advanced/Installing VMWare Tools

1. Summary

If the NEXThink appliance is installed on a VMware ESX/ESXi 3.5 server, installing the VMWareTools will allow you to substitute the standard PCnet32 Ethernet Adapter with the enhanced vmxnet Ethernet Adapter to improve greatly the network performance.

In the following instructions, we will install directly the RPM package provided by VMware.

2. Applies To

• release-3.1.0.1.iso (based on OS CentOS 5.3)

• VMware ESX server 3i (aka. ESXi) | version 3.5.0 | Build 143129

• VMware Infrastructure Client | version 2.5.0 | Build 119801

3. Preparation: take VM snapshot and make backups

make sure you make a manual backup of the Engine, see:

http://doc.nexthink.com/advanced/Engine%20Advanced%20Administration#Performing_manual_backup_of_the_Engine_Memory_Database

and that you save a copy of this manual backup outside the appliance (use SCP to download it).

make sure you save a backup of the Portal by connecting to the web-console (HTTPS on port 99), and then go to: "> Portal > Database backup > Download this file"

after the backup, make sure you stop the Engine with the command:

[nexthink@nxt ~]$ sudo svc -d /var/spool/services/nxengine/

see: http://doc.nexthink.com/advanced/Engine%20Advanced%20Administration#Stopping_the_Engine

make sure you take a snapshot of the VM guest before performing the installation of the VMware Tools. See the relevant VMware documentation.

4. Installing the VMware Tools: detailed instructions

4.1. Initiate VMware Tools installation from the VMware console

Choose "Install/Upgrade VMware Tools" from the VM guest settings menu on the VMware Console (VI client)

4.2. Mounting the virtual CD-Rom

1. Using the VMware console (VI client), open a session as the 'nexthink' user and '123456' default password, (see: http://doc.nexthink.com/advanced/Engine%20Advanced%20Administration#Engine_defaults_settings )

then type the following commands:

 [nexthink@nxt ~]$ sudo mkdir /mnt/cdrom
 [nexthink@nxt ~]$ sudo mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

1. check successful virtual CD-Rom mounting by listing its contents :

  [nexthink@nxt cdrom]$ ls /mnt/cdrom/
  VMwareTools-3.5.0-143129.i386.rpm  VMwareTools-3.5.0-143129.tar.gz

4.3. Installing the VMware Tools RPM

1. Copy the VMware Tools RPM to the /temp folder and install it using the rpm command:

[nexthink@nxt cdrom]$ cp /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-3.5.0-143129.i386.rpm /tmp/
[nexthink@nxt cdrom]$ cd /tmp

[nexthink@nxt tmp]$ sudo rpm -ivh VMwareTools-3.5.0-143129.i386.rpm
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:VMwareTools            ########################################### [100%]

1. Sanity check that the RPM installed well:

[nexthink@nxt ~]$ sudo rpm -qa | grep VMware | xargs rpm -qi
Name        : VMwareTools                  Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version     : 7302                              Vendor: VMware, Inc.
Release     : 143129                        Build Date: Thu 22 Jan 2009 03:12:20 AM UTC
Install Date: Tue 08 Dec 2009 11:54:20 AM UTC      Build Host: pa-lin-bld474.eng.vmware.com
Group       : Applications/System           Source RPM: VMwareTools-7302-143129.src.rpm
Size        : 108471759                        License: commercial
Signature   : (none)
Summary     : VMware Tools
Description :
The VMware Tools package provides support required for shared folders and
for drag and drop operations. Other tools in the package support
synchronization of time in the guest operating system with time on the host,
automatic grabbing and releasing of the mouse cursor, copying and pasting
between guest and host, and improved mouse performance. The SVGA driver
provides significantly faster graphics performance.

4.4. Adding the enhanced Virtual Ethernet Adapter 'vmxnet'

1. Shutdown the VM guest, go to the VM settings, remove the "Flexible" virtual network adapter, add a new virtual network adapter and make sure you select “Enhanced VMXNET” as the type of adapter, also make sure you ticked "Device Status > Connect at power on"

2. Start the VM guest.
3. After you make this configuration change your VM Guest will not have network connectivity upon restarting. This is normal. You will need to logon to the console (use the VI Client) of the VM Guest in order to complete the next steps.
4. Once the VM restarted, from the VMware console (VI client), open a local session and perform the following steps to complete the VMWare Tools installation:
5. Stop the network service:

[nexthink@nxt ~]$ sudo service network stop

and then run the VMware Tools configuration tool:

[nexthink@nxt ~]$sudo vmware-config-tools.pl

after the configuration script completed successfully, run the following commands to enable the vmxnet module:

[nexthink@nxt ~]$ sudo rmmod pcnet32
[nexthink@nxt ~]$ sudo rmmod vmxnet
[nexthink@nxt ~]$ sudo depmod -a
[nexthink@nxt ~]$ sudo modprobe vmxnet

To restart the network service, use the NEXThink Console Super Service consoleV3 which is taking precedence upon the OS networking configuration. consoleV3 will take care of the OS networking settings (overriding it):

[nexthink@nxt ~]$ sudo service consoleV3 restart

check that the eth0 interface has been correctly brought up:

[nexthink@nxt ~]$ sudo ifconfig eth0

5. Applying a new Engine license file after MAC address changed

6. Validation

You can check that the VMware server is reporting the good installation of the VMware Tools from within the VMware general console.

Also, it is recommended to use the NEXThink Finder to :

1. validate good connectivity to the Engine server.
2. validate that the Engine is continuing to receive data from the deployed Collectors after the installation of the VMware Tools by making a few investigations using the Finder

7. Contact Information

If you require further assistance regarding the present case or if you want to contribute to the accuracy of published information, please open a case using http://support.nexthink.com.

CategoryVirtualization