Enabling SSH on an ESXi

• Go to the ESXi console and press alt+F1
• Type: unsupported
• Enter the root password
• At the prompt type “vi /etc/inetd.conf”
• Look for the line that starts with “#ssh” (you can search with pressing “/”)
• Remove the “#” (press the “x” if the cursor is on the character)
• Save “/etc/inetd.conf” by typing “:wq!”
• Restart the server. Many guides say that you just have to restart the services, but this fails…

Login through ssh after the reboot and get the following:

login as: root
root@ESXi’s password:
Tech Support Mode successfully accessed.
The time and date of this access have been sent to the system logs.
WARNING – Tech Support Mode is not supported unless used in
consultation with VMware Tech Support.
~ #

The shepperd, the dogs & the talented flock

Some time ago I made a post about the different management styles and today I would like to continue on that feeling with a story. Imagine a shepperd and it’s flock… Who do you also notice in the picture? The shepperd’s dog! A flock, despite individual talents, needs to be led to a given point. It’s for the sheppard to see which paths need to be travelled. He sets out his dog to guide the flock to that given point, yet the shepperd will always take a lookout to see if there aren’t any unexpected things on their path. If so, he will once again instruct his dog to guide the flock away from danger and back on course to the place they have to arrive.

Imagine the CEO as a shepperd and the dogs as your management. The CEO sets out the lines and global path of the company. Then it’s up to the management to guide the employees to the company’s goals. Here I don’t want to patronize all the other employees as being “stupid sheep”, but the story was purely told as a reference to the guiding function of the whole management group. I still believe that everyone with management responsibility needs to be a “collaboration” (servant?) manager and guide his/her team to the company goal. The dog does it out of love for the shepperd and the flock (and maybe a bit because it’s fun… 😉 ).

Screentoaster

A tip for those who need to create screencasts, check screentoaster.com
http://www.screentoaster.com/swf/STPlayer.swf

• Register & use it anywhere anytime (for free) : Make screencasts / tutorials / demos / high-scores show-offs…
• Record your screen in one click : No download. Compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, Linux.
• Share videos on the Internet in Flash : Embed them on blogs/webpages or send them by email.

Getting PHP syntaxing working in vi on Ubuntu

If you want the syntax highlighting to work with Vim on Ubuntu, then simply install the vim-full package:

sudo apt-get install vim-full

Edit the /etc/vim/vimrc file and uncomment (remove the following line

syntax on

Easy as that… (all you need is a few minutes and a bit of bandwith to download the packages)

Some suggestions when looking at OpenSource products

Preface
People mostly think about “free software” when they think of Open Source. I guess this is the biggest miscomprehension there is, as Open Source doesn’t need to be free. It also doesn’t need to be “home brew” also, as many Open Source projects simply are “Enterprise Grade”. This article is meant to tutor you on finding the right Open Source product for your “problem”…

Getting VIM to acknowledge your Drupal files

Are you a die-hard vi(m) user like me and wanted to have the php color coding for all your drupal files?

It’s quite simple actually. Add the following lines to your ~/.vimrc file (create it if it doesn’t exist):

au BufReadPost *.module,*.install,*.theme set syntax=php