Monthly Archives: May 2016

How to enable SSH on a VMware 5.5 ESXi host using the vSphere client

virtual machine

Recently I needed to make some edits on vmdk files in order to get rid of a reference to the change tracking files, as mentioned in Gabrie’s post: Cannot open the disk and could not open change tracking file. An SSH connection to a VMware ESXi host was required. SHH was disabled and I needed to enable it temporarily.

How to enable SSH on an ESXi host using the vSphere client

In vSphere, select the host you want to enable SSH on.

Select the “Configuration” TAB, then “Security Profile”. In the upper right select “Properties.

A new window opens, now select SSH (you may need to scroll down a bit) and in the lower right select “Options”.

Again a new window opens and here you can either “Start” or “Stop” the SSH daemon.

enable SSH

Free EMC trial software / virtual appliances

virtual machine

A quick heads-up this time about building your own lab environment

Sometimes you just want to run a VNX, Avamar, PowerPath, Data Domain or Isilon as a virtual machine to see how things work, or to write work instructions. And EMC offers a lot of these virtual appliances for free!

Take a look at these:

 

EMC Unity: simplicity redefined

EMC Unity

It’s been a while since the VNX2 was born: September 2013, I remember it very well. Being a part of the EMC Elect, I was invited to be at the actual launch in Milan (Italy) and what a ride it was! The whole launch was wrapped around Formula 1 technology and it sure was “speed 2 lead“. That “old” VNX2, which I’m still perfectly happy with by the way, was a revolution in my humble opinion: multi-core everything, in short MCx. And yes, it was like everything just went faster, smoother and better.

New technologies

But with new technologies popping up every so many months now, it was time for a new mid-range storage array. Flash storage isn’t a novelty anymore, it’s a must! And the “old” hybrid arrays were fine, but needed some fine-tuning. With flash devices growing bigger every quarter or half a year and faster as well, the whole back-end needed an upgrade. The old 6 Gb back-end (x4) needed an upgrade.

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