Showing posts with label VMware. Show all posts
Showing posts with label VMware. Show all posts

Saturday 10 December 2016

Configuration Issues: System logs on host are stored on non-persistent storage.

Or, How to fix ESXi host configuration issues alert ‘System logs on host are stored on non-persistent storage’?
Or, VMware ESXi 6.0 error ‘System logs on host are stored on non-persistent storage’.

Descriptions: By-default VMware ESXi host logs are saved to non-persistent disk. Means, if in case your ESXi host OS get crashed due to any reason, all the logs will be lost/deleted. To avoid this situation, its always recommended that you save your ESXi hosts logs on persistent disk. E.g any datastore available in your VMware infra.


The error message looks like below:







Steps: Creating dedicated folders for saving logs of all ESXi hosts and changing the default folder path.

Login to vSphere console with administrative privilege > Go to Datastores and Datastore Clusters > Right click on any of the Datastore you wish to use and Click Browse



















Create a Folder ‘AllHostsLogs’ > Create Sub-folders inside this folder as many as number of ESXi Hosts. E.g. ESXiHost01, ESXiHost02 etc...










Note down the paths of each folder you created dedicately for each ESXi hosts. In my case, for ESXi Host 01, the path is “[DC9] AllHostsLogs/ESXiHost01” and so on for other ESXi hosts.








Go to the ESXi-01 host > Configuration > Advanced Settings


















Find the value “Syslog” > Go to “Syslog.global.logDir





















Under ‘Syslog.global.logDir’, write the log path for ESXi-01 Host. In my case, its “[DC9] AllHostsLogs/ESXiHost01”.











That’s it. Please save the configuration now and you are done. Cheers.

Saturday 3 December 2016

How to update or install drivers on VMware ESXi Host 6.0?

Or, Installing or updating drivers on VMware ESXi Host 6.0.

Steps:
Create a dedicated folder in any of the free Datastore to copy the driver’s files.  In my case, I have created a folder ‘ESXiDUpdate’ in Datastore ‘DC8’ and copied the driver’s files here.










Take any of the ESXi Host in maintenance mode > Enable SSH and access the host using Putty > Login with root credentials.









Navigate to the Datastore and Drivers files. In My case, I executed following command sequentially:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#pwd
#cd /vmfs/volumes/DC8/ESXiDUpdate/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------





Now run below command with full path of the driver file. Driver file name in marked in yellow. Make sure you replace this section with the file name you want to be there.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#esxcli software vib install -v /vmfs/volumes/DC8/ESXiDUpdate/scsi-fnic_1.6.0.28-1OEM.600.0.0.2494585.vib --no-sig-check
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Wait for driver update to be completed.





Note: You must take a reboot of the server upon successful completion of driver update.

Saturday 19 November 2016

CISCO UCS B200 M3 Blade Servers and Infrastructure Firmware Upgrade Process

Or, How to upgrade firmware of CISCO UCS Mini Blade Chassis and Servers.
Or, How to upgrade firmware of CISCO UCS B200 M3 Blade servers?
Or, Step by step instruction for upgrading Firmware on CISCO UCS B200 M3 Blade Server and Infrastructure.

Descriptions:
To ensure a smooth and hustle free upgrade of firmware for your CISCO UCS mini blade chassis Infra and Blade Servers, its always recommended to first check the inoperability matrix for appropriate hardware and software support as well as compatibility support.
Its better you check with CISCO Tech Support and your software vendor for all kind of dependencies and compatibility checks.

Scenario/Environment:
- Want to upgrade firmware of Infrastructure(Management, Fiber Interconnect etc..) and Blade Servers.
- Current ruining firmware version:              3.1 (1e).
Upgrading to firmware version:                 3.1 (2b).
Blade Server’s Operating System:            VMware ESXi 6.0 U3

Activity Approach:
Upgrade firmware on Infrastructure using auto upgrade method.
- Upgrade firmware on all Blade Servers one by one using service profile.

Sequences/Prerequisites Checks
Verify if there is any hardware error, if yes, please get that fixed first before proceeding with              upgrade.
- Download appropriate firmware version for Infra and Blade carefully. 
  In my case firmware version  for Blade Servers is ‘ucs-k9-bundle-b-series.3.1.2b.B.bin’ and 
  for Infra it is ‘ucs-mini-k9-bundle-  infra.3.1.2b.A.bin’.
- Prepare the upgrade package.
- Create Host Upgrade Package.
- Proceed with Infrastructure firmware upgrade.
- Proceed with Blade Servers upgrade (take one at a time). Make sure you have migrated all the VMs
  from the selected host and ESXi host is kept in maintenance mode.
- Check for any drivers update, if required update the drivers too.


Steps: Preparing the upgrade package

Login to UCS Server console with Administrative access.
Navigate to ‘Equipment’ > Download Tasks > Click on Download Firmware








Click on Browse > Select the firmware you downloaded > Click OK > Wait for firmware package to be uploaded and prepared.
















Steps: Host Firmware Package Creation

Navigate to Servers tab > Go to Policies > Root > Host Firmware Packages > Right Click on Host Firmware Packages > Choose Create Host Firmware Package











Name the Package you wish > In the Blade Package selection area, select the appropriate package > Click OK to complete the package creation.


















After successful creation, the new host package should be appearing in Host Package area.













Steps: Infrastructure firmware upgrade

Navigate to Equipment tab> click on Equipment tree area> Firmware Management > Firmware Auto Install > General > Click on Install Infrastructure Firmware












I got this/below warning because one host in my Infra was failed and it’s still in discovery mode. I know why this warning is coming up, so I checked all boxes to ignore.

Click Next


















In the version selection area, select the appropriate package version you had just created in stage-1. In my case its 3.1 (2b).

Enable check mark on Upgrade Now and Click on Finish


















Verify if the upgrade has been started (it should show in progress).









Wait for Infra firmware upgrade to be completed successfully. Usually it takes 1-3 hrs to complete the upgrade process.


Steps: Host Firmware Upgrade

Navigate to Chassis > Servers > Select the Server you want to proceed with (in my case, Server-1) > In Service Profile section, click on the service profile Hyperlink as highlighted in below screenshot












Go to Policies > Firmware Policies > Host Firmware Package > Select the appropriate package from the drop down list > Click Save Changes















Click Yes to confirm the changes












When prompted (in Pending Activities), enable check mark on Reboot Now > Click OK > Click OK

























Now the upgrade will be initiated for Blade Server-1. You can check the FSM to monitor the upgrade status.








Note:  Repeat the same host upgrade steps for all the Hosts one by one carefully.

Cheers! Please write me back if you have any query or feedback on this.

Tuesday 23 August 2016

Multiple ways of exporting Virtual Machines list to a file - VMware!

Or, How to export the list of all VMware Virtual Machines?
Or, Export all Virtual Machines to an excel, csv or text file.
Or, vSphere Web Client: Exporting Virtual Machines List

Descriptions: 
There are number of ways to export the list of Virtual Machines to an Excel or Text file. I am going to show you the few easiest methods of doing this. If you love GUI, you can use VMware vSphere Traditional Client or VMware vSphere Web Client and if you are a command line lover, you can use VMware vSphere PowerCLI.

Method-1: Exporting Virtual Machines List Using VMware vSphere Traditional Client
Login to your vCenter Server using VMware vSphere Traditional Client > Select your vCenter Server > Navigate to Virtual Machines tab











Go to File option > Select Export > Click on Export List…














Give a friendly File name > Choose a File Type and Save the files at desired folder path.










Method-2: Exporting Virtual Machines List Using VMware vSphere Web Client
Login to VMware vSphere Web Client > Go to your Cluster > Go to Virtual Machines Tab > Scroll down the window till bottom of the vSphere page > Click on the arrow sign as highlighted in the below screenshot.












Select one or multiple objects or select all objects depending on your requirements > Click on “Generate CSV Report” > Wait for “Save” button to be highlighted > Click on Save and Save the report at desired destination path.

























Method-3: Exporting Virtual Machines List Using VMware vSphere PowerCLI
Open VMware vSphere PowerCLI > Connect with your vCenter Server >Once connected, on the command prompt type Get-VM | Export-Csv -path "d:\test.csv" > Press Enter to execute the command > Wait for the command to be completed successfully > Go to your destination folder path, here should be having your VMs inventory in a CSV file.







Note: - You can change the destination path to any convenient path you need. In my case, I have taken it as D:\ drive and file name is test.csv.

Thursday 28 July 2016

Frequently used vSphere PowerCLI commands.

Or, vSphere PowerCLI commands used frequently in daily operations.
Or, Some important vSphere PowerCLI commands every VMware Administrators should remember.

List of commands used frequently for daily operations -VMware vSphere PowerCLI







Stay tuned for more.. cheers!

Thursday 7 July 2016

How to set Welcome banner/message in vCenter Server?

Or, How to set logon message or access warning message in VMware vCenter Server?
Or, Access warning logon message in vCenter Server.

Descriptions: To meet the security compliance and ISMS standard of your organization, its necessary to configure welcome message or access warning message with some acceptable use case instructions for all devices wherever possible. vCenter Server is in one of them.

Please keep in mind, you can configure logon message access warning for ESXi host individually as well.To configure the access warning message you can follow below steps.

Steps (Login message access warning setting –vCenter Server):

1. Open vSphere Client > Go to Administration tab > Click on “Edit Message of the Day











2. Write the message as per your requirement > Click OK


















Steps (Login message access warning setting –ESXi Hosts/Server):

1. Login to vSphere Client > Go to any ESXi Host in the cluster > Go to Configurations > Under Software section, go to Advance Settings> The very first section is Annotations, here in the “Annotation-Welcome Message” box. > Write any message you wish and Save the configurations.

Tuesday 5 July 2016

vSphere CLI error “PowerCLIEnvironment.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system”.

Issue Description: I have just inatlled vSphere POwerCLI on a newly formated Windows10 machine. When I opened the POwerCLI for the first use, I noticed this error.

Error message in detail:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
. : File C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere PowerCLI\Scripts\Initialize-PowerCLIEnvironment.ps1
cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system. For more information, see
about_Execution_Policies at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135170.
At line:1 char:3
+ . "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere PowerCLI\Scri ...
+   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : SecurityError: (:) [], PSSecurityException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnauthorizedAccess

PS C:\Windows\system32>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Error Screenshot:














Solution (Steps):
1. Open vSphere PowerCLI as Administrator























2. Run below command and Choose “Y
--------------------------------------------------
set-executionpolicy unrestricted
--------------------------------------------------- 












3. Now close the POwerCLI windows and run it again, the issue should go away.

Saturday 2 July 2016

How to increase Disk/Drive space of a running Virtual Machine, in VMware?

Or, How to increase Drive space of a Virtual Machine in VMware without Reboot/Restart?
Or, How to extend/increase Disk size in windows computers?

Scenario: This is common situation for every system administrator. Here in my case, Drive E:\ of one of the server is running with low disk space and I want to increase the Disk space of affected drive but don’t want to reboot my server anyways.


Below is the screenshot of the situation (E:\ drive running with low disk space).










Steps (Resolution):
1. Login to vSphere Client > Right Click on the VM you want > Go to Edit Settings














2. Select the Virtual Disk which is running with Low Disk Space > Increase the Provisioned Size value to maximum capacity you want to add in the exiting Disk space



















Now Login to the machine and extend the drive space by using Disk Management Console:
3. Go to RUN > type diskmgmt.msc > Hit Enter













4. If not able to see the unallocated space in front of the drive you have increased capacity for, Click in Refresh button as shown in below screenshot.













5. After Clicking on Refresh button, you will be able to see the unallocated space like shown in below screenshot.








6. Right Click on the used capacity area of the disk > Click on Extend Volume











7. Click Next





















8. Select the total Disk Space > Click Next




















9. Click Finish




















Result Verification:
10. Explore Computer > You will be able to see the increased disk space has been added in the drive.










Cheers, please write me back if you have any query of feedback on this.