vSphere ESX – Configure Buffalo Terastation 5000 as an iSCSI Target
KB ID 0000899 Problem This little NAS box is a cheap way of adding a large amount of storage. Below I’m going to configure it as an iSCSI target, then connect my ESX5 host to it. I’m not setting up any CHAP authentication, but I’ll show you where it’s configured, if you want to deploy yours a little more securely. Also it’s considered good practice to separate your storage network traffic, from your...
vSphere ESX – Server 2012 – 3D Graphics Option ‘Greyed Out’
KB ID 0000909 Problem Whilst attempting to add 3D graphic support to a Windows Server 2012 guest VM, the option was greyed out. Solution 1. Locate the .vmx file for this virtual machine and download it so you can edit it (Select a Host > Configuration > Storage > {Storage the guest is on} > Right Click > Browse Data Store > {Guest VM Name}) > Download. 2. Edit the file, and add the following to the end of the vmx...
vSphere – Virtual Machine Will Not ‘Power Off’ (Hangs at 95%)
KB ID 0000911 Problem I had a virtual machine crash on me, while I was doing some work on it As I was unable to shut it down gracefully, I attempted to ‘Power Off’. It progressed to 95% and stopped there. Expecting it to ‘time out’, I carried on with some other work and kept an eye on it. 30 minutes later there was still no progress. Solution 1. Enable SSH access on the ESX host that is hosting the problem VM....
vSphere – Floppy Drive ‘Won’t Appear’
KB ID 0001020 Problem “It’s 2015 why are you messing around with floppy drives?” I hear you ask! Well for importing certificate requests, and issued certificates from an offline root CA server, it’s still considered best practice to use a virtual floppy drive rather than connect the offline root server to the production network. So today while deploying a PKI infrastructure, I needed to present a floppy drive...
Windows Server 2012 – Install Error
KB ID 0000618 Problem I thought I’d spin up Server 2012 today, and as usual with all new OS’s I run them up in VMware Workstation to take a look (I’m running Workstation 8.0.3 build-703057). As soon as it started up I was greeted by this. Your PC needs to restart. Please hold down the power button. Error Code: 0x0000005D Parameters: 0x000000000FEBFBFF 0×0000000020000800 0×0000000000000000 0×0000000000000000 Below is...