VM from template will have the same SID

I was delivering a training and got a question:- Whether SID will remain same when we deploy a VM from template.

I knew the answer but just wanted to verify it.

YES!!  SID will remain same when we deploy a VM from template without sysprep or running customspec manager.

W7-01 is a windows 7 virtual machine.

W7-02 is deployed from template of W7-01 virtual machine.

Error Installing ESXi on Dell R720

• I was working in a datacenter with an administrator and got this error while trying to upgrade ESXi host.

• Later on did everything and came up with the solution to delete the RAID on which ESXi was installed and re-create the RAID. 
• Even after re-creating the RAID for ESXi installation it did not work.
• Later on, I realized to verify that the RAID that we have created was not initialized.
• Post reinitialization it worked and ESXi was installed.
• Here are some screenshots of RAID initialization:-

RAID Initialization - Dell PERC

What will happen if I upgrade my ESXi to 6.5 and add upgraded ESXi to new vCenter Server?

Virtual SAN 6.5

I will be able to see my existing vSAN Datastore, but I will not be able to use it.

As of now, i have created a cluster for virtual SAN. My hosts are just a part of my US Datacenter.

When i tried cloning my slax virtual mahine to this vSAN datastore, it gives me error

A general system error occurred: PBM error occurred during PreCloneCheckCallback: pbm.fault.PBMFault;

No VASA Provider for schema namespace (VSAN) found.

Virtual Flash Resource in Virtual Machine

VMware has already given some explanation for vFRC:-

1.  VMware vSphere® Flash Read Cache® 1.0
2. Performance of vSphere Flash Read Cache in VMware vSphere 5.5

Here I will show how you can configure:

1. Add a Flash/SSD Resource on your ESXi host which should not be claimed or used for any other purpose.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Once added you have to share this resource with individual virtual machine disk or whichever is I/O intensive.
   
   
   
   
3. The amount of vFRC reservation you want to have along with the desired block size.

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.

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()

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).

vSphere Replication 6.1

Replication in English means copying.  vSphere Replication 6.1 is the latest release by VMware in which they came up with some new features. I frequently used to get a lot of questions about vSphere Replication, so here are some of the FAQ's.

Q1. Do you need vSphere Replication Appliance at both the sites in order to replicate?

A1. Yes, if you are doing a replication from one site to another site.

Q2. Does vSphere Replication Appliance support snapshots?

A2. Directly i cannot say it supports snapshots, but as per my observation and experience vSphere Replication does not replicate virtual machine snapshot hierarchy at the target site.

Q3. Is it possible to get more than one Management Server on one site.

A3. No,

Click here for more FAQ's . If you still have any question write it in comments.

Mirage Management Server Installation 5.7

For the installation of MMS(Mirage Management Server) what I usually call it as. Now just a few days back the new version is released i.e 5.8 with a lot of enhancements. There is a prerequisite for the installation of MMS i.e the machine should be joined to a domain.

1. Double click on Mirage Management Server setup. 

2. Provide with the correct SQL Server name & instance as discussed in previous SQL server installation for mirage.

 3. In 5.7 and 5.8, Now we support mongoDB that needs minimum 250 GB of disk space.

4. Provide in with the user whether you are using a domain or specific user from AD and provide the qualified name for administrator group from AD.

Virtual SAN 6.2 Maximums

• Total number of Virtual Machines per vSAN cluster = 6400
• Maximum Host in a cluster = 64
• Maximum number of virtual machines protected by
  vSphere HA=6400
• Maximum number of disk groups per host = 5
• Maximum number of disks in a disk group for capacity =7
• Maximum number of components= 45000( Till vSAN 6.1)
• Maximum size for VMDK = 62TB (Supported)
• Maximum number of snapshots = 32 , recommended = 16
• Maximum size for a single component = 255GB
• Minimum host required=3

Clone of ESXi VM for testing (Datastore Conflict Issue)

• For testing purpose , when I cloned a ESXi VM and adding it to the vCenter I get this error.

• After a lot of work and search for resignaturing the datastore that did'nt worked.
• Then simply I connected to ESXi host and deleted the local datastore.
• Added it back by adding a storage and discovering the same local datastore (vmdk). 
• Created a new datastore and added the same ESXi host to vCenter and there you go. Cloned ESXi host VM is ready to be used.

Step by Step Installation of MS SQL 2012 R2 Express Edition for Horizon Mirage

1.Initate the SQL setup . I have started a new installation

2. .Net framework 3.5 SP1  is required and if not installed you have to.  If everything goes good  you will get all the tests as PASSED.

3. Here instead of choosing a default installation , use named instance. I used SQLEXPRESS.

4.The different services will use different users. Leave it default.

5.Just make sure to add Current user to every service just by clicking Add Current User

6.Add Current User

7.Click NEXT here.

8. Add Current User

9. Make sure you have enough space for its installation.

10.Install it. 

• Will share the installation of Mirage Management Server in next post.

You are running esx through an incompatible hypervisor(Testing Only)

I was doing some test on ESXi(VM) and frequently getting this error while I am trying to power ON a virtual machine.

After a lot of work around , resolved this error by adding some advanced parameters into the file.

Given below is the workaround

1. ssh into the ESXi machine
2. On ESXi run –‘esxcli system settings advanced set -o /Net/FollowHardwareMac -i 1’
3. Run ‘vi /etc/vmware/config’.
4. Add the following to the file ‘vmx.allowNested = "TRUE"’ and save.
5. Run ‘/sbin/auto-backup.sh’. Ignore any warnings.

This flag enables powering on Nested VMs on ESXi.

Note: It worked for me.(Use at your own risk).

Mirage: Frequently Used Terms

• It was an acquisition by VMware in 2012, the company named Wanova which was established in the year 2008 for providing the Windows Image Management solution.
• It is a product which is there for Windows Desktop Image Management which provides a granular approach to the desktops.
• It breaks down the desktop into different layers namely
  - Base Layer: Operating system and libraries.
  -Application Layer: MS Office, Firefox, could be broken           down into different application layers   or could be made as       one.
  -Endpoint: End user system.
  -Drivers: Called as driver profiles, specific to particular               vendors.
  
  -CVD(Centralized Virtualized Desktop) : Complete copy of the   endpoint.         
  
               
  
                          

vSphere Web Client (HTML Based)

From past a few time, HTML based vSphere web client is a hot shot.

Here it is,

As of now it is available on VMware flings (https://labs.vmware.com/flings/vsphere-html5-web-client).
It is available as a virtual appliance (ovf) which could be downloaded from the above link.
As of now it is recommended for testing purpose only, as all of the features are still under developing and testing phase.

Promiscuous Mode

This Mode is available in both type of switches: i.e
1.Standard Switch
2.Distributed Switch

In Standard Switch, policies can be configured at two levels:

In the above figure, I have 3 machines of fedora named as F1, F2, F3 .

- F1 & F2 resides on the same port group.

- F3 resides on the different port group.

I have made PROMISCUOUS MODE as enabled on VM Port Group.

- In F2 machine, I have made a ping  www.google.com

-In F1 machine, i will be able to listen to the traffic by using tcpdump -i src eth0 IP 

You are running VMware ESX through an incompatible hypervisor. You cannot power on a virtual machine until this hypervisor is disabled

This error is there when I created an ESXi host in a cloud for the test lab and when I tried to power ON a virtual machine I got this error.

In order to resolve this issue,
1.Enable SSH on your host.
2.Navigate to /etc/vmware/config  file of the ESXi host.
3. vmx.allowNested = "TRUE"

After this, the issue will be resolved.

NOTE: This is my test environment, strictly not recommended in production environment.

Air Watch

It is probably going to be the next big thing for the enterprises.
Tested this solution on my Apple iPhone and the way you can manage the devices is deep inside. It supports many types of mobile operating systems. The two major market vendors of mobile operating systems i.e iOS and Android both of them are supported.
What you can customize is starting from the settings to the apps that show of on your corporate device with just a click.

I have tested this product on my apple device and with just a single profile i have removed the camera and all its related apps from my iphone.

Here is a screenshot of my mobile when i configured airwatch on my mobile device.

Stay tuned to learn more.

Error ORA-01031

This problem I have came across when i was trying to configure Oracle 11g as an external database for vCenter Server deployment which i have somehow resolved.

Everytime you try to explicitly grant permission to a user you get this error ORA-01031 : insufficient priviledges.
In order to resolve this issue you have to look out for a file named sqlnet.ora in your system where you are trying to install this ORACLE 11g.
NOTE: This one solution worked for me.

Just open this file in notepad and close it and now try to login to the SQL*PLUS with the credentials of sysdba i.e

And after that try to grant the permissions to the user and you will be done.
In my next blog post will share after successful creation of database, will share USING EXTERNAL DATABASE as ORACLE 11G.