Automated ESXi Installation - Inject Kickstart File to ESXi ISO

VMware ESXi Installation can be automated by leveraging kickstart configurations. The kickstart configuration is a simple script that tells the Installer how to Install and configure ESXi.

A Kickstart configuration is commonly used for PXE boot installations and copied from the network. Another installation option is to create a bootable flash drive and copy the kickstart file to that drive. In some cases, when your infrastructure does not support PXE and you can only mount ISO files using remote management, you might want to inject the kickstart file into the ESXi Installation ISO.

This article explains how to inject a Kickstart scripted installation configuration to an official VMware ESXi ISO.

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Installation or Removal of VIB Packages in ESXi 7.0 fails with Error: Failed to query file system stats:

While installing ESXi updates, I noticed that on one of my hosts, the installation or removal of VIB packages fails with the following error message

# esxcli software vib install -d [package]
# esxcli software vib remove -n [package]
[InstallationError]
Failed to query file system stats: Errors:
Error getting data for filesystem on '/vmfs/volumes/59a83d9c-628c6ae0-7b35-f44d306ec05a': Cannot open volume: /vmfs/volumes/59a83d9c-628c6ae0-7b35-f44d306ec05a, skipping.
cause = Errors:
Error getting data for filesystem on '/vmfs/volumes/59a83d9c-628c6ae0-7b35-f44d306ec05a': Cannot open volume: /vmfs/volumes/59a83d9c-628c6ae0-7b35-f44d306ec05a, skipping.
Please refer to the log file for more details.

The device 59a83d9c-628c6ae0-7b35-f44d306ec05a was a non existing volume, referenced by a vffs mount. VFFS (Virtual Flash File System) was used in earlier ESXi releases by vSphere Flash Read Cache. I'm not sure where that comes from but this is how you can remove the stale mount:

Read More »Installation or Removal of VIB Packages in ESXi 7.0 fails with Error: Failed to query file system stats:

VMware Cloud Director Quick Tip - API Explorer (Swagger) not visible for Org Admins

In VMware Cloud Director 10, the API Explorer (Swagger) is not visible for Organization Administrators.

When they try to access /api-explorer/tenant/[ORG]/, an HTTP ERROR 403 - Forbidden is shown.

The right to use the API Explorer is not part of the default rules set. To allow tenants to use the API Explorer, edit the Rights Bundle and default Role:

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Troubleshooting CSE 3.1 TKGm Integration with VMware Cloud Director 10.3

This article recaps Issues that I had during the integration of VMware Container Service Extension 3.1 to allow the deployment of Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Clusters (TKGm) in VMware Cloud Director 10.3.

If you are interested in an Implementation Guide, refer to Deploy CSE 3.1 with TKGm Support in VCD 10.3 and First Steps with TKGm Guest Clusters in VCD 10.3.

  • CSE Log File Location
  • DNS Issues during Photon Image Creation
  • Disable rollbackOnFailure to troubleshoot TKGm deployment errors
  • Template cookbook version 1.0.0 is incompatible with CSE running in non-legacy mode
  • https://[IP-ADDRESS] should have a https scheme and match CSE server config file
  • 403 Client Error: Forbidden for url: https://[VCD]/oauth/tenant/demo/register
  • NodeCreationError: failure on creating nodes ['mstr-xxxx']
  • Force Delete TKGm Clusters / Can't delete TKGm Cluster / Delete Stuck in DELETE:IN_PROGRESS

Read More »Troubleshooting CSE 3.1 TKGm Integration with VMware Cloud Director 10.3

First Steps with TKGm Guest Clusters in VMware Cloud Director 10.3

In the previous article, I've explained how to deploy Container Service Extension 3.1 with TKGm Support in VMware Cloud Director 10.3. In this article, I'm taking a look at how the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Cluster is integrated into the Organization VDC and how the Tenant can access and work with the Kubernetes Cluster.

 

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Deploy CSE 3.1 with TKGm Support in VMware Cloud Director 10.3

With the release of Cloud Director 10.3 and Container Service Extension 3.1 (CSE), you have an additional option to deploy Kubernetes Clusters: "Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Multi-Cloud" aka. TKGm. With TKGm you now have 4 options to offer Kubernetes as a Service for your customers.

  • TKGm (Multi-Cloud)
  • TKGs (vSphere with Tanzu)
  • Native
  • TKG-I (Enterprise PKS)

Yes, there is a reason why TKGm and TKGs are in bold letters. If you are starting today, forget about "Native" and "TKG-I". "TKGm" works similar to "Native" but is far superior. TKG-I (TKG Integrated Edition, formerly known as VMware Enterprise PKS) is deprecated as of CSE 3.1 and will be removed in future releases.

This article explains how to integrate CSE 3.1 in VMware Cloud Director 10.3.

Read More »Deploy CSE 3.1 with TKGm Support in VMware Cloud Director 10.3

Quick Tip: How to Master NSX-ALB (AVI) Resources in Terraform

Using the Terraform AVI Provider can be quite challenging because it required you to understand complex object definitions. All resources in the AVI Provider are mapped directly to the corresponding Avi Vantage API which you can find here. The problem is that some objects have a huge amount of attributes, some of them even have a nested depth of 5.

I'll show you a little trick to quickly get the required information to write NSX-ALB / AVI resources.

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NSX-ALB Integration in VMware Cloud Director 10.3 with Terraform

In an earlier article, I've explained how to integrate VMware NSX-T Advanced Loadbalancer (formerly known as AVI) into VMware Cloud Director. Today, I want to show how to automate those steps with Terraform. Terraform is an open-source infrastructure as code software tool created by HashiCorp. The following steps are part of the automated configuration:

  • Create vCenter Content Library for SE Images
  • Create Service Engine Management Network with DHCP in NSX-T
  • Create NSX-T Cloud in NSX-ALB
  • Create Service Engine Group in NSX-ALB
  • Add NSX-ALB Controller to VMware Cloud Director
  • Import NSX-T Cloud to VMware Cloud Director
  • Import Service Engine Group to VMware Cloud Director

Read More »NSX-ALB Integration in VMware Cloud Director 10.3 with Terraform