Orphaned VM State  :-  



What is an Orphaned VM, let’s find the reason of orphan virtual machines.
In VirtualCenter under very rare circumstances, you may find that you have a virtual machine that has an orphan designation. An orphan virtual machine is one that VirtualCenter discovered previously, but currently is not able to identify the associated host. 


Launch Virtual Center or Virtual Client
Right click on the orphaned virtual machine
Select ‘Remove from Inventory’
Now go the summary page of the ESX host and select correct datastore 
Browse the datastore form the .vmx file of the VM
Now locate the VMX file.
Right click on the .vmx file of the VM and choose ‘Add to Inventory’
Go through the wizard and your Virtual Machine should appear online again.

How to Reset vi-admin Password on vMA 5

Well, I’ve been here before. Came to use the vMA I have set up in my lab environment earlier, and got the following when trying to log in…

The procedure for resetting the password on vMA 5 is different to earlier versions, so will run through it here. First of all we need to restart the appliance, and change an option on the GRUB bootloader:

Now we need to select the first option “SUSE linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1 for VMware” and press ‘e’ to edit.

Go to the second line, that starts with “kernel /vmlinuz..” and again press ‘e’ to edit. Move to the end of the line and add the following: init=/bin/bash and hit Enter.

Now press ‘b’ to boot the vMA. The vMA will boot and you will be presented with  a command prompt.

Reset the vi-admin password, by entering the following command:

# passwd vi-admin

Once done, reboot the vMA. You should now be able to log in!

VMware vSphere 6.0 vs vSphere 5.x – Difference

VMware has released the much-awaited VMware vSphere 6.0 .  Is it completely different from the previous VMware releases vSphere 5.5 and vSphere 5.1 ? No.  The most of the features are remains same but there are lot of enhancement made on the existing features. For an example, VMware has brought lot improvements on the VM Fault tolerance in vSphere 6.0. Also there are few new features introduced  in the VMware vSphere 6.0. Let’s see the new features of VMware vSphere 6.0. In the bottom of the article ,I have listed the differences between the vSphere 6.0 , vSphere 5.5 and vSphere 5.1 versions.

What’s New in VMware vSphere 6.0 ?

1. VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes. (vvols)
2. vSphere Content Library .
3. Cross-vCenter Clone and Migration

Let’s see the comparison between VMware vSphere 6.0 and VMware vSphere 5.5 & 5.1 versions.

ESXi – Hypervisor Level – Comparison:

Virtual Machine Level Difference:

VMware vCenter Level Differences:

Difference between ESX and ESXi

 ESX 4.1 is the last version availability of ESX server. 

Capability	ESX	ESXi
Service Console	Present	Removed
Troubleshooting performed via	Service Console	ESXi Shell
Active Director Authentication	Enabled	Enabled
Secure Syslog	Not Supported	Supported
Management Network	Service Console Interface	VMKernel Interface
Jumbo Frames	Supported	Supported
Hardware Montioring	3 rd Party agents installed in Service console	Via CIM Providers
Boot from SAN	Supported in ESX	Supported in ESXi
Software patches and updates	Needed as smilar to linux operation system	Few pacthes because of small footprint and more secure
vSphere web Access	Only experimental	Full managenet capability via vSPhere web client
Locked Down Mode	Not present	Present . Lockdown mode prevents remote users to login to the host
Scripted Installtion	Supported	Supported
vMA Support	Yes	Yes
Major Administration command-line Command	esxcfg-	esxcli
Rapid deployment via Auto Deploy	Not supported	Supported
Custom Image creation	Not supported	Supported
VMkernel Network Used for	vMotion,Fault Tolarance,Stoarge Connectivity	Management Network , vMotion, Fault Tolarance, Stoarge Connectivity, ISCSI port binding

what's new in vsphere 6 :- 

vSphere 6 ESXi and VM enhancements:

• Cluster now supports up to 64 nodes and 8.000 VMs
• VMs now support up to 128 vCPUs and 4 TB vRAM
• Hosts now support up to:
  480 pCPUs
  12 TB RAM
  datastores with 64 TB
  1000 VMs

Storage:

• Virtual Volumes (VVol)
• improved Storage IO Control

vSphere Fault Tolerance:

• FT support for up to 4 vCPUs and 64 GB RAM
• new, more scalable technology: fast check-pointing to keep primary and secondary in sync
• continuous availability – zero downtime, zero data loss for infrastructure failures
• FT now supports Snapshots (Backup)
• Storage Fault Tolerance:
  primary and secondary VM has its own .vmx & .vmdk files
  primary and secondary VM can be placed on different datastores!

vMotion Enhancements:

• vMotion across vCenter Servers
• vMotion across vSwitches
• Long-distance vMotion – now support of local, metro and cross-continental distances (up to 100+ms RTTs)

vCenter Server Appliance:

• the configuration maximums of the vCenter Server Appliance will be extended:
  The embedded DB now supports up to 1.000 Hosts and 10.000 powered on VMs (vSphere 5.5: 100 hosts/3000 VMs)

vSphere Web Client:

• long awaited performance improvements are implemented
• but nevertheless a Virtual Infrastructure Client 6.0 (C#) will be still available

Improved vSphere Replication:

• Recover Point Objectives (RPOs) will remain at 15 minutes (was at 5 min in early builds – maybe it will be higher in later releases)
• support for up to 2000 VM replications per vCenter

VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN 6.0)

• new On-Disk Format
• Performance Snapshots – vsanSparse
• usability improvements
• supports Failure Domains (note: failure domains are NOT metro/streched clusters)
• new disk serviceability feature

In vSphere 5.5 the maximum supported host memory was 4TB, in vSphere 6 that jumps up to 12TB. In vSphere 5.5 the maximum supported # of logical (physical) CPUs per host was 320 CPUs, in vSphere 6 that increases to 480 CPUs. Finally the maximum number of VMs per host increases from 512 in vSphere 5.5 to 1000 VMs per host in vSphere 6. While this is greatly increased I’m not sure there are many people brave enough to put that many VMs on a single host, imagine the fun of HA having to handle that many when a host fails.

Allocate a static IP address to the VMware vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) :-

When deploying the VMware vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) it will default look for a DHCP address. When there is no DHCP server available the following error is displayed:

NO NETWORKING DETECTED.

it is possible to manually configure a static IP address by using the command line. Here are the steps:

• Open a console session of the VCSA 
• Login as: root
• Default password is: vmware
• Execute the following command:

/opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_config_net

• After executing the command, a menu is displayed. Within the menu It is possible to change the IP address, hostname, DNS, Default gateway and proxy server.

• After allocate a static IP Address to the VCSA the post configuration can be done by using the following URL: 

https://static-ip-address:5480

Increase type delay for slow connections to virtual machine consoles :-

If you access a virtual machine console over a slow connection, you'll encounter keyboard sync issues. Virtualization expert Rick Vanover shows how to configure a value to reduce this frustration.

This configuration is written into the virtual machine's .VMX file, which details what the virtual machine has configured. The .VMX file is what vCenter Server uses to inventory virtual machines on an ESX(i) host. The line shows up as:

keyboard.typematicMinDelay = "2000000"

You can edit the .VMX files directly, but a better practice is to configure this value within the vSphere Client for a virtual machine template. When you consider that most of the access to a virtual machine is provided by tools such as remote desktop, there is no harm in configuring this value globally for all virtual machines that originate from a template.

VMware Appliance password expire :-

Unlocking a locked out root account

If the root account is not accessible via the console, the secure shell, and the Virtual Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) (vCenter Server Appliance 5.5), the root account has been inactivated due to password expiration. To reactivate the root account, the vCenter Server appliance must be rebooted and the kernel option modified in the GRUB bootloader to obtain a root shell.

1. Reboot the vCenter Server appliance using the vSphere Client.
2. When the GRUB bootloader appears, press the spacebar to disable autoboot.
   
   Note: If the time between when you power on the virtual machine and when it exits the BIOS or EFI and launches the guest operating system is too short, you can adjust the delay.
   
   
   
3. Type p to access the appliance boot options.
4. Enter the GRUB password.
   
   Note:
   
   • If the vCenter Server 5.5 appliance was deployed without editing the root password in the Virtual Appliance Management Interface (VAMI), the default GRUB password is vmware.
   • If the vCenter Server 5.5 appliance root password was reset using the VAMI, then the GRUB password is the password last set in the VAMI for the root account.
5. Use the arrow keys to highlight VMware vCenter Server Appliance and type e to edit the boot commands.
   
   
6. Scroll to the second line displaying the kernel boot parameters.
   
   
7. Type e to edit the boot command.
8. Append init=/bin/bash to the kernel boot options.
   
   
9. Press Enter. The GRUB menu reappears.
10. Type b to start the boot process. The system boots to a shell.
11. Reset the root password by running the passwd root command.
12. Restart the appliance by running the reboot command.

“A general system occured: PBM error occurred during PreMigrateCheckCallback: Connection refuse “

Posted on October 21, 2015

I recently received multiple errors with in my home lab when trying to Clone Machines.

“A general system occured: PBM error occurred during PreMigrateCheckCallback: Connection refuse ”

Resolution:
In this case Profile-Drive Storage Service
(I am using the VCSA 6.0)
ssh into the VCSA
Run the following command to check the status sure enough the service was not running
service vmware-sps status
SPS-Service1
To start the service:
service vmware-sps start .

Solve Network Card Not Detected issue for VMWare ESXi 5.5 – DLink 528T and RTL8139DL NICs

Hello everyone, Recently I thought of utilizing a spare system to set up my small Visualization lab at my home. It is a Core2Duo System 3 GHz with 4gig RAM and 1 TB HDD.Huh, the moment I tried to install ESXi 5.5 from the boot disk, the installation halted saying “No compatible network card detected” and bla bla…. It was really a sad moment seeing that on my first hypervisor installation.

Oh by the way, I was using PCI NICs which were:
1. DLink 528T – gigabit NIC
2. RTL8139DL – 10/100 mbps NIC
Now this is what I did to make these two work.

Download the following .vib files (according to your needs):
a. Realtek R8168
b. Realtek R8169
c. Realtek R8139
d. Realtek R8168
e. DLink 528T and other .
Download the ESXi customizer tool : ESXi customizer
Now you can install the above files in any two ways.
Pre install (Using the ESXi customizer tool)
Post install (Using SSH Console)
First Method (Using the ESXi customizer tool):