How to configure iSCSI storage on vSphere
This article assumes that you have done the following tasks: Preparing ESXi host according to the best practices for your storage vendor Installing and configuring of storage hardware Creating iSCSI LUNs and Targets Setup Virtual Networking on ESXi Server for iSCSI...
vSAN Stretched Cluster Witness Install and Upgrade
Deploy the Witness ESXi OVA at the third siteNote:- The third site for the witness ESXi OVA to be deployed must be outside of the vSAN or VxRail Cluster. Note:- The Witness ESXi OVA host can be deployed on ESXi host 6.0+(CPU must support 6.7 or later). Note:- You must...
vCenter network connectivity lost – Recover vCenter network when connected to a Distributed Switch (vDS)
During some changes on switches in the customer's environment, vCenter lost its network. The customer was unable to access the vCenter vSphere client to make any changes to the network. Management Network only existed in a Distributed Switch, there were also no...
ESXi Maintenance Mode stuck “in progress” at 71% with vCLS Error “No host is compatible with the virtual machine”
When trying to change some settings on an ESXi host, I've experienced a problem with putting the host in "Maintenance mode". Entering "Maintenance mode" stuck at 71%, and I tried exiting hung "Maintenance mode" but it wasn't possible. After checking on a node I also...
How to Replace License Keys for the Software in VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF/SDDC)
I had to replace all licenses in VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) because some of them were expiring and others should be replaced because the customer has bought new licenses and planned to reuse existing ones for another environment. After checking out the VMware Cloud...
How to configure vSphere 7 with Multi-Instance GPUs (MIG) or Time-Sliced Profiles on the NVIDIA A100
As Machine Learning and AI rapidly grow within the IT industry and the car industry, financial or medical industry, VMware collaborated with NVIDIA to increase the productivity of vSphere and bring AI to the data center. So now we have the NVIDIA AI Enterprise suite...
How to Install VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle
In August 2022 VMware announced and introduced VMware Aria, a multi-cloud management portfolio that provides a set of end-to-end solutions for managing the cost, performance, configuration, and delivery of infrastructure and applications. VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle™...
How to update vSAN release catalog
vSAN release catalog provides critical information to vSAN build recommendation engine. It will be updated when there are new releases or critical patches. It is important to keep the local copy up-to-date. This check is to ensure that the local copy of the vSAN...
Updating the vSAN HCL database through HTML5 Client or manually
vSAN HCL database update Steps to download a local copy of the vSAN HCL database file Log in to a workstation where you have internet access. Open the below link in browser: https://partnerweb.vmware.com/service/vsan/all.json (Right click, Save as) Save...
How to deploy and upgrade DellEMC VxRail Satellite Nodes
What is a VxRail Satellite Node? If you're looking for a way to extend your VxRail cluster to the edge, look no further than VxRail satellite nodes. These single nodes are specifically designed for deployment in edge environments and can be managed through a...
VCSA 6.5 backup failed – “stats-monitor service” service not running
During my latest upgrade from vSphere 6.7 to vSphere v7 with one of my customers, I experienced a problem with VCSA backup prior to the upgrade. It failed with an error message that says "statsmonitor service not running". Trying to start the service manually with the...
How to change the FQDN and IP address (PNID) of vCenter Server Appliance
During my recent upgrade of vSphere to version 7 within the customer's environment, I had to change the FQDN of the vCenter Server. As the customer phased out its vSphere 6.7 environment problem was that their vCenter was vCenter Server for Windows v5.5 in the past,...
How to add DellEMC repository to VMware Update Manager or vSphere Lifecycle Manager
In case you use custom ISO or custom vSphere Installation Bundles (VIBs) for the installation of your ESXi you are aware that those include Third-Party drivers or management agents. In some cases, you also need to manage those installed drivers or agents with VUM or...
Unable to upgrade VCSA 6.7 to 7.0 – Pre-upgrade check result with warning and errors during upgrade
During my latest upgrade from vSphere 6.7 to vSphere v7 with one of my customers, I experienced some interesting errors.During an Upgrade Pre-Check we received the first errors: Ok, we've deleted those Host profiles with lower versions. But the problem with the PNID...
Upgrading to ESXi 7.0 from earlier ESXi version fails with vmkapi DependencyError “The upgrade has VIBs that are missing dependencies”
A few days ago I was upgrading vSphere 6.7 to a vSphere 7, and after the vCenter upgrade, I experienced problems with the upgrade of some ESXi hosts using the Custom DellEMC ISO image. Upon attaching Upgrade Baseline and running Check Compliance it returned status...
vSAN Proactive Rebalancing
If you use a vSAN in your environment you will probably some day experience errors in the Skyline Health Check that indicate your cluster is imbalanced, that some of your disks have high space usage and others are very low and it will cause your cluster health is no...
vRealize Automation 8.x Authentication and how to add Active Directory to VMware Identity Manager
Once vRealize Automation is installed successfully, you as a user should be able to log in to the console. This login is provided by the authentication framework in VMware Identity Manager. Upon logging in successfully, what services do you have access to is defined...
DellEMC VxRail HCI System SaaS Multi-Cluster Management
In this post I would like to introduce you and try to give you a better idea of what SaaS multi-cluster management for VxRail HCI System Software (formerly known as VxRail ACE Analytical Consulting Engine) is. VxRail HCI System Software consists of multiple,...
RHEL/CentOS – How to configure two default gateways and route network traffic
Recently I had a case where for a couple of tests was needed to configure one RHEL 8 host with 2 network cards (vNICs, it was a VM) and each of those two cards needed its own default gateway and I had to configure them to route network traffic such that the packets go...
Red Hat RHEL 7/8 SSSD Error/report: Group Policy Container with DN is unreadable or has unreadable or missing attributes.
In case you or your users get interrupted every couple of minutes with following error/report on your RHEL server during your SSH session or running crontab: sssd[be[ngs2.local]]:Group Policy Container with DN...
iDRAC 9 – How to get the iDRAC EngineID and configure SNMPv3
In this short tutorial I will try to explain how to setup SNMPv3 to work with Dell iDRAC 9. In my case I'll be configuring it on a Dell R740XD vSAN Ready Node. First off, to configure it through iDRAC Web interface, log into the iDRAC 9 web interface using the IP...
Import Trusted Certificate to the vRSLCM Keystore
To communicate with other servers securely, the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager server must be able to verify their identity. For this purpose, you might need to import the TLS certificate of the remote entity to the vRSLCM trust store. To trust a certificate, you...
vROps 8.4 delete Snapshots with Automation Central
In vRealize Operations 8.4 VMware has provided several enhancements and new capabilities and one of them is Automation Central which allows you to schedule tasks in your environment such as deleting defined snapshots, power off, or delete of idle VMs, reboot VMs,...
Reset local user password in VMware Identity Manager vIDM via REST API using Postman
If you experience that your inventory sync of VMware Identity Manager Services fails with vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager, or you are trying to add a new product such as vRealize Automation (vRA) and the install fails, or maybe your local user within System Directory...
How to recover private key of CA Signed Certificate for vRealize Log Insight
Recently I experienced a problem with my vRealize Log Insight Cluster I imported in vRealize Lifecycle Manager (vRSLCM). I wanted to extend my cluster for one additional node, but that was not possible because vRSLCM requires an SSL certificate for Log Insight in...
vROps and vRealize Log Insight Upgrade with or without vRealize Lifecycle Manager vRSLCM
As you may know, we have different options for how to upgrade your vRealize products. You can do it manually or you can use vRealize Lifecycle Manager which is quite more easier and comfortable because you can spare a lot of steps. I'll show you how to do this...
vRealize Log Insight 8.x and AD nested groups
If you use nested groups to authenticate and perform Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) in your Active Directory you may experience a problem with user authentication on vRealize Log Insight, because they may not able to login with group-based roles. You can find a...
How to reset the root password for PhotonOS (VCSA, vRLI, vROPs, vRA, vRIDM, vRSLCM)
If your root account is locked or you simply forgot your password, I'll show you the steps needed to change your root password on Photon OS appliances. First off, connect to your vSphere Client and open the appliance virtual machine console and go to VM > Power...
Reset Admin Password in VMware Identity Manager (vIDM)
If you experience that your service admin user account gets locked from either entering the incorrect password or maybe through some automated tasks that use the wrong password, you can change your passwords with the following steps. Here you can see that my service...
Replacing of STS Certificate on vCenter Servers 6.x and 7.x
In an environment with a vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) 6.5.x, 6.7.x or vCenter Server 7.0.x, you can experience that the Security Token Service (STS) signing certificates expiring as soon as two years from the initial deployment. If expired, it can cause that you...