While working with APF on servers, you might normally get to see the following error, #apf -r apf(2042): {glob} flushing & zeroing chain policies apf(2042): {glob} firewall offline apf(3179): {glob} activating firewall apf(3284): {glob} unable to load iptables module (ip_tables), aborting. apf(3179): {glob} firewall initalized apf(3179): {glob} fast load snapshot saved Your kernel is compiled with iptables statically instead of as a module, to resolve this you will need to change a small configuration in /etc/apf/conf.apf SET_MONOKERN=”0″ Set it to “1″ Once this is done, restart apf to see the error vanishing. SET_MONOKERN # This allows the firewall to work around modular kernel issues by assuming # that the system has all required firewall modules compiled directly into # kernel. This mode of operation is not generally recommended but can be used # scale APF to unique situations.  

gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv 3E5C1192 gpg --export --armor 3E5C1192 | sudo apt-key add -  

If you’ve accidentally screwed your /etc/fstab file and rebooted, you might run into some issues while trying to make changes to fix it, i.e. Error writing fstab:Read-only file system   Fixing Error writing fstab: Read-only file system In order to fix this issue, you will need to remount the affected mount-point with read / write options. This can be done by issuing the mount command: mount -o remount,rw /   Where / indicates your root mount point, change accordingly.

vSphere 5.x does not allow operations to be performed directly on an ESX host managed by a virtual center. This error is given while connected directly to an ESXi server with vSphere client, attempting to resize a virtual disk on a VM (to add more capacity). However as this ESXi server and its virtual machines was managed by vCenter server, it would not let me modify its "resource settings" i.e. its disk size. There is a way to remove the host from thinking it was connected to vCenter. This is probably not supported by VMware and I do not support it but it works. 1. Connect to the ESXi server either on the console or via SSH 2. Edit /etc/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg vi /etc/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg Remove the whole vpxa section including <vpxa> and </vpxa> "d" <vpxa> <bundleVersion>1000000</bundleVersion> <datastorePrincipal>root</datastorePrincipal> <hostIp>123.123.123.123</hostIp> <hostKey>52e16e0d-07e4-366e-7bf6-73279af3c8f0</hostKey> <hostPort>443</hostPort> <licenseExpiryNotificationThreshold>15</licenseExpiryNotificationThreshold> <memoryCheckerTimeInSecs>30</memoryCheckerTimeInSecs> <serverIp>123.123.123.123</serverIp> <serverPort>902</serverPort> </vpxa> Save it ":wq!! 3. Restart the services /sbin/services.sh restart 4. Connect back to the ESXi server with vSphere client and it should now let you make the changes Note: I would very much assume at this point if the host was managed by vCenter you will have to disconnect and reconnect the host to push out the VPXA agent and config, otherwise you wont be able to manage the host via vCenter. As it happens the ESXi server I had this issue with was no longer managed by vCenter server as someone has rebuilt vCenter, but had not removed this host from vCenter before doing so. Before I did a fresh install of vCenter,I want to add some more…

We love using OVA templates to speed up our deployment of virtual machines. I recently upgraded one of my servers to ESXi 5.1 (which also required an update to vSphere). ESXi 5.1 provides support for Windows 8 and Server 2012, which is incredibly useful. However, whilst building OVA templates for these operating systems, I stumbled across an issue. I ran through the ‘New Virtual Machine’ wizard, selecting Windows 8 (or Server 2012), leaving all settings default. Installed my operating system, and made the required customization, shutdown the machine and exported an OVA template through vSphere – excellent, how easy! However, whilst trying to re-deploy the OVA to the ESXi 5.1 host, through the ‘Deploy OVA template’ wizard, it failed immediately after completing the wizard (right before it shows the deployment progress bar). Now, I have a particular hate for misleading error messages, and this one seems to fall right in-to that category - Failed to deploy OVF package: The task was canceled by a user. How misleading. I, or any other user, certainly didn’t cancel the task. So what happened? I took a look through the (horrendous) hostd.log on the ESXi box and found absolutely nothing of any value. Frustrated by the inability to redeploy a template I spent so long preparing, I broke open the OVA template and took a look inside. There were three files with different extensions, .ova - OVF descriptor, written in XML, which describes the hardware requirements .mf – contains SHA1 checksums of the .OVA and .VMDK .vmdk – the virtual hard disk for the…