It's amazing what's happened since the last post- changed jobs yet again, survived a pandemic and a world turned insane, but still kicking around.
Thursday, January 5, 2023
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Long time without, but quick update- sometimes, the old tools are still the best
I was trying to get a list of users currently logged in to machines on a remote network tonight, when it hit me that I could do it pretty easily with powershell- some quick google searches showed up telling me that, yes, in fact I could. Along with these hideously long, convoluted scripts.
Now don't get me wrong- I'm all for error checking out the yang, but do I really need 400 lines when one will do? And do I really need a specific module for getting my answer?
Turns out, no. I just needed the built in tools in windows. Specifically the ad extensions for powershell, and qwinsta. What's that, you've never heard of qwinsta? That's ok, I only learned of it back in the days of NT4, along with it's sibling rwinsta. Why such odd names? Well, in those days we were pretty limited (remember, 8.3 for most everything microsoft related), so qwinsta (or Query Windows Station) and rwinsta (Reset Windows Station) are used to do just that.
Now on to the meat-
Quick check of the network as follows:
Import-Module ActiveDirectory -PSSession $s
$complist = Get-ADComputer -filter *
foreach ( $comp in $complist) { echo $comp.name ; qwinsta -Server $comp.name }
And there ya go, every computer AD knows about gets scanned.
Now don't get me wrong- I'm all for error checking out the yang, but do I really need 400 lines when one will do? And do I really need a specific module for getting my answer?
Turns out, no. I just needed the built in tools in windows. Specifically the ad extensions for powershell, and qwinsta. What's that, you've never heard of qwinsta? That's ok, I only learned of it back in the days of NT4, along with it's sibling rwinsta. Why such odd names? Well, in those days we were pretty limited (remember, 8.3 for most everything microsoft related), so qwinsta (or Query Windows Station) and rwinsta (Reset Windows Station) are used to do just that.
Now on to the meat-
Quick check of the network as follows:
Import-Module ActiveDirectory -PSSession $s
$complist = Get-ADComputer -filter *
foreach ( $comp in $complist) { echo $comp.name ; qwinsta -Server $comp.name }
And there ya go, every computer AD knows about gets scanned.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
VDP and Exchange 2007
So, I've gotten sucked in by VMWare's Data Production appliance- So far, it's been a great way to backup VM's in my lab and production environments, however it was lacking for exchange. I could backup the VM itself, but the log files wouldn't commit.
In the last few days, I've found a way around that too, even to the point of successfully restoring exchange DBs to exchange 2007! The secret is in the PITA way that scripts are handled inside of the VM during backups. After digging through multiple posts, I finally came up with a working set of scripts for clearing exchange logs during backups.
You'll find on VMWare's site two posts, one that details the location of backup scripts inside the VM ( http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=1006671 ), and another that details using diskshadow ( http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2044169 ). Given that the environment we're going to put these scripts together for contains Exchange 2007 SP3 on Windows Server 2008 R2. From looking at the tables for the backup script location, we find that the quiescing scripts need to be placed at C:\Windows\pre-freeze-script.bat for the start of backups, and C:\Windows\post-thaw-script.bat for finishing off the backup. Inside the pre-freeze script, I followed the examples for using diskshadow- all the pre-freeze script does is call the backup.cmd script found at c:\vmwarebackup.
In the last few days, I've found a way around that too, even to the point of successfully restoring exchange DBs to exchange 2007! The secret is in the PITA way that scripts are handled inside of the VM during backups. After digging through multiple posts, I finally came up with a working set of scripts for clearing exchange logs during backups.
You'll find on VMWare's site two posts, one that details the location of backup scripts inside the VM ( http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=1006671 ), and another that details using diskshadow ( http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2044169 ). Given that the environment we're going to put these scripts together for contains Exchange 2007 SP3 on Windows Server 2008 R2. From looking at the tables for the backup script location, we find that the quiescing scripts need to be placed at C:\Windows\pre-freeze-script.bat for the start of backups, and C:\Windows\post-thaw-script.bat for finishing off the backup. Inside the pre-freeze script, I followed the examples for using diskshadow- all the pre-freeze script does is call the backup.cmd script found at c:\vmwarebackup.
VNXe- proof of how to do storage configuration wrong... very wrong.
~This article was originally to be published in February of 2014~
For the last few weeks, I've been dealing with an environment where storage has been massively misconfigured. Dual VNXe 3100s, only one in use. Storage network running on a single, incredibly slow HP 1410 switch, single NIC, single path... pretty much everything you can do wrong and still have it work.
So I've been trying to fix this in order to get backups to run in a reasonable amount of time- added dedicated switching, trying to get the second VNXe available for access to the local vmware cluster, etc. The first thing I run into is how incredibly slow this system is- any thing I do literally takes 160 seconds to complete. How do I know? I sat there with a stopwatch and clocked several of my actions, because I couldn't believe how slow it seemed- I must have been spoiled! I found to my horror that it's literally 2 minutes, 40 seconds per action. Dear god I hate this thing.
Going over the vmhosts, I come to find that there isn't consistent datastore mappings- each host has most datastores in common, but there were several that were only on one host, or two hosts. So I spend some time correcting this when I come across another horrible discovery- there were duplicate entries for hosts, and some were flat out wrong (or in one case, completely identical!)
This is where I made the critical mistake- I had gotten the switching in place, I had gotten the SANs moved over, but I hadn't cleaned up the access lists. I started on that, with the rational thought that it would work in a sensible manner. In my mind, I would simply change access over from IP allow lists to IQNs (simpler to manage, right?)- oh so wrong.
This thing had been setup to talk to vCenter, and so talk it did. For some ungodly reason, it decided that since vCenter knew about the datastore associated with the LUN that it could not change the access method (IQN vs IP)- and throws up this beautiful error:
"The changes could not be applied the following error was encountered:
The datastore name is already in use on the ESX server
error code: 0x600d50"
WTF? Why on earth would this matter? Proper MPIO would allow multiple connections to the same LUN from the same initiator without error, so why on earth would this matter in the least? So, being the trusting, happy go-lucky admin that I am, I click OK.
And developed an ulcer. That instant.
Two of the three hosts were kicked off the VNXe immediately.
Ok I think to myself, easy fix. I'll just go back in and give myself permission again, undoing my changes.
Oh no. no no no- it's not that easy. It's nowhere near that easy. Nothing I do is letting me reattach these LUNs. _Nothing_. Now I'm getting spooked- is the data even still there? Did I somehow just obliterate the customer's data? I dig through emails and documents, finding the credentials I need to get on EMCs support site, where I run into the first hurdle.
Error code 0x600d50 is apparently not something customers need know about, so if you get that error, you're pretty well screwed. It also doesn't help that every reference to it is in regards to renaming datastores on the vmware side without doing it on the storage side- apparently does bad things. But this doesn't concern me, right? I made no such change!
There's apparently a lot more to this error than one condition- but it's so piss poorly documented that one will never find out. Now I'm really panicked, so I click on the chat with support button. I fill in all the details, and even manage to find the serial number for the device I'm having a headache with- and then click "submit".
And promptly get told support's not available via web chat.
ok...
Calling in to EMC's support line, I get told immediately by a very friendly recording that I'll get quicker support... if I use the chat client. Yep, this was going to be one of those calls. After navigating the menu system, I get to a young man who is completely lost by the gibberish coming out of my mouth- but he does get me in touch with a woman who understands me perfectly (I wish I could say the same about what she was saying)- I managed to secure a call back promise from her.
I wish I could say the nightmare ends here. The customer is down, and I've notified them that I'm working on it. They're mostly ok with it, as I'm working on it. At this point I'm pretty freaked, as I'm waiting on a call back that I'm not even sure is coming. 30 minutes later, the call back finally happens. And I walk the tech through what's going on, and he immediately starts trying to do all the things I had done.
Which is about when I really start to shiver- the tech was actually expecting it to work too. He gets the senior tech involved, which I overhear in the background saying that I need to remove all the datastores from the VM hosts.
Can't do it- vmware refuses to unmount the datastores as long as there's a vm on it. So after arguing with support and realizing I'm not going to get anywhere otherwise, I power off every vm. and rescan the HBAs...
Which changes nothing.
At all.
And now I'm freaked because the support techs want me to remove the VMs from inventory. Now that I can't see the datastores in order to record what VM's go where (why is this a problem you ask? because I just took over the environment!)
I flat out refuse- and we go onto the next step. Which involves resetting the SAN. Needless to say, I refused to do that too.
What did eventually work you ask? Going into the VNXe where the problem originally existed and removing every host entry. Letting the SAN sit and fiddle with itself for awhile, while rescanning the HBA on the hosts. This at least cleared out the datastore lists- not a reassuring thing in the least mind you. Now I re-added the hosts one by one until I had them back in using the access methods I wanted them to use.
And I attached the first LUN.
And waited forever, or so it seemed. This was when I decided to use a stopwatch to figure out how long this was taking. Each LUN I reattach is taking ~3 minutes per LUN. 44 LUNs.
44 LUNs at 3 minutes per. 132 minutes to reattach these datastores. 132 minutes before I can even attempt to get the customer back online. 132 minutes of mind numbing, nail biting, customer frustrating hell.
So, I ask... Is there some way I can do these in bulk? "Nope"
I finally managed to thank the tech for his time and get off the phone. Where upon I've been stewing for over 2 hours, thinking about how utterly stupid this is. Fuming that I never had issues like this with Equallogic, HUS, or even open source linux iSCSI targets.
Why had I never run into these problems? Because none of those care one iota about what's accessing the volume. None of them try to do any screwed up LUN per datastore mapping, nor trying to enforce single host access or otherwise- why? Because they assume the storage admin knows what he's doing it.
For the last few weeks, I've been dealing with an environment where storage has been massively misconfigured. Dual VNXe 3100s, only one in use. Storage network running on a single, incredibly slow HP 1410 switch, single NIC, single path... pretty much everything you can do wrong and still have it work.
So I've been trying to fix this in order to get backups to run in a reasonable amount of time- added dedicated switching, trying to get the second VNXe available for access to the local vmware cluster, etc. The first thing I run into is how incredibly slow this system is- any thing I do literally takes 160 seconds to complete. How do I know? I sat there with a stopwatch and clocked several of my actions, because I couldn't believe how slow it seemed- I must have been spoiled! I found to my horror that it's literally 2 minutes, 40 seconds per action. Dear god I hate this thing.
Going over the vmhosts, I come to find that there isn't consistent datastore mappings- each host has most datastores in common, but there were several that were only on one host, or two hosts. So I spend some time correcting this when I come across another horrible discovery- there were duplicate entries for hosts, and some were flat out wrong (or in one case, completely identical!)
This is where I made the critical mistake- I had gotten the switching in place, I had gotten the SANs moved over, but I hadn't cleaned up the access lists. I started on that, with the rational thought that it would work in a sensible manner. In my mind, I would simply change access over from IP allow lists to IQNs (simpler to manage, right?)- oh so wrong.
This thing had been setup to talk to vCenter, and so talk it did. For some ungodly reason, it decided that since vCenter knew about the datastore associated with the LUN that it could not change the access method (IQN vs IP)- and throws up this beautiful error:
"The changes could not be applied the following error was encountered:
The datastore name is already in use on the ESX server
error code: 0x600d50"
WTF? Why on earth would this matter? Proper MPIO would allow multiple connections to the same LUN from the same initiator without error, so why on earth would this matter in the least? So, being the trusting, happy go-lucky admin that I am, I click OK.
And developed an ulcer. That instant.
Two of the three hosts were kicked off the VNXe immediately.
Ok I think to myself, easy fix. I'll just go back in and give myself permission again, undoing my changes.
Oh no. no no no- it's not that easy. It's nowhere near that easy. Nothing I do is letting me reattach these LUNs. _Nothing_. Now I'm getting spooked- is the data even still there? Did I somehow just obliterate the customer's data? I dig through emails and documents, finding the credentials I need to get on EMCs support site, where I run into the first hurdle.
Error code 0x600d50 is apparently not something customers need know about, so if you get that error, you're pretty well screwed. It also doesn't help that every reference to it is in regards to renaming datastores on the vmware side without doing it on the storage side- apparently does bad things. But this doesn't concern me, right? I made no such change!
There's apparently a lot more to this error than one condition- but it's so piss poorly documented that one will never find out. Now I'm really panicked, so I click on the chat with support button. I fill in all the details, and even manage to find the serial number for the device I'm having a headache with- and then click "submit".
And promptly get told support's not available via web chat.
ok...
Calling in to EMC's support line, I get told immediately by a very friendly recording that I'll get quicker support... if I use the chat client. Yep, this was going to be one of those calls. After navigating the menu system, I get to a young man who is completely lost by the gibberish coming out of my mouth- but he does get me in touch with a woman who understands me perfectly (I wish I could say the same about what she was saying)- I managed to secure a call back promise from her.
I wish I could say the nightmare ends here. The customer is down, and I've notified them that I'm working on it. They're mostly ok with it, as I'm working on it. At this point I'm pretty freaked, as I'm waiting on a call back that I'm not even sure is coming. 30 minutes later, the call back finally happens. And I walk the tech through what's going on, and he immediately starts trying to do all the things I had done.
Which is about when I really start to shiver- the tech was actually expecting it to work too. He gets the senior tech involved, which I overhear in the background saying that I need to remove all the datastores from the VM hosts.
Can't do it- vmware refuses to unmount the datastores as long as there's a vm on it. So after arguing with support and realizing I'm not going to get anywhere otherwise, I power off every vm. and rescan the HBAs...
Which changes nothing.
At all.
And now I'm freaked because the support techs want me to remove the VMs from inventory. Now that I can't see the datastores in order to record what VM's go where (why is this a problem you ask? because I just took over the environment!)
I flat out refuse- and we go onto the next step. Which involves resetting the SAN. Needless to say, I refused to do that too.
What did eventually work you ask? Going into the VNXe where the problem originally existed and removing every host entry. Letting the SAN sit and fiddle with itself for awhile, while rescanning the HBA on the hosts. This at least cleared out the datastore lists- not a reassuring thing in the least mind you. Now I re-added the hosts one by one until I had them back in using the access methods I wanted them to use.
And I attached the first LUN.
And waited forever, or so it seemed. This was when I decided to use a stopwatch to figure out how long this was taking. Each LUN I reattach is taking ~3 minutes per LUN. 44 LUNs.
44 LUNs at 3 minutes per. 132 minutes to reattach these datastores. 132 minutes before I can even attempt to get the customer back online. 132 minutes of mind numbing, nail biting, customer frustrating hell.
So, I ask... Is there some way I can do these in bulk? "Nope"
I finally managed to thank the tech for his time and get off the phone. Where upon I've been stewing for over 2 hours, thinking about how utterly stupid this is. Fuming that I never had issues like this with Equallogic, HUS, or even open source linux iSCSI targets.
Why had I never run into these problems? Because none of those care one iota about what's accessing the volume. None of them try to do any screwed up LUN per datastore mapping, nor trying to enforce single host access or otherwise- why? Because they assume the storage admin knows what he's doing it.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
The horrid beast known as "vCloud"
So once again, I've been tasked with doing something that normally can be done just by going into the viclient or the webclient- namely, modifying disks for a vm. Only... this is in vcloud. The horrid nightmare that it is.
So we start off by logging in and getting auth. To do this, I've been using curl. I'm sure there's another way, possibly a way to do this using IIS/apache, what have you, but it's far outside the scope of what I'm doing at the moment.
curl -i -k -H "Accept:application/*+xml;version=1.5" -u <user>@system:<password> -X POST https://<vcloudHost>/api/sessions
This will return a string you will need for the rest of your transactions:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:32:03 GMT
x-vcloud-authorization: HeJTbAEggL97iqdVsqMiINFhu4ZIRsYlPRd96dipjvc=
Set-Cookie: vcloud-token=HeJTbAEggL97iqdVsqMiINFhu4ZIRsYlPRd96dipjvc=; Secure; Path=/
Content-Type: application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.session+xml;version=1.5
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:32:03 GMT
Content-Length: 980
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Session xmlns="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" user="<user>" org="System" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.session+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/session/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5 http://<vcloudHost>/api/v1.5/schema/master.xsd">
<Link rel="down" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.orgList+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/org/"/>
<Link rel="down" type="application/vnd.vmware.admin.vcloud+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/admin/"/>
<Link rel="down" type="application/vnd.vmware.admin.vmwExtension+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/admin/extension"/>
<Link rel="down" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.query.queryList+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/query"/>
<Link rel="entityResolver" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.entity+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/entity/"/>
</Session>
Notice the line that starts off with "x-vcloud-authorization"? You need the string following it.
Now to get a list of VM's
curl -i -k -H "Accept:application/*+xml;version=1.5" -H "x-vcloud-authorization: HeJTbAEggL97iqdVsqMiINFhu4ZIRsYlPRd96dipjvc=" -X GET 'https://<vcloudHost>/api/query?type=adminVM&fields=name,datastoreName'
This will return a list of machines:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:32:26 GMT
Content-Type: application/*+xml;version=1.5
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:32:26 GMT
Content-Length: 1911
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<QueryResultRecords xmlns="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" total="7" pageSize="25" page="1" name="adminVM" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.query.records+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/query?type=adminVM&page=1&pageSize=25&format=records&fields=name,datastoreName" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5 http://<vcloudHost>/api/v1.5/schema/master.xsd">
<Link rel="alternate" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.query.references+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/query?type=adminVM&page=1&pageSize=25&format=references&fields=name,datastoreName"/>
<Link rel="alternate" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.query.idrecords+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/query?type=adminVM&page=1&pageSize=25&format=idrecords&fields=name,datastoreName"/>
<AdminVMRecord name="ubieFS3" datastoreName="HUS-3" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-0ccbd815-101c-4f3f-bc53-a482dd977e57"/>
<AdminVMRecord name="ubieTS1" datastoreName="HUS-3" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-1dac5547-1764-4fff-a2f9-feca10629d3b"/>
<AdminVMRecord name="ubieAPP1" datastoreName="HUS-3" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-2f1de9cf-1d77-4c6c-b454-58fdce96ceed"/>
<AdminVMRecord name="ubieSQL1" datastoreName="HUS-3" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-58f1c7a3-7bd2-45e5-80c8-fb84674aabe4"/>
<AdminVMRecord name="ubieDC11" datastoreName="HUS-3" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-83cdd93a-ee48-4846-a27c-1919ade3bf9c"/>
<AdminVMRecord name="ubieEMAIL1" datastoreName="HUS-3" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4"/>
<AdminVMRecord name="ubieDC12" datastoreName="HUS-3" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-dc5f8f09-072e-4717-94ed-d459ec566992"/>
</QueryResultRecords>
Now, we want the specifics on one VM:
curl -i -k -H "Accept:application/*+xml;version=1.5" -H "x-vcloud-authorization: HeJTbAEggL97iqdVsqMiINFhu4ZIRsYlPRd96dipjvc=" -X GET 'https://<vcloudHost>/api/query?type=adminVM&filter=(name==ubieEMAIL1)'
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:47:03 GMT
Content-Type: application/*+xml;version=1.5
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:47:03 GMT
Content-Length: 1833
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<QueryResultRecords xmlns="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" total="1" pageSize="25" page="1" name="adminVM" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.query.records+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/query?type=adminVM&page=1&pageSize=25&format=records&filter=(name==ubieEMAIL1)" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5 http://<vcloudHost>/api/v1.5/schema/master.xsd">
<Link rel="alternate" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.query.references+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/query?type=adminVM&page=1&pageSize=25&format=references&filter=(name==ubieEMAIL1)"/>
<Link rel="alternate" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.query.idrecords+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/query?type=adminVM&page=1&pageSize=25&format=idrecords&filter=(name==ubieEMAIL1)"/>
<AdminVMRecord vmToolsVersion="8389" vdc="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vdc/099a3580-ee14-4262-8eb5-eb0586786b58" vc="https://<vcloudHost>/api/admin/extension/vimServer/7c443115-8d45-42f0-b2f0-86d255d0e552" status="POWERED_ON" org="https://<vcloudHost>/api/org/dcd46410-3dee-47e8-a47f-e2bb99eb6cc7" numberOfCpus="2" networkName="ubie Org Ext" name="ubieEMAIL1" moref="vm-161" memoryMB="3072" isVdcEnabled="true" isVAppTemplate="false" isPublished="false" isDeployed="true" isDeleted="false" hostName="<clusterMember>" hardwareVersion="8" guestOs="Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)" datastoreName="HUS-3" containerName="ubieEMAIL1" container="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vapp-03219d73-4fe2-406b-8d32-85121f773a6a" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4" pvdcHighestSupportedHardwareVersion="8" containerStatus="RESOLVED"/>
Now that last section is what we need, specifically the "https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4". We're going to use that to pull data on the disk layout.
curl -i -k -H "Accept:application/*+xml;version=1.5" -H "x-vcloud-authorization: HeJTbAEggL97iqdVsqMiINFhu4ZIRsYlPRd96dipjvc=" -X GET 'https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4/virtualHardwareSection/disks'
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:49:28 GMT
Content-Type: application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.rasditemslist+xml;version=1.5
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:49:28 GMT
Content-Length: 2018
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<RasdItemsList xmlns="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" xmlns:rasd="http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.rasdItemsList+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4/virtualHardwareSection/disks" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5 http://<vcloudHost>/api/v1.5/schema/master.xsd http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2.22.0/CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData.xsd">
<Link rel="edit" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.rasdItemsList+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4/virtualHardwareSection/disks"/>
<Item>
<rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
<rasd:Description>SCSI Controller</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>SCSI Controller 0</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:InstanceID>2</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:ResourceSubType>lsilogicsas</rasd:ResourceSubType>
<rasd:ResourceType>6</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
<Item>
<rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>
<rasd:Description>Hard disk</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>Hard disk 1</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:HostResource xmlns:vcloud="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" vcloud:capacity="40960" vcloud:busSubType="lsilogicsas" vcloud:busType="6"></rasd:HostResource>
<rasd:InstanceID>2000</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:Parent>2</rasd:Parent>
<rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
<Item>
<rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
<rasd:Description>IDE Controller</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>IDE Controller 0</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:InstanceID>3</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:ResourceType>5</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
</RasdItemsList>
Now we're going to add a couple disks- this is where it gets weird. You're going to need to create an XML response file from the above configuration info, and you'll need to keep all the current info as well. Failure to do so can completely destroy your VM! You've been warned.
create your response file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<RasdItemsList xmlns="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" xmlns:rasd="http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.rasdItemsList+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4/virtualHardwareSection/disks" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5 http://<vcloudHost>/api/v1.5/schema/master.xsd http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2.22.0/CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData.xsd">
<Link rel="edit" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.rasdItemsList+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4/virtualHardwareSection/disks"/>
<Item>
<rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
<rasd:Description>SCSI Controller</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>SCSI Controller 0</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:InstanceID>2</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:ResourceSubType>lsilogicsas</rasd:ResourceSubType>
<rasd:ResourceType>6</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
<Item>
<rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>
<rasd:Description>Hard disk</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>Hard disk 1</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:HostResource xmlns:vcloud="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" vcloud:capacity="40960" vcloud:busSubType="lsilogicsas" vcloud:busType="6"></rasd:HostResource>
<rasd:InstanceID>2000</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:Parent>2</rasd:Parent>
<rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
<Item>
<rasd:AddressOnParent>1</rasd:AddressOnParent>
<rasd:Description>Hard disk</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>Hard disk 2</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:HostResource xmlns:vcloud="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" vcloud:capacity="153600" vcloud:busSubType="lsilogicsas" vcloud:busType="6"></rasd:HostResource>
<rasd:InstanceID>2001</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:Parent>2</rasd:Parent>
<rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
<Item>
<rasd:AddressOnParent>2</rasd:AddressOnParent>
<rasd:Description>Hard disk</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>Hard disk 3</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:HostResource xmlns:vcloud="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" vcloud:capacity="102400" vcloud:busSubType="lsilogicsas" vcloud:busType="6"></rasd:HostResource>
<rasd:InstanceID>2002</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:Parent>2</rasd:Parent>
<rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
<Item>
<rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
<rasd:Description>IDE Controller</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>IDE Controller 0</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:InstanceID>3</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:ResourceType>5</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
</RasdItemsList>
Now, provided you have enough room, you'll run the following:
curl -i -k -H "Accept:application/*+xml;version=1.5" -H "x-vcloud-authorization: HeJTbAEggL97iqdVsqMiINFhu4ZIRsYlPRd96dipjvc=" -X PUT 'https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4/virtualHardwareSection/disks' -H “Content-Type: application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.rasdItemsList+xml” -d @create-disk
New disks created. Why on earth this is so miserable I have no idea, but it really shouldn't be.
So we start off by logging in and getting auth. To do this, I've been using curl. I'm sure there's another way, possibly a way to do this using IIS/apache, what have you, but it's far outside the scope of what I'm doing at the moment.
curl -i -k -H "Accept:application/*+xml;version=1.5" -u <user>@system:<password> -X POST https://<vcloudHost>/api/sessions
This will return a string you will need for the rest of your transactions:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:32:03 GMT
x-vcloud-authorization: HeJTbAEggL97iqdVsqMiINFhu4ZIRsYlPRd96dipjvc=
Set-Cookie: vcloud-token=HeJTbAEggL97iqdVsqMiINFhu4ZIRsYlPRd96dipjvc=; Secure; Path=/
Content-Type: application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.session+xml;version=1.5
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:32:03 GMT
Content-Length: 980
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Session xmlns="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" user="<user>" org="System" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.session+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/session/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5 http://<vcloudHost>/api/v1.5/schema/master.xsd">
<Link rel="down" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.orgList+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/org/"/>
<Link rel="down" type="application/vnd.vmware.admin.vcloud+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/admin/"/>
<Link rel="down" type="application/vnd.vmware.admin.vmwExtension+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/admin/extension"/>
<Link rel="down" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.query.queryList+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/query"/>
<Link rel="entityResolver" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.entity+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/entity/"/>
</Session>
Notice the line that starts off with "x-vcloud-authorization"? You need the string following it.
Now to get a list of VM's
curl -i -k -H "Accept:application/*+xml;version=1.5" -H "x-vcloud-authorization: HeJTbAEggL97iqdVsqMiINFhu4ZIRsYlPRd96dipjvc=" -X GET 'https://<vcloudHost>/api/query?type=adminVM&fields=name,datastoreName'
This will return a list of machines:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:32:26 GMT
Content-Type: application/*+xml;version=1.5
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:32:26 GMT
Content-Length: 1911
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<QueryResultRecords xmlns="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" total="7" pageSize="25" page="1" name="adminVM" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.query.records+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/query?type=adminVM&page=1&pageSize=25&format=records&fields=name,datastoreName" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5 http://<vcloudHost>/api/v1.5/schema/master.xsd">
<Link rel="alternate" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.query.references+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/query?type=adminVM&page=1&pageSize=25&format=references&fields=name,datastoreName"/>
<Link rel="alternate" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.query.idrecords+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/query?type=adminVM&page=1&pageSize=25&format=idrecords&fields=name,datastoreName"/>
<AdminVMRecord name="ubieFS3" datastoreName="HUS-3" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-0ccbd815-101c-4f3f-bc53-a482dd977e57"/>
<AdminVMRecord name="ubieTS1" datastoreName="HUS-3" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-1dac5547-1764-4fff-a2f9-feca10629d3b"/>
<AdminVMRecord name="ubieAPP1" datastoreName="HUS-3" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-2f1de9cf-1d77-4c6c-b454-58fdce96ceed"/>
<AdminVMRecord name="ubieSQL1" datastoreName="HUS-3" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-58f1c7a3-7bd2-45e5-80c8-fb84674aabe4"/>
<AdminVMRecord name="ubieDC11" datastoreName="HUS-3" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-83cdd93a-ee48-4846-a27c-1919ade3bf9c"/>
<AdminVMRecord name="ubieEMAIL1" datastoreName="HUS-3" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4"/>
<AdminVMRecord name="ubieDC12" datastoreName="HUS-3" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-dc5f8f09-072e-4717-94ed-d459ec566992"/>
</QueryResultRecords>
Now, we want the specifics on one VM:
curl -i -k -H "Accept:application/*+xml;version=1.5" -H "x-vcloud-authorization: HeJTbAEggL97iqdVsqMiINFhu4ZIRsYlPRd96dipjvc=" -X GET 'https://<vcloudHost>/api/query?type=adminVM&filter=(name==ubieEMAIL1)'
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:47:03 GMT
Content-Type: application/*+xml;version=1.5
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:47:03 GMT
Content-Length: 1833
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<QueryResultRecords xmlns="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" total="1" pageSize="25" page="1" name="adminVM" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.query.records+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/query?type=adminVM&page=1&pageSize=25&format=records&filter=(name==ubieEMAIL1)" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5 http://<vcloudHost>/api/v1.5/schema/master.xsd">
<Link rel="alternate" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.query.references+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/query?type=adminVM&page=1&pageSize=25&format=references&filter=(name==ubieEMAIL1)"/>
<Link rel="alternate" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.query.idrecords+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/query?type=adminVM&page=1&pageSize=25&format=idrecords&filter=(name==ubieEMAIL1)"/>
<AdminVMRecord vmToolsVersion="8389" vdc="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vdc/099a3580-ee14-4262-8eb5-eb0586786b58" vc="https://<vcloudHost>/api/admin/extension/vimServer/7c443115-8d45-42f0-b2f0-86d255d0e552" status="POWERED_ON" org="https://<vcloudHost>/api/org/dcd46410-3dee-47e8-a47f-e2bb99eb6cc7" numberOfCpus="2" networkName="ubie Org Ext" name="ubieEMAIL1" moref="vm-161" memoryMB="3072" isVdcEnabled="true" isVAppTemplate="false" isPublished="false" isDeployed="true" isDeleted="false" hostName="<clusterMember>" hardwareVersion="8" guestOs="Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)" datastoreName="HUS-3" containerName="ubieEMAIL1" container="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vapp-03219d73-4fe2-406b-8d32-85121f773a6a" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4" pvdcHighestSupportedHardwareVersion="8" containerStatus="RESOLVED"/>
Now that last section is what we need, specifically the "https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4". We're going to use that to pull data on the disk layout.
curl -i -k -H "Accept:application/*+xml;version=1.5" -H "x-vcloud-authorization: HeJTbAEggL97iqdVsqMiINFhu4ZIRsYlPRd96dipjvc=" -X GET 'https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4/virtualHardwareSection/disks'
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:49:28 GMT
Content-Type: application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.rasditemslist+xml;version=1.5
Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:49:28 GMT
Content-Length: 2018
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<RasdItemsList xmlns="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" xmlns:rasd="http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.rasdItemsList+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4/virtualHardwareSection/disks" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5 http://<vcloudHost>/api/v1.5/schema/master.xsd http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2.22.0/CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData.xsd">
<Link rel="edit" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.rasdItemsList+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4/virtualHardwareSection/disks"/>
<Item>
<rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
<rasd:Description>SCSI Controller</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>SCSI Controller 0</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:InstanceID>2</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:ResourceSubType>lsilogicsas</rasd:ResourceSubType>
<rasd:ResourceType>6</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
<Item>
<rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>
<rasd:Description>Hard disk</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>Hard disk 1</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:HostResource xmlns:vcloud="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" vcloud:capacity="40960" vcloud:busSubType="lsilogicsas" vcloud:busType="6"></rasd:HostResource>
<rasd:InstanceID>2000</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:Parent>2</rasd:Parent>
<rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
<Item>
<rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
<rasd:Description>IDE Controller</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>IDE Controller 0</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:InstanceID>3</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:ResourceType>5</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
</RasdItemsList>
Now we're going to add a couple disks- this is where it gets weird. You're going to need to create an XML response file from the above configuration info, and you'll need to keep all the current info as well. Failure to do so can completely destroy your VM! You've been warned.
create your response file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<RasdItemsList xmlns="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" xmlns:rasd="http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.rasdItemsList+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4/virtualHardwareSection/disks" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5 http://<vcloudHost>/api/v1.5/schema/master.xsd http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2.22.0/CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData.xsd">
<Link rel="edit" type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.rasdItemsList+xml" href="https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4/virtualHardwareSection/disks"/>
<Item>
<rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
<rasd:Description>SCSI Controller</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>SCSI Controller 0</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:InstanceID>2</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:ResourceSubType>lsilogicsas</rasd:ResourceSubType>
<rasd:ResourceType>6</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
<Item>
<rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>
<rasd:Description>Hard disk</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>Hard disk 1</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:HostResource xmlns:vcloud="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" vcloud:capacity="40960" vcloud:busSubType="lsilogicsas" vcloud:busType="6"></rasd:HostResource>
<rasd:InstanceID>2000</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:Parent>2</rasd:Parent>
<rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
<Item>
<rasd:AddressOnParent>1</rasd:AddressOnParent>
<rasd:Description>Hard disk</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>Hard disk 2</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:HostResource xmlns:vcloud="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" vcloud:capacity="153600" vcloud:busSubType="lsilogicsas" vcloud:busType="6"></rasd:HostResource>
<rasd:InstanceID>2001</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:Parent>2</rasd:Parent>
<rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
<Item>
<rasd:AddressOnParent>2</rasd:AddressOnParent>
<rasd:Description>Hard disk</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>Hard disk 3</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:HostResource xmlns:vcloud="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" vcloud:capacity="102400" vcloud:busSubType="lsilogicsas" vcloud:busType="6"></rasd:HostResource>
<rasd:InstanceID>2002</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:Parent>2</rasd:Parent>
<rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
<Item>
<rasd:Address>0</rasd:Address>
<rasd:Description>IDE Controller</rasd:Description>
<rasd:ElementName>IDE Controller 0</rasd:ElementName>
<rasd:InstanceID>3</rasd:InstanceID>
<rasd:ResourceType>5</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
</RasdItemsList>
Now, provided you have enough room, you'll run the following:
curl -i -k -H "Accept:application/*+xml;version=1.5" -H "x-vcloud-authorization: HeJTbAEggL97iqdVsqMiINFhu4ZIRsYlPRd96dipjvc=" -X PUT 'https://<vcloudHost>/api/vApp/vm-af966c82-e9e9-4f39-a7f3-21fbf9560ed4/virtualHardwareSection/disks' -H “Content-Type: application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.rasdItemsList+xml” -d @create-disk
New disks created. Why on earth this is so miserable I have no idea, but it really shouldn't be.
Friday, February 28, 2014
VMWare, CDP and non Cisco switches
So, I've been playing with CDP... everyone does it sooner or later. I'd come across documentation that claims the Brocade ICX-6610 switches that I've got talk CDP- which got me to thinking "Wouldn't that be nice to see from my VMHosts?"
Which got me digging through my switches for configuration docs- sparse at best, however... there's not much to document, especially with all you need to get it running. While trying to get this working I made some discoveries-
VMWare won't display CDP from non-Cisco devices. I have no idea why.
VMWare will output CDP just fine, meaning I can see my hosts from my switch!
To get VMWare to output CDP is pretty straight foward, with my preferred way being
Which got me digging through my switches for configuration docs- sparse at best, however... there's not much to document, especially with all you need to get it running. While trying to get this working I made some discoveries-
VMWare won't display CDP from non-Cisco devices. I have no idea why.
VMWare will output CDP just fine, meaning I can see my hosts from my switch!
To get VMWare to output CDP is pretty straight foward, with my preferred way being
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Holy crap true believers!
And yes, stan the man would probably frown on that- but still.
So it's been the usual 4-5 months (or more) since my last update... talk about the more things change...
I've taken a job in Houston Texas to work for an MSP that I've known for awhile. In the two months that I've been here, I've learned quite a bit about tech that I've only wished I could work with. For instance- the HUS series of SANs from Hitachi. Beautiful boxes, easy to physically install... and incredibly easy to configure. I never thought I'd find something as simple as iscsi-target, but I was definitely wrong. Add on top of that, a crash course in hacking vCloud. That's right, today I get to migrate VM's under vCloud using the REST API's. Tons more details at virtuallyghetto, but the highlight is- make sure your datastores are visible to vCloud.
Inside vCloud, you have to do all your management using vCloud Director- a web based headache, but it has it's purposes. To add your new datastores, first you have to add them the usual way using vmware's viclient or via the web console- either will work fine. Next, you have to log in via the web to your vCloud Director- not fun if you've not done this before.
You'll have to login as a system administrator for your vCloud, and navigate to "manage & monitor", find "Provider vDCs" and then select the right provider. In here, you'll add your datastore.
Not quite brain surgery, but nerve wracking when you're convinced it's going to explode on you at a moment's notice.
So it's been the usual 4-5 months (or more) since my last update... talk about the more things change...
I've taken a job in Houston Texas to work for an MSP that I've known for awhile. In the two months that I've been here, I've learned quite a bit about tech that I've only wished I could work with. For instance- the HUS series of SANs from Hitachi. Beautiful boxes, easy to physically install... and incredibly easy to configure. I never thought I'd find something as simple as iscsi-target, but I was definitely wrong. Add on top of that, a crash course in hacking vCloud. That's right, today I get to migrate VM's under vCloud using the REST API's. Tons more details at virtuallyghetto, but the highlight is- make sure your datastores are visible to vCloud.
Inside vCloud, you have to do all your management using vCloud Director- a web based headache, but it has it's purposes. To add your new datastores, first you have to add them the usual way using vmware's viclient or via the web console- either will work fine. Next, you have to log in via the web to your vCloud Director- not fun if you've not done this before.
You'll have to login as a system administrator for your vCloud, and navigate to "manage & monitor", find "Provider vDCs" and then select the right provider. In here, you'll add your datastore.
Not quite brain surgery, but nerve wracking when you're convinced it's going to explode on you at a moment's notice.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
VMWare DataCenters and My stupidity == learning new trick
So I decided in a demo environment that I would try to move an ADDC from one datacenter to another- without realizing that you can't. Oh sure, there's a slightly convoluted way of doing so via off-lining the VM, and doing a cold migration between datacenters, but as I found out very quickly- that can be filled with some very nasty gotchas.
Some background on this VM- it's just the test auth for a proof of concept (POC) system, so it does double duty as the RAS host as well. VPN in, do my work, happy clam. Note- this box is the VPN server.
Did I mention it's the VPN server yet? Very important point, and one that makes me damn glad I had an out of bandwidth management setup.
Anyway, I start the preparations to move this VM by... shutting down the VM. Makes sense, it's a cold migration right? Yeah, guess who winds up disconnected? So without a hint of panic, I try to login to the host itself, thinking that AD going offline just popped VCenter. Can't reach the host- very quickly realize I can't reach any of the hosts. Now the panic briefly pops in, however it doesn't last long as I realize I can just log into the console.
And discover another mild gotcha.
The esxi shell is disabled by default.
Mind you, I've not played with 5.1 under the hood that much, so a quick tour of google and I find out how to access the shell once again- F2 at the console, login and navigate to "Troubleshooting Mode Options", enable the shell, and exit out. Finally, I've got shell!
So I login, execute quick vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms in order to locate the vmid of the vm in question, followed by vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on. No real panic as yet, but that's because I figured I'm already fired anyway, how much worse can it get? Less than 5 minutes later, I'm able to login to the VPN and restart my connection to VCenter.
When I notice the error logs make no mention of VCenter ever having an issue. The only issue on the whole system was the fact that the esxi shell had been enabled on one of the hosts. Then it dawns on me- my original thought of short downtime not having any effect on the network was correct, however in my raging stupidity I'd forgotten where the vpn lived. That issue gets fixed today.
However, in looking around, I had an "AH HA!" moment that I needed to test (in my homelab... even if it's a POC, it's not for my tests- just the customer's). What if I join the new host to the current datacenter, do a live migration to the new host, remove the host and rejoin it to the correct datacenter? One quick test with a host running one half of my local AD (Yes, in the home test lab I run two dc's minimum... I hate rebuilding them.That'll teach me to cut corners).
Removing the host from the datacenter does not delete the VMs on that host. Joining a host with VMs doesn't delete the VMs (but I already knew that)- So what's to keep this from working? As near as I can tell nothing- just make sure the VMs you are trying to move aren't in a cluster, as the cluster will more than likely try to bring them back after you've removed the host.
In conclusion- if you can remove and join hosts from the vmware datacenter, you can do a live migration of VMs between datacenters.It just takes a bit of forethought and planning.
And being smart enough to remember where your VPN lives.
Some background on this VM- it's just the test auth for a proof of concept (POC) system, so it does double duty as the RAS host as well. VPN in, do my work, happy clam. Note- this box is the VPN server.
Did I mention it's the VPN server yet? Very important point, and one that makes me damn glad I had an out of bandwidth management setup.
Anyway, I start the preparations to move this VM by... shutting down the VM. Makes sense, it's a cold migration right? Yeah, guess who winds up disconnected? So without a hint of panic, I try to login to the host itself, thinking that AD going offline just popped VCenter. Can't reach the host- very quickly realize I can't reach any of the hosts. Now the panic briefly pops in, however it doesn't last long as I realize I can just log into the console.
And discover another mild gotcha.
The esxi shell is disabled by default.
Mind you, I've not played with 5.1 under the hood that much, so a quick tour of google and I find out how to access the shell once again- F2 at the console, login and navigate to "Troubleshooting Mode Options", enable the shell, and exit out. Finally, I've got shell!
So I login, execute quick vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms in order to locate the vmid of the vm in question, followed by vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on
When I notice the error logs make no mention of VCenter ever having an issue. The only issue on the whole system was the fact that the esxi shell had been enabled on one of the hosts. Then it dawns on me- my original thought of short downtime not having any effect on the network was correct, however in my raging stupidity I'd forgotten where the vpn lived. That issue gets fixed today.
However, in looking around, I had an "AH HA!" moment that I needed to test (in my homelab... even if it's a POC, it's not for my tests- just the customer's). What if I join the new host to the current datacenter, do a live migration to the new host, remove the host and rejoin it to the correct datacenter? One quick test with a host running one half of my local AD (Yes, in the home test lab I run two dc's minimum... I hate rebuilding them.That'll teach me to cut corners).
Removing the host from the datacenter does not delete the VMs on that host. Joining a host with VMs doesn't delete the VMs (but I already knew that)- So what's to keep this from working? As near as I can tell nothing- just make sure the VMs you are trying to move aren't in a cluster, as the cluster will more than likely try to bring them back after you've removed the host.
In conclusion- if you can remove and join hosts from the vmware datacenter, you can do a live migration of VMs between datacenters.It just takes a bit of forethought and planning.
And being smart enough to remember where your VPN lives.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
It's been awhile again, I know. Bad poster!
And man have I been busy! The list of items is monstrous indeed- everything from vmware 5.1, server 2012 to NFS. I've been learning user administration (again! seems it changes every few years, go figure), more powershell, more exchange, and getting to play with great toys, like synology's RS2212+ (it's a thing of beauty, and I will be writing about it, and possibly buying one for the house), as well as redeveloping mass vmware deployments of server 2008 (I know, old os, but I had to deploy over 160 VMs in a single weekend)
I'll be detailing everything over the coming weeks, provided I don't get swamped again.
I'll be detailing everything over the coming weeks, provided I don't get swamped again.
Monday, October 8, 2012
ESEUTIL, Unitrends UEB and my own stupidity
So I just recently got a copy of the Unitrends Enterprise Backup appliance for vmware installed and licensed over the weekend. Now me being me, I just had to try and dive in head first. Couldn't get a lot of things working, but I did get exchange backups working- which is a massive plus in my book.
So, verified the backup, and it cleared my exchange logs- yay! Talk about making me happy. Until a nagging voice at the back of my mind reminded me of recent experiences with backup exec (and the fact that there's no corresponding restore exec). A restore was needed! So I went through the process- but I wanted to restore only a single mailbox. Talk about a nail biter- as I'm going through the options, I created the restore share by selecting my mail db backup, selecting the option of "Next (Select Files/Items)" and...
Waiting. 16GB db plus about 30GB in log files- takes awhile. Cool thing is, this restores to a local samba share, which you then access from your exchange box.
Which is where the stupid on my part comes in- you'll see it soon.
So, I check the db and start trying to bring it to a clean shutdown state- (for those of you who don't know how to do this, check out this blog: ExchangeServerPro, excellent write up!) when I started running into trouble- my db checked the way I expected it to, my log files were good, however during the recovery phase...
Operation terminated with error -1032 (JET_errFileAccessDenied, Cannot access file, the file is locked or in use)
And it doesn't tell me which file. Of course, since I'm such a genius, I decide that it must mean the db is locked... nope, db's not locked.
Oh! right, the samba share is read-only! Why didn't I realize this sooner?
So I move the db to a directory I've got read/write access to, and it's all good, right?
Oh hell no.
Operation terminated with error -1032 (JET_errFileAccessDenied, Cannot access fi le, the file is locked or in use) exchange 2010
Now, I get a bit irritated and throw handle and process explorer (both from sysinternals, good stuff!) only to find out that db is never locked. In fact, the restore process gets to ~90% before failing without ever opening a log file or the db!
WTF?
Well, turns out that the log directory needs to be read/write accessible too... something I would've figured out almost 10 minutes sooner had I just checked the event logs for the ESE errors...
So, while the samba mount is cool, it's not as useful as I had hoped. But it does make it easier to get at the files and use the standard microsoft tools for manipulating the files (powershell, robocopy, xcopy and all the rest)
Problem solved, files copying, face red with shame.
Hopefully this sheds a bit of light on the problem in case anyone else is as dense as I can be.
So, verified the backup, and it cleared my exchange logs- yay! Talk about making me happy. Until a nagging voice at the back of my mind reminded me of recent experiences with backup exec (and the fact that there's no corresponding restore exec). A restore was needed! So I went through the process- but I wanted to restore only a single mailbox. Talk about a nail biter- as I'm going through the options, I created the restore share by selecting my mail db backup, selecting the option of "Next (Select Files/Items)" and...
Waiting. 16GB db plus about 30GB in log files- takes awhile. Cool thing is, this restores to a local samba share, which you then access from your exchange box.
Which is where the stupid on my part comes in- you'll see it soon.
So, I check the db and start trying to bring it to a clean shutdown state- (for those of you who don't know how to do this, check out this blog: ExchangeServerPro, excellent write up!) when I started running into trouble- my db checked the way I expected it to, my log files were good, however during the recovery phase...
Operation terminated with error -1032 (JET_errFileAccessDenied, Cannot access file, the file is locked or in use)
And it doesn't tell me which file. Of course, since I'm such a genius, I decide that it must mean the db is locked... nope, db's not locked.
Oh! right, the samba share is read-only! Why didn't I realize this sooner?
So I move the db to a directory I've got read/write access to, and it's all good, right?
Oh hell no.
Operation terminated with error -1032 (JET_errFileAccessDenied, Cannot access fi le, the file is locked or in use) exchange 2010
Now, I get a bit irritated and throw handle and process explorer (both from sysinternals, good stuff!) only to find out that db is never locked. In fact, the restore process gets to ~90% before failing without ever opening a log file or the db!
WTF?
Well, turns out that the log directory needs to be read/write accessible too... something I would've figured out almost 10 minutes sooner had I just checked the event logs for the ESE errors...
So, while the samba mount is cool, it's not as useful as I had hoped. But it does make it easier to get at the files and use the standard microsoft tools for manipulating the files (powershell, robocopy, xcopy and all the rest)
Problem solved, files copying, face red with shame.
Hopefully this sheds a bit of light on the problem in case anyone else is as dense as I can be.
Friday, October 5, 2012
NFS in android- why isn't this built in?
This seems like such a no brainer- right now using fileshares with android devices tends to be fairly painful, even with utilities such as astro, es file explorer, etc.
Why? Because none of those let you actually mount filesystems.
You want to view/use a file on a network share, you have to copy it to your device, work on it and then copy it back. That's such a waste, especially considering how long linux has had access to smbmount, nfsmount and the like. And they are so easy to setup. I mean, incredibly easy. But yet for an android device, this is a nightmare of rooting, installing apps (not that I've got anything against CIFS manager mind you, except that you've got to root your device to use it, and it's got to be running CM7), and running a gauntlet of compatibility issues.
NFS/SMB read capabilities are right there at the OS level, literally compiling in NFS support for the kernel is a check box or switch during compile time, and it takes pretty much no effort to supply. Not giving us this ability means that device storage built into our devices is getting wasted needlessly. Filesharing is a common every day solution for a lot of things, and even in the home user market no less. Network attached storage is even an option now on some routers- so the technology is being made easily available.
By including this is in the stock android deployments, we could get much easier use from our devices, and it would be yet another step to making BYOD less of a headache for system's administrators- ie, the data your users are using is still locked on the fileserver, and not on their devices.
Why? Because none of those let you actually mount filesystems.
You want to view/use a file on a network share, you have to copy it to your device, work on it and then copy it back. That's such a waste, especially considering how long linux has had access to smbmount, nfsmount and the like. And they are so easy to setup. I mean, incredibly easy. But yet for an android device, this is a nightmare of rooting, installing apps (not that I've got anything against CIFS manager mind you, except that you've got to root your device to use it, and it's got to be running CM7), and running a gauntlet of compatibility issues.
NFS/SMB read capabilities are right there at the OS level, literally compiling in NFS support for the kernel is a check box or switch during compile time, and it takes pretty much no effort to supply. Not giving us this ability means that device storage built into our devices is getting wasted needlessly. Filesharing is a common every day solution for a lot of things, and even in the home user market no less. Network attached storage is even an option now on some routers- so the technology is being made easily available.
By including this is in the stock android deployments, we could get much easier use from our devices, and it would be yet another step to making BYOD less of a headache for system's administrators- ie, the data your users are using is still locked on the fileserver, and not on their devices.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Equallogic SAN + VMWare ESXi 5.0 == annoying at times
I know a lot of you will laugh at me for this, but I'm hoping at least a few people find this useful. If you've got monitoring setup correctly on your EQL boxes (and you are running at least 5.0.5 firmware), you might be getting emails like this:
-----
-----
ERROR event from storage array DABIGDISK
subsystem: MgmtExec
event: 7.4.3
time: Sat
Sep 8 23:37:04 2012
iSCSI login to target 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3260,
iqn.2001-05.com.equallogic:0-8a0906-19f16ee02-6040000003b487d0-vss-control'
from initiator 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:58885, iqn.1998-01.com.vmware:FEEKYFEEKY-07e33139'
failed for the following reason:
Initiator
tried to bypass the security phase but we cannot.
-----
yup, sorry vmware, no biscuit.
It's an error, and it's kind of a stupid one, but it's not vmware's fault, it's actually a slight flaw (or duh, actually) on the equallogic side. There's two settings that need to be correctly configured, one of which is under Group Discovery -> iSCSI (refer to pic)
As you can see, it's a pretty simple check box. The other location is under VDS/VSS, in which case you simply don't give your vmware boxes permissions to use VDS/VSS unless you've already got the means in place to support it.
Simple, stupid fix- and I was stupid enough to not even notice it until I actually ran into the headache tonight.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Quick Update, yes I'm alive
Just posting a quick update- two of the projects I've been working on are completed, however (as usual) that's only opened the door to new problems, er... projects.
However, if you've got a moment, check this out! The team over at spiceworks has released version 6, with tons of new features. The next latest being worked on is iLO support, something I'm incredibly excited about!
Anyway, still alive, still busy.
Technically, still posting.
However, if you've got a moment, check this out! The team over at spiceworks has released version 6, with tons of new features. The next latest being worked on is iLO support, something I'm incredibly excited about!
Anyway, still alive, still busy.
Technically, still posting.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
The inherent dangers in prototyping
So I've been working on a few projects, one of which is requiring snmp functionality for a power/ups monitoring solution. One of the headaches I have is finding components- I've got digikey, mouser, newark, jameco and sparkfun... out of all of those, the only one that sensible names things is sparkfun, except that consistency in naming isn't something they're known for. But their site is incredibly easy to navigate, pictures and posts that relate to the items tends to be very useful. Not quite the same with digikey and mouser. I had ordered a ton of parts from digikey just a few days ago, and actually got two sets of headers that were completely wrong. I had misread the specifications, and assumed when I saw 2.54mm across to mean the same thing as 2.54mm spacing... boy was I wrong. One item will partially work, the other (a 2x10 2mm spacing female header) is about completely useless. And I've got 10 of them. And I made the mistake of telling the rather nice customer service lady that my order was fine, and I would be getting the parts used immediately.
Now I find that I've had to re-order three sets of parts, from two different houses (digikey and sparkfun this time) in order to have any hope of meeting my time frame. While I realize this isn't any fault of the distributors, it still doesn't make it easy to know that I've got to really squeeze my debug time in order to make sure I've got time to get it finished before my impending trip to alaska.
In case anyone's interested-
SparkFun- www.sparkfun.com
Digi-Key- www.digikey.com
Mouser- www.mouser.com
newark/element14 - www.newark.com
and jameco- www.jameco.com
Now I find that I've had to re-order three sets of parts, from two different houses (digikey and sparkfun this time) in order to have any hope of meeting my time frame. While I realize this isn't any fault of the distributors, it still doesn't make it easy to know that I've got to really squeeze my debug time in order to make sure I've got time to get it finished before my impending trip to alaska.
In case anyone's interested-
SparkFun- www.sparkfun.com
Digi-Key- www.digikey.com
Mouser- www.mouser.com
newark/element14 - www.newark.com
and jameco- www.jameco.com
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Still alive
Just been hectic, as I had expected. Besides the monitoring system, I've been given a couple of new tasks- one of which is to learn a new voip system. I've got to say, I'm not too terribly interested in it, as I've not been really impressed with voip. While technically it's a real time encode/decode network system, everything I've seen and experienced has led me to believe that most solutions are just barely ready. While I will admit, it's a lot easier to setup and maintain than a pbx (I still have nightmares involving analog pbx's, and horrible voicemail configurations), it just doesn't hold any real interest for me. What I'd rather be working on is the two new storage devices that we've had commissioned, plus my company's impending move to a new location. With network connections to be migrated, new services to be configured and integrated, plus new employees to train, I'm fairly excited. Unfortunately, someone's decided that voip is my new responsibility, which strikes me as a bit strange, as I've been doing firewalls, virtualization, storage and design for years. I realize I'm going to have to do this to continue being employed, but it doesn't make me want to do it any more than if I wasn't getting paid for it.
Another thing I'm hoping for is that some of my work becomes postable- right now, I can vaguely talk about it, but I can't give real specifics, or pictures. I had hoped at one point to show off some of the stuff I'm working on just because of how cool it is. Maybe in the new few months, I'll have that permission.
However, for now I've still got the usual- fires to put out, monitoring systems to maintain and build, network maintenance and storage. I want to add to that list, but so far the only thing to add is one of the things I truly don't like. Oh well, I'll do my best to try to update, but as usual... I'm swamped.
Another thing I'm hoping for is that some of my work becomes postable- right now, I can vaguely talk about it, but I can't give real specifics, or pictures. I had hoped at one point to show off some of the stuff I'm working on just because of how cool it is. Maybe in the new few months, I'll have that permission.
However, for now I've still got the usual- fires to put out, monitoring systems to maintain and build, network maintenance and storage. I want to add to that list, but so far the only thing to add is one of the things I truly don't like. Oh well, I'll do my best to try to update, but as usual... I'm swamped.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Custom designing monitoring hardware
I don't know how much use this will be, but...
Current project, and probably one of the definitely more interesting ones! I get to take an atmel atmega chip, and design a monitoring system around it. Considering the price of the chip, and how easily I can get boards made (I've got a stack of custom mistakes just sitting around waiting for me to figure out what to do with them), I decided to go the route of making my own arduino compatible board (note, only compatible... it's not technically an arduino).
First task I've gotten working is monitoring temperature, power, and lock status. So far so good. Then I found the Agentuino library... which is interesting to say the least. At the moment, it only really implements two functions, namely snmp_get and snmp_set. I'll be trying to get snmp_get_next working, which would probably end up being followed by snmp_get_bulk.
Why does this even matter? Well, this system is network attached for one thing. Currently it drops it's data via a post to a LAMP server- a simple php script picks up the data and stuffs it into a mysql db. pretty simple stuff. and it does it in less than 10K of rom space. I wish I could say the same for the snmp version, as it loads out at a minimum of 14K so far. I know most people are used to working in the megs and gigs realm of storage, but I started programming on systems that had less than 16K of ram, and stored their data on tapes... I find that reducing/optimizing code to fit in the smallest of space to be an almost elegant art form. And yes, I always hear that old obi-wan quote about "An elegant weapon, for a more civilized age" whenever I think about coding for space. I would've liked to have said I would be reducing the footprint further, but with having to add roughly 30 OIDs I don't think that's going to happen.
Considering I've got about 30K of space to work with, I'm hopeful to just get that far. Adding in the fact that I'm more than likely going to have to get at least get snmp_get_next working, I may have to opt for a far bigger chip than the atmega 328. I've seen some based on the atmega2560, which has about 256K of rom, versus the 32K I'm using now. I'll have to check out the price difference as well, but I don't think it will be enough to worry about. That alone should get me a hell of a lot more space for adding in new features.
As far as why I need to get snmp_get_next working? snmpwalk and most automated NSMs require snmp_get_next in order to walk to the MIB tree. For those of you who don't know, the MIB (Management Information Base) is a specific set of data points to be returned by the device in question. Considering how many MIBs there are right now, and the fact that anyone who puts snmp support in a device tailors their own, that's a lot of MIBs in this world. And they all work off of OIDs (Object IDentifiers). The OIDs let you request specific data, and the MIB tells you how to read that data. pretty simple, right? Well, like anything out there, it's been made convoluted enough to give me a headache. There's a lot more information on the wiki about this, and described far better than I can.
Suffice it to say, I'm busy once again.
Current project, and probably one of the definitely more interesting ones! I get to take an atmel atmega chip, and design a monitoring system around it. Considering the price of the chip, and how easily I can get boards made (I've got a stack of custom mistakes just sitting around waiting for me to figure out what to do with them), I decided to go the route of making my own arduino compatible board (note, only compatible... it's not technically an arduino).
First task I've gotten working is monitoring temperature, power, and lock status. So far so good. Then I found the Agentuino library... which is interesting to say the least. At the moment, it only really implements two functions, namely snmp_get and snmp_set. I'll be trying to get snmp_get_next working, which would probably end up being followed by snmp_get_bulk.
Why does this even matter? Well, this system is network attached for one thing. Currently it drops it's data via a post to a LAMP server- a simple php script picks up the data and stuffs it into a mysql db. pretty simple stuff. and it does it in less than 10K of rom space. I wish I could say the same for the snmp version, as it loads out at a minimum of 14K so far. I know most people are used to working in the megs and gigs realm of storage, but I started programming on systems that had less than 16K of ram, and stored their data on tapes... I find that reducing/optimizing code to fit in the smallest of space to be an almost elegant art form. And yes, I always hear that old obi-wan quote about "An elegant weapon, for a more civilized age" whenever I think about coding for space. I would've liked to have said I would be reducing the footprint further, but with having to add roughly 30 OIDs I don't think that's going to happen.
Considering I've got about 30K of space to work with, I'm hopeful to just get that far. Adding in the fact that I'm more than likely going to have to get at least get snmp_get_next working, I may have to opt for a far bigger chip than the atmega 328. I've seen some based on the atmega2560, which has about 256K of rom, versus the 32K I'm using now. I'll have to check out the price difference as well, but I don't think it will be enough to worry about. That alone should get me a hell of a lot more space for adding in new features.
As far as why I need to get snmp_get_next working? snmpwalk and most automated NSMs require snmp_get_next in order to walk to the MIB tree. For those of you who don't know, the MIB (Management Information Base) is a specific set of data points to be returned by the device in question. Considering how many MIBs there are right now, and the fact that anyone who puts snmp support in a device tailors their own, that's a lot of MIBs in this world. And they all work off of OIDs (Object IDentifiers). The OIDs let you request specific data, and the MIB tells you how to read that data. pretty simple, right? Well, like anything out there, it's been made convoluted enough to give me a headache. There's a lot more information on the wiki about this, and described far better than I can.
Suffice it to say, I'm busy once again.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
SSD upgrade for my laptop plus ram...
I picked up a SanDisk Extreme 120GB SSD from Frys yesterday. Unfortunately, they didn't have what I originally wanted, which was a corsair 120GB for 100$ (99.99), so I wound up buying the next cheapest at $149... yeah, I got hosed and I know it. I also picked up 2 sticks of 4GB ram for my laptop as well, making it a pretty good upgrade round, or at least I think so anyway.
So far so good, I guess. Although it was a royal pain to get the old system migrated to the new. I made the mistake of trying to clone it using Easeus Partition Manager, which in hindsight was a massive waste of time (about 9 hours, give or take). I wound up transferring the system over using windows backup and gparted. The system is windows 7 home premium, so I ended up going through the backup control panel, and creating a system image on a usb external disk. This only took about 45 minutes and was actually faster than restoring it. The restore took roughly an hour. Once I got the restore finished, I booted off the ssd to make sure I had gotten it to work, finally... booted without issue, and pretty quickly at that... but not the "amazing, blink of an eye, instant boot" that I'd been hearing about.
Now mind you, I'd already installed the ram as well. So, less than impressed, I picked up a utility called AS SSD Benchmark, which pretty much told me where part of the problem was. I needed to align this disk. That in itself was a bit of a pain, mostly time consuming. I'd gotten a usb install of gparted live working, and used that to manipulate my partitions. Now that meant a bit of thinking, especially since nothing likes to work on the first try. I had to move the 2nd and 3rd partitions at least 20MB further from the start of the disk to make room to align the first partition, which is a bit of a weird process. To align the partition, you move the partition at least 2MB further from the start of the disk- then you move it back to 1MB away from the start, for the first partition anyway. Then the second you place 1MB away from the first, and so on until you've placed your partitions.
Depending on the size and how much data is actually there, this can take forever. Considering I had 3 partitions, but only the third really had a lot of data this was only mind numbing and not completely painful. After 3 hours, it was finally finished- remember, each partition had to be moved twice!
After that was done, rebooted into windows... well, no that didn't work. I had destroyed my boot layout during all the partition restructuring. I had to use the windows system disk I created during the system image (and yes, you'll want to create one too... if you don't, you can't restore the image anyway, so it really behooves you to do so when it asks... you'll need a blank disk for it, I used a dvd-r, but I think you can probably get away with a cd-r) to go back in and fix the boot sector and mbr map. That literally took less time to fix than it did to load the disc. Final reboot, and into windows proper again.
Much much faster this time, just the aligning made a noticeable difference at this point. However, I wasn't done yet- I needed to kill off indexing on that drive as well as automatic defragmenting. Removing the index attribute took almost 20 minutes, which again... ugh. However, at this point I decided to do some testing once it was finished. Arduino 1.0 environment took roughly 4 seconds from double click to editor ready to take code. Massive improvement already! Outlook took forever, as for some reason it had trashed it's cache, but considering that was network speed and not local disk, there wasn't anything I could do about that.
Next was firefox 11... something I have started to dread since it's been dragging terribly lately. It loaded, but no real noticeable speed increase... so I decided to load one my my bookmark groups, which was ~30 tabs. That's usually good for me to go take care of a call of nature and grab something to drink. I literally had just set the laptop down to do just that, when I saw it had loaded most the pages and only had 2 or 3 tabs left. Roughly 30 seconds to load 30 tabs... not bad. At this point, I decided to check to see if TRIM had been enabled, and nicely enough it was. Simple enough command from an elevated cmd prompt "fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify", and if it returns 0, then trim is enabled for your system. Whether your device supports it or not is something you'll have to make sure of with your manufacturer. Mine as far as I can tell does.
So, keeping the old drive and the backup on standby and we'll see how long this disk lasts and whether or not it keeps me happy. For almost $200, I think it's a fairly decent upgrade. Considering how much more responsive my laptop is, I think it will be worth the price, provided the drive doesn't fall into the early death that I hear several have already.
So far so good, I guess. Although it was a royal pain to get the old system migrated to the new. I made the mistake of trying to clone it using Easeus Partition Manager, which in hindsight was a massive waste of time (about 9 hours, give or take). I wound up transferring the system over using windows backup and gparted. The system is windows 7 home premium, so I ended up going through the backup control panel, and creating a system image on a usb external disk. This only took about 45 minutes and was actually faster than restoring it. The restore took roughly an hour. Once I got the restore finished, I booted off the ssd to make sure I had gotten it to work, finally... booted without issue, and pretty quickly at that... but not the "amazing, blink of an eye, instant boot" that I'd been hearing about.
Now mind you, I'd already installed the ram as well. So, less than impressed, I picked up a utility called AS SSD Benchmark, which pretty much told me where part of the problem was. I needed to align this disk. That in itself was a bit of a pain, mostly time consuming. I'd gotten a usb install of gparted live working, and used that to manipulate my partitions. Now that meant a bit of thinking, especially since nothing likes to work on the first try. I had to move the 2nd and 3rd partitions at least 20MB further from the start of the disk to make room to align the first partition, which is a bit of a weird process. To align the partition, you move the partition at least 2MB further from the start of the disk- then you move it back to 1MB away from the start, for the first partition anyway. Then the second you place 1MB away from the first, and so on until you've placed your partitions.
Depending on the size and how much data is actually there, this can take forever. Considering I had 3 partitions, but only the third really had a lot of data this was only mind numbing and not completely painful. After 3 hours, it was finally finished- remember, each partition had to be moved twice!
After that was done, rebooted into windows... well, no that didn't work. I had destroyed my boot layout during all the partition restructuring. I had to use the windows system disk I created during the system image (and yes, you'll want to create one too... if you don't, you can't restore the image anyway, so it really behooves you to do so when it asks... you'll need a blank disk for it, I used a dvd-r, but I think you can probably get away with a cd-r) to go back in and fix the boot sector and mbr map. That literally took less time to fix than it did to load the disc. Final reboot, and into windows proper again.
Much much faster this time, just the aligning made a noticeable difference at this point. However, I wasn't done yet- I needed to kill off indexing on that drive as well as automatic defragmenting. Removing the index attribute took almost 20 minutes, which again... ugh. However, at this point I decided to do some testing once it was finished. Arduino 1.0 environment took roughly 4 seconds from double click to editor ready to take code. Massive improvement already! Outlook took forever, as for some reason it had trashed it's cache, but considering that was network speed and not local disk, there wasn't anything I could do about that.
Next was firefox 11... something I have started to dread since it's been dragging terribly lately. It loaded, but no real noticeable speed increase... so I decided to load one my my bookmark groups, which was ~30 tabs. That's usually good for me to go take care of a call of nature and grab something to drink. I literally had just set the laptop down to do just that, when I saw it had loaded most the pages and only had 2 or 3 tabs left. Roughly 30 seconds to load 30 tabs... not bad. At this point, I decided to check to see if TRIM had been enabled, and nicely enough it was. Simple enough command from an elevated cmd prompt "fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify", and if it returns 0, then trim is enabled for your system. Whether your device supports it or not is something you'll have to make sure of with your manufacturer. Mine as far as I can tell does.
So, keeping the old drive and the backup on standby and we'll see how long this disk lasts and whether or not it keeps me happy. For almost $200, I think it's a fairly decent upgrade. Considering how much more responsive my laptop is, I think it will be worth the price, provided the drive doesn't fall into the early death that I hear several have already.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
And tonight it's small scale VCenter DB maintenance.
A customer of mine wanted to use VMWare VCenter 4.1 a while back, so I installed and configured it for them following their specifications. Of course, I monitor the living daylights out of it too. Tonight vpxd started failing repeatedly. A quick check into this shows that the DB is full. The error message in question is quite literally "CREATE DATABASE or ALTER DATABASE failed because the resulting cumulative database size would exceed your licensed limit of 4096 MB per database."
Now given that it's using SQL express instead of a full SQL install, that's pretty understandable. However, my joy stemmed from the fact that I couldn't run the stored procedures to clean it up (DB was literally too full), so I wound up having to clean the DB using a script from VMWare's help site, specifically the one found here. If you haven't already done so, you'll need to install Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express. It's fairly simple and straight forward. Once you're finished, you'll need to run the sql script you downloaded earlier. Make sure you are logged in with the right permissions, otherwise the script will fail repeatedly. Also, make sure you select the correct DB before running the script.
There is one gotcha with the script, you do need the change at least one parameter, possibly more depending on how much data you want to clear.
-- ######### USER CONFIGURABLE PARAMETERS ########################
-- 0 = COUNT ONLY; 1 = DELETE ROWS
SET @DELETE_DATA = 0
-- Use one of these methods to specifiy the data cutoff date
SET @CUTOFF_DATE = GETUTCDATE()-180
--SET @CUTOFF_DATE = '2007/01/01'
-- Number of rows to delete per transaction
SET @BATCH_SIZE = 10000
-- ######### END USER CONFIGURABLE PARAMETERS ####################
Make sure you change @DELETE_DATA to 1, otherwise this script won't do anything. I also had to change the cutoff date calculation to 30 due to the fact that I had a lot of activity in the last 3 months. And I do mean a lot- over 6 million entries.
I shouldn't have been surprised by this, but it came nearly 6 months sooner than I expected it to. Good luck with your own maintenance!
Now given that it's using SQL express instead of a full SQL install, that's pretty understandable. However, my joy stemmed from the fact that I couldn't run the stored procedures to clean it up (DB was literally too full), so I wound up having to clean the DB using a script from VMWare's help site, specifically the one found here. If you haven't already done so, you'll need to install Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express. It's fairly simple and straight forward. Once you're finished, you'll need to run the sql script you downloaded earlier. Make sure you are logged in with the right permissions, otherwise the script will fail repeatedly. Also, make sure you select the correct DB before running the script.
There is one gotcha with the script, you do need the change at least one parameter, possibly more depending on how much data you want to clear.
-- ######### USER CONFIGURABLE PARAMETERS ########################
-- 0 = COUNT ONLY; 1 = DELETE ROWS
SET @DELETE_DATA = 0
-- Use one of these methods to specifiy the data cutoff date
SET @CUTOFF_DATE = GETUTCDATE()-180
--SET @CUTOFF_DATE = '2007/01/01'
-- Number of rows to delete per transaction
SET @BATCH_SIZE = 10000
-- ######### END USER CONFIGURABLE PARAMETERS ####################
Make sure you change @DELETE_DATA to 1, otherwise this script won't do anything. I also had to change the cutoff date calculation to 30 due to the fact that I had a lot of activity in the last 3 months. And I do mean a lot- over 6 million entries.
I shouldn't have been surprised by this, but it came nearly 6 months sooner than I expected it to. Good luck with your own maintenance!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
And once again, I've managed to wind up too busy...
I will try to keep this updated far better than I have in the past, however I've just gotten a ton of new responsibilities, so the chances of update is going down severely.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Three new spiceworks related projects in the near future
Which will probably culminate in the creation of a new blog while I teach myself how to do this (and share whatever I manage to learn with everyone else)-
Project 1: create plugin that will pull data from custom monitoring database, and allow it to be displayed in spiceworks, either as a dashboard widget, or as custom attributes on each related items entry. preferably both, with the creation of a rack level object as well.
Project 2: create plugin that will handle ticket expiration and escalation. By putting a due date on the ticket, the plugin will scan every 15 minutes, checking each open ticket for expiration. at a configurable time remaining point, an email will be sent out to the ticket assignee reminding them to get back to the ticket. If no action is taken by the time the ticket expires, the ticket will be reassigned to the next higher level.
Project 3: create plugin that will manage ticket workflow. This still hasn't gotten a good definition yet, so it's in limbo. problem is, this is the one that's due first. Amazing how that works isn't it?
If you haven't used, seen or heard of Spiceworks yet, go check it out! it's a great piece of software, and can make managing your network much less of a headache. If you're already using other solutions, I'd still check it out anyway, as there's always the chance you might find something you like better, or a feature you want that doesn't exist in yours. Or vice versa, there's nothing wrong with competition!
Project 1: create plugin that will pull data from custom monitoring database, and allow it to be displayed in spiceworks, either as a dashboard widget, or as custom attributes on each related items entry. preferably both, with the creation of a rack level object as well.
Project 2: create plugin that will handle ticket expiration and escalation. By putting a due date on the ticket, the plugin will scan every 15 minutes, checking each open ticket for expiration. at a configurable time remaining point, an email will be sent out to the ticket assignee reminding them to get back to the ticket. If no action is taken by the time the ticket expires, the ticket will be reassigned to the next higher level.
Project 3: create plugin that will manage ticket workflow. This still hasn't gotten a good definition yet, so it's in limbo. problem is, this is the one that's due first. Amazing how that works isn't it?
If you haven't used, seen or heard of Spiceworks yet, go check it out! it's a great piece of software, and can make managing your network much less of a headache. If you're already using other solutions, I'd still check it out anyway, as there's always the chance you might find something you like better, or a feature you want that doesn't exist in yours. Or vice versa, there's nothing wrong with competition!
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