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I have installed an OVF on an ESXi standalone host, the virtual appliance is Linux base and i need to get access to the Linux Kernel of virtual appliance and do some change on it. it seems access to kernel have been locked because i cant boot the virtual appliance with live Linux, actually the tab that we can use for ISO or CD-ROM binding is gray and disable. could anybody help me to solve this problem?? i realy need to get access to the linux kernel.

amir.csco
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  • Can you give some additional context? What virtual appliance is this? Why do you need to access the kernel so desperately? There may be a *reason* it appears to be restricted in this manner. – ewwhite Sep 05 '14 at 17:52
  • there is an educational purpose, this is virtual version of Network appliance – amir.csco Sep 06 '14 at 17:44

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if the appliance is shut down, you can mount (unless they somehow disabled that too but i doubt it) the root vmdk in another vm that can read/write the vmdk fs. you can then try to change or add some admin/root auth once you find where the info is. it is possible that the vmdk fs is encrypted. in that case you should contact the vendor, which probably is a good idea in any case.

johnshen64
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  • Mount vmdk to another VM!! it seems good idea but may i ask you did you try it before?? – amir.csco Sep 06 '14 at 17:47
  • yes, many times, though i would caution you to be very careful, as you could easily trash the fs or vmdk. you should only change what you need to change. also it is a good idea to back up the vmdk or the vm first, as always. backup is always a requirement when you modify anything as a sys admin. – johnshen64 Sep 07 '14 at 23:02
  • could you please explain a little about processes of mounting vmdk to another VM?? I tried several ways without any result – amir.csco Sep 12 '14 at 18:37
  • shut down your appliance. from another vm (can be a new vm with lived) add an existing disk, browse to the datastore of the appliance and add that vmdk. then either to reboot your new vm or issue some command to detect the new disk dynamically. since i do not know details of the os, filesystem, whether lvm is used, etc. that you have, that is the best i can do. hope that is useful. – johnshen64 Sep 12 '14 at 20:18