vExpert 2017 Applications are Now Open

Manish Jha

Good news for fellow vExperts. Application for vExpert 2017 program is now open. Deadline to apply for the 2017 vExpert is 16th December 2016. The vExpert 2017 announcement will be on February 8th 2017. If you are a current vExpert then  you need to apply through the fastrack application only.

For those who are new to VMware technology and don’t know much about vExpert program, please read below about this

The VMware vExpert program is VMware’s global evangelism and advocacy program. The program is designed to put VMware’s marketing resources towards your advocacy efforts. Promotion of your articles, exposure at our global events, co-op advertising, traffic analysis, and early access to beta programs and VMware’s roadmap.

Basically its an Award or Honor given by VMware for your contribution towards VMware community. VMware believes in idea that don’t learn alone and help people in learning and growing with you.

Contributions towards VMware communities includes blogging about vSphere products, Publishing white paper’s.… Read More

Learning vSphere 6.5-Part-5-Installing vCenter Server on Windows

Manish Jha

Till now in this series we have discussed a lot of theory about vCenter Server/VCSA, deployment type etc and also we looked into system requirements for vCenter Server and PSC installation. Now its lab time where we will see the installation/configuration of the components.

If you have missed earlier post of this series, you can read them from below links:

1: Installing and Configuring Esxi

2: VCSA Overview

3: vCenter Server and PSC Deployment Types

4: System Requirements for Installing vCenter Server

In my lab I am going to use an external SQL server database. My database version is SQL 2014.

1: Preparing vCenter Server Databases for Install

You can use following script to install the database and configure login,permission etc. This script will also configure the database schema for you

 

[code]
/ *** Create a SQL Server Database and User for vCenter Server *** /

use [master]
go
CREATE DATABASE [VCDB] ON PRIMARY
(NAME = ‘vcenter65’,
FILENAME = ‘C:Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSSQL12.MSSQLSERVERMSSQLDATAvcenter65.mdf’,… Read More

Virtual Machine Reset By HA-VMware Tools Heartbeat failure

Manish Jha

Today while investigating one production issue, I came across an incident where a virtual machine restart was performed by HA.

Navigating through task and events for the VM in vCenter, I was seeing message similar to

On investigating further, I came to find out that VMware tools running on VM was out of date.

vm-1

I checked for HA settings related to VM monitoring on the cluster  and did not see any aggressive value set there which might have caused the vm restart. The VM monitoring settings were set at 30 secs for failure interval which means that if for continuous 30 seconds VM is unable to send any heartbeat to HA, a restart of VM will be performed.… Read More

Learning vSphere 6.5-Part-4-System Requirements for Installing vCenter Server

Manish Jha

In last post of this series we discussed about various deployment models available for deploying vCenter Server and PSC. In this post we will look into minimum system requirements  that must be met for installing windows based vcenter Server.

If you have missed earlier post of this series, you can read them from below links:

1: Installing and Configuring Esxi

2: VCSA Overview

3: vCenter Server and PSC Deployment Types

vCenter Server for Windows Requirements

To install vCenter Server on a windows, following hardware and software requirements must be met:

1: NTP ready environment : Clocks must be synchronized on the virtual machines where vCenter Server and PSC will be deployed. I previously wrote a blog on configuring Domain controller as NTP and you can read the article from here

2: Environment should be DNS Ready: Make sure you can successfully resolve hostnames of the servers. Also ensure Name to IP and IP to name resolution is happening fine for all the servers.… Read More

Learning vSphere 6.5-Part-3-vCenter Server and PSC Deployment Types

Manish Jha

In last post of this series we had an overview of VCSA and touched a little bit on what are the new features that are included in VCSA v6.5.

In this post we will discuss about available deployment models for vcenter Server and VCSA.

If you have missed earlier post of this series, you can read them from here:

1: Installing and Configuring Esxi

2: VCSA Overview

Windows based vCenter Server or VCSA can be deployed either with an embedded PSC or an external PSC. You can also deploy a PSC as an appliance or install it on Windows. Depending on your infrastructure needs, it can be mix and match of both.

Before proceeding with installation of vCenter Server Appliance or vCenter Server for Windows, you must determine the deployment model that is suitable for your environment. The deployment types can be categorised in mainly 3 categories:

vcsa-deployment

vCenter Server with an Embedded Platform Services Controller

This is a standalone deployment type that has its own vCenter Single Sign-On domain with a single site.… Read More

Learning vSphere 6.5-Part-2-VCSA Overview

Manish Jha

In first post of this series Installing and Configuring Esxi we looked into Installation of Esxi 6.5 and as I stated in that post installation method has not changed at all. In this post we will look into overview of VCSA and will discuss about VCSA components.

Staring with vSphere 6.0, vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) offers same scalability as provided by windows based vCenter Server installation. Earlier there was a limitation with vCSA that it cannot support huge infrastructure where you have a lot of Esxi hosts and virtual machines running. Same holds true for v6.5 as well.

Earlier in v6.0 there was a limitation that if you are planning to use VUM in your infrastructure, you have to install it on a windows server.

Lot of customers had provided the feedback to VMware to include VUM with linux based VCSA and VMware listened to them and now in v6.5 VUM can be used alongside VCSA on same node.… Read More

Learning vSphere 6.5-Part-1-Installing and Configuring Esxi

Manish Jha

We all know that vSphere 6.5 was announced by VMware 2 weeks back in VMworld Barcelona. With the release of 6.5 version of vSphere, VMware has done some fantastic work with HA and DRS enhancements. Several folks wrote blogs on the new features and enhancements that are included in this new release.

If you have not read about the new features/enhancements in vSphere 6.5, you can read it from here. Brian has done fantastic job by summing up all that you want to know about vSphere 6.5.

After reading a bit about vSphere 6.5, I decided to deploy and test it in my lab.

Note: The GA and beta version has not been released yet by VMware.

Let’s begin with part 1 of this series where we will see installation/configuration of Esxi host.

vSphere is a sophisticated product with multiple components to install and setup. Typically installing vSphere includes the following tasks:

1

 

We are starting with deploying Esxi host.… Read More

Troubleshooting Edge Gateway High Availability

Manish Jha

Yesterday I was working on Edge Services Gateway in my Lab and deployed the edge gateway in HA mode. Soon after the deployment when I checked the HA status from vCenter, it reported status as Down

edge-ts-0

To counter any UI bug which might be reporting HA status as down (as this was a brand new deployment), I decided to check the HA status by logging onto edge vm’s directly.

On checking for the HA status on the VM, below message was displayed

Highavalibity healthcheck server is stopped

edge-ts1.PNG

edge-ts2

I did a search on google for this message and didn’t get much results. Then I checked the Admin guide for NSX and came to know the fact that you should have at least one vNIC configured as High availability traffic flows on one of the internal interface.

By design the edge High Availability Service will only kick in once the first Internal vNIC has been added and configured. … Read More

Learning NSX-Part-9-Edge Services Gateway

Manish Jha

In last 2 post of the series we discussed about Distributed Logical Router. Moving forward in NSX learning series, we will look into what is Edge Service Gateway and will discuss on when to use edge gateway. We will look into deploying ESG and configuring it and then finally some touch down points on monitoring Edge gateways.

If you have missed earlier posts of this series, you can read them from below links:

1: Introduction to VMware NSX

2: Installing and Configuring NSX Manager

3: Deploying NSX Controllers

4: Preparing Esxi Hosts and Cluster

5: Configure VXLAN on the ESXi Hosts

6: Logical Switching

7: Distributed Logical Router Tidbits

8: Installing Distributed Logical Router

In VMware NSX for vSphere there are two different types of NSX routers which can be deployed in virtual network infrastructure.

  1. The NSX Edge Services Router (ESR)
  2. The NSX Distributed Logical Router (DLR)

Both the ESR and DLR can run dynamic routing protocols, or not.… Read More

Learning NSX-Part-8-Installing Distributed Logical Router

Manish Jha

In last post of this series we discussed about distributed logical router and went through some important terms and terminologies. In this post we will jump into lab and will deploy logical distributed router.

If you have missed earlier posts of this series, you can read them from below links:

 

1: Introduction to VMware NSX

2: Installing and Configuring NSX Manager

3: Deploying NSX Controllers

4: Preparing Esxi Hosts and Cluster

5: Configure VXLAN on the ESXi Hosts

6: Logical Switching

7: Distributed Logical Router Tidbits

Before jumping into deploying distributed router, I want to stress on the fact that your logical switches be ready. What i mean here since you wanna test routing between 2 or more different subnets, you should have logical switches ready in place and should have some live VM’s attached to it.

In my lab I have 3 logical switches created for this purpose.

dlr-0

Lets jump into lab now.… Read More