Month: August 2011

Everything’s on hold for the moment

All the cool stuff I have in the works (vCoud Directory 1.5, the rest of the AutoDeploy stuff, and more) is on hold for the moment.  My time is being consumed by a couple of custom classes I’ve got to develop and run.  Pretty much, September is shot 🙂  Of course, October may or may not be much better, with new classes coming up (here’s to me agreeing to be a lead instructor lol)

It’s all still coming, and I will probably not be the first to discuss most of the topics, but I will get the info up.  It’ll be a heck of a lot easier to do all this after I can get some dedicated ESXi hosts early next year.  In the meantime, VMs still fit on the iMac and the old workhorse Precision.

I’ll still be around, just not as online as I have been.

Auto Deploy with the vCenter Server Appliance

Auto Deploy is probably one of my favorite new features of vSphere 5.  The ability to build an ESXi image (with Image Builder), and automate the deployment of stateless hosts quickly and seamlessly just gives me a warm fuzzy.

So how do we set this up?

There are two options:

  1. Install Auto Deploy from the vCenter DVD, set up an external DHCP and TFTP server, setup your images, and go
  2. Deploy the vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA), configure the existing DHCP server, start the DHCP and TFTP servers, setup your images, and go.

I went with option number 2, since there was that much less to install.  Just configure and run!

I started by adding a NIC to the vCSA, since I didn’t want my management network also serving up DHCP.  Since everything I have at the moment in the lab is virtual, I chose to set up a deployment vSwitch just for this purpose.  In your lab or production environment, you may attach that deployment network to an existing network.

I copied the ifcfg-eth0 file in /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ to ifcfg-eth1 (the 2nd NIC will be eth1) and edited the new one

# cp /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifcfg-eth0 /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifcfg-eth1

# vi /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifcfg-eth1

It should look something like this (I’m using 10.1.1.0/24 as my deployment network):

ifcfg-eth1

Then I created a new symlink in /etc/sysconfig/network to the new file

# ln -s /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifcfg-eth1 /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth1

This provides a persistent configuration for the network device should you reboot your vCenter Server Appliance.

That finishes up the Deployment Network configuration.  Now we need to configure all of the other services.

I started with DHCP.  In poking around the /etc/ directory on the appliance, I found that VMware kindly provided a mostly pre-configured configuration template for the DHCP server: /etc/dhcpd.conf.template

/etc/dhcpd.conf.template

So, being kind of lazy, I simply backed up the existing dhcpd.conf file:

# cp /etc/dhcpd.conf /etc/dhcpd.conf.orig

And then copied the template into place as the config:

# cp /etc/dhcpd.conf/template /etc/dhcpd.conf

And got to editing.  My final config file looks like this:

edited /etc/dhcpd.conf

Once that’s done, you can start the DHCP server:

# /etc/init.d/dhcpd start

Then you need to start the TFTP server:

# /etc/init.d/atftpd start

At this point, I have an ESXi VM PXE booting and doing all the right things – SUCCESS!.

I don’t have Auto Deploy configured from PowerCLI quite yet.  I’ve got a default image loaded up, but without Auto Deploy rules waiting, it’s a wash.  I’ll update when I have things set up more completely.  You probably know more about PowerShell and PowerCLI than do I, but this is what I’m getting (even right after I Connect-VIServer). Something’s wacky with PowerCLI communications:

PowerCLI error

I’ll get it figured out, but until then, take this as a start to your Auto Deploy adventures with the vCenter Storage Appliance!

***EDIT***

Well, stilly me figured out the “cannot connect” problem with PowerCLI. Turns out the Auto Deploy services weren’t started on my vCenter Server Appliance. A quick jaunt to https://:5480, then to the Services tab, then clicking the magic “Start ESXi Services” button resolved that one. I think the “Stopped” status for ESXi Autodeploy was what gave it away 🙂 I’m off and running again!

Up and coming

So, I really do work stuff, along with all the tinkering lately.  That’s the problem with new gadgets!

I’ve been gearing up on the vSphere 5 courses from VMware, and I gotta say, you should take these.  Even if it’s just the 2-day What’s New course for you VMware gurus.  What’s New is the condensed “look at all the cool new stuff” class that gets you some hands on time with the new knobs and dials as well as gets you some good discussion time.  The new Install, Configure, Manage class is no slouch, but we’re gently massaging it to work better for most that will likely be taking it.

Add to that the fact that I’m working on a post (more back-burner) about my take on why customers should think about the cloud.  And I’m tossing around a post about automation, and why.  Not so much how, but why.

On the front burner, however, I’m in the process of working through the new Auto Deploy feature of vSphere 5, specifically the integration of Auto Deploy and its related components into the vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA).  Everything’s baked in, so I’m doing a “what to edit and how to make it work” post.  I’m having just a touch of difficulty I think due to the wacky nature of my lab (should be taken care of soon enough, I hope), but the framework is there.

Oh, and add to that my DSL modem gave up the ghost.  I’d say it let out all its magic smoke (you know, the magic smoke that all electronics run on – when the smoke escapes, the electronics don’t work anymore!), but there was no puff of smoke.  It just stopped.  I looked up and there were no lights.  No biggie, I’ve got a U-Verse installation scheduled already to replace the DSL with a fatter pipe, and my cable modem is still the primary pipe.  It just means that my next class won’t have any network redundancy if something goes wrong.

So that’s what’s going on.  Blog breaking, DSL dying, vCSA tinkering fun.  Stay tuned for more goodness!

 

More Lion Fun: TotalTerminal

So, a while ago I talked up a SIMBL plugin for Terminal.app called Visor.  I don’t use Visor any longer, as it’s been renamed and updated to a new app, TotalTerminal.  It’s still written and maintained by BinaryAge, and still works the same.   But they’ve dropped the SIMBL requirement and now ships with an installer (and auto-updating, as well!).

It’s still customizable, and works wonderfully.  Go check it out (and upgrade if you’re still using Visor!)

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Well, not, really, but I couldn’t resist with the title.  I’m experiencing new things with Mac OS X Lion this weekend.  So here’s what’s going on.

I just bought a new iMac.  Sandy Bridge i7, 3.4GHz, loaded up with 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.  Oh, and I have a 1TB spindle installed as well.  27 diagonal inches of beautiful Apple display all built in as well.

I bought this machine for two reasons.  First, so I could clear off any personal stuff from my work-issued MacBook Pro.  Second, this thing has enough horsepower to run a sizable chunk of my home lab, along side my old, unsupported loaded-as-i-can-make-it Dell Precision 390.  So some of my infrastructure is running on an ESXi host, and some in Fusion VMs.  I’m still working out the final details.  And I’m actually contemplating buying a new Thunderbolt Cinema display so I can have a 2nd GigE interface on the iMac.  May just be a pipe dream, but the thought is there.

This configuration will suffice until next year (probably closer to 9 months, if I have my way) when I can pick up and populate a couple of ASUS barebones 1U boxes (assuming, of course, that they or their equivalents are still available).  I’ve got them all picked out now, and assuming everything works out, I’ll have 32 AMD cores and 128GB of RAM to work with.  That should keep me happy for a few years from a compute perspective.  I can only complain about my lab for so long before I put the wheels in motion to make it happen.  I’m still trying to figure out what i want to do for the storage, though.  I’m thinking a stack of ~100GB SSDs, since they’re relatively cheap and will do me well for running VMs without worrying about tons of contention.  I don’t need much for a lab, 200 or 300GB will actually probably be ok, especially with vSphere Thin Provisioning.  I’m sure I’ll keep some spindles around for overflow, since they’re real cheap.  But anyway, I digress from the point here (not that I’ve ever been known to do that)

What I really came to talk about was Lion’s new Recovery Partition and doing a fresh Lion install on a Mac.  I’m wiping the MacBook Pro clean, as I had (just earlier this morning) a Mercury Pro SSD from Other World Computing  (for the OS and VMs) and a 750GB Scorpio Black from WD installed for my Dropbox folder, and media.  About 30 minutes ago, I ripped out the spindle, so now the laptop simply has the SSD, and the optical drive has been reinstalled.

So, hardware work out of the way, I booted into Lion’s Recovery HD (hold the “option” key while you reboot, just in case you didn’t know how to get there), and there it was – what looked like, well, like an OS X installer.  I went ahead and erased the SSD partition, and then told the installer I wanted a fresh install of OS X.  After confirming my eligibility, confirming the disk to which I wanted to install, and requesting my Mac App Store credentials, it’s now “Downloading additional components.”  I have an hour and a half to go, the installer has been doing this for ~15-20 minutes as it stands.  It appears that it really _is_ downloading Lion from Apple’s servers somewhere.  I’m connected to a relatively fat pipe, and it’s still looking like 1.5 hours.  I’m glad I connected to the Time Capsule connected to the cable modem, rather than the DSL.  yikes!

So over the course of the weekend, I’ll be resetting things on the MacBook Pro, but it’ll be nice, as I’ll be able to keep work and play (mostly) separate now, between the iMac, iPad, and new Lion install on the MacBook Pro.  I’m a happy camper.  Oh, and while I’m waiting, I get to put up more drywall in the basement office.  Things are coming together!