Password complexity in ESXi and how to change

1. Log in to the ESXi Shell and acquire root privileges.

2. Open the passwd file with a text editor.
For example, vi /etc/pam.d/passwd

3. Edit the following line.
password requisite /lib/security/$ISA/pam_passwdqc.so retry=N min=N0,N1,N2,N3,N4

4. Save the file.

For example:
when you open the fie edit the following entries:

password requisite /lib/security/$ISA/pam_passwdqc.so retry=2 min=13,10,6,5,7


With this setting in effect, the password requirements are:
-retry=2: A user is allowed 3 attempts to enter a sufficient password.
-N0=13: Passwords containing characters from one character class must be at least 12 characters long.
-N1=10: Passwords containing characters from two character classes must be at least nine characters long.
-N2=6: Pass phrases must contain words that are each at least eight characters long.
-N3=5: Passwords containing characters from three character classes must be at least seven characters long.
-N4=7: Passwords containing characters from all four character classes must be at least six characters long.

https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.security.doc_50%2FGUID-F48903DA-8A66-47C7-9796-CD12339B2164.html

Install VMware Tools in UBUNTU 14.04.3 and HGFS

1. Open the terminal and login with root user account.

2. Redirect to the location where you have VMware tools files extracted.

3. Start the installation by using perl script by using this   ./vmware-install.pl

4. Prompts will be there to redirect some files. Locate them and you get an information regarding

HGFS-  The VMware Host-Guest Filesystem allows for shared folders between the host OS and the guest OS in a fusion or workstation virtual environment.Do you wish enable this feature.

5. So once everything is done. VMware tools will be installed. Just a reboot is required.

Failed to intialize in vSphere Replication Appliance 5.8

“Failed to Initialize” message on vSphere Replication 5.8 Appliance

I am able to view the console of the vSphere Replication Appliance,

Still when I try to open the user interface on the IP address of the vSphere Replication Appliance I get this error “Failed to Initialize” so in that case wait for 2-3 minutes that problem will  be resolved.

Enhancements in Site Recovery Manager 6.1

Site Recovery Manager 6.1 introduces a new set of enhancements and features that enable new levels of automation, control and protection, ranging from policy based protection to support for and integration with stretched storage.

Changes of note between Site Recovery Manager 6.0 and 6.1 include:

• Storage policy-based management to simplify the process of adding and removing protection to virtual machines.
• Support for stretched storage solutions combined with cross-vCenter vMotion allows companies to achieve application mobility without incurring downtime, while taking advantage of all the benefits of Site Recovery Manager.
• Enhancements to and integration with NSX 6.2 that simplify both the creation and execution of recovery plans and accelerate recovery time.
  

These new features maintain Site Recovery Manager 6.1 as the pre-eminent technology for protection and recovery of a virtual environment. Use of Site Recovery Manager 6.1 enables rapid recovery time objectives through easy nondisruptive testing and rapid automation of recovery plans, and helps you eliminate the complexity of managing disaster recovery. Site Recovery Manager 6.1 removes the risk and worry from disaster recovery.

https://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/SRM/vmware-site-recovery-manager-whats-new.pdf

VMware vSphere Replication 6.0

The following features are new for this release:

• Network traffic compression: replicated data is now optionally compressed prior to being sent over the network, resulting in reduced replication times and less network bandwidth consumed.
• Linux guest OS quiescing: introducing Linux guest OS quiescing service to provide file-system level crash consistency to replicated Linux-based VMs.
• Network isolation: management and replication traffic can be split over separate networks.
• Increase in product scalability: each vSphere Replication Management Server can now configure for replication and manage a maximum of 2000 simultaneous replications, up from the limit of 500 replications in previous releases.
• Performance improvements: numerous enhancements were made to the host-based replication engine to enhance performance and minimize the amount of data that is transferred over the network, resulting in faster initial synchronizations.
• Interoperability with VMware vSphere Storage DRS at the target site: vSphere Storage DRS can now detect replica discs of replicated virtual machines at the target site. When vSphere Storage DRS needs to initiate a move of replica disks between datastores, vSphere Replication will seamlessly and automatically handle the move to the new datastore, thereby eliminating the need for any manual intervention by administrators.
• The vSphere Replication 6.0 release removes the functionality that switches the TCP port for replication traffic from port 31031 to 44046 after the end of the initial synchronization. Replication traffic now uses port 31031 at all times. For the purposes of traffic shaping, customers can use the Network isolation feature. 
• Existing replications are not affected during upgrade of vSphere Replication, and you do not have to reconfigure them due to this change. Existing replications will continue to use port TCP 44046 until they are reconfigured for some other reason.
  
  https://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere-replication/doc/vsphere-replication-60-release-notes.html

Author

We are VMware Certified Instructor(VCI) with a VMware Authorised Training Center(VATC) based out of India authorized to deliver training across the Asia-Pacific region. We mainly focus on the Software-Defined Datacenter (SDDC) , Kubernetes, Docker & Container. As an Instructor our piece of work is it to learn, evolve, and deliver technologies to the client based on the requirement.

-Contributor
Tavman Singh Chhabra

Route Based on Originating Virtual Port ID

The virtual switch selects uplinks based on the virtual machine port IDs on the vSphere Standard Switch or vSphere Distributed Switch.
Each virtual machine running on an ESXi host has an associated virtual port ID on the virtual switch. To calculate an uplink for a virtual machine, the virtual switch uses the virtual machine port ID and the number of uplinks in the NIC team. After the virtual switch selects an uplink for a virtual machine, it always forwards traffic through the same uplink for this virtual machine as long as the machine runs on the same port. The virtual switch calculates uplinks for virtual machines only once, unless uplinks are added or removed from the NIC team.
The port ID of a virtual machine is fixed while the virtual machine runs on the same host. If you migrate, power off, or delete the virtual machine, its port ID on the virtual switch becomes free. The virtual switch stops sending traffic to this port, which reduces the overall traffic for its associated uplink. If a virtual machine is powered on or migrated, it might appear on a different port and use the uplink, which is associated with the new port.

Advantages

• An even distribution of traffic if the number virtual NICs is greater than the number of physical NICs in the team.
• Low resource consumption, because in most cases the virtual switch calculates uplinks for virtual machines only once.
• No changes on the physical switch are required.

    Disadvantages

•     The virtual switch is not aware of the traffic load on the uplinks and it does not load balance the traffic to uplinks that are less used.
•     The bandwidth that is available to a virtual machine is limited to the speed of the uplink that is associated with the relevant port ID, unless the virtual machine has more than one virtual NIC.

https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-60/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.networking.doc%2FGUID-A4F1BF4B-8199-45A1-9578-1E4B6B08DAB0.html

Horizon Mirage 5.0 Requirements

The Mirage Server and Mirage Management Server can be installed on the same machine or separate machines, depending on your design configuration, but they need to meet the following requirements:

• Windows Server 2008 R2 (Standard or Enterprise) 64-bit

• Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition 64-bit

• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

• Must be Domain member

Mirage Database

The Mirage Server and the Management Server both need to connect to a database. Mirage supports the following database engines:

• SQL Server 64-bit R2 Express, Standard, and Enterprise

• SQL 2012 SP1 Express, Standard, and Enterprise

vCloud Air as Disaster Recovery

 VMware vCloud® Air™ Disaster Recovery is a recovery-as-a-service (RaaS) solution that offers VMware vSphere® customers the ability to protect their onsite business and mission-critical workloads and recover them in the cloud in the event of a disaster or disruptive event. vCloud Air Disaster Recovery core subscription can scale up to 500 VMs.

VMware vCloud Air Disaster Recovery