vsan observer on windows "OpenSSL::X509::CertificateError: error getting time" error

As you probably know there is no better method to monitor your vsan environment than the vsan observer tool.

To start it on Windows-based vCenter Server you should navigate to vCenter installation folder:
C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server\support\rvc

And run rvc.bat (Ruby vSphere Console) Note: Please edit the file before first use and change Administrator@localhost to user with administrative rights on vCenter server.

vSAN observer can be started with following command where vDC_name and cluster_name should match your infrastructure naming:
vsan.observer localhost/vDC_name/computers/cluster_name/ --run-webserver --force

Unfortunately, it is likely to fail, if you didn't generate SSL certificate, with error similar to:
2014-11-07 07:04:58 -0600: Spawning HTTPS server
2014-11-07 07:04:58 -0600: No cert passed in, no VCSA cert found, generating self-signed cert
[2014-11-07 07:04:58] INFO  WEBrick 1.3.1
[2014-11-07 07:04:58] INFO  ruby 1.9.3 (2013-02-22) [i386-mingw32]
............................................++++++
................................++++++
OpenSSL::X509::CertificateError: error getting time

To get rid of it simply add --no-https switch to the previous command:
vsan.observer localhost/vDC_name/computers/cluster_name/ --run-webserver --force --no-https

And enjoy your vsan observer started at http://vCenter_IP:8010/

VMware VSA and Local Storage - RAID configuration

When deploying and configuring VMware Virtual Storage Appliance you have to make a decision about built-in RAID layout at the physical ESXi hosts which will be later part of the VSA cluster. VMware supports up to three hosts in the VSA cluster and it is very important to keep the same storage configuration on all of them.

All steps required to install VSA can be found in the official installation docs:
VSA Installation Guide

At the Page 27 you will find details about HP servers and two important recommendations:

• Create a RAID logical volume that uses ALL physical disks on a server.
• VMware recommends that you use RAID5 for SAS drives and RAID6 for SATA drives.

The funny thing is that the VMware still uses configuration steps for HP iLO v.2 which is outdated for at least 2 years. Worth mentioning that all HP Gen. 7 servers were shipped with iLO v.3 and HP Gen. 8 boxes with iLO v.4 where Local RAID Configuration process looks completely different.

Difference between IPoIB and Native Infiniband

Great, short and "straight to the point" explanation of the main differences between Native Infiniband and IPoIB protocol:

• http://stackoverflow.com/a/6079696

For some detailed resources you should definitely check(you wouldn't be surprised that two of the top three Google results are here,would you...??):

• Ali Ayoub's presentation: click me
• IPoIB Linux Implementation: click me

BPDU Filter in vSphere 5.1 explained

Very good article about BPDU Filter was posted at the VMware vSphere Networking blog.
It explains configuration and some use case scenarios:
http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/11/vsphere-5-1-vds-new-features-bpdu-filter.html

Have you ever faced Denial of Service caused by Spanning Tree Protocol(STP)...??
The KB posted in that article can help you to understand why it happens and how to avoid it:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2017193

VMware vCenter SSO: MSSQL not supprted with Windows Authentication

I strongly recommend you to read VMware KB2034918 before installing vCenter SSO.
You definitely have to navigate to the "SSO database questions" section where you can read following sentence:

"Can I use Windows Authentication for the MSSQL database user name and password, as the JDBC Setup screen implies?

No. For MSSQL databases, you must use SQL Server Authentication database users. Windows Authentication users are not supported. For more information, see Connection to the MSSQL database fails during vCenter Single Sign On installation section of the VMware vSphere 5.1 Release Notes"

And now you can safely run installer, proceed to the Database Information and make sure you won't tick the most visible check-box out there...:)

Designed for future usage only...:P

VMware vSphere Web Client - Welcome Window

What a nice, friendly looking and encouraging "welcome window" welcomed me after I've installed vSphere 5.1 today...:)

Perfectly stable, secure and bug free solution...:)

I am pretty sure as well that all of you have this port opened in your vSphere network...:)

Minimum required permissions for Storage VMotion

Probably all of you, when looking for Storage vMotion permissions, will find KB:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1011345

This KB is at the first place in all searches issued from google...:)

All would be great, but it is actually no longer applicable to vCenter versions 4.x and 5.x and is related only to RCLI.

To create role which allows user to perform Storage vMotion you can copy standard Read-Only role (or VM User/VM Power User role -> depends on access to Virtual Machines you would like to give to users) and add following permissions:

Datastore -> Allocate Space

Datastore -> Browse Datastore

Datastore -> Remove File

Datastore -> Update Virtual Machine Files

Resources -> Migrate

Resources -> Relocate

Virtual Machine -> Provisioning

Virtual Machine -> Allow Disk Access

Virtual Machine -> Allow Read-Only Disk Access

Newly created role now allows you to perform Storage vMotion.