I finally managed to get Solaris 9u8 installed under VMWare Server 1.0.4, I don’t know what I did differently, but I managed to get it working on the P4HT and Core2Duo. The only remaining “bug” is that the server doesn’t seem to know its own hostname, despite /etc/hosts, /etc/inet/ipnodes and so on being correct – there seems to be some “shcat” error on boot. Also metastat doesn’t seem to work under VMWare – I can init the slices and metadb but when I reboot prior to attaching the mirrors, I don’t even get as far as the Openboot prompt. It is supposed to work under x86, but VMWare’s Solaris support seems flaky to put it kindly.

Work was busy today, I’ve been attacking managed switches and SIP transports. I found that a lowly Cisco 1900 is more resilient to CDP floods than the Catalyst 2900XL range. The 1900’s web GUI dies pretty quickly but the switch continues to function, but the 2900 dies completely (even serial console) within seconds as the memory is exhausted – the mighty 6509 doesn’t even flinch!

I should get my contract extension paperwork tomorrow, and three weeks wages!

Gotta have an early night tonight as I’ve been up until 2am or so the last couple of days and overslept this morning.

The weather is diabolical today, it was -2C when I got up and de-iced the car (including ice on the inside of the windscreen) and coming home again it was still -2C and had to do the car again!