Archive for August 2012

How to Install FreeNas 8.3.0 on VMware Workstation 8

August 7, 2012 FreeNas, VMware No comments

Setup

This setup is all on my laptop running all virtual machines.

  • VMware Workstation 8
  • One Domain Controller
  • One SQL 2008 Server
  • One VMware vCenter Server
  • 2 x ESXi 5 VMware servers
  • One FreeNas VM (Also called FreeBSD)

Note: This does not work well on IE10. I used Firefox which was fine

What is NAS (Network Access Storage)?

Physically NAS is a hardware device with hard drives, and its accessible via network port.  In production environment there are famous NAS brands, such as

These NAS devices support iSCSI, which is required for cluster and high availability setup for servers.  But for the testing purpose in VMware we can’t have expensing physical NAS devices to configure cluster or high availability servers in VMware. So, there is some free open source NAS software where you can use a computer as NAS. These free storage virtualization software make your computer hard disk as network access storage and allow other clients to access the disk directly through network.

There re two free NAS softwares can be installed in your computer to make a NAS system.

This blog explains how you can install FreeNAS on VMware workstation virtual machine to enable iSCSI target disks. I would avoid using Openfiler if you want to test setting up Windows 2008 and Windows 2008 R2 clusters as Openfiler does not support SCSI-3 persistent reservation disks but FreeNAS supports SCSI-3 persistent reservation disks.

What is FreeNas?

FreeNAS can be used like a physical Network Storage in your physical or virtual environment

FreeNAS is a free network-attached storage server, supporting: CIFS (Samba), FTP, NFS, rsync, AFP protocols, iSCSI, S.M.A.R.T., local user authentication, and software RAID (0,1,5), with a web-based configuration interface. FreeNAS takes less than 64 MB once installed on CompactFlash, hard drive or USB flash drive. FreeNAS is currently distributed as an ISO image and in source form. Through version 7.x, it was possible to run FreeNAS from a Live CD, with the configuration files stored on an MS-DOS-formatted floppy disk or USB thumb drive. There is also a VMware disk image available (Last updated in 2006). With the release of 8.x, Live CD is not currently supported. FreeNas 8.x needs to be installed on a Compact Flash, USB, or dedicated hard drive. Using the dedicated hard drive will use that drive just for the operating system, and files cannot be stored on it.

Instructions

  • First step is to download the software from SourceForge
  • Create a new machine in VMware Workstation
  • Choose FreeBSD or FreeBSD 64 depending on which one you are using

  • Mount the FreeNas ISO
  • Name your VM and choose the location

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  • Choose the Processors. I left mine at 1

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  • Set minimum RAM 256 MB, recommended is 512MB memory for VM.

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  • Next choose your networking setup. I use NAT

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  • Select I/O Controller Type as LSI Logic

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  • Create a new Virtual Disk

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  • Select a Disk Type

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  • I suggest adding one virtual hard disk of 2GB for the OS

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  • Check the disk names are correct

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  • Finish

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  • Power on the FreeNas VM

  •  Choose Option 1
  • Select the Install Option

  •  Select the virtual hard disk to install in next screen. Press Yes to start

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  • Click Yes

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  • Once you have successfully installed FreeNAS 0.8 on VMware Workstation and received the following message, click OK to get back to the main menu screen then remove the ISO or attached software.
  • Then reboot

  • After rebooting, you should get to the following page. Choose 1 to Configure Network Interfaces

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  • Enter the following Details as per below changing to your relevant settings

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  • Add your extra disks to the FreeBSD VM in VMware Workstation. For example. I want to add 2 x 30GB Disk Drives to be used as iSCSI drives. 1 added so far in the screenprint below

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  • Log in to FreeNAS via a webpage using http://youripaddress, with root or admin login and freenas password. Note: It may log you in automatically

  • You will land in completely different interface here. It’s totally changed from earlier FreeNAS versions.
  • First thing you have to do is, change the time zone in first screen. Go to System Settings and change the time zone and Web GUI Address to your IP Address

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  • Go back to your web interface for FreeNas and click Storage. It should look like the below screen-print

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  • Click View Disks
  • Click Edit
  • I left my 30GB disk as da0
  • Serial Blank
  • Description – Whatever you want
  • HDD Standby – Always On
  • Advanced Power Management – Disabled
  • Acoustic Level – Disabled
  • Enable Smart
  • Smart Extra Options Blank

  • Click Storage
  • Click Volume Manager
  • Type vmware or whatever name you want
  • Select the disk – You have to actually select the disk

  • Click Add Volume and it will run and show you the below screen post completion

Documentation

http://www.freenas.org/images/resources/freenas8.2/freenas8.2_guide.pdf

YouTube Links

http://www.youtube.com/channel/HC0kKk7WONqsw

VMware Documentation Downloader v11.08.30

August 7, 2012 Documentation Center, VMware No comments

What is it?

Xtravirt have very kindly provided a script which connects to VMware and downloads all the latest documentation

http://xtravirt.com/product-information/document-downloader-for-vmware/

Note: This version deletes the .html files so that they can be re-created to ensure new layouts are captured. Also, due to the new format of the VMware website you may receive an ActiveX control prompt. If you do not enable this, then some of the tabs will not work.

GetVMwareDocs is a small DOS batch script that creates and maintains a local copy of all VMware’s product documentation, making it an ideal utility for consultants or administrators that require offline access to these resources, such as when at a customer site without immediate internet access.

In order to control its “reach” and avoid unnecessary downloads, the script follows explicit links from this page. As a result, when the index page changes (typically each time VMware release a new product or a product update), it may require modification to include the new links, so check the Xtravirt website periodically as we will endeavour to maintain an up to date version.

On first use, the total volume of data downloaded will approach 677MB (as at 13 August 2010). It therefore makes sense that if you have already performed a download (even if it is incomplete or out of date) and wish to provide a colleague with the same utility, that you also provide them with your previously downloaded files. Subsequent script executions will refresh this repository, only downloading any “missing” or updated documents.

Once the repository has been built, access to it is via a local copy of the VMware documentation index page, meaning that the offline navigation process is identical to the online one. The script will automatically load the index page into a browser session, whether or not a check for updates is elected to be performed first

Requirements

  • Microsoft Windows
  • GetVMwareDocs.bat script (download latest version above) from Xtravirt’s site
  • wget.exe utility (http://users.ugent.be/~bpuype/wget/)
  • Minimum of 800MB free disk space (this requirement will increase over time as VMware publish new documentation)
  • Internet access (direct, or via an HTTP proxy)
  • .txt files have been associated with a document viewer
  • .html files have been associated with a web browser

Installation

  • Create a folder to contain the script and the downloaded files (eg. C:\VMwarePDFs).
  • Download GetVMwareDocs.bat and put it in C:\VMwarePDFs
  • Download the wget utility and put it in C:\VMwarePDFs

Operation

  • In Explorer, navigate to and execute GetVMwareDocs.bat. (Note, it is important that the script is executed from the directory it resides in. Additionally, it cannot be executed from a UNC path.)
  • If a log file from a previous execution does not exist, a check for updates will be initiated.
  • If a log file from a previous execution does exist, you are asked if you wish to check for updates or not.
  • If you do not check for updates, the documentation index page is loaded into your default web browser.
  • If you check for updates, you are asked for HTTP proxy details.
  • Specify your HTTP proxy details in the described format or press Enter if not applicable.
  • The update process will start and will take a few minutes to complete, varying according to the capabilities of your Internet connection – activity is reported in the window title bar. The first task performed is to delete any .html files  from within the  directories to ensure the most current versions are  made available. (Note, if the download process is interrupted, the links in the local web pages will not be updated to reference each other properly. If this occurs, simply run the script again, check for updates, and allow the process to compete.)
  • The filenames of any updates downloaded are displayed and you are asked to review the log file or not. (Note, only PDF updates are listed.)
  • If you review the log file, it is loaded into your default .txt file viewer.
  • Whether you review the log file or not, the documentation index page is loaded into your default web browser

Links

The script downloads all the HTML pages and PDF documents referenced on the VMware Documentation pages at http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/index.html, including those for previous product versions.