Month: October 2014

ESXi CPU Status Demand/Usage/Ready?

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ESXi CPU Status Demand/Usage/Ready?

Demand: Amount of CPU the virtual machine is demanding / trying to use
Usage: Amount of CPU the virtual machine is actually currently being allowed to use
Ready: Amount of time the virtual machine is ready to run but unable to because vSphere could not find physical resources to run the virtual machine on.

Virtual machines can be in any one of four high-level CPU States:
Wait: This can occur when the virtual machine’s guest OS is idle (Waiting for Work), or the virtual machine could be waiting on vSphere tasks. Some examples of vSphere tasks that a vCPU may be waiting on are either waiting for I/O to complete (Blocked) or waiting for ESX level swapping to complete (SWPWT). These non-idle vSphere system waits are called VMWAIT.
Ready (RDY): A vCPU is in the Ready state when the virtual machine is ready to run but unable to run because the vSphere scheduler is unable to find physical host CPU resources to run the virtual machine on. One potential reason for elevated Ready time is that the virtual machine is constrained by a user-set CPU limit or resource pool limit, reported as max limited (MLMTD).
CoStop(CSTP): Time the vCPUs of a multi-way virtual machine spent waiting to be co-started. This gives an indication of the co-scheduling overhead incurred by the virtual machine.
Run: Time the virtual machine was running on a physical processor

ESXi Setting syslog and firewall settings with PowerCLI

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Syslog and firewall configuration with PowerCLI

Setting PowerCLI

Due the arrival of some SIEM solution I needed to reconfigure ESXi hosts to not only point to our Kiwi Syslog server, but also to the appliance. So a good job for some PowerCLI

I had some trouble using the set-VMHostSysLogServer as it didn’t seem to work as expected. It worked on 2 hosts which hadn’t any syslog configured, but somehow I couldn’t set all to $Null or to the new value, very strange. But I don’t give up and found the Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration cmdlet to set the syslog values on another way.

get-vmhost| Set-VMHostAdvancedConfiguration -NameValue @{'Syslog.global.logHost'='syslog'} -confirm:$false

While testing I noted the message:

This cmdlet is deprecated. Use New-AdvancedSetting, Set-AdvancedSetting, or Remove-AdvancedSetting instead.

Mmm let’s have a look here:

get-vmhost|select -first 1|get-advancedsetting -Name syslog* |select name,value|Ft -a

Name                                        Value
—-                                           —–
Syslog.Remote.Port                   514
Syslog.Remote.Hostname          syslog
Syslog.Local.DatastorePath        [] /vmfs/volumes/4dd2476c-etc.

Let’s try to set it

Get-AdvancedSetting -Entity (get-vmhost|select -first 1) -Name Syslog.Remote.Hostname|Set-AdvancedSetting -Value syslog -confirm:$false

You also can set multiple values like:

Get-AdvancedSetting -Entity (get-vmhost|select -first 1) -Name Syslog.Remote.Hostname|Set-AdvancedSetting -Value syslog1,syslog2 -confirm:$false

After setting the proper syslog setting it was necessary to open the syslog firewall ports on ESXi. To do this on all hosts, it can easily be done with the onelinerbelow using the Get-VMHostFirewallException cmdlet

Get-VMHostFirewallException -VMHost (get-vmhost) -Name syslog|Set-VMHostFirewallException -Enabled:$True -Confirm:$false

MiFi Vodafone R212 and Bliep

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MiFi Vodafone R212 and Bliep

Vodafone R212-Z

I purchased a Vodafone R212-Z to build a WiFi hotspot.

The device can be ordered referring to the link below, when you order, remove the subscriptions or contracts so only the device is left. The device costs €65,29 (ex BTW) and €79,00 with BTW included.You can connect up to 10 WiFi devices.

VodafoneR212z

https://www.vodafone.nl/shop/mobiel-internet/tablet/abonnement/vodafone-r212-z.shtml

The Provider

To make an internet connection I ordered  a Bliep* Sim. The Vodafone R212 uses a normal SIM slot, so be sure to order a standard SIM. With this provider it is possible by turning data on/off per day for the costs of €0,50 or €1 for one day.

€0,50 Rate  = 384 Kbps download and 64 Kbps upload
€1,00 Rate  = 3,6 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload (max of 2 GB each month)

If you reached the maximum rate, it will turn down to the cheaper speed of 384/64 Kbps

After one workday I received both items in my mail and tried to start with them. First problem was to activate the SIM card, it should be done by putting it in a telephone and next up dial number 1350 to activate the SIM card. Damn I don’t have a phone any more to activate it. Searched the internet if it was available online or through a SMS but too bad couldn’t find anything that worked. Luckily in our office our telecom apartment had some old phones around which could be used to activate it.

Activation

After the card was activated I put it in my Vodafone R212-Z and booted it. Nice SIM card found and a standard hotspot is created. The login details are available on the “in the box” instructions. But can also be found on the back of your device or by double clicking the “Power” button.

Configuration

The next step is to log in to the management interface, connect first to the WiFi hotspot with the credentials provided, next take a device and go to http://192.168.0.1 here you can enter a  SIM code to unlock the SIM card. Do this if needed.

Login as admin by filling in the standard password “admin”. Of course it is wise to change this password, but feel free to change the SSID and password as well. Remember that (even if you changed it) you can double tap the devices power button to see the SSID and password to connect with.

Go to account settings and change the APN to “internet.arpa” and number “0”.

Normally other providers use prefixes like *99# or *99***1, but somehow this doesn’t.

internetbliep

How did I found this? Because I couldn’t find it on the internet/forums etc.

Well on the support site is a link to an Apple APN configuration file.

 http://www.bliep.nl/bliepapn.mobileconfig

Opening this file with an editor it will show a sort of XML file, when digging trough I found these keys


dict>
<key>apn</key>
<string>internet.arta</string>
<key>proxyPort</key>
<integer>0</integer>
</dict>

So

APN  = internet.arpa
Proxyport = 0

After filling this in, all works flawlessly.

Hope I could help someone with these settings.

There are also a few sites with the most common APN settings like :

http://www.apn-instellen.nl/apn-instellen.php

 

*Update 5-10-2014

After 2 days I noticed that the connection was dropped sometimes and didn’t re-establish by itself, a collegaue told me sort-like issues can be solved by installing the newer firmware on the device.

Firmware Update 4.5 can be found here ; https://www.vodafone.nl/_assets/downloads/software/R212-Z.exe

After running the installation I get an error message that the device cannot be found, damn, maybe I have to install the drivers then.

So next I downloaded the “Always Best Connected Dashboard” waited for the installation to finish and ran the firmware after the Dashboard stuff is installed.

Right, now the device is found and will be updatet….there you go..

Will update later what my experiences are with the new firmware

*Update 15-10-2014

After installing the latest firmware, I had to set the settings again. I now tried using intranet.arpa and number *99#
And connected again….yehaaa! It works now, also I don’t have any troubles manually connecting each time the device was powered off. It’s now just a matter of pushing the button, waiting for signal and go !