Auto Deploy PowerPack

My favorite tool  PowerGUI.

http://powergui.org/index.jspa

Alan Renouf  over at Virtu-Al has the Auto Deploy PowerPack.

"The Image Builder and Auto Deploy Powerpack is a PowerGUI Powerpack which enables us as VMware admins to have a graphical interface to Image Builder and Auto Deploy which are currently released as PowerShell snap-ins only."

He has also created a video on the basics how to use and import PowerPack.

Here is the Link Auto Deploy PowerPack

ESXi 5 Log Files

VMware have new locations for ESXi logs. Below are the logs, locations and a brief description.

Note: ESXi logs are in memory and syslog server is required if logs need to be retained.

VMware Log KB.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=2004201

Also here is a link for to various VMware product log locations.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=1021806

ESXi 5.0 Host Log Files

• /var/log/auth.log: ESXi Shell authentication success and failure.
• /var/log/dhclient.log: DHCP client service, including discovery, address lease requests and renewals.
• /var/log/esxupdate.log: ESXi patch and update installation logs.
• /var/log/hostd.log: Host management service logs, including virtual machine and host Task and Events, communication with the vSphere Client and vCenter Server vpxa agent, and SDK connections.
• /var/log/shell.log: ESXi Shell usage logs, including enable/disable and every command entered.
• /var/log/sysboot.log: Early VMkernel startup and module loading.
• /var/log/syslog.log: Management service initialization, watchdogs, scheduled tasks and DCUI use.
• /var/log/usb.log: USB device arbitration events, such as discovery and pass-through to virtual machines.
• /var/log/vob.log: VMkernel Observation events, similar to vob.component.event.
• /var/log/vmkernel.log: Core VMkernel logs, including device discovery, storage and networking device and driver events, and virtual machine startup.
• /var/log/vmkwarning.log: A summary of Warning and Alert log messages excerpted from the VMkernel logs.
• /var/log/vmksummary.log: A summary of ESXi host startup and shutdown, and an hourly heartbeat with uptime, number of virtual machines running, and service resource consumption.

Logs from vCenter Server Components on ESXi 5.0

When an ESXi 5.0 host is managed by vCenter Server 5.0, two components are installed, each with its own logs:

• /var/log/vpxa.log: vCenter Server vpxa agent logs, including communication with vCenter Server and the Host Management hostd agent.
• /var/log/fdm.log: vSphere High Availability logs, produced by the fdm service.

Booting ESX off USB/SD

Interesting blog at ESXi Chronicles regarding booting from USB/SD.

A snippet below.


At VMworld I was surprised at the number of questions I was asked related to booting ESXi off of USB/SD. Unfortunately, the vSphere docs largely assume you will use a local disk and don't really cover USB/SD, as such it’s not always easy to find answers to common questions. Below are some answers to several of the more popular USB/SD related questions.

1. What size USB/SD should I use?
The minimum disk size required to install ESXi is 1GB. When booting USB/SD there is little benefit to using a larger device because any space beyond the 1^st GB will go unused. When choosing a USB/SD boot device, it’s not the size of the device that is important but the reliability of the device. Be sure to use good quality USB/SD devices.


You can read it here. http://blogs.vmware.com/esxi/2011/09/booting-esxi-off-usbsd.html