gcc path problem with Debian 6.0.4 on VMware Fusion

I got the following error message while installing VMware Tools on Debian 6.0.4 on VMware Fusion.

The path "/usr/bin/gcc" is not valid path to the gcc binary.

I tried to fix it by installing the linux-header files…without any success.

I solved it by running:

apt-get install kernel-package

apt-get install gcc-4.3 linux-headers-`uname -r` -y

I found the solution here.

DavMail is a Exchange to IMAP CalDav proxy

Snow Leopard and Mac OS X Lion both have built in support for Exchange 2007 and 2010.

But what do you do if your company is running Exchange 2003 or if you want to run IMAP (And your company only permits a “Outlook Anyware”-type setup, IMAP over HTTPS).

Well you can either stick to running the Outlook Web Access, which in Exchange 2010 is kind of nice, or you can install a program called DavMail. DavMail acts as a proxy between your computer and the corporate Exchange server.

Some really nice features in DavMail:

  • It’s cross-platform. You can run it on your Mac, Windows och Linux machine.
  • You can run it on a server or locally on your client-computer.

Enable Clipboard Copy and Paste in vSphere Client 4.1

First enable local or remote TSM from the vSphere Client on every ESXi host:

  1. Select the host and click the Configuration tab.
  2. Click Security profile > Properties.
  3. Click Local Tech Support or Remote Tech Support (SSH) and click Options.
  4. Choose the desired startup policy and click Start, then click OK.
  5. Verify that the daemon selected in step 3 shows as running in the Services Properties window

Next enable Clipboard Copy and Paste on every ESXi host:

Log in to the ESX/ESXi host as a root user and open the /etc/vmware/config file using a text editor.
Add these entries to the file:

isolation.tools.copy.disable="FALSE"
isolation.tools.paste.disable="FALSE"

Save and close the file. The Copy and Paste options are only enabled when the virtual machines restart or resume the next time.

Source: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1026437

Source: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1017910

Linked: eagerZeroedThick powershell script

I found this great Powershell script that convert virtual disk files to eagered zeroed.

Awesome script! I had to make some changes to make it work in my environment.

 function Set-EagerZeroThick{
 param($vcName, $vmName, $hdName)

# Find ESX host for VM
 $vmImpl = Get-VM $vmName
 Write-Host $vmImpl
 if($vmImpl.PowerState -ne "PoweredOff"){
 Write-Host "Guest must be powered off to use this script !" -ForegroundColor red
 return $false
 }

 $vm = $vmImpl | Get-View
 Write-Host $vm
 $esxName = (Get-View $vm.Runtime.Host).Name
 Write-Host $esxName
# Find datastore path
 $dev = $vm.Config.Hardware.Device[10] | where {$_.DeviceInfo.Label -eq $hdName}
 Write-Host $dev
 if($dev.Backing.thinProvisioned){
 return $false
 }
 $hdPath = $dev.Backing.FileName
 Write-Host $hdPath

# For Virtual Disk Manager we need to connect to the ESX server
 $esxHost = Connect-VIServer -Server $esxName -User $esxAccount -Password $esxPasswd

# Convert HD
 $vDiskMgr = Get-View -Id (Get-View ServiceInstance -Server $esxHost).Content.VirtualDiskManager
 Write-Host $vDiskMgr
 $dc = Get-Datacenter -Server $esxHost | Get-View
 Write-Host $dc
 $taskMoRef = $vDiskMgr.EagerZeroVirtualDisk_Task($hdPath, $dc.MoRef)
 Write-Host $taskMoRef
 $task = Get-View $taskMoRef
 Write-Host $task
 while("running","queued" -contains $task.Info.State){
 $task.UpdateViewData("Info")
 }

 Disconnect-VIServer -Server $esxHost -Confirm:$false

# Connect to the vCenter
 Connect-VIServer -Server $vcName
 if($task.Info.State -eq "success"){
 return $true
 }
 else{
 return $false
 }
}

$vmName = "vm1"
$vCenter = "vcenter_server"
$esxAccount = "rootuser"
$esxPasswd = "password"

Set-EagerZeroThick $vCenter $vmName "Hard disk 1"

To validate before and after running the eageredZeroed script I run the following script:

$vm = Get-VM vm1 | Get-View
$vm.config.Hardware.Device[10].backing
$vm.config.Hardware.Device[10].DeviceInfo

Source: http://www.lucd.info/2009/11/15/scripts-for-yellow-bricks-advise-thin-provisioning-alarm-eagerzeroedthick/

Linked: Move-Template

A couple of days ago I found a really great PowerCLI script that move templates i vSphere. Awesome post and script by afokkema at ict-freak.nl!

Storage vMotion is a great feature to Move your VMs to other datastores. But what if you want to move your Templates?
In the current version of vSphere there is no option within the Client

function Move-Template{
    param( [string] $template, [string] $esx, [string] $datastore)

    if($template -eq ""){Write-Host "Enter a Template name"}
    if($esx -eq ""){Write-Host "Enter an ESX hostname"}
    if($esx -ne "" -and $datastore -eq ""){$vmotion = $true}
    if($datastore -ne ""){$svmotion = $true}

    Write-Host "Converting $template to VM"
    $vm = Set-Template -Template (Get-Template $template) -ToVM 

    if($svmotion){
        Write-Host "Migrate $template to $esx and $datastore"
        Move-VM -VM (Get-VM $vm) -Destination (Get-VMHost $esx) `
        -Datastore (Get-Datastore $datastore) -Confirm:$false
        (Get-VM $vm | Get-View).MarkAsTemplate() | Out-Null
    }        

    if($vmotion){
        Write-Host "Migrate $template to $esx"
        Move-VM -VM $vm -Destination (Get-VMHost $esx) -Confirm:$false
        ($vm | Get-View).MarkAsTemplate() | Out-Null
    }
}

The function above can be used to move a single template via:

Move-Template <template> <esxhost> <datastore>

Source: http://ict-freak.nl/2010/01/21/powercli-move-template/

Linked: Remove the “host currently has no management network redundancy” warning from your whitebox HA enabled ESX cluster

I found a great post on how to remove the Host <ESXi Hostname> currently has no management network redundancy warning that you get on a typical ESXi whitebox installation. Due to the fact that most whitebox machines don’t have multiple nics..

For more info and screenshots, checkout the original post.

When you completed building your ESX cluster from so called whitebox machines, you might see a warning sign at the cluster level. It will tell you the management network has no redundancy. This is probably correct because whitebox clusters usually don’t have 2 NIC’s for the management network.

To loose this irritating warning message do the following.

  1. Go to the properties of your cluster
  2. Select HA from the left pane
  3. Click the ‘Advanced Options’ button
  4. Fill in the first column of the first row by double clicking and typing the value ‘das.ignoreRedundantNetWarning’
  5. Fill in the second column of the same row by double clicking and typing the value ‘True’
  6. Close the Advanced Options window
  7. Now deselect the option ‘Enable HA’ and press OK
  8. HA will be disabled, this will take some time
  9. Go back to the options and select ‘Enable HA’ and press OK
  10. HA will be enabled and the warning will be gone