Daniel Micanek virtual Blog – Like normal Dan, but virtual.
Since the announcement of the two new VMware offerings: VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) at the end of 2023, I have been trying to wrap my head around the new offers and to better help me understand the next level of details, I have put together several diagrams […]
I recently helped a colleague who wanted to mark an HDD device in ESXi to show up as an SSD, which may be needed if the storage device was not correctly detected or if you are using Nested ESXi and the underlying storage is not an SSD and you need to mark it as an […]
Deploying Linux for the impatient | If you’ve ever wanted to just “test something out really quick” in a live environment, Linux distributions have always been generally lightweight, but that’s not the only implicit requirement for experimentation.
There are various and good blog posts describing how to implement the different port mirror (aka SPAN – Switched Port Analyzer) session types available in NSX-T. Since v3.2 all types (Logical SPAN and Remote L3 SPAN) can be configured from policy view. In this post, I would like to touch […]
Automating counting cores & TiBs for new VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) SKUs
Happy New Year! 🥳🎉🥂 At the end of 2023, we announced two new offerings called VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) that drastically simplifies our overall vSphere-based portfolio and licensing model. To help our users understand the new licensing model which uses both CPU cores and TiB (for vSAN storage sizing), I […]
Learn how to use Proxmox VE for nested ESXi virtualization in your home lab with this step-by-step guide. Learn ESXi clustering and other configurations with nested virtualization.
The Issue | I keep saying, there are no new ideas in technology, just re-hashes of old ones. That is also true for VMware and their data loss issues. The vSphere-based change block tracking (CBT) bug […]
So since all the announcement’s at VMware Explore 2023 in Vegas I thought it was time to get my lab back in order along with all the latest updates. I noticed during some of the sessions that a project called Holodeck was mentioned and soon found this was a great expansion of an automated full […]
In the complex world of virtualization, developers often face the challenge of debugging guest operating systems and applications. A practical solution lies in converting virtual machine snapshots to memory dumps. This blog post delves into how you can efficiently use the vmss2core tool to transform a VM checkpoint, be it a snapshot or suspend file, into a core dump file, compatible with standard debuggers.
Break down the process into clear, step-by-step instructions. Use bullet points or numbered lists for easier readability. Example:
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation\C:\Program Files(x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\/usr/bin//Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/ Note: If vmss2core isn’t in these directories, download it from New Flings Link (use at your own risk).
vmss2core.exe -N VM-Snapshot1.vmsn VM-Snapshot1.vmem vmss2core version 20800274 Copyright (C) 1998-2022 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved.
Started core writing.
Writing note section header.
Writing 1 memory section headers.
Writing notes.
... 100 MBs written.
... 200 MBs written.
... 300 MBs written.
... 400 MBs written.
... 500 MBs written.
... 600 MBs written.
... 700 MBs written.
... 800 MBs written.
... 900 MBs written.
... 1000 MBs written.
... 1100 MBs written.
... 1200 MBs written.
... 1300 MBs written.
... 1400 MBs written.
... 1500 MBs written.
... 1600 MBs written.
... 1700 MBs written.
... 1800 MBs written.
... 1900 MBs written.
... 2000 MBs written.
Finished writing core.vmss2core.exe -W [VM_name].vmsn [VM_name].vmemvmss2core.exe -W8 [VM_name].vmsn [VM_name].vmem./vmss2core-Linux64 -N [VM_name].vmsn [VM_name].vmem Note: Replace [VM_name] with your virtual machine’s name. The flag -W, -W8, or -N corresponds to the guest OS.#vmss2core.exe
vmss2core version 20800274 Copyright (C) 1998-2022 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. A tool to convert VMware checkpoint state files into formats that third party debugger tools understand. It can handle both suspend (.vmss) and snapshot (.vmsn) checkpoint state files (hereafter referred to as a 'vmss file') as well as both monolithic and non-monolithic (separate .vmem file) encapsulation of checkpoint state data. Usage: GENERAL: vmss2core [[options] | [-l linuxoffsets options]] \ <vmss file> [<vmem file>] The "-l" option specifies offsets (a stringset) within the Linux kernel data structures, which is used by -P and -N modes. It is ignored with other modes. Please use "getlinuxoffsets" to automatically generate the correct stringset value for your kernel, see README.txt for additional information. Without options one vmss.core<N> per vCPU with linear view of memory is generated. Other types of core files and output can be produced with these options: -q Quiet(er) operation. -M Create core file with physical memory view (vmss.core). -l str Offset stringset expressed as 0xHEXNUM,0xHEXNUM,... . -N Red Hat crash core file for arbitrary Linux version described by the "-l" option (vmss.core). -N4 Red Hat crash core file for Linux 2.4 (vmss.core). -N6 Red Hat crash core file for Linux 2.6 (vmss.core). -O <x> Use <x> as the offset of the entrypoint. -U <i> Create linear core file for vCPU <i> only. -P Print list of processes in Linux VM. -P<pid> Create core file for Linux process <pid> (core.<pid>). -S Create core for 64-bit Solaris (vmcore.0, unix.0). Optionally specify the version: -S112 -S64SYM112 for 11.2. -S32 Create core for 32-bit Solaris (vmcore.0, unix.0). -S64SYM Create text symbols for 64-bit Solaris (solaris.text). -S32SYM Create text symbols for 32-bit Solaris (solaris.text). -W Create WinDbg file (memory.dmp) with commonly used build numbers ("2195" for Win32, "6000" for Win64). -W<num> Create WinDbg file (memory.dmp), with <num> as the build number (for example: "-W2600"). -WK Create a Windows kernel memory only dump file (memory.dmp). -WDDB<num> or -W8DDB<num> Create WinDbg file (memory.dmp), with <num> as the debugger data block address in hex (for example: "-W12ac34de"). -WSCAN Scan all of memory for Windows debugger data blocks (instead of just low 256 MB). -W8 Generate a memory dump file from a suspended Windows 8 VM. -X32 <mach_kernel> Create core for 32-bit Mac OS. -X64 <mach_kernel> Create core for 64-bit Mac OS. -F Create core for an EFI firmware exception. -F<adr> Create core for an EFI firmware exception with system context at the given guest virtual address. Rebuilding a VMX file from vmware.log in VMware ESXi can be crucial for restoring a virtual machine’s configuration. This guide will walk you through the process using SSH according KB 1023880, but with update for ESXi 8.0. It was necessary add #!/bin/ash because of error “Operation not permitted”.
First, ensure SSH is enabled on your ESXi host. Then, use an SSH client to connect to the host.
Change to the directory where your VM resides. This is usually under /vmfs/volumes/.
cd /vmfs/volumes/name-volume/name-vmCreate a new file named vmxrebuild.sh and make it executable:
touch vmxrebuild.sh && chmod +x vmxrebuild.shEdit the vmxrebuild.sh file using the vi editor:
vi vmxrebuild.sh.i to enter insert mode.ESC, then type :wq! to save and exit.#!/bin/ash
VMXFILENAME=$(sed -n 's/^.*Config file: .*\/\(.\+\)$/\1/p' vmware.log)
echo -e "#\041/usr/bin/vmware" > ${VMXFILENAME}
echo '.encoding = "UTF-8"' >> ${VMXFILENAME}
sed -n '/DICT --- CONFIGURATION/,/DICT ---/ s/^.*DICT \+\(.\+\) = \(.\+\)$/\1 = \2/p' vmware.log >> ${VMXFILENAMEExecute the script to rebuild the VMX file:
./vmxrebuild.shThis process extracts the necessary configuration details from the vmware.log file and recreates the VMX file, which is vital for VM configuration. Always back up your VM files before performing such operations.