How to get OS X 10.8.3 Mountain Lion running in ESXi 5

First you need to obtain the vmdk files from the Soul Dev Team.

They are located here - > Link

Once you download everything you need, you will need to copy the unlocker files to the ESXi box.

Navigate to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Retail VMware Image\VMware Unlocker - Mac OS X Guest\VMware 8.x Series\VMware ESXi Unlocker

You need to copy the Unlocker.ESXi and the install.sh.

If you don't already have SSH enabled here is how you do it -> Link

Next SCP the files (replace x.x.x.x with your IP)

If you are using OS X
scp -v Unlocker.ESXi root@x.x.x.x:/tmp
scp -v install.sh root@x.x.x.x:/tmp

If you are using Windows I suggest you use putty(Link)
C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY>pscp.exe "Unlocker.ESXi" root@x.x.x.x:/tmp

Now SSH to the ESXi box.

Type: cd /tmp -> Enter

Type chmod 777 * -> Enter

Type ./install.sh -> Enter

Reboot

Run VMware converter (Link)

Boot up the vm and go through the installer

You need to remove the network adapter and add another one.  This time it will pull a dhcp address.

You need to install the update fixer and then apply the latest patches.  Now at this point vmware tools will install correctly.

Sources: Link

How to upload a file using PuTTY/SSH (actually SCP) on Windows 7

Go download pscp.exe or if you want the full installer putty-0.62-installer.exe.

Next you need to open a command prompt

Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY

Then type C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY>pscp.exe "c:\temp\abc.zip" user1@x.x.x.x:/home/user1

Hit Enter, and you will be prompted for your username

user1@x.x.x.x's password:

And there you go!  File uploaded!

Source:  Link

OS: Windows 7
Destination: Fedora 14

Sound Flower captures OS sounds, but not browser's audio

I was trying to capture audio of a webinar and Quicktime was capturing the OS audio as expected, but for whatever reason it was not picking up the audio from Firefox.  I decided that maybe it was a browser thing and I was right.  Logged in to the webinar with Safari and it worked perfectly.

Download Sound Flower before trying to record.

Download, install, and then open.  Once open, you will have a little icon at the top of the screen.  Select Sound Flower 2 Channel, Built In Output.

Open Quicktime

File -> New Screen Recording

On the upside down triangle, select Sound Flower 2 Channel

Start Recording!

ESX doesn't log in with most recent Active Directory Password

A weird thing happened.. when logging into my ESXi 4.1 box, my latest Windows Active Directory password wasn't working.  So I tried my previous password and it worked?!? 

I may have missed a small piece that needs to be configured.

Open vSphere Client -> Log in with your account -> Click the Configuration Tab ->

Click Authentication Services -> Click Properties in the upper right hand corner

Select Active Directory as the Directory Service Type

Type in your Domain and click the button below

Enter your username and password

All the boxes should update and be greyed out once it is joined.  Close the client and reopen it using your most recent password.

It should log you in successfully now.

Error (SHUTDOWN_MSG: Shutting down NameNode at .... ) when trying to format hadoop name node

Ever get this error while trying to format your namenode in hadoop?

 hadoop namenode -format
13/03/29 16:34:11 INFO namenode.NameNode: STARTUP_MSG:
/************************************************************
STARTUP_MSG: Starting NameNode
STARTUP_MSG:   host = node001/10.10.10.158
STARTUP_MSG:   args = [-format]
STARTUP_MSG:   version = 1.1.2
STARTUP_MSG:   build = https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/hadoop/common/branches/b                                                                             ranch-1.1 -r 1440782; compiled by 'hortonfo' on Thu Jan 31 02:06:43 UTC 2013
************************************************************/
Re-format filesystem in /tmp/hadoop-root/dfs/name ? (Y or N) y
Format aborted in /tmp/hadoop-root/dfs/name
13/03/29 16:34:14 INFO namenode.NameNode: SHUTDOWN_MSG:
/************************************************************
SHUTDOWN_MSG: Shutting down NameNode at
node001/10.10.10.158
************************************************************/

You have to be very careful and you must type a CAPITAL Y and not a lower case y!

Source:  Link

Joining CentOS/RHEL (6.4) to Active Directory (Windows Server 2008 R2 Domain)

***CASE MATTERS FOR EVERYTHING POSTED BELOW***

Install the following packages

yum install pam_krb5 pam_ldap nss-pam-ldapd samba ntp

*If you already have any of these installed, it'll skip them.

First make a backup of the config.
cp /etc/krb5.conf /etc/krb5.conf.bak

</etc/krb5.conf>

[logging]
 default = FILE:/var/log/krb5libs.log
 kdc = FILE:/var/log/krb5kdc.log
 admin_server = FILE:/var/log/kadmind.log

[libdefaults]
 default_realm = SERVER.CENTOS.COM
 dns_lookup_realm = false
 dns_lookup_kdc = false
 ticket_lifetime = 24h
 renew_lifetime = 7d
 forwardable = true

[realms]
 SERVER.CENTOS.COM = {
  kdc = dc.server.centos.com
  admin_server = dc.server.centos.com
  default_domain = SERVER.CENTOS.COM
 }

[domain_realm]
 .server.centos.com = SERVER.CENTOS.COM
 server.centos.com = SERVER.CENTOS.COM

[login]
  krb4_convert = true
  krb4_get_tickets = fales

Again backup the config
cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.bak

</etc/samba/smb.conf>
Note:  The workgroup is the left most part of the domain

[global]
        log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
        max log size = 1000
        security = ADS
        realm = SERVER.CENTOS.COM
        password server = 1.1.1.1
        workgroup = SERVER
        use kerberos keytab = true
        idmap uid = 10000 - 20000
        idmap gid = 10000 - 20000
        winbind enum users = yes
        winbind enum groups = yes
        template homedir = /home/%D/%U
        template shell = /bin/bash
        client use spnego = yes
        client ntlmv2 auth = yes
        encrypt passwords = true
        winbind use default domain = yes
        restrict anonymous = 2

Again backup the config
cp /etc/nsswitch.conf /etc/nsswitch.conf

</etc/nsswitch.conf>

passwd:         compat winbind
group:          compat winbind
shadow:         compat

hosts:          files mdns4_minimal dns mdns4 wins [NOTFOUND=return]
networks:       files

protocols:      db files
services:       db files
ethers:         db files
rpc:            db files

netgroup:       nis

Again backup the config
cp /etc/ntp.conf /etc/ntp.conf.bak

</etc/ntp.conf>
Note:  The 1.1.1.1 is the ip of your server

server 1.1.1.1 

Again backup the config
cp /etc/pam.d/system-auth /etc/pam.d/system-auth.bak

</etc/pam.d/system-auth>

#%PAM-1.0
# This file is auto-generated.
# User changes will be destroyed the next time authconfig is run.
auth        required      pam_env.so
auth        sufficient    pam_unix.so nullok try_first_pass
auth        requisite     pam_succeed_if.so uid >= 500 quiet
auth        sufficient    pam_krb5.so use_first_pass
auth        sufficient    pam_winbind.so use_first_pass
auth        required      pam_deny.so

account     required      pam_unix.so broken_shadow
account     sufficient    pam_localuser.so
account     sufficient    pam_succeed_if.so uid < 500 quiet
account     [default=bad success=ok user_unknown=ignore] pam_krb5.so
account     sufficient    pam_winbind.so use_first_pass
account     required      pam_permit.so

password    requisite     pam_cracklib.so try_first_pass retry=3 type=
password    sufficient    pam_unix.so md5 shadow nullok try_first_pass use_authtok
password    sufficient    pam_krb5.so use_authtok
password    sufficient    pam_windbind.so use_first_pass
password    required      pam_deny.so

session     optional      pam_keyinit.so revoke
session     required      pam_limits.so
session     [success=1 default=ignore] pam_succeed_if.so service in crond quiet use_uid
session     required      pam_unix.so
session     optional      pam_krb5.so
session     optional      pam_winbind.so use_first_pass

</etc/pam.d/sshd>

#%PAM-1.0
auth       required     pam_sepermit.so
auth       include      password-auth
account    required     pam_nologin.so
account    include      password-auth
password   include      password-auth
# pam_selinux.so close should be the first session rule
session    required     pam_selinux.so close
session    required     pam_loginuid.so
# pam_selinux.so open should only be followed by sessions to be executed in the user context
session    required     pam_selinux.so open env_params
session    optional     pam_keyinit.so force revoke
session    include      password-auth

auth            sufficient      pam_winbind.so use_first_pass
account         sufficient      pam_winbind.so use_first_pass
password        sufficient      pam_winbind.so use_first_pass
session         required        pam_mkhomedir.so skel=/etc/skel umask=0022

Edit your /etc/hosts file
</etc/hosts>

1.1.1.1 dc.server.centos.com

Restart the following services:

service smb restart
service winbind restart
service sshd restart

Then run:  [root@node001user1]# kinit domainadmin@server.centos.com

Confirm the ticket was obtained: [root@node001 user1]# klist

Sync the time with the server: [root@node001 user1]# net time

Then run the following command to join it to the domain.

[root@node001 user1]# net ads join -U domainadmin (replace with your domain admin username)

If you want the domain admins and admins to have privileged acess, you need to add this to the bottom of your sudoers file.  You may have to over write the read only file to save it.

</etc/sudoers>

[root@node001 user1]# cat /etc/sudoers

%BUILTIN\administrators ALL=(ALL) ALL
%"domain admins" ALL=(ALL) ALL

Some great additional trouble shooting commands can be found here -> Link

Also if you need to find your base dn to locate the group your user accounts are stored, I explain how to do that here -> Link

VMware vCenter Converter Standalone: 400 Bad Request

I was trying to use vCenter Converter and kept getting this error when trying to log in.  I then realized I was doing it wrong.  I didn't need to login.  This worked for me, but it may or may not work for you.

Launch vCenter Converter Standalone -> select "Connect to a Local Server"

Click "Convert Machine" ->  Select your source

Click Next - > Select "VMware Infrastructure Virtual Machine" -> Browse to your file

Enter your ESX/ESXi server details -> Type in your username/password (Remember if your using active directory authentication its domain\username)


Click Next  -> Type the name that you want it to show up as in vSphere -> Click Next

Choose your destination (which pool) -> Click Next

Edit any info of the Virtual Machine if you need to -> Click Next -> Verify everything -> Click Finish

How to sync your Gmail/Google Apps Contacts

I have tested this with iOS and Mac OS X 10.8

Go to where you would setup your contacts.  For instance in OS X you would open the contacts app and go to add account.

For iOS you would go to the mail, contacts, calendar section.

Click new for both.

Select Add CardDav Account.

Server: google.com
Username: username@gmail.com (or this can be your google apps account)
Password:  enter your password (if your using 2-factor authentication, you need to create an app password)
Description: Whatever you want

The Contacts App takes a few minutes to sync but the iOS app should be instant.

Source: Link

How to make a bootable USB disk in OS X from an ISO

Use this at your own risk.  I am not responsible if this destroys your USB drive.

Open up a command prompt

Run the following command:

hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o ~/path/to/target.img ~/path/to/something.iso

Change the first path to where you want to save it "somename.img"

The next piece is where the iso is located. Write the path to where its located.

Type "diskutil list" in the command prompt to get a list of devices.

My USB drive was /dev/disk2.  Yours may be different.

Next you need to unmount the drive.  Type "diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2"
*Obviously change that command to what your USB disk is*

Next from the command line run sudo dd if=/yournewimage.img.dmg of=/dev/rdiskN bs=1m

And change rdiskN to what you found from the diskutil.  Mine was rdisk2.

Enter your password and wait.

It looks like nothing is happening but it is.  Just wait longer.  Trust me it will finish.

When it finishes, type diskutil eject /dev/diskN

Again change "N" to the number you used previously.

Reboot and boot from it.


Source: Link

DNS hostname from a Mac to a Windows machine

I couldn't figure out why when trying to use a host name, like I would on windows, it wouldn't work.  It seems that it requires ".local" after the hostname.  I can now ping the hosts and map the drives by the hostnames, but dns still won't work.  If I find out more I'll update this post.

How to map a windows drive
smb://windowspc.local/c$

Ping the PC
ping windowspc.local