Verify that host name is lowercase: hostname; hostname -s
Verify that host name in /etc/hosts is lowercase
Verify that search domain in /etc/resolv.conf is in lowercase
Verify that host name in /etc/sysconfig/network is fqdn, all lowercase
Verify that the host name in esx.conf is fqdn, all lowercase
Verify that host name in DNS is lowercase: nslookup; <short hostname> (should properly resolve fqdn of host, all lowercase)
Verify that all primary service consoles have the same name.
Verify that all primary service consoles are in the same IP subnet.
If VMotion vmkernel port is on same vSwitch as primary service console, use das.allowVmotionNetworks=1
If host has multiple service consoles, use KB 1006541 and the das.allowNetwork0 HA option to ensure that only the primary service console is allowed.
Verify that customer has appropriate licensing for HA, and has available licenses: In LM Tools, perform a status inquiry, verify that cu is licensed for VC_DAS
Once you have met all of the above criteria, enable HA.
If, after you have verified all the above, and HA still won’t configure:
On the host, stop vpxa: service vmware-vpxa stop
The host will show not responding in VC after a while
Disconnect the host from VC
Re-connect the host to VC
This will force the VPXA package to re-deploy, as well as the HA packages to re-deploy.
Re-configure the hosts for HA.
Many thanks to: Kevin Riley [mailto:kriley@vmware.com]
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006541
As of VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 2 configuration of VMware High Availability fails.
An error similar to the following appears in the Tasks and Events detail:
HA agent on <esxhostname> in cluster <clustername> in <datacenter> has an error Incompatible HA Networks:
Cluster has network(s) missing on host: x.x.x.x
Consider using the Advanced Cluster Settings das.allowNetwork to control network usage.
das.allowVmotionNetworks
- Allows for a NIC that is used for VMotion networks to be considered
for VMware HA usage. This parameter enables a host that has only one
NIC configured for management and VMotion combined to be used in VMware
High Availability communication. By default, any VMotion network is
ignored.
das.allowNetwork[...] – Allows the use of port group names
to control the networks used for VMware HA. The value is set as the
name of the portgroup, for example, Service Console or Management
Network . When configured, the VMware HA cluster only uses the
specified networks for VMware HA communication.
To configure VMware HA to use the new settings:
Log in to VirtualCenter with the VI Client as an administrator.
Edit the settings of the cluster and deselect Enable VMware HA.
Click OK, and wait for the servers to unconfigure for VMware HA.
Click
ESX Server > Configuration > Networking on each of the ESX hosts
in the cluster and note the portgroups that are common between the
servers.
Edit the settings of the cluster, and select Enable VMware HA.
Click VMware HA.
Click Advanced Options.
Add the das.allowNetworkX option with a value of the portgroup name, where X is a number between 1 and 10,
VMware Storage VMotion allows virtual machine storage disks to be relocated to different datastore locations with no downtime, while being completely transparent to the virtual machine or the end user.
Before moving a virtual machines disk file, Storage VMotion moves the “home directory” of the virtual machine to the new location. The home directory contains meta data about the virtual machine (configuration, swap and log files). After relocating the home directory, Storage VMotion copies the contents of the entire virtual machine storage disk file to the destination storage host, leveraging “changed block tracking” to maintain data integrity during the migration process. Next, the software queries the changed block tracking module to determine what regions of the disk were written to during the first iteration, and then performs a second iteration of copy, where those regions that were changed during the first iteration copy (there can be several more iterations).
Once the process is complete, the virtual machine is quickly suspended and resumed so that it can begin using the virtual machine home directory and disk file on the destination datastore location. Before VMware ESX allows the virtual machine to start running again, the final changed regions of the source disk are copied over to the destination and the source home and disks are removed.
This approach guarantees complete transactional integrity and is fast enough to be unnoticeable to the end user.
[NMAP has been corrected! see email replies from Fydor and IEEE at end]
Here are a couple emails I sent off today requesting (suggesting) that the OUI information be corrected for VMware’s MAC addresses. I first noticed the issue when my friend ran the latest NMAP on his MacBook against our internal work net. So I was all set to submit a bug to the NMAP developers when I realized they just get their information on this from the I triple E standards body and they just get their info from whomever happened to be on duty that day and made the request.
It’s the OCD part of me that can’t stand to see VMware spelled wrong (VMWare).
I’m sure other companies like McAfee and McDonald’s have entire teams dedicated to protecting this sort of brand identity.
All lower case would have been fine (vmware) like Unix style.
So would have all UPPERCASE (VMWARE) as it adds emphasis or might be a convention for a proper noun in certain types of databases or programming languages.
But if you are going to make the effort to use the shift key for just part of the word the least you could do is learn which letters are supposed to be upper case and which ones are not.
Subject: spelling of company name “VMware” for a given mac address
Dear NMAP Developer Team,
I noticed a minor typo in the OS Detection Output.
The word “VMware” is spelled wrong when reporting the company for an OUI. The “w” should be lower case – not upper case.
For example: Here is the current output…
MAC Address: 00:50:56:01:11:00 (VMWare)
And this is the corrected version…
MAC Address: 00:50:56:01:11:00 (VMware)
Reference Info:
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/108426
http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/oui.txt
00-05-69 (hex) VMWARE, Inc.
000569 (base 16) VMWARE, Inc.
3145 Porter Dr., Bldg. F
Palo Alto CA 94304
UNITED STATES
00-0C-29 (hex) VMware, Inc.
000C29 (base 16) VMware, Inc.
3145 Porter Dr.
Palo Alto CA 94304
UNITED STATES
00-1C-14 (hex) VMware, Inc
001C14 (base 16) VMware, Inc
3145 Porter Drive
Palo Alto CA 94304
UNITED STATES
00-50-56 (hex) VMWare, Inc.
005056 (base 16) VMWare, Inc.
44 ENCINA AVENUE
PALO ALTO CA 94301
UNITED STATES
On May 20, 2009, at 5:52 PM, Fyodor wrote:
Hi Iben. Unfortunately, that is wrong in the official document at
http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/oui.txt. VMware should really
contact the IEEE and canonicalize their name and addresses in that
file. As you show in your email, it is even all caps in one case.
So while there is little I can do about the varying VMware
capitalization until they fix it upstream, I took the opportunity to
update the data to correspond with the latest version of http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/oui.txt. Looking at the changes
in r13359, it is clear that companies often get minor capitalization
changes put through, so VMware just needs to do that as well.
Instructions are at http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/index.shtml.
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 11:24 AM To: Iben Rodriguez Subject: Re: typo in spelling of company name…
Mr. Rodriguez,
The changes have been completed and will reflect on our website within 24 hours. Please let me know if you have additional questions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IEEE Registration Authority
IEEE Standards Department
445 Hoes Lane
Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA
Phone: +1 732-465-6481
Fax: +1 732-562-1571
E-mail: ieee-registration-authority@ieee.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/index.html
IEEE. Fostering technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity.
Celebrating 125 Years of Engineering the Future. www.ieee125.org
—end of email–
Success!
5/25/2009 shows corrected updates. Still waiting to find out if NMAP will dynamically reflect these changes or if a code rev is needed.
00-05-69 (hex) VMware, Inc.
000569 (base 16) VMware, Inc.
3401 Hillview Avenue
Palo Alto CA 94304
UNITED STATES
00-0C-29 (hex) VMware, Inc.
000C29 (base 16) VMware, Inc.
3401 Hillview Avenue
Palo Alto CA 94304
UNITED STATES
00-1C-14 (hex) VMware, Inc
001C14 (base 16) VMware, Inc
3401 Hillview Avenue
Palo Alto CA 94304
UNITED STATES
00-50-56 (hex) VMware, Inc.
005056 (base 16) VMware, Inc.
3401 Hillview Avenue
PALO ALTO CA 94304
UNITED STATES
Now – need to fix NMAP
Nmap 4.85BETA9
MAC Address: 00:0C:29:11:00:11 (VMware) <– virtual machine guest – correct
MAC Address: 00:50:56:00:11:00 (VMWare) <– ESX host – wrong
As you can see a scan with the latest version of NMAP still shows the wrong spelling. Now that the OUI is corrected on the public IEEE web site we’ll need to wait for NMAP to get updated.
I’ve emailed Fydor and hopefully he can fix it next week…?
I b e n
Nmap Changelog – fixed
# Nmap Changelog ($Id: CHANGELOG 13432 2009-05-28
o Updated nmap-mac-prefixes with the latest MAC address prefix data
from http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/oui.txt as of
5/20/09. [Fyodor]
Reference: http://nmap.org/changelog.html
vmxnet3 – features and use information – tips and tricks
UPDATED for Windows 2008 Core
Glad to see this has been posted and we can talk about it now… please share your experiences and let us know if these tips work for you and what sort of performance benefits you’ve noticed when using this new driver.
We’ve been switching our Windows and Linux VMs to use “VMXNET Enhanced” for some time now and see public information on the new VMXNET3 NIC for guests…
This Thread has been started to help with procedures on the conversion of existing machines from older NIC to newer NIC as it is not 100% straightforward and there are some tricks to remove old hardware and change to new hardware. This would be similar in the physical world to changing from a 100 BaseT PCI Card to a GigE card. The old drivers need to be removed, new drivers installed, and IP Addresses moved over. If you just remove the old NIC and install the new one you may end up with a IP Address Conflict error saying the Address you are trying to use is already in use on another Network Interface. The problem is that when you open Device Manager the old NIC is hidden. See below for steps on how to overcome this.
Question: What is VMXNET3?
Answer: VMXNET3 builds upon VMXNET and Enhanced VMXNET as the third generation paravirtualized virtual networking NIC for guest operating systems.
New VMXNET3 features over previous version of Enhanced VMXNET include:
• MSI/MSI-X support (subject to guest operating system kernel support)
• Receive Side Scaling (supported in Windows 2008 when explicitly enabled through the device’s Advanced configuration tab)
• IPv6 checksum and TCP Segmentation Offloading (TSO) over IPv6
• VLAN off-loading
• Large TX/RX ring sizes (configured from within the virtual machine)
VMware vNetwork module that encompasses the vDS and VMXNET-3 enables inline monitoring and centralized firewall services and maintains the virtualmachine’s network run-time characteristics.
Flexible shows up in Windows Device Manager as an “VMware
Accelerated AMD PCNet Adapter” and Enhanced vmxnet show up as “VMware
PCI Ethernet Adapter”. http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1001805 Flexible — The Flexible network adapter
identifies itself as a Vlance adapter when a virtual machine boots, but
initializes itself and functions as either a Vlance or a vmxnet
adapter, depending which driver initializes it. VMware Tools versions
recent enough to know about the Flexible network adapter include the
vmxnet driver but identify it as an updated Vlance driver, so the guest
operating system uses that driver. When using the Flexible network
adapter, you can have vmxnet performance when sufficiently recent
VMware tools are installed. When an older version of VMware Tools is
installed, the Flexible adapter uses the Vlance adapter (with Vlance
performance) rather than giving no network capability at all when it
can’t find the vmxnet adapter. Enhanced vmxnet — The enhanced vmxnet adapter is
based on the vmxnet adapter but provides some high-performance features
commonly used on modern networks, such as jumbo frames. This virtual
network adapter is the current state-of-the-art device in virtual
network adapter performance, but it is available only for some guest
operating systems on ESX Server 3.5. This network adapter will become
available for additional guest operating systems in the future.
Networking Error, IP Address Already Assigned to Another Adapter
KB Article 1179
Updated Jan. 07, 2009
Why do I see an error message that “The IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX…” is already assigned to another adapter?
Solution
Under certain conditions, you may see the following error message from a Windows guest operating system:
The IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX you have entered for this network
adapter is already assigned to another adapter Name of adapter. Name of
adapter is hidden from the network and Dial-up Connections folder
because it is not physically in the computer or is a legacy adapter
that is not working. If the same address is assigned to both adapters
and they become active, only one of them will use this address. This
may result in incorrect system configuration. Do you want to enter a
different IP address for this adapter in the list of IP addresses in
the advanced dialog box?
In this message, XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX is an IP address that you are
trying to set and Name of adapter is the name of a network adapter that
is present in the registry but hidden in Device Manager.
This can occur when you change a network connection’s TCP/IP configuration from DHCP to a static IP address if:
You have upgraded VMware virtual network adapters (for example
when you migrate a virtual machine from an older to a new version of
VMware software.)
You have added and removed network adapters multiple times.
The cause of the error is that a network adapter with the same IP
address is in the Windows registry but is hidden in the Device Manager
(My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager). This
hidden adapter is called a ghosted network adapter.
Using the Show hidden devices option in the Device Manager (View
Show hidden devices) does not always show the old virtual NIC
(ghosted adapter) to which that IP Address is assigned
To resolve this problem, follow these steps to make the ghosted
network adapter visible in the Device Manager and uninstall the ghosted
network adapter from the registry:
1. Select Start > Run.
2. Enter cmd.exe and press Enter.
3. At the command prompt, run this command:
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
4. Enter Start DEVMGMT.MSC and press Enter to start Device Manager.
5. Select View > Show Hidden Devices.
6. Expand the Network Adapters tree (select the plus sign next to the Network adapters entry).
7. Right-click the dimmed network adapter, and then select Uninstall.
8. Close Device Manager.
How to remove these “phantom” NICs from Windows 2008 Server Core
Copy devcon.exe over to the server core server (extract devcon.exe from \SUPPORT\TOOLS\SUPPORT.CAB on a Windows 2003 R2 x64 disc).
Run devcon.exe findall =net (this should list all NICs on the system, including the phantoms). Example output:
PCI\VEN_15AD&DEV_0720&SUBSYS_072015AD&REV_10\4&B70F118&0&0088: VMware PCI Ethernet Adapter #2
PCI\VEN_15AD&DEV_0720&SUBSYS_072015AD&REV_10\3&18D45AA6&0&88: VMware PCI Ethernet Adapter
PCI\VEN_15AD&DEV_07B0&SUBSYS_07B015AD&REV_01\FF565000EB16A3FE00: vmxnet3 Ethernet Adapter
3 matching device(s) found.
Observe that vmxnet3 was the active NIC and the others needed to be removed.
For UDP, use vmxnet3 to be able to configure a larger vNIC Rx ring size. Because UDP can be a lot more bursty (due to lack of flow-control), having a larger Rx ring size helps to provide buffering/elasticity to better absorb the bursts. The new vmxnet3 allows resizing the vNIC’s Rx ring size, up to around 1 to 2 thousand buffers. As a side note, there is some negative performance impact with larger ring size due to larger memory foot print. The new vxmnet3 vNIC is more efficient than the e1000 vNIC. Also in general, ESX 4 has some performance improvements over ESX 3.5.
The story only gets better with vSphere 4 and ESX 4 with the new Intel Nehalem processors. Initial tests from engineering show a staggering 30Gbps throughput.
Choosing a Network Adapter for Your Virtual Machine
KB Article
1001805
Updated
May 05, 2009
Details
The Virtual Machine wizard’s Choose Networks window allows you to specify a network and a network adapter. The network adapter choices available depend on these factors:
The version of the virtual machine, which depends on what host created it or most recently updated it
Whether or not the virtual machine has been updated to the latest version for the current host
The guest operating system
The Choose Networks window makes available only those network adapters that make sense for the virtual machine you are creating. Each adapter type is discussed in some detail in ”Available Network Adapters,” below. Here is an overview of what Choose Networks might offer you:
For virtual machines native to VMware Workstation 4x, VMware GSX Server 3, or VMware ESX Server 2.x, you can explicitly choose between Vlance and vmxnet
For most 32bit virtual machines native to VMware Workstation 5 or 6, VMware Server 2, or VMware ESX Server 3, only the Flexible adapter is available
For most 64bit virtual machines and for 32bit Microsoft Windows Vista virtual machines, only the e1000 adapter is available
For certain guest operating systems on VMware ESX Server 3.5 and later, you can choose the Enhanced vmxnet adapter in addition to the Flexible or e1000 adapter mentioned for that guest type in the previous bullets
Solution
Available Network Adapters
The following network adapters might be available for your virtual machine, depending on the factors discussed above:
Vlance — Vlance (also called PCNet32) is a faithful virtual implementation of a common, if now somewhat aging, physical network adapter. Most 32bit guest operating systems, except for Windows Vista, have built-in support for this card so a virtual machine configured with this network adapter can use its network immediately.
vmxnet — The vmxnet virtual network adapter has no physical counterpart. VMware makes vmxnet available because Vlance, a faithful implementation of a physical card, is far from optimal for network performance in a virtual machine. Vmxnet is highly optimized for performance in a virtual machine. Because there is no physical card of type vmxnet, operating system vendors do not provide built-in drivers for this card. You must install VMware Tools to have a driver for the vmxnet network adapter available.
Flexible — The Flexible network adapter identifies itself as a Vlance adapter when a virtual machine boots, but initializes itself and functions as either a Vlance or a vmxnet adapter, depending which driver initializes it. VMware Tools versions recent enough to know about the Flexible network adapter include the vmxnet driver but identify it as an updated Vlance driver, so the guest operating system uses that driver. When using the Flexible network adapter, you can have vmxnet performance when sufficiently recent VMware tools are installed. When an older version of VMware Tools is installed, the Flexible adapter uses the Vlance adapter (with Vlance performance) rather than giving no network capability at all when it cannot find the vmxnet adapter.
e1000 — e1000 is a faithful virtual implementation of a physical network adapter that is broadly supported by newer operating systems, specifically most 64bit operating systems and both 32 and 64bit Windows Vista. e1000 performance is intermediate between Vlance and vmxnet.
Enhanced vmxnet — The enhanced vmxnet adapter is based on the vmxnet adapter but provides some high-performance features commonly used on modern networks, such as jumbo frames. This virtual network adapter is the current state-of-the-art device in virtual network adapter performance, but it is available only for some guest operating systems on ESX Server 3.5. This network adapter will become available for additional guest operating systems in the future.
32/64bit versions of Microsoft Windows 2003 (Enterprise and Datacenter Editions). You can use enhanced vmxnet adapters with other versions of the Microsoft Windows 2003 operating system, but a workaround is required to enable the option in the VI Client. For more information, see Enabling enhanced vmxnet adapters for Microsoft Windows Server 2003.
32bit version Microsoft Windows XP Professional
32/64bit versions Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0
32/64bit versions SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
64bit versions Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0
Enhanced VMXNET is supported only for a limited set of guest operating systems:
Adapter Caveats
This section discusses some potential issues you might have.
Migrating virtual machines that use enhanced vmxnet. Enhanced vmxnet is new with ESX Server 3.5. Virtual machines configured to have enhanced vmxnet adapters cannot migrate to older ESX Server hosts, even though virtual machines can usually migrate freely between ESX Server 3.0 and ESX Server 3.0.1.
Upgrading from ESX Server 2.x to ESX Server 3.x. When a virtual hardware upgrade operation transforms a virtual machine created on an ESX Server 2.x host to an ESX Server 3.x host, Vlance adapters are automatically upgraded to Flexible. In contrast, vmxnet adapters are not upgraded automatically because certain guest operating systems — specifically most or all Linux versions — do not reliably preserve network settings when a network adapter is replaced. Because the guest operating system thinks a Flexible adapter is still Vlance, it retains the settings in that case. If the upgrade were to replace a vmxnet adapter with a Flexible adapter, the guest operating system would erroneously discard the settings.
After the virtual hardware upgrade, the network adapter is still vmxnet, without the fallback compatibility of the Flexible adapter. Just as on the original older host, if VMware Tools is uninstalled on the virtual machine, it is unable to access its network adapters.
Network adapters on multi-boot Linux. The Virtual Machine Settings dialog box and New Virtual Machine wizard allow creation of only those virtual network adapters that are supported for the selected guest operating system. If you change the guest operating system, the existing network adapters are not affected. When you switch a multi-boot Linux system between 32bit mode and 64bit mode, a problem arises because most 32bit Linux versions do not support e1000 adapters while most 64bit Linux versions support only e1000 adapters. Consider configuring your virtual machine with one of each type of network adapter (e1000 and Flexible). You can then set up your guest operating system to use only the network adapter for which it has a driver in each mode.
You can add the second adapter any time the virtual machine is powered off, but you need to change the configured guest operating system type from 32bit to 64bit or vice-versa in order to be offered the other network adapter. Since changing that setting before rebooting into the other bit depth can potentially improve the efficiency of virtual machine scheduling, plan to change the guest operating system type setting before your first reboot into the other bit depth.
Adding virtual disks. Adding an existing older (ESX Server 2.x) virtual disk to an ESX Server 3.x virtual machine results in a de-facto downgrade of that virtual machine to ESX Server 2.x. If you are using ESX Server 3.x features, such as enhanced vmxnet or Flexible network adapters, the virtual machine becomes inconsistent. When you add an existing ESX Server 2.x virtual disk to an ESX Server 3.x machine, you should immediately use the Upgrade Virtual Hardware command to restore the virtual machine to the ESX Server 3 version.
Note: Executing Upgrade Virtual Hardware changes the ESX Server 2 virtual disk so it is no longer usable on an ESX Server 2 virtual machine. Consider making a copy of the disk before you upgrade one of the two copies to ESX Server 3 format.
If you must migrate a virtual machine between newer and older hosts, do not choose enhanced vmxnet but instead one of the older adapter types. Flexible or e1000 are offered whenever enhanced vmxnet is offered.
VMware converter is used for migrating Physical servers to Virtual Machines, Virtual Machines to Virtual Machines.
Directions for conducting a V2V or P2V for Windows Servers
1. Update or Open a tracking ticket to track progress
2. Ensure system is documented and monitored on portal
3. Notify stakeholders via DL – setup DL if needed
4. Login to the Machine to be converted
5. Run defrag and diskcheck if possible
6. Run Microsoft Update
7. Do a reboot test to ensure machine stability
8. Download VMware Converter Standalone version 4 – VMware-converter-4.0.0-146302.exe
9. Download Sysprep tools – unzip but do not run
10. Download NewSID – unzip but do not run
11. Download and run BGinfo – apply
12. Download and run treesize free and clean up unneeded files
13. Install VMware Converter
14. Copy Sysprep files to correct location – c:\documents and settings\all users
15. Launch VMware Converter
16. Import Machine
17. Select the device type; Physical Computer, Virtual Computer from ESX or VMware Workstation.
18. Enter in the remote IP address of the target:
19. Do not select Automatically uninstall the files when the import is successful
20. Select all the drives you wish to migrate to the new Virtual Machine
21. Select ESX or Virtual Center
22. Enter the Virtual Center and user credentials
23. Select the Virtual Machine name
24. Select the ESX host
25. Select the appropriate DataStore
26. Select the appropriate network
27. Check the box install vmware tools
28. If you desire to customize the settings, check the box.
29. Select Finish
30. When completed test new machine and configure.
31. Run newsid if new host names is needed… Keep in mind you cannot have two machines with same name or IP on same network.
32. Run BGinfo and apply again.
33. Verify reboot test and monitoring is functioning.
34. Verify system time.
35. Adjust services as needed.
36. Remove old hardware’s software.
37. Notify stakeholders when old machine is off and new machine is on.
See also: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/129871
This issue is coming up more as we convert Physical machines to Virtual. It can also happen when you want to change from the old “Flexible” to the newer “Enhanced vmxnet” network adapters.
Flexible shows up in Windows Device Manager as an “VMware Accelerated AMD PCNet Adapter” and Enhanced vmxnet show up as “VMware PCI Ethernet Adapter”. You may also see “Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller” from a Dell or other desktop.
Flexible — The Flexible network adapter identifies itself as a Vlance adapter when a virtual machine boots, but initializes itself and functions as either a Vlance or a vmxnet adapter, depending which driver initializes it. VMware Tools versions recent enough to know about the Flexible network adapter include the vmxnet driver but identify it as an updated Vlance driver, so the guest operating system uses that driver. When using the Flexible network adapter, you can have vmxnet performance when sufficiently recent VMware tools are installed. When an older version of VMware Tools is installed, the Flexible adapter uses the Vlance adapter (with Vlance performance) rather than giving no network capability at all when it can’t find the vmxnet adapter.
Enhanced vmxnet — The enhanced vmxnet adapter is based on the vmxnet adapter but provides some high-performance features commonly used on modern networks, such as jumbo frames. This virtual network adapter is the current state-of-the-art device in virtual network adapter performance, but it is available only for some guest operating systems on ESX Server 3.5. This network adapter will become available for additional guest operating systems in the future.
Networking Error, IP Address Already Assigned to Another Adapter
KB Article 1179
Updated Jan. 07, 2009
Products
Why do I see an error message that “The IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX…” is already assigned to another adapter?
Solution
Under certain conditions, you may see the following error message from a Windows guest operating system:
The IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX you have entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter Name of adapter. Name of adapter is hidden from the network and Dial-up Connections folder because it is not physically in the computer or is a legacy adapter that is not working. If the same address is assigned to both adapters and they become active, only one of them will use this address. This may result in incorrect system configuration. Do you want to enter a different IP address for this adapter in the list of IP addresses in the advanced dialog box?
In this message, XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX is an IP address that you are trying to set and Name of adapter is the name of a network adapter that is present in the registry but hidden in Device Manager.
This can occur when you change a network connection’s TCP/IP configuration from DHCP to a static IP address if:
* You have upgraded VMware virtual network adapters (for example when you migrate a virtual machine from an older to a new version of VMware software.)
* You have added and removed network adapters multiple times.
The cause of the error is that a network adapter with the same IP address is in the Windows registry but is hidden in the Device Manager (My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager). This hidden adapter is called a ghosted network adapter.
Using the Show hidden devices option in the Device Manager (View > Show hidden devices) does not always show the old virtual NIC (ghosted adapter) to which that IP Address is assigned
Microsoft addresses this issue in their Knowledge Base article 269155, which is available at the time of this writing at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=269155.
To resolve this problem, follow these steps to make the ghosted network adapter visible in the Device Manager and uninstall the ghosted network adapter from the registry:
Select Start > Run.
Enter cmd.exe and press Enter. This opens a command prompt. Do not close this command prompt window. In the steps below you will set an environment variable that will only exist in this command prompt window.
At the command prompt, run this command:
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
In the same command prompt run this command:
Start DEVMGMT.MSC (press Enter to start Device Manager.)
Select View > Show Hidden Devices.
Expand the Network Adapters tree (select the plus sign next to the Network adapters entry).
Right-click the dimmed network adapter, and then select Uninstall.
Close Device Manager.
Close the Command Prompt
Another method of resolving this problem is to use the DevCon utility. This is a command-line utility that acts as an alternative to Device Manager. When you use DevCon, you can enable, utility disable, restart, update, remove, and query individual devices or groups of devices.
To use DevCon:
1. Download the DevCon tool from Microsoft Knowledge Base: 311272 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311272/en-us).
2. Unpack the 32bit or 64bit DevCon tool binary to a local folder.
3.
Click Start > Run.
4.
Type cmd and press Enter.
5. Type CD:\path_to_binaries to navigate to the devcon.exe is located.
6. Use the following syntax to find installed network adapters:
devcon findall *net* or
devcon listclass net
Note: In the output of the previous commands, there is a line for the ghosted network adapter that is similar to, PCI\.
7.
Run the following command to remove the adapter:
devcon remove @device\name
For example, devcon remove “@PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_1600&SUBSYS_01C21028&REV_02\4&378EDFA4&0&00E2″ .
Note: IDs that include an ampersand character (&) must be enclosed in quotation marks as seen in the example.
8.
Reboot the system and you no longer see the ghost network adapters.
This is a short list of Tools and Documents concerning security in a Virtual Infrastructure.
Tools – page 1
Documents – page 2
Tools
Configuresoft
Configuresoft’s Center for Policy and Compliance (CP&C) has led the industry in forming opinion and bringing together published security and compliance information to build a rich library of compliance toolkits that are available for download by Configuresoft customers from www.configuresoft.com. These CP&C Compliance Toolkits include:
VMware Infrastructure 3 Security Hardening Guidelines and VMware Virtual Center Best Practices
ConfigCheck rapidly assesses the security of ESX 3.0 and 3.5 hypervisors compared to the Virtual Infrastructure 3 Security Hardening Guidelines.
ConfigCheck assesses nearly 100 configurations of the ESX server, and most VI professionals who run the test find significant vulnerabilities. ConfigCheck’s remediation report provides detailed, step-by-step guidance to bring your virtual environment into a state that is secure. ConfigCheck helps you:
Ensure recommended ESX configurations
Discover possible vulnerabilities
Deploy virtualization safely and securely
Increase security posture of the entire enterprise
VMinformer is a security tool designed to check the security posture of your VMware environment. The tool comes with pre-defined policies that can be customized to suit your specific requirements and are based on industry best practices such as ‘VMware’s Security best practice hardening guide’ and the ‘DISA ESX STIG’ hardening guide. The policies also contain rules that have been based on extensive research and industry experience.
Features:
Connects to your ESX hosts or Virtual Center (v3.0, 3.5 and VC 2.5)
Pre-defined policies based on industry best practices (VMware security hardening guide)
Policies can be customized for your environment
Provides full visibility and monitoring of your ESX hosts and Virtual machines
Dashboard – Provides a graphical overview of VM’s and Security Posture
#customize esxXX by IR Date YYYYMMDD
# ESX host configuration script for company.com
# configure as needed for esxXX by changing IP addresses below…
# configure 4 nics for nfs storage
# nic 1 and 3 – cos1, vms, vmotion
# nic 2 and 4 – vmkernel for nfs storage
#
#configure SYSLOG
echo “*.* @syslog.site.company.com” >> /etc/syslog.conf
service syslog restart
# List current config
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-nics -l
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch -l
1. Select a static MAC. NOTE: Static MAC addresses must be in the range of 00:50:56:00:00:00-00:50:56:3F:FF:FF to work with this procedure.
2. Remember to record the Static MAC addresses registered for future reference.
3. Unregister vm:
4. Note the datastore, vm inventory folder, and name for the vm in the summary tab
5. Power down the virtual machine
6. Right click the vm and select remove from inventory
7. Edit vmx:
8. Ssh to the esx host system (use putty)
9. cd /vmfs/volumes/
10. cd to the system’s folder
11. cp .vmx to .vmx.bak
12. vi .vmx
13. find the ethernet0 section
14. make the following changes:
15. change ethernet0.addressType = “vpx” to ethernet0.addressType = “static”
16. ethernet0.generatedAddress = “00:50:56:01.01.00″ to ethernet0.address = “00:50:56:01.01.00″
17. rearrange so the following items are in this order and grouped together: ethernet0.address, ethernet0.addresstype, uuid.location, uuid.bios
18. Write the changes to the disk and exit
19. Reregister the vm:
20. In virtual center, browse to the host datastore (configuration, storage, double click on the vm’s datastore)
21. Browse to the edited .vmx file
22. Right click the .vmx file and select Add to Inventory
23. Enter the system name
24. Select the host
25. Select the resource pool
26. Click Finish
27. Power on the vm and verify the mac address
28. Windows: ipconfig /all find “Physical Address”
29. Linux: ifconfig /a grep Hwaddr
Systems Management
Feature Description: Inventory
Processor Information including brand, processor version, current speed, core count, model, stepping information, 64-bit support, HyperThreading (HT), Virtualization Technology (VT), Demand Based Switching (DBS), and Execute Disable (XD).
Cache information including status, level, max size, installed size, type, location, write policy, set associativity, and error correction.
ESX Classic
All of the above Inventory information is available through OpenManage Server Administrator.
Processor brand, processor version, current speed, core count, model, and stepping information is also available in IT Assistant
ESXi
Only Processor brand, processor version, current speed, core count, and model available using the VI Client.
VI Client Plugin by 
