Deploying windows using MDT and WDS

For a while I was working on solution for deploying windows using WDS (Windows Deployment service ) and MDT (Microsoft Deployment Toolkit.). I came across many interesting issue everyday.
Like you should have desperate VLAN for server build purpose. Only this server should have "iphelper " enabled.

Going forward I will keep sharing my experience with MDT and WDS

Deploying server using MDT and WDS

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

SUN-ORACLE deal: Capitalist strikes again

Many blogs and article were busy understanding the deal and justifying it, who has win-win situation. How Oracle will deal with this buyout? How Oracle will be benefited with this deal? How Jonathan/Larry would be run their business? But no one talks about why SUN landed up in situation like this ? Did they put any effort to come out the situation like this? How Jonathan can transform the business of SUN to save his company?

But no what is the point to think, they have already milked the cow. Now cow is grown old and does need it any more. Well people may tell me that it was not worth to put any effort to save the company as regulator and shareholder were in favor of this deal. I agree because no business man in this world is for Charity . They do when they are looking for some government subsidies or when they feel that their popularity is going down. I may sound pessimistic but I can bet % of these business man do because of reason state above.

When I compare these MNC with Indian MNC I find that they are little bit for passionate about their company/business/employee (I may be wrong). I read that these Indian MNC are still honoring their offer given to collage pass out. They are not putting paper napkin/toilet paper inside toilet (I really don’t care and I can manage with handkerchief) .They are not giving any increment and also all the hikes are freeze (Which is fine as long as I have my job). We should be proud because they have shared their profit with us so we should be with them during the time of crisis.

I was wondering Jonathan given thought about something like this? SUN hardware is one of the costliest one, so what did they do to bring down the price. I guess NONE. So now Jonathan and team will get share after this deal. He and his family will have luxurious life, who care about employee’s grief. They are senseless creature. I have one of my friend who is part of Sun family and after looking at his agony I realize how painful it is to be part of MNC. He has been loyal servant of SUN and this what he got in return. Jonathan don’t have any emotion attach to his company and their employee? I feel that bringing up a company is similar to bringing up your own kid. You go through same pain and pleasure when you see kid/company grows. How can you just sell the company and enjoy the billions of dollar? Do you sleep on those dollar if yes do you get good sleep by devastating your own families (Remember employee are as good as your family member )

Operation Lotus completed

Operation Lotus completed successfully today. Today India being world largest democratic country going through electoral phase to elect their government and I along with family casted their vote for the same reason. After casting my vote I got a feeling that “YES I have done something for the country”. Yeah I have casted my vote after a long gap because of various reason. Whom I voted for ? off course for BJP and not only me but my wife and brother also voted for BJP. Well people debate because of media influence terming them as communal force and other party as secular party. Well all the political party in India is one or the same but just their level are different. And to my view BJP level is little bit lower than other party. Party which focus is just not to grab the PM seat but also to protect implement Hindutav. Now this communal and Hindutav definition to such extend by this media that people now understand as a big drawback for India. Well Hindutav is not just Hinduism but is also talk about our culture and I don’t think there is nothing wrong If I say I want to protect Hinduism +our culture. I told I will follow hindutav and I did not told that I will devast muslism or christanism . When I say I will protect Hinduism I had been termed as communal why ? Well this is all Media which control peoples mind and I don’t care what people want to term me as but I will always follow BJP.

Change/Sync Harware clock with NTP on ESX host

My few hosts are spread across Australia it has major issue with H/W clock and local clock.
[root@xxxx]# hwclock --show
Sun 28 Sep 2008 10:03:23 PM EST -0.804718 seconds
[root@xxxx]# date
Wed Apr 15 22:33:50 EST 2009

In order to fix it use following command

hwclock --systohc –localtime

I cannot resist to cut and paste the following from this url

1. Make sure /etc/sysconfig/clock has the proper settings. For me this is:
ZONE="America/Chicago"
UTC=false
ARC=false
This modification properly sets the system during the boot process in the init scripts.
2.Run the following command:
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago /etc/localtime

Substitute "America/Chicago" for the proper time zone setting. When you run the date command, you should now see your time presented with the correct timezone "indicator"

[root@SMHESX01 root]# date
Tue Jun 21 23:45:03 CDT 2005

3. Set your hardware clock to match the current time:
hwclock --systohc --localtime

4. Verify hardware clock with:
hwclock --show
Tue Jun 21 23:49:36 2005 0.956810 seconds

You can change to any time zone I want using this method and the time/date change based on timezone configured.

5. You may also want to toss the following in for good measure:
ntpdate ntpserver.domain.com

Can we attach Tape drive to the Virtual Machine ?

I had been askedweird question “Can I configure virtual machine with Tape drive connected to it and use it as my backup server?” Crap why you want to do that? Obvious answer we don’t have fund to buy hardware dedicated for backup. So here comes my googling and seems like you can have Tape drive configured to your virtual machine which can act as your backup server. It sounds funny but this is IT and you can expect question like this. How do I do it?There is very old article which holds good for ESX1.X but even same theory can be used for ESX3.X host.

Add the hardware as usual to the chassis. Once the hardware is physically added, log in to the ESX Server system's management interface as root, and make the hardware available to the virtual machines by configuring the virtual devices. The following steps provide more detail.

Notes:
* Fibrechannel tape devices may work in the ESX Server console OS. They are not supported in virtual machines.
* If the ESX Server console OS sees the tape device, install the ESX Server3.x specific backup software agent that has support for your tape device.
* If no ESXServer 3.x specific backup agent is provided by your backup software vendor, you might try to install the backup agent your backup software vendor supplies for Red Hat EL3 U6. You should test this agent on an ESX Server 3.x test bed before installing on your ESXServer 3.x production system.
* See vi3_server_config.pdf, pg 281-2 for additional information.

Part 1 - Connect the tape drive to the ESX Server host and make it available to the service console.

1. Make sure the tape drive is connected to an Adaptec SCSI card, not a RAID controller. For a list of supported Adaptec cards, see http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_io_guide.pdf.

2. As a bestpractice, dedicate a SCSI card to the tape device. (The tape deviceis the only device attached to the SCSI card.)

3. Check that the service console sees the tape drive:
# cat/proc/scsi/scsi
Host: scsi1Channel: 00 Id: 03 Lun: 00
Vendor: IBM
Model: ULTRIUM-TD2 Rev: 36M3

Note: If the tape device does not show up, perform a rescan of the Adaptec HBA using esxcfg-rescan. See Using esxcfg-rescan from the command line and the Virtual Infrastructure Client to perform a rescan of the storage (1003988).

4. Use either the management interface or VirtualCenter to map a SCSI target from the controller to your virtual machine.

5. Find what path the tape drive was given by the VMkernel:

# cat/proc/vmware/scsi/vmhba1/3:0

Vendor: IBM
Model: ULTRIUM-TD2 Rev: 36M3

Type:Sequential-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 04

Id: 31 31 31 30 30 31 32 34 31 30 55 4c 54 52 49 55

Size: 0 Mbytes

Queue Depth: 2

6. Add aSCSI generic device, using a unique SCSI target ID that is different from the local boot device. Use the management interface to assign vmhba1:3:0:0. In the .vmx file, the tape drive lines should look like this:
scsi1:3.present = "TRUE"
scsi1:3.deviceType = "scsi-passthru"
scsi1:3.name ="vmhba1:3:0:0"
Note: You cannot dedicate the entire SCSI controller to a virtual machine. You must manage it one SCSI ID at a time. If you're using a robotic tape library, you'll need to assign one SCSI ID for each tape drive and also one for the robotic changer.

Note: Tape drives are currently only supported using Adaptec SCSI cards that use the LSI Logic virtual SCSI controller. Make sure you use the LSI Logic virtual SCSI controller.

To determine what the vmhba address should be in the .vmx file, use this guideline. As a general rule, vmhbaX:Y:Z:0 should correspond to /proc/vmware/scsi/vmhbaX/Y:Z.

7. Using the management interface, add the hardware to the ESX Server system.

1. To add the tape drive, which is the first device, choose Hardware > Add Device > Generic SCSI Device.

2. To add the media changer, choose Add device > Generic SCSI device. Under Device Connection, select Manually. Specify a device, then enter the information accordingly.

Part 2 - Make thetape drive available to a virtual machine.

Make sure the SCSI controller attaching the tape drives and medium changer is dedicated
to the virtual machine only.

To confirm that the SCSI controller is dedicated:

1. Log on to the management interface as root or an administrative user.

2. Right-click VM.

3. ClickConfigure Hardware.

4. Look for the SCSI Controller section. Bus Sharing should be none.

To change the SCSI controller if it is shared:

1. Click the SCSI Controller link.

2. Choose none from the Bus Sharing pull-down menu.