What is the upgrade path for vCenter 5.5 U2 appliance to vCenter 6.0 appliance? All I can find so far is the following:

For major upgrades to the vCenter Server Appliance, you can deploy a new version of the appliance and import the network identity of your existing vCenter Server Appliance.

So I take it that I should install a new vCenter appliance and no in place upgrade path is supported for this major upgrade. Can someone point me to documentation for importing the network identity of the existing vCenter? Thank you.

Where can I get or how can I make a tgz or vib file for my LAN to patch vSphere iso to support my LAN?

My computer is HP Pro 3330 Micro Tower

Hardware ID is:

PCI\VEN_10EC&DEV_8168

Thanks

I've hit a brick wall getting ESXi to installed using an UEFI boot. Both USB and CD give me issues (see my other post for details).

I can get a BIOS boot going and have installed ESXi on a thumbdrive but I was really hoping to get a UEFI-based system (mostly cause it's the "new goodness").

Is it worth obsessing about any longer? My presumption is UEFI is a better interface for decide drivers which is probably even more important in a virtualized environment but I'm willing to accept that may be full of crap.

Bottom line... are there significant advantages with UEFI for a home server? Should I give up and just go with BIOS?

VMware ESXi 5.5.0

Hi, I'm trying to load SBS 2011 on a HP ProLiant DL160 G6 Server

It has 2 x Intel Xeon E5520 CPUs ( 2 x 4 Cores)

Now then, if I select anything other than 2 CPUs & 2 Cores I get the Purple Screen of death (Screen dump attached)

I'd like to use 4 or 8 cores but it crashes with the Purple Screen every time.

Everything in VM Health Monitor checks out okay and there's no licencing issues.

Does anybody know what's going on?

Kindest regards,

Mike

PS) The screen shots somehow got turned upside down so I've sent another

Hi, I'd like to know what is the best practice for applying monthly MS Windows Security updates.  Just like we've been doing this before, we apply the patches by logging in to each VM, and run the updates.  I read something like 'put a VM in Maintenance Mode' before the patch install happens, etc.  Also, in the vCenter Server client, I see "Update Manager" which seems to do some automatic updates on either Host? or VMs?  Can anyone tell me what you normally do to apply the patches?  Thanks.

Hello,

I inherited a multi-site installation of 5.1u1b that wasn't done in accordance with the recommendations outlined in KB 2042849 (VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x Multisite Single Sign-On deployment best practices). Nobody has ever used the Web Client, & while the sites & everything work fine in the C# client, I get a lot of exceptions with the Web Client whether logging in as a user with admin rights or as admin@system-domain (I can't even log in as this at one site since the password had expired & been changed, and I don't know it).

Since on the two sites where I can log in as admin@system-domain, I see only the standard SSO application users (vCenter, Web Client, vCO, vCenter, & VSM for vShield Manager), I'm thinking it's best to do a fresh SSO install vs. trying to fix things & then upgrading. The SSO databases weren't ever synced -- it was all done independently & then linked-mode was enabled. I have done a 5.1->5.5 upgrade successfully with a fresh install, and I don't recall having any issues other than having to re-register vShield Manager. That was an in-place upgrade & everything was on the same server, but it was in late 2013 so I'm hoping I didn't forget anything. I was careful and took backups of SSL certs, the VMwareVCMSDS instance, vCenter DB & other stuff. I retained all permissions, historical data, etc.

This is a bit different in each of the three sites has SSO & the Inventory Service on one host and vCenter/VMwareVCMSDS on another, so 6 total servers. I'm not interested in changing hosts since I want the Lookup Service URL & stuff to be the same. I also have vCOPs 5.8.2 (SiteA only) and SRM 5.1.1 (SiteA->SiteC, SiteB->SiteC) running in this environment. The plan is to upgrade SRM immediately afterwards.

Am I correct that a fresh install should be relatively seamless? My high-level plans:

1) multiple backups of everything

2) disable linked-mode between SiteA, SiteB, SiteC

3) uninstall SSO & the Inventory Service from SiteA's SSO server & do a fresh install on the same server as first site in a multi-site configuration

4) upgrade SiteA's vCenter -- should automatically re-register?

5) uninstall SSO & the Inventory Service from SiteB's SSO server & do a fresh install on the same server as additional site in a multi-site configuration

6) upgrade SiteB's vCenter

7) uninstall SSO & the Inventory Service from SiteC's SSO server & do a fresh install on the same server as additional site in a multi-site configuration

8) upgrade SiteC's vCenter

9) re-register each data center's (each vCenter has a number of them) vShield Manager with the Lookup Service/vCenter

10) fix any vCOPs issues

11) re-enable linked-mode

12) upgrade SRM

Thanks!

Hi all community participants, we are very eager to hear if your upgrade went successfully and what you upgraded from?

I am trying to get a feel of who completed it successfully and a general "feel" - any comment will be valued, I am the release manager of 6.0 and want to hear your voices!

Thanks.

Hello

I've been trying to set the VMCA as a subordinate CA, using certificate-manager.

The Cert replacement operation works fine, but then I get an error during the starting service operations.

No errors in the certificate-manager.log, but one in the service-control.log:

2015-03-19T09:36:00.523Z INFO service-control Stopped:

vpxd (VMware vCenter Server)

2015-03-19T09:39:02.559Z ERROR service-control Unable to start service VMwareComponentManager, Exception: {

    "resolution": null,

    "detail": [

        {

            "args": [

                "VMwareComponentManager"

            ],

            "id": "install.ciscommon.service.failstart",

            "localized": "An error occurred while starting service 'VMwareComponentManager'",

            "translatable": "An error occurred while starting service '%(0)s'"

        }

    ],

    "componentKey": null,

    "problemId": null

}

In the Windows Event logs, I see twice the following error:

Task Category: None

Description:

SetServiceStatus failed setting STOPPED status Error 6 - The handle is invalid.

Event Xml:

<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">

  <System>

  </System>

  <EventData>

  </EventData>

</Event>

Anyone has an idea or experienced the same?

Thanks

Alex

Upgraded an HP ProLiant BL490c G7 blade from vSphere 5.0 to 5.5 U2.

After restart host indicates no datastores are configured.  In the configuration tab the Brocade-804 storage adapter shows up, but the WWN's are different than what show in the HP software.  The WWN's that the HP software (OA) shows are what are configured for the LUNS on the back end.  None of the datastores show up after a rescan or reboot.

Checked the Brocade driver version on the VMWare site and it is current (3.2.3.0).  The driver is from Sep 2013 so I'm surprised there isn't something more current but that is the driver that shows on the VMWare site for 5.5 U2.

Note that the WWN's that show in VMWare start with 20:00, the real WWN's are 50:00 (I think).  Brocade HBA's on other hosts show the WWN's starting at 50.

Anyone have any ideas please?

Thanks.

Hello,

I just wanted to point out a piece of information regarding VCSA upgrade to version 6 which should be more visible and documented.

The ESXi host which you are using to host your VCSA 5.x has to be LICENSED

Case:

I was just in a call with a colleague and one of our customers whom were running a full, licensed cluster for all operations, but they had a standalone FREE LICENSED host which was hosting vCenter/vCSA and a couple of terminal servers.

Customer wanted to upgrade VCSA 5.5 to VCSA 6

The upgrade kept failing.... the error we could see thru the console to the NEW vCSA6 was "Upgrade Export Failed" - In the Upgrade Wizard we could only see that "Not able to export support bundle"

These above messages were not giving a clear picture of the issue!

It was not until we checked /var/log/vmware/upgrade/ and export_upgrade.log in which we could see the percentage and stage of where the upgrade failed. Here we could see that "The license being used was not sufficient" to perform the required operations.

My two remarks to VMware is that the error message of failed upgrades are very vague in the wizard! Also, I think its strange that the upgrade process does not have any checks in place to verify if the host is licensed to perform an upgrade or not.

I can understand that normal scenarios involving vCenter usually are licensed. But there are exceptions and the troubleshooting is unnecessary and not easy for the common administrators of vSphere. That is the reason I am sharing this here, and also hopefully this will reach dev team so that in future releases of VCSA, these check are in included.

Best regards,

Glenn Gahnstedt

Hewlett-Packard, GCC VMware

I am performing a vSphere 6.0 test deployment using 2 VCSAs connecting to a pair of external PSC appliances load balanced behind a Citrix Netscaler. I followed the vSphere 6 deployment guide for external HA PSCs and took snapshots of both PSCs at this point in case I needed to revert back for any reason.

The first VCSA I deployed was successful using the PSC VIP but when deploying the second VCSA it failed with a 'firstboot script execution error':

Error while configuring vSphere Auto Deploy Waiter: Service operation failed: {Auto Deploy register Exception {{ "resolution": null, "detail": [ { "args": [ "Stderr: error: Failed to add AD user(waiter-ecba3290-dc17-48f2-8abc-c1b92533352d) to group,\n37(dir-cli failed. Error 1317: Operation failed with error ERROR_NO_SUCH_USER (1317) \n)\n" ], "id": "install.ciscommon.command.errinvoke", "localized": "An error occurred while invoking external command : 'Stderr: error: Failed to add AD user(waiter-ecba3290-dc17-48f2-8abc-c1b92533352d) to group,\n37(dir-cli failed. Error 1317: Operation failed with error ERROR_NO_SUCH_USER (1317) \n)\n'", "translatable": "An error occurred while invoking external command : '%(0)s'" } ], "componentKey": null, "problemId": null }}}

When trying the deployment again I ran into the following error:

javascript:;An error occurred while invoking external command : 'Command: ['/usr/lib/vmware-vmca/bin/certool', '--server=<PSC hostname>', '--genCIScert', '--privkey=/etc/certs/machine/machine.priv', '--cert=/etc/certs/machine/machine.crt', '--Name=machine', '--FQDN=<vCenter hostname>'] Stderr: '         

Error in appending hostname/ip <vCenter hostname> to Cert.         

My web searches so far have been fruitless, has anyone else run into this problem or know why I'm having these issues?

Hi, simple question.

I have a vSwitch with two portgroup VMKernel. The switch is bound with two nics. The failover policy is set at Portgroup level. PG1 has nic1 active and nic 2 standby. PG2 has nic 1 standby and NIC 2 active. I want to know through a cli command or gui, which nic is actually used for a portgroup at a specific moment. Is it possibile?

Thank you!
Francesco

I am looking to implement linked mode in our vCenter 5.0 environment but have role conflicts

I have resolved most of these but still have role conflicts for the default built in roles (which i cannot rename)

These being

No access

Read-only

Administrator

I want to understand the impact of what will happen if I let the wizard deal with the conflicts it finds for these built in groups

any advice appreciated

Hi All,

Once we assign a license to ESXi host , can the same license be used for another physical server(not in vmware cluster)?

WMRC  works as well as the thick client any ideas

Hello everyone

I'm looking into upgrading my home ESXi 5.1 to 6.0.

First question: Is it possible to invoke the Upgrade from the vpshere Client without vCenter?

Second question: Is it possible to Upgrade directly from 5.1 to 6.0, no matter how the Upgrade happens, or do you have to go between 5.5?

I used ESXi Image Builder to create a custom installer with the appropriate drivers needed.  The iso installs as expected.  I have successfully copied files from the CDROM ISO to the local datastore.  I am looking for assistance in how to import the ova file to the localhost (if possible import and poweron) all in the kickstart or first boot.  I have installed the ovftool in ubuntu 12.04, tar and zipped the vmware-ovftool directory to ovftool.tgz.  Placed the file on the cd in the files folder.  Copied files to local datastore but once extracted (manually) it fails to find the ovftool.  I get the error ovftool: not found. 

Below are the configs, any help is appreciated!

Here is the structure of the installer

Custom_ESXi_Installer.iso

--Files

  --vCSA-5.1.ova

  --FutureFiles.ova

  --Scripts

    --config_vcsa.sh

--All the rest of the files for install from the Image Builder

The isolinux.cfg file has been edited to launch the ks.cfg from the root of the cdrom iso.

ie.  append ks=cdrom:/KS.CFG

The boot.cfg file has been changed to the following.

ie. kernelopt=weasel ks=cdrom:/KS.CFG

Here is the kickstart script - KS.CFG:

##############################################    CUSTOM KICKSTART   ##############################################

vmaccepteula

clearpart --alldrives --overwritevmfs

install --firstdisk --overwritevmfs

# test key here

# install --firstdisk --overwritevmfs --esx=11111-22222-33333-44444-55555

# rootpw --iscrypted $1$......

rootpw MySecret123

##############################################    NETWORK   ##############################################

# Can be used to set static host information

# %include /tmp/networkconfig

# network --bootproto=dhcp --device=vmnic0

network --bootproto=static --device=vmnic0 --ip=10.10.0.67 --netmask=255.255.255.0 --gateway=10.10.0.1 --hostname=esxtemp.mydomain.local --nameserver=10.10.0.200 --addvmportgroup=0

##############################################    END NETWORK ##############################################

# commented out for troubleshooting the file copy, extracting, and import of ova via ovftool

# %include /tmp/networkconfig

##############################################    PRE   ##############################################

# not used at this time

# %pre --interpreter=busybox

# VMK_INT="vmk0"

# VMK_LINE=$(localcli network ip interface ipv4 get | grep "${VMK_INT}")

# IPADDR=$(echo "${VMK_LINE}" | awk '{print $2}')

# NETMASK=$(echo "${VMK_LINE}" | awk '{print $3}')

# GATEWAY=$(localcli network ip interface ipv4 list | awk '/default/ {print $3}')

# DNS="10.10.0.200, 10.10.0.1"

# HOSTNAME=$(nslookup "${IPADDR}" | grep Address | awk '{print $4}' | tail -1)

# echo "network --bootproto=static --addvmportgroup=0 --device=vmnic0 --ip=${IPADDR} --netmask=${NETMASK} --gateway=${GATEWAY} --nameserver=${DNS} --hostname=${HOSTNAME} > /tmp/networkconfig

##############################################    END PRE  ##############################################

##############################################    POST   ##############################################

%post --interpreter=busybox

# rename local datastore to something to

vim-cmd hostsvc/datastore/rename datastore1 "$(hostname -s)-datastore1"

# copy files to local datastore

# files being copied include ova's, ovftool.tgz, and scripts folder w/myScript.sh

cp -a /vmfs/volumes/CDROM/FILES/* /vmfs/volumes/$(hostname -s)-datastore1/

sleep 10

# test putting this in first boot section

# attempt to extract ovftool.tgz file

# this works manually but cannot find the file consistently when automated - still working on this

# tar zxvf /vmfs/volumes/FILES/OVFTOOL.TGZ -C /vmfs/volumes/$(hostname -s)-datastore1/

# attempt to import and start ova with the ovftool from the esxi shell

# this does not work.  After manually extracting the ovftool.tgz to the datastore1/vmware-ovftool/ovftool

# when executed returns an error ovftool: not found

# --powerOn is optional, could be powered on upon first boot, first need to import/register to localhost

# /vmfs/volumes/$(hostname -s)-datastore1/vmware-ovftool/ovftool --machineOutput --dm=thin --powerOn /vmfs/volumes/$(hostname -s)-datastore1/FILES/VCSA-5.1.ova --name=vCenter vi://root:password@localhost

##############################################   END POST   ##############################################

##############################################   FIRSTBOOT  ##############################################

%firstboot --interpreter=busybox

# assign license

# vim-cmd vimsvc/license --set aaaaa-bbbbb-ccccc-ddddd-eeeee

# disable ipv6

# esxcli network ip set --ipv6-enabled=false

# esxcli system module parameters set -m tcpip3 -p ipv6=0

# enable VHV --no problems with this line

# grep -i "vhv.enable" /etc/vmware/config || echo "vhv.enable = \"TRUE\"" >> /etc/vmware/config

# enable & start remote ESXi Shell (SSH) for troubleshooting only

# vim-cmd hostsvc/enable_ssh

# vim-cmd hostsvc/start_ssh

# enable & start ESXi Shell (TSM) for troubleshooting only

# vim-cmd hostsvc/enable_esx_shell

# vim-cmd hostsvc/start_esx_shell

# ESXi Shell interactive idle time logout

# esxcli system settings advanced set -o /UserVars/ESXiShellInteractiveTimeOut -i 3600

# esxcli system settings advanced set -o /UserVars/SuppressShellWarning -i 0

# Block VM guest BPDU packets, global configuration

# esxcli system settings advanced set -o /Net/BlockGuestBPDU -i 1

# Reboot to complete host configuration

esxcli system shutdown reboot -d 60 -r "rebooting after host configurations"

##############################################   END FIRSTBOOT   ##############################################

##############################################   FIRSTBOOT  ##############################################

#

#   Second first boot section, according to the installation script commands document it should be possible to have a second

#   %firstboot section to exectue after the first above essentially 2nd boot?

#

#   Reference: http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.install.doc%2FGUID-61A14EBB-5CF3-43EE-87EF-DB8EC6D83698.html

#

#   Attempt to configure vCSA-5.1.ova presuming the import and poweron was successful above - config_vcsa.sh

#   Reference: http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2012/09/automating-vcsa-51-vcenter-server.html

#

# TESTING # TESTING # TESTING # TESTING

# Extract ovftool

# tar zxvf /vmfs/volumes/FILES/OVFTOOL.TGZ -C /vmfs/volumes/$(hostname -s)-datastore1/

# TESTING # TESTING # TESTING # TESTING

#

#

# TESTING # TESTING # TESTING # TESTING

# Import ova & poweron VM

# /vmfs/volumes/$(hostname -s)-datastore1/vmware-ovftool/ovftool --machineOutput --dm=thin --powerOn /vmfs/volumes/$(hostname -s)-datastore1/FILES/VCSA-5.1.ova --name=vCenter vi://root:password@localhost

# TESTING # TESTING # TESTING # TESTING

#

#   call config_vcsa.sh from /vmfs/volumes/FILES/SCRIPTS/CONFIG_VCSA.SH

# /vmfs/volumes/FILES/SCRIPTS/CONFIG_VCSA.SH

#

##############################################   END FIRSTBOOT   ##############################################

##  Special Thanks to lamw for the use of his template

Hi,

Here's a simple 'newbie' question.... I'm fairly new to the VM world so please be gentle.

I've got hold of an old HP ProLiant DL320 G6 Server which I'm just going to set up at home to 'play' and learn.

It has an Intel Xeon E5520 2.27 GHz Processor (4 Cores) & 36 GB RAM

At the moment I have installed SBS 2011 in VM: 1 CPU with 2 Cores - 15GB RAM

I'm also going to install Windows Server as a Data-server (just to learn & play) again with 1 CPU with 2 Cores - 15GB RAM

Here's the bit I don't understand... I'm then going to install Windows 7 or 8 so I can allocate the remaining 6 GB RAM but if the other VM's are using the CPU and all 4 Cores what resources can I allocate to the final VM installation?

Kindest regards,

Mike

So I partially posted in another thread but now think it's worthy of it's own question and explanation.

I have 2 sites with a VCSA 5.5 deployed to each and now want to add vRA to the environment so before adding I want to get over to 6.0.  From what I see it's a general idea that when in doubt separate the psc from vcenter.  So how do I go from VCSA 5.5 to VCSA 6.0 with external PSC?  I've seen some mention of changing the environment before upgrading to 6 but I believe that's all windows based installations; as I can't find any external sso type of appliance for version 5.5 (identity server didn't work).  I decided to try and deploy to vcsa 5.5 and psc 6.0 then run through the vm kb 2094888 but no luck there.  I'm trying to avoid using the inventory backup / restore tool but it's the only option I can find.

So to summarize how to upgrade VCSA 5.5 to VCSA with external psc 6.0?

hey all

I am pxebooting an ESX installation for a remote that has no gui, and when I monitor the tftp via wireshark I see for some reason, my remote host is asking for /localdisk. Has anyone seen this error before?

This happens after pxelinux.0 and the pxelinux.cfg/default gets successfully transfered over.

Thanks
Davy