The great openfiler project just released openfiler 2.3 (http://www.openfiler.com). The main new features are per-network nfs tuning, enhanced cifs options, multiple nic bonding and advanced iSCSI setup. I like openfiler very much because it´s my state-of-art vmotion iSCSI target to simulate vmotion and storage vmotion. Any by the way: There is no reason why you shouldn´t consider using openfiler in production environments. So go give it a try.
so here comes the stuff you should be aware of when using apc network shutdown on esx and the installation instructions including this mysteriuos password ;-) check it out:
when it comes to iSCSI and when it comes to hba´s qlogic is your friend, especially with vmware esx server, now here are my how-to´s for qlogic in esx environment:
install iscli on esx:
copy the tarball to your esx machine using fastscp, winscp or vc client,
then change to the directory and execute
tar –xvzf iscli….blahblah
finished? then execute
./iscli.dkms.install.sh install
voila. youre done and can use iscli directly on your esx cos. now, the great things to do with it:
first of all you may wonder if it is possible to upgrade the qlogic firmware from within esx without replacing the hba and install it on some windows machine where sansurfer is installed? it is possible, here is how to do it:
download the firmware and place it in some folder on your esx machine. changedir to that folder and execute iscli.
3 HBA-Level,
2 HBA-Options,
2 Update Firmware Image
enter name (eg qla4022.dl)
and you´re done. pretty easy.
now the other interesting thing you may want to do is to configure the nice things iSCSI needs to work properly on esx using hba´s. here is an example for equallogic devies:
enter iscli and....
4 (port level), 3 (edit configured..), 3 (port firmware setting), 7 (conf adv. settings)
ExeThrottle 128
IP_ARP_Redirect on
KeepAliveTO 130
SAVE and Reboot, you are good to go.
ever wondered what you should do if you forgot to disable automount on the vmware vcb proxy and your windows server takes the volume? now i am *hardly* telling you you HAVE TO call vmware they know how to fix it but for experimental purposes in *test labs only* here comes a nice how-to for bringing your vmfs back working:
Check with “fdisk -lu” what the current ID value is of the volumes, it´s SFS if Windows wrecked it. Write all the devices down and label them again as VMFS:
fdisk /dev/sd? (? the letter for that specific volume)
p
d
n
p
1
default
t
fb
X
b
1
128 (disk alignment, check your SAN manual for the correct value, 128 is correct in most cases…) W
Now rescan the HBA devices, esxcfg-rescan vmhba0 etc etc.
yeah, muts and his droogies did it again, backtrack 3 hit the stage on 10th of june 2008. check out the teaser at http://www.offensive-security.com/movies/bt3teaser/bt3teaser.html and check out the backtrack homepage: http://www.remote-exploit.org/backtrack_download.html. at this time you still can´t download it but in a few days i guess ít´ll be there for good :D
yeah yeah i know this is not new but i wanted to bring the final how-to´s to my archive so here we go (thanks to Ulli at sanbarow for providing the infos):
In WS 6.0.blah you can run ESX 3.0.blah if your host has Intel VT or AMD SVM and your vmx file has some items set right....
Intel:
monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = "true"
monitor_control.vt32 = "true"
AMD:
monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = "true"
monitor_control.enable_svm= TRUE
Since build 91182 you can run ESX 3.5 or ESX 3.5i - if your host has Intel VT or AMD SVM and your vmx file has some items set right....
monitor.virtual_exec = "hardware"
monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = "true"
And yes...if WS6.5 sets monitor.virtual_exec = "hardware"
back to "software" then you are out of luck because your CPU doesn´t have the ability mentioned above.
Here comes the link to the megathread at vmware communities:
http://communities.vmware.com/message/969817
