Author Archives: mattfeltonma

Raspberry Pi – Initial Setup Tasks

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So you have your Raspberry Pi up and running an OS, but you’re not done yet. Here are some initial tasks to get you started:

**For each of these steps, I am assuming you are using Wheezy and a wireless NIC. I’ll be updating this post as I configure the Pi.

Setting a static IP address

You’re going to be running some neat server-type service on your Pi aren’t you? Well you better get a static IP in place. The IPs I use below will need to be changed to whatever subnet you are using at your home.

  1. Open a terminal window and type the following:
    sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

    This command will open up the configuration file as root in the nano text editor. The file contains information about the wireless network you joined when you first setup the
    operating system.

  2. Add the following lines:
    id_str="home_static"
    priority=1

    Press CTRL O to write the file and exit nano. These two lines will add an identification to the NIC when it is connected to the wireless network specified in the file. We will use this
    identifier later on so remember it.

  3. The next step is to configure the interface configuration file. At the terminal window, type the following:
    sudo nano /etc/networking/interfaces

    Add the following lines to the file:
    iface home_static inet static
    address 192.168.0.5
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    gateway 192.168.0.1

  4. Now reboot your Pi. At the terminal window type the following command:
    sudo shutdown -r now

Rapsberry Pi, The Wallet-Sized Computer

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Work and the like has kept me busy, but I finally have some time to post.

Last week I got around to purchasing a Raspberry Pi. If you’re not familiar with the Raspberry Pi project, you can read more about it here. Essentially, the Raspberry Pi is a wallet-sized computer (no, not George Costanza size) that can run variants of Linux.

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The device comes equipped with the following ports:

  • 2x USB 2.0
  • HDMI
  • S-VIDEO
  • Audio Out
  • RJ 45
  • Mini-USB Port for Power

300px-RaspberryPi
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You can purchase them from a variety of sites, I went with Amazon (Amazon Prime for the win!). With your purchase you’ll want to pick up an SD card, wireless card, an enclosure, and a mini-USB charger (I used an old cell phone charger). I also opted to go with a powered USB hub because I was greedy and wanted more USB ports. You will also need a way to access the SD card on your computer. I ended up hooking up an old digital camera to my computer and using that to get the files on the SD card. Here is a listing of what I purchased on Amazon:

There are a number of guides out on the internet that provide instructions for installing the operating system on the Pi. Berryboot worked perfect for me. The site has instructions, but I’ll give you the short. Download the ZIP to your computer, extract it to an SD card, put the SD card into the PI, and boot. The wizard will guide you through the rest.

I’ll update the site with more information as I begin using the device.

Working on 70-662

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As the new year approaches, I figured it was time to get some Exchange certification under my belt. I picked up the MS Press 70-662 book a week ago and have been burning through the chapters so far. It doesn’t seem to be the most popular certification out there, but I’ve always found the certification tracks to be a great way to utilize a structured learning plan.

I bumped my home PC up to 24GBs of RAM to handle the 6 or 8 VMs I’m going to use for labbing. It’s fun to make the environment more complex than what Microsoft recommends, it ends up giving me a chance to troubleshoot issues I wouldn’t encounter if I followed the MS labs.

Having done a Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010 migration just a few months back, I’m having a pretty easy go so far. I’ve also written a fairly complex PowerShell script to generate weekly and monthly report statistics, so I’m very comfortable with the heavy PowerShell focus. PowerShell is a whole other subject, but let me briefly say thank you to Microsoft for finally getting a decent CLI in place. I can’t wait to pickup the second edition of Learn Windows PowerShell In A Month Of Lunches which covers version 3.0.

I’ll be publishing a few Exchange scripts I’ve written over the past few months in a post later this week. I’m working to improve them, but I’m pretty happy with the results for the length of time I’ve been using PowerShell for.

Off to read another chapter before The Walking Dead!

Dell OpenManage Server Administrator installation on ESXi 5

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All right folks, I’ve decided to save you hours of time once again and provide a comprehensive guide to installing the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) client on ESXi 5. I pieced this together from a variety of user guides and forum posts and have tested it on an ESXi 5 box I use for labs. Instructions are as follows:

  1. Download the latest version of “Dell OpenManage Offline Bundle and VIB for ESXi”. The easiest way to find it is to go to the Dell Support homepage. Select the model of the Dell server you are working with, filter the operating system to your version of ESXi, expand the System Management section, and do a search for “offline bundle”. Once you download the file, rename it to something simple like omsa.zip. This will make your life easier during the later steps where you will be typing out the file path and filename.
     
  2. Put your ESXi host into maintenance mode and log into vCenter or vSphere and upload the file to the datastore your ESXi host uses.
     
  3. Enable SSH on your ESXi box and establish an SSH session with your favorite terminal emulator. I’m partial to Putty. Once you’ve established your SSH session, move the file from your datastore to /var/log/vmware. Your datastore will be stored under /vmfs/volumes/<datastore_id>. You can obtain the datastore_id variable from the within vCenter/vSphere by clicking the configuration tab, selecting the storage from the hardware menu, and clicking on your datastore in the Datastore pane.
     
  4. Now you’ll want to install the vib to the ESXi host. You can do this by typing the following command.
     
    esxcli software vib install -d /var/log/vmware/<OMSA_filename>
     
    You’ll then be prompted to enter the root username and password. If the installation is successful you’ll receive something similar to the following:

    Installation Result
    Message: The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.
    Reboot Required: true
    VIBs Installed: Dell_bootbank_OpenManage_<OMSA_version>
    VIBs Removed:
    VIBs Skipped:

  5. At this point, most guides will tell you to reboot the server, however, we are not done yet. ESXi 5 has a built-in firewall that allows only pre-configured built in services to be allowed through. OMSA runs off port 1311, so we’re going to need to create a new persistent firewall rule.
     
    You can download the OpenManage rule I’ve created from here. Optionally, you can create your own by following the directions from VMWare.
     
    Once the rule is complete, upload it to the ESXi host’s datastore.
     
  6. Now we need to edit /etc/rc.local to make sure that the firewall rule is copied to /etc/vmware/firewall each time the computer is rebooted. We can do this by establishing a SSH connection with our ESXi host, opening vi, and adding the following few lines as referenced by this VMWare article.
     
    cp <location of xml> /etc/vmware/firewall
    esxcli network firewall refresh
     
  7. Finally, reboot your ESXi box for all of the changes to take effect. To access the OMSA installation on the ESXi server, you’ll need to open OMSA Web Services on another box and log into the ESXi host.
     
    Remember that when you log into OMSA Web Services on another computer, you may be automatically logged into OMSA on that computer. Hit Log Out, then the Log In button, and down towards the bottom of the log in page, hit the Manage Remote Node link.

That’s it folks. Enjoy!