Tools - 32

Kiwi Syslog Daemon is a freeware Syslog Daemon for Windows. It receives, logs, displays and forwards syslog messages from ESX hosts in real time. Actions can be performed on received messages and messages can be filtered by ESX host name, host IP address, priority, message text or time of day. 
Syslog messages can then be processed using events like:

• Display the message in the scrolling window  
• Logging the message to a text file  
• Forward the message to another syslog daemon  
• Log to an ODBC database  
• Log to the NT Application Event Log  
• E-mail the message to someone via SMTP  
• Triggering a sound alarm  
• Running an external program
• Send an SNMP Trap message  
• Page someone using NotePager Pro

How to Configure the ESX syslog Operation

The ESX syslogd daemon uses /etc/syslog.conf to determine where to write each log message. Logging can be directed to files on the local host, or to a central logging server, or both. The outbound port for syslog must be opened if remote logging is to occur.

Use SSH to log in to the service console as root.

Now open the port for outbound use:
# esxcfg-firewall -o 514,udp,out,syslog
Edit /etc/syslog.conf and append the following entry.
# nano -w /etc/syslog.conf

local6.notice<TAB><TAB><TAB>@192.168.29.1

Restart the syslogd process so that it will recognize the changes to /
etc/syslog.conf.
# service syslog restart

In the initial SSH session, execute the logger command:
# logger -p local6.notice “test message from Eric Sloof

VKernel today released version 2 of SearchMyVM, the free “Google-like” search utility that quickly helps you find information within your rapidly expanding VMware ESX environments.  This new version includes the #1 feature you asked for -- the ability to export searches to CSV format reports that you can print, email, and use to quickly document your infrastructure.
SearchMyVM instantly deploys exactly like each one of VKernel’s virtual appliances.  With a “Google-like” search interface, you can quickly run queries to find the info you are looking for.

You can download the latest version of SearchMyVM and give it a try.  What do you have to lose?  It’s free and you’ll quickly see its value. 

JeffHicks caught my attention with a twit about PrimalScript 2009 which contains a new feature. The new object browser in PrimalScript 2009 gives you access to the most commonly used type of objects; COM, PowerShell Cmdlets, WMI and the .NET framework. Each of these nodes shows the underlying objects in an organized, easy to understand way.



You can read all about it at Sapien’s blog.

Writing scripts to automate administrative tasks can be challenging. Not only do you need to master the particular scripting language you intend to use, you also need to find the right object and technology for the task at hand. PrimalScript 2009 makes the development cycle of Discovery - Experimentation - Implementation that most script authors use much more efficient.

Replicate Technologies had tremendous response to their initial release of RDA.  Based on the great feedback from users, they've quickly rolled out a new release addressing the top requests and concerns. RDA 1.1 includes over 20 new features and enhancements, including:

• Easy wizard based setup - get up and running even faster!
• Larger scale support - RDA now supports much larger deployments.
• Highly detailed diagnostic analysis, helping you find and fix problems more quickly.
• Full support for ESXi

esXpress, created a web based VMDK file descriptor file creator.

Ulli Hankeln over at sanbarrow.com also known as continuum created a nice little tool which recreates a VMDK descriptor file. When you end up with only a flat.vmdk this is a real nice tool. Ulli rulez :-).

Occasionally ESX VMs crash in such a way that the descriptor file of a vmdk gets lost.
If you ever need to recreate a descriptor from scratch but still have the *-flat.vmdk this little tool may come handy. Tool asks for a flat-file - like used by ESX 3 and Workstation. It ignores the CID and uses a bogus one. Output is named "newdescriptor.vmdk" - rename as needed.
Doesn't work for disks smaller than 1 Gb at the moment.

Oh dear I lost my descriptor

Via ICT-Freak

ScummVM is a program which allows you to run certain classic graphical point-and-click adventure games, provided you already have their data files. The clever part about this: ScummVM just replaces the executables shipped with the games, allowing you to play them on systems for which they were never designed!

Some of the adventures ScummVM supports include Adventure Soft's Simon the Sorcerer 1 and 2; Revolution's Beneath A Steel Sky, Broken Sword 1 and Broken Sword 2; Flight of the Amazon Queen; Wyrmkeep's Inherit the Earth; Coktel Vision's Gobliiins; Westwood Studios' The Legend of Kyrandia and games based on LucasArts' SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) system such as Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max and more. You can find a thorough list with details on which games are supported and how well on the compatibility page. ScummVM is continually improving, so check back often.

Among the systems on which you can play those games are Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Dreamcast, PocketPC, PalmOS, AmigaOS, BeOS, OS/2, PSP, PS2, SymbianOS and many more...

Splunk easily crosses tiers throughout the entire virtual stack - both inside and outside of the VM - to give you a complete picture of availability. Splunk indexes all IT data across every tier - the physical servers, hypervisor, VMs, and deployed applications, capturing and persisting 100% of your data in real-time. Powerful search and navigation lets you trace performance problems and errors across components. Visibility across VMs highlights resource competition issues. Flexible alerting and reporting give you continuous visibility and monitoring of changing virtual environments. Whether you're testing a new virtualization rollout or managing an existing infrastructure, Splunk puts you back in control.

Why Splunk for Server Virtualization Management?

• Get a comprehensive view of 100% of your IT data - server, hypervisor, VM, guest OS, applications, network, and more.
• Increase visibility even with the greater complexity of virtualized environments.
• Optimize your initial planning and ongoing use of virtualization.
• Retain data from transient guests for root cause analysis and compliance.

Splunk's unique approach of indexing the entire IT infrastructure, both legacy and virtualized, enables end-end diagnostics and tuning to increase ROI. This is particularly powerful in today's datacenter that continue to carry the baggage of legacy non-virtualization applications while making a rapid transition to virtualization.

- Shaw Chuang, former Director of R&D for VMware ESX

Continue reading "Announcing Splunk for VMware" »

Nexenta Storage Appliance (NexentaStor) is a software based network attached storage (NAS) appliance that meets the current feature sets of the best of breed NAS, including unlimited snapshots, snapshot mirroring (replication), NFS v3/v4, CIFS, and easy management of extremely large storage pools. NexentaStor delivers richly featured software in the form of a software appliance that is trivial to install and easy to manage.

NexentaStor Developer Edition: VMware Image will run unmodified on all VMware’s hosted products, including VMware Player, VMware Workstation and VMware Server for Windows and Linux, VMware Fusion for Mac.

Recommended environment:

• VMware ESX 3.x/Workstation 6.x/VMware Server 1.0.4+
• Linux/Windows/MacOSX host operating system
• 1GB of memory (512MB minimum)
• 10GB of free disk space (4GB minimum)

Getting started with NexentaStor Virtual Appliance is very easy – essentially it boils down to unzipping the downloaded image and running it in your preferred VMware environment.

Akorri announced the availability of the BalancePoint Plug-In for VMware vCenter - a new capability sold with its BalancePoint software solution that allows VMware administrators to use BalancePoint directly from their VMware vCenter console, simplifying the management of virtualized environments.