VMware: Windows VM – No Mouse & Cannot Install VMware Tools
KB ID 0001370 Problem Every time this happens to me I have a rant about it, and everyone looks perplexed, surely this does not only happen to me? Using ESX6.5 I build a new Windows VM, and theres no mouse, web client has nothing, try the VMRC then I get a mouse pointer, but it’s as responsive as trying to play chess with a firehose! Once you install VMware tools it’s fine, but here’s the problem – try...
vSphere – ‘Cannot complete operation due to concurrent modification by another operation’
KB ID 0001069 Problem I had been messing around with ports groups and VLANS, and afterwards when attempting to present a server some vNICs I got this error. Solution Virtual Center Appliance I have to completely restart the Virtual Center Appliance, before this error would clear! Solution (Windows vCenter) No matter what I did this error refused to budge, when this happens it’s usually because vCenter has got its knickers in a...
VMware vSphere and ESXi – Create a ‘Logon Banner’
KB ID 0001346 Problem Before you create your logon banner it’s important to understand; Where you want it to appear. What the underlying file is actually called (on ESXi). For access to the vSphere Web client (including the Flash client), the setting you want is ”Login Banner’ (Note: vCenter 6.0.Update2 or higher is required); Using this you CAN FORCE, (but you don’t have to) a user to tick “I...
VMware Converter – Unable to Deploy Agent
KB ID 0001345 Problem I still think P2V conversions are cool, and I’ve been doing them since version 3! It seems though every time I try and do one with the standalone converter though I get this error; VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Unable to complete installation/uninstallation of converter agent on ‘{target}’ Solution I always spend five minutes messing with firewalls, checking remote registry services,...
vSphere 6.5 vCenter Appliance – Replacing Certificates
KB ID 0001194 Problem In vSphere 5 and earlier versions this was not a ‘fun’ job at all, many times I sat down to do it, and lost the will to live. Now there’s a nice new tool built into vCenter that does ‘most’ of the hard work for you. Here I’m using the vCenter appliance but the tool is also available on the Windows version. For my certificates I’m using Microsoft Certificate Services....
VMware ESXi6 – Replacing the Default Certificates
KB ID 0001195 Problem This is pretty much part two of the last article I wrote, so make sure you have the vCenter CA setup as a Sub CA of your Microsoft Certificate Services Deployment. See the following article; vSphere 6 vCenter Appliance – Replacing Certificates Now we take the next step, and replace the certificates on the ESXi hosts. Solution Note: Joining the ESXi Hosts to the domain is not essential, it just makes things a...
Deploying and Configuring The vCenter Server Appliance
KB ID 0001146 Problem The vCenter Appliance used to be a simple to deploy from OVA, but now you need to deploy it from another machine, (and it has to be a Windows machine). Solution Before you attempt to deploy the appliance, ‘pre-create’ its host records in your DNS. Download the vCenter Appliance .ISO file and mount it on your Windows machine, navigate to the vcsa-iu-installer directory, and run the installer.exe file....
VMware Linux VM – ‘No DEFAULT or UI configuration directive found’
KB ID 0001334 Problem Last week while trying to create a Linux VM on a VMware ESX 6.5 server, I saw this; No DEFAULT or UI configuration directive found Solution Normally the error indicates theres something wrong with the install media, so I deleted it and uploaded it again, same error. So I downloaded the setup iso file again and checked its checksum, to make sure it was OK, (it was, but the problem persisted). To fix the problem I...
Linux – Install VMware Tools
KB ID 0001330 Problem Note: This is to install the VMware Tools NOT the OPEN-VM-TOOLS. I’ve had to do this a few times now, and every time I Goolge how to do it, I get pages of instructions on how to install the open vm tools. When what I really want is to install the VMware Tools. Solution I’m using vSphere ESX, but even if you are using VMware Workstation or VMware Fusion, you can still select ‘Install/Upgrade...
CentOS / Redhat / Fedora – VMware VMXNET3 Adapter Not Working
KB ID 0001329 Problem This has tripped me up a couple of times, and if you Google the problem, you find a load of posts saying ‘Just install VMware tools that will fix the problem’ It Wont! And I’ll tell you why, run ifconfig You will notice you have a network card, but you will also notice that it’s got a strange name ‘ens160’ not eth0 as you would normally expect? Anyway let’s prove...