Blog of Hamlesh

So, you’ve deployed VMware ESXi and successfully deployed your first VM.  Now you are looking for the “clone” function that used to feature in the VMware Server of old.  I have some bad news, they’ve taken it away from the free VSphere management application – its now a feature you have to pay for.

“Thats ok, i’ll just SSH in and cp the files like I used to using VMware Server 2″… well, bad news again, its not that simple anymore.  You have to do a little bit of hackery, simple hackery mind

First step is to enable SSH on ESXi.

1. Go to the ESXi console and press Alt+F1 – you will get a blank screen
2. Type: unsupported and press <enter> (you won’t see anything as you type, but “Password:” will pop up)
3. Enter the root password, press <enter>
4. At the prompt type “vi /etc/inetd.conf”
5. Look for the line that starts with “#ssh” (you can search with pressing “/”, or just press down to scroll)
6. Remove the “#” from infront of the ssh line entries (put the cursor on the # and press “x” to delete)
7. Save “/etc/inetd.conf” by typing “:wq!”
8. Restart the management service “/sbin/services.sh restart”

Some people report that you have to manually kill and restart the “inetd” process using kill -HUP <pid>, but I didn’t need to do this.

You now have SSH access into the ESXi host.

Cloning a VM using SSH on ESXi

1. SSH into the server (duh!)
2. Locate the VM datastore (for me this was /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/)
3. Make a directory for your new virtual machine
4. Clone using “vmkfstools -i” (eg: vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/SOURCE/source.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/TARGET/TARGET.vmdk)
5. Cloning process runs (time to complete depends on size of SOURCE)
6. In VSphere create a new custom VM as you would normally, and at the disk stage, select “use an existing disk” and browse to the TARGET vm that you’ve just cloned

Simples!

Oh, obviously the clone process won’t run if the SOURCE vm is powered on and running, you have to fully power it down.

As always, comments and feedback much appreciated – oh and talk to me on twitter

Here is a nice, quick, and simple way to enhance the definition on pictures.  Intricate detailing work can be highlighted when processing using a quick adjustment using Aperture.

This works best if you are shooting RAW.

Under the “Adjustments” tab, find the “Enhance” section, and slide “Definition” as required.

It makes a subtle but noticeable difference, as you can see in the two images below (look for the depth in the detailing on the building);

Standard Definition

Enhanced Definition

Yesterday, the Open Rights Group organised a protest outside the houses of Parliament against the Digital Economy Bill (aka DEBILL). I went along and took a few pictures.

So whats the big deal about the debill, and why are seemingly so many “techies” and “nerds” getting their knickers in a twist about it?

Consumers and companies (including Google, Facebook and ISPs – your broadband provider!) alike are up in arms about the Bill, which proposes that an Internet connection could be cut off if there is suspicion that it is being used for the downloading of copyrighted content.

This is very disturbing:

• Although proof is required before disconnection, the evidence does not have to relate to you: you can be punished for the actions of a friend or even a neighbour who has used your Internet connection.
• Rights holders could have the power to demand that sites they believe to contravene copyright law be blocked by ISPs. Right now, we don’t know what the govrnment will propose, as they have yet to draft their new proposal
• As it is not the perpetrator that is punished, as you might expect, but the owner of the connection, and others using it, cafés and bars may have to stop providing wifi, no more BTOpenZone, FON, etc!

Regardless of what you do or don’t do, you could be punished for the actions of others because of laws put in place by the Digital Economy Bill: if you have unsecured wifi in your home, you could be punished; if you use the Internet at your local coffee shop or library, you could lose access to that connection.

Justice would not be completely out of reach: you could appeal, but you would have to pay for the privilege, and you wouldn’t be eligible for any legal aid.  Reasons for appeal are limited, and unlike in a trial, the onus would not be on rights holders to prove your guilt: you would be responsible for proving your innocence.

This is another example of badly thought-out government policy, pushed through by lobbyists, and constructed by people who just don’t know what they are doing, or what they are talking about.

There are better solutions to the internet download problem, including the record industry evolving its business models to keep up with changes in technology (think Apple iTunes).  Funnily enough, the music industry is thriving with downloads, its the record labels that are suffering – aww the poor “big machine”, its in pain as power shifts to “the little people”.

Those of you that know me, know that I am very much not a tree hugging hippy that believes the government is out to get us; I believe in free markets, I believe in capitalism, and I believe in equality for all.  It is possible for all of those to coexist, anyone that doesn’t think so, is, well, just wrong (and stupid).

If you want to know more about this stuff, I strongly recommend you watch the Panorama documentary recently released, titled “Are the net police coming for you“.

I am often asked what the difference between overstreer and understeer are.  Well, i’ve been working my way through all of Top Gear from season 1 recently, and I found this little snippet of a gem in season 2 episode 5.

So heres a very simple explanation from the one and only Richard Hammond.

If you follow me on twitter or we are friends on facebook, you would have no doubt noticed my childlike excitement of the last two days.  Here is a quick recap

I’ve been riding a motorbike for one and a bit years now, doing it, what I think is the “sensible” way – obtaining my CBT, riding around on a 125cc for a while, then taking the “proper” bike test off of my own steam – so no lessons (I felt it was a waste of money, considering I’ve been driving since I was 17).  Each to their own, but I personally think this is a nice gradual and sensible (shocking for me!) way to do things – rather than doing the direct access, getting a big bike, then getting hurt from lack of experience.

So, a few days ago, I passed my A2 bike test, and yesterday I went up to Milton Keynes to pick up my “new bike” – I say “new bike”, its second hand, but new to me (I think buying vehicles brand new is a silly idea).

I’m not sure if its a he or she yet… the names “big daddy” and “the monster” have come to mind since I’ve had it out on the road.  You can’t really call a “she” bike “big daddy”… or can you… any name suggestions? – post a comment.

I brought the 125cc out of the garage to take some pictures side by side – as you can see there is a noticeable size (and weight) difference between the two.  The 650cc also has so much torque,  as its driven by a shaft rather than a chain or belt.  Its hard to describe, but if I let the clutch out too fast at the lights I lift the front end up… on a cruiser… this just seems wrong.  Another little snippet, the 650cc Dragstar is also the longest cruiser under 1000cc

Amusingly the road tax on this is £66 a year, £31 more than my Smart Fortwo!

If you are reading this on a syndicated site, you can view the pictures directly here, on flickr.

My new moo.com cards arrived this morning, this makes me happy

The last time I ordered cards from moo.com, I didn’t really get the idea, this time around I spent the time, thought about it and put my own graphic together.  This is the avatar I use on most social network sites, twitter, forums and so on.  This gives some form of real world tie in with my “digital self”.  Additionally the moo cards are “for fun”, and general networking, I wouldn’t use them for conducting the business of PeritusVentures or NXEQ for example, those have their own full sized business cards and are all corporate

Moo.com have really improved the design tool since my last order, which was back in Feb 2009.  Its a lot slicker, and the font options for the text side of the card are much much nicer.  Interestingly, because I didn’t really “get it” last time, I didn’t really hand out many of my old cards – it had a list of websites on rather than any useful contact information!

With hindsight, I wish I had put my PGP key on the card instead of my skype name – ah well, next time!

If you’ve not ordered from Moo.com before, use this discount code when you checkout 2RB2CK for 15% off of your first order

One final product shot, show the love!

As always, comment and tweet people, comment and tweet!

I have a HP TC1100 tablet PC, awesome little device for reading and browsing on – much more functional than the disappointing iPad.  Anyway, I recently replaced the hard disk with a CF card + IDE to CF adapter – increasing the battery life, reducing boot time, making the unit quieter, and generally faster.

I had to reinstall XP tablet edition on it – after searching around for ages and ages to find restore CDs for it online (bought mine second hand, no restore cds), I opted to just buy some from HP technical support.  Annoyingly they don’t make them available for download, and I therefore had to wait near on 2 weeks for delivery.

Download HP TC1100 tablet restore CDs

You can download the ISOs from me for the small fee of £5.00.  Simply make payment using the PayPal button below and I will email you a link to the files within a few hours.  These CDs do not require an activation key as it is supplied with your tablet, under your battery.  You won’t be prompted for one when running through the install – but the restore image will only work on the TC1100 (checks bios).  They are therefore fully licensed and will accept all current and future Microsoft Updates.

You will receive an email with links to two ISO images.  The first is the system restore CD, the second is the drivers CD that would have come with the tablet originally.  Both of the images work, and were created from the physical restore media I purchased from HP.

There are no licensing issues with distribution this way.  I am doing this merely for convinience, you can of course purchase the physical media from HP directly, be ready to pay a lot more than £5.00 for delivery!  If you own the HP TC1100, you are licensed/permitted to run XP Tablet.

Right, so you’re on foursquare.com and you’ve found the neat little function to add your twitter connections as friends. Great, but you want a way to add all your connections without hitting “add” a few hundred times.  A feature lacking at the time I wrote this blog post.

Solution

Install the imacros add-on for firefox (google it, its free).

Goto the foursquare.com import page, tell it your twitter username and the list of potential connections loads up. Now create a macro, a blank one is fine, edit it and replace everything in there with the code below (click “Continue Reading” below).

Run the macro and it will hit add for you 350 times

I’m @hamlesh on twitter if you have any questions or need help… or if you just want to chat, I get lonely you know!

PS: I KNOW its not my most elegant work, but it was late, and I just needed a brute way to do it – fixing other peoples UI shortcomings client side is annoying enough!  And yes, I generated this with a bash while loop rather than manually incrementing the POS (before certain people I know ask!)

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