Using Template Host for Consistent Network Configuration in dvSwitch

Manish Jha

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 the rest

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

Manish Jha

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 the rest

vSphere-6:Part 6-vCenter Server Basic Configuration

Manish Jha

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 the rest

vSphere-6:Part 5-Adding AD Authentication in vCenter Server

Manish Jha

In last post of this series we learnt how to install vCenter Server 6 on Server 2012. I am new to vSphere 6 so at beginning I had kept things simple and installed vCenter and PSC on a single machine (embedded mode) and also used embedded vPostgres database.

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

Earlier vCenter Server was holding the SSO component, but in vSphere 6 it is included as part of PSC. The Platform Services Controller contains the shared services that support vCenter Server and vCenter Server components.

In this post we will learn how to configure AD authentication in vCenter Server 6.0.

The vCenter SSO authentication service makes the VMware infrastructure more secure by allowing the various vSphere software components to communicate with each other through a secure token exchange mechanism, instead of requiring each component to
authenticate a user separately with a directory service like Active Directory.… Read the rest

vSphere-6:Part 4-Install vCenter Server 6

Manish Jha

In last post of this series we had learnt how to install Esxi server 6 and we found installation of Esxi 6 hypervisor has not changed much and it is pretty much same as like previous version.

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

In this post I’m going to walk you through the installation of VMware vCenter Server 6.0. The way vCenter server was installed in past has now changed big times. Earlier we had a choice to install SSO, Inventory Service, vCenter Server and Web-Client all on same machine or have a distributed architecture where all components were spread across multiple servers.

With vSphere 6.0 VMware introduced concept of PSC. Now we have only 2 nodes in vCenter deployment.… Read the rest

vSphere-6:Part 3-Install and Configure Esxi 6

Manish Jha

In last 2 post of this series we discussed overview of vSphere 6 and looked closely on components required for building a vSphere 6 lab at home. 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

In this post we will look into installation of Esxi 6. I am using  Esxi version 6.0 update01 (Build 3073146) in my lab for this purpose.

Installation of Esxi has not changed much and its very similar to version 5.5. I am installing Esxi 6 in VMware Workstation on my local SATA hard disk but you may consider other options such as running Esxi host from USB disk or running stateless Esxi host with use of auto deploy.

Esxi 6 Installation

1: Attach the Esxi 6 iso image to the virtual machine and boot the system.… Read the rest

vSphere-6:Part 2-Lab Setup

Manish Jha

In my previous post vSphere 6-Introduction  we discussed a little bit about vSphere 6 and looked on what new features have been added in vSphere 6 along with change in configuration maximums. We also had a look on change in vCenter Server architecture and improvements in VMware Web-Client.

In this post we will have a look on the pieces which are required to build a vSphere 6 lab. With this let’s get started.

Hardware Component

I have a Dell M4800 Mobile workstation laptop with 32 GB of RAM and i7 Quad Core processor. I am running all the lab components inside VMware Workstation.

My Lab Components

  1. I installed Server 2012 R2 Datacenter edition as my base OS. This machine will act as my Domain Controller as well as DNS Server (AD Integrated DNS).
  2. I have another Server 2012 R2 Datacenter edition installed in VMware Workstation. This VM is acting as vCenter Server with Embedded vPostgres Database.
… Read the rest

vSphere-6:Part 1-Introduction

Manish Jha

As part of my preparation for VCP6-DCV exam I have decided to start learning vSphere 6 and started setting up my lab for the same.

This will be a long series of posts where we will look into Installation, Configuration and Management of vSphere 6 components. A lot has been changed with vSphere 6 and its time to learn some new stuffs. So let’s get started.

Introduction to VMware vSphere 6.0

With Vmware vSphere 6.0 many changes are done in architecture and some new features were introduced. One of the major changes that were introduced in vSphere 6.0 was removing the dependency on inbuilt database server (MS SQL Express) by introducing vPostgres SQL as embedded database for vCenter server installation.

However you can use external database you can use MS-SQL or Oracle (only for windows based vCenter Server). For vCSA you are bounded to use vPostgres SQL database (which I think a hard move from VMware)

vSphere 6.0 version comparison

vSphere 6.0 is coming in 3 editions:

1: Standard: The standard version of vSphere 6 provides you following feature:

  • HA and FT for 2 vCPU
  • Data protection(VDP) and vSphere Replication (For replicating VM from one vSphere Infrastructure to other)
  • vVOLS(Must be supported by backend storage) for creating virtualization aware storage
  • SPBM(Storage Policy Based Management): For creating storage policies and assign it to VM to place it on appropriate storage.
… Read the rest

Troubleshooting vRealize IaaS SSL Certificate Registration Issue

Manish Jha

Today I was working on replacing SSL certificates on my vRealize IaaS server so as to complete the SSL certificate replacement on all vRealize components that I have deployed in my lab.

I am not going to cover here the steps needed to generate signed SSL certificates as I have covered them in my earlier  blog posts. If you are looking for Step by Step demonstration of the same please have a look on this Article Grant Orchard.

After replacing the IaaS SSL certificates, IaaS Server needs to re-register the new certificates to the vRA Appliance. The commands used to achieve this is as follows:

… Read the rest

Lesson Learnt While Working With SSL Certificates

Manish Jha

From last 2 days I was working on using signed certificates for my vSphere lab and was determined to replace my self-signed certificate with signed certificate generated by my CA server.

I have written a blog post on how to setup CA server and how to generate signed certificates and how to replace them. If you have missed earlier post of this series you can read them from below links:

1: Installing and Configuring CA Server

2: Creating Certificate Templates

3: Creating SSL Web Certificates Template for VMware

4: Replacing vSphere SSL Certificates

I must say this journey of learning use of signed SSL certificates were not easy for me and I did made a few mistakes before setting everything up right. But I guess it was for my own good that I made these mistakes because then I had to do a lot of troubleshooting to set things correctly and learned quite few things while doing so.… Read the rest