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Florian Grehl

VMware Homeserver – ESXi on Mac mini

Running ESXi on a Mac mini made by Apple is nothing new. There are many opportunities to consider when you want to build a VMware vSphere Lab or a Homeserver. In this post, I am going to cover capabilities, accessories, and issues you might encounter in the newest release: Mac mini MD387, Mac mini MD388, and the slightly enhanced Mac mini Server MD389 from 2012/2013. Mac mini offers great performance and is small in size and power consumption thus making it a great candidate for running ESXi at home.

esx-on-mac-mini

The latest version offers 3 models which are different in CPU performance and HDD capacity. The Server version has two 2,5" hard drives:

  • Apple Mac Mini MD387LL/A - Intel Core i5 (Up to 2x 3.1 GHz)
  • Apple Mac Mini MD388LL/A - Intel Core i7 (Up to 4x 3.3 GHz)
  • Apple Mac Mini MD389LL/A Server - Intel Core i7 (Up to 4x 3.3 GHz)

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Manage VSAN 5.5 with RVC Part 3 – Object Management

Part 3 of the "Manage VSAN with RVC" series explains commands related to VSAN objects. This commands provide an insight on how VSAN works. You can identify the status of objects and where they are located:

  • vsan.disks_info
  • vsan.disks_stats
  • vsan.cmmds_find
  • vsan.vm_object_info
  • vsan.disk_object_info
  • vsan.object_info
  • vsan.object_reconfigure

vsan-cmmds-finds

Read More »Manage VSAN 5.5 with RVC Part 3 – Object Management

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.

Read More »SPBM RVC namespace - NoMethodError: undefined method 'RetrieveServiceContent'