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December 2013

Manage VSAN 5.5 with RVC Part 2 – VSAN Cluster Administration

Part 2 of the "Manage VSAN with RVC" series explains commands related to VSAN cluster administration tasks. This commands are required to gather informations about ESXi hosts and the cluster itself. They also provide important informations when you want to maintain your VSAN cluster:

  • vsan.host_info
  • vsan.cluster_info
  • vsan.check_limits
  • vsan.whatif_host_failures
  • vsan.enter_maintenance_mode
  • vsan.resync_dashboard

vsan-resync-dashboard

Read More »Manage VSAN 5.5 with RVC Part 2 – VSAN Cluster Administration

Manage VSAN 5.5 with RVC Part 1 - Basic Configuration Tasks

The "Manage VSAN with RVC" series explains how to use Ruby vSphere Console command line to control your VSAN environment. The first part explains basic configuration tasks that are required for the initial setup:

  • vsan.enable_vsan_on_cluster
  • vsan.disable_vsan_on_cluster
  • vsan.apply_license_to_cluster
  • vsan.host_consume_disks
  • vsan.cluster_set_default_policy
  • vsan.host_wipe_vsan_disks

rvc-enable-vsan-on-cluster
Read More »Manage VSAN 5.5 with RVC Part 1 - Basic Configuration Tasks

VMware Homeserver - ESXi on 4th Gen Intel NUC

Whether you want to build a vSphere Home Lab for testing or a Home Server, basic requirements are the same: decent price, good performance and low power consumption. The Intel NUC (Next Unit of Computing) family has grown to the 4th generation, including some great enhancements for ESXi Hosts. Definitely the best enhancement is that Intel has added a SATA port to the board, that allows to use more than a single mSATA SSD.

intel-nuc-4th-gen

Intel NUC Systems are available as system board only and with a chassis. The 4th Generation NUC is available with 3 type of CPUs: Celeron, i3 and a i5. You can choose between a chassis with, or without 2.5" drive support.

Available Models (Kit / Kit with 2,5" Slot / Board only):

  • D54250WYK / D54250WYKH / D54250WYB: Intel Core i5-4250U (up to 2x 2.60 GHz)
  • D34010WYK / D34010WYKH / D34010WYB: Intel Core i3-4010U (2x 1.7 GHz)

Read More »VMware Homeserver - ESXi on 4th Gen Intel NUC

Solve VSAN "Network status: Misconfiguration detected" Problems

One problem that comes up quite often during VMware Virtual SAN Beta testing is that the Network status keeps in the "Misconfiguration detected" state. Sometimes the cluster also shows up with different "Network Partition Groups". This message can be caused by several problems. In this post i am going through the most commonly pitfalls and how to solve them.vsan-Network-status-Misconfiguration-detected

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SPBM RVC namespace - NoMethodError: undefined method 'RetrieveServiceContent'

The latest VSAN Beta Refresh includes a new Ruby vSphere Console (RVC) namespace to manage VM Storage Policies. The SPBM (Storage Policy Based Management) called namespaces does not work out of the box. It crashes when you want to query the available policies or check for compliance.

/localhost/Hamburg> spbm.check_compliance ~/vms/vma.virten.lab/
NoMethodError: undefined method `RetrieveServiceContent' for PbmServiceInstance("ServiceInstance"):RbVmomi::VIM::PbmServiceInstance

rvc-spbm-errorThis problem can be solved by updating RVC to the latest version.

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Identify and solve ineligible disk problems in Virtual SAN

During VMware Virtual SAN (vSAN) installation on old reused hardware I noticed that there was no eligible data disk available. I can't claim the disks for vSAN or create a disk group. There was no further information on why the data disks are not eligible. Thanks to the vSAN troubleshooting commands provided by RVC (Ruby vSphere Console) I could find and solve the reason quite quick.

vsan-no-eligible-data-disk

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Failed to connect to VMware Lookup Service during Web Client Login

At least since vSphere 5.1, a clean DNS and SSL setup prevents from several errors. I've often seen the vCenter Server Appliance failing with the following error message after trying to log in to the vSphere Web Client:

Failed to connect to VMware Lookup Service https://[VCENTER]:7444/lookupservice/sdk - SSL certificate verification failed.

failed-to-connect-to-vmware-lookup-service

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HP Microserver with 2.5" SSD

vSphere Flash Read Cache (vFRC / vFlash) and VMware Virtual SAN (vSAN) - These are the two groundbreaking features in vSphere 5.5. To use one of the features your hardware has to to fulfill a mandatory requirement - A Solid State Drive. To use an SSD with your HP Microserver you need an adapter. Most adapters or "Mounting Brackets" do not work because they are only good to fit the SSD into a 3.5" slot. They do not have the SATA Connectors at the required position. You need a special adapter for the SSD to fit into the backplane.

hp-microserver-2.5-ssd

  • HP Microserver N36L
  • HP Microserver N40L
  • HP Microserver N54L
  • HP Microserver Gen8 G1610T
  • HP Microserver Gen8 G2020T

Read More »HP Microserver with 2.5" SSD