Renew ESX(i) evaluation period

60 days trial period offered by the VMware for all its products is, in my opinion, to short to completely test and assess new platforms.

Below you will find simple procedure to reset the evaluation period without reinstalling the host.
It is even possible to do it with running VMs but of course it isn't the recommended way..:)


For ESX host:

1. Login through SSH to the host's service console 
2. su - and enter the root password
3. go to /etc/vmware
4. rm -r vmware.lic and answer the prompt with y
5. rm -r licence.cfg  and answer the prompt with y 
6. Restart the vpxa agent: service vmware-vpxa restart

Procedure for the ESXi host is almost identical and its greatly described here.

As I tested those procedures works for every 4.x or 5.0 hosts.

Dynamic Binding in distributed vSwitch is depreciated in vSphere 5.0

As of vSphere 5.0 the dynamic binding option in dvSwitch port groups earned the "Depreciated Status"
Why..??
I am not really sure...:)

VMware recommends using Static Binding for performance gain:

But as described in the KB 1010593 and KB 1022312 the only difference is in the way the ports are assigned to VMs. With static binding the port are assigned "once and forever" until removal from inventory or changing port group. With dynamic binding port are assigned every time during powering up.

Personally I haven't noticed any performance issues with the dynamic ports. However it is strongly recommend to change it - so its time to plan some downtime...:)

Once caveat -> all VMs with particular Port Group must be powered off to change its binding type...:) 

VMware Update Manager: The session is not authenticated

Today I ran into strange issue with the VMware Update Manager 4.

Whenever I tried to enable plug-in I received following error:
There was an error connecting to the VMware vCenter Update Manager [VUM server name:443].
: Vmomi.Fault.NotAuthenticated : The session is not authenticated.

Also the C:\Users\All Users\VMware\VMware Update Manager\Logs\vmware-vum-server-log4cpp.log logged only the "Not Authenticated" error.

------------------------------------------------------
Invoking login on integrity.SessionManager:Integrity.SessionMgr session "SessionID"
Arg userName: "DOMAIN\Username"
Arg sessionId: "Session ID"
Arg locale: "en_US"
------------------------------------------------------
[2011-11-02 08:42:01:123 'Activation.trace' 3388 DEBUG] [activationValidator, 1094] Throw vim.fault.NotAuthenticated
Result:
(vim.fault.NotAuthenticated) {
dynamicType = ,
faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
object = 'vim.Folder:group-d1',
privilegeId = "Sessions.ValidateSession",
msg = "The session is not authenticated.",
}
[2011-11-02 08:42:08:699 'JobDispatcher' 1852 DEBUG] [JobDispatcher, 391] The number of tasks: 0



The only one change which occurred since my last logon was the time change from Summer to Winter...:) 



To solve this issue you just need to restart the VUM service:

And re-enable the vCenter Plug-in:

VMware vSphere 4.1 Update 2 Released -> ESX, ESXi, vCenter

VMware just release Update 2 for its 4.1 ESX(i) hypervisor and vCenter Server.

What's new section of this release covers following features:

• Support for new AMD Processors ->Opteron 6200 (Interlagos) and 4200 (Valencia)
• Support for additional guest OS -> Ubuntu 11.10
• Support for MS SQL 2008/2008R2 Express as the vCenter database.
• Dozens of bugfixes.. :)

You can check all the details at following announcements:
ESX
ESXi
vCenter

Happy upgrading... :)

VMware Update Manager had a failure when scanning ESX 3.5 hosts

Update ESX 3.5 host, which does not have ESX350-201012410-BG patch applied, through VMware Update manager after 1 June 2011 will end in:

This patch only updates security key at the ESX host and does not require restart nor machine migration to apply and has only one dependency which also can be applied without downtime.


Below you will find simple procedure, which always perfectly works for me:

1. Download patches from VMware   :

• ESX350-201012404-BG: KB and Download
• ESX350-201012410-BG: KB and Download

2. Unzip them to local drive to ESX-201012404-BG and ESX-201012410-BG folders
3. Login trough SSH and create folder: mkdir /patches
4. Login trough WinSCP and upload unzipped folders to the /patches
5. At the ESX console execute following commands:

• cd /pachtes/ESX350-201012404-BG
• esxupdate -b=/patches/ESX350-201012404-BG/ --nosig update
• cd /pachtes/ESX350-201012410-BG
• esxupdate -b=/patches/ESX350-201012410-BG/ --nosig update

6. Scan with update manager and update with recent baselines

HP ProLiant servers and VMware compatibility

How often do you wonder if your HP server is compatible and supported by both HP and VMware with your current ESX(i) version...?? Or maybe it is only supported by HP and it is not certified by VMware...??

Did you ever checked if your physical host is compatible with particular Fault Tolerance and vLockstep version...??

You can easily check detailed compatibility list at HP Support Matrix -> All in One. Really good job done by HP. Congratulations.

HP Onboard Administrator 3.32 Released

HP just released new firmware for the c-class enclosure's Onboard Administrator v. 3.32, which can be directly downloaded for the HP website.

There is only one change since OA 3.31. It fixes security vulnerability described as CVE-2011-3155 in the HP security bulletin no. c03048779.

Admission Control and HA initiated restarts

Today I attended the vSphere 5.0: Overview training. This is the course where you can learn all the basic stuff that is necessary to operate vSphere Cluster. One of the discussed things was the Admission Control and its influence on powering up machines in our virtual infrastructure.

Now I can see how much misunderstanding arose around this mechanism and its connection with High Availability and possible hosts failures. Responsibility for Admission Control lies in the vCenter server and it is role is to not power up new machines when the configured constraints are violated. In case of the host failure the restarts are initiated by the host, not the vCenter server so all restarts, even if resources are low, will occur.

Let’s make a short quote from one of the best books about VMware HA written by Frank Denneman and Duncan Epping where they describe this mechanism in details:

“Admission Control will not disallow HA initiated restarts. HA initiated restarts are done on a host level and not through vCenter.”

New "beautiful" BSOD in Windows 8

Isn't it beautiful...??

Put an ESX(i) host in Maintenace Mode using command line

Every time I have to put ESX(i) hosts into maintenance only by means of command line I have some kind of blackout which ends in "googleing" for proper syntax.

It is high time to finally remember how to put ESX(i) host into maintenance mode from command line:

For ESX Host:
vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter
vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/hostsummary | grep inMaintenance
vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit

For ESXi Host:
vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter
vim-cmd hostsvc/hostsummary | grep inMaintenance
vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit


Hope putting it down will help at least for some time...:)
 

Windows Server Core - check for installed roles and features

How to find all roles and features installed at Windows Server 2008 Core without remote MMC console...?? How to easily do this without looking at the entire oclist.exe tree...??

There are two simple methods:

• oclist.exe |find "Installed" |find /v "Not Installed"

And if you have the W2K8R2 version you can use dism.exe command:

• dism.exe /online /get-features /format:table |find "Enabled"  

HP Firmware sources

I usually spent a lot of time to check if there is any new firmware for HP Blade Systems family.

To simplify my further searches below you will find links to all necessary firmwares and tools.
Remember to look at Revision History and check if there is any new version available:


OnBoard Administrator
Firmware DVD
Virtual Connect
VC Support Utility
iLO3
iLO2

Hopefully HP won't change sources...:)

And they did... Links updated...

What does the "Cloud in the box" means for you...??

Great explanation:

 

References:

Neovise 

vCritical 

ESX and HP Virtual Connect references

I found some decent articles about ESX and Virtual Connect compatibility and configuration.
I strongly recommend reading those articles to everyone who have to setup new environment or is facing issues with existing configuration.

General HP Flex and VMWare ESX prerequisites  -> side note: Firmware DVD 9.30 have already been released
HP Flex Design Part 1
HP Flex Design Part 2
HP and Cisco Interoperability


Amazing stuff...:)

YouTube, a ZOO

Miałem obejrzeć jakąś nudną zapowiedź, a tu YouTube poprawił mi humor na cały dzień...

A w weekend idziemy do zoo... :)

PowerShell - protect all OUs from accidental deletion

I recently had to run the BPA (Best Practices Analyzer) for the AD Directory Services – and to be honest that was for the first time…:) As a result I received the following message: „All OU's in this domain should be protected from accidental deletion".

 

And as we all want to follow the best practices I decided that something needs to be improved... :) I estimated manual clicking time on the containers for 2 or 3 hours so the PowerShell came with help.

A little reading on the TechNet sites and a few commands saved a lot of time.

Here's what to do:

• Launch PowerShell and then type:
• Get-Module ActiveDirectory
• Get-ADOrganizationalUnit -filter * | Set-ADOrganizationalUnit -ProtectedFromAccidentalDeletion $true

And that's all… :) Now you are protected… :)

Following best practices is easy, isn't it...??  

  

Wyszukiwanie zainstalowanych ról w wersjach Server Core

Musiałem ostatnio sprawdzić jakie role są zainstalowane na Windows Server 2008 Core bez dostępu do konsoli mmc. Jak to szybko zrobić nie przeglądając całego drzewka wyświetlonego po uruchomieniu oclist.exe...??

Otóż najprościej jest odpalić oclist.exe z dwoma parametrami:

• oclist.exe |find "Installed" |find /v "Not Installed"
  

Dodatkowo w wersji Core R2 można użyć polecenia dism.exe:

• dism.exe /online /get-features /format:table |find "Enabled"