NetApp Training Brain Dump: ONTAP 8.0 Simulator Troubleshooting

In previous posts here and here, I went through how to set up your ONTAP 8.0 simulator.  Unfortunately, on one of my laptops, the vm kept rebooting automatically, kicking out cryptic messages right before it shut down again.

I tried reinstalling the VM with a complete redownload of the ONTAP simulator, to no avail.  Here's how I ended up getting this actually fixed:

1. Use this flowchart to control-c into the Special Boot Menu
2. Choose option 4 and use 'y' to confirm this choice twice.
3. When the machine finishes the complete wipe, use the above flowchart again to enter the 'Loader' menu.  
4.  From there, use boot_backup to boot to the backup kernal.
5. When the system boots up, you should be able to run setup successfully.  

Finally, NetApp has awesomely provided trial licenses for your simulator, covering just about anything you'll want to check out.  NetApp login required!

NetApp Training Brain Dump: ONTAP 8.0 Simulator Network

Problems explained simply.

In a previous post I covered installing the simulator and working through a couple bugs.  Now for another challenge: network configuration.  And you can't set a NIC to DHCP in ONTAP, which makes things a bit more difficult.

Here's a rundown on the NICs you have:

Bridged: you can consider your bridged card as being on the same network as your host card. So it should have an IP address of 192.168.2.x if your host OS is at 192.168.2.4.

NAT: a nat card is the equivalent of having multiple devices connected to one of those home router. You talk to your local network when doing local stuff. When accessing the internet, your router translates your internal IP address and uses the external IP (WAN) address of your router to send your request to the Internet. When an answer comes back, the reverse translation is done.

Host-only: They are normally used to connect to other VM's on the same network or the host.

Let's work with the bridged connection, which should be NIC3, referred to as e0c in ONTAP.  E means ethernet, 0 mean's it's onboard, and c meaning the third port.  Go ahead and right click each connection in the lower right hand corner of your VMware screen: they should look little monitors.  Disconnect NIC1, NIC2, and NIC4.

Credit: Me!

Now set the IP: in the console of ONTAP type ifconfig e0c netmask  
e.g., ifconfig e0c 192.168.2.4 netmask 255.255.255.0

Then type  ifconfig e0c to see the results.  Note that the NIC should show as 'up' - you see this right before the word "flowcontrol" at the bottom.

Credit: Me!

Great, now it's time to test!  I recommend:

• ping your gateway from ONTAP
• ping your host system from ONTAP (this was spotty for me)
• ping ONTAP from your host system
• PuTTY to port 22 on ONTAP from your host system.
• PuTTY to port 23 on ONTAP from your host system.  For some reason, I couldn't do this.  Haven't figured that out yet.  

Finally, NetApp has awesomely provided trial licenses for your simulator, covering just about anything you'll want to check out.  NetApp login required!

Continue here if you're still having trouble.  

DATA ONTAP 8.0 Simulator

Installing DOT 8.0 Simulator on two laptops:

• Laptop #1: Windows 7 Professional x64 SP1 on Dell D630 w/ T7300 2 Duo proc
• Laptop #2: Windows 7 Ultimate x86 on HP 8510w w/ T9300 2 Duo CPU 

Funny things is, I got the exact same results on both. Here was the timeline.


-  Installed the Simulator:  http://now.netapp.com/NOW/download/tools/simulator/ontap/8.0/ (login required)
-  Installed VMware player: http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/desktop_downloads/vmware_player/3_0 (free login required)
-  When I went to run the machine, I got a prompt telling me to enable "Virtualization Technology" and "Trusted Execution" in the BIOS.  Rebooted, enabled VT (Trusted Execution not an option this hardware), save and exit, boot up.


Then I got a curious prompt: "Continue without 64-bit support?"

Courtesy: Me

Options:

• If you click on the link, it'll take you here: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003945, informing you that x64 guest OS's are only supported by specific x64 hosting proc's.  My knowledge in current CPU architectures isn't enough to know whether laptop#1's T7300 is covered under "Intel EM64T VT-enabled processors (experimental support)."   
• If you press yes, the machine begins to boot and then shows you "BTX Halted."
• If you press no...well, you don't have much of a simulator.

But RFTM (linked below)*1 says you have to actually shut down and not just restart after your BIOS VT change.  Shut down, came back up, works great on both laptops!  On to the next challenge!  Perhaps I'll read the instructions this time.

Note: Make sure your BIOS is up to date.  Dell BIOS v16 for laptop#1 gave me trouble, v17 worked fine.


Config:

• Open VMware Player, highlight the machine.  In the Virtual Machine Settings (lower right), remove Network adapter 1.  Set Network Adapter 3 to "Bridged." 
• Boot up, Control-C when you can.  Choose option 4, agree to the prompts in the middle to the process by typing "y"
• Let it boot up again, it'll zero out the disks.
• Let it boot up once more, it'll take you through setup.
• I wasn't able to get VMware tools installed properly.  

Done!  Continue reading here for how to get it on your network.

Sources
*1 http://now.netapp.com/NOW/knowledge/docs/simulate_ontap/Simulate_ONTAP_8.0.pdf (login required)
Thanks to: getgreenshot.org for the picture above.