OpenFiler 2.3 on VMWare

Description

This page basically describes how to configure OpenFiler as a VMWare Virtual Appliance  I had heard about it from a couple of co workers, and thought it might be time to try and get it going.  Managing my series of assorted USB devices, Lacie NAS units, and other devices was anything but easy, and definately not centralized. 

Process/Implementation

There were actually very few steps to get this going.  Its bascially download, configure, and use.  In my case, the first time I downloaded it though, it seemed to download ok, but had errors on extraction.  That hasnt happened before, so I thought it was an issue with the actual file.  Trying again though, worked fine.

So without further ado, here are the steps :
 

• Download the VMWare Appliance.  
• After un-rar'ing, un-tar'ing, just extract the contents somewhere - I chose my Virtual Machines drive (F:\), in the "F:\VirtualMachines\Linux\rPath\kernel_2.6\OpenFiler\v2.3RC" sub folder.
• Double click on the vmx file to have it auto import into the VMWare management console.
• Rename the logical descriptor - in my case "vmDekiWiki".
• Edit the settings for any alterations (I have low memory on my dev server, so knocked it from 512Mb to 256Mb, and deleted the floppy)
• Start the virtual machine.
• As its booting in the BIOS screen, hit F2, and change the auto-key repeat function to longest delay and slowest repeat (an annoying issue for me normally)
• At that point, its up and running.  In my case it auto grabbed a DHCP address which is not preferred, but at least its up.

Tuning / Customization

From that point, its all about tuning/customization to get it to "fit" into my infrastructure.  Configuration for me consisted of getting the NIC recognized, changing the IP, the host name, and resetting passwords on admin accounts.

So - best place to start is with a good (required) tip to make this all work - which is to get networking up.  By default, at least in my situation, it doesnt work at install time.  This tip was found on the OpenFiler Forum site.

• Edit the /etc/modprobe.conf and add "alias eth0 pcnet32" to the bottom of the file.  Without this, the eth0 is unrecognized as the vmware nic - at least in my case, with VMWare Server 1.0.3.

After doing that, and rebooting, I no longer see the error about eth0 not found.  It grabs that DHCP address, which I didnt want, but I can login and edit some things now.

• Login with the default root user - no password required on the console
• Reset the root password right away
• Edit /etc/sysconfig/network file changing "HOSTNAME" from its default to "vmOpenFiler"
• While in the same file, add "GATEWAY=192.168.1.253" (the default router for the segment its on)
• Update the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 file from this :

# Device file installed by rBuilder
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes
TYPE=Ethernet

to this :

# Device file installed by rBuilder
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=static
BROADCAST=192.168.1.255
IPADDR=192.168.1.59
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
NETWORK=192.168.1.0
ONBOOT=yes
TYPE=Ethernet
USERCTL=no
PEERDNS=no

Then just reboot and its all good.

Further Information

The last and final task is to launch the site, and login to look around.  Point the browser to the secure site of https://vmOpenFiler:446/ and login.

The OpenFiler documentation site is quite good, but a little outdated.  I actually preferred to work with the PDF version, because it was easier to print and also easiser to search through.  It covers the older 1.1 version, so the screens are a little dated, but for the most part, it covers the basics.  For example, page 5 shows how to login - which I didnt know by default.  Same for configuring services, adding volumes, etc.

Maybe in the future, I'll add screenshots of how/what was done for all that, but for now, this is just 'how to get it running'.  At least that is what I was thinking before I found this site.  That has great screenshots and everything I was gonna do anyway - so we'll just go with that.

Update : I did have to add java for something I was working on.  In rpath, the utility is called "conary".  So to install java runtime, just use the conary tool.  In order to install the full JDK, you'll need to follow procedures shown here instead.

[root@openfiler ~]# conary update sun-jre
Including extra troves to resolve dependencies:
    alsa-lib:data=1.0.9-2-0.1 alsa-lib:lib=1.0.9-2-0.1 fontconfig:lib=2.3.2-6.4-1 fontconfig:runtime=2.3.2-6.4.1 unixODBC:devellib=2.2.11-1.4-1 unixODBC:lib=2.2.11-1.4-1 xorg-x11:data=6.8.2-30.14-1 xorg-x11:lib=6.8.2-30.14-1
Applying update job 1 of 2:
    Install alsa-lib(:data :lib)=1.0.9-2-0.1[~!builddocs]
    Install fontconfig(:lib :runtime)-2.3.2-6.4-1[~!builddocs]
    Install sun-jre:java=5.0u17-0.1-1[~!gcj]
    Install unixODBC(:devellib :lib)=2.2.11-1.4-1
    Install xorg-x11(:data :lib)=6.8.2-30.14-1
Applying update job 2 of 2:
    Install sun-jre:(:lib :runtime)=5.0u17-0.1-1[~!gcj]
[root@openfiler ~]#