vCD-SP 8 - what's new

I finally got around to installing vCD-SP 8 and here are my finding on what's new and upcoming.

• Support for vCenter 6.0
• ESXi and vCSA 6.0 U1 is a big advantage to 5.5 and allow SP's to take advantage of new features and optimization provided with 6.
• Support for NSX 6.2 and 6.2.1!
• This allows connection to a NSX manager instead of a vShield Manager appliance in backward compatibility mode.
• When using NSX manager the VSE is deployed with version 5.5.4-2673026
• vDC template
• Create Organization specific virtual datacenter templates with pre-set resources delegation rule-set.  Have not tested this but provide some feedback later. 
• vApp enhancements
• Reconfigure of VMs within a vApp.
• Reconfigure of networking connectivity and capabilities during creation.
• I have not seen anything from a UI perspective on this but seems to be more under the cover work through API.  
• oAuth for identify source
• tokens now supported.
• Tenant throttling
• This prevents noisy tenants from consuming all the resources of a single instance.
• Helps ensure fairness of execution and scheduling of among tenants
•  
  

As mentioned in previous blog VMware did post about new UI changes coming to vCD-SP in 2016 and the following advanced networking selections seems to indicate this.  I did again not find anything in documentation on these menu selections but hopefully seem some of vCloud Air features soon:
https://www.vmware.com/au/cloud-services/infrastructure/vcloud-air-advanced-networking-services

Links:

http://pubs.vmware.com/vcd-80/index.jsp#com.vmware.vcloud.api.sp.doc_90/GUID-375148E9-601D-4BFA-9C10-4D2595D96D95.html

http://pubs.vmware.com/vcd-80/index.jsp#com.vmware.vcloud.api.sp.doc_90/GUID-AA9C56E3-B7AA-42E3-9AE0-46233E1FDD2A.html

http://pubs.vmware.com/vcd-80/index.jsp#com.vmware.vcloud.api.sp.doc_90/GUID-74126E65-F99E-4128-A023-0CCF88B04832.html

https://www.vmware.com/au/cloud-services/infrastructure/vcloud-air-advanced-networking-services

vCD-SP 8 - Failed to create external network as port group dvportgroup-XXX or its VLAN ID XXX is in use

I just received the following error in my lab when i tried to create a new external network.  This seems to be a known issue in vCD 5.1 & 5.5 but has not been resolved in v8.

I did not delete any port groups or VSE's directly from vCenter server so assume the database was not successfully delete when i removed external networks.

VMware provides a comprehensive KB article on this so not going to get into to much details but solution is to remove the stale entries from Resource_Assignment table in the database.

KB: 2042474


Links:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2042474

vCSA 6 postgreSQL - connect externally through pgAdmin

I recently had to query the VCDB database of vCenter Server 6 but had an appliance deployed and since not using a MS SQL database server I had to do some digging to figure out how i can get access.

My favorite tool to query the database I found to be pgAdmin III but this is installed on my jump server so here are the steps i following to allow pgAdmin to connect to the internal postgresql database on vCSA 6!
http://www.pgadmin.org/

SOLUTION:

1. Enable SSH for vCSA.
2. Login as root
1. shell.set --enabled True
2. shell
3. View following 2 files for information on database installation
4. /etc/vmware-vpx/embedded_db.cfg
1. General server information and password for superuser. 
5. /etc/vmware-vpx/vcdb.properties
1. Stores connection information for vCenter server database VCDB (password for vc user
6. Edit /storage/db/vpostgres/pg_hba.conf
1. Add following lines to add your own subnets to be able to connect to PG
2. Host                   all              all                  <ip address range>/<subnet>           md5
7. Edit /storage/db/vpostgres/postgresql.conf
1. Add the line to end of file:   listen_addresses = '*'
2. Restart posgresql /etc/init.d/vmware-vpostgres restart
8. Open port on vcsa appliance firewall:
1. iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 5432 -j ACCEPT

This should do it and allow you to connect externally through the nice pgAdmin GUI to your database.

vCloud Director UI, then and what now?

Just more than a month ago we were given very exciting news from the vCloud team regarding further limited enhancements to the UI of vCD-SP for 2016.

Did you hear the news? We’re restarting the VCD UI development. Here’s what you need to know https://t.co/yfNN8LsOjw pic.twitter.com/QRKV6oSJYU

— VMware vCloud (@vCloud) December 14, 2015

How things can change within a month:

http://www.networkworld.com/article/3026996/hybrid-cloud/despite-layoffs-vmware-has-a-big-bet-on-this-one-cloud-innovation.html

https://www.thelayoff.com/vmware


 Lets hope that none of these recent activities has any impact on the vCD-SP UI announcements but only time will tell...

vCenter Server - Host Profiles error "the option uservars.suppressShellWarning"

Receive the error "the option uservars.suppressShellWarning"

This is due to a previous selection to suppress warnings for instance for enable SSH on your ESXi host.

Solution:

To fix this you can either change the host profile to enable this suppression

Advanced Configuration Settings -> Advanced Options -> Advanced configuration option
Click the green plus "+" sign symbol to create a new option.
Select advanced option "configured a fixed option"
The name of the option "UserVars.SuppressShellWarning"
Set the value to "1"

ESXi reset system configurations

As some point in time you would want to re-use an ESXi host but do not want to go through the hassle of a complete reinstall and rather have quick solution.

I find the "reset system configuration" in DCUI very useful for this task.
There is also a way to perform this task via SSH:

#  /sbin/firmwareConfig.sh --reset   (this will automatically reboot your host)
# /sbin/firmwareConfig.sh --reset-only (this will not reboot host and needs to be done manually)

Fusion 8.1 - NAT port forwarding not working

If you are Fusion 8.1 user on Mac then this might apply.

NAT port forwarding seems to be having some issues on latest 8.1!

To fix this perform the following steps:

•     Download the NAT network component from https://www.vmware.com/go/dl_vmnet-natd (MD5: e347f5c8d86640af5102852c897e31cc)
•     Replace /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmnet-natd with the file downloaded in step 1.
•     Restart the NAT network with the following commands:
• sudo /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmnet-cli –stop
• sudo /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmnet-cli –start

How to setup port forwarding:

vSphere 5.5 - Solution for VASA setup errors with VNX

Over weekend I wanted to review some of the features and functionalities that VASA and VSI provides inside vCenter server for a VNX array(5300).  VASA configuration should be straight forward but ran into some strange issues which took some extensive troubleshooting:

Troubleshooting:

VMware compatibility guide for EMC VASA provider specifies that VASA support is part of VNX Block OE 05.32; no additional software is required.  Our VNX 5300 has FLARE 5.32 which should allow for straight connectivity to the VNX...
http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=vasa&productid=20232

On vCenter server web client select your vCenter server in inventory list on left.  Select Manage tab in right pane -> Storage provider sub-tab. Click the green button.

New job!

Been a bit quiet for a while since I resigned from AirWatch by VMware in November 2015.

I just started a new job as Solutions Architect, joining the virtualization team at Sovereign Systems!
Looking forward to all the new challenges and hopefully get to be much more active on my posts.

Probably some blog redesign in order as well :)

"Boot from SAN" step by step with Windows 2012 R2 and Cisco UCS using Brocade and EMC VNX.

"Boot from SAN" step by step with Windows 2012 R2 and Cisco UCS using Brocade and EMC VNX.

UCS:

• Create service profile for windows server.
• Create “Boot from san” boot policy
• Setup SAN primary and secondary target.
• The WWN required are that of your VNX array ports.

Brocade:

• Login to create an initial zone for one of the ports.
• Create new Alias
• Type in the Alias name and select the WWN from blade
• Create zone
• Select the blade Alias and VNX Storage processor
• Add to Zone configurations
• Activate