip address

5. Type in “ipaddrset” to change the ip configuration

6. Press the “enter-key” until you see the DHCP[Off] prompt

7. Type in “on” to turn on the dhcp option

8. To check the version type in “version” to upgrade to the latest version we need first to upgrade to 6.0.0b.

9. Download the firmware extract the files and place the files on an FTP server.

10. Type in “firmwaredownload” to start the firmware upgrade

11. Type in the FTP-Server ip address

12. Type in the location of the firmware files located on the ftp server. Don’t forget to add “release.plist” at the end

13. Type in “y” to upgrade the firmware. You can get a cup of coffee this will take a few minutes.

14. The upgrade completed successfully

15. Start IE7 to load the applet to see if the upgrade had any effect. Browse to the ip address that was assigned by the dhcp server.

16. The login screen will popup

17. Type in the “User Name” and “Password” to load the applet

The swd77 Web Tools popup so the upgrade was successfully and works with my current java version. Now I can use the GUI to upgrade the firmware to the latest version and configure zoning.

Probleem bij de klant was dat clients hun eigen IP-Adres als gateway krijgen ondanks dat de DHCP de firewall als default gateway heeft ingesteld staan.

 

Probleem zat in de switch welke een instellingen heeft genaamd Automatic Broadcast Control (ABC)

Even een korte uitleg hierover:

 

“When using ABC, each client in a multi-subnet structure can be configured as its own gateway so that traffic from the client can be sent directly to target nodes. (This reduces traffic to and from a multinetted router or it allows intersubnet communication without needing a router.) Note If you are using ABC without substituting a switch for a router, or if you are adding a switch to enhance performance without replacing a router, then clients do not need to be reconfigured as their own gateways. You can automatically reconfigure the gateway for clients in a network that meets the following two conditions:

• DHCP is the automatic configuration protocol used to manage IP addresses on the network.
• the DHCP request travels through the switch on its path to the DHCP server. If you are replacing a router with a switch, one of your tasks is to change the default gateway configuration on all of the clients in the network. Also, some DHCP servers do not have an option allowing a client to be configured as its own gateway. The Auto Gateway parameter available with the IP-related ABC options modifies DHCP replies from the server so that the gateway IP address will be set to the client’s own IP address.”

 

Het uitzetten van deze optie heeft het probleem opgelost en men krijgt nu de default gateway weer van de DHCP server. Kennelijk zorgde deze instelling voor problemen met poort regels op de pix voor specifieke werkstations (immers, de default gateway staat op client ip adres ipv pix adres).