Peoplesoft on Windows 2012 : the OS

For once, I’ll spend some times on Windows server.
Most of the time, I work on Linux or Unix system, but that’s also good to see how other are going to run out of the box, at least to be able to compare and speak about a system with a minimum of knowledge.

And whilst investigating on Windows, better to go for the very latest server release.
According to the certification matrix on My Oracle Support, Peopletools 8.53 is planned to be certified on Windows 2012 (no date). You could track the note Oracle Plans New Microsoft Windows Certifications with PeopleSoft [ID 1515376.1] for more information: “[…]Microsoft’s Windows Server 2012 will be certified with PeopleSoft’s server components, including the database, web and application servers[…]”
Unfortunately, the same is not true for the Oracle database. Nothing is planned yet for Windows 2012. Maybe for the upcoming 11.2.0.4 (scheduled for the Q4-2013, find out more Release Schedule of Current Database Releases [ID 742060.1]) ?
Anyway, not certified has never meant that won’t work. So why not have a try and see ?

I’ll build a brand new server Windows 2012 hosted on VMWare ESXi, with Peoplesoft (HCM9.2, Peopletools 8.53) and Oracle 11.2.0.3 database.
Note that since Windows 2008R2, it’s only 64bit OS. Windows 2012 is available on TechNet for free download with a 180-days trial version (by default).

Let’s start with the VMWare configuration, with the bare-minimum hardware required :




The first given hard disk being for OS hosting, I added two more hard disks, one for the applications (Oracle software, Peoplesoft, Weblogic…), one for the database.
 

Then configure the CD-ROM to boot on an ISO file:


And boot:


Then it’s coming time for the installation:
 
 

Choose the Edition you want to work on, important note, from Windows 2012 onwards, there won’t be anymore Enterprise Edition. Only two Editions are remaining, Standard and DataCenter (note, at the time I’m writing this blog entry, you may find out Windows 2012 R2 preview).


Accept the license agreement:


And go for a fresh installation from scratch:


Format and choose the disk you want to install the OS on:

It took only few minutes to get it installed:
 

Done !


Amazingly fast, do not want to remember these old days when it took ages to install a Windows OS…
And once connected, the GUI is a lot disturbing, needed a lot of time to get use to it:


I won’t go through the all Windows 2012 specificities and details, except the ones we will need to get a working server. If you want more information about Windows 2012, there’s literature.

For the sake, I change the Windows update to be manual (by default it is set to be automatically applied, how can it be on a server?):
 


The computer name has to be changed (it’s a server) as well as the IP to be a fix one (no DHCP on a server):

 

Bring the 2 left disks (non-OS ones) online and format them both:
 


Remove the “hide” properties from the explorer, we are the Admin on the server and most likely want to see everything.


Then modify the hosts file and add the IP hostname of that new server:



Do not forget to install the VMWare tools if you are working on bare-metal hypervisor such as ESXi.
Reboot the server to take all the change in account.

If I was going through the steps above, that’s because I had really hard time to find out where was what. Where was what I used to use on Windows 2008R2 for instance.
No more “Start” menu… For shutting down the server, restart or disconnect, I dig a lot to find out that was under “Local Server”, “Tasks” then … “Shutdown the local server”.
One more surprise, if you actually drag your mouse top right, or bottom right of the screen, it will popup a kind of menu with “Search”, “Start” and “Settings” with a BIG clock in the middle of the screen.
 

”Search” can be considered as useful, you will retrieve here almost all of your applications:


You may want to use the search feature, not sure about accuracy here though. It worked here for pside (AppDesigner), but not for psdmt (DataMover), no idea why:

To get out of that screen, press “Escape”… intuitive you said ?

To my point of view, the “Start” is useless (you can find all from the above “Search”) and looks terrible (you can see my background desktop):
 

And about the “Settings”… well, not better. Nothing much to do out there.


I won’t comment that Windows version. If it’s better or not than previous, but definitely different. At the least.
You have to spend time just to find how to manage it now, and where are your programs you want to run.

Anyway, that was just the very first step in order to get Peoplesoft on Windows 2012.

Enjoy Windows 2012 (in 2013),

Nicolas.

Maintenance on Dell PowerEdge running ESXi

VMWare ESXi is really nice and easy to manage. Easy to create and maintain the VMs.
But as a bare-metal virtualization software, it makes several tasks a bit more complicated onto the server maintenance itself.
Should you have a “standard” OS such as Windows or Linux, there’s always packages to update drivers and firmware.
There’s no straightforward solution when running ESXi. We have to find a work around.
Also, the Open Manage Server Administrator to maintain the Dell server is not that simple anymore. We should have to add one more layer.

1. ESXi backup
Firs off, the backup.
I installed ESXi on an internal USB stick (8Gb). The server i configured to automatically boot on it.
That saves a little bit of space on hard drive, but it offers a much more nicer option. The backup. It is easier than it could look at a first glance.
I found a small and very efficient software to copy an entire USB stick as an image. It’s of course possible to restore it on an other USB stick (same size or greater).
Should your USB key burn out for some reason, just copy back your image to an other one, restart the server, and done !
Nothing more easy, find out more: http://www.alexpage.de/usb-image-tool/

2. Open Manage Server Administrator (OMSA)
Managing the OMSA on a server running can be a little bit tricky.
It must be done in two steps.
First , you should have an available server to host a webserver. Then install a small agent onto the remote ESXi host itself.

I have a very small CentOS guest OS (1Gb RAM defined, 10Gb hard drive) on my ESXi which host this webserver (this is also configured as a vmclient for some remote commands).

So, here I downloaded from the Dell support website (depends of the brand of server) the two pieces of software :
a) OpenManage Server Administrator Managed Node (RHEL6 - 64bit),v7.3.
That’s the webserver part. To be installed onto my CentOS guest OS.
b) OpenManageServer Administrator vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB) for ESXi 5.1,v7.3  
That’s the agent part to be installed on the remote ESXi host.

2.1 On the CentOS webserver host, I first uninstall any previously installed version of OMSA:
rpm -e $(rpm -qa | grep srvadmin)
Then, once extracted the tar.gz file, install the new one:
./setup.sh, choose default answer for Web Installation.

2.2 On ESXi, stop all the the VMs, put the host in maintenance mode, connect onto the host with ssh.
Under /vmfs/volumes/vm, create a new directory dedicated to the agent installer of OMSA, and copy inside, the new agent. Don’t unzip the given file.
Run the following command (here for the OMSA7.3):
esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/506c2d23-01dbe48d-7940-001ec9deb63b/OM-SrvAdmin-Dell-Web-7.3.0-333_A00.VIB-ESX51i/OM-SrvAdmin-Dell-Web-7.3.0-333_A00.VIB-ESX51i.zip

Reboot the host, and check the new OMSA version:
esxcli software vib list|grep -i open
Exit the maintenance mode, restart the VMs you want to restart, here I restarted my CentOS guest hosting the webserver.
Finally, check the new version online (you may have to accept a new certificate from within the browser).

From the OMSA login page, the “About” gives the version of OMSA from the webserver side:



Connected to the managed host (the ESXi host):


Once connected, click on the top right “About”, it will give the OMSA version from the managed agent (the ESXi host).

     

3. Firmware update
This is probably the trickiest part and task to achieve. 
There’s no way to install any rpm on ESXi host, no way to run a direct single command to check the new firmware version from the Dell Support website.
Until I discover a pretty  nice tool, Dell Repository Manager. It is supported only on Windows (2003 and above), quite easy to install. It allows us to create our own packages according to our hardware specificities from a bundle of firmware/drivers update.

Here below, I’ll work from an example which came out.
From the Open Manage Server Administrator, a new firmware version is reported for the Perc6i Integrated piece of hardware embedded on the PowerEdge 2900III server.

 

This is obviously available in the Dell support website, you can download it, but there won’t be any way to run it from the ESXi host. From any of the guests OS neither, they have no idea about the hardware.

For the good of the example, let’s go to a Windows 2008R2 guest OS.
Open the Dell Repository Manager (DRM): 


It checks for new catalog update immediately, download it.

 

It creates a new repository with the newly imported catalog, open it.


There’re now all the newest bundles available for the Dell servers.
Let’s select only and only the one(s) we could be interested of. My PowerEdge 2900III is a tower server:
 

Choose your server brand, mine is a 2900 tower series, take the Linux OS and the most recent date. Only one bundle is now given (here the one from the 6th of June 2013):


You may want to export the bundle and create an ISO file right away, that’s quite possible and probably easier.
But I want to do it only the component update that I’m looking for (as shown above, Perc6i Integrated). Go to the Components tab, be sure the previously given bundle is selected:


Again, select your brand of server, here tower server 2900, select the device you want the firmware for, here the Perc6i Integrated is a storage controller. It gives one and only one row, with the expected version as shown earlier by the OMSA alert (6.3.3-002, from the 29th of January 2013). See the size, it’s only 10Mb whereas the entire bundle was about 450Mb.
Select the component, and click on “Copy to”: 


Now, we will create a new bundle from the selected component.
Here I have only one component but you may do the same for more components:


So, create the NEW bundle is what we want:


Choose a bundle name which say something to you for further reference. Choose Linux OS, here it’s a bundle specification, it will be use later to create the ISO file:


Do not select any of the specific OS:


Once more select the server you want to update (surprisingly, it’s at least the third time we have to do it):


Check if everything is correct, and click “Finish”:


Finally, the bundle is created and ready to be exported:


Go back to the “Bundles” tab, select the newly created bundle and click on “Export”


Now, we will create an ISO file that will be use to boot the server with and update the firmware. That would have been the case also if you exported the standard delivered bundle:


To do so, check the “Bootable ISO” option (remember, you created the bundle with Linux OS type):


If any new plugins are detected, they are downloaded:


We do not have any customized script:


Happy ? Click “Finish”:


In the end of the process, a job is submitted:
 

At the bottom of the page, check and wait for the job completion:


Once it is finished, we can check the file and size in the directory. Note the size, 200Mb, much more than the size of the component update (10Mb)…:

Burn the ISO as an image on a CD disk. 

Put the ESXi in maintenance mode:
 


Put the ISO disk in the server track and reboot the server:



After few seconds only (hey, only one component is updated here), the server is rebooted again from within the script (auto-executed from the ISO disk).
Remove the disk out of the track, exit the server from maintenance mode and restart the VMs you want to have up and running. Here I’m restarting the CentOS guest OS which host the OMSA webserver.


In the end, come back to OMSA and check the new version of the component which has been previously reported as obsolete. It is now the newest one:


Whether it looks tedious, it is not. There’re of course a lot of tasks, but it’s all for the good !

Enjoy,

Nicolas.

Oracle database 12c

Just in case you did not notice it yet, Oracle 12cR1 is now available…

Download is here : http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/index.html

And the documentation : http://www.oracle.com/pls/db121/homepage

You may want to read the new features first.
One of them has a quite interesting name “Performance With Zero Effort”, and hopefully title is not that misleading.

And of course, as announced before, there’s the Pluggable database feature. A new concept to learn, rather interesting to investigate to take advantage of.

So far, only available for Linux x64 and Solaris.

Nicolas.

Prompt-free Appliance deployment : the automation script

Fifth and last part of this series “Prompt-free Appliance deployment”. I’m sure, many of you didn’t understand why sending so much time and effort for such a small result.
It’s maybe right, but at least we learnt several interesting points regarding these Appliances, like :
* about the five disks and what they contain,
* for the VMWare users how to mount/umount one of the disks,
* where are all the scripts used for the VM configuration and what modifications are required to make them prompt-free
We can probably go even further in the analyzes, take only one or two disks out of the five (to make a VM for PIA only for instance), go further in the other script for other Peoplesoft components. But it would take even longer timer and effort. For those who are interesting in specific area, I hope that series offered a good start.

That said, there’s a very last effort. We previously modified the script manually, now it’s time for scripting. As a base start, I’ll reuse the previous script to move to ESXi.

1. Files involved
There are 3 files:
- 1 containing the sed replacement (replace.sed) – see explanations details in a previous post:
s/<OperatingSystemSection ovf:id="109">/<OperatingSystemSection ovf:id="101">/
s/<Description>Oracle_64<\/Description>/<Description>oracleLinux64Guest<\/Description>/
s/<vbox:OSType ovf:required="false">Oracle_64<\/vbox:OSType>/<vbox:OSType ovf:required="false">oracleLinux64Guest<\/vbox:OSType>/
s/<vssd:VirtualSystemType>virtualbox-2.2<\/vssd:VirtualSystemType>/<vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-07<\/vssd:VirtualSystemType>/
s/<rasd:Caption>sataController0<\/rasd:Caption>/<rasd:Caption>SCSI Controller0<\/rasd:Caption>/
s/<rasd:Description>SATA Controller<\/rasd:Description>/<rasd:Description>SCSI Controller<\/rasd:Description>/
s/<rasd:ElementName>sataController0<\/rasd:ElementName>/<rasd:ElementName>SCSI Controller0<\/rasd:ElementName>/
s/<rasd:ResourceSubType>AHCI<\/rasd:ResourceSubType>/<rasd:ResourceSubType>lsilogic<\/rasd:ResourceSubType>/
s/<rasd:ResourceType>20<\/rasd:ResourceType>/<rasd:ResourceType>6<\/rasd:ResourceType>/

- 1 containing the configuration settings.
This file is the only file to be modify when creating a new VM according to the expectations:
[root@omsa:/nfs/software/PeopleSoftCD/OVA]# more HCMDB-SES-85302d.env
#Please change the value as desired
ROOT_PWD="passw0rd"
IP_ADDRESS="192.168.1.20"
NETMASK="255.255.255.0"
GATEWAY="192.168.1.254"
DNS="192.168.2.254"
HOST_NAME="hcm92000.phoenix.nga"
DB_NAME="HR92DMO"
SES_Y_N="N"
VMWARE_ANNOTATIONS="Peoplesoft Appliance PUM HCMDB Peoplesoft 9.2 Peopletools 8.53.02 - Demo use"
VMWARE_TOOLS_ISO_PATH="/nfs/software/Virtualization/VMWare/VMWare_vSphere/5.1u1"
VMWARE_TOOLS_ISO_FILE="VMware-tools-linux-9.0.5-1065307.iso"
[root@omsa:/nfs/software/PeopleSoftCD/OVA]#

- 1 being the shell script itself, see next section.

2. The shell script
The first part is easy to understand, you must provide a configuration file as shown above
[root@omsa:/nfs/software/PeopleSoftCD/OVA]# more ova_to_esx.sh
if [ "$1" = "" ];
then
echo "You must specify a file as input parameter"
exit 1
else
ENV=$1
if [ -f ${ENV} ];
then
. ./${ENV}
else
echo ${ENV}" does not exists or is not a file"
exit 1
fi
fi

Then fill up the name of the input virtual machine as well as the output
inputVM=""
while [ "$inputVM" = "" ];
do
echo "Please enter input name (corresponding to the folder with zip/ova/ovf):"
read inputVM
if [ ! -d ${inputVM} ];
then
echo "The directory ./${inputVM} does not exist"
inputVM=""
fi
done

echo "Please enter the output VM name (default=${inputVM}): "
read outputVM
if [ "${outputVM}" = "" ];
then
outputVM=${inputVM}
fi

There is a confirmation prompt:
echo "########################################"
echo "#  Input parameters"
echo "########################################"
echo "inputVM ...............: "${inputVM}
echo "outputVM ..............: "${outputVM}
echo "Root password .........: "${ROOT_PWD}
echo "IP address ............: "${IP_ADDRESS}
echo "Netmask ...............: "${NETMASK}
echo "Gateway ...............: "${GATEWAY}
echo "DNS ...................: "${DNS}
echo "Hostname ..............: "${HOST_NAME}
echo "Database name .........: "${DB_NAME}
echo "SES installation ......: "${SES_Y_N}
echo "VMWare annotations ....: "${VMWARE_ANNOTATIONS}
echo "VMWare iso ............: "${VMWARE_TOOLS_ISO_PATH}"/"${VMWARE_TOOLS_ISO_FILE}
echo "########################################"
PROCEED=""
while [ "${PROCEED}" != "Y" -a "${PROCEED}" != "N" ];
do
echo "Do you want to proceed with these values (y=continue, n=exit)?"
read PROCEED
PROCEED=`echo "${PROCEED^^}"`
done
if [ ${PROCEED} = "N" ];
then
echo "You choose not to proceed, exit script."
exit 1
fi
echo "Continue the script..."

And all the following is running automatically, starting by unzipping, concatenate, extract ova file, update ovf file, and push to ESXi (ovftool):
##############################################################################################
cd ${inputVM}
echo $PWD

##############################################################################################
echo `date`
echo "Start"
#Unzip the input zipfiles
echo "Unzipping input files"
for zipfile in `ls ${inputVM}*.zip`
do
echo `date`
echo "unzipping file "$zipfile
unzip $zipfile
done

##############################################################################################
#Concatenation to one ova file
echo "Concatenation to one ova file"
if [ -f ${inputVM}.ova ];
then
rm -f ${inputVM}.ova
fi

for ovafile in `ls ${inputVM}.ova_?of?`
do
echo `date`
echo "concatenation file "$ovafile
cat $ovafile >> ${inputVM}.ova
done

##############################################################################################
#Extract files from ova
echo `date`
echo "Extract ova file"
if [ -f ${inputVM}.ova ];
then
echo "untar the ova file"
tar xvf ${inputVM}.ova
fi

##############################################################################################
#Backup the ovf
mv ${inputVM}.ovf ${inputVM}.ovf.orig

##############################################################################################
#Replace the string to be replace as defined in replace.sed file
echo "Change the ovf to ESXi compliance"
sed -f ../ova_to_esx.sed < ${inputVM}.ovf.orig > ${inputVM}.tmp

#Take the item line corresponding to the sound item group
line=`grep -ni -B7 sound ${inputVM}.tmp|grep  "<Item>"|awk -F- '{print $1}'`
#It will replace the <Item> for the sound card item to be deactivated
sed -e "${line}s/<Item>/<Item ovf:required=\"false\">/" < ${inputVM}.tmp > ${inputVM}.ovf
rm -f ${inputVM}.tmp

##############################################################################################
echo `date`
echo "Moving to ESXi"
##############################################################################################
#ovftool --lax -ds=vm "--net:HostOnly=VM Network 2" ${inputVM}.ovf "vi://root:pwd@192.168.1.10:443"
#Creation of the local ovftool parameter file
echo "lax" > .ovftool
echo "datastore=vm" >> .ovftool
echo "skipManifestCheck" >> .ovftool
echo "overwrite" >> .ovftool
echo "powerOffTarget" >> .ovftool
echo "net:HostOnly=VM Network 2" >> .ovftool
#echo "powerOn" >> .ovftool
echo "annotation="${VMWARE_ANNOTATIONS} >> .ovftool
echo "name="${outputVM} >> .ovftool

echo $PWD
#Run the ovftool to push the ovf and vmdk to ESXi
ovftool ${inputVM}.ovf vi://root:pwd@192.168.1.10:443

#Remove local ovftool parameter file
rm -f .ovftool

Then it’s taking back the 1st disk from the remote ESXi to the local machine:
##############################################################################################
echo "Loading the vmdk from ESXi "`date`
##############################################################################################
##Taking back the 1st vmfk
mkdir -p ${outputVM}-esxi
vifs --server 192.168.1.10:443 --username root --password pwd --get '[vm] '${outputVM}'/'${outputVM}'-flat.vmdk' ./${outputVM}-esxi
echo `date`

Mounting and updating all the needed scripts:
##############################################################################################
echo "Mounting the loaded vmdk from ESXi "`date`
##############################################################################################
#Mounting the downloaded vmdk on local
lo1=`losetup --find`
echo "Loop free "${lo1}
losetup ${lo1} ./${outputVM}-esxi/${outputVM}-flat.vmdk
start=`fdisk -lu ${lo1}|grep Linux|grep -v "*"|grep -v swap|awk '{print $2}'`
echo "Start offset "${start}
offset=`expr ${start} \\* 512`
echo "Size offset "${offset}
lo2=`losetup --find`
echo "Loop free "${lo2}
losetup ${lo2}  ${lo1} -o ${offset}
echo "Mounting fs..."
mkdir -p /mnt/${outputVM}
mount  ${lo2} /mnt/${outputVM} -o rw,user

##############################################################################################
echo "Backing up scripts"
#####################
#Backing up scripts
#####################
cp /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/oraclevm-template.sh /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/oraclevm-template.sh.orig
cp /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/oraclevm-template-db.sh /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/oraclevm-template-db.sh.orig
#####################

echo "Banner"
#####################
#Banner
#####################
mv /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/.banner /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/.banner.orig
#####################

echo "Database"
#####################
#Database
#####################
sed -i "s/.*Enter the name of the database.*//"  /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/oraclevm-template-db.sh
sed -i "s/read VALUE/VALUE=\"${DB_NAME}\"/" /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/oraclevm-template-db.sh

echo "Root password"
#####################
#Root password
#####################
sed -i "/.*ovm_configure_network.*/a\
sed -i \"s\/ovm_set_password.*\/ovm_set_password root "${ROOT_PWD}"\/\" \$ORACLE_DB_SCRIPT" /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/oraclevm-template-db.sh

echo "Network"
#####################
#Network
#####################
sed -i "s/.*ovm_configure_network.*/sed -i \"s\/ovm_configure_network.*\/ovm_configure_network "${IP_ADDRESS}" "${NETMASK}" "${GATEWAY}" "${DNS}" "${HOST_NAME}"\/
\" \$ORACLE_DB_SCRIPT/"  /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/oraclevm-template-db.sh

echo "SES"
#####################
#SES
#####################
if [ ${SES_Y_N} = "Y" ]; then
sed -n '1h;1!H;${;g;s/echo -n \"Do you wish to setup Secure Search Enterprise.*USER_RESPONSE=\"\$?\"/USER_RESPONSE=1/g;p;}' < /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/
oraclevm-template.sh > /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/oraclevm-template.sh.out
else
sed -n '1h;1!H;${;g;s/echo -n \"Do you wish to setup Secure Search Enterprise.*USER_RESPONSE=\"\$?\"/USER_RESPONSE=0/g;p;}' < /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/
oraclevm-template.sh > /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/oraclevm-template.sh.out
fi
rm -f  /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/oraclevm-template.sh
mv /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/oraclevm-template.sh.out  /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/oraclevm-template.sh
chmod a+rx  /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/oraclevm-template.sh

Making all the stuff for VMWare tools:
echo "VMWare tools"
#####################
#VMWare tools script, run only the first time
#####################
echo "if [ -f /tmp/"${VMWARE_TOOLS_ISO_FILE}" ]; then" > /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/vmware_tools.sh
echo "mkdir -p /mnt/vmware-tools" >> /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/vmware_tools.sh
echo "mount -o loop /tmp/"${VMWARE_TOOLS_ISO_FILE}" /mnt/vmware-tools" >> /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/vmware_tools.sh
echo "tar zxf /mnt/vmware-tools/VMwareTools*.tar.gz -C /tmp" >> /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/vmware_tools.sh
echo "umount /mnt/vmware-tools" >> /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/vmware_tools.sh
echo "rmdir /mnt/vmware-tools" >> /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/vmware_tools.sh
echo "rm -f /tmp/${VMWARE_TOOLS_ISO_FILE}" >> /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/vmware_tools.sh
echo "/tmp/vmware-tools-distrib/vmware-install.pl --default" >> /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/vmware_tools.sh
echo "rm -Rf /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib" >> /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/vmware_tools.sh
echo "fi" >> /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/vmware_tools.sh
#
chmod a+rx /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/vmware_tools.sh
#
sed -i "/CreateVirtualEnv$/a\
\$SCRIPT_PATH\/vmware_tools.sh" /mnt/${outputVM}/opt/oracle/psft/vm/oraclevm-template.sh
#####################
echo "Copy VMWare tools installer "`date`
#Copy the iso VMWare tools installer
cp ${VMWARE_TOOLS_ISO_PATH}"/"${VMWARE_TOOLS_ISO_FILE} /mnt/${outputVM}/tmp
##############################################################################################

Two more optional steps to fix previously found issues (you may add more):
#####################
#Optional: disabling SELINUX in /etc/selinux/config if empty
#####################
echo "Disabling SELINUX"
sed -i "s/^SELINUX=$/SELINUX=disabled/" /mnt/${outputVM}/etc/selinux/config

#####################
#Optional: smb configuration settings
#####################
echo "SMB netbios configuration"
cp /mnt/${outputVM}/etc/samba/smb.conf /mnt/${outputVM}/etc/samba/smb.conf.bkp
sed -i "s/netbios.*/netbios name = "${outputVM}"/" /mnt/${outputVM}/etc/samba/smb.conf

Once all the modifications are done, unmount everything and put back the 1st disk from local to remote ESXi:
##############################################################################################
echo "Dismounted all "`date`
echo "Umounting fs..."
##############################################################################################
umount /mnt/${outputVM}
echo "Freed loops..."
losetup -d ${lo2}
losetup -d ${lo1}
rmdir /mnt/${outputVM}

##############################################################################################
echo "Putting back the vmdk to ESXi "`date`
##############################################################################################
vifs --server 192.168.1.10:443 --username root --password pwd --put ./${outputVM}-esxi/${outputVM}-flat.vmdk '[vm] '${outputVM}'/'${outputVM}'-flat.vmdk'
rm -Rf ./${outputVM}-esxi

Eventually it’s starting up the new virtual machine and install the VMWare tools:
##############################################################################################
echo "Starting up the virtual machine..."
##############################################################################################
#Taking the ID of the new VM
VMID=`ssh 192.168.1.10 <<EOF
/bin/vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms |grep " "${outputVM}" "
EOF`
VMID=`echo $VMID|awk '{print $1}'`
echo "ID virtual machine "${VMID}
#Taking the status of the new VM
VM_OFF=`ssh 192.168.1.10 <<EOF
/bin/vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate ${VMID}|grep "Powered off"|wc -l
EOF`
#Starting the new VM
if [ ${VM_OFF} -eq 0 ]; then
echo "The virtual machine ${outputVM} is already started"
else
ssh 192.168.1.10 <<EOF
/bin/vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on ${VMID}
EOF
fi
##############################################################################################
#If the VMWare tools are installed, then the VM is ready because it is the very last step of first VM starting up
##############################################################################################
echo "Waiting for initialization... Please be patient"
TOOLS=0
while [ ${TOOLS} -eq 0 ];
do
TOOLS=`ssh 192.168.1.10 <<EOF
grep toolbox: /vmfs/volumes/vm/${outputVM}/vmware.log|wc -l
EOF`
if [ ${TOOLS} -eq 0 ]; then
echo "Waiting for 60 seconds..."
sleep 60
fi
done
##############################################################################################
echo "The VM ${outputVM} is ready to use"
##############################################################################################
echo "End"`date`
cd -
[root@omsa:/nfs/software/PeopleSoftCD/OVA]#

It is ending the series on People Appliance prompt-free deployment.

Not sure if that script will be useful for many people and if it will work with the upcoming Demo Appliances, but what we can retain from this series:
* We heavily used “sed” command, it’s always good to manipulate.
* We came across mount disk issue and losetup command, it’s rather worth for Linux administrator.
* We use several interesting VMWare tool (ovftool) and VMWare client or host command lines (like the one to get/put file from/to ESXi, or start the VM).
* And also, we went through the configuration and settings of the virtual machines themselves (disks description, scripts used for deployment…).

So, whether it is really useful or not does not really matter, since it covered a wide scope of knowledge and tools, I hope many people learnt a piece of code which is out of their interest.

Nicolas.

Ref:
Password free access to ESXi host:
http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/07/enabling-password-free-ssh-access-on-esxi-50.html
Starting a VM from command line:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1038043
Check VMWare tools installed:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003947

Prompt-free Appliance deployment : start the VM

This second last part of the “Prompt-free Appliance deployment” is about showing up the very first start of the VM after script modification.
As we saw in a previous thread, there was some special steps to mount properly the disk to be able to modify the scripts.
So, here it’s much more simple:

1. Unmount the disk
[root@omsa:/nfs/software/PeopleSoftCD/OVA]# umount /mnt/HCMDB-SES-85302d

2. Free up the loop devices which have been mounted:
[root@omsa:/nfs/software/PeopleSoftCD/OVA]# losetup -d /dev/loop1
[root@omsa:/nfs/software/PeopleSoftCD/OVA]# losetup -d /dev/loop0

3. Push back the vmdk disk to ESXi:
[root@omsa:/nfs/software/PeopleSoftCD/OVA/HCMDB-SES-85302d]# vifs --server 192.168.1.10:443 --username root --password pwd --put HCMDB-SES-85302d-esxi/HCMDB-SES-85302d-flat.vmdk '[vm] HCMDB-SES-85302d/HCMDB-SES-85302d-flat.vmdk'
Uploaded file HCMDB-SES-85302d-esxi/HCMDB-SES-85302d-flat.vmdk to HCMDB-SES-85302d/HCMDB-SES-85302d-flat.vmdk successfully.
[root@omsa:/nfs/software/PeopleSoftCD/OVA/HCMDB-SES-85302d]#

4. Start the VM:

With the ESXi client, start the VM Appliance:


You won’t be prompted for the license agreement, no root password question…


You won’t be prompted for the network settings neither:


The database name will be automatically filled in within the given name, and no question about SES installation anymore:


The VMWare ESXi tools will be installed automatically with all the default options:


And finally, you can check the VMWare are installed without manually tasks:


Eventually, you can connect to the front end application: 


Now, we have to find a way to script everything, it will be describe in the next and last part.

Nicolas.