...
Note that despite the comment on the second line (see interfaces(5)), not everything is explained there. You have to look at resolvconf(8) as well.
VMware tools
Our setup consists of VMware ESXi 4.1 boxes, and I configured the Precise VMs with a vmxnet3 NIC, and a paravirtualised SCSI hard disk, and the linux-image-virtual kernel.
When it comes to the VMware tools, there are a few options:
1 - Do nothing
This is the simplest approach, and usually my favourite. A freshly installed VM will load a number of VMware modules that apparently are part of the 3.2 kernel these days:
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[ 2.135796] VMware PVSCSI driver - version 1.0.1.0-k
[ 2.136064] vmw_pvscsi 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[ 2.136279] vmw_pvscsi: using 64bit dma
[ 2.136688] VMware vmxnet3 virtual NIC driver - version 1.1.29.0-k-NAPI
[ 2.137030] vmxnet3 0000:0b:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
[ 2.137217] vmxnet3 0000:0b:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 2.201568] vmxnet3 0000:0b:00.0: (unregistered net_device): features: sg csum vlan jf tso tsoIPv6 lro highDMA
[ 2.202810] vmxnet3 0000:0b:00.0: irq 72 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 2.202837] vmxnet3 0000:0b:00.0: irq 73 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 2.202863] vmxnet3 0000:0b:00.0: irq 74 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 2.202890] vmxnet3 0000:0b:00.0: irq 75 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 2.202916] vmxnet3 0000:0b:00.0: irq 76 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 2.203752] vmw_pvscsi 0000:03:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 2.205264] vmw_pvscsi 0000:03:00.0: irq 77 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 2.205322] vmw_pvscsi: using MSI-X
[ 2.205497] scsi2 : VMware PVSCSI storage adapter rev 2, req/cmp/msg rings: 8/8/1 pages, cmd_per_lun=64
[ 2.205775] vmw_pvscsi 0000:03:00.0: VMware PVSCSI rev 2 host #2
[ 2.206296] scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access VMware Virtual disk 1.0 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 |
Also, it will load the vmw_balloon
module.
I'd say all of this is an improvement over the "do nothing" approach in Lucid, because back then no specific VMware modules would be loaded at all. But now, VCenter still displays "Not installed" as the VMware Tools status...
2 - Distro provided OpenVM-tools
This is slightly more work than the "do nothing" scenario. To install the OpenVM-tools on a server, be sure to leave out the recommended packages, so that you don't end up with tons of unnecessary X-server packages:
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apt-get install --no-install-recommends linux-headers-virtual open-vm-dkms open-vm-tools |
The open-vm-dkms package takes care of automatically rebuilding modules whenever there is a kernel upgrade. You can see this in action when installing it:
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Setting up open-vm-dkms (2011.12.20-562307-0ubuntu1) ...
Loading new open-vm-tools-2011.12.20 DKMS files...
First Installation: checking all kernels...
Building only for 3.2.0-23-virtual
Building for architecture x86_64
Building initial module for 3.2.0-23-virtual
Done. |
After this there a quite some vm modules loaded:
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root@precise:~# lsmod | grep vm
vmxnet 26931 0
vmblock 18757 0
vmsync 13024 0
vmhgfs 63406 0
vmci 97231 1 vmhgfs
vmw_balloon 12809 0
vmw_pvscsi 22881 1
vmxnet3 45922 0 |
VCenter now says the VMware Tools status is "Unmanaged" - slightly better than nothing.
3 - VMware provided tools
This is the most work, but it's not too hard.
It basically comes down to:
- in vSphere client: right-click Guest -> Install/Upgrade VMware tools
- In the guest:
mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
, then extract the tar.gz - Install the tools using
vmware-install.pl --default
I will run some test to see which scenarios allow VCB to make backups.