We are using multiple vmware servers, that each host several vmware images/instances. Each department uses its own vmware server. The vmware instances are always accessed through the "VMWare infrastructure web access" web page from the console tab panel. The vmware servers are plain windows servers (nothing fancy).
Now it turns out that some of these vmware images are useful for multiple departments.
Of course we considered to copy these images, distributing them to all vmware servers, hosting the same image multiple times.
But we would in fact prefer to only host 1 copy of each instance. But still we would like to have all images accessible from 1 web page. Merging them to 1 server is of course impossible (performance-wise).
So, this got me wondering, perhaps there is a way to create hyperlinks within the vmware web access portal to vmware instances that are actually hosted on a different server. They would appear to be all on the same server but in fact they are distributed.
Does such thing exist, and how should it be configured ?
In mean time I found a reasonable solution for my problem.
The vmware-vmrc.exe can be called from the commandline with several parameters. For example with following parameters it will open the vmware session immediately without the need of specifying any credentials.
vmware-vmrc.exe -X -h hostname:8333 -u "username" -p "password" "[standard] ... .vmx"
Important: The "[standard] ... .vmx" value is not just a file name.
To know this value, you need to visit the webpage of your vmware
(e.g. https:// hostname:8333/ui/).
Next click the button "Configure VM" which will open a tab panel with configuration settings.
There you will find a setting called "Virtual Machine Configuration File". It often starts with the string "[standard]".
Next, it was really easy to write a little batch file that allows me to pick the desired vmware from a menu.
Related
I'll give a bit of a background as to the setup we have and why. Currently myself and a friend want to collaborate on an Unreal Engine Project. To do this I've set up an Amazon Lightsail Instance with Windows Server running. I've then installed Perforce onto this Server and added two users. Both of us are able to connect to this server from our local machines (great I thought!). Our goal was to attach two 'virtual' disks of 32gb to this server via Lightsails Storage option. I've formatted these discs and they are detected as Disk D and E on the Server. Our goal was to have two depots, one on Disk E and one on Disk D, the reason for this being the C disk was only 20gb (12gb Free after Windows).
I have tried multiple things (not got much hair left after this) to try and map the depots created to each HDD but have had little success and need your wisdom!
I've followed both the process indicated in this support guide (https://community.perforce.com/s/article/2559) via CMD as well as changing the depot storage location in P4Admin on the Server via RDP to the virtual disks D and E respectively.
Example change is from //UE_WIP/... to D:/UE_WIP/... (I have create a folder UE_WIP and UE_LIVE on each HDD).
When I open up P4V on my local machine I'm able to happily connect (as per screenshot) and set workstation to my local machine (detects both depots). This is when we're getting stuck. I then open up a new unreal engine file and save the unreal engine file to the the following local directory E:/DELETE/Perforce/Test/ and open up source control (See image 04). This is great, it detects the workspace and all is connecting to the server.
When I click submit to source control I get the following 'Failed Checking Source Control' when I try adding via P4V manually marking the new content folder for add I get the following 'file(s) not in client view.
All we want is the ability to send an Unreal Engine up to either the WIP Drive Depot or the Live Drive Depot. To resolve this does it require:
Two different workstations (one set up for LIVE and one for WIP)
Do we need to add some local folders to our directory? E:/DELETE/Perforce/UE_WIP & E:/DELETE/Perforce/UE_LIVE?
Do we need to tweak something on the Perforce Server?
Do we need to tweak something in Unreal Engine?
Any and all help would be massively appreciated.
Best,
Ben
https://imgur.com/a/aaMPTvI - Image gallery of issues
Your screenshots don't show how (or if?) you set up your local workspace (i.e. the thing that tells Perforce where the files are on your local workstation).
See: https://www.perforce.com/perforce/r13.1/manuals/p4v/Defining_a_client_view.html
The Perforce server acts as a layer of abstraction between the backend storage (i.e. the depots you've set up) and the client machines where you actually do your work. The location of the depot files doesn't matter at all to the client (any more than, say, the backend filesystem of a web server matters to your web browser); all that matters is how you set up the workspace, which is a simple matter of "here's where my local files are" (the Root) and "here's how my local paths map to depot paths" (the View).
You get the "file not in view" error if you try to add a local file to the depot and it's not in the View you've defined. The fix there is generally to simply fix the Root and/or View to accurately describe where you local files are. One View can easily map to multiple depots (as long as they're on a single server).
(edit)
Specifically, in your case, all of the files you're trying to add are under the path:
E:\DELETE\Perforce\Test\Saved\...
Since you've set up your workspace as:
Client: bsmith
Root: E:\DELETE\Perforce\bsmith
View:
//WIP/... //bsmith/WIP/...
//LIVE/... //bsmith/LIVE/...
then your bsmith workspace consists of these two local paths:
E:\DELETE\Perforce\bsmith\WIP\...
E:\DELETE\Perforce\bsmith\LIVE\...
The files you're trying to add aren't even under your Root, much less under either of the View mappings. That's what the "not in client view" error messages mean.
If you want to add the files where they are, modify your Root and View so that you define your workspace as being where your files are; if you want to have the files in one of the local directories above that you've already defined as being where your workspace lives, you'll have to move them there. If you put your files in bsmith\WIP, then when you add them they'll go to the WIP depot; if you put them in bsmith\LIVE, then they'll go to the LIVE depot, per your View.
Either way, once they're in your workspace, you can add them to the depot. Simple as that!
I have few queries related to Amazon Workspace.
Q1) I am building a .net website from where I want to access the Amazon Workspace. What could be a better way to do so? Is it possible that I create a webpage in my website and from there I can access the Workspace desktop in an iFrame or something? or is there any API support for same?
Q2) Can we set some startup program in Amazon Workspace which initiates any application for eg: photoshop, whenever the Workspace is started?
I think you're missing the point of Amazon Workspaces - they are a virtual desktop solution (loosely similar to Citrix), which provides a Windows 7 or Windows 10 'Desktop Experience' running on top of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and 2012 respectively.
So, to answer your questions:
Q1) I am building a .net website from where I want to access the
Amazon Workspace. What could be a better way to do so? Is it possible
that I create a webpage in my website and from there I can access the
Workspace desktop in an iFrame or something? or is there any API
support for same?
You don't want to embed a Workspace instance inside of a web-page, either as an iFrame or by using some other magic. It is probably possible, but you will need to jump through many, many burning hoops of death to achieve it.
If you want to access a web-page that you are building from the Workspace instance, treat Workspaces as just any other desktop and use Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera etc. to access the site.
If you are looking at how to access Workspace Instances, AWS have desktop clients for all major Operating Systems, as web-based version (not to be confused with the web-page that you personally are writing); alternatively, Workspaces can be accessed from physical PCoIP Zero-Client devices. Take a look at https://clients.amazonworkspaces.com/ for the full list.
Q2) Can we set some startup program in Amazon Workspace which
initiates any application for eg: photoshop, whenever the Workspace is
started?
Yes you can, configure a Group Policy Object in your underlying Workspaces Directory to start an application on logon.
However, if you are going to run something intensive such as Photoshop, I would recommend either the Performance or Graphics Bundles - see https://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/details/ for more information.
I have hosted an intranet website on WAMP server which is working as expected. Now i would like to configure a backup site to it. I mean if it goes down by any chance how do i counter that?
My challenge is i can not have the URL changed as its already been distributed to many users in the past.
My URL is like
http :/ /ipaddress/MyProject/Running/Index.html
I want to know, how do i have a backup website running on the same url to maintain high availability?
Since WAMP applications do not provide their own backup APIs, you need to stop all services if you want to take a full file-system level backup; otherwise you'll get a lot of "file locked" errors and/or your backups will be in an incoherent state.
So yes, you can just make a copy of your C:\wamp directory, but stop all your WAMP-related services before (and remember to restart them after).
any problem please comment me...)
use a slave server with the one using as a master not sure of the tech but I know windows allows two or more servers with same info on them both.
I have the following problem:
There two separate vCenters (ESXi). They cannot see each other or communicate in any way.
I can create a Clone of a VM in vCenter1 but then I want to move that Clone in vCenter2.
Is there a way that I can copy the Cloned VM (files) on an external HDD and move them in the other vCenter?
I've figure it out the solution to my problem:
Step 1: from within the vSphere client, while connected to vCenter1, select the VM and then from "File" menu select "Export"->"Export OVF Template" (Note: make sure the VM is Powered Off otherwise this feature is not available - it will be gray). This action will allow you to save on your machine/laptop the VM (as an .vmdk, .ovf and a .mf file).
Step 2: Connect to the vCenter2 with your vSphere client and from "File" menu select "Deploy OVF Template..." and then select the location where the VM was saved in the previous step.
That was all!
Thanks!
Yes, you can do this.
Copy all of the cloned VM's files from its directory, and place it on its destination datastore.
In the VI client connected to the destination vCenter, go to the Inventory->Datastores view.
Open the datastore browser for the datastore where you placed the VM's files.
Find the .vmx file that you copied over and right-click it.
Choose 'Register Virtual Machine', and follow whatever prompts ensue. (Depending on your version of vCenter, this may be 'Add to Inventory' or some other variant)
The VM registration process should finish with the cloned VM usable in the new vCenter!
Good luck!
For moving a virtual machine you need not clone the VM, just copy the VM files (after powering the VM off) to external HDD and register the same on destination host.
A much simpler way to do this is to use vCenter Converter Standalone Client and do a P2V but in this case a V2V. It is much faster than copying the entire VM files onto some storage somewhere and copy it onto your new vCenter. It takes a long time to copy or exporting it to an OVF template and then import it. You can set your vCenter Converter Standalone Client to V2V in one step and synchronize and then have it power up the VM on the new Vcenter and shut off on the old vCenter. Simple.
For me using this method I was able to move a VM from one vCenter to another vCenter in about 30 minutes as compared to copying or exporting which took over 2hrs. Your results may vary.
This process below, from another responder, would work even better if you can present that datastore to ESXi servers on the vCenter and then follow step 2. Eliminating having to copy all the VMs then follow rest of the process.
Copy all of the cloned VM's files from its directory, and place it on its destination datastore.
In the VI client connected to the destination vCenter, go to the Inventory->Datastores view.
Open the datastore browser for the datastore where you placed the VM's files.
Find the .vmx file that you copied over and right-click it.
Choose 'Register Virtual Machine', and follow whatever prompts ensue. (Depending on your version of vCenter, this may be 'Add to Inventory' or some other variant)
Copying the VM files onto an external HDD and then bringing it in to the destination will take a lot longer and requires multiple steps. Using vCenter Converter Standalone Client will do everything for you and is much faster. No external HDD required. Not sure where you got the cloning part from. vCenter Converter Standalone Client is simply copying the VM files by importing and exporting from source to destination, shutdown the source VM, then register the VM at destination and power on. All in one step. Takes about 1 min to set that up vCenter Converter Standalone Client.
You don't have to export your VMs at all. You can move the VM and clone to a TAXI host in vCenter 1. Then add the host to vCenter 2, and vMotion away whatever VMs to other hosts previously managed by vCenter 2. When done, you can add the TAXI host back to vCenter 1.
If you'd like to do this using the command line, you can do this if you have ESXi 6.0 (or possibly even ESXi 5.5) running, by using govc, which is a very helpful utility for interacting with both your vCenter and its associated resources.
Depending on your setup, you can
# setup your credentials
export GOVC_USERNAME=YOUR_USERNAME GOVC_PASSWORD=YOUR_PASSWORD
govc export.ovf -u your-vcsa-url.example.com -vm VM_NAME -dc VMS_DATACENTER export-folder
Then, you'll have your VM VM_NAME exported in the folder export-folder. From there, you can then
govc import.ovf -u your-other-vcsa-url.example.com -vm NEW_VM_NAME -dc NEW_DATACENTER export-folder/VM_NAME.ovf
That'll import it into your other vCenter. You might have to specify -ds NEW_DATASTORE too, if you have more than one datastore available, but govc will tell you so if you need to.
The commands above require that govc is installed, which you should, because it's far better than ovftool either way.
We recently bought a new rack and set of servers for it, we want to be able to redeploy these boxes as build servers, QA regression test servers, lab re-correlation servers, simulation servers, etc.
We have played a bit with VMWare, VirtualPC, VirtualBox etc, creating a virtual build server, but we came across a lot of issues when we tried to copy it for others to use, having to reconfigure every new copy of the VM.
We are using Windows XP x86/x64 and Windows Vista x86/x64, so I had to rename the machine, join the domain etc for every new copy.
Ideally we just want to be able to add a new box, deploy a thin boot strap OS (Linux is fine here) to get the VM up an running, then use it.
One other thing we have limited to no budget, so free is best.
I would like to understand others experiences in doing the same thing.
FYI, I am not in systems IT, this we are group of software engineers trying to set this up.
Any links to good tutorials would be great.
The problem you're running into is the machine SID must be unique for each machine in a domain. Of course by copying an image you now break that unique constraint.
I'd suggest that you read the documentation for Sysprep in the reskit and Vista System Image Manager - your friends for XP/Win2k3 and Vista/Win2k8 respectively.
These tools enable to "reseal" your configured instance of the OS such that the next time it boots - it can prompt for information such as network configuration, machine names, admin user ID's, run scripts etc.
Also be aware that the licencing restrictions for Windows desktop clients are generally per image - not per server.
Using these tools with HyperV we created complete preconfigured instances of Win2k3 & Win2k8 that boot to finish installing Sharepoint - going further we used the diffing disks to overlay Visual Studio so our devs could use the production images for their work. It has radically changed our development process.
At this point our entire public website is run on HyperV with of 5 boxes running 15 images for a mix of soft and hard redundancy - they take several hundred million page views per week.
Another option for dealing with the SID probelm is NewSID. This is a simpler tool than sysprep, in that all it does is rename the machine and reassign the SID; if you don't need all the other features of sysprep this is a much easier tool to use.