Find Snapshot Creation Date of a vCloud Director VM

Date: December 29, 2016 Author: Alex Hunt Comments: Leave a reply

Last month while working on a customer ticket, I came across a request from customer where he wanted to know snapshot creation date for one of his VM as he can not find this detail from vCD UI.

To confirm this, I logged into vCD and navigated to my test lab to see what are the information available.

On navigating through vCD I found that vCD only tells that whether or not snapshot exists for a vApp/VM.

You can see in below screenshot in top right corner that there is no option for selection snapshot creation date. read more

Exploring vSphere 6.5 API-Part 3: Esxi Host

Date: December 24, 2016 Author: Alex Hunt Comments: 1 Reply

In last 2 post of this series, we learn about digging out info about datacenter,cluster and virtual machines.

In this post we will learn about API options available for Esxi hosts.

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

1: Exploring vSphere 6.5 API-Datacenter & Cluster

2: Exploring vSphere 6.5 API-Virtual Machines

Let’s get started with fetching info about esxi hosts.

1: List all hosts present in a vCenter

Following query will list all esxi hosts that are present across all cluster/datacenter which are there in a vcenter. read more

Storage Migrate a vCloud Director VM using Rest API

Author: Alex Hunt Comments: Leave a reply

If you are using vCloud Director in your environment and if you have ever tried doing a Storage vMotion of a VM from vSphere directly, you will notice a warning saying that its not recommended to modify the entity since its managed by VCD.

sv-1

This is because of the the fact that with VCD, the management layer lies with itself and not with vSphere. All changes to the entities should be made via vCD and not vSphere.

Although doing a storage migration will not break anything but as a best practice we should avoid that. read more

Exploring vSphere 6.5 API-Part 2: Virtual Machines

Date: December 18, 2016 Author: Alex Hunt Comments: 3 Replies

In last post of this series we looked into some basic Rest API’s to fetch info about datacenter and cluster.

In this post we will explore API options for virtual machines. Out of all the components like host, cluster etc, max number of available API options are for virtual machines.

Let’s start with figuring out available options:

To start exploring the different API options available for virtual machine, you can use below query:

# curl -sik -H ‘Accept: application/json’ -H ‘vmware-api-session-id: 3762fda1e69484ce746e93d9332f6ada’ -X GET https://vcentersrv01.alex.local/rest/com/vmware/vapi/rest/navigation/resource/id:VirtualMachine read more

Exploring vSphere 6.5 API-Part 1: Datacenter & Cluster

Date: December 17, 2016 Author: Alex Hunt Comments: 5 Replies

I am using API for quite a bit now in our prod environment which is based on vCloud Director and many times API’s had proved a handy way to troubleshoot issues where GUI was not providing a way to proceed.

Inspired by vCD API’s, i decided to test that in my vSphere 6.5 lab and in this post I will try to demonstrate few queries which can be helpful in fetching info in your infrastructure.

In my lab I am exploring REST API’s using a linux tool called curl.

1: You can browse list of API’s by browsing https://vc-fqdn/ and clicking on “Browse vSphere Rest API’s” read more

vCloud Air: Access Your Linux Server Over SSH From Outside

Date: December 13, 2016 Author: Alex Hunt Comments: Leave a reply

This week while working in my lab, I came across a situation where I wanted to run few commands on my linux server which is running in vCloud Air. To access my lab from outside I have configured a Windows jump server and from there I access my lab components (using SSH or RDP to other server). At times it is annoying to switch back and forth between your home desktop and the RDP session.

I went ahead and configured my main Linux server to access it over SSH directly from my home computer (without logging into my windows jump server). read more

Learning vSphere 6.5-Part-10-VCHA failover testing

Date: November 26, 2016 Author: Alex Hunt Comments: 1 Reply

Last 2 post of this series were revolving around the high availability feature for vCenter that is introduced in vSphere 6.5 and we discussed the VCHA architecture and also learnt how to configure VCHA.

In this post we will be testing the HA feature and will see what happens when the Active Node of VCHA cluster goes down.

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 read more

Learning vSphere 6.5-Part-9-Configuring vCenter Server High Availability (VCHA)

Date: November 25, 2016 Author: Alex Hunt Comments: 2 Replies

In last post of this series we discussed about the High Availability feature for vCenter 6.5 and saw the architecture of VCHA and how it works. In this post we will go ahead and actually configures that in lab.

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

5: Installing vCenter Server on Windows

6: Deploying vCSA with embedded PSC read more

Learning vSphere 6.5-Part-8-Understanding vCenter Server High Availability (VCHA)

Author: Alex Hunt Comments: 5 Replies

In last post of this series learned how to External PSC for vCSA. In this post of vSphere 6.5 series, we will look into one of the best feature which is included in v 6.5 i.e high availability for 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

4: System Requirements for Installing vCenter Server

5: Installing vCenter Server on Windows

6: Deploying vCSA with embedded PSC read more

Learning vSphere 6.5-Part-7-Deploying External PSC for vCSA

Date: November 20, 2016 Author: Alex Hunt Comments: 6 Replies

This is part 7 of the vSphere 6.5 learning series and in last part of this series we learned how to install vCSA with embedded PSC and touched on some basic settings which is needed to be done post deployment.

In this post we will learn how to deploy external PSC for vCSA. The goal here is to deploy external PSC first and then install vCSA which will use the external PSC.

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

1: Installing and Configuring Esxi

2: VCSA Overview read more

Learning vSphere 6.5-Part-6-Deploying vCSA with embedded PSC

Date: November 18, 2016 Author: Alex Hunt Comments: 6 Replies

In last post of this series we learnt how to install vCenter with embedded PSC on windows server.

In this post we will learn about deploying and configuring vCSA with embedded PSC.

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

5: Installing vCenter Server on Windows

In vSphere 6.5 VMware has made the installation of vCenter appliance a lot easier than before. Earlier, deployment of vCSA needed client integration plugin to be installed on your system and the deployment was done through a browser. Client integration plugin had multiple compatibility issues. Now with vSphere 6.5 client integration plugin is no longer required. The deployment is going to be via an ISO which would have an installation wizard that can be executed on Windows, MAC or Linux. read more

Learning NSX-Part-11-Replacing NSX default SSL Certficates with CA Signed Certificates

Date: November 15, 2016 Author: Alex Hunt Comments: Leave a reply

I am a big advocate of not using the default SSL certs on any VMware products and I prefer using Signed certs from my CA server on my lab components. I have my CA server running in Windows Server 2012.

Earlier in my lab I had replaced the vSphere (Esxi + vCenter) SSL certs and if you want to know how to do it, you can read them from below links:

1: Replacing Esxi SSL Certificates

2: Replacing vCenter Server SSL Certs

If you are like me and new to replacing SSL certs and looking for how to setup a CA server, you can read it from Here for a step by step installation/configuration of CA server. read more

Learning NSX-Part-10-Upgrade NSX Manager From 6.2 to 6.2.4

Date: November 13, 2016 Author: Alex Hunt Comments: 1 Reply

This week I was trying my hands on upgrading NSX to version 6.2.4 which was released earlier this year in August.

I had no experience earlier with upgrading NSX manager and associated components, so I spent a lot of time in reading blogs and watching videos on how to perform the upgrade.

Before starting with upgrade process please consult the NSX 6.2.4 Release Notes and also follow VMware KB-2144295 which explains recommended minimum versions for VMware NSX for vSphere, ESXi, vCenter Server and Guest Introspection Driver (GID). read more

vExpert 2017 Applications are Now Open

Date: November 9, 2016 Author: Alex Hunt Comments: Leave a reply

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. read more

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

Date: November 6, 2016 Author: Alex Hunt Comments: 6 Replies

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 read more