vCenter 5 install error - FQDN cannot be resolved

To resolve it, you need to and a reverse lookup zone to your domain DNS server. Add the 10.168.192.in-addr.arpa reverse zone if e.g. your vCenter resides on 192.168.10.0/24 subnet.
go to the vCenter server and run ipconfig /registerdns
Refresh DNS service console and check if the pointer record for the vCenter server actually appeared there.

ESXi 5 nested install

Here is my LAB:

1. GA-970A-D3 MB with built-in Realtek NIC chipset and IOMMU support (no video - I used some old PCI video card), AMD 6 core 3.2 GHz CPU, 16 GB of GSKILL RAM, 400 w SPI power supply (I had some generic ATX case already), no HDDs - booting from some old 1GB USB stick ; bought in Memory Express (www.memoryexpress.com) for $426 including taxes. Not so bad.

							PRICE MATCH
Description			Qty	Unit Price	Price	Qty	Unit Price	Price
Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 w/ Dual DDR3 1866, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, PCI-E, CrossFireX			1	$109.00	$109.00	1	$103.74	$103.74
AMD Phenom™ II X6 1090T Black Edition 3.2GHz w/ 9MB Cache			1	$179.99	$179.99	1	$167.12	$167.12
GSKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB PC3-10666 Dual Channel DDR3 Kit (2 x 4GB)			2	$49.99	$99.98	2	$47.44	$94.88
SPI ATX-400PN 400 Watts ATX12V 2.01 Power Supply w/ 120mm Fan, Noise Killer			1	$39.99	$39.99	1	$39.99	$39.99
				Subtotal	$428.96		Subtotal	$405.73
				Taxes	$21.45		Taxes	$20.29
				Total	$450.41		Total	$426.01

2. Shared NFS storage on a Linux box.


Installation/configuration process

• Install and configure ESXi 5 as usual.
• Configure vSwitch (or VM Network Port Group) with Security Policy Exception set to Promiscuous Mode - Accept  (this is very important, otherwise you'll get network issues for your nested VMs - e.g. in particular they would be able to get DHCP address, UDP and some other protocols like SIP etc would work but there won't be any TCP connectivity!)
• If you want to use VLANs in nested hypervisors, create additional port group, name it e.g Trunk and set VLAN ID to 4095
• Enable Hardware virtualization on physical ESXi 5 host - add vhv.allow = "TRUE"  to /etc/vmware/config of your physical ESXi 5.0 host using vi or simply run

  echo 'vhv.allow = "TRUE"' >> /etc/vmware/config 

• Create virtual ESXi 5 on your physical ESXi 5 host, use version 8 hardware and Red Hat 5 64bit OS, make sure the SCSI adapter is LSI Logic Parallel (default), assign 1 NIC from regular VM network ports and several NICs from Trunk port group.
• Edit settings of the newly created ESXi 5 VM - change OS type in "Options" to Other-> ESXi 5.0
• Select "Intel EPT/AMD RVI for MMU virtualization" in Options -> CPU/MMU virualization
• Attach the ESXi 5 iso CD image, power on and install as usual.
• If you have only 1 shared datastore and use HA cluster you'll receive the following error when you try to start a VM in cluster : "The operation is not allowed in the current state" or something like that. You'll also get the following warning message in the summary tab on the hosts: "The number of heartbeat datastores for host is 1, which is less than required: 2". This is because new advanced HA was introduced in ESXi 5 which relies on datastore heartbeat. Default numbers of hearbeat datastores is 2 (could be changed from 2 to 5). To disable sufficient datastore condition checking go to Cluster HA advanced options, add the following setting: das.ignoreinsufficienthbdatastore  and set the value to be True if you want, on the other hand, to change the number of heartbeat datastores required, add the following setting: das.heartbeatdsperhost and set the value to be anything from 2 (default) to 5

Exchange 2010 installation/configuration tricks

Just to summarize some of the issues I had when installing/configuring Exchange 2010

1. Add your domain to "Accepted Domains"
2. Configure the Receive Connector for incoming emails by enabling Anonymous authentication and specifying the FQDN name for HELO/EHLO
3. Create SMTP Send Connector
4. For blank OWA page issue - go to Server Manager->Features->Add Feature, select to install the “RPC over HTTP Proxy” feature and all dependent features
5. For "Base theme could not be found" OWA issue - run "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Bin\UpdateCas.ps1" from Exchange Management Shell
6. For the "You must close all dialog boxes before you can close Exchange Management Console" Management Console error - roll back your IE9 back to IE8.
UPD: Issue has been finally resolved. Here is the link to MS fix:
http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=2624899 

VMware Certification Discounts

VMware Certification Discounts of 25% through 11/30/2011

Codes for 25% off VCP/VCAP/VCA exams through 11/30/2011

VMWLV25 (VCP4, VCP5,VCA-DT)
VMWORLDLV25 (VCAP-DCD, VCAP-DCA or VCP4-DT)

ESXi 4.1 installation failed

When ESXi 4.0 just came out I was testing it in my home lab, installing it on both USB stick and HDD on different "not supported" hardware including even my IBM Laptop - never had any problem with installation.

When ESXi 4.1 came out I upgraded my main ESXi 4.0 server without any problem whatsoever. However, when I decided to do a fresh install on my secondary ESXi 4.0 host few days later I got the following error message: 

The installation operation has encountered a fatal error:

Unable to find system image to install.

This is due to the image not being mounted correctly or the CD-ROM is not being supported.

The following system information will assist VMware team with your problem. Please record your information before proceeding:

System Information

Manufacturer:

Model:

Tag:

BIOS Rev:

That brought some good memories back from DOS era. No, seriously. I had not seen an "incompatible" CD-ROM for at least last 15-20 years! I take off my hat to VMware programmers - I have no clue how to make CD-ROM "incompatible" on purpose nowadays (maybe they're checking manufacturer against "white list" but I cannot believe they're doing it - that would be too easy).

Anyways, just for curiosity sake, here is what I tried
1. Replaced current IDE CD-ROM with another IDE one (it was actually DVD ROM) - didn't help

2. Replaced current IDE DVD-ROM with a SATA one - didn't help

3. Created bootable USB stick and booted from it - same error message

4. Connected cheap portable USB DVD-ROM - finally it worked !!!

Bottom line:
you basically have 3 options:

1. Install ESXi 4.1 on a USB stick on some "compatible" hardware, take USB stick out and use it on your hardware. Yes you can do it since it's not hardware dependent.... unless you use a custom kernel which is another story.

2. Install ESXi 4.0 first and then upgrade it to ESXi 4.1

3. Try an external USB CD-ROM (I cannot guarantee it will work - maybe VMware simply "liked" the manufacturer of my cheap external CD-ROM)

HP Team NIC RDP issue

Symptoms:
After dissolving HP NIC Team and running “netsh interface tcp reset” command (I was troubleshooting  network issues with Windows NLB) Windows 2008 Remote Desktop stops working with all services running and Remote Desktop enabled.

“Netstat -a –n” shows there is no service listening on rdp port 3389.

If you open to Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration -> Right Click on RDP-TCP, select Network Adapter tab - you get the following error:

 

And it’s impossible to select the network adapter or change Maximum connections, although there is nothing wrong with the network.

Here is the fix:
1. Set the following registry value to 0

2. Restart Remote Desktop Service

3. Go to Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration -> Right Click on RDP-TCP , select Network Adapter tab, make sure “All network Adapters” is selected and set Maximum connections to “2”

How to repair Windows 7 MBR

If you have MBR corrupted, Windows won't boot and neither "Startup Repare" or "System Restore" from System Recovery options on System Repair CD would fix it.
Here is what needs to be done:

1. Boot from Windows 7 instllation DVD or Recovery CD. (don't forget to change boot order in the BIOS if needed)
2. Choose your default "Language", "Time", and "Keyboard Input", click Next
3. Click on "Repair Your Computer" and choose "Command Prompt"
4. Type  bootsect /nt60 C: /mbr and press Enter
5. Reboot