LMS 4.2 VA and VMware-Tools support ?

[ppoiron]

Hello,

I saw in a Cisco document (

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/ciscoworks_lan_management_solution/4.2/install/guide/appenda.html ) that we can install VMware-Tools on a LMS 4.2 virtual appliance via a VMware-tools-distrib CDROM.

Can someone tell me where I can find this CDROM and are these tools supported by LMS 4.2 in a VMware environment to halt the appliance by powering down the server ?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Patrice

[Marvin Rhoads]

When you mount the device and the "Install/Upgrade VMware Tools" action on the ESX server has the effect of appearing as a file on that cdrom mount point.

I just tried on on my virtual appliance however and noticed that it mistakenly installed as a Windows-based guest and not the expected and necessary Linux-based one. As a result the available install files are not the necessary tar ball but the Windows installation files.

[ppoiron]

Thank you for your feedback.

I was wondering if Cisco had developed a Linux specific VMware-Tool package that would be able to properly manage the shutdown process.

[Marvin Rhoads · Accepted solution]

I was able to shutdown my guest and modify the settings in Vcenter to properly show it as a 64-bit Linux guest.

Once I did that, the procedure referred to in the original post worked and I am now able to use VMWare tools to gracefully shutdown the LMS virtual appliance.

[Michel Hegeraat]

So when you deployed the LMS OVA template some settings inside the template were wrong, and you had to correct this in Vcenter?

Was it indicating a windows 2008?

I think this info comes from the OVA template itself, not something you configure when you install/deploy the OVA

[ppoiron]

You're right: it was configured in vCenter as a Windows 2008 server.

After shutdowing the platform and modifying Guest OS in vCenter as a Linux Guest OS, we were able to install correctly VMwareTools as described in this section:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/ciscoworks_lan_management_solution/4.2/install/guide/appenda.html

[Marvin Rhoads]

C'est juste, Michel.

The Cisco-supplied .ova file has metadata indicating that it is a WIndows 2008 server (or else it fails to specify and VMware defaults to Windows 2008). Either way, the out of the box installation needs to be tweaked to use VMware tools.

[jacky.reinbold]

Hi Marvin,

there are many Posts asking for the VMware Tools update on CPI, now in Version 2.0 and 2.1 without a recent and complete description.

Lots of customers are asking because of error Messages in the hypervisors 5.x

What's your advice here: is it the same procedure as descibed in the guide for LMS 4.2 Linux, even for the latest CPIs in Version 2.x ?

Thanks,

Jacky

[Michel Hegeraat]

Best raise this question in a new thread Jacky,

Also only run the PI OVA on a supported ESX version. Check the release notes.

Cheers,

Michel