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5.5

Cannot remove datastore * because file system is busy.

The following error message appears when you try to delete or unmount a VMFS datastore:

The resource Datastore Name: * VMFS uuid: * is in use.

Cannot remove datastore 'Datastore Name: * VMFS uuid: *' because file system is busy. Correct the problem and retry the operation.

Cannot-remove-datastore- because-file-system-is-busy

ESXi 5.5 has a new feature to store coredumps in a file residing on a datastore. It may sometimes create this file automatically and thus blocking datastores from being deleted. It also creates a vsantraces directory which blocks a datastore.

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Whats New in the vSphere 5.5 based VCP550 Exam

VMware has launched a new certification exam VCP550 which allows to take the exam based on vSphere 5.5. There is no new certification, you will still earn the VCP5-DCV certification as if you have passed the VCP510 exam based on vSphere 5.0/5.1. If you already own the VCP5-DCV there is no reason to take the exam.

The main topics of the new exam are 5.1 and 5.5 features like vSphere Data Protection (VDP), vCenter Operations Manager (vCOPS), vSphere Flash Read Cache (vFlash), Single Sign-on and the vSphere Webclient.

VCP-DCV

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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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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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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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