Configuring iSCSI for vSphere 5

Configuring a software iSCSI initiator for ESXi 5.0 is a relatively simple operation. This quick guide assumes that you have already configured an iSCSI target and published it on the network.

For inspiration, have a look at this VMware KB

Create a new vSwitch (Configuration -> Networking -> Add Networking) and add a VMkernel. Configure it with an IP address. 

Go to Storage adapters and click "Add" to add a software iSCSI adapter if it does not exist already.

Once added, right click the software initiator and choose "properties". 

Go to Network Configuration tab and click "Add".

Choose the vSwitch/VMkernel that you created above.

Go ot Dynamic Discovery tab and click "Add" to add an iSCSI target

You will be prompted to input IP address of the iSCSI target, just leave port 3260 as default unless you have configured it differently on your target.

Go to Configuration -> Storage and click "Add storage". Click DISK/LUN and next. If everything has been done correctly, you be able to see your published iSCSI target and can then add and format it with the new VMFS5 file system, uh lala!

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Upgrading vCenter v4.1 to v5.0

I just upgraded my home lab vCenter server the other day from v4.1 to v5 and took some screen dumps of the installation process. The steps look fairly familiar compared to earlier versions. At one point in the installation I had an error stating that:

"The Fully Qualified Domain Name cannot be resolved. If you continue the installation, some features might not work correctly"

The reason for this error is that I had not created a reverse lookup on the DNS server.
Here are the screen dumps:

It was at this step that the DNS error ocurred. Below image shows how a reverse lookup zone was created on the DNS server.

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Manual virus removal from 'System Volume information'

In Windows,  System Volume Information is a system folder, to keep track of the changes took placed on a partition in a fix time period. This folder exists in every partition on your HDD. By default this folder is hidden, but you can see it by showing the hidden and system files and folders.The information stored in these folders helps Windows to revert to an earlier state, when you use the System Restore tool.

But sometimes, some malware files get in the System Volume Information folder. This can happens by any of following reasons:

1.  the malware wants to get there so that user doesn't have access to delete it and from where it can restore itself, 
2. or some malware file gets deleted and Windows decides that the file was important and it automatically stores it there, in case you ever want it back.

Well, you can easily clean malware infection from this folder by using the following simple steps:

• Right click on My Computer, then go to Properties
• Now in Windows XP:  Go to System Restore tab, enable the option Disable System Restore on all drives and click Apply. This should erase all System Restore Points, including the infected file(s).
• In Windows 7: Go to System Protection > then under protection settings choose hard drive that have malware and click Configure > Turn off system Protection > ok
• After this, again enable the system Restore option and press Apply again, so that you'll re-enable System Restore.

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Delete Recent File List In Windows Media PLayer

This tip requires a change to the Windows Registry. Please see the MSFN Guide "Backup Your Registry" if you are new to the Windows Registry.

Windows Media Player (WMP) is a built-in application that allows you to play multimedia files. Like many other applications, WMP remembers the most recently played files and displays them in the Recent File List under the File menu. This feature is useful if you regularly play certain files, but you may want to clear the list if you share the computer and a user account or create archives and CDs.

There are two ways you can clear the list:

I. The ClearMRU.exe Utility is available for free in the Windows Media Player Bonus Pack from Microsoft, but Microsoft does not support this tool.

II. You can also manually delete the list through the Windows Registry:

1. Start the Windows Registry Editor, regedit.exe, by typing regedit in the Windows Run Command Line.

2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\RecentFileList.

3. Delete the RecentFileList subkey.

4. If you've also streamed content from the Internet, you can delete the RecentURLList subkey.

5. Exit the Registry Editor.

6. Restart the computer.

To keep certain files in the list, don't delete the entire key. Deleting individual entries within the key will get rid of the files that you no longer want in the Recent File List.

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Changing IP and VLAN on host - no VM downtime

It is possible to change the service console (COS) IP and VLAN id for hosts in a cluster without having VM downtime (see this post for changing hostname). The trick is to change the COS IP first on all hosts and then wait with the changing of the vMotion IP until all COS IP's have been changed. This way, you will be able to put the hosts into maintenance mode one by one and vMotion will still work with the old IP even though COS IP's will differ in range and VLAN id.

NB. It may be neccesary to disable HA for the cluster before you begin as the HA agent will not be able to configure on the hosts when IP's don't match for all hosts.

1. Enter maintenance mode
2. Update the DNS entry on the DNS server
3. Log on to the vCenter server and flush the DNS: ipconfig /flushdns
4. Go to ILO, DRAC or something similar for the host (you will loose remote network connection when changing the IP) and change the IP (use this KB article for inspiration): 
5. [root@server root]# esxcfg-vswif -i a.b.c.d -n w.x.y.z vswif0 , where a.b.c.d is the IP address and w.x.y.z is the subnet mask.
6. Change the VLAN id (in this case VLAN 12): esxcfg-vswitch -v 12 -p 'Service Console' vSwitch0
7. Change gateway: nano /etc/sysconfig/network
8. Change DNS servers: nano /etc/resolv.conf
9. Restart network: service network restart
10. Ensure that gateway can be pinged
11. Update the NTP server from the vSphere client if needed.
12. Continue the process with next host in the cluster

When all COS IP's have been changed, go to the vSphere client and change all vMotion IP addresses and VLAN id's. This will not require any downtime. And then test that vMotion works.

Done.

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Changing hostname from the service console

The easiest way to change the hostname is via the vSphere client (see this post for changing IP address and VLAN IP). If, however, this is not an option for some reason, the hostname can be changed from the service console the following way:

This KB article actually explains most of the proces which includes:

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1. Open the /etc/hosts file with a text editor and modify it so that it reflects the correct hostname.

2. To change the default gateway address and the hostname, edit the /etc/sysconfig/network file and change the GATEWAY and HOSTNAME parameters to the proper values.

3. For the changes to take place, reboot the host or restart the network service with the command:
[root@server root]# service network restart
Note: This command breaks any current network connections to the Service Console, but virtual machines continue to have network connection.

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I have experienced that after a reboot, the changes are reset and the hostname is changed back to the original one. To avoid this, there is one more step to be performed (before reboot):

Change the /adv/Misc/HostName parameter in /etc/vmware/esx.conf file (see screendump)

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Cant See Secure Sites

Fix the problem with seeing them secure sites (banks or online stores) i found this very useful to me at my work (

Any way... what u need to do is make a new notepad file and write in it the following DLL's.. just copy-paste these

regsvr32 SOFTPUB.DLL

regsvr32 WINTRUST.DLL

regsvr32 INITPKI.DLL

regsvr32 dssenh.dll

regsvr32 Rsaenh.dll

regsvr32 gpkcsp.dll

regsvr32 sccbase.dll

regsvr32 slbcsp.dll

regsvr32 Cryptdlg.dll

and save it as > all file types, and make it something like securefix.bat.

then just run the file and ur problem should be gone.

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