Hello,
in vCenter there is no global configuration parameter to limit the number of snapshots for the virtual machines. The only way is to add a limit in the vmx config file or in vCenter configuration parameters of a single virtual machine.
To set a limit of snapshots which can be taken add
snapshot.maxSnapshots = "6"
Hi,
sometimes you want to modify some offline Vmware virtual disks from command line. For example to copy or edit config files or set some parameters in the Windows sysprep.xml file.
The VMware Workstation does not provide a command line utility for this procedure. But there is a way to do this. Download and install the Virtual Disk Development Kit.
After installation a vmware-mount.exe command exists in the bin Folder of the installation directory.
To mount a disk readonly, choose a drive letter (X: in this example), start a cmd.exe as Administrator type the command like this:
first, change to the VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit Program folder
cd "C:\Program Files\VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit"
or append the program bin folder to PATH variable
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files\VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit\bin;
vmware-mount.exe X: d:\temp\VirtualDisk.vmdk
to mount the disk writable append /m:w at the end of the command:
vmware-mount.exe X: d:\temp\VirtualDisk.vmdk /m:w
Unmounting is quite simple:
vmware-mount.exe X: /d /f
Have fun
Michael
Hi,
if you use some image based technology to deploy your Windows installation, for example SCCM, MDT, Acronis and/or sysprep based, and OpenVPM is already included, the MAC Address of the TAP LAN interface isn’t changed by that way. But a unique MAC Address is requiered if the clients conntects to the same OpenVPN server. If multiple clients have the same MAC Address ping from VPN Clients sometimes fails with error “TTL expired in transit” and the VPN connection is unstable.
This powershellscript sets a MAC Address for each OpenVPN TAP adapter. In detail:
########################################################
# Generate a random MAC for all OpenVPN tap LAN interfaces
# Michael Albert
# 05.04.2013
# License: GPLv2
########################################################
# HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
# MatchingDeviceID tap0901
# REG_SZ MAC=00-FF-8F-E3-A1-AE
$oRandom=New-Object System.random
function fGetRandomMAC([string]$sMACStart){
if($sMACStart.length -ge 0 -and $sMACStart.length -le 11){
for($iLoop=$sMACStart.length; $iLoop -le 11; $iLoop++){
$iChar=$oRandom.Next(16)
$sMACStart+=[String]::Format("{0:x}", $iChar).ToUpper()
}
return($sMACStart)
}
else{
return $false
}
}
function fConvert2MAC16([string]$sMAC12){
[string]$sMAC16=""
if($sMAC12.length -eq 12){
for($iLoop=0;$iLoop -le 11;$iLoop++){
$sMAC16+=$sMAC12.SubString($iLoop,1)
if((($iLoop+1) % 2) -eq 0 -and ($iLoop+1) -lt 12){
$sMAC16+="-"
}
}
return $sMAC16
}
else{
return $false
}
}
###############################################################################
# Currently not used but defined :-)
function fValidMAC([system.string]$sMAC){
$RegExIP=new-object System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex("^([0-9a-fA-F]{2}\-){5}([0-9a-fA-F]{2})$")
return($RegExIP.IsMatch($sMAC))
}
###############################################################################
## MAIN
###############################################################################
$sMACPrefix="00FF8F"
if(! [System.Diagnostics.EventLog]::SourceExists("TAPsetMAC")){
New-EventLog -Source TAPsetMAC -Log Application
}
$aTAPAdapter=Get-ChildItem "registry::HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |where-object{$_.GetValue("MatchingDeviceID") -eq "tap0901"}
foreach($rTAPAdapter in $aTAPAdapter){
# Get-ItemProperty -Path "registry::HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
if(! ($rTAPAdapter.GetValue("MAC"))){
#$rTAPAdapter
#$rTAPAdapter.Name
# Get-ItemProperty -Path ("registry::"+$rTAPAdapter.Name)
$sMAC=fGetRandomMAC $sMACPrefix
if($sMAC16=fConvert2MAC16 $sMAC){
Write-Host -NoNewline "Set MAC of TAP Adaper to" $sMAC16 "..."
$Error.Clear()
New-ItemProperty -Path ("registry::"+$rTAPAdapter.Name) -Force -Name MAC -PropertyType String -Value $sMAC16|Out-Null
if(! $Error){
Write-Host "ok"
Write-EventLog -LogName Application -Source TAPsetMAC -EntryType Information -EventID 666 -Message ("TAP LAN Adapter: Altered MAC Address to "+$sMAC16)
}
else{
Write-EventLog -LogName Application -Source TAPsetMAC -EntryType Warning -EventID 666 -Message ("TAP LAN Adapter: Failed to altered MAC Address to "+$sMAC16)
}
}
}
}
Michael
Hi everybody,
here are some fundamentals to handle XML Files with powershell.
The following commands uses these XML File
<config description="Config file for testing">
<system description="Document Management">
<document authorFirstName="Kirk" authorSurname="Author1" date="20130503 01:15:43" description="Document Hammet" index="3">C:\temp\doc0001.txt</document>
<document authorFirstName="Lars" authorSurname="Author5" date="20130503 10:05:42" description="Document Ulrich" index="4">C:\temp\doc0002.txt</document>
<document authorFirstName="Cliff" authorSurname="Author5" date="20130612 11:54:33" description="Document Burton" index="6">C:\temp\doc0051.txt</document>
<document authorFirstName="Jason" authorSurname="Author2" date="20130806 04:02:41" description="Document Newsted" index="1">C:\temp\doc0041.txt</document>
<document authorFirstName="Robert" authorSurname="Smith" date="20131202 07:12:03" description="Document Trujillo" index="2">C:\temp\doc0012.txt</document>
<document authorFirstName="James" authorSurname="Smith" date="20130211 09:05:59" description="Document Hetfield" index="5">C:\temp\doc0003.txt</document>
</system>
</config>
Creating a XML File, create a document root, create subelements, add and set attributes, save the file
# Create a new XML File with config root node
[System.XML.XMLDocument]$oXMLDocument=New-Object System.XML.XMLDocument
# New Node
[System.XML.XMLElement]$oXMLRoot=$oXMLDocument.CreateElement("config")
# Append as child to an existing node
$oXMLDocument.appendChild($oXMLRoot)
# Add a Attribute
$oXMLRoot.SetAttribute("description","Config file for testing")
[System.XML.XMLElement]$oXMLSystem=$oXMLRoot.appendChild($oXMLDocument.CreateElement("system"))
$oXMLSystem.SetAttribute("description","Document Management")
# Save File
$oXMLDocument.Save("c:\temp\config.xml")
Loading an existing XML File, read an element, do some XPATH queries
Continue reading Powershell: Some basic XML handling with Powershell and .NET
Hi,
a short post. It describes how to create a new local Windows User account and add them to an existing local user group.
First of all, include the following references in your project:
using System.DirectoryServices; using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
Create a new User with local administrator rights.
// define Username and Password
const string USER_NAME = "NewAdmin";
char[] aPWchars = { 'P', 'a', 's', 's' , 'w', 'o', 'r', 'd'};
System.Security.SecureString oPW = new System.Security.SecureString();
foreach (char cChr in aPWchars) {
oPW.AppendChar(cChr);
}
// Get Computerobject via ADSI
DirectoryEntry oComputer = new DirectoryEntry("WinNT://" + Environment.MachineName + ",computer");
// New User
DirectoryEntry oNewUser = oComputer.Children.Add(USER_NAME, "user");
// define Pointer to a string
IntPtr pString = IntPtr.Zero;
// Pointer to password
pString = Marshal.SecureStringToGlobalAllocUnicode(oPW);
// Set password
oNewUser.Invoke("SetPassword", new object[] { Marshal.PtrToStringUni(pString) });
// Add a description
oNewUser.Invoke("Put", new object[] { "Description", "New Administrator" });
// Save changes
oNewUser.CommitChanges();
// Cleanup and free Password pointer
Marshal.ZeroFreeGlobalAllocUnicode(pString);
// Get Group
DirectoryEntry oGroup = oComputer.Children.Find("Administrators", "group");
// And add the recently created user
oGroup.Invoke("Add", new object[] { oNewUser.Path.ToString() });
Michael