How to fix if you are unable to upgrade existing VMware Tools in a Windows 2003 virtual machine

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As per VMware, the cause of this issue is currently unknown and is under investigation.  In order to help identify the cause, report this issue to VMware Support and provide answers to the following questions:

  • What version of the tools are you upgrading from?
  • What version of the tools are you upgrading to?
  • What method is being used to upgrade the tools?

In order to determine the previous versions of the VMware Tools that were installed on your system, open the Microsoft Windows event viewer and search for Event Source of MsiInstaller and Event ID of 1034 for more information on viewing events, see the Filter Displayed Events Tech Net article from Microsoft.

Now, to fix this issue involves modifies the Windows registry. Before making any registry modifications, ensure that you have a current and valid backup of the registry and the virtual machine.

  1. Start the virtual machine and log on as the Administrator.
  2. Take a full backup of the registry prior to editing it. Do not skip this step.
  3. Open the Windows Registry editor. Click Start > Run, type regedit, and press Enter.
  4. Delete these registry keys if they exist:
    • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Features05014B32081E884E91FB41199E24004
    • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products05014B32081E884E91FB41199E24004
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Features05014B32081E884E91FB41199E24004
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products05014B32081E884E91FB41199E24004
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\ComponentsB150AC107B12D11A9DD0006794C4E25
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{3B410500-1802-488E-9EF1-4B11992E0440}
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.
  5. Some services might need to be removed manually from the registry. Delete these as well if they exist:
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VMTools
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VMUpgradeHelper
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VMware Physical Disk Helper Service
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vmvss
  6. Search the registry for vmware and delete all associated entries.Note: On virtual machines with any other VMware products installed (for example, vCenter Server), you might not want to delete all entries. If you do have another VMware product installed, then you can skip this step if you have already removed the entries in the previous procedures.
  7. Close the registry editor.
  8. Open Windows Explorer.
  9. Delete the %ProgramFiles%\VMware\VMware Tools folder.
  10. Restart the virtual machine.
  11. Install the new version of VMware Tools.

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The request failed because the remote server took too long to respond. (The command has timed out as the remote server is taking too long to respond)

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You will notice this error  “The request failed because the remote server “Vcenter name / ip” took too long to respond. (The command has timed out as the remote server is taking too long to respond), ” while checking the storage view of a VM or DataCenter.

To solve this, Just type your credentials manually in the vsphere client and login as the “Use Windows Session Credentials” doesn’t work always with SSO.

Thereby be sure to follow http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2035510 when adding external domains. After that, add the trusted domains to the default domains and reorder the domains to suit your needs and save it.

 

 

 

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What is Cloud Computing?

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“Cloud Computing”, by definition, refers to the on-demand delivery of IT resources and applications via the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing.

The Basics

Whether you are running applications that share photos to millions of mobile users or you’re supporting the critical operations of your business, the “cloud” provides rapid access to flexible and low cost IT resources. With cloud computing, you don’t need to make large upfront investments in hardware and spend a lot of time on the heavy lifting of managing that hardware. Instead, you can provision exactly the right type and size of computing resources you need to power your newest bright idea or operate your IT department. You can access as many resources as you need, almost instantly, and only pay for what you use.

How Does it Work?

Cloud Computing provides a simple way to access servers, storage, databases and a broad set of application services over the Internet. Cloud Computing providers such as Amazon Web Services own and maintain the network-connected hardware required for these application services, while you provision and use what you need via a web application.

Create an AWS account
Launch a Virtual Machine
Store Media and Files
Six Advantages and Benefits of Cloud Computing:

Trade capital expense for variable expense

Instead of having to invest heavily in data centers and servers before you know how you’re going to use them, you can only pay when you consume computing resources, and only pay for how much you consume.

Benefit from massive economies of scale

By using cloud computing, you can achieve a lower variable cost than you can get on your own. Because usage from hundreds of thousands of customers are aggregated in the cloud, providers such as Amazon Web Services can achieve higher economies of scale which translates into lower pay as you go prices.

Stop guessing capacity

Eliminate guessing on your infrastructure capacity needs. When you make a capacity decision prior to deploying an application, you often either end up sitting on expensive idle resources or dealing with limited capacity. With Cloud Computing, these problems go away. You can access as much or as little as you need, and scale up and down as required with only a few minutes notice.

Increase speed and agility

In a cloud computing environment, new IT resources are only ever a click away, which means you reduce the time it takes to make those resources available to your developers from weeks to just minutes. This results in a dramatic increase in agility for the organization, since the cost and time it takes to experiment and develop is significantly lower.

Stop spending money on running and maintaining data centers

Focus on projects that differentiate your business, not the infrastructure. Cloud computing lets you focus on your own customers, rather than on the heavy lifting of racking, stacking and powering servers.

Go global in minutes

Easily deploy your application in multiple regions around the world with just a few clicks. This means you can provide a lower latency and better experience for your customers simply and at minimal cost.

Types of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has three main types that are commonly referred to as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Selecting the right type of cloud computing for your needs can help you strike the right balance of control and the avoidance of undifferentiated heavy lifting. Learn more about the different types of cloud computing.

Courtesy: Amazon Web Services

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What is PureFlex?

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IBM PureFlex System is a complete, flexible cloud infrastructure system with integrated expertise. The system integrates and optimises all compute, storage and networking resources to deliver infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) out of the box.

  • Integration by design: deeply integrated compute, storage, and networking resources so you can deploy in hours instead of days
  • Built-in expertise: automated management and deployment expertise for physical and virtual resources so your experts can focus on innovation
  • Simplified experience: optimised flexible configurations to accelerate purchase, deployment and time to value for your solution

The IBM PureFlex System combines advanced IBM hardware and systems management software, integrating them into an optimised configuration that is simple to acquire and deploy so you get fast time-to-value for your solution.

Courtesy: http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/in/pureflex/pureflex_overview.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHlHsO4dW2A

 

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What is FlexPod?

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FlexPod is a integrated computing, networking, and storage solution developed by Cisco and NetApp. Its configurations and workloads are published as Cisco Validated Designs. FlexPod is categorized by established and emerging client needs:

  • FlexPod Data Center was developed for large enterprises.
  • FlexPod Express serves small and medium-sized enterprises.
  • FlexPod Select focuses on high capacity and performance for specialized workloads.

Cisco and NetApp support FlexPod deployments through the Cooperative Support Model.

FlexPod components include Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS)servers, Cisco Nexus switches, and NetApp unified storage systems.

The FlexPod architecture can scale up or out. And it can be optimized for a variety of mixed workloads in both virtualized and nonvirtualized environments.

Large enterprise data centers need agile platforms with high availability and scalable storage. Along with reducing operating costs, chief information officers want to use a converged infrastructure to support hybrid cloud computing.

Small and medium-sized enterprises need a simplified setup and easy use, access to public cloud services, and greater value for their data center budgets.

Many enterprises also need purpose-built, high-capacity platforms for specialized workloads. Large-scale, real-time data analytics place unique demands on computing stacks. Video surveillance, in-memory databases, and public cloud infrastructures have similar capacity needs.

FlexPod’s architecture can be configured for the growing needs of all these clients. FlexPod is deployed with more than 4100 customers and available in more than 100 countries. For the future, FlexPod customers and partners want configuration guidance, easy ordering, and validation for the configuration that is most aligned with their needs.

To meet these emerging trends, FlexPod delivers three named configurations:

  • FlexPod Data Center
  • FlexPod Express
  • FlexPod Select

Cisco and NetApp support FlexPod through a Cooperative Support Model, receive best in class experience from NetApp, Cisco and our ecosystem partners delivered through collaborative and coordinated support services for your FlexPod integrated infrastructure.

FlexPod benefits from integrated management in the form of Cisco UCS Director.UCS Director supports cohesive, flexible data centers, built on FlexPod, that increase IT and business agility, while reducing operational processes and expenses.

An overview of the FlexPod solution is available through an iPad app.

FlexPod’s architectural flexibility is underpinned by a series of Cisco Validated Designs. These guides cover the important areas of the FlexPod infrastructure, applications on FlexPod, and security.

Featured Validated Designs

Videos

Solution Briefs

Featured Case Studies

A more complete listing is available on the Data Center Case Studies.

Courtesy: Cisco

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Storage Interview Questions

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What is LUN masking?

LUN (Logical Unit Number) Masking is an authorization process that makes a LUN available to some hosts and unavailable to other hosts.

LUN Masking is implemented primarily at the HBA (Host Bus Adapater) level. LUN Masking implemented at this level is vulnerable to any attack that compromises the HBA.

Some storage controllers also support LUN Masking.

LUN Masking is important because Windows based servers attempt to write volume labels to all available LUN’s. This can render the LUN’s unusable by other operating systems and can result in data loss.

 

What is SAN zoning?

SAN zoning is a method of arranging Fibre Channel devices into logical groups over the physical configuration of the fabric.

SAN zoning may be utilized to implement compartmentalization of data for security purposes.

Each device in a SAN may be placed into multiple zones.

 

What are hard and soft zoning?

Hard zoning is zoning which is implemented in hardware. Soft zoning is zoning which is implemented in software.

Hard zoning physically blocks access to a zone from any device outside of the zone.

Soft zoning uses filtering implemented in fibre channel switches to prevent ports from being seen from outside of their assigned zones. The security vulnerability in soft zoning is that the ports are still accessible if the user in another zone correctly guesses the fibre channel address.

 

What is port zoning?

Port zoning utilizes physical ports to define security zones. A users access to data is determined by what physical port he or she is connected to.

With port zoning, zone information must be updated every time a user changes switch ports. In addition, port zoning does not allow zones to overlap.

Port zoning is normally implemented using hard zoning, but could also be implemented using soft zoning.

 

What is WWN zoning?

WWN zoning uses name servers in the switches to either allow or block access to particular World Wide Names (WWNs) in the fabric.

A major advantage of WWN zoning is the ability to recable the fabric without having to redo the zone information.

WWN zoning is susceptible to unauthorized access, as the zone can be bypassed if an attacker is able to spoof the World Wide Name of an authorized HBA.

 

What is a World Wide Name (WWN)?

A World Wide Name, or WWN, is a 64-bit address used in fibre channel networks to uniquely identify each element in a Fibre Channel network.

Soft Zoning utilizes World Wide Names to assign security permissions.

The use of World Wide Names for security purposes is inherently insecure, because the World Wide Name of a device is a user-configurable parameter.

For example, to change the World Wide Name (WWN) of an Emulex HBA, the users simply needs to run the `elxcfg` command.

 

What are the classes of attacks against SANs?

  • Snooping: Mallory reads data Alice sent to Bob in private
    Allows access to data
  • Spoofing: Mallory fools Alice into thinking that he is Bob
    Allows access to or destruction of data
  • Denial of Service: Mallory crashes or floods Bob or Alice
    Reduces availability

 

What are some attacks against FCP?

  • Node Name / Port Name spoofing at Port Login time
  • Source Port ID spoofing on dataless FCP commands
  • Snooping and spoofing on FC-AL
  • Snooping and Spoofing after Fabric reconfiguration
  • Denial of Service attacks can be made in User mode

 

What is FCAP (Fibre Channel Authentication Protocol)?

FCAP is an optional authentication mechanism employed between any two devices or entities on a Fibre Channel network using certificates or optional keys.

 

What is FCPAP (Fibre Channel Password Authentication Protocol)?

FCPAP (Fibre Channel Password Authentication Protocol) is an optional password based authentication and key exchange protocol which is utilized in Fibre Channel networks.

FCPAP is used to mutually authenticate Fibre Channel ports to each other. This includes E_Port’s, N_Port’s, and Domain Controllers.

 

What is SLAP (Switch Link Authentication Protocol)?

SLAP is an authentication method for Fibre Channel switches which utilizes digital certificates to authenticate switch ports.

SLAP was designed to prevent the unauthorized addition of switches into a Fibre Channel network.

 

What is FC-SP (Fibre Channel – Security Protocol)?

Fibre Channel – Security Protocol (FC-SP) is a security protocol for Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) and fiber connectivity (Ficon).

FC-SP is a project of Technical Committee T11 of the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS).

FC-SP is a security framework which includes protocols to enhance Fibre Channel security in several areas, including authentication of Fibre Channel devices, cryptographically secure key exchange, and cryptographically secure communication between Fibre Channel devices.

FC-SP is focused on protecting data in transit throughout the Fibre Channel network. FC-SP does not address the security of data which is stored on the Fibre Channel network.

 

What is ESP over Fibre Channel?

ESP (Encapsulating Security Payload) is an Internet standard for the authentication and encryption of IP packets.

ESP is defined in RFC 2406: IP Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP).

ESP is widely deployed in IP networks and has been adapted for use in Fibre Channel networks. The IETF iSCSI proposal specifies ESP link authentication and optional encryption.

ESP over Fibre Channel is focused on protecting data in transit throughout the Fibre Channel network. ESP over Fibre Channel does not address the security of data which is stored on the Fibre Channel network.

 

What is DH-CHAP?

DH-CHAP (Diffie Hellman – Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol) is a forthcoming Internet Standard for the authentication of devices connecting to a Fibre Channel switch.

DH-CHAP is a secure key-exchange authentication protocol that supports both switch-to-switch and host-to-switch authentication.

DH-CHAP supports MD-5 and SHA-1 algorithm-based authentication.

 

How are iSCSI, iFCP and FCIP secured over IP networks?

The IETF IP Storage (ips) Working Group is responsible for the definition of standards for the encapsulation and transport of Fibre Channel and SCSI protocols over IP networks.

The IPS Working Group’s charter includes responsibility for data security:

Security including authentication, keyed cryptographic data integrity and confidentiality, sufficient to defend against threats up to and including those that can be expected on a public network. Implementation of basic security functionality will be required, although usage may be optional.

The IPS Working Group has created RFC 3723: Securing Block Storage Protocols over IP.

RFC 3723 defines the use of the existing IPsec and IKE (Internet Key Exchange) protocols to secure block storage protocols over IP.

 

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How to monitor the Disk Command Aborts on an ESXi host

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When storage is severely overloaded, commands are aborted because the storage subsystem is taking too long to respond to the commands. The storage subsystem has not responded within an acceptable amount of time, as defined by the guest operating system. Aborted commands are a sign that the storage hardware is overloaded and unable to handle the requests in line with the host’s expectations.

The number of aborted commands can be monitored by using either vsphere client or esxtop.

  1.  from vsphere client, monitor disk commands aborts

this one can be generated from host and clusters->Performance-> Advanced -> Switch to disk -> chart options-> commands aborted-> ok.

  1. from esxtop, monitor ABRTS/s

Open putty, login to the ESXi host, run esxtop, for the disk type u, type f to change the settings and type L to select Error stats. Press W to save it.

Once this is we can see the ABRTS/s field there which tracks the SCSI aborts, Aborts generally occur because the array takes long time to respond to commands.

Now if you are planning to deploy a monitoring tool to monitor this parameter, the threshold for ABRTS/s should be 1. This signifies number of SCSI commands aborted during the collection interval i.e. in 1 second.

DISK       ABRTS/s               1              Aborts issued by guest(VM) because storage is not responding. For Windows VMs this happens after 60 seconds by default. Can be caused for instance when paths failed or array is not accepting any IO for whatever reason.

However having said that the in ideal case the output of ABRTS/s should be 0, which may sometime not been observer during peak hours i.e. Backup may be running on the servers hosted on the ESXi host resulting in disk intensive workouts. This ABRTS/s will fluctuate 0 to 0.xx in real case scenario as the storage is always overloaded during these peak hours.

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How to install NIC Teaming Driver and configure NIC Teaming in a Cisco UCS B200-M3

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The Cisco NIC Teaming Driver is contained in the UCS-related Windows Utilities ISO. You can download it from http://www.cisco.com. Depending on your platform, choose either Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Server Software or Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount UCS-Managed Server Software. Once you have installed Windows on the blade you can proceed to install the teaming software.

First let us see how to install the NIC teaming driver on the server.

Step 1 In Windows, open a command prompt with administrator privileges.
Step 2 At the command prompt, enter enictool -p “drivers_directory”The Cisco NIC Teaming Driver is installed using the .inf files located in the specified directory.Example:This example installs the teaming driver using the .inf files located in the temp directory:

C:\> enictool -p "c:\temp"

Once the driver is installed, you need to configure the teaming on the desired NICs.

Step 1 In Windows, open a command prompt with administrator privileges.
Step 2 To create a team, enter enictool -c “list of connections” -m modeThe mode options are as follows:

  • 1—Active Backup
  • 2—Active Backup with failback to active mode
  • 3—Active Active (transmit load balancing)
  • 4—802.3ad LACP

Example:This example creates a team of two NICs in Active Backup mode:

C:\> enictool -c "Local Area Connection" "Local Area Connection 2" -m 1
Step 3 To delete a team, enter enictool -d “list of connections” Example:This example deletes a team of two NICs:

C:\> enictool -d "Local Area Connection" "Local Area Connection 2"
Step 4 To view additional options and usage information, enter enictool /?Use the displayed command option information to configure load balancing method, load balancing hash method, and other options.

This entry was posted in Cisco UCS, Windows and tagged .

How to install and configure Multipathing I/O on a computer running Windows Server 2008

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To install Multipath I/O

  1. Open Server Manager.To open Server Manager, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager.
  2. In the Features area, click Add Features.
  3. On the Select Features page of the Add Features Wizard, select Multipath I/O, and then click Next.
  4. On the Confirm Installation Selections page, click Install.
  5. When installation has completed, click Close.

To install Multipath I/O on a computer by using the Server Manager command line, complete the following steps.

To install Multipath I/O by using a command line

  1. Open a Command Prompt window with elevated privileges.Right-click the Command Prompt object on the Start menu, and then click Run as administrator.
  2. Type the following, and press ENTER. ServerManagerCmd.exe -install Multipath-IO
  3. When installation has completed, you can verify that Multipath I/O has installed by entering the following command and reviewing the query results in the command window. Multipath I/O should show in the list of installed packages. ServerManagerCmd.exe -query

IC347745[1]

Removing Multipath I/O

To remove Multipath I/O, complete the following steps.

To remove Multipath I/O

  1. Open Server Manager.To open Server Manager, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager.
  2. In the Features area, click Remove Features.
  3. On the Select Features page of the Add Features Wizard, select Multipath I/O, and then click Next.
  4. On the Confirm Installation Selections page, click Install.
  5. When installation has completed, click Close.

To remove Multipath I/O by using the Server Manager command line, complete the following steps.

To remove Multipath I/O by using a command line

  1. Open a Command Prompt window with elevated privileges.Right-click the Command Prompt object on the Start menu, and then click Run as administrator.
  2. Type the following, and press ENTER. ServerManagerCmd.exe -remove Multipath-IO
  3. When removal has completed, you can verify that Multipath I/O was removed by entering the following command and reviewing the query results in the command window. Multipath I/O should not be in the list of installed packages. ServerManagerCmd.exe -query
To claim an iSCSI-attached device for use with MPIO

Open the MPIO control panel, and then click the Discover Multi-Paths tab.
  1. Select the Add support for iSCSI devices check box, and then click Add. When prompted to restart the computer, click Yes.
  2. When the computer restarts, the MPIO Devices tab lists the additional hardware ID “MSFT2005iSCSIBusType_0x9.” When this hardware ID is listed, all iSCSI bus attached devices will be claimed by the Microsoft DSM.

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