16 Nov

Adding a new disk in linux using thin provisioning.

Posted by admin in Linux, VMWare, Virtualization |

I had to add another harddrive to a test VM and wondered how to take advantage of thin provisioning in linux. On Windows VM’s you have to do a “Quick Format” to use thin provisioning. Here is what you do on a linux (ubuntu) VM.

  1. Shutdown the VM (if you dont have Hotadd-feature licensed)
  2. Add a new harddrive with thin provisioning
  3. Start the VM
  4. Log in
  5. Check the dmesg to find the devicename of the new harddrive ( in my case /dev/sdb )
  6. sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb (use another mkfs-command to use the filesystem of your choise)
  7. /dev/sdb is entire device, not just one partition!
    Proceed anyway? (y,n) y
  8. Wait for it to finish
  9. Mount the harddrive (sudo mount /dev/sdb /home/newharddrive)

9 Nov

Upgrading vmware tools and kernel on a linux (ubuntu) VM.

Posted by admin in Linux, VMWare, Virtualization |

This is the way it worked for me

  1. Upgrade all apps (sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade)
  2. Reboot
  3. Upgrade the kernel (sudo apt-get dist-upgrade)
  4. Reboot
  5. Install new kernel headers ( sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` )
  6. Choose “Install/update vmware tools” in the VI-client
  7. Mount the CD (sudo mkdir /mnt/cdrom && sudo mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom )
  8. Copy the tar to your homefolder ( cp /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-x.x.x-yyyyyy.tar.gz /home/username)
  9. Untar (cd /home/username && tar zxvf VMwareTools-x.x.x-yyyyyy.tar.gz)
  10. Install the upgrade (sudo /home/username/vmware-tools-distrib/vmware-install.pl)
  11. Follow the instructions on the screen
  12. Reboot

Done