VMWare ESXi - Part 1

Being a dad who's into tech, I like the concept of virtualisation, running multiple servers on a single set of hardware.  So having a spare server I decided to give it a go.  I didn't want to get into qemu or kvm so I went with VMWARE's ESXi server.  I think this is based on redhat any way but I could be wrong.


Installation is quite easy, it's a single ISO that you boot your system with.  As I'm only running a 32bit box I had to pick the older ESXi 3.5 everything after that, it's currently up to 5.1, is 64bit only.  I did have one issue on boot

I was getting an error about an invalid option in Bios and that I needed to Disable "limit CPUID value" or "Support Legacy NT4 OS" in the BIOS.

Upon booting off the install cd you can press the TAB key to get to a screen to add extra options

The default options looked like

mboot.c32 vmkernel.gz --- binmod.tgz --- ienviron.tgz --- cim.tgz --- oem.tgz --- license.tgz --- install.tgz

What I had to do was to change the about command to look like

mboot.c32 vmkernel.gz nocheckCPUIDlimit --- binmod.tgz --- ienviron.tgz --- cim.tgz --- oem.tgz --- license.tgz --- install.tgz

After that installation was easy.

Downloading the client was easy enough too, just visit the IP address of the server in a web browser and download the client.  Installation of the client is just like any other application so no hardship there.

In part 2, how to install the vm's [with pictures :P]

Facebook - Stupid People

I'm really starting to think that a large number of Facebook users should be banned from using it.  When are people going to realise that typing a comment into a box below and image that states "type x in the comments to see something wonderful" isn't going to do anything but provide your name to mass marketing companies that can then spam you with umpteen targeted ads.

Are people really this gullible or am I just being very cynical in my old age?  Does someone need to provide a Facebook training service with the what not toos etc?  Are the majority of Facebook users just doing it out of sheer curiosity?  I certain don't know myself, but for some reason it gets on my nerves.  People can't be that thick can they?

Linux Webservers

One of the good things about running ubuntu, or any linux distro for that matter, is that if you're a web developer or someone who likes to dabble, you can run a personal webserver setup yourself without having to use a third party webservice [until you want it live that it]

I'm currently building a website in PHP which requires a database [mysql] and I'm able to run these alongside all my other apps.  It's as simple as typing apt-get install apache2 mysql-server php5 php5-mysql and the laptop does the rest.  Ok so there is a little extra work involved in setting up a virtual host, but it's not that difficult.

For now it's saving me a load of cash in hosting fees, and I can do all beta testing before making the site live....result.

Cronlog - Debian

I need to setup cron on my server to allow me to schedule backups, this is the easy part, however I notice that if you do a vanilla install of Debian, the cron log isn't enabled by default.  Another easy fix too.

vi /etc/rsyslog.conf

uncomment [remove the #] from the line

cron.*       /var/log/cron.log

Save the file and run

/etc/init.d/rsyslog restart

Voila, your /var/log/cron.log file will be there and should be populated when the next cron is scheduled to run.

Servers - debian

I've been running a home server for what appears to be years, if you know me, you'll know I tend to change my operating systems like I do my undies, which is often.  Today it's the turn of Debian.  I've been installing debian servers for years now, so it wasn't a hard install.  Pop the cd in, follow all the on screen prompts and job done.

The only things I had to do after install was edit the network settings, install samba and configure that up as I use mapped drives, and install programs that I use on a daily basis.  

I use irssi for my IRC chat, as I can ssh into my server from the outside world and use the command line client to chat.  Quite handy really.

A few days with Ubuntu

I've had my laptop for a few days now and seeing as I didn't want to install Windows on it [cost etc] I went with Ubuntu.

Now I remember the days when ubuntu came on a CD, looking at the latest ISO for 12.10 it's now requiring a DVD.  There are alternate versions available but wow, that's big.

Luckily I already had a copy on cd which I installed, It only takes a few mins after that to dist-upgrade, all in all It's looking ok so far.

Ubuntu 12.10 - Laptop

I'm currently running a windows free system at the moment and it seems to be working fine, the only issue I've really had is a blinking wifi light.

Searching google, it's quite an easy fix, so for my reference.

sudo vi iwlwifi.conf in /etc/modprobe.d 

add the line 

options iwlwifi led_mode=1

save and reboot.  LED fixed.

The other thing I've installed so far is ubuntu-restricted-extras read more about that here

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

Sorry very boring post, mainly for my reference in case I need to reinstall