Monthly Archives: January 2016

vSphere-6:Part 9-Installing vSphere Update Manager

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In last post of this series we have seen how to add Esxi hosts to domain and how to configure Esxi host to reach iSCSI storage.

In this post we will learn how to install and configure vSphere Update Manager.

If you have missed earlier posts of this series then you can access the same by clicking on below links:

1: Introduction to vSphere 6

2: vSphere 6-Lab Setup

3: Installing and Configuring Esxi Server 6

4: Installing vCenter 6

5: Enabling AD Authentication for vCenter Server

6: vCenter Server 6 Basic Configuration

7: Configuring dvSwitch & Port groups

8: Configuring Esxi host

Why you need VUM?

You can ask this question to yourself that do you really need VUM in your environment especially while working in Lab environment. I would say yes. May be you are not looking for any upgrade related tasks in your lab but it is always a good idea to have hands on how VUM operates.… Read More

vSphere-6:Part 8-Configuring Esxi Hosts Settings

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In last post of this series we have seen how to create and configure  dvswitch and portgroups on dvswitch and how to migrate networking from Standard switch to dvSwitch.

In this post we will see how to configure basic esxi host settings.

If you have missed earlier posts of this series then you can access the same by clicking on below links:

1: Introduction to vSphere 6

2: vSphere 6-Lab Setup

3: Installing and Configuring Esxi Server 6

4: Installing vCenter 6

5: Enabling AD Authentication for vCenter Server

6: vCenter Server 6 Basic Configuration

7: Configuring dvSwitch & Port groups

Let’s get started with some basic configuration tasks on the Esxi host.

Adding Esxi hosts to Domain

It’s always a good idea to add Esxi hosts to your corporate domain. Adding Esxi hosts to domain allow you to push specific configurations and security settings from your Domain Controller. Also it can help you track which user has done what activity on esxi hosts (in case Esxi host is disconnected from vCenter and user needs to connect to host directly)

Connect to vCenter server Web-Client and select the Esxi host.  … Read More

Performance Charts service returned an invalid response

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Today while working in my lab I was facing performance issues with one of my Esxi host and decided to analyze the performance chart of the host to find out the root cause.

When I select the host and clicked on Performance tab, there was nothing in there and instead it returned an error “Performance Charts service returned an invalid response“

However when I switched to advance view I was able to see the charts.

This was strange. I started googling with the error message and came to a discussion thread on VMTN where someone has suggested to enable IPv6 on host.

I followed the same thing and enabled IPv6 on my Esxi host and rebooted it for changes to take affect. Once host was rebooted I again selected the performance charts and still I was seeing the same error.

I continued with googling and came to a cool Blog-Post by MATT BRADFORD and followed the steps.… Read More

Using Template Host for Consistent Network Configuration in dvSwitch

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Yesterday while configuring dvSwitch and Port groups I came across a new cool feature in vSphere 6 and I was amazed to see this. I will talk about this feature in this post and will demonstrate how to use it.

Let’s see what this feature is all about.

In my last post Configuring dvSwitch and Port Groups I demonstrated how to add Esxi hosts to dvSwitch and migrate virtual networking from Standard switch to dvSwitch. If you remember I have added only one host at beginning as I am not very much comfortable with dvSwitch at the moment.

Once it was successfully added I was trying to add the remaining 2 hosts to dvSwitch and during doing so, discovered a new feature which I have not seen earlier. Let me give a little bit background of this feature.

In vSphere 6 there is a feature of using template host in dvSwitch.… Read More

vSphere-6:Part 7-Configuring dvSwitch & Port groups

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In last post of this series we have seen how to configure and install licenses for vCenter Server and Esxi hosts. Also we have performed some basic tasks like creating Datacenter/Cluster and adding hosts to cluster.

In this post we will see how to configure networking in vCenter Server.

If you have missed earlier posts of this series then you can access the same by clicking on below links:

1: Introduction to vSphere 6

2: vSphere 6-Lab Setup

3: Installing and Configuring Esxi Server 6

4: Installing vCenter 6

5: Enabling AD Authentication for vCenter Server

6: vCenter Server 6 Basic Configuration

This post will be revolving around dvSwitch and associated components so that we can take benefits of some advanced features provided by dvSwitch.

If you are a newbie to VMware then I would recommend going with standard switches in beginning and playing around options to gain clarity on how virtual networking works and what are the differences between while working with physical networks and then with virtual networks in VMware vSphere.… Read More

vSphere-6:Part 6-vCenter Server Basic Configuration

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In last 2 post of this series we learnt how to install vCenter Server 6 on Server 2012 and how to enable AD authentication for SSO so that your domain users can login to vCenter server and manage it.

If you have missed earlier posts of this series then you can access the same by clicking on below links:

1: Introduction to vSphere 6

2: vSphere 6-Lab Setup

3: Installing and Configuring Esxi Server 6

4: Installing vCenter 6

5: Enabling AD Authentication for vCenter Server

In this post we will touch down on basic tasks that needs to configure vCenter before we can start using it in Lab/Production. Steps included in this post are typically for Lab environment and you might need to perform some additional tasks before your prod vCenter goes live.

Let’s talk less in this post and dive directly into configuring vCenter server.

1: Configuring Licenses for vCenter and Esxi hosts

Installing vCenter Server and Esxi host license is something which I love to do as soon as I complete installation process.… Read More