winbind must be running in order for wbinfo to work, and you need to be connected to your domain.

wbinfo -p
Ping to winbindd succeeded on fd 4

A simple ping test to see if your DC is alive

wbinfo -t
checking the trust secret via RPC calls succeeded

Verify that the workstation trust account created when the Samba server is added to the Windows NT domain is working. This is a good first step to make sure you can talk to your DC

wbinfo -u

This will list your domain users. Make sure the users you expect are there

wbinfo -a greg.cain%password

This is an easy way to check that your user can authenticate against the domain. However, I’d recommend against using it since it will show your password on the command line, in your history, and in the ps command if it’s executed at the right time (there are many other reasons, but those should be enough to dissuade you.) Use a dummy account if possible.

wbinfo -g

Show a list of domain groups. Again, make sure the groups you expect are present.

wbinfo -n greg.cain
S-1-5-21-XXXX789314-3545391909-2802175779-XXXX User (1)

This will get you the SID for the user you’ve specified (greg.cain in this case.)

wbinfo -s S-1-5-21-XXXX789314-3545391909-2802175779-XXXX
DOMAIN\greg.cain

Using the SID you just returned, let’s make sure the reverse mappings are correct.

wbinfo -r greg.cain
16XXX216
16XXX217
....

This will show a list of groups that the user greg.cain belongs to.

wbinfo -G 16XXX217
S-1-5-21-1540789314-3545391909-2802175779-YYY

This converts the GID to the SID.

wbinfo -Y S-1-5-21-1540789314-3545391909-2802175779-YYY
16XXX217

This is the reverse mapping of the SID to the GID

First you need a Customization Specification filled out for each server. It’s entirely scriptable, but I won’t be going into the details of that. This is what the Customization Specification looks like

  <_type>vim.CustomizationSpecItem
 
    <_type>vim.CustomizationSpecInfo
    1274294433
    HandCodedVM1
    2010-05-19T18:40:33Z
    HandCodedVM1
    Linux
 
    <_type>vim.vm.customization.Specification
 
      <_type>vim.vm.customization.GlobalIPSettings
 
        <_length>2
        <_type>string[]
        10.10.10.11
        10.10.10.12
 
        <_length>1
        <_type>string[]
        MyDomain.com
 
      <_type>vim.vm.customization.LinuxPrep
      sea1.com
 
        <_type>vim.vm.customization.FixedName
        HandCodedVM1
 
      true
      US/Pacific
 
      <_length>1
      <_type>vim.vm.customization.AdapterMapping[]
 
        <_type>vim.vm.customization.AdapterMapping
 
          <_type>vim.vm.customization.IPSettings
 
            <_length>2
            <_type>string[]
            10.10.66.1
 
            <_type>vim.vm.customization.FixedIp
            10.10.66.254
 
          255.255.254.0
 
      <_type>vim.vm.customization.LinuxOptions

I’m going to guess you know your environment well enough to recognize your DNS servers, your default gateway, subnet mask, the servers name, etc. Customize this file with the new settings you need. Once you have your new XML file, you’ll want to name it appropriately and import it into Virtual Center (I haven’t found a way to automate that yet.)

Since that’s done, you just need to fire up PowerShell (I’m using PowerShell on the same box as my Virtual Center.) This too is scriptable, but I haven’t written that script yet either. This is the rough framework you need to get started.

Connect-VIServer localhost (This connects you to the local VC.)
 
new-vm -name HandCodedVM1 -Template LINUX_TEMPLATE -OSCustomizationSpec HandCodedVM1 -VMHost HOST01 -Datastore OS01_NAS

Relatively easy to do, and it will save us a couple of days over doing it manually.

# commented out by update-manager, HAL is now used
Section "InputDevice"
  Driver "vmmouse"
  Identifier "VMware Mouse"
  Option "Buttons" "5"
  Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
  Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
  Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
  Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

However, the hal settings are a mess, and not able to handle my mouse (Logitech Mx900.) Rather than try to wrestle hal into order, I added these setting to override hal.

Section "ServerFlags"
  Option         "AutoAddDevices" "false"
EndSection

Now it works!!

• vmkernel – /var/log/vmkernel
• vmkwarning – /var/log/vmkwarning
• vmksummary – /var/log/vmksummary

Management Logs

• hostd – /var/log/vmware/hostd.log
• vpxa – /var/log/vmware/vpxa.log
• HA – /var/log/vmware/aam

Console OS (COS) Logs

• COS – /var/log/messages
• esxupdate – /var/log/vmware/esxupdate.log
• boot – /var/log/vmware/esxcfg-boot.log
• webAccess – /var/log/vmware/webAcess
• firewall – /var/log/vmware/esxcfg-firewall.log
• secure – /var/log/secure

VMware vCenter 2.* Logfile Locations

• vCenter – C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs
• Tomcat – C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server\tomcat\logs
• Capacity Planner – C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Capacity Planner\Logs
• Update Manager – C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Update Manager\Logs
• Converter – C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Converter Enterprise\Logs
• Licence Manager – C:\Temp\imgrd.log

Gratefully taken from HERE

Install VC2.5u4.  If you are upgrading, and have not installed u4 yet, stop the “VMware Infrastructure Web Access” service first.  Upgrade, then start the “VMware Infrastructure Web Access” service.  Not doing this can cause you problems.  This may be fixed by this VMware KB article.

Download and install Java JDK 1.6

Make sure to add the Java executables directory to your path (C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_12\bin\ in the case of my JDK.)  Later updates will use a different path.  If you have an earlier version installed, and you need to keep the older version, type the following in a command window

set path=C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_11\bin\;%path%

Create  a System Variable (not User) called JAVA_HOME, with a value of C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_12. This is essentially the top level Java Directory.

Log out and back in to let your session pick up the new user variables.

In your file browser, find the perfCharts directory.  This will be the same folder you installed VC2.5u4 from, under \vpx\perfCharts.  Open a command window, and change to this directory.  In the same command window run

install.bat

It’s a huge security hole, but I couldn’t find another way to do it.

Once that’s done, start Virtual Center and click on the a host.  You should see a Performance Overview tab.  If you don’t, check that the plugin is installed (Plugins -> Manage Plugins -> Installed.)

Everything worked as expected, but I got this error in the Performance Overview window
“STATs Report service internal error Message: STATs Report application initialization is not completed successfully.”

To solve this, you need to configure the built in MSDE database to accept TCP/IP as a protocol.  Assuming your MSDE is on the same machine as your VC, start the SQL Configuration Manager –

Start > Programs > Microsoft SQL Server 2005 > Configuration Tools > SQL Server Configuration Manager.

SQL Server 2005 Network Configuration -> Protocols for SQLEXP_VIM -> TCP/IP

Yes for Enabled and Yes for Listen All

Restart the following services in order, or reboot

SQL Server (SQLEXP_VIM)
SQL Browser (Make sure it has either an automatic or manual start
VMware Infrastructure Web Access