VMware Support Assistant browser incompatibility
VMware Support Assistant is a must have FREE tool for your VMware vSphere installation.
Look at the VMware Site for more info on the VMware Support Assistant appliance.
The installation procedure can be found here or on YouTube.
During the installation at a customer site I found out that configuring the applicanse not always works as it should be. During the installation wizard where we make a connection to the SSO server I got following error:
Something failed. Try again.
A general error occured while attempting to acquire token from SSO service; will wrap and re-throw the exception. Re-trying the request might solve the problem; check the error details for more info A general error occured while attempting to acquire token from SSO service; will wrap and re-throw the exception. Re-trying the request might solve the problem; check the error details for more info Error communicating to the remote server https://MyServer:7444/sts/STSService/vsphere.local
Error communicating to the remote server https://MyServer:7444/sts/STSService/vsphere.local
com.ctc.wstx.exc.WstxIOException: Invalid null character in text to output Invalid null character in text to output Invalid null character in text to output
After some research I found out that it was a browser issue.
It does NOT work in the newest Chrome (version 37) on MAC and NOT on Internet Explorer on Windows 7.
It works on Internet Explorer 10 on a Windows 2008 R2 server.
After the configuration it is working perfectly now.
Lost your VMware vCenter Operations password
Today on a customer site I had to upgrade the vCenter Operations Manager to the latest version.
The problem was that the password of the admin account was not known.
After some research on the internet (google is my friend) I found a VMware KB article that describes step by step how to recover.
The VMware KB number is 2013358
We had already vCenter Operations manager 5.7 running but the resetadminpwd.sh was not on the machine. I had to follow the steps as described for version 5.0.
Hope this will help you.
Unable to expand VMFS partition
Today I was asked to expand a local datastore of a ESXi 4.1. Expanding a disk is normally no problem when you are able to increate the size of the disk. After increasing the disk size you should be able to increate the partition size.
The ESXi was managed by a vCenter 5.0. On the storage adapter I did a RESCAN data stores after the disk size was increased. Then I went into the DATASTORE properties and I saw following
This above view was via a vCenter connection. Then I found following VMware KB which told me to make a direct connection to the ESXi host. After going to into the datastore properties I found out that I could increase.
When I selected this local datastore and finished the expansion I saw following result in the vSphere Client direct to the ESXi and via vCenter.
Lucky for the customer this expansion went OK.
Hopefully if you have this problem this KB article fixes also your problem.
Success
Gert Van Gorp
VMware Cloud Infrastructure & Management
Today 12th of July VMware announced a new suite of products. Look here for news release.
I the near future I will blog about this new release in a sort of “How to” format to introduce the new feature.
The suite consists out of following products.
VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.0
VMware vSphere Storage Appliance 1.0
vShield App 5.0 with Data Security
A new product most of the time means, a new set of licenses. VMware moved from 6 different licenses to 5, they removed the Advanced license. Lucky for the owners of this license (with a active subscription, they will be migrated to Enterprise. Look here for the license paper
Here a list of vSphere 5 introduction links
VMware Cloud Infrastructure: http://www.vmware.com/cloud-infrastructure/
The Console Blog: VMware Unveils vSphere 5 and the Cloud Infrastructure Suite
NTPRO: http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/
Kendrickcolemand: vCenter 5 – To Appliance or Not?, Using VMware AutoDeploy for ESXi
YellowBricks.com Live BLogging, vSphere 5.0 Clustering technical deepdive
UP2V: http://up2v.nl/
VmwareTips: VMware 2011 Mega Launch
Virtual Geek: Raising the Bar V = vSphere 5!
CRN VMware Adds Virtual Machine-Based Licensing In vSphere 5
vTexan: really cool things in vSphere5
(Limited) vSphere management using a mobile device
On the VMware Labs website you can find a free appliance that can give you limited access to the management tools available in vSphere vCenter. The appliance is called vCMA or vCenter Mobile Access.
How to install?
- Go to the vmware.com/labs website and download vCMA as a OVF. Jump to site
- Extract the zip file that contains the OVF.
- In vCenter, go File – Deploy from OVF and point to the extracted OVF file.
- Once deployed, you can start the VM.
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After the VM is started, there are 3 options to change settings
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Using the menus on the console (to set network, timezone, login in to the command console)
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Using the web interface https://vcma-host-or-ip:5480
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Or using the command console. (use login in first screen)
- By default the root account has as password vmware (remember the console is by default in qwerty)
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Special configuration settings to thing about!
- Set the IP to a fixed address
- Enter the DNS servers
- Change the default hostname and domainname. (http://communities.vmware.com/message/1335001)
- Change the root default password using the passwd, in the command console
How to use?
- It is very easy to start using this app.
- Open a browser (on you PC or mobile device)
- Point to http:// vcma-host-or-ip/vim (the folder /vim is needed and I hope VMware will change this in a next release)
- Enter the vCenter server name and the userID and password you normally use in the vcenter.
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Now you can do some functions like
- vMotion
- Edit settings of a VM
- Change Powerstates of a VM
- Etc, install and discover.
Alternative apps you need to buy!
vManage : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vmanage/id318737136?mt=8
iDatacenter http://nym.se/idatacenter/ (iPAD)
iVMControl : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ivmcontrol-control-vmware/id404263941?mt=8 (iPAD, iPhone)