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September 2013

Howto: AD Authentication in vCenter SSO 5.5

With the recently released VMware vSphere 5.5, the component Single-Sign-On (SSO) has been completely rewritten. The biggest change is that the RSA database has been removed, which eliminates much of its complexity. There is also a new identity type (Active Directory (Integrated Windows Authentication)) that works without specifying the AD Controllers directly, like the old vSphere 4.x / 5.0 authentication. The whole process is much easier. This post shows how to enable Active Directory Authentication within the new vSphere 5.5 Single-Sign-On. If you are using vSphere 5.1, read this post.

The method shown in this post allows you to manage users and groups in your central directory. This works for both, the vCenter Server 5.5 installed on Windows Server and the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA).

Read More »Howto: AD Authentication in vCenter SSO 5.5

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 (vCSA) Limitations

vCenter Server Virtual Appliance (vCSA) is still very rare in a production environment. This might change with the current enhancements to the scalability made in vSphere 5.5. The maximum supported numbers of the embedded database have been lifted to 100 ESXi hosts and 3000 virtual machines. From now on, there are only a few imitations remaining. I do not think that many environments hit the scale limit, so the only remaining limitations are Windows-related limitations.

Here are the limitations from VMware vCenter Server Appliance 5.5

Read More »VMware vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 (vCSA) Limitations

vSphere 5.5 - Managing Tags with PowerCLI

With the new release of vSphere PowerCLI 5.5 VMware made the tagging Feature (introduced in vSphere 5.1) scriptable. The new cmdlets are working with vCenter 5.1 and vCenter 5.5. They allow you to assign tags to objects and to search for objects based on their tags. Unfortunately there is no cmdlet to create tags at the moment. The feature is still not available within the API.

New Tag related cmdlets in vSphere 5.5:

  • Get-Tag - retrieves the tag assignments of objects.
  • New-TagAssignment - assigns a tag to the specified object.
  • Remove-TagAssignment - removes a tag from the specified object.

Read More »vSphere 5.5 - Managing Tags with PowerCLI

vSphere 5 Homelab – ESXi on Intel NUC

When you want to build a VMware vSphere Lab at home, Intel might have a great system for you: The Intel NUC family - The Next Unit of Computing. The system was initially designed to be used as home theater or digital jukebox. Due to it's power it is also a fully adequate replacement for a desktop computer. The Intel NUC is big on performance and surprisingly small in size and power consumption and thus makes it a great candidate for a virtualization home lab.

Intel-NUC-Box

The Intel NUC System is available as system board only and with a chassis. Currently there are 4 models available, beginning with an Intel Celeron processor and ending with a powerful Intel Core i5 vPro processor:

    • DC53427HYE Kit / D53427RKE Board: 3rd gen. Intel Core i5-3427U (up to 2x 2.80 GHz)
    • DC3217IYE Kit / DC33217GKE Board: Intel Core i3 3217-U (2x 1.8 GHz)
    • DC3217BY Kit / DC33217CK Board: Intel Core i3 3217-U (2x 1.8 GHz)
    • DCCP847DYE Kit / DCP847SKE Board: Intel Celeron 847 (2x 1.10 GHz)

Read More »vSphere 5 Homelab – ESXi on Intel NUC

ESXi 5.x Installation on Intel NUC fails with "No Network Adapters"

When you try to install ESXi 5.x on an Intel Next Unit of Computing (NUC) system, the installation fails with the following error message:

No Network Adapters

No network adapters were detected. Either no network adapters are physically connected to the system, or a suitable driver could not be located. A third party driver may be required.

Ensure that there is at least one network adapter physically connected to the system before attempting installation. If the problem persists, consult the VMware Knowledge Base.

3rd Generation Intel NUC Models:

  • Intel NUC DC53427HYE
  • Intel NUC DC3217IYE
  • Intel NUC DC3217BY

4th Generation Intel NUC Models:

  • Intel NUC D54250WYK
  • Intel NUC D34010WYK
  • Intel NUC D54250WYKH
  • Intel NUC D34010WYKH

5th Generation Intel NUC Models:

  • Intel NUC5i7RYH
  • Intel NUC5i5RYH
  • Intel NUC5i5MYHE
  • Intel NUC5i5RYK
  • Intel NUC5i3RYH
  • Intel NUC5i3MYHE
  • Intel NUC5i3RYK

This message is caused by missing Gigabit Ethernet Controller drivers that are not included in the ESXi Base Image. To fix that, you have to create an customized ESXi Image and add the proper drivers.

Tested with:

  • VMware ESXi 5.0
  • VMware ESXi 5.1
  • VMware ESXi 5.5

Read More »ESXi 5.x Installation on Intel NUC fails with "No Network Adapters"

VMware VDP Required Permissions

In some environments you might have to reduce the permissions given to the vSphere Data Protection (VDP) Backup User to as few as possible. The documentation provided by VMware is a little bit ambiguous on that topic. The permissions given in that post are at least required for the following purposes:

  • VDP backup user (The user that the appliances uses to talk to the vCenter Server)
  • Configure and Add Backup/Restore Jobs
  • See the vSphere Data Protection button in the vSphere Web Client

Read More »VMware VDP Required Permissions

VMware Workstation 10 Released - What's New?

VMware Workstation 10 is now available for download. There are some great new features that have been added to the new release including OS support for Windows 8.1, SSD Passthrough and VM Hardware Version 10. As always, the release is available as free Trial (30 Days), Update (119,- USD ex VAT) and Full Version (249,- USD ex VAT).

VMware-Workstation-10

What's new?

  • Guest OS Support for Windows 8.1
  • Virtual Machine Hardware Version 10
  • 16 vCPUs, 8 TB disks, 64GB memory
  • SSD Passthrough
  • 20 virtual networks
  • USB3 streams support
  • Virtual Tablet Sensors
  • Advanced Restrictions (Expiring VMs)
  • Multiple Monitor Navigation
  • Power Off Suspended Virtual Machines

Read More »VMware Workstation 10 Released - What's New?