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Boot Environment
/etc/lilo.conf
LILO is the boot loader (LILO=Linux Loader) used for ESX server
(remember the service console is based on a modified version of Red
Hat Linux 7.2). Lilo.conf is the text file to describe the OS to boot. This
text file is compiled into a binary file that is actually used by LILO. If
you are troubleshooting the APPEND line, then use vmkpcidivy tool.
You should not have to revert to manually editing this file. If you ever
do edit this file, then you need to compile it with lilo –c to write the
binary file.
Append=
The pci device mask specified in the append line of lilo.conf is actually
an include, not a mask out. The important thing to remember is the
append line defines the hardware visible to the service console. Don’t
replace LILO with another boot loader, e.g. GRUB. ESX manages
allocation of PCI devices between service console and VM kernel with
the expectation of LILO.
You can also view PCI device allocation using the MUI, found under
Startup Options
Alternatively, you can use the legacy web interface using the URL
http://esxserver/pcidivy
Boot Order
LILO loads the service console kernel, e.g. /boot/initrd-2.4.9-
vmnix2.img This kernel obeys what is stored in the file /etc/inittab
/etc/inittab
This file is read by the init process and specifies the run level to be
used by the service console. The line that states the run level will look
something like this.
id:3:initdefault:
The init process then works through the start up scripts in the
appropriate diectory. For run level 3, this directory would be

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/etc/rc.d/rc3.d
The file also starts up the virtual terminals on the ESX server mingetty
tty2 through mingetty tty5. The mingetty process is minimum getty.
/etc/rc.d/rc.local
A text file used most commonly when we need to share the service
console NIC with the VM kernel. This may be required in say a blade
server which has only 2 NICs, and we need to dedicate 1 NIC to
Vmotion.
insmod vmxnet_console devName=vmnic0 ifup eth0
/etc/rc.d/rc2.d
Contains start-up scripts for run level 2
/etc/rc.d/rc3.d
Contains start-up scripts (logical links) for run level 3. Run level 3 is
used most of the time as it is command line full multi-user mode. The
ones we are interested in are shown below:
S00vmkstart
S12syslog
S55sshd
S56xinetd
S90vmware
S91httpd.vmware
chkconfig --list
This service console tool displays a table showing which daemons are
enabled for the run levels for the vmnix operating system.
ntpd
0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:off 6:off syslog 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:off 6:off snmpd 0:off
1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
If we wanted to change a service so that it is enabled for a particular
run level, then we can use chkconfig –level.
chkconfig --level 1 ntpd on
The above command would turn on ntpd for run level 1, this would not affect the run levels that ntpd was already set
for. So in this example, the ntpd run levels would be
ntpd 0:off 1:on 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:off 6:off
service --status-all
This lists all the service daemons and their status. We can find running
services by looking for the running status
service –-status-all |grep running
would produce an output similar to the following:
crond (pid 1423) is running
httpd (pid 1486 1482 1479) is running
syslogd (pid 1136) is running
sshd (pid 1208) is running

To avoid unnecessarily rebooting an ESX server after making certain configuration changes, we can frequently
just restart the appropriate daemon. For example we could restart the Apache web server for the MUI with the
command:
service httpd.vmware restart
and we can also check a named service running status with
service httpd.vmware status
S12syslogd
The centralised logging system. When ESX is running, both the service
console and VMkernel log messages through it.
/etc/ssh

Secure shell settings

Quick way to restart the ssh daemon. Use full path to do this.

/etc/init.d/sshd restart

/etc/ssh/ssh_config

Text file with the configuration of SSH client.

/etc/ssh/sshd_config

Text file with the configuration file for SSH daemon. An important
setting in this file is PermitRootLogin=Yes/No. You can quickly check
this with a grep on the file.
grep permit /etc/ssh/sshd_config
~/.ssh/known_hosts
A text file that stores the RSA keys for known hosts. If we rebuild a
host and then reconnect to it over SSH we may be prevented if the
known_hosts file has cached the old key. I think SCP (secure copy)
uses RSA keys as well as SSH sessions. Note this file is maintained on
a per-user basis.
/etc/xinetd.conf
The config file for Xinetd, the network services daemon? The daemon itself is stored in /usr/sbin/xinetd This launches
the daemons that are bound to it on demand
vmware-authd
This is the authentication daemon. This daemon authenticates users of
the management interface (MUI) and remote consoles using the
username/password database defined in /etc/passwd. This service
binds via the xinetd daemon and so the configuration file that specifies
the listening port is in
/etc/xinetd.d/vmware-authd
This text file contains the settings for the VMware remote access
authentication daemon. This file specifies the TCP:902 port used by
remote console. If this port was changed here, it must also be

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