HPE Smart Array CLI commands on ESXi

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Show configuration
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl all show config
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl all show config
Controller status
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl all show status
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl all show status
Show detailed controller information for all controllers
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl all show detail
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl all show detail
Show detailed controller information for controller in slot 0
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 show detail
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 show detail
Rescan for New Devices
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli rescan
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli rescan
Physical disk status
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 pd all show status
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 pd all show status
Show detailed physical disk information
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 pd all show detail
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 pd all show detail
Logical disk status
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 ld all show status
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld all show status
View Detailed Logical Drive Status
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 2 show
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 2 show
Create New RAID 0 Logical Drive
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 create type=ld drives=1I:1:2 raid=0
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 create type=ld drives=1I:1:2 raid=0
Create New RAID 1 Logical Drive
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 create type=ld drives=1I:1:1,1I:1:2 raid=1
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 create type=ld drives=1I:1:1,1I:1:2 raid=1
Create New RAID 5 Logical Drive
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 create type=ld drives=1I:1:1,1I:1:2,2I:1:6,2I:1:7,2I:1:8 raid=5
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 create type=ld drives=1I:1:1,1I:1:2,2I:1:6,2I:1:7,2I:1:8 raid=5
Delete Logical Drive
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 2 delete
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 2 delete
Add New Physical Drive to Logical Volume
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 2 add drives=2I:1:6,2I:1:7
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 2 add drives=2I:1:6,2I:1:7
Add Spare Disks
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 array all add spares=2I:1:6,2I:1:7
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 array all add spares=2I:1:6,2I:1:7
Enable Drive Write Cache
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 modify dwc=enable
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify dwc=enable
Disable Drive Write Cache
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 modify dwc=disable
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify dwc=disable
Erase Physical Drive
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 pd 2I:1:6 modify erase
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 pd 2I:1:6 modify erase
Turn on Blink Physical Disk LED
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 2 modify led=on
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 2 modify led=on
Turn off Blink Physical Disk LED
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 2 modify led=off
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 2 modify led=off
Modify smart array cache read and write ratio (cacheratio=readratio/writeratio)
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 modify cacheratio=100/0
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify cacheratio=100/0
Enable smart array write cache when no battery is present (No-Battery Write Cache option)
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 modify nbwc=enable
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify nbwc=enable
Disable smart array cache for certain Logical Volume
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 logicaldrive 1 modify arrayaccelerator=disable
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 logicaldrive 1 modify arrayaccelerator=disable
Enable smart array cache for certain Logical Volume
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 logicaldrive 1 modify arrayaccelerator=enable
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 logicaldrive 1 modify arrayaccelerator=enable
Enable SSD Smart Path
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 array a modify ssdsmartpath=enable
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 array a modify ssdsmartpath=enable
Disable SSD Smart Path
ESXi 5.5 -> /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli ctrl slot=0 array a modify ssdsmartpath=disable
ESXi 6.5 -> /opt/smartstorageadmin/ssacli/bin/ssacli ctrl slot=0 array a modify ssdsmartpath=disable

Manage an HP Smart Array directly from VMware ESXi

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"
In my lab I’m using a Proliant DL380 G5 filled with disk as a storage server, running some VSA on top of the volume I created  and formatted with a vmfs filesystem.
I was running into performance issues, storage was performing poorly, and I needed to check for usual problems like for example cache battery status, since on a P400 raid card, write back is by default disabled if the battery has a low charge, thus lowering performances to a minimum.
My problem however was, I was running on top of this server all my iscsi shared storage, so it was not so easy to poweroff the server to open up the raid card Bios anche check. Also, every reboot cycle is really time consuming. So, since HP has always had management software for their raid controllers available for windows or linux, I went to check if there was some possibilities also for VMware ESXi.
First, I checked on HP website and there was some promising download:

Look, a VIB file!
I downloaded it and installed in the usual way on my ESXi 5.1 server (even if the package is officially listed for ESXi 5.0…).

I also installed the utilities to manage the several HP components, since the first one was only the driver. If you want to install only the Raid utility, look for the hpacucli vib file.

And I finally reboot the server in order to complete the installation, hopefully for the last time…
After reboot, I checked the components were installed correctly:

From here, let the fun begin! There are many commands you can run on the raid controller by running /opt/hp/hpacucli/bin/hpacucli, I’m going to show you some of them:

First, I identified the controller. Remember is in slot 3, this will be needed in the next commands.
As I said, my problem seemed to be related to the cache battery, so I went to check its status:

The status seems to be ok, but I went to enable anyway the cache, the command is:

1	ctrl slot=3 modify dwc=enable forced

there are many commands as I said, and I found this page with many example. Go to check it. As a last example, a fun stuff:

First, I identified the physical disks in the controller (pd), then I enabled the led on every single disk. This is the result






 "

Cannot format hard disk with VMFS5 after removing it from RAID array

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"
Today I tried to install the new NexentaStor 4.0.1 on my x3650 M2 with local harddisks. To get the best performance my plan was to pass-through all local disks to the VM. For that I had to remove all RAID arrays that are currently configured across my 8 internal drives. After deleting the RAID arrays I started the host. When my host was up and running I tried to format one of the disks an got the following error message.

Call “HostDatastoreSystem.QueryVmfsDatastoreCreateOptions” for object “ha-datastoresystem” on ESXi “xxx.xxx.xxx.xx″ failed.

I have done this with several other disks and it looked like that only 3 had the problem. I enabled SSH and connected to the host.
There i used this command to list all the available devices:

ls -lha /vmfs/devices/disks/

This was the shortened output

 

As you can see there is a partition on the disks I couldn’t format.
The following command had shown me some information about the device.

partedUtil getptbl /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.5000c50023397a33

This was the output:
Error: The primary GPT table states that the backup GPT is located beyond the end of disk. This may happen if the disk has shrunk or partition table is corrupted. Fix, by writing backup table at the end? This will also fix the last usable sector appropriately as per the new reduced size. diskPath (/dev/disks/naa.5000c50023397a33) diskSize (286748000) AlternateLBA (570310655) LastUsableLBA (570310622)
Warning: The available space to /dev/disks/naa.5000c50023397a33 appears to have shrunk. This may happen if the disk size has reduced. The space has been reduced by (283562656 blocks). You can fix the GPT to correct the available space or continue with the current settings ? This will also move the backup table at the end if it is not at the end already. diskSize (286748000) AlternateLBA (570310655) LastUsableLBA (570310622) NewLastUsableLBA (286747966)
Error: Can’t have a partition outside the disk!
Unable to read partition table for device /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.5000c50023397a33
It looks like that after deleting the RAID array not all VMFS partition table information was deleted too, so I had to clear it manually.
To do this simply create a normal msdos partition on the affected disks with this command:

partedUtil setptbl /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.5000c50023397a33 msdos

After setting a new partition I was able to format the disk with VMFS5.

"

Linux open-vm-tools

Open-VM-Tools (OVT): The Future of VMware Tools for Linux

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2015/09/open-vm-tools-ovt-the-future-of-vmware-tools-for-linux.html

Installation guide

http://partnerweb.vmware.com/GOSIG/home.html

 

Problem staging VMWare patches due to SSL inspection

Error:

Download patch definitions

Web sites: 

https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml;https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/cscomain/cscodepot-index.xml; 

hosting the patch definitions and patches cannot be accessed or have no patch data. Check the Internet connectivity.

 Solution:

VMWARE KB:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2009000

Update Manager 5.0 introduces a new setting that verifies the SSL certificates during download. By default, this value is set to 1 or enabled.

 

To disable this behavior:

1. Click Start > Run, type regedit, and click OK. The Registry Editor window opens.
2. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\VMware, Inc.\VMware Update Manager  key. 
3. Right-click the value of the SslVerifyDownloadCertificate key and click Modify.
4. Change the Value data field value to 0.
5. Click OK.
6. Click Start > Run, type services.msc , and click OK.
7. Right-click VMware vSphere Update Manager Service and click Restart.   

Solution 2

Trust the certificate for the site that is failing by installing it into the trusted certificate store for the local computer. You could also download and trust the CA certificates that were used in signing the site certificate into the local computer certificate store.

 

You might also want to update the root certificates on the Microsoft Windows operating system. For more information, go to the Microsoft Download Center.

Note: You must download the corresponding version of root certificates for your operating system. For more information, refer to Microsoft support documentation. 

 

Device eth0 does not seem to be present” error when we move or clone a CentOS 6.3 virtual machine in vSphere

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When we move or clone a CentOS 6.3 Virtual machine made in vSphere5.5, and boot the machine once it is moved/cloned, we get the following error:
“Device eth0 does not seem to be present”.

This is due the fact that whenever we move or clone a Virtual machine, vSphere changes the MAC Address and CentOS renames the NIC from eth0 to eth1.  CentOS stores the network interface hardware configuration using udev.  The file is:
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

Open this file in vi editor and delete the old entry for eth0 and edit the new entry for eth1 to eth0.
Then you need to edit the following file:
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

Record the HWADDR from the 70-persistent-net.rules configuration file and replace it with the existing HWADDR in ifcfg-eth0 configuration file.

Reboot the machine.

Networking Error: IP address already assigned to another adapter (1179)

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Details

• An error message indicates that the IP already exists in the network, but no other virtual machine in the network is sharing the IP.
• On a Windows virtual machine, you see this error:
  
  The IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX you have entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter
  
  
• After rebooting the virtual machine, the guest operating system NIC is assigned a private IP address.
• After a physical to virtual (P2V) conversion of a machine, you cannot assign an IP address to a NIC.
• After removing and re-adding a virtual NIC, the previous device is no longer visible in Device Manager.
• The NIC is re-enumerated in the guest operating system.
• After a P2V conversion, installed devices such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) device or ghosted device, are not connected to the computer.
• The Show Hidden Devices option in Device Manager does not display the devices.
  
  Note: To view the hidden devices, navigate to My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager > View > Show Hidden Devices.

Solution

Cause

Under certain conditions, you may see this error message from a Windows guest operating system:

The IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX you have entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter Name of adapter. Name of adapter is hidden from the network and Dial-up Connections folder because it is not physically in the computer or is a legacy adapter that is not working. If the same address is assigned to both adapters and they become active, only one of them will use this address. This may result in incorrect system configuration. Do you want to enter a different IP address for this adapter in the list of IP addresses in the advanced dialog box?

In this message, XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX is the IP address you are trying to set and Name of adapter is the name of a network adapter that is present in the registry but hidden in Device Manager.

This error can occur when you change a network connection's TCP/IP configuration from DHCP to a static IP address if:

• You have upgraded VMware virtual network adapters (for example, when you migrate a virtual machine from an older to a new version of VMware software). This can also include updating the virtual machine hardware version and/or upgrading the version of VMware Tools.
• You have added and removed network adapters multiple times.

This issue occurs if a network adapter with the same IP address is in the Windows registry but is hidden in the Device Manager (My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager). This hidden adapter is called a ghosted network adapter.

• You may see this if you recently performed a P2V and the resulting virtual machine still has the physical NICs and drivers for those NICs present. These ghost NICs have the old IP address and the virtual NIC cannot be assigned the same IP address.

Using the Show hidden devices option in the Device Manager (View > Show hidden devices) does not always show the old virtual NIC (ghosted adapter) to which that IP Address is assigned.

For more information, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 269155.

Note: The preceding link was correct as of August 20, 2013. If you find the link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, make the ghosted network adapter visible in the Device Manager and uninstall the ghosted network adapter from the registry:

1. Click Start > Run.
2. Type cmd and press Enter.
3. At the command prompt, run this command:
   Note: In Windows 2008 and Windows 7, open the command prompt using the Run as Administrator option.
   
   set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
   Note: If this command does not work (a possibility in Windows Server 2000 and 2003), you may need to add the parameter to Windows and set its value:
   
   
   1. Right-click the My Computer desktop icon and choose Properties.
   2. Click the Advanced tab and select Environment Variables.
   3. In the System variables section, click New.
   4. Set the Variable name to devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices and set the Variable value to 1 to enable the parameter.
   5. Click OK to add the variable to Windows.
      
4. Start the Device Manager by running this command from the same command prompt:
   
   start devmgmt.msc
   
5. Click View > Show Hidden Devices.
6. Expand the Network Adapters tree (click the plus sign next to the Network adapters entry).
7. Right-click the dimmed network adapter, then click Uninstall.
8. Once all of the grayed out NICs are uninstalled, assign the IP address to the virtual NIC.
   
   Note: To assign the IP address to the virtual NIC on the command line, run the command:
   
   netsh interface ip set address "Local Area Connection #" static IP_Address Subnet_Mask Default_Gateway
   
   For example:
   
   netsh interface ip set address "Local Area Connection 2" static 192.168.1.101 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1
   
9. Close the Device Manager.
   
   Note: In some Windows versions, a reboot may be necessary to apply the changes.

For more information, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 241257.

Note: The preceding link was correct as of August 20, 2013. If you find the link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.

Resolve issue using DevCon utility

Alternatively, you can also resolve this issue using the DevCon utility. This is a command-line utility that acts as an alternative to Device Manager. When you use DevCon, you can enable, utility disable, restart, update, remove, and query individual devices or groups of devices.

To resolve the issue using DevCon:

1. Download the DevCon tool from Microsoft Knowledge Base article 311272.
   
   Note: The preceding link was correct as of August 20, 2013. If you find the link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.
   
2. Unpack the 32-bit or 64-bit DevCon tool binary to a local folder.
3. Click Start > Run, type cmd, and press Enter.
4. Type CD:\path_to_binaries to navigate to where the devcon.exe file is located.
5. Use this syntax to find installed network adapters:
   
   devcon findall *net*
   or
   
   devcon listclass net
   Note: In the output of the previous commands, there is a line for the ghosted network adapter that is similar to PCI\.
   
6. Run this command to remove the adapter:
   
   devcon remove @device\name
   
   For example:
   
   devcon remove "@PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_1600&SUBSYS_01C21028&REV_02\4&378EDFA4&0&00E2"
   
   Note: IDs that include an ampersand character (&) must be enclosed in quotation marks as seen in the example.
   
7. Reboot the system and you no longer see the ghost network adapters.

Note: If you did not get the Device Instance ID or the OCI name from devcon, search for the adapter name in the registry using Find by clicking Start > Run and typing regedit. Then copy the Device Instance ID for the appropriate adapter. When you locate the device, use the command from Step 6.

For related information, see:

• Virtual NIC settings on a Windows guest are lost after a virtual hardware upgrade (1015572)
• IP address already in use error on a converted virtual machine (1012255)

HowTo : Install VMware Tools on CentOS/RHEL

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VMware Tools is a suite of utilities that enhances the performance of the virtual machine's guest operating system and improves management of the virtual machine.
Without VMware Tools installed in your guest operating system, guest performance lacks important functionality.

Installing VMware Tools

Open Vmware Worstation or ESX console and Locate the VM you need to install VMware Tools to.
Right click the VM and choose "Tools", then select "Install VMware Tools".
It will connect the virtual CD-ROM device to the appropriate CD image containing the tools for your virtual machine.
Log into VMware Guest you need to install VMware Tools to.

Install the kernel-devel, gcc, dracut, make and perl packages using yum :
$ yum -y install kernel-devel gcc dracut make perl

Mount CD image with VMware Tools :
$ mkdir /mnt/cdrom
$ mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

Copy the archive with VMware Tools to temporary directory :
$ cp /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-*.tar.gz /tmp

Uncompress the archive and run the installer :
$ tar -zxf /tmp/VMwareTools-*.tar.gz -C /tmp
$ /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib/vmware-install.pl --default

Remove temporary files :
$ rm -f /tmp/VMwareTools-*.tar.gz
$ rm -rf /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib

Validating VMware Tools Installation

Use the command as follows to validate that VMware Tools is running :
$ initctl list | grep vmware-tools
vmware-tools start/running

To determine the vmware-tools version, run the command :
$ vmware-toolbox-cmd -v

IBM ServeRAID LSI Mega Raid Manager on VMware

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 The LSI Mega Raid Storage Manager is a program where you can monitor the health of your array, setup drives and change notification details. IBM has always provided a way for you to manage your array in Windows, Linux, Unix and many other operating systems. Currently configuring the LSI Mega Raid Storage Manager on VMware ESXi 5.1 is not very well documented by IBM. IBM has a retain tip with installation instructions but that tip is outdated. Following these steps below will get the LSI Mega Raid Manager running on an IBM ServeRAID adapter. Please note this guide should work the same for any non IBM server that is running VMware ESXi 5.1 and a LSI Mega Raid Controller.

Tested Configuration and Hardware:
Operating System: VMware ESXi
Version: 5.1

IBM ServeRAID M5110
IBM xSeries 3650 M4 Server

Step 1: Download the latest LSI SMIS for VMware
http://www.lsi.com/support/Pages/Download-Results.aspx?keyword=9265

• LSI SMIS

 

Step 2: Enable SSH on VMware

From the VMware host console press F2 then go into troubleshooting.
VMware KB 2004746

Step 3: Extract the LSI download and upload the VIB file to /tmp
"LSI_bootbank_lsiprovider_500.04.V0.38-0006.vib"

Step 4: Install the VIB

# cd /usr/bin

# esxcli software vib install -v /tmp/LSI_bootbank_lsiprovider_500.04.V0.38-0006.vib --no-sig-check

Step 5: Reboot the VMware server

Step 6: Download and install LSI MegaRaid Manager. The download is on the same URL from step 2 or you can also download this from IBM. MIGR-5077712

Step 7: Add the VMware hostname to your DNS server. Setup an A record to point your VMware hostname to it's IP address.

Step 8: Install LSI Manager

Perform a basic install, no password is needed during the install.

Step 9: Configure LSI Manager

• configure host

• lsi mm 2

• lsi mm 3

• lsi mm 4

• lsi mm 5

Login using the VMware server login details.

• lsi mm 6

• lsi mm 7

Note: IBM released retain tip H21152 but the steps currently does not work with ESXi 5.1

Conclusion:

Once you have followed these steps you will have full control over your IBM ServeRAID using LSI Mega Raid Controller on a VMware ESXi 5.1 operating system. You will be able to monitor the array from any Windows computer in your network.

Resources:

http://www.tinkertry.com/lsi92xx-health-under-esxi-51/

 H21152

MIGR-5077712

VMware KB 2004746

Error adding datastores to VMWARE ESXi

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Error Message:
I was unable to add any of the local disks to my VMWARE ESXi host as VMFS datastores as I got the error “HostDatastoreSystem.QueryVmfsDatastoreCreateOptions” for object ‘ha-datastoresystem’ on ESXi….” as shown below;

Solution:
There are various useful suggestions in the Eversity comments for dealing with GPT partitions but they are quite long winded. The quickest solution (as suggested by fdisk) was to use partedUtil.
You need to run the following command for each disk that you’re having issues with (this overwrites the partition table with a standard msdos one which VMware can work with);
NOTE: This will ERASE ALL DATA on the disk in question so be careful to select the right disks!

#partedUtil mklabel /dev/disks/ msdos

To get the disk id: 
ls /dev/disks/

Remote Access to ESXi Shell Using SSH

Remote Access to ESXi Shell Using SSH

If Secure Shell is enabled for the ESXi Shell, you can run shell commands by using a Secure Shell client such as SSH or PuTTY.

Enabling SSH for the ESXi Shell

By default, you cannot access the ESXi Shell using a Secure Shell client. You can enable SSH access from the direct console.

To enable SSH access in the direct console

1	At the direct console of the ESXi host, press F2 and provide credentials when prompted.

2	Scroll to Troubleshooting Options, and press Enter.

3	Select Enable SSH and press Enter once.

On the left, Enable SSH changes to Disable SSH. On the right, SSH is Disabled changes to SSH is Enabled.

4	Press Esc until you return to the main direct console screen.

You can enable remote command execution from the vSphere Client.

To enable SSH from the vSphere Client

1	Select the host and click the Configuration tab.

2	Click Security Profile in the Software panel.

3	In the Services section, click Properties.

4	Select SSH and click Options.

5	Change the SSH options.

■	To temporarily start or stop the service, click the Start or Stop button.

■	To enable SSH permanently, click Start and stop with host. The change takes effect the next time you reboot the host.

6

Click OK.

After you have enabled SSH, you can use an SSH client to log in to the ESXi Shell and run ESXi Shell commands.

Accessing the ESXi Shell with SSH

If SSH is enabled on your ESXi host, you can use an SSH client to run commands on that shell.

To access the ESXi Shell with SSH

1	Open an SSH client.

2	Specify the IP address or domain name of the ESXi host.

Precise directions vary depending on the SSH client you use. See vendor documentation and support.

3	Provide credentials when prompted.

Source Link

VCB Selective Image Level Backup

Haven't try this though. It allows selective drive VCB Image Level Backup.
Thanks JustinTurver from vmware communities for this great guide.

Link to Source

"
The default VCB scripts do not enable backup of a select disk or disks attached to a VM - vcbMounter.exe will snapshot and backup all disks attached to a VM unless a disk is placed in "Independent" mode meaning it cannot be placed in snapshot mode.

In many situations you may have a VM with a system disk (say 10GB) and an application or data disk (say 50GB) - and you only want to do a full-image backup of the system disk to (and maybe an incremental of the data disk).

This has always frustrated me so I set out to write a script to enable me to export specific VMDKs only.

A description of the process follows.

Attached, you will find a vb script that I have written to perfrom the process from your VCB proxy server. The VBScript takes 2 arguments as shown below:

cscript.exe export_select_disks.vbs

e.g.
cscript.exe *export_select_disks.vbs *DEVSQL01.domain.local scsi0.0,scsi0.1

You will need to modify the constants at the top of the script to suit your environment (default mount point, vcb proxy user and password, whether to delete any existing vcb snapshot for the VM etc).

Hope this helps someone!

(if you have trouble reading the below - see attached word doc)

====================================================
FULL IMAGE BACKUP OF INDIVIDUAL DISK USING VCB:
====================================================

NOTE: to create a usable script that implements the following process, will need to be able to feed in relevant command line args to CommVault "Pre-backup" script:

* FQDN of VM to backup
* COMMA-SEPARATED LIST oF SCSI ID/s oF DISK/s to export (while ignoring other disks)


Process is as follows:

1. GET "VmId" OF VM:

=> vcbVmName -h -u -p -s ipaddr:
e.g.
vcbVmName -h myvcserver.domain.local -u vcbproxyuser -p vcbproxypass -s ipaddr:vcbtest2.domain.local

Output (+note VM ID in bold+):

Found VM:
moref:vm-14168
name:VCBTEST2
uuid:5026fe86-c802-f99d-b1db-f3d6e9a5e732
ipaddr:10.96.64.136

2. CREATE SNAPSHOT (RETURNS SNAPSHOT ID FOR USE IN SUBSEQUENT COMMANDS):

SYNTAX: vcbSnapshot -h -u -p -c

=> vcbSnapshot -h myvcserver.domain.local -u vcbproxyuser -p vcbproxypass -c moref:vm-14168 VCB-BACKUP

Output (+note snapshot ID in bold+):

--2007-10-03 19:06:27.901 'CreateSnapshot' 4316 info-- Creating snapshot
SsId:snapshot-14259

3. GET LIST OF DISKS IN SNAPSHOT (I.E. ENABLES IDENTIFICATION OF DISK/s TO EXPORT & BACK UP):

=> vcbSnapshot -h myvcserver.domain.local -u vcbproxyuser -p vcbproxypass -l moref:vm-14168 SsId:snapshot-14259

(NOTE: "ssid" and "vmid" values comes from output of previous commands)

Output (note SCSI IDs in bold):

scsi0.0:DEVSANNET08 VCBTEST2/VCBTEST2_1.vmdk
scsi0.1:DEVSANNET08 VCBTEST2/VCBTEST2.vmdk
vmx:DEVSANNET08 VCBTEST2/VCBTEST2.vmx
logdir:DEVSANNET08 VCBTEST2/
suspenddir:DEVSANNET08 VCBTEST2/
config0:VCBTEST2.vmsd
config1:VCBTEST2.vmxf
config2:VCBTEST2.nvram
log0:vmware-7.log
log1:vmware-8.log
log2:vmware-9.log
log3:vmware-10.log
log4:vmware-5.log
log5:vmware-6.log
log6:vmware.log

4. EXPORT THE DESIRED VIRTUAL DISK/s (SCRIPT GETS DISK PATH FROM OUTPUT OF PREVIOUS COMMAND):

cd D:\mnt
md VCBTEST2.emapdev.net-CustomDiskBackup

SYNTAX: vcbExport -M 1 -d VCBTEST2_1.vmdk -s "blklst://@?/"

NOTE: sytax must be precise!

E.G.:
=> vcbExport -M 1 -d D:\mnt\VCBTEST2_1.vmdk -s "blklst://snapshot-14259DEVSANNET08 VCBTEST2/VCBTEST2_1.vmdk@lonman01.emap.net? vcbproxyuser/vcbproxypass"

Output (over SAN not NIC):

Converting "D:\mnt\VCBTEST2_1.vmdk" (compact file):
0%=====================50%=====================100%
**********************************************************************************

Does block-level export in consolidated format to a single .VMDK file.
Repeat for additional disks

5. POST-DISK-EXPORT COMMAND - COMMIT SNAPSHOT AS PER NORMAL vcbMounter POST-EXPORT PROCESS:

SYNTAX: vcbSnapshot -h -u -p -d

E.G.
=> vcbSnapshot -h myvcserver.domain.local -u vcbproxyuser -p vcbproxypass -d moref:*vm-14168 *SsId:snapshot-14259

Then run commands to delete local temp directory holding previously exported vmdk's

_6. SAMPLE COMMAND LINE FOR COMMVAULT PRE_BACKUP SCRIPT:_

SYNTAX: cscript.exe export_select_disks.vbs

E.G. (this is what we would specify in "Pre-scan" command line of our backup software (CommVault in our case)):
cscript.exe export_select_disks.vbs DEVSQL01.domain.local scsi0.0,scsi0.1

(this will back up VM disks SCSI(0:0) and SCSI(0:1) on the VM - each to a consolidated .vmdk file)

7. MOUNTING A DISK EXPORTED (BACKED UP) USING vcbExport (LOTS OF OPTIONS - THIS IS ONLY AN EG OF SYNTAX):

(Use for file extraction or as quick test of backup integrity)

SYNTAX: mountvm -cycleId -d

E.G.
=> mountvm -cycleId -d D:\mnt\DEVSQL01_DISK_SCSI_0.1.vmdk D:\mnt\temp

Unmount:
SYNTAX: mountvm -u
=> mountvm -u D:\mnt\temp

8. HOW TO RESTORE A DISK EXPORTED (BACKED UP) USING vcbExport:

Provided "-M 1" option is used during vcbExport backup, then restore is simple process:

* Copy the VMDK to a temp drive on the target ESX server
* Import the vmdk file: vmkfstools -i
(NOTE: This will expand the disk to it's original size!)
* Now just add the virtual disk to either a new VM, or to original VM (at same SCSI BUS ID as per original disk you are replacing)


See attached files and comments in the VB Script file
Link to the file
"

vmware CD/DVD Drive: "Connected - client unknown" error

I encounter 'CD/DVD Drive: "Connected - client unknown"' error after reverting the vmware snapshot. From there onwards, the virtual CD/DVD Drive stops working and not allowing me to mount any iso images.

After searching the VMware Communities forum, here is the solution to it.

1) Remove the VMware tools.
2) Re-install the VMware tools.

That's how simply the solution is! :)

Install VMWARE Tools on Ubuntu 6.06

got this from The Abbey Workshop

So after you install Ubuntu 6.06 in a VMWare session, do the following:

1. Get a root shell: sudo bash
2. Update your list package list: apt-get update
3. Upgrade your components: apt-get upgrade

Note: Repeat the previous step as many times as you need to get all the available updates installed.
4. If necessary, do a dist-upgrade: apt-get dist-upgrade
5. Once you have have done all the core updates you can, edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file and uncomment all the application repositories you want to include in your updates. I usually uncomment them all, but that is your call.
6. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all patches have been applied. Once this is done, you are ready to install the packages VMWare will need.
7. Install build tools: apt-get install build-essential
8. Get version of your kernel: uname -r. You will use the output from this step in the next step.
9. Install the linux headers for your kernel. Issue: apt-get install linux-headers-{output of prev step here}. This will install the linux headers VMWare needs to compile their tools.

That is it. Once you have done all that, you should have all the pieces you need to install the VMWare tools without a hitch.