Issues with ip6tables

Whilst troubleshooting a VM hanging issue with a EXSi 5.0 guest running CentOS 5, i noticed a strange error after my last kernel update.

It had me a bit confused, as I distinctly recall disabling all IPv6 support while building the machine.

Anyhow, since I don't need IPv6 support at the moment and to avoid any unnecessary red flags while booting, I'll just go ahead and disable it completely.

0. Login as root / su

1. Check to see if it loads on boot.
chkconfig --list | grep ip6tables

//in my instance, it was enabled for levels 2,3,4 and 5;

2. Disable ip6tables
chkconfig ip6tables off

3. Stop ip6tables service (if running)
service ip6tables status (if process is runnig, stop; if not, ignore next line)
service ip6tables stop

That's it!


It may or may not help my VM hanging issue, but at least it'd clear that pesky red flag.

Cheers,
noveck

Mounting an ISO to an installed VM on VMWare ESXi

I had a little maintenance item to do which involved mounting an ISO to a working VM. Even when the ISO was attached from the VM settings, it somehow was not booting from the device, apparently ESXi sets the first boot device to the HDD by default once a OS is loaded and it will never boot from the CD/ISO. In this case I was using Linux gparted, but for the Windows guys it can be a Windows Server Rescue or something.

This is how I got it to work:

1. Set boot delay to 3000 milliseconds.

                 -Right Click VM -> Edit settings
                 - Options Tab, edit Boot options -> Power on Boot Delay parameter (I used 3000ms or 3 seconds)

2. Mount the ISO from the Datastore / Client DVD

                 - Right Click VM -> Edit settings
                 - Options Tab, CD/DVD Drive x, browse to uploaded ISO or Client Device.

3. Start the VM, at the boot menu hit ESC

4. Select CD/DVD boot option

5. Use your ISO media / Application.

6. When completed reset the Boot Delay parameter to 0.

-noveck

VMWare ESXi error - Server could not interpret client request (fixed!)

My VMware Infrastructure client simply refused to connect to my ESXi server today. The error:
"Error - Server could not interpret client request".

Very uninformative.

Took a while to figure it out, VMWare's site was not too helpful.

Here is how to re-establish connectivity with your server.

1. Log on to the ESXi physical server directly (if its in a different building, put on your walking shoes)
2. Navigate to the Option: Restart Management Agents
3. Restart the management agent (F11 to confirm)
4. Log in using the VMWare Infrastructure Client

Connectivity should now be established.


-n