Kammo’s Tech Blog

Since the release of Windows 7, VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client needs special attention for installation on this platform.  Keep in mind that VMware VI Client is not supported on Windows 7; however, you can follow this guide to get it installed and functioning correctly.

1. The following ’system.dll’ file is required. This can be downloaded via the hyperlink below.

system.dll (this file has been zipped)

2. Once downloaded, either open the zip file or unzip it and place the ‘system.dll’ file into one of the following directories depending on the version of Windows 7 being used, which would be either 32 or 64 bit.

x86 Directory Path = C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\Lib

x64 Directory Path = C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\Lib

Note: If the ‘Lib directory does not exist, create it within the ‘Launcher’ directory.

3. Edit the VpxClient.exe.config file which is located in the ‘Launcher’ directory, making the changes as outlined below and as seen in the image.

<runtime>
<developmentMode developerInstallation=”true”/>
</runtime>

Once the file has been edited, save the changes and close the file.

Note: If you receive a warning stating you cannot save the file, either reboot the computer or ensure that any VMware related software is closed and try again. If this doesn’t work then copy the file out of the “Launcher” directory, edit it, save it and then copy the file over the original one.

4. Next, edit the system properties of your machine. This can be achieved by right clicking on ’Computer’ (was usually known as ‘My Computer’ in older Microsoft OS versions) and selecting ’Properties’. Select ‘Advanced System Settings’

5. Select the ‘Environment Variables’ button

6. Add a new System variable. To do this, click ‘New…’ and add the following details.

Note: Depending on the Windows 7 OS version will depend on which Variable is required. Ensure the same path is used as per step 2.

Variable name = DEVPATH
Variable value (x86) = C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\Lib
Variable value (x64) = C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\Lib

Once this text is entered into the required fields, click OK, OK, OK and then close the View basic information about your computer properties window.

7. Launch the VI Client.

Note: You should run the VI Client with administrator privileges.

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Finally today I had implemented NIC bonding (bind two NICs so that it works as a single device for load balancing and/or fault tolerance).  The idea here is to improve performance by pumping out more data from both NICs via NIC bonding/teaming

This box act as datastore server for my test VMware environment.  Each virtual machine is run on top of an ESXi box, and the storage is stored on this server.  Each virtual disk is anywhere between 15GB and 50GB.  Since the virtual disks are stored on a separate piece of hardware from the virtualizing hardware, we must have a high level of throughput for our network traffic.  I am using CentOS 5.3 for the purpose of this document.  This process should readily work for most if not all Red Hat based distro’s.  Click to continue »

Need to know the release version (Update 3, Update 4, etc.) of the ESX 3.5 servers in an environment, but don’t want to consult a chart of build numbers? Just execute this command as root:

esxupdate query | grep -o 'ESX Server 3.5.0 Update.*' | sort | tail -n 1

If the server is a build of ESX prior to Update 1, the command will return nothing. It’s nice to have the update version in this familiar format for documentation.

Okay, you probably already know the ol’ Command-Shift-3 shortcut for taking a screen capture of your entire screen, and you may even know about Command-Shift-4, which gives you a crosshair cursor so you can choose which area of the screen you want to capture. But perhaps the coolest, most-secret hidden capture shortcut is Control-Command-Shift-3 (or 4), which, instead of creating a file on your desktop, copies the capture into your Clipboard memory, so you can paste it where you want.

I’m excited to be participating in the 2009 Outrun the Sun Race Against Melanoma in Indianapolis on Saturday, June 6. You can share in the excitement by helping support my involvement in this important initiative. All you need to do is log on to my personal fundraising page to learn more about melanoma education and research. It’s easy!

Please forward this email to anyone in your address book that you feel would want to help in such a generous cause!

Did you know:
Melanoma affects people of every age and every ethnicity?
Melanoma is the number one cancer in people ages 25-29?
One American dies of melanoma nearly every hour?

All gifts are important, welcome and appreciated! Thanks very much for your help.

Protect your skin. Protect yourself. Protect your life.

Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support Outrun the Sun, Inc.

******************************************************************************
Some email systems do not support the use of links and therefore this link may not appear to work. If so, copy and paste the following into your browser:
http://raceagainstmelanoma.kintera.org/faf/r.asp?t=4&i=310059&u=310059-252960692
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Hope you enjoy these humorous commands. Go ahead and try them, they really do work.

% cat "food in cans"
cat: can't open food in cans

% nice man woman
No manual entry for woman.

% "How would you rate Quayle's incompetence?
Unmatched ".

% Unmatched ".
Unmatched ".

% [Where is Jimmy Hoffa?
Missing ].

% ^How did the sex change operation go?^
Modifier failed.

% If I had a ( for every $ the Congress spent, what would I have?
Too many ('s.

% make love
Make: Don't know how to make love. Stop.

% sleep with me
bad character

% got a light?
No match.

% man: why did you get a divorce?
man:: Too many arguments.

% !:say, what is saccharine?
Bad substitute.

% %blow
%blow: No such job.

% \(-
(-: Command not found.

$ PATH=pretending! /usr/ucb/which sense
no sense in pretending!

$ drink matter
matter: cannot create

If you are having issues mounting your ntfs partition you will need to add a couple of rpms to make it happen.

You will need these rpm’s installed to make it happen:

fuse, fuse-ntfs-3g, dkms, dkms-fuse

Before installing these you need to install dag’s rpm repo.  You can download the rpm for CentOS 5.* and RHEL 5.* here

Tip: Use wget from the directory you want to put the file in to download it so you don’t have to download locally then upload to your server.

install the rpm by issuing:

# rpm -ivh rpmforge-release-0.3.6-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm

Once rpmforge has been added to yum, install the ntfs rpm’s by issuing:

# yum install fuse fuse-ntfs-3g dkms dkms-fuse

That will install all the needed software to mount your NTFS volume in rw mode.

next find where the NTFS partition is:

# fdisk -l | grep -i ntfs
/dev/sdd1   *           1       60800   488375968+   7  HPFS/NTFS

Now that we know where the NTFS partition is, lets create a mount point.
# mkdir /mnt/ntfs

now lets mount it up:
# mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdd1 /mnt/ntfs

That should have your ntfs partition mounted to /mnt/ntfs

Change to the directory and list the contents:
# cd /mnt/ntfs
# ls

I purchased new JVC HDD camcorder over the weekend and took a couple test clips and found difficulties importing the videos over the firewire cable to my macbook in iMovie.  Plugging the video camera into the firewire port of my Macbook did nothing.  After some Googling I came to discover that the best way to import the videos is to actually use the USB port to do it.

The software needed is ffmpegX.  Download it, then copy the binary to your applications directory.  On your first launch, you will be prompted to get the encoders.  I downloaded the encoders into a newly created directory: /Library/Encoders.  Once you’ve downloaded and extracted the contents of the .zip file, click on the location buttons to tell the application where the encoders are.

Now lets look at the workflow:

1.  Plug camera into the usb port of your macbook, a new drive will appear on your desktop.

2.  copy the contents of the SD_Video folder to your mac excluding everything other than the *.MOD files.  (This means you want the .MOD files on your mac)

3.  Open ffmpegX

4.  Drag the video you want to import to ffmpegX

5.  Choose the video type you want to encode to (I like using DV, it makes bigger files, but is better quality IMO)

6.  Click the encode button.

7.  Repeat for all other video files you want to import.

8.  Open your video editing application (I use iMovie) and import the converted video file for editing.

That’s it!  Happy editing!

An ISO image is an archive file (disk image) of an optical disc using a conventional ISO (International Organization for Standardization) format. ISO image files typically have a file extension of .ISO. The name “ISO” is taken from the ISO 9660 file system used with CD-ROM media, but an ISO image can also contain UDF file system because UDF is backward-compatible to ISO 9660.

You can mount an ISO images via the loop device under Linux. It is possible to specify transfer functions (for encryption/decryption or other purposes) using loop device.

But, how do you mount an ISO image under Linux? You need to use mount command as follows:

Procedure to mount ISO images under Linux

1) You must login as a root user, if not root user then switch to root user using following command:
$ su -

2) Create the directory i.e. mount point:
# mkdir -p /mnt/disk

3) Use mount command as follows to mount iso file called disk1.iso:
# mount -o loop disk1.iso /mnt/disk

4) Change directory to list files stored inside an ISO image:
# cd /mnt/disk
# ls -l

More about loop device

A loop device is a pseudo-device that makes a file accessible as a block device. Loop devices are often used for CD ISO images and floppy disc images. Mounting a file containing a filesystem via such a loop mount makes the files within that filesystem accessible. They appear in the mount point directory using above commands.