motogobi

Soon-to-be-end-of-life-Service-Console reference of the day

mike — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:44:46 +0000

This completely saved my aching head this morning when we had to update the VLAN on some freshly-built ESX hosts:

vSphere 4.1 Last Version of ESX, ESXi is the future

mike — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:30:31 +0000

So this is not really news, but is now big official news: the 4.1 release of vSphere is the last supported version of ESX. VMware is finally dropping the Service Console. Moving forward, ESXi will be the core hypervisor technology at the center of VMware’s virtualization strategy (for now). Can’t say I disagree, especially if you understand the reduced overhead and patching needs of ESXi - 1/10th the patching requirements? I’ll take it:

During VMworld 2010 in San Francisco one of the big messages being pushed out to the attendees is that VMware ESX will no longer have a future. The 4.1 release will be the last release of VMware ESX, future releases will only come with ESXi. Dauglas Phillips interviewed Sean and Charu from the ESXi team about what this will mean for customers.

Our 4.1 upgrade just changed a wee bit, I think.

I really want to go shooting.

mike — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:33:26 +0000

Little known fact about me: I’m pretty damn good with a weapon or two. But not even remotely as good as some of these guys (mostly military):

Some comments from glin1216′s YouTube page:

danshyu: Heh, I’ve always thought those Magpul fore grips are nothing but a gimmick, do they actually make any difference or are they just another one of those tacticool gadget?

glin1216: @danshyu It allows me to better snap my muzzle onto threats. I personally feel it gives me better control of my weapon. The downside? I get labeled a Magpul whore by everyone.

(BTW: I have a Magpul AFG on my 16″…)

More VirtualBox goodness: Lifehacker shows us the basics

mike — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:21:32 +0000

Just saw a great article today covering my favorite desktop hypervisor, VirtualBox:

Running multiple operating systems side-by-side gives you the chance to test applications, run platform-specific software, and tons more without ever rebooting. It’s also extremely cool. Here’s how to run Windows, Mac, and Linux simultaneously and pain-free as possible.

I’ve already extolled the virtues of VirtualBox, having run Parallels and VMware Workstation in the past, as well (turns out, when you get VMware certified you get a free copy of Workstation). I prefer VirtualBox just on price point alone – and speed, and ease of use, and features, and speed, and networking, and speed.

Head on over the Lifehacker and get your hypervisor on…

Curious SQL database issue with vCenter Update 1

mike — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:53:29 +0000

Ran into this error this morning, which of course took down one of our (1000+ VM) vCenter environments:

The vCenter Server’s vpxd logs contain entries similar to:

An unrecoverable problem has occurred, stopping the VMware VirtualCenter service. Check database connectivity before restarting. Error: Error[VdbODBCError] (-1) “ODBC error: (23000) – [Microsoft][SQL Native Client][SQL Server]Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint ‘PK_VPX_GUEST_DISK’. Cannot insert duplicate key in object ‘dbo.VPX_GUEST_DISK’.” is returned when executing SQL statement “INSERT INTO VPX_GUEST_DISK (VM_ID, PATH, CAPACITY, FREE_SPACE) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?)”

The link to the VMware knowledgebase article is here: vCenter Server service fails with the error: Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint ‘PK_VPX_GUEST_DISK’

The curious part? That issue is addressed specifically by vCenter Update 1, Build 208111 and we’re running 208111. In any case, shutting down the vCenter service (ok, it wouldn’t run anyway) and running the SQL script supplied in the KB article did the trick and fixed that which should probably already have been fixed. Still super happy we’re not running on Oracle anymore, though…

Side projects: Doggie Daycare Cams

mike — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:57:49 +0000

It’s no joke: we love (love!) our pup Thatcher. So much that one or two days a week we’ll drop her off at doggie day care to enjoy the pack for the day. To that end, we’re big supporters of a local business here in Erie called Bowhaus, which also provides live indoor and outdoor webcams for when we’re really missing Thatch. Yeah, we’re those people who log in while on vacation to catch a glimpse of her big black spots when she’s boarding there.

In a little bit of tech support serendipity, the front desk at Bowhaus had recently posted a plea for help – $100 credit for whomever can help get their web cams back online. Seems that, with an ISP change and resulting IP address changes, the good folk at Bowhaus have been beset with anxious owners unable to pull up the web cams. So guess how I spent a bit of my Saturday, and guess who gets a free ride at Bowhaus next week?

…MS Flight Simulator back?

mike — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:44:55 +0000

I’ve recently become re-hooked on MS Flight Simulator 2004 (since FSX kinda sucks in comparison, IMHO). Ask my wife where I disappear to every now and then and she’ll tell you: “He’s flying from Baltimore to Miami or something.” Well, that or a heavy thunderstorm ILS approach to Sea-Tac in a 737-400.

Anyhow, a little slice of joy today with the news that Microsoft is reinvigorating the flight sim community with the announcement of Microsoft Flight. The website doesn’t really say squat, but just hearing the news that MS is bringing a flight sim product back is enough to make me smile today. Having been a fan of the game since the early 80′s, I see much time suckage headed my way…

Platespin Migrate v9 Upgrade Considerations

mike — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:25:23 +0000

Novell recently released Platespin Migrate 9, which should address some Linux P2V issues we’ve been running into. Namely, that you can only migrate a Linux server in offline or “TakeControl” mode. We’ve been running into issues where network speed settings have prevented us from moving data from source to target – for example, if you’ve got a Linux physical server with a 1Gb/s adapter connecting to a 100Mb/s switch you’ll end up with horrendously slow data transfer speeds. With Windows you can specify that setting (100 vs. 1000) but with pre-v9 Migrate Linux migrations you can’t. We’re hoping that Migrate 9 will beef up this support, but as it turns out there is a somewhat significant architecture change with Platespin products this time around.

If you’re like us, you purchased “workload” licenses from Platespin/Novell and deployed your Portability Suite server. This server housed your Migrate and Protect jobs. But with v9 you can no longer house Protect and Migrate on the same server:

NOTE: As of the current release, PlateSpin Migrate and PlateSpin Protect are separate products, no longer packaged as editions of PlateSpin Portability Suite, and cannot be collocated on the same host.

Well, that sucks. Now I need two servers to do the same thing that I’ve been doing with one. And licensing? Well, let’s just say that after some mild brain damage I’m engaging Novell to help me through how we’re going to split these things up. As for the upgrade you can supposedly just upgrade in place – run the installer and Platespin will utilize your existing database instance. But if you activated all your licenses first for both Protect and Migrate, you’ve now got them all tied up for one product or the other (assuming you’re using local SQL. I haven’t even checked into using an external database server for this as I didn’t even think to do so).

Once I’ve got this sorted out I hope to post up more about the latest version – in lab testing, it seems to be a small step forward for Windows, but a much larger leap for Linux migrations.

+1

mike — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:43:02 +0000

I used to have a little sidebar thing that said I was a father-to-be that I’ve since misplaced in the shuffle to this new layout for motogobi. Well, part of the time spent mucking around with the redesign (which I like a whole ton, ackshually) was done while sitting on the couch watching my son sleep. Everett was born Monday July 26th to a very overjoyed Mom and Dad who’ve been nothing less than totally in love with him since the moment we first set eyes on him…

iPhone Deathgrip Remediation Program begins

mike — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:51:35 +0000

Yep – I upgraded to an iPhone 4. No – I haven’t seen any noticeable signal drop when/if I deathgrip the thing. Then again, AT&T’s coverage has always sucked pretty much anywhere so I haven’t been paying too much attention. But I did just download the iPhone 4 Case Program App, tracked down what looks like a nice case to augment or possibly replace my current iFrogz Luxe Lean. For free. Thank you, Mr. Jobs.

And yes, I’m fully aware of how much the post makes me sound like a fanboi…