Category Archives: Home Lab

cloudpathshala 1:25 pm on July 29, 2018
Tags: vm workstation, VMware Workstation   

How to – Install VMware Workstation 14.0

VMware workstation is Type 1 hypervisor. It is the industry standard for running multiple operating systems on a single Linux or Windows PC.  We generally use for our test or home labs.

Steps: –

Download the ISO image of VMware workstation 14.0 from Vmware website.

Click on ISO image setup file.

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Click on next

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Click on Accept the license Agreement and click next

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Click on  enhanced keyboard driver and click next

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Check on for product updates startup and click next

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Click on next

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Click on install Vmware Workstation Pro Setup

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Installing Vmware Workstation Pro setup

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Click on finish

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Click  yes to Restart.

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Insert the license key and click on continue.

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Click on Finish

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cloudpathshala 1:19 pm on July 29, 2018  

How to – Install OpenFiler Storage

Here is Step by Step procedure to install OpenFiler. We were exploring the same in our Home lab.

Steps: –

  • Click on New Virtual Machine and Select typical and Click Next.

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  • Click on Installer Disc image file and click Next.

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  • Select the Operating system and click Next

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  • Click on browse and select the path drive and click Next.

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  • Click on Next.

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  • Click on customize hardware.

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  • Click on Next.

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  • Select US Keyboard and click Next.

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  • Select No and click Next.

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  • Click Next.

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  • Choose  No  and click Next.

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  • Insert the host domain name and click next

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  • Enable the IPv4 support and configure IP address and click next

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  • Set manually host domain name and configure gateway primary DNS and click next

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  • Select the time Zone Asia/Calcutta and click Next.

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  • Insert  the root password and click Next.

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  • Click on Next.

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  • Formatting setup.

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  • Press reboot system.

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  • Welcome to OpenFiler  Screen

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For more detailed information on Installation of OpenFiler, please refer to below articles.

Installation of OpenFiler:

Step by Step Installation Guide for Using Openfiler as Shared Storage in ESXi and vSphere Environment

Configuration of OpenFiler:

Step by Step Configuration Guide for Using Openfiler as Shared Storage in ESXi and vSphere Environment

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cloudpathshala 1:01 pm on July 29, 2018
Tags: active directory, domain, domain controller   

How to Install Domain Controller in Windows Server

In this blog, we are going to write step by step procedure on how to install a Domain Controller for new environment. This is what we explored when we were setting up our home lab for Virtualized Environment.

  • Go to Run and Type the command DCPROMO

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  • Click on Next.

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  • Click on Next.

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  • Select button on Create new domain in new forest.

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  • Type the Fully Qualified Domain name(FQDN). It will be your domain name.

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  • Select the Forest Function Level as per your environment need. Here we choosed windows server 2008R2.

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  • Click on DNS Server and click next

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  • Click on Yes button and click next

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  • Select the folder path for NTDS and SYSVOL which will install Active Directory Domain Controller Database, log files and SYSVOL.

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  • Set the Restore Mode Administrator password.

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  • Click on Next.

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  • Installation of Active Directory wizard screen will Appear.

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  • Click on Finish.

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  • Click on  Button Restart now. It will restart your server.

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Domain and Domain Controller is ready now.

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cloudpathshala 8:22 pm on July 27, 2018  

vCenter 6.7 Installation | Error -VMware Virtualcenter failed firstboot. Failed to generate VirtualCenter symmetric encryption key.

We were setting up our home lab for vSphere 6.7 environment and we are using Windows based Virtual Center.

Error:

VMware Virtualcenter failed firstboot. Failed to generate VirtualCenter symmetric encryption key.

Capture

Environment:

  • Operating System: Window Server 2008 R2 Datacenter Edition, Service Pack 1
  • Database for Virtual Center – Using embedded Database(vPostgres) for VCDB
  • vCenter Version – vCenter 6.7.0c
  • vCenter Type – Windows based Virtual Center

Troubleshooting:

We were using old ISO image for Windows 2008 R2 and did not update Windows patches.

It fails to generate symmetric encryption key because of missing security patches which was released last year for critical vulnerabilities such as WannaCry.

Solution:

  • Install Microsoft Security Updates MS17-010 and MS17-012 on Windows Server, and Reboot the server.
  • Reinstall the vCenter Server. It should work.

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cloudpathshala 8:08 pm on July 27, 2018
Tags: vcenter, vcenter 6.7   

vCenter 6.7 Installation | Error: Universal C Runtime is not installed on the system.

While deploying windows based Virtual Center 6.7, I faced below error.

Error:

Universal C Runtime is not installed on the system. You can download it from Microsoft website and install.

cloud pathshala universal c runtime is not installed

Solution:

  • Download latest pack of Microsoft Visual C++ 2015.
  • Install the package and retry vCenter Installation.
  • It will fix the issue.

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cloudpathshala 7:58 pm on July 27, 2018  

vCenter 6.7 Installation | Error 1722. There is a problem with this windows Installer package. A program run as part of the setup did not finish as expected

While Installing the windows based Virtual Center in my home lab, I found this error during initial steps of Installation.

Environment:

  • Operating System: Window Server 2008 R2 Datacenter Edition, Service Pack 1
  • Database for Virtual Center – Using embedded Database(vPostgres) for VCDB
  • vCenter Version – vCenter 6.7.0c
  • vCenter Type – Windows based Virtual Center

Error:

Error 1722. There is a problem with this windows Installer package. A program run as part of the setup did not finish as expected. Contact your support personnel or package.

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Troubleshooting:

During the installation I noticed that it was failing at status “Installing Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable (64 Bit)”

Though we had MS Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable was by default installed with Operating System, however windows ISO image I used to install the OS was quite old. It  didn’t had updated version of MS Visual C++ 2015 which could be a reason for the above error.

When I analyzed vminst.log file which generates during vCenter Installation, I found below inputs.

2018-07-27 16:50:26.552+05:30| vcsInstUtil-9232925| I: Entering function: VM_FinishInstallWithError
2018-07-27 16:50:26.552+05:30| vcsInstUtil-9232925| I: InstallStatus_SetStage: install stage: install-end / (NULL)
2018-07-27 16:50:26.552+05:30| vcsInstUtil-9232925| I: InstallStatus_GenerateFile: InstallStatusJson: {"installStage":{"main":[["preinstall-check",1532689990],["install-start",1532690088],["verify-packages",1532690158],["install-end",1532690426]]},"installTime":1532690088,"memoryLoad":6,"msiVersion":"5.0.7601.17514","preinstallReport":"C:\\Users\\ADMINI~1\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\vim-vcs-precheck-report-67.html","startTime":1532689990}
2018-07-27 16:50:26.552+05:30| vcsInstUtil-9232925| I: InstallStatus_GenerateFile: file: C:\Users\ADMINI~1\AppData\Local\Temp\vc-install.txt
2018-07-27 16:50:26.567+05:30| vcsInstUtil-9232925| I: DoCommonExitTasks: C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin\prune-sensitive-info.bat file has already been removed.

Solution:

  • Remove Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable from Add and Remove Programs.
  • Download latest pack of Microsoft Visual C++ 2015.
  • Install the package and retry vCenter Installation.
  • It will fix the issue.

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cloudpathshala 3:27 pm on July 8, 2018  

Deep Dive – Choosing Openfiler for your Home Lab

Hey All, Here we came with the new deep dive topic for choosing the Openfiler as storage for your virtual environment.

Here we are going to setup our lab before we explore anything new. Initially, we are using 4 physical machines to setup our Virtualization lab. Out of these 4 servers or can say workstations, we are going to use one machine for storage purpose as we do not have any storage in hand as of now. Hence we have planned to use OpenFiler for storage purpose which provides a simple way to deploy and manage networked storage.

You can download Openfiler from below given link.

https://www.openfiler.com/community/download

I am writing this blog to share our experience what we discussed last night while installing the Openfiler. Below points we discussed.

Environment: –

  • 4 Physical Machines
  • Out of four boxes, using one box for Openfiler as Storage.
  • Configuration of machine which we are using for Openfiler – i5/16GB/2 TB SATA/250GB SSD/2 NICs

Discussion Point: –

  1. Which Software shall we use for Free NAS purpose?
  2. Should be install Openfiler on each four servers and use virtual environment individually on each server? Or create a centralized storage using a single server as Openfiler box then share volumes with rest environment?
  3. If we are using Openfiler, should it be on VM workstation or install directly on bare-metal machine?
  4. If it will be on VM workstation, then how other Virtual environment exists in different physical servers will access the Volumes?
  5. What is performance impact on accessing the volumes over the LAN on other machines if we are installing Open filer on VM workstation?
  6. What are the performance benefits if we install OpenFiler directly on Bare-metal machine?
  7. Performance output when we access volumes over LAN.
  8. As of now we have two disks available in existing machine which we are using for Openfiler. We are not using any RAID configuring now. Now question was, where do we install it? Should it be installed on SATA or SSD?
  • SATA – 1 TB in Size
  • SSD – 240 Gig in Size

Conclusion: –

Here I am sharing our minutes of discussion.

  • We are going to use Openfiler as free NAS. We will use one server for Openfiler and rest 3 servers will be to create virtual environment I;e ESXi, vCenter, etc.
  • It will be installed directly on bare-metal machine.
  • Installation source will be USB stick, and destination will be SATA disk. We will add SSD disk as an additional volume.
  • While assessing the performance impact, we concluded that there will be definitely slight performance impact in comparison to use individually on each physical server. But as using 24 Port Gigabit switch to connect these all 4 physical servers, hence there won’t be much difference. Altogether we don’t need shared storage for all environment so this only solution left. Let me clear that we are not considering VSAN at this point.

Issues Reported: –

While started the installation of Openfiler directly on bare metal machine on one of the machine, we faced lot of errors mentioned below. To fix this, we had to format the physical disk as raw disk. Used CD Disk rather a USB stick to install the Openfiler.

Installation Stuck while choosing the source media.

Error:

What type of media contains the packages to be installed?

  • Local CD/DVD
  • Hard Drive
  • NFS directly
  • FTP
  • HTTP

Error - Installation of Openfiler

 

We didn’t see any option to choose USB Drive which we had plugged in as source file to install Openfiler. We proceeded to choose the options and we came to know that system is not detecting USB drivers. Hence, we used CD Disk to start the installation and it worked fine.

Please follow below article to Install and Configure Openfiler in your environment.

Step by Step Installation Guide for Using Openfiler

Step by Step Configuration Guide for Using Openfiler

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