VMware vSphere Client Login Error (The type initializer for ‘VirtualInfrastructure.Utils.ClientsXml’ threw and exception).

Or, getting error while login in vSphere Client (The type initializer for ‘VirtualInfrastructure.Utils.ClientsXml’ threw and exception).

Error Message Screenshot (How it looks like):

Solution/Workaround (Worked for me):

1. Reinstall vSphere Client

2. Recreate your Windows User Profile.

Updated: 08/03/2017

See Also: How to delete windows users profile?

Cheers!!

Creating and configuring new VLANs in CISCO UCS Blade chassis and associating to VMware vSphere Port Groups.

Or, How to create and configure new VLANs in CISCO UCS Blade Chassis?

Or, How to create new VLAN and Virtual Network Port Group in VMware vSphere?

Descriptions:  This article will guide you to create and configure new VLANs in CISCO UCS Blade Chassis and associating that to VMWare vSphere port groups. Here you have two choices, either you can use the newly created VLAN ID details in CISCO UCS with any of the exiting VMware vSphere Port Groups or You can choose to create new Virtual Network Port Group VMware vSphere to associate newly created VLANs ID details.

Scenario:  We are running with a requirement to create a Seprate VLAN for IT Infra Servers. To achieve this requirement, we have to first create and configure the VLAN details in CISCO UCS Blade Chassis and after that we have to associate this VLAN details with newly created VMware Port Group which is created specifically for IT Infra Servers.

Prerequisites:

You must have a VLAN ID, VLAN subnet details, and VLAN Name already decided.

Make sure the VLAN is fully functional at switch level (check and confirm with your network team).

Admin rights or equivalent appropriate rights on CISCO UCS Infra and VMware Infra.

Steps (Configuring new VLANs in CISCO UCS Blade Chassis):

Login to CISCO UCS Blade Chassis using administrative credentials.

Navigate to LAN > VLANs > Right Click on VLANs > Click in Create VLANs

Give a suitable VLAN Name > Fill the VLAN ID number you received from your network Team > Click OK to save the changes

Now go to VLAN Groups > Select your VLAN Group > Click on Edit VLAN Group Members

Enable Check Mark on VLAN Name you had created in last step > Click Next > Click on Finish

Now, Go to Servers tab > Service Profiles > Select the Service Profile for any Blade Servers > Go to vNICs > Modify VLANs > Enable Check mark on the VLAN Name you created already > Click OK

Note: You have to repeat this step for All Service Profiles and each vNICs associated with these Service Profiles.

Steps (Creating Virtual Network Port Group in VMware vSphere):

Login to VMware vSphere Client with administrative access

Choose the ESXi Host > Go to Configuration tab > Networking > Properties

Click on Add

Select Virtual Machine > Click Next

Provide the suitable Network Label > Fill in the VLAN ID Click Next

Click Finish to close the wizard

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

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.

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:

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#pwd

#cd /vmfs/volumes/DC8/ESXiDUpdate/

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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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.