WilliamLam.com

How to Run Windows 8 on vSphere 5

by // 17 Comments

There's been a lot of hype/talk about Windows 8 and if you wanted to test drive the new OS, you might consider using the latest release of VMware Fusion 4.0.1 or VMware Workstation 8 as Windows 8 is an officially supported guestOS. Though what if you wanted to run it in your vSphere 5 environment? Well you can with a small hack.

Even though it's not listed as a supported guestOS, you can manually tweak the .vmx configuration to get ESXi 5 host to recognize the guestOS type. You just need to create a generic Windows 2008 system and then from the commandline or by exporting the .vmx using the datastore browser and then edit the configuration file. You will need to make the following change to the guestOS paramater:

guestOS = "windows8srv-32"
guestOS = "windows8srv-64"

One you have made this change, you will need to re-register the virtual machine or reload the configuration using vim-cmd vmsvc/reload operation.

Another method just using the vSphere Client without any modifications to the .vmx is to just create a virtual machine and select any guestOS type. Once the virtual machine has been created, there is actually an option in the guestOS to select Windows 8 32 or 64bit that can be selected. If you wish to automate through the commandline, then you can use the method above or you can just use the vSphere Client.

Note: This is not officially supported from VMware of course, use at your own risk.

UPDATE1: It looks like when Windows 8 64bit is booting up for installation, the virtual machine core dumps with the following error:

vcpu-0| MONITOR PANIC: vcpu-0:NOT_IMPLEMENTED vmcore/vmm/intr/apic.c:1804

Something similar occurs with Windows 8 32bit that gets past the panic but an error message is thrown on the screen regarding HAL initialization failure. Currently there are no workarounds and I've reached out to some of the folks at VMware to see if there's any tweaks that can be made to support this. As I mentioned earlier, this is an unsupported OS/hack, so it may not work at all. Sorry to get everyone's hope up, the new Fusion 4.01 and Workstation 8 might still be your best bet to test out the new Windows 8.

UPDATE2: VMware has released a KB article http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2006859 regarding Windows 8 and vSphere 5 support. You can subscribe to the KB article for the latest update on running Windows 8 on ESXi 5.

UPDATE3:  I recently saw a tweet by Raphael Schitz and it looks like you actually CAN run Windows 8 on ESXi 5. Raphael was able to run Windows 8 by first running Xenserver as a virtual machine and then creating a Windows 8 VM that would run as a nested guestOS within Xenserver virtual machine (pESXi 5 -> Xenserver VM -> Windows 8 VM).

Note: You may need to reboot the system one additional time if it does not automatically load.

Here is a screen shot of Windows 8 64bit running on the latest release of Xenserver 6 running on ESXi 5:

How to Use Custom VM Icons in the vSphere 5 Client

by // 3 Comments

Ever get tired of the same old virtual machine icons in the vSphere Client? Ever thought about changing it? Well with vSphere 5, you can! Here is a screenshot of some the custom icons I added for several virtual machines in my development lab.

One of the major enhancement in the vSphere 5 API is the introduction of the vCenter Solutions Manager, vSphere ESX Agent Manager, and vServices SDK. These various interfaces allows ISVs, partners and end users to easily extend the functionality of the vCenter Server and provide solutions that are tightly integrated via extensions/plugins that are aware of features such as vSphere HA, DRS and DPM.

Here what each of the interfaces provides:

vCenter Solutions Manager - is a view in the vSphere client where you can monitor and interact with the solutions that register with a vCenter Server instance. Solutions Manager shows three standard tabs for each running solution. The tabs list the virtual machines that a solution deploys and manages, show the health, name, company URL, version of the solution, and show any vServices that the solution provides.
vSphere ESX Agent Manager - automates the process of deploying and managing vSphere ESX agents. The services that ESX Agent Manager provides include out-of-the-box integration of agents with vSphere features such as DRS, AddHost, High Availability, DRM, and maintenance mode. All of these features can be difficult to integrate with manually. ESX Agent Manager also allows users to monitor the health of ESX agents, and blocks users from performing certain operations on ESX agents that might affect the virtual machines that use them. For example, ESX Agent Manager can prevent an ESX agent virtual machine from being powered off or moved from an ESX host that contains other virtual machines that use that agent.
vServices SDK - is a service that a solution provides to specific applications that run inside virtual machines and vApps. A solution can provide several types of vServices. Virtual machines or vApps can have dependencies on several types of vServices. A vService is similar to a virtual hardware device upon which virtual machines and vApps can depend. Instead of providing a piece of virtual hardware, vServices typically provide access to a service across a network. By providing a vService, a solution can expose application-aware services to virtual machines and vApps. For example, a vService can provide a backup service or a logging service to virtual machines and vApps.
For more details about these interfaces and how to implement them, take a look at the documentation here.

Even though these APIs are really meant for ISVs and partners to consume, if you would like to add a splash of color to your environment, you can use the following trick. At at high level we will be adding a new extension(s) which includes a mapping of a particular solution (e.g. logical name) to a particular icon that a virtual machine or vApp can be associated with. The icons must be 16x16 PNG format referenced by a URL. Once the custom extension has been created, you will then need to reconfigure the virtual machine(s) and associate the managedBy property to the solution's logical name key to update the virtual machine's icon.

You will need access to either the vCLI or vMA and the following two vSphere SDK for Perl scripts: registerCustomSolution.pl and updateVMManagedBy.pl You will also need access to vCenter Server 5 as this is not supported on an ESXi 5 host.

There is a very simple example in registerCustomSolution.pl which creates two extensions: one that includes custom icons and tabs that can link to any webpage (vGhetto) and one that only includes custom icons (Custom Application). You will need to edit the script so it fits your environment and there is a special variable in the script called "editedScript" which is set to 0 that prevents the script from running. This will ensure you do not accidentally create these extensions based on information in my development environment. Once you have updated the script, go ahead and change the value to a 1.

When you are ready, you will use the registerCustomSolution.pl script to create the extensions, here is an example:

To verify that the extensions were created properly with the information you provide, you can use pluginExtensionManager.pl to list all registered extensions. The command is the following: ./pluginExtensionManager.pl --operation list

You should see at the bottom of the output the extensions that were just registered and the associated configurations URL + icons. It is important to make note of the extension key (e.g. com.vmware.vGhetto) and the solution type string as that will be needed in the next section.

Now all we need to do is associate a particular virtual machine with the solution to update the virtual machine's default icon. You will use the updateVMManagedBy.pl script and using the extension key and type from the output from the previous screen.

To verify the icons have been updated, you will need to login to the vCenter Server and check out your virtual machines.You will also notice that on the right hand side of the virtual machine summary screen, there is a new "Managed By" section which includes a link to the vCenter Solution Manager.

Note: If you would like to reset or revert back to the original icons, you just need to use the  updateVMManagedBy.pl script and specify a empty string for the key. If you would like to unregister and remove the extension all together, you can use pluginExtensionManager.pl and perform remove operation.

Another way to view all the vCenter Solutions is on the home page and by clicking on the vCenter Solutions Manager icon.

From here you will see all registered vCenter extensions including some information about the vendor, version and health of the extension.

Here is a drill down into one of the extensions that contains several tabs to some URLs

As you can see, you can link to some useful URLs that can easily be accessible through the vSphere Client without having to go to your browser. Another neat feature of the tabs is to include any web management interfaces for a particular solution/vApp so that you can easily configure and manage the system from a single pane of glass.

In addition to this, you can also get a summary of the registered virtual machines with a given solution by clicking on the "Virtual Machines" tab and selecting "Managed By" box, the "Server" and "Agents" are reserved for ESX Agents.

There are also two caveats to be aware of if you decide to create custom icons for your virtual machines. The first is when you edit a virtual machine, you will get an annoying pop-up that states changes to the solution is not recommended. Under normal circumstance, where a solution/extension is provided by a 3rd party, you definitely do not want to manually tweak the virtual machine but in this scenario, it is fine.

The second thing I noticed is the custom icons do not properly show up in the nextgen vSphere Web Client, a default icon is used instead for virtual machines who have custom icons. I am not sure if this is a display bug with the vSphere Web Client or with the APIs.

So there you have it, if you are bored at looking at the same old icons and would like to differentiate some or all of your virtual machines, you now have the option to use custom icons.

How to Automate the Deployment & Configuration of vShield Manager 5

by // 8 Comments

If you have ever worked with VMware vShield Manager, you know that deployment and configuration of the virtual appliance is pretty much a manual process. You can automate the deployment of the vShield Manager OVA using the various vSphere SDK's or the ovftool, but the initial IP address configuration for vSM still needs to be configured manually using the remote console for the very first time.

An easy solution to this problem would be for VMware to create the vSM OVA to support IP address configuration out of the box as part of the deployment options (but why make things easy). In any case, I will demonstrate how you can easily automate both the deployment and the initial configuration of vShield Manager to your vSphere environment.

Before I begin, I can not take credit for coming up with the idea of automating vShield Manager deployment, the credit goes to Alan Renouf. Alan recently contacted me and ask if it was possible to automate the IP configuration. The answer is yes and here is a solution.

One of the main challenges in figuring out how to automate the IP address configuration of vShield Manager was due to the vtysh integrated shell daemon for Zebra that launches by default as part of the "admin" user account. This interface is used to manage the kernel routing and management table and made it very difficult to interface with for any type of automation. I decided manually go through a vSM configuration and then using Knoppix LIVE-CD, I was able to mount up the vSM filesystem and look around to get a better understanding of what was going on. After some investigating, it looks like IP address configuration is stored in /common/configs/cli/zebra.conf, here is an example of what the configuration looks like:

Armed with this knowledge, it was pretty straight forward in developing an automated way of deploying and configuring vShield Manager. I created a script called deployvShieldManager.sh which utilizes guestOpsManagement.pl, vCLI and ovftool. It's recommended that you use vMA and install ovftool to quickly get started. At a high level, the script is doing the following:

  1. Deploy vShield Manager OVA using ovftool
  2. PowerOn vSM and wait 2 minutes for VMware Tools to be ready on the system
  3. Create new zebra.conf, backup the old zebra.conf and upload new zebra.conf using the new vSphere 5 VIX integration
  4. PowerOff vSM to force the configurations to be read in upon next bootup
  5. PowerOn vSM and it is now ready for use

At the top of the script, there are several configuration variables that need to be edited by the user to specify the vSM configuration, including vCenter and ESX(i) host to deploy vSM.

Here is a list of variables that need to be configured at the top of the deployvShieldManager.sh script:

Once you are done updating the variables, you are now ready to execute the script. Before the script performs any changes, it will first prompt the summary of configurations you have specified in the script. Once you are satisfiy, you may than proceed by typing "y" or "yes" to start, or if you would like to cancel, type "n" or "no".

Note: The script will perform some basic validation such as existence of the vShield Manager OVA, ovftool, etc. else you will get an error message and the script will exit.

Next, the script will perform the deployment of vSM using ovftool and proceed with the configuration of vSM once it has been deployed.

Note: If it takes longer to poweron vSM in your environment to get it into a ready state, you may want to tweak the sleep period from 120 seconds (2minutes) to something longer.

At this point, you now should see a new vShield Manager VM deployed and if you take a look at the summary page, you should see the new IP address and hostname configurations.

Now all that is left is to point your browser to the vSM address and you should be prompted to login to vShield Manager management interface.

Instead of manually deploying vShield Manager in your environment, you can now automate the initial deployment and configuration for general use or with VMware vCloud Director. For further automation and configuration of vShield manager, once vSM is online and accessible, you can leverage the vShield REST API.