VMware – TIENHUIS

Rename VMware Virtual machines on ESX

Ever wanted to rename a virtual machine and found out that the “Rename” option merely renames the “friendly name” in VirtualCenter? You could clone the VM to a new one with the proper name, but that requires a lot of downtime usually. There is a quicker way: Shut down the VM Choose “Remove from inventory”… Continue reading Rename VMware Virtual machines on ESX

Areca releases driver for VMware

Areca has just released a beta driver for use with VMware ESX 3.5 🙂 This means that finally all the advantages of the Areca hardware can be used to build VMware systems. I consider the Areca’s one of the best (if not the best) professional SATA RAID controllers out there. I have used Dell servers… Continue reading Areca releases driver for VMware

Multiple full VM backups using VCB, rsync, OpenSSH and VSS

The problem Our shiny new VI3 setup works really well, but the backup chapter still needs work. I P2V-ed all our Linux boxes to VM’s, so the existing rsnapshot file level backups still run. So far so good. But, in addition to file level backups, I also want full VM backups, each day, both on-site… Continue reading Multiple full VM backups using VCB, rsync, OpenSSH and VSS

mount: special device /var/run does not exist

While P2V-ing an Ubuntu 6.06 server with my warm-cloning P2V method, I ran into a strange problem when booting: The exact text of the error is: mount: special device /var/run does not exist mount: special device /var/lock does not exist mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/shm/var.run, missing codepage or other error… Continue reading mount: special device /var/run does not exist

Manual P2V of Debian Sarge

Now that we at TERENA have a new and shiny setup of VMware VI3, I had to migrate several of our Debian 3.1 Sarge servers. Some of them had custom kernels, because of specific hardware. This virtualisation process (P2V, or Physical to Virtual) is properly supported for the Windows platform using the VMware Converter software.… Continue reading Manual P2V of Debian Sarge