VMWare ESX fails to mount ISO image

I was installing the newest OpenSolaris on VMware ESX 3.5 tonight and I wanted to mounted to verify my disk image prior to the install so I thought simple; mount the ISO and browse the file system and that will show everything is ok. I created the mount point and ran the Linux mount commands and got an IOCTL error.

[root@x4100 x4100:storage1]# mkdir /tmp/isoimage
[root@x4100 x4100:storage1]# mount -o loop /vmfs/volumes/x4100\:storage1/OpenSolaris.iso /tmp/isoimage/


ioctl: LOOP_SET_FD: Invalid argument
 
After a lot of research I found this article. That explains that if you try to mount an ISO image from a VMFS file system you get the aforementioned error. The problem I had is the ISO I was trying to mount is on a VMFS filesystem and the mount command only works for images residing on a Linux filesystem, and vmfs doesn't count as a Linux filesystem. 

I moved the ISO to the /tmp filesystem and everthing worked as expected.

[root@x4100 x4100:storage1]# mv OpenSolaris.iso /tmp
[root@x4100 x4100:storage1]# mount -t iso9660 -o loop /tmp/OpenSolaris.iso /tmp/isoimage
root@x4100 x4100:storage1]# cd /tmp/isoimage/

[root@x4100 isoimage]# ls
bin dev jack pkg.zlib proc root solarismisc.zlib system
boot devices mnt platform reconfigure save solaris.zlib tmp
[root@x4100 isoimage]# cd ..
[root@x4100 tmp]# umount /tmp/isoimage/

GA drivers rank almost last in driver knowledge

According to a recent study performed by GMAC Insurance Georgia drivers rank 47th in the nation in driver knowledge while Alabama drivers rank 26th in driver knowledge.

This is really amusing to me since I live in Alabama but have worked for the last 10 years in Georgia and have heard the sneers and insults from Columbus natives about how backward Alabama is and how bad Alabama drivers are. Anyone who has lived in the Chattahoochee Valley has heard how a lot of Georgians refer to Alabama as inferior in every aspect. I even had a fairly affluent Columbus native tell me that that HWY 431 in Phenix City is the busiest road in Alabama; he claimed it was in the paper. He may have seen that the section of 431 that runs through the Inverness area of Birmingham is the busiest and just have assumed PC.

Oracle Virtualization Strategy

I ran across this article while doing some research tonight and thought you guys might be interested in it. I had not considered this part of the Oracle purchase of SUN. I don't think it has much of a hope if they seriously consider competing with VMware, but then again Larry Ellison knows how to make a buck.
I am really interested in seeing what Oracle does with all of the things that SUN has going on. I definitely think you are going to see some type of Oracle appliance based on Solaris x86 and zfs, with the thought of virtualization thrown into the mix (and from what James is telling me SUN's Virtual Box may be better than VMware server (not esx)) there may some real interesting things come out over the next couple of years. It would behove them to drop "Unbreakable Linux" in favor of Solaris now that he owns it, most of the enterprise installs run Solaris anyway. It would also let him drop his vm hyper visor that hasn't really caught on in favor of Virtual Box if they can get it to run on its own like ESX does. With Oracle marketing a lot of the SUN products could enjoy a resurgence that they couldn't have had on their own and would have been killed by IBM.


http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/server-virtualization/oracle-sun-a-threat-to-vmware/

Virtual Machine Sprawl

This is a good article on Virtual Machine server sprawl. It addresses one of the biggest problems in using VMWare, Hyper-V or any type of server virtualization including those used by P-Series and SUN and how it can quickly diminish any savings you have gained over reduced server count.

Oracle seems to be planning another Database Appliance

From Larry Ellison's comments it appears that Oracle wants to create a database appliance and own all the pieces. It definitely makes sense, Oracle has been delivering "Oracle Linux" for a while now, but Linux is still not in the same league as the Solaris operating system.  The majority of Oracle's enterprise customers continue to run on SUN hardware and the Solaris operating system even after IBM surpassed SUN in hardware capabilites and Oracle started pushing Linux. Here are some exerpts from the article this links to

    "We are definitely not going to exit the hardware business," Ellison told Reuters in an e-mail interview published late today. "If a company designs both hardware and software, it can build much better systems than if they only design the software. That's why Apple's iPhone is so much better than Microsoft phones."
    ...
    Ellison said he believes that by jointly developing Oracle's software with Sun's hardware and SPARC chips, the company can build machines designed for specific purposes that are better than ones pulled together from separate components.
    ...
    "Once we own Sun, we'll be able to plan and synchronize new features from silicon to software, just like IBM and the other big system suppliers," he said.

Coffee Can Wireless Antenna

Neat, cheap antenna from a Maxwell House coffee can.

In this article he describes the complete details for how to optimize the location of the hole in the can for the desired Mhz due to the wave length of each service.

Cellular Broadband Antennas

A fellow known as "Mr. Jim" has an excellent blog titled "EVDO Tips and Tweaks". One of the more interesting series is on using a Parabolic Grid Antenna.
http://evdotips.blogspot.com/2008/10/parabolic-grid-antenna.html
Determinig which band you are using
http://evdotips.blogspot.com/2008/11/850-or-1900-mhz.html
Assembling part 1
http://evdotips.blogspot.com/2009/01/assembling-grid-antenna.html
Assembling part 2
http://evdotips.blogspot.com/2009/01/assembling-and-installing-grid-antenna.html
Assembling part 3
http://evdotips.blogspot.com/2009/03/parabolic-grid-antenna-speed-and-signal.html

I haven't tried this yet, but plan to do so soon. It will be a good test of his theory since I am currently using a yagi antenna from Wilson coupled with a Wilson pre-amp to boost the signal.

Bluetooth Class Action Law Suit

Excellent article on a recent class action law suit against many bluetooth headsets. It shows how the lawyers for the suit profited $2 million dollars, how unnamed non-profit organizations received $100,000 and the supposed plantifs (those who the purchased the product and would be effected) received $0. This is how the legal system is protecting us. The article does not go into the fact, we the citizens of the U.S., know this is happening, yet we continually elect lawyers to political offices; allowing them to continue to screw us. Isn't Obama, the Clinton's, etc all lawyers? The republicans are run by big oil companies and wall street and the democrats are run by lawyers and wall street, we so need another political party in the U.S. that represents the people then we can get back to a government that is "For the People, By the People".