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How to easily add an ESXi SSH login message banner
Preparing for some upcoming audits, I noticed one of the checkpoints was to ensure each ESXi host was configured with a warning banner stating the machine is being monitored and audited when someone logs into the ESXi host via SSH. This type of message is something you see on most any company or government computer before you login.
There are two message types that can be used to achieve this, the first being login banner (/etc/issue) and MOTD (/etc/motd). The difference between the two are where they are shown. The login banner is shown between the username and password inputs during login, while the MOTD is displayed after a user has successfully logged into SSH.
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VMUG EVALExperience, the new VMware VMTN
Long ago VMware offered a program called VMware Technology Network (VMTN) which was very similar to Microsoft’s TechNet, which allowed you to download and run various VMware software within your home lab for a small yearly fee. Just like the Microsoft TechNet, the VMware VMTN program was eventually closed. From the time the VMTN program closed many people have begged and pleaded with VMware to bring the program back, there is even a long forum thread asking VMware to bring VMTN back. Though it never did… until now.
How-to fix VMware Converter error FAILED: Unable to find the system volume, reconfiguration is not possible.
I was recently tasked with migrating a Hyper-V machine to our VMware environment. However, each time VMware Converter was ran, the task would fail at 97% with an error “FAILED: Unable to find the system volume, reconfiguration is not possible.“.
Looking further into the virtual machine there were a number of concerns I had on the VM. One such issue which I believe might be causing the above error, is that the system volume drive was on drive 0 while the “C:” drive was on drive 1. Whereas these are typically on the same drive in most Windows installs.
Below are the steps I took to fix this VM and made the migration from Hyper-V to VMware a success.
VMware Workstation 12.5.5 released, fixes Pwn2Own exploits
VMware has just released Workstation 12.5.5 which includes bug fixes as well as fixes for several vulnerabilities found in this years Pwn2Own contest, which two hacking teams, 360 Security (@mj011sec) and Team Sniper was able to successfully complete a virtual machine escape.
While these are serious exploits, VMware has said they are not aware of any active exploitation of the vulnerabilities that has now been fixed in 12.5.5.
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How to Add Login Banner to vSphere Web Client
If you have the pleasure or meeting certain audits or security compliance then having a login banner message on your systems is a pretty common requirement. Sometime ago I detailed how to add a login banner message to ESXi hosts, below I’ll show how easy it is to do the same with your VMware vSphere web client or HTML5 client using vSphere 6.0 Update 2 or better.
VMware vCenter 5.0 Update 1a released
VMware vCenter 5.0 Update 1a has just been released and is the first major update since version 5.0.
The main improvements being:
- vCenter Server 5.0 Update 1a introduces support for the following vCenter Databases
- Oracle 11g Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition, Standard ONE Edition Release 2 [11.2.0.3] – 64 bit
- Oracle 11g Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition, Standard ONE Edition Release 2 [11.2.0.3] – 32 bit
- vCenter Server Appliance Database Support: The DB2 express embedded database provided with the vCenter Server Appliance has been replaced with VMware vPostgres database. This decreases the appliance footprint and reduces the time to deploy vCenter Server further.