vmware-vdiskmanager and CentOS 6

This is how you install vmware-vdiskmanager on CentOS 6. I needed to do this so I could read my old vmware-server vmdk.

First go this old KB article and download 1023856-vdiskmanager-linux.7.0.1.zip. It's at the bottom, in the Attachements section. Now you do the following little dance:

unzip 1023856-vdiskmanager-linux.7.0.1.zip
cp 1023856-vmware-vdiskmanager-linux.7.0.1  /usr/local/sbin/vmware-vdiskmanager 
chmod +x  /usr/local/sbin/vmware-vdiskmanager
yum -y install zlib.i686 glibc.i686 openssl098e.i686
md -pv /usr/lib/vmware/lib
cd /usr/lib/vmware/lib/
ln -s /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8e 
ln -s libcrypto.so.0.9.8e libcrypto.so.0.9.8 
ln -s libcrypto.so.0.9.8e libcrypto.so.0
ln -s libcrypto.so.0.9.8e libcrypto.so
ln -s /usr/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8e
ln -s libssl.so.0.9.8e libssl.so.0.9.8
ln -s libssl.so.0.9.8e libssl.so.0
ln -s libssl.so.0.9.8e libssl.so

That fucking around in /usr/lib/vmware/lib is because even though VMware claims this is a static binary, it in fact dynamically loads crypto libraries at run time from non-standard places.

You can now convert your split vmdk to a single file and mount it:

vmware-vdiskmanager -r sda.vmdk -t 0 sda-single.vmdk
modprobe nbd max_part=8
qemu-nbd -r --connect=/dev/nbd0 sda-single.vmdk
kpartx -a /dev/nbd0
vgscan
vgchange -a y YOURVG
mount -o ro /dev/mapper/YOURVG-YOURLV /mnt

Aren't you glad you created a unique VG for each of your VMs?

To unmount:

umount /mnt
vgchange -a n YOURVG
kpartx -d /dev/nbd0
qemu-nbd -d sda-single.vmdk

daemontools, system V init and mysql

This is how you setup a babysitter for a service started with system V init scripts using DJB's deamontools. We can't just put service $service start into a run file, because sys V init scripts start up background daemons. We have to use the daemon's PID file to watch what's going on.

First, I create mysql-babysit. I'm using mysql as an example. For other services, adjust $service and $pidfile.

# mkdir /var/daemontools/supervised/mysql-babysit
# cd /var/daemontools/supervised/mysql-babysit
# cat <<'SH' > mysql-babysit
#!/bin/bash

service=mysql

datadir=/var/lib/mysql
pidfile=$datadir/$(hostname).pid


##################
sleepPID=
function sig_finish () {
    echo $(date) $service "$1"
    service $service stop
    [[ $sleepPID ]] && kill $sleepPID
}
trap 'sig_finish TERM' TERM
trap 'sig_finish KILL' KILL


##################
echo $(date) $service start

service $service start

if [[ -f $pidfile ]] ; then
    pid=$(< $pidfile)
    if [[ $pid ]] ; then
        while grep -q $service /proc/$pid/cmdline 2>/dev/null ; do
            sleep 60 & sleepPID=$!
            wait $sleepPID
        done
        echo $(date) $service exited
        exit 0
    fi
fi
echo $(date) $service failed to start
sleep 5
exit 3
SH

Next we create and activate the run script

cd /var/daemontools/supervised/mysql-babysit
# cat <<'SH' >run
#!/bin/bash

exec /var/daemontools/supervised/mysql-babysit/mysql-babysit
SH
# chmod +x run
# chkconfig mysql off
# service mysql stop
# cd ../../service
# ln -s ../supervised/mysql-babysit

We can control mysql with

svc -d /var/daemontools/supervised/mysql-babysit # shutdown mysql
svc -u /var/daemontools/supervised/mysql-babysit # startup mysql
killall mysql # restart mysql