One of the VMWARE ESXI machines is not working - vmware

One of the machines stopped starting and gives such an error, tell me where to dig?

If you are using vSphere 6.5 or 6.7, then it is a known issue as per Vmware and they are still working on it.
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/67162
It is difficult to comment without knowing your environment. Generally, you should check if the .vmx file exists in that datastore location and you are able to traverse it using the ESXi command line as well the web client browser. The vmx file itself has not gone corrupt. You should also see if the datastore is reachable and is not showing greyed out in web client or any red sign next to it. If the data store contains any other virtual machines, please check if they have a similar issue.
If other virtual machines are reachable on the same datastore and the concerned VM files are accessible as well, try un-registering and re-registering the VM using the esx console command line, on the same or a different ESXi host. There could several reasons for this issue but primarily it is a communication issue between your ESX host and the storage. ESX logs can also be very helpful in such cases.

Related

What keeps accessing Google Cloud metadata on my instance

I have a Google Cloud compute instance running with Ubuntu 18. We had wireshark running tracking another problem and we noticed that every minute something is accessing the meta data server. Three requests every minute:
GET /computeMetadata/v1/instance/virtual-clock/drift-token?alt=json&last_etag=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&recursive=False&timeout_sec=60&wait_for_change=True
GET /computeMetadata/v1/instance/network-interfaces/?alt=json&last_etag=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&recursive=True&timeout_sec=60&wait_for_change=True
GET /computeMetadata/v1/?alt=json&last_etag=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&recursive=True&timeout_sec=77&wait_for_change=True
In call cases, the wireshark says the source is the IP of my instance, and the destination is the 169.254.169.254 which is the Google metadata server.
I don't have any code we have written that is accessing the server. The first one makes me think that this is some Google specific software that is accessing the meta data? But I haven't been able to prove that. What is worrisome is that the response for the third one contains ssh keys. Also, every minute seem excessive.
I see another post talking about scripts in /usr/share/google, but I don't have that directory. I do see that google-fluent is installed. I also see a installed snap for google-cloud-sdk. Could one of those be it? I don't recall installing them, AFAIK, I am not using it, so if that is it, what is the harm in uninstalling it?
You do not have a problem to worry about. The metadata server is private to your instance. The Google VM guest environment software and Stackdriver (fluentd) are making requests to the metadata server to get credentials, detect changes (new SSH keys), set the clock, etc.
The IP address 169.254.169.254 is an IPv4 Link Local Address. Only your VM has a route to that network.
Compute Engine Guest Environment
Do not attempt to uninstall the Guest Environment. You can remove Stackdriver, but I do not recommend that. Stackdriver provides logging and monitoring features that are very useful.

Work(flow) Setup: Remote Debian VM (in office), ssh, web development

Normally I've developed locally (on my own machine) and pushed to wherever things needed to go via mapped drives, ftp, github, etc. I have done a bit of work with vagrant/virtualbox (but again, locally) with a shared/mirrored folder.
I am now in a situation where everyone here has access to their own dev box (a vm on the network). I see some working in Vim directly via SSH, I believe, but I'm not there yet. So I'm left with the question: What's the best way for (more of a front end guy) to approach this?
I have heard of doing an SSH-mount from my workstation... if that's a viable thing. I'm curious what everyone's take on this kind of environment is and (perhaps) any best practices. Tips, links, and reading is highly welcome and appreciated, too... any pointing in a good direction would be wonderful.
Thank you.
The best answer will come from what virtual resources do you want to capitalize on for the virtual networked VMs. If you just want the storage space, then share the VM's drives, and mount them locally, treat them as local, end of story. If you want to run all the processing on the remote machine, and connect from a thin client, you have a couple of options, but they all take the same form. Connect to the machine, edit the files on the remote machine. Depending on your OS, you will have different options available.
If the remote machine doesn't have an graphical client installed you are stuck with either, mounting the remote share locally (you can use whatever editor you want) or ssh to the remote machine and using a commandline editor (vim, nano, emacs).
If there is a graphical client installed you have more options:
Remote in the server using any visual viewer (mstsc for windows, vnc is an option), and then use any remotely installed editor of your choice.
Remote in using ssh -X, and then run the remotely installed editor. Assuming you have an X-Server locally (if you are running linux you already do), the GUI part of the application will be run on the client side of the ssh tunnel, and the process will be run on the server. This is probably the best option.
So:
Make sure the remote server has a desktop client software (gtk, kde, gnome, almost any windows os, etc...)
install GUI editor of your choice on that server
ssh -X to that server
install sublime text, geany, or your choice of editor
run subl, geany, or other to start the application.
SSH mounting would indeed allow you to use all of the files on the VM as if they were stored in your local machine, letting you edit and update files without having to manually copy them every time you perform changes. You will run into a speed bump though, since files changed will have to be synchronized/copied to your remote machine every time and that takes a couple of seconds. Check this post by DigitalOcean, they explain how to get the SSH mount working.
A better option you have (IMHO) is to use an IDE in your local machine that allows you to push changes to a server after saving or by manually doing so. This would allow you to develop faster by using your local resources (local web server) since no files would have to be copied over the network to the remote VM; and would also allow you to test on that remote VM when needed by uploading the files when you are ready to test on that environment.
PS: Exporting visual apps or environments form the remote machine to your local one can be slow (depending on your network and the VM host load running your machine). If you still like that approach, you could also install something to access that VM over something more standard and lightweight like RDP for GNU/Linux (xrdp).

Xenserver - Access guest VM directly from host

I've got a decent PC that I'd like to install xenserver on, but it's also my primary workstation. Wondering if it's possible to access guests directly from the host machine -- meaning, can I use the monitor, input devices, etc that are attached to the host, to interact with the guests.
Currently setup as a dual boot Linux and Windows machine. I need them both running simultaneously while still being able to treat the host like a workstation. Already using Virtualbox, which is great but not what I'm aiming for.
I've searched high and low for an answer to this question. Maybe I wasn't searching with the right terms. I've found a package in the Ubuntu repos that adds an entry in grub along the lines of 'Ubuntu with Xen Hypervisor', but that was on a test machine that couldn't actually run Xen.
Normally, I'd just wipe this puppy and find out for myself, but there are really good reasons why I can't just jump into it this time, so I'm turning to the community.
Thanks for any and all info!
You can use a simple text console on the host to interact with the guests
xe console vm=guest
but I don't know of a way to access a graphical interface from the host.

How to set up Micro CloudFoundry on Windows

tldr; This question was to get help setting up Micro Cloud Foundry on Windows XP behind a corporate firewall as an innovation-demonstration project for a Fortune 500 IT departent. Basically, the project stalled, despite this stackoverflow page - the magic wasn't strong enough. I am accepting #DanHigman answer below, but if anyone sees this and can provide a simple straight-forward answer, by all means...
Can anyone provide a clear step-by-step on setting up MCF on a Windows (XP in my case) machine behind a corporate firewall, for demostrating the feasibility of PaaS in the corporate IT world?
My VM is installed and running and I can use the menu ok. I have vmc working. I have a test Node.js server app, that works on local, ready to push. But I can't get past that stage.
The firewall gave me trouble so I lowered my goal to just work offline. I followed the instructions noted below as best I could, but often the instructions are mac oriented - I would like them for a Windows command line (especially SSH tunneling):
http://blog.cloudfoundry.com/2011/09/08/working-offline-with-micro-cloud-foundry/
http://support.cloudfoundry.com/entries/20332921-micro-cloud-foundry-trouble-shooting-help
This blogger may have half-way covered my problem doing the SSH tunnel settings, but all it gives is "use Putty" - more detail would help:
http://support.cloudfoundry.com/entries/20419943-using-micro-cloud-locally
Also, whenever the vmc obviously gets an error or other message, it only outputs the following in the command line:
vmc target http://api.vcap.me
<<<
[200, "<html><body>SNP/2.0/102/Unknown Command 'info'</body></html>\r\n\r\n", {}
]
>>>
Thanks for any help. BTW - I know I could do this on my mac, the big obstacle is the windows and firewall environment.
Update:
#Dan and #ebottard: Thanks to your help, I'm almost there. ping is working now, hosts file seems right, but the vmc target api.vcap.me still does not find the VM at that 192.168.253.128 IP - even tho ping does. In the first link above, Martin wrote the following, but assuming we are doing it on a mac:
After the update is complete, you will need to make some changes on your local system. What you will need to do is to set up an SSH tunnel to access your Micro Cloud Foundry VM (note that you will need to supply the IP address in the command below with the actual IP of your VM, which is displayed in the console).
sudo ssh -L 80:192.168.168.149:80 vcap#192.168.168.149
Password:
vcap#192.168.168.149's password:Â
The first password being prompted is the sudo password for your machine, as it is needed to open port 80 which requires root privileges. The second password is the vcap user password which you entered during the initial configuration of your Micro Cloud Foundry.
I need to have these instructions translated into Windows, and all I have to go on is that I might use puTTy (which I have downloaded) to do it. Any more ideas?
Looks like you're running an application on your Windows machine called "Snarl" (a poor Windows-based clone of the OS 10 app Growl :-p). It looks like it's interfering with communication to the MCF intstance, close it and have another try.

How do you use completely free software to create ovf files for VMware ESXi?

Ok, so let's say that I want to try virtualization in my environment. I want to use ESXi to do that because it is free. I can use the install disk and setup a box to run the ESXi Host.
I'm not sure if the VMware Infrastructure Client is free for one thing. You can use it to attach an ovf file (a packaged VM). The problem I had is creating an ovf file that worked. The free converter didn't do the trick.
Does anyone have any tips or guidelines?
The VMware Infrastructure Client is free with certain restrictions. You just download it over the web from an installed ESXi host.
You need licenses to enable vMotion, but for a single host there's no problem.
We're using ESXi (free) with the VI Client (free) and getting tons better performance than VMware Server (also free). I wasn't so sure about the VI Client thing until I talked to someone else that had a working setup, it's a bit confusing and definitely not "obvious" if you're new to the various enterprise level VMware solutions.
Edit: This was true for ESX3, things change and it is no longer true. See comments for ESX4/5 solutions.
Yes, VI Client is free with ESXi, you just don't get advanced features.
For creating an OVF you should have a look at VMware Studio, a new Beta was released recently.
Sadly, no, the VMware client is not free:
"Further, managing a VMware ESXi host with VMware vCenter Server requires a VMware vCenter Server Agent for each host, only available with the purchase of a VMware Infrastructure license (Foundation, Standard, or Enterprise)."
From this VMware page:
http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/uses.html