The vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) does now have a guided installer. It is no longe available as .ova or .ovf. The deployment of vCSA is now done by mounting an ISO and configure vCSA with a browser.Read More »VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 Guided Installer Walkthrough
VMware ESXi 5.x and 6.0 installed on a 5th gen Intel NUC (NUC5i7RYH, NUC5i5RYH, NUC5i5MYHE, NUC5i5RYK, NUC5i3RYH, NUC5i3MYHE and NUC5i3RYK) has a problem with SMBios system information.
A general system error occurred: at line number 7, not well-formed (invalid token)
To solve this problem you have to replace the BIOS. This post explains how to create a customized BIOS with changed SMBios variables and install it on your NUC.
Read More »How to fix ESXi on Intel NUC malformed Manufacturer and Model
In vSphere 6.0 the vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) has been changed a lot. Joining an Active Directory Domain is now included in the infrastructure node configuration which is part of the Platform Services Controller. Please note standard AD requirements like time synchronisation and naming. You can't join an AD if you've set an IP address as name during the VCSA guided installer.
Read More »How to Join AD Domain in vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 (vCSA)
Platform Service Controller is a new component in vSphere 6.0. The PSC contains all the services that vCenter needs for its functions including Single Sign-On (SSO). This post describes how to configure AD authentication in vCenter Server 6.0.
The method shown in this post allows you to manage users and groups in your central directory. This works for both, the vCenter Server 6.0 installed on Windows Server and the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA).
Read More »How to add AD Authentication in vCenter 6.0 (Platform Service Controller)
If 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
The VMware vSphere Client has an unattended install feature. This feature allows to install the client automatically without interaction. I wrote a little batch file… Read More »Unattended VMware vSphere Client Installation (One-Click Install)
Virtual Machine Migration (DRS or user initiated) fails with the following error message: A genereal system error occurred: The source detected that the destination failed… Read More »vMotion Fails - "The source detected that the destination failed to resume"
FreeNAS 9.3 has been released about a month ago. It comes with NFSv4 and VMware VAAI support which are great enhancements for a virtualization platform. As I am using it on my N40L in my Homelab I decided to upgrade my box to FreeNAS 9.3
FreeNAS 9.3 Features
When a Virtual Machine crashed it might happen that you cannot power it off with the vSphere Client. In that case, you have to kill the VM through the ESXi command-line.
Connect to the ESXi host with SSH. (If a virtual machine crashed in a cluster and you cannot identify where it is running, you have to identify the ESXi Hosts where the VM is running)
Locate the World ID with esxcli vm process list or vmdumper -lRead More »How to kill an Unresponsive VM (ESXi 5.x)
This post describes how to patch an ESXi host to a specific version with the command-line. It is highly recommended to use the vSphere Update Manager (VUM) for patch management, but there are some cases where you need an alternative. It's probably noting you would do in production, but you might need a specific version to reproduce problems or to comply with policies.
In this example, I am going to patch a standalone ESXi 5.5 host with internet access to build number 2068190. The host is currently running ESXi 5.5.0 Build 2302651. (It's a downgrade)
Read More »Patch ESXi to a Specific Version with the Command-line