vSential - Page 7

Enabling Local/Remote Tech Support Mode in ESXi 4.1

Posted by jamesbowling on Jul 6th, 2011 in Blog, HowTo | 0 comments

I have seen quite a few people wondering if there is a way to enable TSM from the vSphere Client. I would have to say, “YES THERE IS!” VMware posted a KB Article regarding this specifically as it was updated as of 4.1 to allow for the toggling of this from the vSphere Client. Here is what you can do to enable TSM:

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

Another thing that I have seen lately is people wondering why they enable TSM and it suddenly stops working. This is because TSM has a default timeout that it uses in order to maintain a level of security regarding this method of connecting to a host. To adjust this timeout you can do the following:

Select the host and click the Configuration tab.
Click Advanced Settings.
Change the UserVars.TSMTimeOut field to the desired value in minutes.
Click OK.

Once you have enabled Local or Remote TSM you can connect via the DCUI for Local TSM and through ssh for Remote TSM. Use these methods wisely as there are many things that can be effected by usage of these methods. If you are unsure of doing something then stop and either post up here in the comments or drop a line in the VMTN Community Forums. Myself and many others check the VMTN forums constantly to offer help on various issues. Yours could be one of them!!!

A Good Way to Start the Weekend

Posted by jamesbowling on Jul 1st, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments

I got up this morning and was filing through my e-mail only to find one from Mr. John Troyer. The e-mail stated that he was welcoming me to the 2011 VMware vExpert Program. Needless to say, I was ecstatic about receiving this e-mail. I started dancing around and my wife was wondering what was going on. I have to say that I am extremely honored to be recognized as a VMware vExpert. To be added to the long list of vExperts over the years is an honor that I had only hoped to achieve sometime in my career. Thank you so much VMware for starting my July 4th weekend off with a bang!

vMotion’d Myself…

Posted by jamesbowling on Jun 23rd, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments

Well, I have officially vMotion’d myself from one company to another within the same city and state. I will be taking a longer hiatus than expected so I can ramp myself up at the new company. Fortunately I will be hitting the blogging trail again here shortly with some future projects coming down the pipeline at the new company. Stay tuned here or to my Twitter feed for the new articles that come up and the update on my hiatus.

Script: Report-Snapshots.ps1

Posted by jamesbowling on May 5th, 2011 in Scripts, Tools | 0 comments

@"
===============================================================================
Title:            Report-Snaphots.ps1
Description:    List snapshots on all VMWARE ESX/ESXi servers as well as VM's
managed by Virtual Center.
Requirements:    Windows Powershell and the VI Toolkit
Usage:           .\Report-Snaphots.ps1
===============================================================================
"@

#Global Functions
#This function generates a nice HTML output that uses CSS for style formatting.
function Generate-Report {
Write-Output "<html><head><title></title><style type=""text/css"">.Error {color:#FF0000;font-weight: bold;}.Title {background: #0077D4;color: #FFFFFF;text-align:center;font-weight: bold;}.Normal {}</style></head><body><table><tr class=""Title""><td colspan=""6"">VMware Snaphot Report</td></tr><tr><td>VM Name </td><td>Snapshot Name </td><td>Date Created </td><td>Size(MB) </td><td>Description </td><td>Host </td></tr>"

Foreach ($snapshot in $report){
Write-Output "<td>$($snapshot.vm)</td><td>$($snapshot.name)</td><td>$($snapshot.created)</td><td>$($snapshot.sizemb)</td><td>$($snapshot.description)</td><td>$($snapshot.host)</td></tr> "
}
Write-Output "</table></body></html>"
}

#Login details for standalone ESXi servers
$username = 'changeme'
$password = 'supersecret' #Change to the root password you set for you ESXi server

#Folder to store report
$Folder = "C:\Reports"

#List of servers including Virtual Center Server. The account this script will run as will need at least Read-Only access to Cirtual Center
$ServerList = "vc1.example.net"#, "vc2.example.net", "vc3.example.net"   #Chance to DNS Names/IP addresses of your ESXi servers or Virtual Center Server

#Initialise Array
$Report = @()

#Get snapshots from all servers
foreach ($server in $serverlist){

# Check is server is a Virtual Center Server and connect with current user
if ($server -eq "VCServer"){Connect-VIServer $server}

# Use specific login details for the rest of servers in $serverlist
else {Connect-VIServer $server -user $username -password $password}

get-vm | get-snapshot | %{
$Snap = {} | Select VM,Name,Created,SizeMB,Description,Host
$Snap.VM = $_.vm.name
$Snap.Name = $_.name
$Snap.Created = $_.created
$Snap.SizeMB = $_.sizemb
$Snap.Description = $_.description
$Snap.Host = $_.vm.host.name
$Report += $Snap
}
}

# Disconnect from Virtual Center
Disconnect-VIServer -Confirm:$False

# Generate the report and email it as a HTML body of an email
Generate-Report > "$Folder\Report-Snapshots.html"
IF ($Report -ne ""){
$SmtpClient = New-Object system.net.mail.smtpClient
$SmtpClient.host = "my.smtp.host"   #Change to a SMTP server in your environment
$MailMessage = New-Object system.net.mail.mailmessage
$MailMessage.from = "System.Automation@example.com"   #Change to email address you want emails to be coming from
$MailMessage.To.add("yomomma@example.com")   #Change to email address you would like to receive emails.
$MailMessage.IsBodyHtml = 1
$MailMessage.Subject = "VMware Snapshots Report"
$MailMessage.Body = Generate-Report
$SmtpClient.Send($MailMessage)}

Download here: http://vsential.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Report-Snapshots.ps1_.txt

« Previous Entries Next Entries »