Wednesday 31 August 2016

Updating ESXi host & vCenter Server

Different methods are available for upgrading ESXi host as listed here.
I have used the very common methods to update i.e


1. Directly connecting the iso on the server and upgrading
2. Online upgrade from VMware software repository




Updating ESXi by mounting ISO
  • Before upgrading ESXi 6.0.0 Build 2494585


  • Inserted the CD/DVD.


           
   
  • Initialised the server to install ESXi then choosen the option Upgrade ESXi, preserve VMFS Datastore.

         
  • Once upgrade is done, just have to reboot the ESXi and here you go, ESXi has been successfully upgraded to the appropriate version.


           

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Online update of ESXi by connecting to the repository

  • You can click here for latest patch release of ESXi 
  • Before running this command you just have to make sure your ESXi has http client is enabled 
The same could be done using ESXi by configuring the firewall using ESXCLI:-
To Enable the rule:-
esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient

To disable the rule:-
esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e false -r httpClient

  • Finally you have the ESXCLI with which it could be upgraded. It will take significant amout of time depending on your bandwidth. esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-6.0.0-20160804001-standard \ -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml

  • Once everything is done, just reboot and enjoy.!!
For vCenter Server Appliance Upgrade:- Click Here,
VMWare has already given an efficient step by step upgrade.





Friday 19 August 2016

Reset System Configuration using powercli

From quite a few months I am using Ravello Systems cloud infrastructure for my lab testing purpose and it was very painful for me whenever I wanted to test a feature or solution I have to deploy a new ESXi every time.
To ease that task I have come with the idea of writing a script, after dedicating few here is my cup of tea you could use along with the snippet.

$vmhost="esxi01vsan62-srm-xbdx487y.srv.ravcloud.com"
set-vmhost $vmhost -state maintenance
Connect-VIServer $vmhost -username root -password VMw@re1
$esxhost = Get-VMHost $vmhost
$hostview = $esxhost | Get-View
$ns = Get-View -Id $hostview.ConfigManager.firmwareSystem
$ns.ResetFirmwareToFactoryDefaults()









Saturday 13 August 2016

Fault Tolerance(FT) VM in vSAN 6.2

Using my nested infrastructure I turned ON Fault Tolerance (FT) virtual machine on vSAN 6.2.


 


Initially got some warnings related to vitual nic issue. 


As shared storage is a must requirement for FT VM to work. So VMware has successfully came up with the support FT.



 Here i just selected the datastore for creation of the necessary files which are to be present on shared datastore(Virtual SAN).