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Getting Started with Ruby vSphere Console (RVC)

Ruby vSphere Console (RVC) - If you do not know what that is, you should definately give it a try. RVC is a Ruby based command line interface for vSphere and can be used to manage VMware ESXi and vCenter. Initially published as Fling, it grew into a fully implemented feature in vSphere 5.5. The vSphere inventory is presented in a tree structure, allowing you to navigate and run commands against vCenter objects. Many basic administrativ tasks can be done much more efficiently than clicking through the vSphere Client.

This guide covers some basic tasks and the procedure of how to use RVC with:

  • vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA)
  • Windows-based vCenter Server
  • vMA
  • Windows
  • Linux

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Howto install Ruby vSphere Console (RVC) on vMA 5.x

With the release of vSphere 5.5, VMware supports a new command line utility: Ruby vSphere Console (RVC). RVC is a Ruby based interactive object oriented command line utility. It was initially released as a Fling some years ago. RVC has support for both, the Windows version of vCenter Server and the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA). It is similar to other command line tools like PowerCLI or ESXCLI and can be used to manage and troubleshoot vSphere environments. In this post I am going to show how to install RVC on the vSphere Management Assistant (vMA).

rvc

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Howto Install Additional Software in VCSA 5

The vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) becomes an alternative to the Windows-based vCenter more and more. There are several reasons to install additional software in the VCSA. When you want to implement additional services like DNS for your lab, or you want to monitor the Appliance via Nagios or SNMP, you need additional packages. The Appliance is based on SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, so you can use YaST to install packages. In this post I am going to show how to configure the vCenter Server Appliance to enable the installation of additional packages.
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vSAN Lab with VMware Workstation 10

This week VMware has published a new version of its Virtual SAN Beta. There are a lot of features that does not necessary need a real physical lab. To get into the initial setup, scale out and failover functionality and the various command line options, a virtual lab is definitely a reasonable option. As you might know, a SSD is required for vSAN. Instead of emulating an SSD, I am going to use a real SSD with the new SSD Passthrough feature in VMware Workstation 10.

vSAN

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vSphere 5 Homelab – ESXi on HP Microserver Gen8

Hewlett Packard has updated its widely distributed Microserver Series to Gen8. This extremely affordable server which was initially made for SMB and home servers has become very popular in the virtualization scene. Due to its low price and power consumption, you can find this system in many virtualization home labs. The Generation 8 Microserver (Gen8 or G8) comes with more power, upgraded ports, and an integrated iLO.

hp-gen8-microserver

The HP Microserver Gen8 is available in 2 versions - G1610T and G2020T. Both models are equipped with a 2-core CPU and can support up to 16GB of RAM. The system is shipped with 4 hard drive trays, which allows the installation of any SATA hard drive. It also has a CPU socket, so you can change the CPU.

  • HP Microserver Gen8 G1610T (2x 2.3 GHz)
  • HP Microserver Gen8 G2020T (2x 2.5 GHz)
  • HP Microserver Gen8 E3-1220V2 (4x 3.1 GHz)

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Howto: Intel NUC Remote KVM with AMT (powered by vPro)

Intel vPro, included in the Next Unit of Computing (NUC), is a out-of-the-box remote management systems. The i5 model has the AMT with vPro Feature that allows remote KVM, without additional components. The remote console is not available through the Web Interface, so the feature might be hidden. In this post I am going to explain how to use the KVM Feature.

remote-kvm

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Host Profile Error - Found extra CIM-XML Indication Subscription

When you use Host Profiles to check the compliance of your configuration you might get the following failures against the host profile. The message persists after applying a profile and rebooting the ESXi Host:compliance-error-cim-xml

Found extra CIM-XML Indication Subscription on local system for query SELECT * FROM CIM_ProcessIndication sent to destination https://[URL]
Found extra CIM-XML Indication Subscription on local system for query SELECT * FROM CIM_AlertIndication sent to destination https://[URL]

This compliance error appears on HP Hardware when HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM) is in use. The URL is different for each system, so the host profile can not be applied. To get rid of the message you have to disable CIM Indication Subscriptions in the Host Profile Configuration

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vmnic/vmhba sequence changed in ESXi 5.5

Looks like VMware has made a small but momentous change to the vmnic/vmhba numbering with the release of vSphere ESXi 5.5. In previous versions, the vmnic numbering was always determined by the the PCI ID. After adding a new ESXi Host to a Cluster that has been updated from ESXi 5.1 to ESXi 5.5 i noticed that the vmnic numbering was inconsistent although all host were identical. The newly installed host has a different vmnic to PCI ID assignment compared to the hosts that have been updated from ESXi 5.1:

esxi-vmnic-to-pciid-numbering

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Howto Install VMware tools on a virtual ESXi

Running an ESXi as Virtual Machine inside VMware Worksation or on another ESXi gets more and more useful for testing purposes. That installation, also called "Nested ESXi", is not officially supported by VMware but some VMware developers are willing to help in the VMware communities Nested Virtualization forum. Up to this point is was not possible to install VMware Tools on a nested ESXi, making the management a little bit cumbersome. During VMworld 2013 in Barcelona the news about an upcoming Fling called "VMware Tools for Nested ESXi" came out. The Fling contains a small vib package that can be installed on a virtual ESXi Host.

nested-esxi-vmware-tools-0

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ESXi 5.5 with PowerPath/VE 5.9 - Inaccessible Local Datastores

After upgrading an ESXi Host to version 5.5 and installing the current multipathing driver from EMC (PowerPath/VE 5.9) I encountered a problem with the local storage. EMC PowerPath claims the local storage and makes it inaccessible. The ESXi is unable to boot after it tried to claim the local devices. It boots one last time after installing the driver but can't access the local VMFS datastore. After a second reboot, an error message "No hypervisor found." is displayed in the VMware Hypervisor Recovery mode. From now on, the ESXi Host does not boot and needs to be reinstalled.

no-hypervisor-found

The main cause for that issue can be found after the first (and last) reboot next to the PowerPath/VE 5.9 installation in /var/log/vmkernel.log:

ALERT: PowerPath:Could not claim path vmhba1:C0:T0:L1. Status : Failure
WARNING: ScsiPath: 4693: Plugin 'PowerPath' had an error (Failure) while claiming path 'vmhba1:C0:T0:L1'. Skipping the path.
ScsiClaimrule: 1362: Plugin PowerPath specified by claimrule 290 was not able to claim path vmhba1:C0:T0:L1. Busy
ScsiClaimrule: 1594: Error claiming path vmhba1:C0:T0:L1. Failure.

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