VMware Consolidated Backup Error “quiesced snapshot failed”

Just came across this error last night when trying to backup some virtual machines from VMware ESX 3.5 server using a vCenter host. (not that the vCenter matters in this case.)

creating a quiesced snapshot failed because the (user-supplied) custom pre-freeze script in the virtual machine exited with a non-zero return code

There is a bunch of stuff on the internet, but the one that really helped me out was from Duncan Epping on Yellow-Bricks.

To sum it up, you need to add the flag -Q 0 to the parameters. This is an undocumented flag that actually prevents VCB from trying to execute any pre/post scripts. The root cause is a bug in VMware tools that should be getting fixed in an update so they say.

Merry Chrismahanukwanzakah!

Login to Your Mac Using Yubikey

I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned the Yubikey yet on this blog. It’s an amazing little device that generates an OTP (One Time Password) each time you have it plugged into a computer and touch a little button on the USB key. It’s a great method for authentication as it’s impossible for anyone to brute force attack or crack the password, because it’s never the same.
Also it’s great because you never have to remember the password, or type in an RSA key. Just insert the key into your computer, and touch a button to login.

Revolutionary. Now I want to use it to login to my Macbook Pro running Apple’s Mac OS X. Now logging into the Mac uses PAM the same as regular Linux/UNIX, but the modules I tried to use wouldn’t compile on my system without modify the source code, which I did but did not like the results.

I knew about Rohos and they had just released a Mac version of their product, so I downloaded and installed the trial version. It’s been running on my laptop a few days and here’s a little video showing you how easy it is, and how it works:

What are You Motivated By?

One day while having breakfast in the city at a nice little shop with a man with much experience and wisdom in many areas, he asked me. “What motivates you?” I really wasn’t sure what to say, “I’ve been trying to figure that out myself for some time now. It’s not wealth, or fame. I can’t figure out what it is.”

Then he asked me one simple question. What do you pray about?