In-the-Lab: Install VMware Tools on NexentaStor VSA

Physical lab resources can be a challenge to "free-up" just to test a potential storage appliance. With NexentaStor, you can download a pre-configured VMware (or Xen) appliance from NexentaStor.Org, but what if you want to build your own? Here's a little help on the subject:

1. Download the ISO from NexentaStor.Org (see link above);


2. Create a VMware virtual machine:
   
   
   
   1. 2 vCPU
   
   
   2. 4GB RAM (leaves about 3GB for ARC);
   
   
   3. CD-ROM (mapped to the ISO image);
   
   
   4. One (optionally two if you want to simulate the OS mirror) 4GB, thin provisioned SCSI disks (LSI Logic Parallel);
   
   
   5. Guest Operating System type: Sun Solaris 10 (64-bit)
   
   
   6. One E1000 for Management/NAS
   
   
   7. (optional) One E1000 for iSCSI
   
   
   
   


3. Streamline the guest by disabling unnecessary components:
   
   
   
   1. floppy disk
   
   
   2. floppy controller (remove from BIOS)
   
   
   3. primary IDE controller (remove from BIOS)
   
   
   4. COM ports (remove from BIOS)
   
   
   5. Parallel ports (remove from BIOS)
   
   
   
   


4. Boot to ISO and install NexentaStor CE
   
   
   
   1. (optionally) choose second disk as OS mirror during install
   
   
   
   


5. Register your installation with Nexenta
   
   
   
   1. http://www.nexenta.com/register-eval
   
   
   2. (optional) Select "Solori" as the partner
   
   
   
   


6. Complete initial WebGUI configuration wizard
   
   
   
   1. If you will join it to a domain, use the domain FQDN (i.e. microsoft.msft)
   
   
   2. If you choose "Optimize I/O performance..." remember to re-enable ZFS intent logging under Settings>Preferences>System
      
      
      
      1. Sys_zil_disable = No
      
      
      
      
   
   
   
   


7. Shutdown the VSA
   
   
   
   1. Settings>Appliance>PowerOff
   
   
   
   


8. Re-direcect the CD-ROM
   
   
   
   1. Connect to Client Device
   
   
   
   


9. Power-on the VSA and install VMware Tools
   
   
   
   1. login as admin
      
      
      
      1. assume root shell with "su" and root password
      
      
      
      
   
   
   2. From vSphere Client, initiate the VMware Tools install
   
   
   3. cd /tmp
      
      
      
      1. untar VMware Tools with "tar zxvf  /media/VMware\ Tools/vmware-solaris-tools.tar.gz"
      
      
      
      
   
   
   4. cd to /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib
      
      
      
      1. install VMware Tools with "./vmware-install.pl"
      
      
      2. Answer with defaults during install
      
      
      
      
   
   
   5. Check that VMware Tools shows and OK status
      
      
      
      1. IP address(es) of interfaces should now be registered
         
         [caption id="attachment_1580" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="VMware Tools are registered."][/caption]
      
      
      
      
   
   
   
   


10. Perform a test "Shutdown" of your VSA
    
    
    
    1. From the vSphere Client, issue VM>Power>Shutdown Guest
       
       [caption id="attachment_1581" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="System shutting down from VMware Tools request. "][/caption]
    
    
    2. Restart the VSA...
       
       [caption id="attachment_1582" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="VSA restarting in vSphere "][/caption]
    
    
    
    

Now VMware Tools has been installed and you're ready to add more virtual disks and build ZFS storage pools. If you get a warning about HGFS not loading properly at boot time:

[caption id="attachment_1586" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="HGFS module mismatch warning."][/caption]

it is not usually a big deal, but the VMware Host-Guest File System (HGFS) has been known to cause issues in some installations. SInce the NexentaStor appliance is not a general purpose operating system, you should customize the install to not use HGFS at all. To disable it, perform the following:

1. Edit "/kernel/drv/vmhgfs.conf"
   
   
   
   1. Change:     name="vmhgfs" parent="pseudo" instance=0;
   
   
   2. To:     #name="vmhgfs" parent="pseudo" instance=0;
   
   
   
   


2. Re-boot the VSA

Upon reboot, there will be no complaint about the offending HGFS module. Remember that, after updating VMware Tools at a future date, the HGFS configuration file will need to be adjusted again. By the way, this process works just as well on the NexentaStor Commercial edition, however you might want to check with technical support prior to making such changes to a licensed/supported deployment.

In-the-Lab: Full ESX/vMotion Test Lab in a Box, Part 1

There are many features in vSphere worth exploring but to do so requires committing time, effort, testing, training and hardware resources. In this feature, we'll investigate a way - using your existing VMware facilities - to reduce the time, effort and hardware needed to test and train-up on vSphere's ESXi, ESX and vCenter components. We'll start with a single hardware server running VMware ESXi free as the "lab mule" and install everything we need on top of that system.

Part 1, Getting Started

To get started, here are the major hardware and software items you will need to follow along:

Recommended Lab Hardware Components

• One 2P, 6-core AMD "Istanbul" Opteron system


• Two 500-1,500GB Hard Drives


• 24GB DDR2/800 Memory


• Four 1Gbps Ethernet Ports (4x1, 2x2 or 1x4)


• One 4GB SanDisk "Cruiser" USB Flash Drive


• Either of the following:
  
  
  
  • One CD-ROM with VMware-VMvisor-Installer-4.0.0-164009.x86_64.iso burned to it
  
  
  • An IP/KVM management card to export ISO images to the lab system from the network
  
  
  
  

Recommended Lab Software Components

• One ISO image of NexentaStor 2.x (for the Virtual Storage Appliance, VSA, component)


• One ISO image of ESX 4.0


• One ISO image of ESXi 4.0


• One ISO image of VCenter Server 4


• One ISO image of Windows Server 2003 STD (for vCenter installation and testing)

For the hardware items to work, you'll need to check your system components against the VMware HCL and community supported hardware lists. For best results, always disable (in BIOS) or physically remove all unsupported or unused hardware- this includes communication ports, USB, software RAID, etc. Doing so will reduce potential hardware conflicts from unsupported devices.

The Lab Setup

We're first going to install VMware ESXi 4.0 on the "test mule" and configure the local storage for maximum use. Next, we'll create three (3) machines two create our "virtual testing lab" - deploying ESX, ESXi and NexentaStor running directly on top of our ESXi "test mule." All subsequent tests VMs will be running in either of the virtualized ESX platforms from shared storage provided by the NexentaStor VSA.

[caption id="attachment_929" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="ESX, ESXi and VSA running atop ESXi"][/caption]

Next up, quick-and-easy install of ESXi to USB Flash...

Installing: Xtravirt Virtual SAN

Today we're looking at the Xtravirt Virtual SAN Appliance (VSA) solution for use with VMware ESX Server 3. It is designed to be a simple to deploy, redundant (DRBD synchronization), high-availability iSCSI SAN between two ESX servers. We are installing it on two ESXi servers, each with local storage, running the latest patch update (3.5.0 build 143129).

Initial Installation

XVS requires a virtual machine import: either using Converter or manual process. We follow the manual process. We used the command line to convert the imported disk into a ESXi-compliant format:

vmkfstools -i XVS.vmdk -d thin XVSnew.vmdk
rm -f XVS.vmdk XVS-*

After conversion, you have a 2GB virtual machine (times two) ready for configuration. We removed the legacy ethernet and hard disk that came with the inventory import. Then add the "existing" disk and new Ethernet (flex) controller.

We then added a 120GB virtual disk to each node using the local storage controllers: LSI 1068SAS (RAID1) for node 1 and NVidia MCP55Pro (RAID1) for node 2. Node 1 and 2 are using the same 250GB Seagate ES.2 (RAID edition) drives.