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Florian Grehl

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 (vCSA) Enhancements

vCenter Server Virtual Appliance (vCSA) is still very rare in a production environment. This hasn't changed much with the enhancements in vSphere 5.5 where the embedded database scalability has been lifted. VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 does now support up to 1000 ESXi Hosts and 10.000 Virtual Machines with the embedded Postgres database. I hope i can deploy more vCenter Linux Appliances in the future.Read More »VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 (vCSA) Enhancements

VMware vSphere 6.0 vMotion Enhancements

vMotion Across Virtual Switchesvsphere6-cross-vswitch-vmotion
With vSphere 6.0 you can migrate Virtual Machines across virtual switches. The new vMotion workflow allows you to choose the destination network which can be on a vSwitch or vDS. This feature eliminates the need to span virtual switches across two locations. Nevertheless you still have to span the subnet between both locations because vMotion does not change the IP address.

The new workflow is integrated to the migration process in the vSphere Web Client. After selecting the compute resource and optionally storage, you can select a new destination network for each VM network adapter.Read More »VMware vSphere 6.0 vMotion Enhancements

VMware vSphere 6.0 Web Client Enhancements

The vSphere Web Client within the 6.0 release has been improved in performance and usability. Previous versions of the vSphere Web Client which has been introduced with vSphere 5.1 have been panned by many admins. VMware has listened to the folks and addressed the most heard complaints. This post introduces and compares the enhancements. I've also done a speed analysis to point out where the performance has been improved.Read More »VMware vSphere 6.0 Web Client Enhancements

vSphere Data Protection (VDP) Troubleshooting Commands

vdp-vsphere-data-protectionIf the VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP) appliance has a problem, the GUI might not give enough information to resolve the issue. The command-line also gives you useful information that are not visible in the vSphere Web Client.

This post describes commands I use frequently to troubleshoot VDP appliances or gather additional information like capacity reports.

You have to connect to the VDP appliance with SSH as root (password was set during initial configuration)

Read More »vSphere Data Protection (VDP) Troubleshooting Commands

VMware ESXi 5.x E1000 PSOD Issue

Even though the bug has been fixed I still see it to come up. ESXi 5.x has two issues that might cause the ESXi host to fail with a purple diagnostic screen. Both PSOD look very similiar:

KB2059053:

#PF Exception 14 in world wwww:WorldName IP 0xnnnnnnnn addr 0x0
PTEs:0xnnnnnnnn;0xnnnnnnnn;0x0;
0xnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnn]E1000PollRxRing@vmkernel#nover+ 0xdb9
0xnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnn]E1000DevRx@vmkernel#nover+0x18a

KB2079094:

#PF Exception 14 in world wwww:WorldName IP 0xnnnnnnnn addr 0x0
PTEs:0xnnnnnnnn;0xnnnnnnnn;0x0;
0xnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnn]E1000PollRxRing@vmkernel#nover+0xeb7
0xnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnn]E1000DevRx@vmkernel#nover+0x18a
[...]
0xnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnn]Net_AcceptRxList@vmkernel#nover+0x157

Read More »VMware ESXi 5.x E1000 PSOD Issue

VMware vSphere Client Direct Download

Download links for VMware vSphere Clients:

vSphere Client 5.5
vsphereclient.vmware.com/vsphereclient/1/9/9/3/0/7/2/VMware-viclient-all-5.5.0-1993072.exe

vSphere Client 5.1
vsphereclient.vmware.com/vsphereclient/2/3/0/6/3/5/6/VMware-viclient-all-5.1.0-2306356.exe

vSphere Client 5.0
vsphereclient.vmware.com/vsphereclient/1/9/1/7/4/6/9/VMware-viclient-all-5.0.0-1917469.exe

vSphere Client 4.1
vsphereclient.vmware.com/vsphereclient/1/6/5/1/0/2/3/VMware-viclient-all-4.1.0-1651023.exe

All downloads are direct links to VMware.
If you do not trust it, you will find similar information at KB2089791.

Read More »VMware vSphere Client Direct Download