Important Note: Before you start this work make sure you have a full backup of vCenter and backup of Database. Logon to MyVMware and download VMware-VCSA-all-6.7.0-10244745.iso (latest version). Once downloaded Mount iso (by right clicking on file and selecting mount) Copy migration-assistant to C drive Goto migration-assistant folder on C drive and double click on VMware-Migration-Assistant. You should then get the screen above. Then minimise the screen DO NOT CLOSE THIS CONSOLE UNTIL THE MIGRATION IS COMPLETE. Goto CD drive VMware VCSA – vcsa-ui-installer – win32 – double click...
vCenter (Windows) not showing any items in inventory.
I had this happen to me 4 times I think on the sam customers vCenter sometimes when we rebooted the Windows server for Microsoft patching the vCenter webpage would load with just headings no configuration or content. Which I must admit the first did make you panic a bit. Searching the web and talking to other peers only answer people could recommend was to rebuilt vCenter an option, but, not the best solution. So I logged a ticket with VMware the issue appeared to be with the vCenter Postgres...
“Host cannot communicate with one or other nodes in the vSAN enabled cluster”
Highlight the host you are getting error on. Select the Configure tab, System / Security Profile Services click on Edit: Enable SSH on each host in the VSAN cluster: Launch a terminal application like Putty to SSH onto your hosts. Note: When restarting the vCenter Management Agents on the ESXi host, you will get a brief interruption to the host manageability. This is perfectly safe and will resolve itself automatically. In some cases, the host may momentarily enter a not responding state in vCenter Server, however this is rare....
VUM Issues on Windows-based vCenter
I was getting an error where I wasn’t able to download patches one day. This was the fix that I found. On Windows server where VUM is installed Stop VMware vSphere Update Manager Service. In Windows Services, stop the vSphere Update Manager Service as below: Click Test Data Source Came back successfully as below: If OK, go to the next step but if not look at error and resolve the issue: Launch the VMware vSphere Update Manager Utility (located Program files/ VMware/ Infrastructure/ Update Manager.) Login with vSphere Credentials....
Upgrading ESXi 6.5 hosts with VUM
Using Runecast (great tool, more posts to come) we can see this ESXi host has been selected has 89 issues that need to be resolved: I personally check the following before starting as these are common reasons for post remediation issues: Cluster – Configure – Services – make sure vSphere DRS is set to Manual: Cluster – Configure – Services -untick vSphere HA and Proactive HA: Cluster – Configure – Configuration – VMware EVC – Enable for the chipset you are using Highlight the ESXi host you want to...
Step out of your Comfort Zone? Hell Yes.
Sometimes in IT, when you are the infrastructure person in the company, you may spot a product or a solution that could be a good fit internally, or for a customer. Not only will this help you learn something new, but could bring a genuine benefit to the business or customer. Sometimes we are too scared to build our case for why we think it should be implemented. What if it goes wrong? Luckily I work for a great company, where there is no blame culture, and we are...