Setting up static IP address for ESXi Server

• Put your ESX host in maintenance mode and disconect it from Virtual Center.
• Have a physical access to the VMWare ESXi host console.
• Remove the old IP adress (by deleting the vswif interface, if vsfif0 is your interface to remove) “esxcfg-vswif -d vswif0″
• Create a new vswif interface with the new IP address. “esxcfg-vswif -a vswif0 -p Service\ Console -i 10.0.10.10 -n 255.255.0.0 -b 10.0.255.255″, where -i is the new IP address, -n is your new subnet and -b is your broadcast. This one is the default value, if you need replace Service Console with the name of your Service Console port group.
• Update the default gateway by opening “/etc/sysconfig/network" file through vi and add "GATEWAY=10.0.0.254" after Hostname line.
• Then you need to restart the interface. Do “esxcfg-vswif -s vswif0″ (this will disable the vswif0 interface) and “esxcfg-vswif -e vswif0″ (this will enable the vswif0 interface)
• You should now update DNS, DHCP and your HOSTS files.
• Open the VI client and highlight the ESX Server host and click on the Configuration tab. Click DNS and Routing & select properties. Change the appropriate values like hostname, domain, DNS servers and default gateway.
• Reboot the server.

Enabling FTP & SSH on ESXi Server

• At the VMware ESXi host, press ALT+F1 to access the console.
• Enter the word 'unsupported' in the console
• Then type the password for root login
• To enable SSH and/or FTP, edit /etc/inetd.conf and remove the comments from the lines having #SSH and #FTP (on both IPv4 & IPv6)
• Save the file & restart the inetd process, by issuing the command /sbin/services.sh restart
• Now you can access the host via SSH and/or FTP

How to disable password complexity on ESXi Server 4.0

• Logon to the ESX Server through a telnet session or through console
• Open the file /etc/pam.d/common-password
• Just add 'enforce=none' at the end of first line & save it.
• No restart required for the ESX Server

#%PAM-1.0
password requisite /lib/security/$ISA/pam_passwdqc.so retry=3 min=8,8,8,7,6 enforce=none
password sufficient /lib/security/$ISA/pam_unix.so use_authtok md5 shadow
password required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_deny.so

Importing PST file onto Exchange 2007 mailbox

At the time of writing & testing this import process, these are the steps I carried and here are some of the issues I encountered & troubleshooting steps I took to overcome. Things might be different by the time when you attempt it in your environment. To import data from a .pst file, you must run the Import-Mailbox cmdlet from a 32-bit computer that has the following installed.

• Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later versions.
• 32-bit version of the Exchange management tools.

Pre-requisites for Exchange management tools

• The 32-bit windows machine that is identified should be on the same domain where Exchange 2007 server is
• Should have IIS 6 installed on it
• Should have .Net frameworks 2 with update/hotfix KB 942027 or .Net 3 frameworks
• Windows Powershell for 32bit
• Microsoft Management Console 3.0 for Windows Server 2003 (KB907265)

Installing Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Tools

• Download 32 Bit Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Tools (32-Bit):
• Run "E2K7SP1EN32.exe" & extract the installation file
• Run Setup.exe and choose "Install Microsoft Exchange".
• Choose "Custom Exchange Server Installation"
• Mark the checkbox "Management Tools".
• Enter the Exchange Organization name (if it didn’t auto completed by the installation wizard).

Troubleshooting

If you happen to get the following error while opening the Exchange management console, try to use a different Admin account to open the console.

Active Directory server is not available. Error message: A local error occured. It was running command 'get-AddressList'

Make sure that the user with which you run the import command has Full Access on the mailbox on which you are trying to run the import. Otherwise you may use the following command to assign full rights.

Get-Mailbox -Identity Neptune | Add-MailboxPermission -User admin -AccessRights FullAccess

Sample Import Command

Import-Mailbox -Identity Neptune@demo.com -PSTFolderPath C:\PSTImport\Test.pst

Most of the times, the import command seem to run successful, but doesnt import anything. First thing is, do not use the same PST for more than once. If you want, you could take a copy and then try again. Secondly, move the pst to a specific directory (say C:\) and give it the alias name of the mailbox like Dolmen.pst (assuming Dolmen is the alias of the user Neptune).

Import-Mailbox -Identity Dolmen -Pstfolderpath C:

Sharing some technical information

I know many of my blogs are mostly related to travel or photography. Rather making it mundane with the same flavor of items, decided why not add spice to it by sharing some technical information.

Somehow or other I spend a reasonable amount of time in the internet searching for some technical assistance or information regarding something which I come across as new. I have the habit of writing intranet wikis, unlike many techies who are lazy in documenting. So in the next few blogs or may be with future blogs I would like to share some technical information which I learn. I assume that it would be useful for some tech guy like me who is in search of the same information which I write here (if at all it comes up in the search results). I understand it may not be interesting for many of youse...

Jaunty Jackalope

So...Windows 7 is out today. I feel like I checked Vista only recently and wrote a blog about it, but couple of years have gone past in no time. I see MS is facing a pretty tough competition, not just with the OS series but also with browsers, mobile OS, gaming device, office software suite, webmail, mail server, database server, cloud computing, etc..(I am sure I missed a lot more in this list).

Statistics say MS is slowly losing its market share in OS & browser wars. Years ago I remember MS used to be a monopoly in many of the fields. In another few years from now it might lose a majority of share mainly in OS and browser. I very well see users are expecting a change, something new, a little different & innovative products. They are shifting their focus towards things like Mac, Linux, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc. Nevertheless least said about the free stuff. Most of the stuff are now a days available for free. So why pay for something which you already get free elsewhere.

Slightly drifting off the topic. A few months ago with my personal laptop, I wanted to try out Ubuntu on it. Reason?, I seriously got frustrated with the annoying repeated spyware attacks & pop-ups (...nope I don't surf those sites much). You know that installing Windows OS and fixing those bunch of device drivers takes a while and test of patience. Installing Linux was a piece of cake for me and almost all the devices were set up during the installation itself. Connecting to a wireless was totally automatic, Office suite was already there. After all that, I never had to worry anymore about spyware & pop-ups at all. Even with a low memory, its working really fast.

Back to the topic, I haven't actually checked or tested 7 much, but I am sure it would be yet another memory monster. The greed for faster processor, more memory and larger hard drive space has never ended with Windows series. On a contrary Xubuntu doesn't ask for that much memory at all, which is specifically targeted for low end models.

After installing & trying out Ubuntu, I am pretty impressed with Linux family of desktop OS. If I buy my next laptop, I dont think I would go with Windows as desktop OS. You might be wondering why named this blog 'Jaunty Jackalope'. This recent install gave me better insight of Linux and turned my focus towards the Linux world. I dedicate this blog to Ubuntu as I am pretty happy with it.

Beauty shall thy be called 'Yosemite'

Of the many places I've seen so far, 'Yosemite' has been the one which made think I should visit again. Even after couple of trips, I Still feel like going there. No wonder John Muir visited this national park so many times.

Of the snaps I've taken there, couple of them I really cant forget & would treasure them. Even if I see them now, I am engrossed in the beauty of the scene. Especially ,the yosemite falls taken from the meadows, it just happened that the two of these taken during each visits just matched exactly.

Mysteries

After moving to Bay Area, happened to visit these two places, 'Winchester Mystery House' & the 'Mystery Spot at Santa Cruz'. Pretty interesting to know their details, hard to believe but its true.

The following videos sum up everything what I want to say. Of course, these aren't mine, a link from youtube. Check my pictures, but you may not understand anything out of these snaps till you visit these places.

Fotos: Mystery Spot & Winchester Mystery House

Websites: Mystery Spot & Winchester Mystery House

Longest day of my life

22nd April 2008 has been the longest day of my life. Was in Sydney between 12:00am (midnight) to 3:00pm, then spent 14 hours on air, and the rest of the day at San Francisco from 11:00am (again) to 12:00am midnight. Totally I made almost 42 hours as against 24 hours. Crazy and bizarre experience !!!

Sydney Spectacular

Been there, relished that. Went to watch the 1st ODI final of the 2007-08 Commonwealth Series final between Australia and India. On a perfect day for cricket, India pulled off a marvelous victory. Adding to the joy, the master blaster came up with a fantastic century.