Getting VMware Patch Notices Automatically

Hello all.

I found this extremely interesting and surprised that no one has told you about this. VMware has a ListServ for it's patch releases. Great for getting automatic notices of vulnerabilities of your vmware products.

Here is the link to get onto the ListServ
http://lists.vmware.com/mailman/listinfo/security-announce

Here is the archive of their archives:
http://lists.vmware.com/pipermail/security-announce/

Sign up right now

New Widget

Added the BT-Cumulus widget so that it would be easier to see my tags

Thanks to Roy Tanck for creating this and to kayenere for the code to get it onto my page

Re-installation of VMware tools for Ubunutu

I needed this procedure for when I upgraded my ESX server from 3i to 4i

Do the following commands to remove the VMware tools that are already there:

cd /usr/bin
sudo .vmware-uninstall-tools.pl


Use Ubuntu community documents for installation: VMware Tools

External Expansion from IBM

Still stumbling. Looking for an external SCSI chassis for my whitebox. I know about the HP StoroageWorks, but looking for what IBM has to offer:

• Found this EXP400 on Ebay: Auction
• Lead me to an IBM web site for the EXP400 which is discontinued: EXP400 info at IBM
• Found the current Expansion Arrays, but they are all SATA or Fiber Channel: Current IBM Expansion Arrays

All in all, the EXP400 looks like a good product. Here are the drives that can go into it:

• 40K1023 73.4GB 10K rpm Ultra320 SCSI HDD
• 40K1024 146.8GB 10K rpm Ultra320 SCSI HDD
• 40K1025 300GB 10K rpm Ultra320 SCSI HDD
• 40K1026 36.4GB 15K rpm Ultra320 SCSI HDD
• 40K1027 73.4GB 15K rpm Ultra320 SCSI HDD
• 40K1028 146.8 15K rpm Ultra320 SCSI HDD

Here is the location to translate the P/N to FRU & Newest part numbers: Hard drive Accessories

Getting a cheap FC card into ESXi server

I am looking to see if I can add a cheap Fiber Channel (FC) to my ESX server.

Stumbled across this when looking for a StorageWorks on Ebay - FCA2404

• Found it on the VMware ESX hcl. looks like it works for ESX3i, but not 4i
• Found a HP web site for documentation: FCA2404 documentation
  
• Found the drivers for it: FCA2404 Drivers
  
• Works with windows 2000, 2003, and 2008 so believe the HP is continuing support for it
• Only a 2GB FC card, but do you need more for a home test sever
  

ESX Test sever hardware

Here are the specs for my ESX test server

• Intel S5000PSL motheboard
• Intel Chassis SC5299-E
• 2 Intel 5160 dual core processors
• 4GB of FB RAM (4 1GB sticks)
• LSI PCI-X MegaRaid card
• 1 73GB 15K SCSI drive fro ESX boot datastore
• 1 500GB SATA drive for Guest storage

Planned upgrades

• Addition of the SCSI cage AXX6SCSIDB to handle 6 scsi disks
• Removal of the SATA disk cage
• Addition of 6 73GB or 146GB disks for storage
• Addition of IBM ServeRAID 6M to handle SCSI disks in a logical array
  

About this Blog

Hello, Hello, Hello

Ok, sometimes I get curious and want to try things. Some times I succeed, and some times I do not, but most of all, I like to document my attempts to solve problems.

Now while I have many interests and solutions, this will focus on a certain subset of them. First of all Virtualization. There might be some Linux, Windows, and Scripting, but almost all of it will center around accomplishments related to a virtualization and computers.

Some of my recent endeavors that I plan to document later are as follows:

• Setting up and working with Nagios
• Getting Microsoft Cluster services to work with ESX 3i
• FreeNAS as a file share repository
• Using iSCSI with ESX

I hope that more than myself find these topics interesting.