Mostly Useless Thoughts and Ramblings

VMWare Virtual Center returns error "Host address lookup for server ..." when opening a console

2008-08-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

When I originally setup my virtual environment I was using the evaluation version and had VMWare Virtual Center Server connected to my ESX server using an IP address. Today decided to get the License Server installed and activated and become officially licensed. In the process, I disconnected Virtual Center from my ESX and then reconnected at the advise of the VMWare Licensing Rep. The only thing I did differently when I reconnected was instead of using the IP of my ESX server, I used the FQDN.

Everything appeared to work fine on Virtual Center until my next logon. Even then, all the features of Virtual Center seemed OK except that I was unable to open any of the consoles of my VM's. The error message I got was:

"Host address lookup for server ...."

The problem for this error was related to DNS not resolving correctly to the ESX servers FQDN on the workstation which is running the VMWare Infrastructure Client which in turn was connected to Virtual Center.

There are a couple ways this could have been fixed but for the sake of speed, I ended up just adding an entry to the my hosts file on the workstation running the VMWare Infrastructure Client since I connect from multiple locations using a variety of different VPN methods.

For those who are not sure how to do this, it's simple:

Browse to c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc
open the hosts file using notepad (note that the hosts file has not extension and it should remain that way after you're done)
Add a line at the bottom that reads IPAddress -tab- FQDN

example:

172.18.23.191 esx01.yourcompany.local

Save your file and close notepad
You may or may not need to restart Virtual Center. It let me connect right away after this without restarting.

Hope this helps.

Office 2008 12.1.2 Update Fails after Monolingual

2008-08-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

My Office 2008 for mac downloaded the update 12.1.2 but failed to install. I assumed this was because I used Monolingual since it was the most aggressive "cleansing" product I had installed since updating Office 2008 to 12.1.1 (which installed fine). The error I got on 12.1.2 was:

"You cannot install Office 2008 12.1.2 Update on this Volume. A version of the software required to install this update was not found on this volume"

I was able to workaround this by doing these basic steps:

Download the actual Office 2008 12.1.2 update file from microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx) to your desktop
Right click (cntrl click) the file and select show package contents
Browse in finder to Contents/Resources
Open the file package_updatable with TextEdit
Scroll down to the line that says "found_valid_version=False"
Change the word False to True
Delete the text between "found_valid_version=False" and "if not found_valid_version:" but don't remove "if not found_valid_version:". I put a copy of my file below for reference.
Close TextEdit and save the file when prompted.
Overwrite the read only if/when prompted.
Re-run the install by double-clicking the Office 2008 Update file.

Again, this worked for me. Hope someone else finds it useful as well.

Here's an example of the file after removing the text and changing false to true:

#!/usr/bin/python

#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#

import os, sys, cPickle
from popen2 import Popen3

def CheckSum(file_path):
"""
Validate the file checksum
"""
checksum=None
size=None
process=Popen3(['/usr/bin/cksum', file_path], False)
while True:
textline=process.fromchild.readline()
if (not textline) and (process.poll()!=-1): #
break
if textline:
textline=textline.rstrip('\n')
checksum=int(textline.split()[0])
size=int(textline.split()[1])
process_status=process.wait()
return checksum, size

script_path=sys.argv[0]
package_path=sys.argv[1]
install_path=sys.argv[2]
#
#

updatables=[]
updatables_path = os.path.join(package_path, 'Contents', 'Resources', 'updatables')
if os.path.exists(updatables_path):
fd = open(updatables_path)
updatables = cPickle.load(fd)
fd.close()
else:
print >>sys.stderr, "cannot find updatables file in '%s'" % updatables_path
sys.exit(48)

found_valid_version=True

if not found_valid_version:
sys.exit(48)

sys.exit(0)

Tuna Avacado Surprise (the best ahi recipe!)

2008-08-06T19:43:00.000-07:00

I found this recipe while surfing the net and, if you're looking for a great way to prepare tuna, look no farther.

1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves chopped
4 tsp grated fresh ginger
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 tablespoons of lime
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon sugar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 tuna steaks (don't cheap-out on the quality)
Salt and pepper
2 ripe Avocados -- halved and sliced.

1 Combine the cilantro, ginger, garlic, lime juice, soy sauce, sugar, salt, pepper, and 1/4 cup of olive oil.

2 Place a large skillet over medium-high heat and coat with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Sprinkle the tuna with salt and pepper. Sear the tuna for a minute on each side. Pour half of the cilantro mixture into the pan to coat the fish.

3 Transfer the seared tuna to plates and serve with the sliced avocado and the remaining cilantro sauce drizzled over the whole plate.

Enjoy!