Are you looking to automate the Installation of the VMware Tools with a Silent Install? if you, you are in luck! Leveraging the “VMware Tools.msi” you can deploy the VMware Tools using SCCM, Altiris, or other software delivery mechanism. Valentine Hamburger, a Technical Account Manager at VMware has put together a great little guide for Silent and unattended Installations on the VMware Communities site.

Before you begin, be sure you have all the required modules in the same directory as your “VMware Tools.MSI”. You can find all the files in the “VMware Tools.ISO” CD-ROM image. While not all the modules are technically required, the modules you intend to install will need to be present at the time of installation. So, if you want to pass on the GUEST SDK Module installation, you can exclude the GuestSDK.CAB from your install package.

• Command.cab
• GuestSDK.cab
• Micros~1.cab
• Sync.cab
• VMXNET3.cab
• WYSE.cab

Depending on if this is an update or a new deployment, we need to plan ahead for a little different delivery mechanism since the command line are slightly different. Depending on your required install options, a different set of command line parameters are required. Here is the list :

The parameters are required to control what is installed and what modules are left out. Using the MSIEXEC command, your installation command line might look like the following.

msiexec /i “VMware Tools.msi” ADDLOCAL=ALL REMOVE=”Hgfs,WYSE,GuestSDK,vmdesched” /qn /l* C:\temp\toolsinst.log /norestart

Some important command line parameters include:

• /norestart – Prevents a reboot after install. This may come in handy if you want to get the tools installed but wait until the next maintenance window to reboot.
• /qn – Queit Installation without GUI or prompts for user input.
• /l* <pathToFile> – Provide a location to log the installation of the VMware Tools.

If you intend to update your VMware Tools, we two additional command.

• REINSTALL=ALL – Updates the previously installed modules
• REINSTALLMODE=vomus – Forces the installation of the new .MSI

Our new update commandline would look like the following:

msiexec /i “VMware Tools.msi” REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=vomus /l* C:\temp\toolsinst.log /qn /norestart

Additional commands for modifying or uninstalling the VMware Tools is addressed by Valentine in his guide as well as a detailed description of each of the modules you can install.

Read the guide:
http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/12413-102-4-13370/VMware%20Tools%20-%20Unattended_Install.pdf

Over the past four years, I have been amazed at how many companies have resisted virtualizing Oracle on VMware products because of fear of support from Oracle. Most had heard FUD over the years regarding corrupt data, performance issues, and DR nightmares from their Oracle account teams while at the same time being told to virtualize Oracle on the Oracle VM Virtualbox. While Oracle never claims the platform is better, the reasoning was Oracle could be accountable for the entire stack and the performance issues would be solely their own. This logic is flawed.

Fortunately, we no longer need to worry about Oracle denying support for a solution on VMware vSphere. AS of November, 2010, Oracle finally opened its eye, and ears, to the customer’s feedback. The single document maintained by Oracle covering the support statements for Oracle products on VMware hypervisors has been updated. Document ID #249212.1, available on MyOracleSupport.com, now addresses all Oracle products, including Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) on VMware vSphere.

From the VMware side, we wil ltakr a pro-active role in your oracle support. From the VMware Oracle Support Page, we share the following steps to ensure your issues are resolved smoothly between Oracle and VMware.

If your organization is concerned about running Oracle products in a VMware vSphere Environment, take a moment to review the VMware Customer Success Stories of customers running Oracle in a virtualized environment on vSphere.

Also, be sure to check out the VMware Communities post on Oracle RAC Performance on vSphere 4.1 posted December 16^th, 2010.
 

Links:

Oracle RAC on vSphere 4.1
http://blogs.vmware.com/performance/2010/12/oracle-rac-performance-on-vsphere-41.html

VMware Support Policy for Oracle Products
http://vmware.com/support/policies/oracle-support.html

Oracle Database Customer Success Stories
http://vmware.com/solutions/partners/alliances/oracle-database-customers.html

Over the weekend, I took the time to upgrade my Late 2009 MacBook Pro’s tiny and slow hard drive to something more suited for Demos, Labs, and Virtual Machines. Short of investing a fortune on a Solid State Drive, I opted for the new Seagate Momentus XT 500 GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s 32 MB Cache 2.5 Inch Solid State Hybrid Drive (ST95005620AS). ($119.99 @ Amazon.com) The pairing of a 7200RPM 500GB Drive and a 4GB SSD Read Cache were a compelling combination.

To start, before making any changes, I had Apple Time Machine capture all of the user and application data from the current drive. With just over 200GB of data on the volume, it took 2 hours to archive the data to a Maxtor external drive using Firewire. Once the drives were backed up, the minor surgery started. In less than 5 minutes the entire physical removal and new drive installation was completed.

After an OS Install and Time Machine restore, the Laptop was ready to reboot. Surprisingly, the laptop boot up to my old configuration and was running just like the old system with the exception of a small speed boost. I quickly restarted the system again to measure the boot speed. My initial boot was around two and a half minutes to get to the desktop with all of my background applications running. I rebooted again. The second reboot took just under one minute to start. I figured I could reboot again and see of the 4GB SSD would cache more of the base OS. I was pleased to discover that by my fourth reboot, the system was coming up on average in about 25 seconds. This was a significant improvement and a great surprise considering 90% of the time I boot up only to show a PowerPoint or check email.

If you are interested in upgrading your drive yourself, OWC has a great video on the upgrade process:

VMware announced a promtion to get free VMware Alive VM when you purchase an eligible VMware vSphere product.  The promotion indicates you can receive VMware Alive VM allowing you to manage up to 50 virtual machines and one year of basic support at nor additional charge.  This is a great way to get in on a production product without any additional investment.

As I stated a few days ago with the release of VMware Alive 7.2, Alive is a uniquely designed product that enables the VM administrator to have a comprehensive view of the overall performance of their complete vSphere environment.

• Indicators of health, workload and capacity
• Heat maps to easily locate trouble areas
• Mapping of virtual machines to host to cluster and datacenter to get to root cause analysis
• Trending and analytics for quick and effective problem solving

To qualify, you must purchase an eligible product between Nov 23, 2010 and March 1, 2011.

Promotion Details: http://www.vmware.com/landing_pages/vsphere-promotion/
Eligible products for vSphere Promotion

SecPoint releases their WPA Penetrator as a VM that can be run from almost any Laptop.

WPA Cracking VMware Portable Penetrator from secpoint on Vimeo.

WPA Cracking VMware Portable Penetrator.
The Portable Penetrator now runs on VMware

http://www.secpoint.com/wpa-crack-portable-penetrator-vmware.html

Another quick release note. vCenter Configuration Manager 5.4 released yesterday.

Downloads available here:
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/datacenter_downloads/vmware_vcenter_configuration_manager/5_0

The Integrian Alive product was offically released as a VMware product today as Vmware Alive Enterprise 7.2.

VAE 7.2 Download Page:
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/vae_7_2/ZEB0YnRlaGViZGoqZA==

I just ordered the new SwitchEasy CARA Hybrid Case for iPad (Black). It has a unique exterior design and adds a little more protection than my Apple case. What I liked was it protected the screen and the device and still gives me all the functions of my Apple case but with a hard plastic shell.

It also includes all the extras:

• One CARA™ for iPad
• Two portable fold-out stands
• One anti-static Screen Guard
• One Microfiber Wipe
• One Squeegee for your Screen Guard application
• Two Headphone Jack Protectors
• Two 30 Pin Connector Protectors

I’ll keep you posted on how I like it after it gets installed.

After taking an ESX performance Troubleshooting course a few years back, I regularly find that most of the issues we encounter in the field are related to vSphere admins not knowing what is the root cause of their performance issues.  Sure, you could take the wild guess and point at Disk or CPU Saturation, but often, the issue is much more obscure.  As a result, I started working on a small cheat sheet to assist customers in troubleshooting the root cause of their performance issues in ESX.

Armed with my trusty putty.exe and my cheat sheet, I set out to validate a few performance issues with a friend’s server.  Stepping through the diagnostics and output of ESX top quickly took us to an HBA issue.  All along we were blaming the disk. 

I’ve gotten so much value from this little gem, I am sharing it with the ESX Community! 

Download my VMware vSphere Performance Resolution Cheat Sheet.PDF

Additional resources:
VMware vSphere 4 Performance Troubleshooting Guide form VMware

I’m taking lunch and reflecting on last nights dinner.  We hosted a dinner party last night for several friends.  Two are from India, and when they found out we loved Indian food, they volunteered to help make an elaborate Indian dinner for the eight of us.  The preparation was fun, but we hit upon a question that none of were certain how to answer.  What type of wine goes well with spicy Indian food?

3 Reds with Indian

In an effort to find the perfect pairing, we decided on opening several and trying each with the meal.   First, we tried a Bonny Doon Syrah Le Pousseur 2007 Wine. This has been one of my favorite wines and Bonny Doon makes a wonder wine for under $20.  This paired well with he Lamb Kafta!

Second, we opened Banfi Chianti Classico Riserva 2006. The Chianti made a good balance of fruit and tannins and its deep ruby red color didn’t come off as a fruit bomb but rather a subtle and smooth fruit and wood flavor.

Lastly, we jumped into a unique blend, The Black Chook Shiraz Viognier 2008.  This Shiraz Viognier blend blends a White Grape with a Red Grape.  Combined, the end result is a rich and fragrant blend of fruit and spice.  Apricots, cherries and blueberry pop up in your nose while with small hint of tannins from the oak.  I have to admit, this was my favorite of the bunch.

Were any of them ideal for an Indian dinner?  Maybe not, but we tried them, and a few others to find out how spice changes the flavor of your wine.  Our guest had different opinions.  The Midwesterners preferred the fruity creamy flavors and the curry lovers loved the acidic flavors.  The some wanted sweet to offset the spice and the others wanted something that made the flavors of Cumin, Coriander, Clove and Cayenne pop!  We didn’t find a perfect match and we all had our favorites.

Final verdict… Drink what you like!