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Create free vApps, no clutter left behind

22 Apr

I recently read about Cameyo, a free application that allows you to install other applications and have them packaged as a single, portable executable. This is awesome for IT folks, developers, etc. Unfortunately the program can’t already be installed on your system. Below I will detail the steps to setup a virtual machine to use as your environment for creating portable executables. We’ll go one step further to setup an undo disk that will allow you to have a fresh virtual machine every time you go to create a new vApp.

If you are running Windows 7 Professional and up you have the ability to setup an XP Mode virtual machine through Virtual PC at no additional charge!

Download Cameyo

1. Setup XP Mode and Virtual PC.

a. Using IE browse to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx
b. Select your Windows version and preferred language.
c. Download Virtual PC from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx
d. Download XP Mode VM from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

2. Configure your XP Mode for your “golden image”.

a. Apply updates.
b. Install antivirus and antispyware software of choice.
c. Install any additional software (that you don’t wish to make portable in the future).
d. Perform any additional tweaking.
e. Shutdown the XP Mode VM.
f. Open your virtual machine directory (Start > search > type: virtual pc).
g. Select the XP Mode VM and right click and choose settings.
h. Here you can select the Undo Disk and choose enable. You’ll want to apply any changes you made when creating your golden image.

*Note: In the future after you mess up your XP Mode VM you can power it down, come back to this settings screen and choose “Discard changes”. Likewise, you can apply updates to Windows and antivirus definitions and come back to this screen and choose “Apply changes”

3. Create your portable application.

a. Using shared drives transfer the cameyo executable and the installer for the application you wish to make portable to the desktop of the XP Mode VM.
b. Run the cameyo executable and choose “Capture installation”.
c. Run the installer for the application.
d. When selecting installation option on during the install make sure to choose put a shortcut on the desktop so cameyo can use that.
e. When the install is finished click “Installation finished”

4. Clean your tracks

a. Copy the portable application back to your host via the shared drive
b. Shutdown the XP Mode VM (Start > run: shutdown -s -t 0)
c. Go to you virtual machine directory and back to settings for the XP Mode VM and select the undo disk. Now select “Discard changes”

Now your in vApp business!

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Binding hardware iSCSI initiators in VMWare

11 Apr

When configuring iSCSI datastores you will have the option to use hardware or software iSCSI initiators.

The software iSCSI initiator will work but you will not have dedicated NICs for this traffic and may feel a performance hit on the Host that has to do the task of issuing the iSCSI commands.

When attempting to setup dynamic or static discovery in the iSCSI property of the adapter you receive the message:
“The host bus adapter is not associated with a vmknic. To configure targets the adapter should be associated with a vmknic. Refer to the VMware documentation to associate the adapter with a vmknic.”

In this example we will bind two broadcom NICs to two vmknics. There has to be a 1 to 1 relationship, so if you are using four broadcom NICs you will need to bind them to four vmknics.

First the general steps:
1) Create vmkernel port groups and assign each one to a single Broadcom vmnic
2) Determine which vmnic belongs to which Broadcom HBA
3) Bind the vmkernel port group to the associated Broadcom HBA
4) Configure the HBA to communicate with the iSCSI target.

From VMware KB
Add the Physical Network Interface as a binding to the Software iSCSI HBA Device by running the following commands. In this example, we are referencing the Software iSCSI HBA as vmhba32:

List the currently-bound Network Interfaces to the Software iSCSI HBA by running the following command:

# esxcli swiscsi vmnic list -d vmhba32

List the current available network interfaces available on the ESX Host and identify the interface(s) you wish to bind:

# esxcfg-vmknic -l

Bind the network interface(s) identified in the previous step to the Software iSCSI HBA Device:

# esxcli swiscsi nic add -n vmk0 -d vmhba32

Verify the network interface(s) were successfully bound to the HBA:

# esxcli swiscsi vmnic list -d vmhba32

Enable the Software iSCSI Adapter in the Storage Adapters section of the Configuration tab.
Enter the dynamic discovery addresses of the storage array.
At the top-right, perform a Rescan of the Software iSCSI HBA.

Note: You may repeat this process and create additional bindings

For detailed information regarding the configuration of the networking within ESX read pages 36-40 of the iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide.

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HP Proliant Memory Configuration

25 Mar

When adding additional memory to an HP Proliant server or building up a new one memory type and location is important to consider.

A great tool for new builds is the DDR3 Memory Configuration Tool from HP: http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/options/tool/hp_memtool.html

If you already have memory installed and have already purchased or planned on the amount of additional memory you can follow a basic guideline to optimize your memory configuration for performance.

Depending on how many processors you have you will use one or both memory banks. In this example below we have two processor and have balanced the memory across both banks and 3 channels.

The path to follow is start with A and put your smallest memory in that slot. In this case 3A on both sides gets 2GB. Then go to B, C, D and so on. In this case 8GB in both 6B and 9C.

HP Proliant Support can offer additional advise depending on your goals, performance, power saving, etc. US: 800-334-5144

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MS DPM 2010 Client install ports

31 Jan

After installing the DPM server you need to add clients to protect. You will need to install the client on the computer you want to protect. You can do this from the DPM server but it requires that you add the following incoming firewall rules.

Protocol	Port	Details
DCOM	135/TCP Dynamic	The DPM control protocol uses DCOM. DPM issues commands to the protection agent by invoking DCOM calls on the agent. The protection agent responds by invoking DCOM calls on the DPM server. TCP port 135 is the DCE endpoint resolution point used by DCOM. By default, DCOM assigns ports dynamically from the TCP port range of 1024 through 65535. However, you can configure this range by using Component Services. For more information, see Using Distributed COM with Firewalls(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=46088).
TCP	5718/TCP 5719/TCP	The DPM data channel is based on TCP. Both DPM and the protected computer initiate connections to enable DPM operations such as synchronization and recovery. DPM communicates with the agent coordinator on port 5718 and with the protection agent on port 5719.
DNS	53/UDP	Used between DPM and the domain controller, and between the protected computer and the domain controller, for host name resolution.
Kerberos	88/UDP 88/TCP	Used between DPM and the domain controller, and between the protected computer and the domain controller, for authentication of the connection endpoint.
LDAP	389/TCP 389/UDP	Used between DPM and the domain controller for queries.
NetBIOS	137/UDP 138/UDP 139/TCP 445/TCP	Used between DPM and the protected computer, between DPM and the domain controller, and between the protected computer and the domain controller, for miscellaneous operations. Used for SMB directly hosted on TCP/IP for DPM functions.

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MS DPM 2010 Evalution

31 Jan

In the past I have used Retrospect (now owned by Roxio) as a backup for servers and workstations. It’s OK. It does backup the data and I have successfully restored data with it. But the interfaces is poor. As of 01/2011 Retrospect does not support Exchange 2010 database backups.

A good looking alternative is Microsoft’s Data Protection Manager, DPM 2010. You must set up an additional server to run DPM. Then download and install the 180-day trial here.

DPM offers volume and system state backups as well as bare metal restore. It’s also application aware, Exchange, MS SQL, SAP, Sharepoint.

It sounds great and from my experience so far it is very easy to use. Cost is much lower than some other 3rd party utilities with similar features.

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Posted in IT