Linux

Hot imaging Linux servers to a virtual environment

Hi folks, I wanted to discuss hot imaging of Linux servers. Often you will run into a situation where you need to migrate an existing Linux server into a virtual environment.

The downside is that you might not want to power it down to do this and use something like VConverter or PlateSpin Migrate. These products can hot image Windows servers but can’t hot image Linux servers. So what do you end up doing? Acronis!

Acronis True Image Echo Enterprise Server can hot image a server and then you can use the program to convert the image into a VMDK file which you can then import into an existing virtual machine. Then presto, you have a virtualized Linux server without ever having to down the existing older Linux server.

The only caveat is you have to install an Acronis agent on the Linux server to accomplish this. In order for the agent to install successfully you will require the kernel source to be installed. But then you can install the agent without requiring any reboots.

Happy imaging!

-RP

Enabling SSH on a VMware ESXi Server

For those of you that are used to having service console access in VMware ESX server, you might find yourself in for a bit of surprise when you try and do this with ESXi. By default you do not have access. However there is a way to enable access to the console.

Why do you need access to the console? With access to the console this gives you the ability to troubleshoot larger support issues when things aren’t working the way they should and it also enables you to run some pretty cool scripts that are available out there on the Internet.

The ESXi console uses BusyBox so it is different from ESX even after you get console access. To enable SSH access to the shell, please do the following:

• From the ESXi console hit Alt-F1
• Type in the word unsupported and hit enter (you will not see the characters appear on the screen)
• Type in your root password
• Edit the /etc/inetd.conf file by typing in vi /etc/inetd.conf
• Scroll through the file until you find the line that says #ssh and delete the # sign
• Save the file
• Now you can reboot the ESXi server and you will have shell access
• Alternatively you can run the /sbin/services.sh restart command to restart the management services without rebooting the box.

-RP