Category: Computers & Technology

More FUD – MSFT vs. VMware

http://www.forbes.com/2007/12/13/micros … artner=msn

I can’t believe people are writing stuff like this. VMware has a product that’s better in VMware Server and it’s free too!

Read this http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/12/ … iew_1.html and see that you should really be using VMware server which is free and better than HyperV!

How to manually build an initrd for ESX 3.5

notes came from here:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/116768

Hi,

i managed to get my ESX3.5 to boot and run on a HP ML 115.

onboard raid: yes, this “raid” really sucks, because my rescue cd found 2 controllers/disks -> NO RAID

TODO-List to get ESX-3.5 up and running.

1.) install it from the cd (of course)

2.) reboot with a linux live cd of your choice.

and now i hope that there are no typos…because i created this “script” on my laptop during i tried and tested it on my ESX box!

mkdir /mnt/eboot
mkdir /mnt/eroot

1. /boot of ESX box

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/eboot

1. /root of ESX box

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/eroot

mkdir /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd
mkdir /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/extracted
mkdir /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/extractednew

cp /mnt/eboot/boot/initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd

cd /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd
mv initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img.gz
gunzip initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img.gz
mount initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img extracted -o loop

cd extracted
cd etc/vmware
cp simple.map simple.map.org

vi simple.map
2nd go for SED!

search for 037e
double this line
change one 037e to 037f
save

cd ..
cd ..

dd if=dev/zero of=initrd.img bs=1k count=97000
mke2fs -i 1024 -b 1024 -m 5 -F -v initrd.img

mount initrd.img extractednew -t ext2 -o loop

tar -C extracted/ -cmf – . | tar -C extractednew/ -xmf – .

1. umount initrd.img

umount extracted
umount extractednew

gzip -best initrd.img
ls -alh
mv initrd.img.gz initrd.img

cd /mnt/eboot
mv initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img.org
cp /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/initrd.img initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img

cd /mnt/eroot
cd etc
cd vmware

cp pci.ids pci.ids.org
vi pci.ids
2nd go for SED!

search for 037e
double this line
change one 037e to 037f
save

cp pci.xml.merged pci.xml.merged.org
vi pci.xml.merged
2nd go for SED!

search for 037e
double this SECTION
change one 037e to 037f
save

cd pciid
cp sata_nv.xml sata_nv.xml.org
vi sata_nv.xml
2nd go for SED!

search for 037e
double this SECTION
change one 037e to 037f
save

reboot from your resuce system into ESX and JUCHEEEEE….

kind regards,

Reinhard

________________________________________________________________________________________

#!/bin/bash

vmware esx initrd changer
#/bin/bash
Reinhard Partmann
date created: 2007-12-17
date modified: 2007-12-17
version: 0.2
echo “creating directories…”
mkdir -p /mnt/eboot
mkdir -p /mnt/eroot

echo “mounting..”
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/eboot
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/eroot
mount | grep sda

echo “copying original initrd file…”
mkdir -p /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/extracted
cp /mnt/eboot/initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img.gz
cd /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd

echo “unpacking & mounting original initrd file…”
gunzip -f initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img.gz
mount initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img extracted -t ext2 -o loop
cd extracted
cd etc
cd vmware

echo “changing simple.map…”
echo “10de:037f 0000:0000 sata_nv.o” >> simple.map

cd ..
cd ..
cd ..

umount extracted
echo “replacing original initrd file…”
gzip –best initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img
mv /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img.gz /mnt/eboot/
cp /mnt/eboot/initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img.gz /mnt/eboot/initrd-2.4.21-47.0.1.ELvmnix.img

echo “patching xml files”

cd /mnt/eroot/etc/vmware/pciid
lines=`wc -l sata_nv.xml | awk ‘ { print $1 } ‘`
echo “lines: $lines”
(( lines -= 2))
echo “subtr lines: $lines”
mv sata_nv.xml sata_nv.xml.org
head -$lines sata_nv.xml.org > sata_nv.xml

echo ” ” >> sata_nv.xml
echo ” ” >> sata_nv.xml
echo ” sata_nv” >> sata_nv.xml
echo ” ” >> sata_nv.xml
echo ” MCP55 SATA Controller” >> sata_nv.xml
echo ” ” >> sata_nv.xml
echo ” ” >> sata_nv.xml
echo “” >> sata_nv.xml

touch /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot
echo “#!/bin/bash” >> /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot
echo “esxcfg-pciid” >> /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot
echo “sleep 5” >> /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot
echo “rm /etc/rc3.d/S99rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot” >> /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot
chmod a+x /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot
cd /mnt/eroot/etc/rc3.d/
ln -s ../init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot S99rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot

echo “cleanup…”
cd /
rm -f -r /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd
umount /mnt/eboot
umount /mnt/eroot
rm -f -r /mnt/eboot
rm -f -r /mnt/eroot]]>

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Microsoft FUD that idiot’s writing a story about …

This is a total load of FUD. Like most of the comments here, I must agree. Even WHEN this so-called HyperV does come out, it still will lack the features that VMware currently HAS! If you’re already running VMware, why would you DOWNGRADE!? If you’re not, why would you adopt an UNPROVEN LOSER 1.0 release!? Just like a lot of people are upgrading from Vista to XP, people will be upgrading from HyperV to VI3, which will be 2 years OLD by the time HyperV comes out. VMware stays atop for at least 5 years as nobody comes close just yet.

Here’s the story:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/m … teid=yhoof

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VLC media player is way better than Windows Media Player!

If anyone didn’t know, you should know now. I used to just think like … if it worked, why change. Well, there were a lot of videos that I couldn’t watch before and with VLC player, I could! It must be certain bits that are missing or something from the files Windows Media Player wouldn’t play it. VLC will!

You can get VLC Media Player for free here:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

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Analyst Mumbo Jumbo about Red Hat

Quote:
Ahead of the Bell: Red Hat
Monday December 10, 8:08 am ET
Jefferies & Co. Analyst Downgrades Red Hat on Challenges From Competing Technology

NEW YORK (AP) — A Jefferies & Co. analyst downgraded Red Hat Inc., saying competing technologies are nabbing market share and could hurt profit growth, as the software maker deals with rivalry by making acquisitions.

Katherine Egbert in a client note cut her rating on Red Hat to “Hold” from “Buy” and reduced her target price to $19 from $23.

Red Hat will have to work to diversify its business away from its Red Hat Enterprise Linux products, which are based on open-source software, Egbert said. That’s because newer virtualization technologies, which allow businesses to use different computer operating systems on a single server, are replacing Linux servers as companies work to cut costs, Egbert wrote.

Often new servers are shipped with a key competing product from VMware Inc., which is cutting into Linux market share, she added.

But Red Hat is diversifying through acquisitions and could step up this process, Egbert said, which could eat into earnings potential.

This is total bullshit for lack of a better term. What in the hell does VMware have to do with Red Hat? They are new and coming into the Virtualization space! VMware actually allows OS vendors to sell more licenses!

Let’s see here “virtualization technologies, which allow businesses to use different computer operating systems on a single server, are replacing Linux servers as companies work to cut costs” … what the fuck!? So you’re running different operating systems … what operating systems might they be? Windows (costs money), more Linux? Probably! They’ll be running other operating systems … just less computers!

Anyone else with any input on this?[ad#ad-1]

WinXP doesn’t hibernate if RAM is ~2gb or more.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000555.html

Here’s the hotfix: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=909095
http://www.u-g-h.com/InsufficientSystem … LIVED.aspx

To prepare the computer to hibernate, the Windows kernel power manager requires a block of contiguous memory. The size of this contiguous memory is proportional to the number of physical memory regions that the computer is using. A computer that uses lots of RAM is likely to use more physical memory regions when the computer prepares to hibernate. Therefore, a larger amount of contiguous memory is required to prepare the computer to hibernate.

Additionally, the number of physical memory regions varies according to the programs, services, and device drivers that the computer uses. Therefore, the hibernate feature occasionally fails.

When the Windows kernel power manager detects that the hibernate feature has failed, the hibernate feature remains disabled until you restart the computer.[ad#ad-1]

quick deploy of VMs from – linked clones from 1 base disk

test_list.txt needs the names.

for i in `cat /tmp/test_list.txt`

do mkdir /vmfs/volumes/46a50aa4-65c3bb7e-d6d2-0014221878f9/$i; cp /tmp/sample.vmx $i/$i.vmx

echo “displayName = $i”>> /vmfs/volumes/46a50aa4-65c3bb7e-d6d2-0014221878f9/$i/$i.vmx

vmware-cmd -s register /vmfs/volumes/46a50aa4-65c3bb7e-d6d2-0014221878f9/$i/$i.vmx

vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/46a50aa4-65c3bb7e-d6d2-0014221878f9/$i/$i.vmx createsnapshot $i “linked clone to gold disk- DO NOT DELETE VM\!”;done

So in this case here, I have all of the names of the VMs I wanted in test_list.txt. I have a copy of /tmp/sample.vmx – it’s just a basic vmx file with the UUIDs, etc removed, so it would generate a new one. I then give the name of the vmx, the display name, register the VM, and create a snapshot, so that powering up and using the VM won’t mess up all of my other VMs that use the same underlying vmdk.

quick way of setting up NTP on your ESX host.

You can just copy/paste the following lines:

esxcfg-firewall -e ntpClient

echo “server clock.redhat.com” >> /etc/ntp.conf

echo “clock.redhat.com” > /etc/ntp/step-tickers

/etc/init.d/ntpd restart

chkconfig ntpd on

Just replace clock.redhat.com with your NTP server. If you want more than one time server, just echo the lines more. Use >> for the step-tickers line to append rather than overwrite.

reset root password in mysql

DBS” wrote:

> I have a problem, It’s been months since I used MySQL and (I believe) I had

> set it up with a root password. Now I can’t log on to MySQL as root MySQL

> user and create a new user or manage an existing user (I can log onto server

Familiar situation. :)

Do so:

service mysql stop

wait until MySQL shuts down. Then run

mysqld_safe –skip-grant-tables &

then you will be able to login as root with no password.

mysql -uroot mysql

In MySQL command line prompt issue the following command:

UPDATE user SET password=PASSWORD(“abcd”) WHERE user=”root”;

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

At this time your root password is reset to “abcd” and MySQL will now

know the privileges and you’ll be able to login with your new password:

mysql -uroot -pabcd mysql