On June 1st VMware released the latest version for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), version 5.0. The release of VCF 5.0 means that VCF customers now can benefit from all the cool new features included in vSphere 8.x and NSX 4.1.x.
The first release off VCF dates back to 2015. During the VMworld (what we now know as VMware Explore) of that year VMware launched a product called SDDC EVO. In the following years that product evolved to what we know today as VCF.
Placing a VMware vSphere ESXi host in maintenance mode works the same whether the VMs run on vSAN or other types of attached storage. But if the VMs are running on vSphere on a Nutanix cluster the process of placing a host into maintenance mode does work a little different. This is because of the way Nutanix is working together with VMware vSphere ESXi. On every VMware vSphere ESXi host on Nutanix, there is a VM called Controller Virtual Machine (CVM). This VM controls and managed the storage usage. All the storage IO for a host goes through that CVM VM. Lees verder
The root account is the only login account to vSphere ESXi. There is no extra account to create a backdoor to logon to vSphere ESXi when the root password is lost. When a vSphere ESXi host is added to a vCenter instance, management of the host is primary done via vCenter. Troubleshooting ESXi is done primarily on the command line via an SSH connection. By default the SSH service is stopped. To start the SSH service you have to access the server via vCenter Host>Configure>System>Services. When you don’t have the root password for the vSphere ESXi host you have to follow the following procedure.
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It is that time of the year again to start looking forward to VMworld 2021. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic VMworld 2021 will again be “fully virtual” again.
The upside to a virtual event is that you don’t need to walk across a big conference complex to get from one session to another. You can follow the conference from the luxury of you own chair and desk. Poor your own drink of choice, sit back and relax and take in all the information on VMware latest and greatest from your own home. Because VMworld 2021 will be fully virtual, like last year that will make it easier for people to attend since you don’t need to arrange travel (flight/hotel) to attend VMworld.
Recently I was upgrading vSphere ESXi host from version 6.5.0 (7388607) to version 7.0.1. vCenter for this environment is upgraded to version 7.0.2.0000. at first I was trying to start the upgrade via VMware LifeCycle Manager but that resulted in an error indicating that the vCenter/LifeCycle Manager and the ESXi version where not working well together. In order to make progress I’ve accessed the server via it’s Integrated Lights Out (ILO) interface (HPE). Mounted the HPE ESXi image through ILO and booted the server.
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VMware released vSphere version 7.0 U1c – 17327586 in December 2020. Next to the cool new features that is included in this version (This blog is al about one of those cool features) another very important reason to download and install this version of vSphere is that it closes a major security issue with previous versions. You can find more info on this here.
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As a VMware partner we (my employer PQR) conducts VMware Health Checks. To perform a Health Check on a vSphere (or EUC, NSX-T) environment VMware provides a tool to check if the environment matches the VMware best practices. The tool to check if the environment matches the VMware best practices is called the VMware Health Analyzer. The VMware Health Analyzer is a Photon appliance that you install in the client environment. There is also a Windows installed version of the VMware Health Analyzer. My preference is to use the appliance version. I have the appliance also running on my environment, so if I collected data at a customer site I can load this information in my own appliance, this means that I don’t need a connection with the customer to create my Health Check report. Current version of the VMware Health Analyzer is: 5.5.2.0. Next to the VMware Health Analyzer the consultant checking the VMware environment will also use his own knowledge to check the environment and to interpret the data presented by the VMware Health Check Analyzer.
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In vSphere 7.0 Update 1 (released in October 2020) a new feature was released called vSphere Cluster Services (vCLS). The purpose of vCLS is to ensure that cluster services, such as vSphere DRS and vSphere HA) are available to maintain the resources and health of the workload’s running the cluster. vCLS is independent of the vCenter Server availability.
vCLS uses agent virtual machines to maintain cluster services health. vCLS run in every cluster, even when cluster services like vSphere DRS and vSphere HA are not enabled.
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Recently I’ve expanded my lab environment with a second vSphere host. One of the advantages of having two vSphere hosts is that you can move machine from on vSphere host to the other. If you perform this move while the machine is powered down you don’t and need any additional configuration. However, if you want to move a running machine from one vSphere host to the other without losing connectivity to this VM, you need vMotion. First let me explain what vMotion is.
vMotion in vSphere allows a running virtual machine to move between two different vSphere hosts. During vMotion memory of the VM is sent from the running VM to the new VM (the instance on another host that will become the running VM after the vMotion). The content of memory is changing all the time. vSphere uses a system where the content is sent to the other VM and then it will check what data is changed and send that, each time smaller blocks. At the last moment it will very briefly ‘freeze’ the existing VM, transfer the last changes in the memory content and then start the new VM and remove the old one. This process will minimize the time during which the VM is suspended.
VMware vSphere PowerCLI is a command line tool for automating vSphere and vCloud management.
VMware PowerCLI is a very powerful command-line tool that lets you automate close to all aspects of a vSphere management. This includes among others: network, storage, guest OS.
PowerCLI is distributed as PowerShell modules, and includes over 500 PowerShell cmdlets.
The first version of PowerShell was released in November 2006 for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista. We have come a long way since then. PowerShell is an important part of today’s IT landscape. By using PowerShell you can manage systems from different vendors in a unified way. I find myself using PowerShell almost every day in my work.