Access VMware datastore with WinSCP (enable SSH)

WinSCP is a convenient way to download and upload files to VMware datastores. To connect with WinSCP you have to enable SSH on your VMware host (it is disabled by default):

Autostart virtual machines with vmware ESXi host

If your vmware host machine unexpectedly rebooted due to power cut or any other reason, by default all virtual machines remain in powered-off state. To make them boot automatically perform following:

• Open vmware vSphare Client
• Select your vmware host and change to Configuration tab
• Under Software column click on Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown, then click on Properties
• Check box next to Allow virtual machines to start and stop automatically with the system
• Arrange your virtual machines under Automatic Startup section in desired boot order

vmware ESXi 5.1

Yealink SIP-T22P VOIP phones unreachable from Asterisk PBX

Environment

• Trixbox 2.6 PBX (Asterisk 1.4)
• Mixture of Linksys SPA 942 and Yealink SIP-T22P VOIP phones
• Phones connecting to the PBX from a remote site over WAN.

Issue

People using Yealink SIP-T22P SIP phones occasionally can't receive incoming calls. Outgoing calls working fine. Linksys phones are not affected. When the issue occurs Asterisk CLI shows phones as UNREACHABLE. Yealink web GUI displays phones as Registered. Rebooting phone resolves the issue until it happens next time.
Worst thing is that users don't have any indication when their phones are not able to receive incoming calls.

Add Netgear ReadyNAS share as VMware ESXi datastore

This article explains how to add a Netgear ReadyNAS Business Pro share to a VMware ESXi host as an NFS (Network File System) datastore. Although I'm using Netgear RadyNAS in this example, similar process would apply to any other NFS compatible NAS device.