VMWare has recently launched a work around for the problem of running the vSphere client on a Windows 7 workstations.
Link to the document : http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1011329
Running VMware vSphere Client on Windows 7
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Author Archives: Marco
ESXi 4 on a USB memory stick
- First get the following tools: 7-Zip(Free), WinImage(Demo)
- Download the ESXi ISO (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-4.0.0-164009.x86_64.iso)
- Open the ISO with 7-Zip
- Open “image.tgz” with 7-Zip
- Browse to “\image.tgz.temptar\usr\lib\vmware\installer\VMware-VMvisor-big-164009-x86_64.dd.bz2\”
- Extract “VMware-VMvisor-big-164009-x86_64.dd”
- Open WinImage and go to Disk, click on “Restore Virtual Harddisk Image on physical drive”
- Select a physical drive
- Select “VMware-VMvisor-big-164009-x86_64.dd”
- And click “yes” to write the DD image to the USB Disk
Enable SSH on VMWare ESXi 4.0
By default this isn’t possible and supported. But there is a way to get this working.
- Go to the ESXi Console and press alt+F1.
Installing HP Insight Management Agents on VMWare ESX 4 server
Installing HP Insight Management Agents on ESX Server
In this case, I am using HP Insight Management Agents for VMware 8.2.5 (available here). I am also using a HP DL380 G6 Proliant servers with VMware versions 4.0.
Note: do not include the quotes (”) when entering commands.
PREPARE:
- Download the correct Insight Manager agents for VMware.
- Unzip the tgz file using WinRAR or something similar, and peruse the readme for up-to-date info.
- Using the ILO utility or the physical console, hit Alt-F1, login as root at the command line.
- To allow root ssh access in ESX as well as enable sshd client access (SFTP, SSH), we have to change the local sshd_config file.
- At the command line, type: “vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config”
- Go to the line that says PermitRootLogin, change from “no” to “yes”
- If you are unfamiliar with vi, use arrow keys to navigate, put cursor on the “n” of “no”, hit the i key to insert, then type in “yes” and delete/backspace “no”. Then hit ESC twice to exit Insert mode. Type colon (:) to get the in-editor command line, type “wq!” and hit enter. This will save the doc and exit vi.
- Back at the command line type: “service sshd restart”, hit enter.
- After the service restarts, type “logout” to exit the console, hit alt-f11 to go back to the esx screen.
GPMC. An unknown error occurred while the HTML report was being created
When using GPMC and looking at an HTML report in the “settings” tab, you might encounter this error message when it tries to load the report. This error is raised when you have configured IE Maintenance and have imported Trusted Zones. In combination with IE 7 installed, GPMC fails to parse the files for the report.
The User Profile Service failed the logon.
Yesterday I received the following error on my Windows 7 x64 Enterprise laptop when I tried to logon.
The User Profile Service Failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded.
Then the logoff message appeared en I was back where I was started.
The strange thing is nothing had changed when I shutdown the laptop last night. No update’s installed, no software installed. So I started searching the internet. The following article resolved my problem. It is an article about Windows Vista, you can read it here. Link.
The first thing I tried was the system restore to an earlier restore point. That worked for me..
Create an All-in-one x86+x64 Win7/Vista/Server 2008/R2 USB stick
One of the great things about the Vista and post-Vista operating systems is that the installer subsystem allows you a great deal of flexibility when it comes to installing multiple operating systems. It is fairly easy to put together a single installation DVD or USB stick that will allow you to install Vista, Windows 7, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2 – in a variety of x86 and x64 flavors.
A couple of things to note about this guide:
- I do not use Vista — I have never really used Vista and now with Windows 7 out there really is no reason to; however the steps here will work just fine with Vista installation sources
- I have only tested this using a USB stick and will only cover that method here – it’s much more flexible (and faster) for installation than using DVD — but DVDs should work just fine: you can find plenty of tutorials on the web that will tell you how to use oscdimg.exe to take the files we create here and turn them into a burnable ISO
WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
- USB stick, at least 4 GB (perhaps larger depending on how many OSes you plan to integrate, I use a 16 GB) that has been properly formatted using Steps 1 and 2 here
- ISOs or DVDs of the operating systems that you plan to integrate
- imagex.exe (can be found for download on the web, or you can download the full 1.7 GB WAIK here)
- computer running Vista or newer operating system (XP should work but I have not tested it)
Keynotes Technet Live online
The keynotes from Steve Ballmer and the keynote from Daniel van Soest and Tony Krijnen are online. Both keynotes were given at the Windows 7 launch event in The Hague, The Netherlands. For more information see the link. On this page there are other interesting presentations about the optimized datacenter, security and other stuff. Presentations are in Dutch.
Booting from a VHD disk
Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 have a really useful feature called “VHD Boot”. With that you can boot your entire Windows out of a Virtual Hard Disk file (as those used with Virtual PC or Virtual Server).
This VHD file is mounted as a virtual disk, you can use it as a normal hard disk drive, but all the data is stored in ONE file. The machine is booted physically (unlike with Virtual PC), so you can only run one at a time, but have the full machine’s power.
The advantages are magnificent:
- Simply copy one file (the .VHD file) and you’re entire system is included.
- Create incremental VHD files: One VHD file can be based on another one. So if you have different systems, create a base Win7 VHD and make all others incremental. This will save a lot of disk space!
There’re also some small disadvantages 🙂
- The .VHD booted OS needs to be Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 or later.
- There’s a performance decrease of about 3%.
- Hibernate and some BitLocker scenarios don’t work
(BitLocker CAN be used within the guest VHD though, but not on the disk where the VHD resides). - Windows Experience index won’t work.
So how do you install a VHD-Boot machine?