Musings of a sysadmin
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Vnxe write cache temporarily disabled
0If you’ve tried to update the vnxe firmware and the update has failed (usually around the 21% mark). Then you will find that the write cache will not be re-enabled until the software update has completed sucessfully. Now when i’ve had this issue emc have stated that its because of a hung process but I found that restarting storage processors do not cure the issue. What I did to resolve the error was to put both storage processors in service mode and then pull the power out of both sp’s.
Once the vnxe is completely bereft of power the plug both back in and wait for it to boot, take the sps’s out of service mode and re attempt the software update. It should go through without any further issues.
Its essentially the old turn it off and on again solution.
Vmxnet3 driver crash in ESXi5
0Hi all,
I’ve had a couple of occurances of this where a server 2003 R2 vm will seemingly just loose network connectivity. Attempting to ping either in or out will not work. Whilst sometimes powering off and on the vm will resolve the issue it wont stop it randomly happening again (naturally during production hours).
I’ve noted that there is a VMware kb on the issue (which I found after i’d resolved the issue) however it states that it occurs when you have jumbo frames enabled within the guest vm. This however is not the case in my experience but the resolution is still the same which boils down to don’t use vmxnet3 vnics within the affected vm’s.
To resolve this issue as a rule you do not even have to power the vm off just add another vnic to the vm using either the e1000 or vmxnet2 and remove the vmxnet3 vnic the re enter the vm’s ip information in the newly added card.
There will be some cases where you will need to reboot the vm afterwards such as network sensitive app that cannot handle a short amount of network disruption.
Edit: at the #lonvmug on 26th Jan I discovered a twitter/forum collegue of mine has had similar issues and found that reinstalling the vmware tools resolved his issues, which may also work for you. Don’t forget however that reinstalling vmware tools will require a reboot or two which in my case wasn’t desirable seeing as one of the instances was a TS box with disconnected sessions.
Renew your Citrix fundamentals 6 licence
0So you’ve managed to install citrix fundamentals 6 and keep running with it for a year, now you get those lovely emails saying that you have to renew your licences for it.
Once you have logged into your mycitrix account and reallocated your new licence and downloaded the .lic file what do you do next.
1/ Log into your citrix fundamentals server and open the Citrix quick start applet.
2/ Click on the licencing menu item on the left hand side then hit the blue hyperlink that says “Add Citrix licences”.
3/ Point the dialogue box at your downloaded licence file and allow xenapp to install the file.
4/ At this point you will notice that the licences are cumulative *i.e. if you have 30 licences last year and have just installed the renewal licence for another 30 then 60 licences will be reported within the console with the approaching renewal date displayed rather than the renewal date (next years date).
5/ At this point you will need to open the services.msc console (start\administrative tools\services) and stop the “Citrix Licencing” service.
6/ Once stopped (assuming you are using server 2008 R2) Navigate to c:\program files (x86)\citrix\licencing\my files\ and MOVE the old licence file out of the directory. Its important that you leave all the other files within the directory such as the citrix.opt and the citrix_startup.lic. If you are unsure of which licence file to move you can look at the licence file with notepad and within the top line is the expiry date of the licence file (in US format).
7/ Once the old licence file has been moved out of the licence directory, you can start the “Citrix Licencing” service within windows and check to make sure it displays the correct number of licences and days remaining. If you still had the citrix quick start applet open you will need to close and reopen it as more than likely the licence page won’t work until you do so.
next london vmug 2012
052 days
by admin
in Uncategorized
The next London mug (virtual machine user group) is open for registration with presentations and demos from renound VMware blogger and vendors. Registration is free for this #lonVMUG on the 26th january at the london chamber of commerce.
Visit for more information.
Moving exchange mailboxes with powershell EMS
069 days
To move a single exchange 2007 mailbox within powershell from one database to another you would use the following command.
Move-mailbox –identity “%username%” –targetdatabase “%DB%”
This would be the equivalent of right clicking on a user object with the exchange console and choosing move mailbox. However the real power of powershell comes into play when you want to move multiple mailboxes from one database to another. In order to do that you would combine the move-mailbox cmdlet with get-mailbox. A simple usage would be something like.
Get-mailbox | move-mailbox –targetdatabase “%DB%”
This would move all mailboxes on the exchange server to the target database, however you may find that you already have a few mailboxes on the target database or you want to move users from a specific database to another database (if you had 3 databases for example). For this you could use:
Get-mailbox –database “%sourceDB%” | move-mailbox –targetdatabase “%DB%”
This would ensure that all mailbox from the source database are moved to the target. This process is not quick however as it opens each mailbox and creates another at the target then moves messages and folders across to the target. If you specify more than one user (or like above feed the move-mailbox mailboxes as multiple variables) then exchange will move 4 mailboxes at a time. During the move the mailboxes being copied will not be available whilst they are transferred.
You can also check what mailboxes reside on the database by typing get-mailbox –database “%DB%” you can use this before you move the mailboxes to get a good idea of how many you are moving, and you can also use it after the move-mailbox action has completed to ensure that non have been missed.
If the move-mailbox action errors on any particular mailbox (usually it will be because of corrupted mail items in the mailbox) then the mailbox move will not complete for that mailbox. This will leave a complete mailbox for the user on the source database and a partial mailbox on the destination. However after a few minutes exchange will delete the partial copy and you can try the move again. If the move fails because of corrupted items in the mailbox then you can force the move to occur by using the –baditemlimit variable if you simply must copy the mailbox, setting the limit at 1000 should cater for all really.
Move-mailbox –identity “username” –targetdabase “%DB%” –baditemlimit 1000
How to virtualize a Domain Controller
092 days
First off a domain controller is always a scary thing to p2v but it can actually be a fairly straightforward process to complete.
In our network our DC’s also have other roles and services installed on them which made the easiest and proper way of just creating a new DC within the virtual environment then demoting and removing the old physical one rather difficult. So p2v was really our only option.
If you follow these instructions then you wont go far wrong with p2ving your domain controller.
1/ Investigate your domain controllers services and see if you also have any transactional databases on there as well or anything that may be sensitive to consistancy (such as SQL/Oracle/backup software or AV).
2/ Write down the services that are associated with any DB’s or picky software you may have.
3/ Run the vmware converter standalone install on the domain controller but choose the advanced install (client-server) and select only the agent to be installed.
4/ Once the install has completed Reboot your DC into DSRM mode by furiously hitting F8 at the appropriate point of the boot process.
5/ Input your DSRM Adminstrator password (remember at this point there are no domain accounts available on the DC).
6/ Open up the services.msc tool and stop and disable those servers you have listed previously as sensitive to change (db’s etc).
7/ Run the vmware vCenter Converter Standalone client on your own laptop or whatever you use to do p2v’s with.
8/ P2v the DC in the normal way running through the wizard (If you get the old multiple connections are not allowed message try inputting the IP of the DC instead of the DNS name or the other way round depending on what you have done first).
ii/ One thing you will need to think about if is your DC points to itself for primary DNS resolution then the conversion will fail and in the export logs you will see something similar to this “Found dangling SSL error”. Change the server you are converting to point to an alternative DNS server that can resolve your ESXi servers and vCenter addresses.
9/ When the p2v process has completed from the ViClient make sure your vNic’s are disconnected from the network (so when the vm is powered on it wont be able to talk to the production network).
10/ Uninstall all the vendor installed helper drivers and apps etc, (hp/dell/IBM nic drivers and diag utils etc) and configure the networking also reenable and set the services back to automatic or whatever the previous state of the services were (SQL DB’s AV\Backup software etc).
11/ shutdown the physical DC and also the virtual DC.
###WARNING AT THIS POINT THE PHYSICAL DC MUST NEVER EVER BE CONNECTED BACK TO THE PRODUCTION NETWORK EVER AGAIN###
12/ Reconnect your vm to the production network and power it on.
13/ When its booted give it a few minutes to calm down and then login and check the following
Event Logs (its handy to check the old ones pre p2v as well) just to make sure your not panicing about an error or message that existed previously.
Check replication by creating an object in AD (a user for example) on the other domain controller and check that it is replicated to the newly vm’d DC
Delete the newly created object and check that it is also deleted on the other DC.
Run DCDIAG and NETDIAG and pay attention to any errors or informational messages you may receive.
Check your backup software interface I know for sure that Backupexec disables the job and you have to run through the edit settings menu and reselect the drives/folders you want to backup.
Then all you need to do is monitor the situation and just periodically check the event logs etc for oddities.
The last and most important job of all is to go into your server room and decable the old physical server (for the sake of a couple of minutes this could save you hours of heartache if a well meaning tech powers the DC back on again by accident).
vSphere 5 database support
0When considering which backend database to use in a new installation of vSphere 5 you have the following options:
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or 2008 32 bit or x64 patched to the latest SP release
Microsoft Sql Server 2008 R2
Oracle 10g R2 , 11g R1 or 11g R2
IBM’s DB2 9.5 or 9.7 patched to the latest versions
SQL Express 2008 is also supported and bundled with vsphere
It is naturally recommended to house the vSphere database on a seperate server for added resiliency however with most deployments you can quite happily install the database component on the same server as the vSphere installation (whether this is physical or running as a vm). It is also worth checking which databases vmware update manager or other add-ons support if you intend to install these on the same server and of course consider what you in-house support is happiest managing (its no good installing vSphere using an Oracle database if the support staff have only ever administered SQL).
How to virtualize Exchange 2007
098 days
Well, I’m going through my p2v exercise with my current employer and whilst I have p2v’d many servers I had not converted an exchange server before. Our exchange server is a single windows 2003 R2 x64 box with all the exchange roles installed on it, its not a complicated setup but for us it doesn’t need to be. So googling around I found quite a few horror stories of failed p2v attempts. So with a degree of uncertainty I planned for the exchange conversion.
I started off my stopping and disabling these services on my exchange server (because of this obviously you need to carry this out within a maintenance window as exchange will be down for a couple of hours at least.)
MS Exchange Active Directory Topology
MS Exchange File Distribution
MS Exchange Information Store
MS Exchange Mail Submission
MS Exchange mailbox Assistants
MS Exchange replication service
MS Exchange search indexer
MS Exchange service host
MS Exchange system attendant
MS Exchange transport
MS Exchange transport log sear
microsoft search (exchange)
sql server (blackberry)
sql server browser
sql server vss writer
Backup exec
Now there are a couple of services there that are specific to my set up but you get the idea, anything exchange or sql based I stopped and disabled. I then carried out the conversion as per any other p2v using the standalone vmware convertor program. I also wanted to shrink the servers D drive as it was way too big for the mailstore so I configured that as well at this point.
When the conversion had completed I powered down the old physical server and powered on the vm. Then I removed the brand specific drivers and applications (such as HP and dell drivers and array helpers). The I installed the vm guest tools and configured the networking.
I then reset all the disabled services to automatic and restarted the vm. a few nervous minutes later I was able to view emails in owa, use active sync and send/receive emails through outlook, so it all in all seems to have gone well. At least much better than my googling was suggesting it might.
So in my experience of converting exchange server 2007 all you need to do is stop the exchange and sql services (plus any backup agents you may have) and disable them.
Run the conversion using the current vmware standalone converter
Power off the physical
Power on the VM
Remove all of the hardware specific drivers and applications
Install the vm guest tools
Configure the networking
Re-enable the disabled services and reboot the server.
Then check the event logs etc just to make sure windows isn’t complaining about anything.
Then you just need to let your users know that it is safe to use outlook etc again.
The trouble I guess with p2ving exchange is that once you have brought the services back online and it starts servicing mail requests its pretty much impossible to turn the old physical server back on as you will lose any recent transactions that the exchange vm made. So if there is something thats not quite right with it then you really have to power on through and find a fix for it rather than revert to reconverting or powering on the old physical.
vSphere5 Storage Profiles
0Storage profiles in vSphere5 allow you to organise you storage within vSphere based upon its capabilities. vSphere includes some specific API’s that can detect a storage devices specific capabilities however not many storage devices support this function at the moment.
However you can also create user defined storage profiles which allow you to assign capabilities to datastores and then create storage profiles that you can link to the datastores capabilities. This allows you to ensure that your virtual machines get the storage capabilities that they need to perform within your own agreed SLA.
In order to use storage profiles you need to decide what capabilities of your shared storage you want to use to segregate your vm’s with. For example you may have a SAN with a high speed SAS set of disks along with a lower speed SATA array. In this example the choice is quite straight forward as you have a slower capacity based array and a smaller high speed array as well. In this instance you could create storage profiles to represent Capacity or Performance.
With this in mind let’s create a storage profile with these two parameters. Firstly click on Home/vm storage profiles.
1/ Click on manage storage capabilities then click the add button and in this instance lets just call the capabilities Fast and Slow. Create a separate entry for Fast and one for Slow.
2/ Then click on the “Create VM Storage Profile” button. Because we have a fast and slow choice I’m going to use the names Tortoise and Hare as the names of the storage profiles. So give your first storage profile a name in this instance Tortoise then select next. You then need to select the storage capabilities to assign to the storage profile. In our instance we want to assign the Slow capability to the Tortoise Storage Profile. Click Next and then review the information and click Finish.
NB. You can assign two storage capabilities to a storage profile. However because you may also have system defined storage profiles you must not exceed 2 assigned capabilities per datastore. For example you could have 2 capabilities defined in a user defined storage profile but no system defined storage, or you could have one user defined capability in a user defined storage profile and one capability defined in a system defined storage profile.
Create another storage profile for the Hare and assign it to the Fast storage capability.
3/ Then click on the Enable VM Storage Profiles and just click the enable button.
4/ Now all you have to do is assign the user defined storage profiles to your datastores/dataclusters so click on Home\datastores and datastore clusters. Right click on a datastore then select assign user storage capability and select the storage profile you wish to assign to the datastore.
If you have datastore clusters you cannot assign a user defined storage profile to a datastore cluster root however if you assign the same user defined storage profile to each datastore in the cluster then the cluster will inherit the user defined storage profile.
When you are ready to create a new virtual machine you will now have an additional option in the new vm wizard to select the storage profile you need for the vm then it will show you the compliant and non-compliant datastores that you can use on the vm.
Parent virtual disk has been modified error vSphere 5
0Whilst p2ving I came across this little issue when powering on a vm for the first time. I received an error stating the below:
Cannot power On: Reason: The parent virtual
disk has been modified since the child was
created. The content ID of the parent virtual disk
does not match the corresponding parent content
ID in the child.
error
DATE TIME
Power On virtual machine
Now the only thing that I can guess happened here is that vDR created a snapshot of the vm as it was being created. The first thing I tried to resolve the issue was to right click the vm select snapshot and then consolidate. This then thew up another error message similar to the first so that was no good.
I deleted the snapshot and tried again but received again the above error message.
I googled around a bit and found some rather convuluted solutions to the problem however I decided on a much simplier solution that worked just as well.
Before performing any of the below ensure that you have deleted any snapshots that are active on the VM.
1: Right click the vm and select edit settings
2: Select the virtual hard disk and select remove but DO NOT delete the VMDK
3: OK your way out of the settings then go back into the edit settings menu
4: This time select Add and choose Hard Disk and use an existing virtual disk
5: Point your new hard disk at the VMDK file and click OK
6: Power on the VM and all should now be well.
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