vRA 7.x Snapshotting using PowerCLI Script

vRA 7.x Snapshotting using PowerCLI Script

Recently, I was looking for a scripted method for cold snapshotting of vRA in enterprise deployment. First, I wanted to confirm the shutdown order. VMware’s product documentation is quite limited regarding this topic, but it describes the right shutdown order. Looking further I found a better explanation here, where the documentation talks about vRA backup order. Of course, I wanted to check the proper starting procedure as well. I found it quickly here. Well equipped with all information needed, I…

Read More Read More

Getting Support Log Bundle using REST API

Getting Support Log Bundle using REST API

Starting from vSphere 7U1 we have got a new tool to generate and download a support log bundle from vCenter Server. It is REST API call used to achieve these tasks. It broadens an already wide range of methods of gathering vm-support log bundle. It has several interesting features. First, it works even if the vCSA service is offline, whereas a vCSA management interface should be up and running. Second, once started it generates a support bundle and stores it…

Read More Read More

vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager deployment issue in VCF 3.9.1

vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager deployment issue in VCF 3.9.1

During last deployment of VCF 3.9.1 I’ve found small but intriguing challenge while trying to deploy vRealize Suite components. Initially integrated with MyVMware and downloaded a vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager version 2.1 Build number:  16154511 Without paying much attention to the Build Number, which was part of the problem. Even though my vRSLCM was downloaded (listed in download history) as below: in vRealize Suite tab I was still getting an information that my vRSLCM is not available “vRealize Suite Lifecycle…

Read More Read More

Part 1 – PVRDMA and how to test it in home lab.

Part 1 – PVRDMA and how to test it in home lab.

One of the members of the VMware User Community (VMTN) inspired me to build a configuration where two VMs use PVRDMA network adapters to communicate. The goal I wanted to achieve was to establish the communication between VMs without using Host Channel Adapter cards installed in hosts. It’s possible to configure it as stated here, in the VMware vSphere documentation. For virtual machines on the same ESXi hosts or virtual machines using the TCP-based fallback, the HCA is not required….

Read More Read More

vCloud Director Network considerations

vCloud Director Network considerations

One of the most tricky parts of vCD – networks. It took my some time to to digest how those network relations between different types of network in vCD works. Just to remind we distinguish: External Networks VDC Organization Networks vApp Networks Moreover for both VDC Orgzanization and vApp networks we distinguish folowing types: Directly connected to upper layer network Routed network Isolated Network To complicate even further vApp directly connected network can be fenced 🙂 All networks apart from…

Read More Read More

dcli and how to shutdown vCSA

dcli and how to shutdown vCSA

Sometimes You want to shutdown vCSA or PSC gracefully, but You don’t have an access to GUI through vSphere Client or VAMI. How to do it in CLI? I’m going to show You right now using dcli, because I’m exploring a potential of this tool and I can’t get enough. Open an SSH session to vCSA and log in as root user. Run dcli command in an interactive mode. dcli +i Use shutdown API call, to shutdown an appliance, giving…

Read More Read More

VCSA Tools – Part 1 – journalctl. Better way for vCSA log revision.

VCSA Tools – Part 1 – journalctl. Better way for vCSA log revision.

There’s a plenty of great CLI tools in VCSA that modern vSphere administrator should know, so I decided to share my knowledge and describe them in the series of articles. The first one is journalctl. A tool that simplifies and quickens the VCSA troubleshooting process. Below I’m presenting how I’m using it, to filter the logs records. Log in to VCSA shell and run the commands below, regarding to the result you want to achive. The logs from the current…

Read More Read More

NVIDIA P40 – unable to power on a VM

NVIDIA P40 – unable to power on a VM

During recent Horizon deployment with GPUs for a Customer I’ve encounter an issue related to ECC on NVIDIA P40 GPU card. By the way as per documentation it applies to all cards with Pascal architecture. In NVIDIA documentation you can find an information that apart from installing NVIDIA’s VIB you need to disable ECC. Which is clear for me. However, using nvidia-smi command after installing that VIB the status looks as follows: ECC status is listed as N/A, which I…

Read More Read More