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# Settlersoman - A settler in the SDDC world.

Blog mainly about VMware but also data center solutions: Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Backup and Storage Systems.

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://www.settlersoman.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [How to configure NetBackup policy to backup VMware VMs](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-configure-netbackup-policy-to-backup-vmware-vms/) - After introduction to NetBackup features for VMware like NetBackup Instant Recovery , NetBackup Accelerator and NetBackup Replication Director this is time to show how to configure NetBackup VMware policy. To configure a policy to back up the virtual machine please follow steps: In the NetBackup Administration Console, click Policies and select Actions > New >
- [How to patch vCenter Appliance (VCSA) using VAMI?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-patch-vcenter-appliance-vcsa-using-vami/) - VMware released vSphere 6.0 almost one year ago and vCenter Appliance 6.0 can not be easly updated (patched) using http. We have to use vCenter shell (VM console or using ssh). Fortunately, since version 6.0 U1 VMware added Virtual Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) based on HTML 5 :) VAMI is the administration web interface included
- [How to update or patch vCenter 6 Appliance (VCSA) ?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-update-or-patch-vcenter-6-appliance-vcsa/) - It's almost 2 months after release of vSphere 6 and the first vCenter 6 patching needed to be done in my lab :) As I described in my post here, I prefer (and recommend :) to install vCenter Appliance because currently VCSA 6.x offers the same functionality as vCenter installed on Windows machine. One of
- [FTF 013: Update NSX-T module on ESXi hosts](https://www.settlersoman.com/ftf-013-update-nsx-t-module-on-esxi-hosts/) - Last week I needed to do an update of NSX-T 3.0 to 3.0.2. The update process is simple and straightforward but I faced a small issue. When I wanted to do the update of ESXi hosts I received the following error on only hosts with vSphere on usb/sd card installed. Install of offline bundle failed
- [FTF 012: Resource Pools in practice](https://www.settlersoman.com/ftf-012-resource-pools-in-practice/) - A Resource Pool (RP) is a powerful but also danger tool when used not properly. RPs are not folders! and they require the correct design phase. Some years ago, I wrote an article on basics and please follow it if you are not familiar with RPs. I needed to use RPs to address some internal
- [vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) on NetApp clustered Data ONTAP - Overview.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vsphere-metro-storage-cluster-vmsc-on-netapp-clustered-data-ontap-overview/) - NetApp TR 4128 - vSphere 6 on NetApp MetroCluster 8.3Recently I discussed with my colleague the vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) running on NetApp clustered Data ONTAP 8.3 or later as it is supported already by VMware. Our customer wanted to build a highly available virtual infrastructure stretched between two data centers and based on
- [VMware snapshots - best practices and recommendations](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-snapshots-best-practices-and-recommendations/) - Recently I had a long discussion with my customer about problems in their VMware environment. We needed to find a solution for the below problems (almost) caused by snapshots: Insufficient disk space on datastore Problem with the backup of VMs Problem with VMs performance During our conversation and my investigation of VMware infrastructure I noted
- [New features with NSX-T 3.0 - Federation and Kubernetes on vSphere](https://www.settlersoman.com/new-features-with-nsx-t-3-0-federation-and-kubernetes/) - VMware released NSX-T 3.0 today with some interesting features. In my opinon, the most important are below: Modern Apps Networking: NSX-T for vSphere with Kubernetes, container networking and security enhancements.Cloud-scale Networking: NSX Federation. NSX-T Federation NSX-T 3.0 introduces Federation - a possibility to connect many NSX-T instances with below benefits: Consistent Policy Configuration and Enforcement.Simplified DR.Operational simplicity
- [What's new in Zerto 8.0](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-zerto-8-0/) - Zerto founded in 2009 is a company that I faced the first time around 2012. The company is known because of their Zerto IT Resilience Platform which providing disaster recovery, data protection for virtual and cloud environments. It allows protecting workloads across various hypervisors e.g. VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V. If you are not familiar
- [FTF 011: vSAN and mixed storage policies](https://www.settlersoman.com/ftf-011-vsan-and-mixed-storage-policies/) - This post is a feature request for vSAN :) One of my customers has a 4-nodes vSAN all-flash cluster. They use compression, deduplication and RAID 5 for non-critical VMs/vmdk and RAID 1 for critical. RAID 5 erasure coding requires less additional capacity to protect data than RAID 1 mirroring. When you have vSAN enabled and
- [Veritas Resiliency Platform (VRP) - a DR solution](https://www.settlersoman.com/veritas-resilency-platform-vrp/) - Veritas Resiliency Platform (VRP)
- [FTF 010: How to change IPs on infrastructure when NSX is installed?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-change-ips-on-infrastructure-when-nsx-is-installed/) - Yesterday we needed to re-address VMware environment - Management, vMotion and VXLAN. This is not a complex task until you have NSX installed in your datacenter. NSX VXLAN addresses reorganization When you need to change addresses of VXLAN the following steps can be useful: Prerequisites Create a new vSphere cluster and add to correct Transport
- [Integration PowerChute Network Shutdown with VMware](https://www.settlersoman.com/integration-powerchute-network-shutdown-with-vmware/) - Recently during checking news on VMware Solutions Exchange page, I found that useful info is available there PowerChute Network Shutdown v4.3 for VMware. This software supports the graceful shutdown in a vSAN environment with support for Standard and Stretched clusters. PowerChute will issue a Maintenance Mode command for vSAN cluster hosts using the “No Action”
- [vCenter (VCSA) on vSAN or local disks?](https://www.settlersoman.com/vcenter-vcsa-on-vsan-or-local-disks/) - Recently I had an interesting discussion with my customer about vCenter (already VCSA) location that is not dependent on the central storage system (array) but prepared for high availability and disaster recovery. vCenter is an important VM for VMware Administrators and there would be an impact on infrastructure if it is down (e.g. Horizon View).
- [FTF 009: Cross-vCenter NSX - reorganizing](https://www.settlersoman.com/ftf-009-cross-vcenter-nsx-reorganizing/) - Recently I have had a task to reorganize NSX Cross vCenter domains - Primary and Secondary environments. My customer had eight vCenter with NSX - four pairs of Primary and Secondary. As you probably know or you can check on VMware page, benefits of Cross-vCenter NSX: Increased span of NSX logical networks. The same logical
- [FTF 008: How to enumerate change NSX Logical Switch VNI?](https://www.settlersoman.com/ftf-008-how-to-enumerate-change-nsx-logical-switch-vni/) - Recently I needed to prepare a procedure to reconfigure NSX environments and one of the tasks was changing NSX Logical Switch VNI (VXLAN Network Identifier). When you create a new Logical Switch, NSX takes VNI from a special pool (The Segment ID Pool - in the range 5000-16777216 so more than 16000000 networks are possible
- [FTF 007: How to change ESXi hostname when NSX is configured on a cluster?](https://www.settlersoman.com/ftf-007-how-to-change-esxi-hostname-when-nsx-is-configured-on-a-cluster/) - Some weeks ago my customer wanted to change ESXi hostnames. This is not difficult and can be done without VM downtime using the below steps: Place ESXi host into maintenance mode Remove the host from cluster/vCenter inventory Change a record in DNS (or vCenter hosts file) Add the ESXi host again to the vCenter inventory
- [How to prepare for NetBackup Master/Media Server upgrade?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-upgrade-netbackup-mastermedia-server/) - Recently, I was able to see people who searched many times "How to upgrade NetBackup?" on my site. I am so happy that people look for NetBackup information on my site so I decided to write this post where you can find answers for the following questions: The high level order of upgrade steps. How
- [vExpert 2017: NSX and vSAN awarded.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vexpert-2017-nsx-and-vsan/) - Some days ago VMware announced a list of vExperts 2017 on NSX and vSAN track. I would like to announce that I am honoured to be selected this year! Just for a quick reminder on vExpert: The VMware vExpert is an annual designation for people who have given back to the community of VMware users by
- [VMware NSX Endpoint - preparing for antivirus protection](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-nsx-endpoint-preparing-for-antivirus-protection/) - As I already mentioned, since NSX 6.2.3, all vSphere customers with Essential Plus or higher can use NSX Edpoint for antivirus offloaded protection. When you deploy NSX Manager and register it to vCenter, you can find a "NSX for vShield Endpoint" license in the vCenter license inventory: vShield Manager was EOL in September this year
- [VMware vSphere basics: understanding Resource Pools.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-vsphere-basics-understanding-resource-pools/) - Recently we discussed the VMware High Availability Admission Control - a very important vSphere feature. As I mentioned in the previous post, Admission Control uses some ways to calculate available CPU, memory in the cluster. One of thing that can affect the calculation is Resource Pool. In this post you will find answers to the
- [Rubrik - a software-defined platform for modern datacenter?](https://www.settlersoman.com/rubrik-a-software-defined-platform-for-modern-datacenter/) - I look at new data protection companies and one of them is Rubrik. A couple months ago I had a pleasure and honour to attend at the Cloud Field Day 2 when Chris Wahl, Rebecca Fitzhugh and Andrew Miller made an interesting presentation. Rubrik Overview Rubrik has founded in 2014 so it is pretty new
- [vCenter design considerations - ESXi hosts added via IP address or DNS/FQDN?](https://www.settlersoman.com/vcenter-design-considerations-esxi-hosts-added-via-ip-address-or-dns/) - I was going to write this post a long time ago and I postponed it many times. Today during a configuration of VMware VMs backup by NetBackup for my customer, again I have met a situation where ESXi hosts were added using IP address. In this post let's discuss pros and cons of this design
- [Why to create the VMware Management Cluster?](https://www.settlersoman.com/why-to-create-the-vmware-management-cluster/) - In this article, we discuss pros and cons of vSphere Management Cluster. I decided to write this article because I have seen many VMware environments without this type of cluster and with problems caused by this. Example, recently one of my new customers had a problem with vCenter VM and they were not able to
- [vCenter is down - impact on VMware infrastructure.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vcenter-is-down-impact-on-vmware-infrastructure/) - Over the past few months, I have seen posts or been asked what happens when vCenter is down. Everybody probably knows that vCenter is a heart of VMware infrastructure installed as Appliance (VCSA) or Windows machine. The main vCenter features are as follows: Central management of VMware environments - allows you to manage VM's across
- [What's new and how to one click upgrade to NSX 6.4.x ?](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-and-how-to-one-click-upgrade-to-nsx-6-4-x/) - This month VMware released NSX 6.4.0. This version provides many features, improvements and bug fixes. What's new in NSX 6.4.0? Following Release Notes we can find some interesting features and improvements. In my opinion, the most important: Upgrade Coordinator provides a single portal to simplify the planning and execution of an NSX upgrade. Upgrade Coordinator
- [Veritas NetBackup 8.1 is GA - what's new and my favorite features](https://www.settlersoman.com/veritas-netbackup-8-1-is-ga-whats-new-and-my-favorite-features/) - Veritas released a new version of their core product - NetBackup 8.1. This version provides some interesting features however not for VMware. There are only a few improvements such as the possibility to select virtual drives with a new recovery UI, support for non-ASCII characters in VMware. My favourite features are: Auto Image Replication Enhancements
- [Veritas NetBackup 8.0 is GA - my favorite features.](https://www.settlersoman.com/veritas-netbackup-8-0-is-ga-my-favourite-features/) - What's new in Veritas NetBackup 8.0
- [FTF 006: VMware NSX and not prepared or not licensed clusters](https://www.settlersoman.com/ftf-005-vmware-nsx-and-not-prepared-or-not-licensed-clusters/) - Today my customer contacted me that they had problems with connectivity between two VMs connected to the same port group based on VXLAN. Quick tests done during call confirmed that there was a problem with VXLAN because they moved VMs to normal vDS port group and virtual machines were reachable. During a quick Webex and
- [A simplified upgrades - my summary of last VMware's releases](https://www.settlersoman.com/a-simplified-upgrades-my-summary-of-last-vmwares-releases/) - Some weeks ago VMware released NSX version 6.4 which introduced an Upgrade Coordinator - a single portal to simplify the planning and execution of an NSX upgrade. We should expect further steps to make our engineer's life easier ;) and some days ago vSphere 6.7 and Site Recovery Manager 8.1 (SRM) was released. Both products
- [FTF 005: Replacing default vSphere 6.x certificates with CA signed SSL - my tips](https://www.settlersoman.com/ftf-005-replacing-default-vsphere-6-x-certificates-with-ca-signed-ssl-my-tips/) - Recently I have done some projects where replacing default vSphere certificates with CA signed SSL was required. I think some of you remember how managing certificates were hard in prior vSphere releases (especially 5.0/5.1). Fortunately since version 6.0 replacing SSL certificates with custom is easy and straightforward. There are two main options: The VMCA as
- [How to archive files using a NetBackup policy?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-archive-files-using-a-netbackup-policy/) - Some days ago I got email from my reader with question about how to archive files in NetBackup. NetBackup provides not only backup but also archiving as well :P Sometimes it can be useful to create a folder or folders where users can copy/move files and those files are archived (copied and deleted from an
- [Provisioning Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) on NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP and vSphere 6.](https://www.settlersoman.com/provisioning-virtual-volumes-vvols-on-netapp-clustered-data-ontap-and-vsphere-6/) - Some days ago we discussed the prerequisites for provisioning VVOLs on NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP and vSphere 6. We have installed the NetApp Virtual Storage Console 6.0 and NetApp VASA 6.0. In this post we will see how VVOLs work in practice: create a Storage Capability Profile (SCP) provision a VVOL datastore some tests of
- [FTF 004: VMware NSX - The Upgrade Version operation failed](https://www.settlersoman.com/ftf-004-vmware-nsx-the-upgrade-version-operation-failed/) - Recently during updating one of NSX environment from version 6.3.3 to 6.3.5 I faced the following error: The Upgrade Version operation failed for the entity with the following message. Cluster/ResourcePool Resources needs to be prepared for network fabric to upgrade edge Edge-xxx I checked a cluster where mentioned EDGE was running (btw. properly, all services
- [HPE - InfoSight and Cloud Volumes](https://www.settlersoman.com/hpe-infosight-and-cloud-volumes/) - Last year I had a pleasure and honor to attend at the Cloud Field Day 2. During this event, HPE presented two solutions: InfoSight and Cloud Volumes. HPE InfoSight InfoSight is a solution taken from Nimble (HPE acquired this company some months ago) which collects data from sensors from arrays (at the beginning only Nimble
- [Zerto Virtual Replication 4.0: Architecture overview and features.](https://www.settlersoman.com/zerto-virtual-replication-4-0-architecture-overview-and-features/) - Today Zerto Virtual Replication 4.0 has been released. This is a solution providing a business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) in a virtual environment (Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware and Amazon AWS). Comparing to Zerto Virtual Replication 3.5, the architecture has not been changed but there are some new features: New User Interface (totally a new
- [VMware vSphere on HP ProLiant Server: How to update online firmware and drivers using Service Pack (SPP)?](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-vsphere-on-hp-proliant-server-how-to-update-online-firmware-and-drivers-using-service-pack-spp/) - As I described previously here, there are some options to update online or offline firmware and drivers on HP Servers with VMware vSphere installed. In this post we discuss step by step how to perform the upgrade using HP Service Pack for Proliant (SPP). To perform driver and online firmware updates, your VMware environment must
- [Deep visibility of cloud by Gigamon](https://www.settlersoman.com/deep-visibility-of-cloud-by-gigamon/) - A couple months ago I had a pleasure and honor to attend at the Cloud Field Day 2. One of presenting companies was Gigamon which showed their solutions for public/hybrid cloud. Gigamon was founded in 2004 and their products are physical and virtual network visibility technologies such as network TAP (Terminal Access Point, an external
- [FTF 003: VMware NSX - Hosts with Error status](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-nsx-hosts-with-error-status/) - A couple of days ago I had a small problem with NSX and firewall rules that did not work properly. During checking NSX Status via Web Client I found - Error status on Distributed Firewall (DFW) status on some hosts as shown on the below figure: No more information about issue after clicking on Error
- [VMs are houses, containers are apartments!](https://www.settlersoman.com/vms-are-houses-containers-are-apartments/) - A couple of weeks ago I had occassion to be a delegate at DockerCon 2016, held in Seattle, USA. To be honest I hadn't had much experience with Docker before so I was so excited to be able to study new things. Recently, I have spent some time on Docker and this post begins a
- [What’s New in VMware vSphere 6.0: vMotion Enhancements](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-vmware-vsphere-6-0-vmotion-enhancements/) - VMware vSphere 6 provides some vMotion Enhancements. With vSphere 6.0 vMotion is being expanded to: vMotion across vCenter Servers. vMotion across virtual switches. Long Distance vMotion. Replication-Assisted vMotion. vMotion across vCenter Servers vSphere 6 introduces support for Cross vCenter vMotion and possibility to change compute, storage, networks, and management between data centers without disruption.
- [Useful tools on how to troubleshoot Virtual SAN (vSAN)](https://www.settlersoman.com/useful-tools-to-troubleshoot-virtual-san-vsan/) - During VMworld this year, I attended at nice session on vSAN troubleshooting tips. There are some tools that help us to find a root of problem: esxcli RVC Health Check vSAN Observer vRealize Operations Manager vRealize Log Insight esxcli There are some commands as below examples: esxcli vsan network list - Verify which VMkernel adapters
- [How to cancel a hang task in vCenter or ESXi host?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-cancel-a-hang-task-in-vcenter-or-esxi-host/) - Recently my customer wanted to cancel a "creating a snapshot" task. The task was created by backup application. Unfortunately the cancel option was greyed so wow to cancel it? I will show this in the following post. At first you have to investigate where a hang process exists (Clicking summary tab on VM). Then: Log
- [Protection and instant access of Microsoft SQL database -  DevOps with Actifio](https://www.settlersoman.com/protection-and-instant-access-of-microsoft-sql-database-devops-with-actifio/) - Recently one of my customer contacted me because they had some issues with their backup environment. They use one of my favorite backup system and backup of logs of really big databases stopped working and logs filled up disk space and I don't have to write what happened next. After some investigations and solving a
- [How to configure smart card logon on vSphere 6.5?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-configure-smart-card-logon-on-vsphere-6-5/) - Recently I configured a smart card authentication for vCenter Server 6.5. I have to admin that configuration is simple, however there is an important point - using a correct certificate format. When you follow a configuration guide (here) you can notice that the configuration is based on two points: Configure the Reverse Proxy to Request
- [Mixed version of ESXi hosts in the vSphere cluster?](https://www.settlersoman.com/mixed-version-of-esxi-hosts-in-the-vsphere-cluster/) - I had a discussion with my colleague about mixed version of ESXi hosts. Our customer needed to migrate their vSphere environment from version 5.1 (caused of End of Support Life) to the latest version supported on their physical infrastructure. As they did not build a cluster based on identical physical servers and two of servers
- [FTF 002: vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) fails - ERROR: duplicate key value violates unique constraint pk_vpx_guest_disk](https://www.settlersoman.com/ftf-002-vcenter-server-appliance-vcsa-fails-error-duplicate-key-value-violates-unique-constraint-pk_vpx_guest_disk/) - Today I was informed that there were some logging problems to vCenter Server (VCSA). I did a short investigation via SSH and check if all required services are running and I found out that vpxd is down. I checked vpxd.log (tail -100 /var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd.log) and found that there were some db errors and: Panic: Unrecoverable database
- [Netbackup Accelerator for VMware backup - Part 1: Introduction](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-accelerator-for-vmware-backup/) - Symantec NetBackup is an enterprise-level backup platform that protects your physical and virtualized servers. A feature NetBackup Accelerator has been introduced with NetBackup 7.5 for file backups and with version 7.6 for virtual machines running in VMware. What is this? NetBackup Accelerator uses the VMware Changed Block Tracking (CBT) functionality to identify blocks which have been
- [My favorite VMware fling tools](https://www.settlersoman.com/my-favorite-vmware-fling-tools/) - VMware releases useful tools named flings. Those tools help not only in daily activities but also simplify migration or upgrade vSphere environment. Some tools are included in later version of VMware product after testing and solving potential problems/bugs during "fling phase" :) In this post I will show my favorite fling tools that I often
- [How to change vCenter Appliance (VCSA) 6.x IP Address?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-change-vcenter-appliance-vcsa-6-x-ip-address/) - Recently, I have had to change IP addresse of some vCenter Appliances (VCSA) 6.0 U2 in our environment. Changing IP address is possible (however officially not supported) and it's straightforward if you deployed VCSA correctly - using FQDN. If you deploy VCSA using IP address as FQDN, you can not change IP address. To change
- [FTF 001: Replacing 3rd async with VMware inbox driver?](https://www.settlersoman.com/ftf-001-replacing-3rd-async-with-vmware-inbox-driver/) - This post begins my series: "From the Field" about issues or opportunities that I have faced during doing projects for my customers. Recently during implementing VMware vSAN for my customer, we needed to replace 3rd async driver with VMware inbox driver (yes, something totally opposite what usually is done). In this post, you will find
- [Upgrading VMFS datastores after migrating to vSphere 6?](https://www.settlersoman.com/upgrading-vmfs-datastores-after-migrating-to-vsphere-6/) - Recently I got the following question from my customer: Can I mount a datastore formatted under vSphere 6.0 to the vSphere 5.1 or 5.5 host? I answered: yes, it should work fine because there is the same major version of VMFS but I needed to confirm it, it's me :) I have not able to find
- [NetBackup version comparison](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-version-comparison/) - This post provides a comparison of main features of NetBackup versions 7.0-8.0. [table id=12 /] Note: Some features can be available since release updates e.g. 7.7.1 / 7.7.2 This post is based on following guides: NetBackup 7.0 - What's New and Version Comparison Matrix NetBackup 7.1 - What’s New and Version Comparison Matrix NetBackup 7.5
- [How to deploy the vCenter Server 6 Appliance with an External Platform Services Controller?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-deploy-the-vcenter-server-6-appliance-with-an-external-platform-services-controller/) - This post covers how to deploy the vCenter Server Appliance with an External Platform Services Controller. There are some posts about vCenter 6.0 and Platform Services Controllers as follow: VMware vCenter 6 Deployment Possibilities: Topologies and High Availability How to configure Highly Available External Platform Services Controller (PSC) Appliance? vCenter Host Gateway Appliance – Overview
- [VMware vSphere 6.5 announced - my favourite features](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-vsphere-6-5-announced-my-favourite-features/) - This week, during VMworld in Barcelona, vSphere 6.5 was announced with cool features which most of them I could test during beta, however now I can write about it. vCenter Appliance redesigned and highly available with VUM integrated vSphere 6.5 provides a lot of new things of vCenter Appliance. At first, VCSA 6.5 runs on
- [VMware NSX 6.2.3 is out - default license for vShield Endpoint.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-nsx-6-2-3-is-out-default-license-for-vshield-endpoint/) - VMware released NSX 6.2.3. It introduced a long awaited feature - at least for me and my customers :) NSX 6.2.3 has default license "NSX for vShield Endpoint" which enables use of NSX for deploying and managing vShield Endpoint for anti-virus offload capability only. vShield Manager is EOL in September this year and it was
- [How to add correctly the second NIC to VDP appliance?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-add-correctly-the-second-nic-to-vdp-appliance/) - In this post I would like to show how to add the second (or more) network card (NIC) to the vSphere Data Protection (VDP) appliance. This solution is a robust, simple to deploy, disk-based backup and recovery solution based on EMC Avamar technology. VDP is fully integrated with the VMware vCenter Server and enables centralized
- [How to limit (restrict) access to VMware DVS port group?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-limit-restrict-access-to-vmware-dvs-port-group/) - This is a short post about small issue that I faced in our lab. I created two DVS port group named: LAB and Storage, however the second one is used just for NFS storage. Unfortunately DVS requires a port group for VMkernel (it is not necessary in VSS) so the port group is visible for
- [VCAP 6 – DCV Design Beta Exam 3V0-622 - Passed!](https://www.settlersoman.com/vcap-6-dcv-design-beta-exam-3v0-622-passed/) - A couple of months ago (in March) I took the VCAP6-DCV Design Beta exam (3V0-622). At last, today I could see the result (passed) on Pearson Vue page (even still I have not received any official email from VMware) ;) Beta and GA Exams I decided to take Beta exam because of some reasons: Cost
- [What is Storage Queue Depth (QD) and why is it so important?](https://www.settlersoman.com/what-is-storage-queue-depth-qd-and-why-is-it-so-important/) - Storage is one of the most critical resources in vSphere environment. There are some important parameters during design of storage that should be taken into consideration such as block size, disk types, required I/O, bandwidth etc. The mentioned parameters generally are used to design a storage but unfortunately, there is one important thing that can
- [TFD11 - Long awaited features in the next version of Zerto](https://www.settlersoman.com/tfd11-long-awaited-features-in-the-next-version-of-zerto/) - Zerto was one of presenters during Tech Field Day 11 (TFD11) in Boston. Its product is a Business Continuity (BC) and Disaster Recovery (DR) solution for virtual environments - VMs replication between data centers. Joshua Stenhouse (Technology Evangelist) presented 3 different use cases of customers, showed demos and feature plans for Q4 2016. All of
- [vSphere upgrade: in-place or fresh install?](https://www.settlersoman.com/vsphere-upgrade-in-place-or-fresh-install/) - This post is part of vSphere design considerations and trying to answer for one of the questions often asked during doing the vSphere (but not only) upgrade projects: should I do this in-place or as a clean, fresh install? The answer is - it depends. Everyone agrees that during e.g. an upgrade in-place of ESXi
- [VMware support by backup solutions like NetBackup?](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-support-by-backup-solutions-like-netbackup/) - Recently I have received some questions about supporting VMware by backup solutions such Veritas NetBackup, EMC Networker etc. so I decided to write a short post to answer. Almost backups solutions use VDDK to protect VMs on VMware. What is VDDK? The Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) is a collection of C/C++ libraries, code samples,
- [NetBackup Replication Director for VMware](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-replication-director-for-vmware/) - Replication Director is the implementation of NetBackup OpenStorage-managed snapshots and snapshot replication, where the snapshots are stored on the storage systems of partnering companies. Replication Director has been introduced in NetBackup 7.5. Main features of Replication Director in NetBackup 7.6: Enables NetBackup to manage NetApp hardware snapshots (currently only this vendor) Leverages OpenStorage technology Replicate
- [Zerto Virtual Replication 4.0: What is and how to create and configure Virtual Protection Group (VPG)?](https://www.settlersoman.com/zerto-virtual-replication-4-0-what-is-and-how-to-configure-virtual-protection-group-vpg/) - This post is the continuation of series about Zerto Virtual Replication 4.0 and you can find here answers for the following questions: What is Virtual Protection Group (VPG) ? How to configure Virtual Protection Group (VPG) ? Virtual Protection Group (VPG) overview A virtual protection groups (VPG) is a group of virtual machines that you want
- [Zerto Virtual Replication 3.5 - Architecture Overview.](https://www.settlersoman.com/zerto-virtual-replication-architecture-overview/) - Zerto Virtual Replication provides a business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) solution in a virtual environment. This is a competitor of VMware Site Recovery Manager and EMC Recover Point for Virtual Machines. Some main features: Recovery Point Objective (RPO) – seconds. (async replication available) Zerto Virtual Replication is storage-agnostic. Any storage supported by VMware
- [When to use NetBackup Replication Director?](https://www.settlersoman.com/when-to-use-netbackup-replication-director/) - This week I received an email from my reader with question about difference between NetBackup Auto Image Replication (AIR) and Replication Director. I already wrote some posts about these NetBackup features: NetBackup AIR Overview? How to configure AIR using NetBackup MSDP? NetBackup Replication Director for VMware and also I described when to use Auto Image
- [How to accelerate (speed up) vMotion?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-accelerate-speed-up-vmotion/) - Nowadays, most of servers have been virtualized and I can't imagine work without vMotion in my datacenter. Using vMotion, I can move (migrate) VMs between ESXi hosts without interruption. Increasing configured RAM of VMs causes vMotion needs time to be completed. So in this article we discuss how to improve/speed up vMotion. Best Practices for
- [What's new in Veritas NetBackup 7.7.2?](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-veritas-netbackup-7-7-2/) - Veritas released the next version of NetBackup - 7.7.2. There are some features and enhancements as follows: SQL Server Intelligent Policies supports SQL Server cluster environments. Oracle multistream restore for proxy backup - specifying the number of proxy restore streams starting simultaneously when the RMAN command is used. Support for Amazon Storage Class. VMware VADP
- [What's new in Veritas NetBackup 7.7.3?](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-veritas-netbackup-7-7-3/) - Veritas released the next version of NetBackup - 7.7.3. There are some features and enhancements as follows: Bare Metal Restore (BMR) support improvements: Oracle Linux 7.2 (x86-64), SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 SP4 (x86-64), Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.2 (x86-64) General Parallel File System (GPFS) 4.1.1 support on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
- [Cisco Nexus 1000v and vSphere 6.x - inconsistent dvUplinks](https://www.settlersoman.com/cisco-nexus-1000v-and-vsphere-6-x-inconsistent-dvuplinks/) - Recently during installing and configuring Cisco Nexus 1000v for my customer, I faced a problem where some dvUplinks were inconsistent on ESXi hosts. Even I configured only two adapters for MGMT_UPLINK, some of ESXi host physical adapters were added to differing dvUplink slots. I mean that one host had vmnic0 in UpLink00, but on another
- [vCenter Host Gateway Appliance - Overview and Deployment.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vcenter-host-gateway-appliance-overview-and-deployment/) - vCenter Host Gateway (distributed as a virtual appliance) is a vCenter Server feature that lets you manage virtual environments that consist of various types of hypervisors. In this post you will find answers for the following questions: vCenter Host Gateway requirements vCenter Host Gateway 3rd supported hypervisors How to deploy and configure vCenter Host Gateway
- [vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) and partially connected datastores?](https://www.settlersoman.com/vsphere-metro-storage-cluster-vmsc-and-no-identical-hosts/) - vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) is a certified (you should always check/verify compatibility on VMware Storage Compatibility Guide) configuration for stretched storage (synchronized replication) cluster architectures. As I already described, there are possible two vMSC configurations based on how the hosts are connected to the storage arrays. The below figure presents uniform host access configuration
- [How to emulate SSD disk on virtual machine hosted on ESXi?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-emulate-ssd-disk-on-virtual-machine-hosted-on-esxi/) - In this short post I will show how to emulate SSD disk on nested ESXi (ESXi "physical" hosts ESXi "virtual"). If you do not have physical server with SSD disk and you would like to test such products: VSAN EMC ScaleIO you have to emulate the SSD disk. To configure a specific virtual disk to
- [Voting is now open for the Top vBlog 2016!](https://www.settlersoman.com/voting-is-now-open-for-the-top-vblog-2016/) - This year again, Eric Siebert from vSphere-land.com started annual voting for the best VMware & Virtualization blogs (Top vBlog).You can vote for your top 12 favorite VMware & virtualization blogs and also rank them in your order of preference after you pick your 12. My blog can be found in two categories (just click F3 and type
- [How to publish Root CA into the trusted store in VMware Endpoint Certificate Store?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-publish-root-ca-into-the-trusted-store-in-vmware-endpoint-certificate-store/) - Recently during preparing a new vSphere environment based on 6.0 U2 version and replacing certificates I got some problems and found the following error in certificate-manager.log: "Error while publishing cert using dir-cli." dir-cli allows to create and update solution users, create other user accounts, and manage certificates and passwords in vmdir. It's used together with
- [vSphere 6 - Cisco Nexus 1000v support?](https://www.settlersoman.com/vsphere-6-cisco-nexus-1000v-support/) - Last week VMware announced that decided to no longer offer Nexus 1000V through VMware sales or sell support for the Nexus 1000V through the VMware support organization as of Feb 2nd 2015. As to mentioned more, fortunately it does NOT IMPACT on existing use of the Nexus 1000V in a VMware vSphere® 5.x or older
- [Cisco Nexus 1000v for VMware vSphere - L3 control design.](https://www.settlersoman.com/cisco-nexus-1000v-for-vmware-vsphere-l3-control-design/) - During preparation to the upgrade of Nexus 1000v (for my customer), I recollected that I have some posts waiting in the "queue" to be completed and published :) One of such post is related to design of L3 Control interface used for VSM-VEM traffic. Cisco Nexus 1000v is very popular and still supported in VMware
- [HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) Version 2016.04.0 is out.](https://www.settlersoman.com/hp-service-pack-for-proliant-spp-version-2016-04-0-is-out/) - HP has released a new version of very useful tool: HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) :) - version 2016.04.0 What is the HP Service Pack for ProLiant? Just for a quick reminder on what the HP Service Pack for ProLiant is: Systems software and firmware solution delivered as a bootable ISO. Solution using HP
- [vSphere HTML5 Web Client - technical preview is out.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vsphere-html5-web-client-technical-preview-is-out/) - Today VMware published the technical preview of vSphere HTML5 Web Client supporting both the vCenter Server Appliance or vCenter for Windows. The current version is not completed as it offers the following actions/views: VM Power Operations (common cases) VM Edit Settings (simple CPU, Memory, Disk changes) VM Console VM and Host Summary pages VM Migration
- [Understanding the NetBackup Catalog](https://www.settlersoman.com/understanding-the-netbackup-catalog/) - NetBackup Catalog is a place where information about the NetBackup configuration and backups are stored such as records of the files that have been backed up and media where those files copied. NetBackup Catalog is kept on the NetBackup master server and consists of the following components: The NetBackup configuration files such as policies, schedules
- [VMware vSphere 6.0 U2 is out - thoughts.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-vsphere-6-0-u2-is-out-thoughts/) - VMware has just released a long awaited (at least by me :) version of vSphere - 6.0 Update 2. This version introduced officially VMware Host Client and solved an annoying bug regarding to failover VMs affected by Permanent Device Loss (PDF). The VM is left in an invalid state with a warning message stating that
- [How to install and clone nested ESXi VM?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-install-and-clone-nested-esxi-vm/) - Last week I needed to prepare a small VMware test environment for my customer as I did a my customized VMware ICM training :) I prepared nested ESXi VMs based on two main steps: Creating a VM with ESXi OS and adding two parameters into VM vmx file. Reconfiguring Virtual Switch/Port Group where ESXi VM
- [What's new in VMware VSAN 6.2?](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-vmware-vsan-6-2/) - On September 2015 VMware released VSAN 6.1. VMware has just announced the newest version of VSAN - 6.2 (I think it will be released in March)! VMware really works hard to improve VSAN... This version provides some long-awaited features and improvements as follows: Space efficiency - deduplication (fixed block 4KB) and compression (after deduplication, only
- [How to check and fix VMFS metadata using vSphere On-disk Metadata Analyzer (VOMA)?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-check-and-fix-vmfs-metadata-using-vsphere-on-disk-metadata-analyzer-voma/) - Recently I realized that vSphere 6.0 added one additional option for vSphere On-disk Metadata Analyzer(VOMA) - possibility to fix errors. VOMA is a tool (introduced in vSphere 5.1) to check metadata consistency of a file system (such as VMFS) or a logical volume backing the file system. The tool can be useful for the
- [vRealize Log Insight for 25 OSI included in vCenter Standard!](https://www.settlersoman.com/vrealize-log-insight-for-25-osi-included-in-vcenter-standard/) - Since March 2016, there are some changes in VMware licensing - e.g. vRealize Log Insight for 25 OSI (= Operating System Image, e.g. one vCenter + max 24 other VMware components like ESXi) is included in vCenter Standard! In my opinion, this is a very good VMware step because Log Insight is really a powerful
- [How to configure a backup policy to protect NetBackup Catalog?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-configure-a-backup-policy-to-protect-netbackup-catalog/) - NetBackup Catalog is a very important thing that should be protected. This is the internal database that contains information about NetBackup backups and configuration. Backup information includes records of the files that have been backed up and the media on which the files are stored. The catalogs also contain information about the media and the
- [NetBackup - File Backup and Restore Optimizations - Part 1](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-file-backup-and-restore-optimizations-part-1/) - It's not a seldom situation when backups of file server need some tuning and reconfiguration. NetBackup provides some unique and standard features as well to speed up the file server backup. In this post I will show what kind of features we can use for optimization: Multiple Data Streaming Multiplexing Synthetic backups Deduplication NetBackup Accelerator
- [NetBackup AIR - restore to an original location?](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-air-restore-to-an-original-location/) - Some days ago, I received a comment on NetBackup AIR Overview post. One of my reader requested to show how to restore data to an original location from another location. As already I mentioned, NetBackup Auto Image Replication (AIR) is not designed to restore data (images) to an original location and currently, there is not
- [What's new in vRealize Operations Manager (vROps) 6.2?](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-vrealize-operations-manager-vrops-6-2/) - VMware released the next version of vRealize Operations Manager (vROps) 6.2. There are some new features as follows: Enhanced Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) Integration - The vRealize Operations Manager analytics determine cross-cluster placement opportunities, while vCenter Distributed Resource Scheduler determines the best destination within clusters. The enhanced integration uses all DRS rules, constraints, and enterprise-class
- [NetBackup Storage Lifecycle Policy (SLP) - FAQ.](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-storage-lifecycle-policy-slp-faq/) - NetBackup Storage Lifecycle Policy (SLP) is a powerful feature used not only for image duplication but also for disaster recovery purpose. In this post you can find answers for questions related to SLP that I received under some posts that I already wrote: NetBackup SLP Overview. NetBackup AIR Overview. Q: If I change some settings
- [Achieved VMware vExpert 2016!](https://www.settlersoman.com/achieved-vmware-vexpert-2016/) - Today, 5th February, VMware announced the list of vExperts 2016. I would like to announce that I am honored to be selected and awarded again :) Just for a quick reminder on vExpert: The VMware vExpert is an annual designation for people who have given back to the community of VMware users by sharing their technical expertise
- [How to patch or upgrade VMware vRealize Operations Manager (vROps) ?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-patch-or-upgrade-vmware-vrealize-operations-manager-vrops/) - Some months ago I showed how to migrate vCenter Operations Manager (vCOps) 5.x to vRealize Operations Manager 6.0.x. In this short post I will show how to patch or upgrade vRealize Operations Manager (vROps) 6.x. The upgrade of vROps is based on two phases: OS upgrade - using vRealize_Operations_Manager-VA-OS-xxx.pak. Product upgrade - vRealize_Operations_Manager-VA-xxx.pak. To upgrade
- [What's new in Veritas NetBackup 7.7.1?](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-veritas-netbackup-7-7-1/) - Veritas released the next version of NetBackup - 7.7.1. There are some nice features as follows: NetBackup Accelerator for NDMP! Accelerator for NDMP is a long awaited feature! NetBackup Accelerator backs up only the changed data from the filer to the media server and create a new full backup image (sth like synthetic backup on
- [How to migrate VMware Operations Manager 5.8.x to vRealize Operations Manager 6.0?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-migrate-vmware-operations-manager-5-8-x-to-vrealize-operations-manager-6-0/) - Recently I have done a migration of VMware Operations Manager 5.8.3 (formerly vCOPS) to vRealize Operations Manager 6.0. In this post, I will show how to perform the entire process which is known as a migration-based upgrade. Migration occurs side by side, and while the migration is in progress, the source continues to monitor resources.
- [VMware vMotion without Shared Storage?](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-vmotion-without-shared-storage/) - I decided to write this post because I have heard many times that vMotion is not possible without shared storage. vMotion (known as Enhanced vMotion) is supported and possible to be done without shared storage since vSphere 5.1. This vMotion is a combination of vMotion and Storage vMotion! I understand that within a long time,
- [Problem with generating and downloading VMware SRM Recovery Plan history.](https://www.settlersoman.com/problem-with-generating-and-downloading-vmware-srm-recovery-plan-history/) - Last weekend, I wanted to save SRM reports to html after doing some failovers between sites as my customer needed to document it. VMware SRM Recovery Plan history is kept in the SRM database (by default - last 5 reports). Unfortunately, we faced a problem to save report using IE, Firefox or Chrome. We followed
- [VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) - some useful advanced settings.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-site-recovery-manager-srm-some-useful-advanced-settings/) - When I install and configure Site Recovery Manager (SRM) for my customers, I often configure some advanced settings that let me avoid cosmetic errors or recovery failure. This post covers those advanced settings. To change advanced settings using vSphere or Web Client, please follow a post here. [table id=11 /] Note: By design, during an
- [VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) - protecting VMs in vApp?](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-site-recovery-manager-protecting-vms-in-vapp/) - Today I performed some failovers with my customer using Site Recovery Manager (SRM) and one of requirement was the protection of VMs grouped in vApp. SRM using vSphere Replication or array-based replication can protect VMs from vApp, however, SRM still does not understand vApp (there is no mapping of vApp objects at the recovery site
- [How to prepare for VMware vSphere upgrade?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-prepare-for-vmware-vsphere-upgrade/) - When it comes to upgrading the vSphere environment, we have to (or at least should ;) ) prepare for it carefully. I have done many vSphere projects and in order for upgrades to be successful, it's necessary to do some pre-ugrade tasks :) In this article we discuss the following topics: Why to perform an
- [VMware vCenter Appliance (vCSA) or installed on Windows?](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-vcenter-appliance-vcsa-or-installed-on-windows/) - In this post we discuss when to install vCenter Server on Windows Machine and when to deploy vCenter Appliance.
- [vSphere clusters Scale Up or Scale Out?](https://www.settlersoman.com/vsphere-clusters-scale-up-or-scale-out/) - In my previous post, I justified why to create the vSphere Management Cluster. In this short post we discuss vSphere Clusters: Scale Up and Scale Out. What's difference? Scale Up - vSphere cluster based on larger ESXi hosts (adding more processors and RAM) Scale Out - vSphere cluster based on smaller ESXi hosts (servers with
- [Veeam Availability Suite v9 - new features and enhancements.](https://www.settlersoman.com/veeam-availability-suite-v9-new-features-and-enhancements/) - Today Veeam released the latest - version 9 of Availability Suite. There are some new features such as: Direct NFS Access - retrieving VM data directly from file-based (NFS) storage using Veeam’s proprietary NFS client. Backup from NetApp SnapMirror and SnapVault - my favorite :) Veeam Backup & Replication standalone console. Scale-out Backup Repository. Backup
- [Microsoft Cluster of Virtual Machines (VM) on VMware vSphere?](https://www.settlersoman.com/microsoft-cluster-of-virtual-machines-vm-on-vmware-vsphere/) - In spite of virtualization of servers, it's not seldom when I we can meet Microsoft Cluster (MSCS or WSFC) of Virtual Machines (VMs) running on VMware vSphere. This type of clustering is called guest clustering and recently I was thinking what are the reasons to migrate and design such clusters on vSphere. In my opinion,
- [MCSE: Private Cloud: 70-981 (re)-certification exam.](https://www.settlersoman.com/mcse-private-cloud-70-981-re-certification-exam/) - Some weeks ago I received an email from Microsoft certification team that my MCSE: Private Cloud expires 19th of December 2015. Currently, to re-certify (maintain) MCSE: Private Cloud you need to take and pass exam 70-981. As I didn't want to have my certificate expired and later (if necessary) take and pass at least 2
- [NetBackup Copilot for Oracle - Overview.](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-copilot-for-oracle-overview/) - In December 2015, Veritas released NetBackup 2.7.1 (=7.7.1) for Appliances. There was a small "lag" between normal version of NetBackup and version for Appliances. This version introduces a new feature (available only on NetBackup Appliances) - Copilot for Oracle. Not once I have heard that Oracle admins do not want to use NetBackup to backup
- [What's new in Veritas - Symantec NetBackup 7.7?](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-veritas-symantec-netbackup-7-7/) - The NetBackup 7.7 has been released today! What's new in NetBackup 7.7? The main features are as follows: SQL Server Intelligent Policy - Batch files do not need to be created for backups because they are automatically generated at run-time. For more information please follow this post: How to use SQL Intelligent Policy? Hyper-V Intelligent
- [Problem with vCenter VAMI interface after upgrade to VCSA 6.0 U1.](https://www.settlersoman.com/problem-with-vcenter-vami-interface-after-upgrade-to-vcsa-6-0-u1/) - Yesterday VMware released new version of products such as vSphere 6.0 U1, Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.1 or VSAN 6.1. As it's time to upgrade my lab I decided to patch my vCenter Appliance 6.0. VCSA 6.0 U1 offers again the Virtual Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) that is really useful and now totally rewritten - in
- [How to configure NetBackup Access Control (NBAC) ?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-configure-netbackup-access-control-nbac/) - As I descirbed some months ago, NetBackup Access Control (NBAC) can be used to limit access to NetBackup more granular. Since NetBackup 7.x. the configuration of NBAC is simplified. NBAC should be configured on the following NetBackup components: Master Server Media Servers Clients Configuring NetBackup Access Control (NBAC) on Master Server To configure NBAC on
- [NetBackup Security: NetBackup Access Control (NBAC)](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-security-netbackup-access-control-nbac/) - Recently I have reviewed the newest version of Symantec NetBackup ™ Security and Encryption Guide and I realized that I have not met so often in my customer environment an important NetBackup security option: NBAC. Hmm, I can admit, I have seen twice this feature implemented... The NetBackup Access Control (NBAC) is the role-based access control that
- [Storage Array (SAN/NAS) operating systems (OS) list.](https://www.settlersoman.com/array-devices-sannas-operating-systems-list/) - This is a post that I wanted to write long time ago. I was looking for a post/article where I could find information about array (of course the most known storage vendors) operating systems (OS) such NetApp Data ONTAP, EMC Isilon OneFS etc. The post is prepared as a table where you can find information
- [VMware vCenter 6 Deployment Possibilities: Topologies and High Availability](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-vcenter-6-deployment-possibilities-topologies-and-high-availability/) - Yesterday I read Mohan Potheri's post on VMware blog and I decided to share some information. In this post you will find answers for the following questions: vCenter 6 Architecture and possible deployment topologies. How to protect and build a highly available vCenter Server? Links to my another posts to follow deployment and configuring of vCenter
- [VMware vStorage API for Data Protection (VADP) design: vmkernel interface.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-vstorage-api-for-data-protection-vadp-design-vmkernel-interface/) - This is not a seldom situation, when backups of VMs or physical servers are performed via dedicated network cards. But what if backups are done via VMware vStorage API for Data Protection (VADP)? It depends on transport methods: LAN or SAN. In this post we discuss a scenario when we use LAN (Network Block Device
- [How to install and configure highly available (cluster) VMware vCenter on WSFC?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-install-and-configure-highly-available-cluster-vmware-vcenter-on-wsfc/) - Some months ago I showed how to configure highly available Platform Services Controller (PSC). After publishing the mentioned procedure for PSC HA, I received some emails to show how to install highly available vCenter. I have to admin that I had tried to cluster vCenter using Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) with no success until
- [How to configure NetBackup LiveUpdate using CIFS or IIS?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-configure-netbackup-liveupdate-using-cifs-or-iis/) - NetBackup is an enterprise backup solution. If you have hundreds or thousands clients, you would not like to update those clients manually. Of course, we do not need to update clients asap, however it is recommended as some bugs should be solved and also new features added. Fortunately, NetBackup provides a feature to update clients
- [NetBackup Accelerator - design considerations.](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-accelerator-design-considerations/) - NetBackup Accelerator is a powerful feature introduced in NetBackup 7.5 for files. Since NetBackup 7.6 we can use this feature to backup virtual machine in VMware environment and since NetBackup 7.7.1 to backup NetApp Filers via NDMP. Just for a quick reminder on what NetBackup Accelerator is - it provides full backups for the cost
- [How to create Storage Unit (STU) on NetBackup Advanced Disk?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-create-storage-unit-stu-on-netbackup-advanced-disk/) - This post covers how to create Storage Unit on NetBackup Advanced Disk using GUI. In the NetBackup Administration Console, select either NetBackup Management or Media and Device Management. In the right pane, select Configure Disk Storage Servers to launch the Storage Server Configuration Wizard. Select Advanced Disk and click Next. Select Media server to create
- [No more VCAP exam - VCIX as a replace!](https://www.settlersoman.com/no-more-vcap-exam-vcix-as-a-replace/) - VMware has announced the new VMware Certification roadmap. VMware Certified Implementation Expert (VCIX) replaces the current VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) level: VCIX certification is comprised of two separate exams – one focused on Administration and one focused on Design The VCIX Design exam will be available at more PearsonVue testing locations VCIX Design exams
- [Enterprise Vault IMAP - invalid input string.](https://www.settlersoman.com/enterprise-vault-imap-invalid-input-string/) - One of my customer wanted to use a new feature of Enterprise Vault 11 - archive access by IMAP. However they faced with a problem as the Metadata Store Build task didn't work correctly - status of the subtask was stuck to Will Retry. In the Enterprise Vault Event Viewer we could find the following
- [VMware vCenter Distributed Power Management (DPM) - overview and configuration.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-vcenter-distributed-power-management-dpm-overview-and-configuration/) - Some weeks ago I decided to use VMware vCenter Distributed Power Management (DPM) in the lab. In this post I will cover the following topics: vCenter Distributed Power Management (DPM) overview and requirements. How to configure DPM? Some advanced settings that I used in the lab :) Distributed Power Management (DPM) overview DPM is a
- [How to configure Highly Available External Platform Services Controller (PSC) Appliance?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-configure-highly-available-external-platform-services-controller-psc-appliance/) - This post covers configuring Highly Available External Platform Services Controller (PSC) Appliance (SSO). For more information about high availability of vCenter and PSC, please follow my post: VMware vCenter 6 Deployment Possibilities: Topologies and High Availability. Prerequisties and notes to build a highly available External Platform Services Controller Load Balancer, VMware supports only: Citrix Netscaler,
- [How to configure Multi-NIC vMotion on vSS or vDS?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-configure-multi-nic-vmotion-on-vss-or-vds/) - In this post I will show how to configure Multi-NIC vMotion on vSS or vDS
- [How to convert&migrate VCSA with embedded to an external PSC?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-convertmigrate-vcsa-with-embedded-psc-to-an-external/) - Today I received an email from my reader with question about converting/migrating vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) with Embedded Platform Services Controller to the external PSC. Fortunately, since vSphere 6.0 U1, vCenter Server can be repointed from embedded to external PSC.I decided to write a post about it as it can be useful when you want
- [NetBackup Accelerator for NDMP for NetApp Filers - Overview.](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-accelerator-for-ndmp-for-netapp-filers-overview/) - NetBackup Accelerator for NDMP for NetApp Filers - Overview.
- [How to reclaim space on /storage/seat in vCenter Appliance 5.5 or 6.x?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-reclaim-space-on-storageseat-in-vcenter-appliance-5-5-or-6-x/) - Some days ago I faced a problem with out of space on /storage/seat in vCenter Appliance 6.0 in my lab. This is a disk where some vPostgres data are kept: Tasks, Events or Stats. As I described already, you can resize a disk containing /storage/seat. In this post I will show how to purge tables
- [How to clean up vCenter Server from unused plugins?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-clean-up-vcenter-server-from-unused-plugins/) - Some days ago I decided to clean up some unused or orphaned vCenter plugins. When I checked available plugins on vSphere Client I saw the following list: Sometimes, when we install VMware or 3rd party plugins and remove it without correct procedure, we can see orphaned plugins as shown on the above figure - e.g.
- [vCenter Appliance (VCSA) 6.x disk (vmdk) list and purpose.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vcenter-appliance-vcsa-6-x-disk-vmdk-list-and-purpose/) - Recently I have faced an error when I couldn't log in to the vCenter Appliance (VCSA) in my lab using vSphere Client or the Web Client as well. However I could log in to the VAMI interface (as you probably know, re-introduced in VCSA 6.0 U1 :) and I saw the following warning: The /storage/seat
- [What is VM Component Protection (VMCP) introduced with vSphere 6?](https://www.settlersoman.com/what-is-vm-component-protection-vmcp-introduced-with-vsphere-6/) - I attended at the great session during the VMworld Europe: INF5898 - vSphere High Availability (HA) Best Practices. VMware introduced a new useful feature with vSphere 6.0 - VM Component Protection. This is a new option of VMware HA that protects VMs from Permanent Device Loss (PDL) and All Paths Down (APD). This post covers
- [When to use the NetBackup Auto Image Replication (AIR)?](https://www.settlersoman.com/when-to-use-the-netbackup-auto-image-replication-air/) - Over the past few weeks I have received a lot of emails with questions about AIR and also comments as well under the following posts: NetBackup Auto Image Replication Overview or AIR configuration and I decided to write this post to clarify when we have to or should use AIR and when not. NetBackup AIR
- [Recover vSphere infrastructure when signed certificates are expired.](https://www.settlersoman.com/recover-vsphere-infrastructure-when-signed-certificates-are-expired/) - Recently I worked with one of my customers on vSphere infrastructure with expired signed certificates. Some vSphere components didn't work such as vCenter Server but fortunately all VMs were running fine. In this post I would like to share some experience and problems that we faced when we wanted to replace expired certificates on vSphere
- [VMware vSphere 5.5 U3 has been released.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-vsphere-5-5-u3-has-been-released/) - Some days ago, VMware released vSphere 6.0 U1. Today vSphere 5.5 U3 was released with the following features: vCenter Server database support: vCenter Server 5.5 U3 now supports the following external databases: Oracle 12c R1 P2 (12.1.0.2) Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 2 Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 3 Always check Database
- [Cisco Nexus 1000v - L3 Capability Control bug.](https://www.settlersoman.com/cisco-nexus-1000v-l3-capability-control-bug/) - Over the last few months I had to work with Cisco and VMware support to solve an issue with Nexus 1000v in my customer environment. Almost one year ago! we deployed Cisco Nexus 1000v with L3 control (I wrote a post about Cisco Nexus 1000v L3 Capability so I recommend that you make yourself familiar
- [How to reset root password on vCenter Appliance (VCSA) 6.x?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-reset-root-password-on-vcenter-appliance-vcsa-6-x/) - Recently I received two emails from my readers. One of my reader wrote that my procedure to reset the root password on vCenter Appliance (VCSA) 5.5 is not valid for 6.x version and the second mentioned that he forgot the GRUB password and was not able to reset the root password. Because recently I haven't
- [How to reset root password on vCenter Appliance 5.5?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-reset-root-password-on-vcenter-appliance/) - Recently I have had to use my lab but unfortunately I forgot root password to vCenter Appliance :D However, fortunately, the vCenter Appliance is a Linux distribution, so it was not a difficult to change the root password. To change the root password, please follow the steps: Reboot the vCSA using the vSphere Client. When
- [How to calculate VMware HA Admission Control for unbalanced vSphere cluster?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-calculate-vmware-ha-admission-control-for-unbalanced-vsphere-cluster/) - Yesterday I received an email with the following question: how to calculate VMware HA Admission Control for unbalanced vSphere cluster? Just for a quick reminder, Admission Control is used to ensure that sufficient resources are available in a cluster to provide failover protection and to ensure that virtual machine resource reservations are respected. I already
- [Understanding VMware HA Admission Control.](https://www.settlersoman.com/understanding-vmware-ha-admission-control/) - Recently I have been asked by my customers and also blog readers :) about VMware HA Admission Control. As this topic is often misunderstood, this post covers some information about this important feature of VMware vSphere HA. In this post you will find answers for the following questions: What is Admission Control? What is and
- [What's new in VMware VSAN 6.1?](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-vmware-vsan-6-1/) - Now during VMworld 2015 US, VMware announced Virtual SAN 6.1 with the following most important new features: Virtual SAN Stretched Cluster - at last! With VSAN 6.1 you can build a stretched VMware cluster! The cluster can be spread across 2 sites with a witness (virtual appliance) at a 3rd site. This is really similar
- [VMware vSphere 6.0 U1 and vSphere Replication 6.1 and more have been released.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-vsphere-6-0-u1-and-vsphere-replication-6-1-has-been-released/) - Today, 10th September, VMware released new version of the following products: VMware ESXi 6.0 Update 1 VMware vCenter Server 6.0 Update 1 VMware Update Manager 6.0 Update 1 VMware vSphere Replication 6.1 VMware vRealize Operations Manager 6.1 VMware VSAN 6.1 VMware Data Protection (VDP) 6.1 VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.1 Let's check what's new
- [VMware NSX for vSphere - basics: components and services overview.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-nsx-for-vsphere-basics-components-and-services-overview/) - As a settler in the SDDC world :) I can't miss a key product in the software-defined data center - VMware NSX :) NSX allows creating, deleting or restoring software-based virtual networks. I'm impressed how VMware works on improving NSX. I think, every ~2 months, we can download the next version of NSX with new
- [Veritas NetBackup basics: backup and scheduler types.](https://www.settlersoman.com/veritas-netbackup-basics-backup-and-scheduler-types/) - I decided to write this post because recently I have met again a situation when NetBackup schedulers have been used incorrectly :) Let's discuss the following areas: NetBackup type of backup types. NetBackup scheduler types. How NetBackup determines files are due for backup? How NetBackup calculates frequency based schedules? NetBackup - type of scheduler and
- [VMware NSX 6.2 features: Cross-vCenter Networking and Security.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-nsx-6-2-features-cross-vcenter-networking-and-security/) - In August, VMware released NSX 6.2 with some new features. One of them is Cross-vCenter Networking and Security that I would like to discuss. In this post you can find the following info: Overview of Cross-vCenter Networking and Security. Cross-vCenter NSX Topologies. Cross-vCenter components. Cross-vCenter benefits. Cross-vCenter Networking and Security feature was designed for environments
- [How to upgrade NSX 6.x? Part 2 - update Clusters.](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-upgrade-nsx-6-x-part-2-update-clusters/) - After upgrading NSX Manager to version 6.1.2, you must update the appropriate clusters in your environment. During this process, each host in the cluster receives a software update and is then rebooted. Log in to the vCenter Web Client. Click Networking & Security and then click Installation. Click the Management tab. Next to the NSX
- [How to expand VMFS datastore from the command line (CLI) on vSphere 5.x and 6.x?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-expand-vmfs-datastore-from-the-command-line-cli-on-vsphere-5-x-and-6-x/) - Today I needed to expand a datastore on my nested ESXi 5.5 in my lab. Unfortunately when I resized a VMDK for my ESXi host, I was not able to expand the datastore via Web Client - because no additional space was available! I did not to want to install again vSphere Client (I know
- [What's new in VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.1?](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-vmware-site-recovery-manager-srm-6-1/) - VMware published a new technical white paper with new features of Site Recovery Manager 6.1. There are some useful and long awaited features as follows: Support Stretched Storage and Orchestrated vMotion Enhanced integration with VMware NSX Storage Profile Based Protection As for a quick reminder, Site Recovery Manager enables simplified automation of disaster recovery and
- [What's new in VMware NSX 6.2?](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-vmware-nsx-6-2/) - Some days ago VMware released NSX 6.2. NSX 6.2 + vSphere 6.0 support Cross vCenter NSX. It means that you can deploy logical switches (LS), distributed logical routers (DLR) and distributed firewalls (DFW) across multiple vCenters. Yesterday when I was reading about new features in VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.1 I found out that
- [How to repoint vCenter Server 6.0 to a new External Platform Services Controller (PSC)?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-repoint-vcenter-server-6-0-to-a-new-external-platform-services-controller-psc/) - Sometimes it would be necessary to repoint vCenter Server 6 Appliance or installed on Windows to a new external PSC. For example, some days ago I wrote a post how to configure a highly available Platform Controller Services. so it would be very useful to repoint vCenter to use Load Balancer Virtual Name. Fortunately, it
- [How to properly move vCenter to a different host machine?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-properly-move-vcenter-to-a-diffrent-host-machine/) - VMware has updated recently KB about migrating vCenter Server 4.x/5.0.x to a different host machine. The KB is available here. Recently I have done some vCenter 5.x migrations and there are below some additional tips. If you have some 3rd vCenter plugins (e.g. NetApp, HP) installed, you have to unregister it and later install again
- [How to deploy and configure EMC RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines 4.2? Part 2: Create a vRPA Cluster](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-deploy-and-configure-recoverpoint-for-virtual-machines-4-2-part-2-create-a-vrpa-cluster/) - In this part of deploying RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines 4.2, I will show how to create and configure vRPA Cluster.
- [Symantec NetBackup for VMware: features and integration.](https://www.settlersoman.com/symantec-netbackup-for-vmware-features-and-integration/) - Symantec NetBackup for VMware provides backup and restore of the VMware virtual machines that run on VMware ESXi servers. NetBackup for VMware takes advantage of VMware vStorage APIs for data protection. The backup process is off-loaded from the ESXi server to a VMware backup host. NetBackup 7.6 for VMware does the following: Performs off-host backup
- [EMC RecoverPoint for virtual machines 4.2: Architecture Overview](https://www.settlersoman.com/emc-recover-point-for-virtual-machines-architecture-overview/) - In November, EMC released RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines 4.2 (RP4VM) which allows replicating virtual machines with virtual machine level granularity. Recover Point for virtual machines is a new competitor of VMware Site Recovery Manager and Zerto Virtual Replication. Some main features: Recovery Point Objective (RPO) - zero or seconds. (Sync or async replication available) RecoverPoint
- [EMC RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines (RP4VM) Part 3: Connecting vRPA Clusters.](https://www.settlersoman.com/emc-recoverpoint-for-virtual-machines-rp4vm-part-3-connecting-vrpa-clusters/) - This is the next post about configuring of EMC RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines (RP4VM). I showed how to set up environment before deploying RP4VM. I described also how to create vRPA clusters necessary for replicating virtual machines. This post covers how to connect already created vRPA clusters to be able to replicate VMs between sites
- [What’s New in VMware vSphere 6.0: Virtual Volumes (VVOLs)](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-vmware-vsphere-6-0-virtual-volumes-vvols/) - Recently, Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) are often on speakers, bloggers's lips. So I decided to write this post which covers some Virtual Volumes features and answers for the following questions: What are Virtual Volumes (VVOL)? Why Virtual Volumes (VVOL) are really useful? What are Storage Container and Protocol Endpoint? What is Policy Based Management? VVOL requirements
- [Veritas NetBackup 7.7 features: What is and how to use SQL Intelligent Policy (SIP)?](https://www.settlersoman.com/veritas-netbackup-7-7-features-what-is-and-how-to-use-sql-intelligent-policy-sip/) - NetBackup 7.7 is already out and it's time to share some details of new features. In this post we discuss the following topics: What is SQL Intelligent Policy? How to configure/use this kind of policy? Current limitations of SQL Intelligent Policy. NetBackup SQL Intelligent Policy Overview Up to NetBackup 7.6.x, the backup admins have to
- [How to restore Microsoft SQL databases using NetBackup?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-restore-microsoft-sql-databases-using-netbackup/) - In the previous post here I showed how to use NetBackup to backup/protect Microsoft SQL databases. This post covers restoration of SQL databases. There are two main possibilities: Restore a database at its original location. Restore a database to an alternative location. Restoring database - original location To restore a database at its original location
- [How to configure a NetBackup policy to protect Microsoft SQL databases?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-configure-a-netbackup-policy-to-protect-microsoft-sql-databases/) - This post covers configuring NetBackup policy to backup/protect all databases on Microsoft SQL Server host. The configuration can be divided for two parts: Create a sql backup batch file on source (Microsoft SQL Server host). Create a NetBackup policy on Master Server. Before showing how to do above parts, let's discuss some basic terminology used
- [NetBackup for NDMP - Architecture Overview.](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-for-ndmp-architecture-overview/) - This post covers overview of NetBackup for Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP). NDMP allows to initiate and control backups and restores of Network Attached Storage (NAS) systems. NDMP architecture follows the client and server model: The NetBackup master or media server where NetBackup for NDMP is installed is called a NetBackup for NDMP server. The
- [How to configure NetBackup Media Server Deduplication Pool (MSDP)?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-configure-netbackup-media-server-deduplication-pool-msdp/) - In this post, I will show how to create and configure Media Server Deduplication Pool (MSDP) using GUI or command line. The parameters that I use in this post: Media server name = kyoto.nihonno.domein Storage server name = kyoto.nihonno.domein Disk Pool name = Pool1 Storage Unit Pool = Pool1-stu Create Media Server Deduplication Pool (MSDP)
- [How to deploy and configure EMC RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines 4.2? Part 1: Set up environment.](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-deploy-recoverpoint-for-virtual-machines-4-2-2/) - As I described in the previous article, EMC RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines allows replicating virtual machines with virtual machine level granularity. This solution runs in VMware virtual environments and does not depend on any specific hardware. We need to prepare VMware environment before installing Recover Point. The prerequisites are as follows: Installing the RecoverPoint for
- [How to deploy Cisco Nexus 1000v on vSphere 5?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-deploy-cisco-nexus-1000v-on-vsphere-5/) - In this article I will shows how to deploy Cisco Nexus 1000v on vSphere 5.5.
- [VMware Data Protection - Replication Target (VDP-RT)](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-data-protection-replication-target-vdp-rt/) - In this article we discuss the VMware Data Protection - Replication Target (VDP-RT) introduced with the VDP 5.8 release. This is an appliance (not required license) to serve as a replication target for backup data from a source VDP Advanced or another VDP-RT appliance. A VDP-RT appliance can perform restores (only, no backups) from replicated backup
- [NetApp Virtual Storage Console 5 for VMware vSphere - Overview.](https://www.settlersoman.com/netapp-virtual-storage-console-for-vmware-vsphere-overview/) - Virtual Storage Console 5 for VMware vSphere software is a single vCenter Server plug-in that enables you to manage complete virtual machine end-to-end lifecycles in VMware environments using NetApp storage systems. VSC integrates with the VMware vSphere Web Client and enables you to use single sign-on (SSO) services. In addition, the VSC Summary page enables
- [How to consolidate orphaned snapshots in VirtualBox?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-consolidate-orphaned-snapshots-in-virtualbox/) - Recently I decided to clean some VMs with many "orphaned" snapshots in VirtualBox. I have done it by export and import VM. Following the VirtualBox KB: OVF cannot describe snapshots that were taken for a virtual machine. As a result, when you export a virtual machine that has snapshots, only the current state of the
- [Bug - Storage vMotions power off VM!](https://www.settlersoman.com/bug-storage-vmotions-power-off-vm/) - Recently, I have done a nice project: Implementing VMware Stretched Cluster. One of the pre-starting activity was migration VMs vmdk between datastores by Storage vMotion. It was done by my customer but they informed me that Storage vMotion powered off some VMs! I was not able to believe so I checked it on-site and it
- [Netbackup for protecting VMware: Instant Recovery](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-for-protecting-vmware-instant-recovery/) - With NetBackup 7.6 you can use a cool feature: The Instant Recovery for VMware which provides an option for quick recovery of virtual machines in a VMware environment. Pros Access to the data on the virtual machine BEFORE the restore of the VM is performed (you can enable the VM directly from a backup image
- [The host name in the Subject Alternative Name of the provided certificate does not match the SRM host name.](https://www.settlersoman.com/the-host-name-in-the-subject-alternative-name-of-the-provided-certificate-does-not-match-the-srm-host-name/) - During installation SRM with custom certificate you can get an error:SRM certificate must meet the following criteria (following VMware site): The certificates used by the members of an SRM server pair (a protected site and a recovery site) must have a Subject Name value that is the same on both sites. A Common Name (CN)
- [UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\u201c' in position 428: ordinal not in range(128) during VMware Workstation installation](https://www.settlersoman.com/unicodeencodeerror-ascii-codec-cant-encode-character-uu201c-in-position-428-ordinal-not-in-range128-during-vmware-workstation-installation/) - I've decided to "return" to use VMware Workstation because I used Oracle VirtualBox for some years and this is a time for changes! Ok, the main reason is that I can connect to vCenter by VMware Workstation ;) An installation of VMware Workstation is pretty easy but it didn't want to work :) I got
- [VMware vSphere features fundamentals: Business Continuity](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-vsphere-features-fundamentals-business-continuity-and-security/) - In this article I will explain features like: vMotion, HA, Fault Tolerance (FT) and more. It is a not "deepdive" article. I'm going to write the next article which shows deeper about following features: High Availability (HA) HA monitors ESXi hosts and/or VMs and automatically restarts failed virtual machines on other ESXi hosts when
- [Tools to analyze performance on VMware.](https://www.settlersoman.com/tools-to-analyze-performance-on-vmware/) - The high performance and security of infrastructure are the most important areas that IT administrators and engineers should care about. Fortunately day by day we can use new tools which help us to achieve it. In this article I will briefly describe tools which can be used e.g. to measure storage performance in a virtual
- [SRM replicated datastores with the snap prefix](https://www.settlersoman.com/srm-replicated-datastores-with-the-snap-prefix/) - I've done many SRM implementations since version 1.x and always there was the same "esthetic" problem: SRM renames replicated datastore with the snap prefix after recovery. Fortunately since SRM 5.x it is possible to change the behavior via GUI: The option is not checked by default so I recommend to check it. To access the
- [vRealize Log Insight overview: Architecture, deployment and integration with other products.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vrealize-log-insight-overview-architecture-deployment-and-integration-with-another-products/) - I wrote some posts about vROps - vRealize Operations Manager (aka vCOPs). Now we know how to deploy and configure vRealize Operations Manager and if necessary how to migrate vCOps to vROps. I showed how to deploy Hyperic Server and integrate with Operations Manager. Hyperic server is a component used to monitoring 3rd applications or
- [vRealize Infrastructure Navigator (VIN): Installation and integration with vRealize Operations Manager.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vrealize-infrastructure-navigator-vin-installation-and-integration-with-vrealize-operations-manager/) - Recently I have done some vRealize Operations Manager (vROps) POCs. Depending on version/license of vROps there are some components you can deploy: vRealize Operations Manager vRealize Infrastructure Navigator vRealize Hyperic Server vRealize Configuration Manager vRealize LogInsight In this post let's discuss vRealize Infrastructure Navigator and focus on the following areas: vRealize Infrastructure Navigator architecture and
- [How to change forgotten root password on ESXi?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-change-forgotten-root-password-on-esxi/) - As you can read here it is not possible to recover the root password on ESXi. Generally if you forget root password... you have to reinstall ESXi host. But the question is: is it always necessary? Fortunately NO! If your ESXi hosts are added to vCenter you can use Host Profiles (available in Enterprise +
- [NetBackup Storage Lifecycle Policy (SLP): Overview.](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-storage-lifecycle-policy-slp-overview/) - NetBackup Storage Lifecycle Policy (SLP) - overview and usage. Best practices and useful parameters.
- [Step by step: 3 scenarios with HOWTO for recover NetBackup Catalog in a Disaster Recovery Center (DRC).](https://www.settlersoman.com/step-by-step-3-scenarios-with-howto-for-recover-netbackup-catalog-in-a-disaster-recovery-center-drc/) - I have written an article about ways of NetBackup Master Server Disaster Recovery where you can find all the most known possibilities to provide DR for NetBackup Master Server. After publishing the post, I have received some requests to write a post with step by step procedure how to recover NetBackup Catalog in DR. :)
- [How to configure NetBackup Auto Image Replication (AIR)?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-configure-netbackup-auto-image-replication-air/) - In the previous post I showed NetBackup Auto Image Replication architecture overview. In this post I will describe how to configure it with using MSDP (or OST compatbile Storage Server). NetBackup provides the ability to establish a trust relationship between replication domains. A trust relationship is optional. The following points describe how a trust relationship
- [NetBackup Auto Image Replication (AIR): Overview.](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-auto-image-replication-air-overview/) - NetBackup Auto Image Replication (AIR) was released in version NetBackup 7.1 and has been improved so much. AIR lets you replicate the backups that are generated in one NetBackup domain to storage in one or more target NetBackup domains. To replicate images from one NetBackup domain to another NetBackup domain requires two storage lifecycle policies
- [What are the prerequisites for VVOLs on NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP and vSphere 6.0?](https://www.settlersoman.com/what-are-the-prerequisites-for-vvols-on-netapp-clustered-data-ontap-and-vsphere-6-0/) - As I described in my another post What's new in vSphere 6.0 - Virtual Volumes, VVOLs let you manage your storage at the virtual machine level instead of the datastore level. NetApp is one of the first storage vendor supporting VVOL. In this post I will show how to configure VVOL to be able to
- [How to monitor NetApp Filers using vRealize Operations Manager (vROps)?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-monitor-netapp-filers-using-vrealize-operations-manager-vrops/) - In this post I will show how to use vRealize Hyperic Server + plugin to monitor NetApp Filers via vRealize Operations Manager (vROps). You will find answers for the following topics/questions: Prerequisites to monitor NetApp via vRealize Hyperic Server. How to install and configure NetApp plugin for vRealize Hyperic Server? Overview of available metrics for
- [How to install and configure VMware vSphere Replication (Hypervisor Based Replication) 6.0?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-install-and-configure-vmware-vsphere-replication-hypervisor-based-replication-6-0/) - VMware vSphere Replication (Hypervisor Based Replication HBR) is a solution included in the Essentials Plus Kit and higher editions of vSphere. As I mentioned in Site Recovery Manager: Architecture Overview and Features vSphere replication can be used with SRM for Disaster Recovery purpose. However, SRM is not necessary, just potentially VMs recovery in DR would
- [HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) Version 2015.06.0 has been released.](https://www.settlersoman.com/hp-service-pack-for-proliant-spp-version-2015-06-0-has-been-released/) - HP has released a new version of very useful tool: HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) :) - version 2015.06.0 What is the HP Service Pack for ProLiant? Just for a quick reminder on what the HP Service Pack for ProLiant is: Systems software and firmware solution delivered as a bootable ISO. Solution using HP
- [vCenter Log Insight – integration with vCenter Operations Manager (vCOPS)](https://www.settlersoman.com/vcenter-log-insight-integration-with-vcenter-operations-manager/) - In this article I will show how to integrate vCOPS with vCenter Log Insight. You can configure Log Insight to send alert notifications to vCenter Operations Manager (I recommend to upgrade vCOPS to vROps. Please follow post: How to upgrade vCOPS to vRealize Operations Manager) so it allows you to view all information about your
- [Cisco Nexus 1000v on vSphere 5 - basic configuration (L3 Control)](https://www.settlersoman.com/cisco-nexus-1000v-on-vsphere-5-basic-configuration-l3-control/) - In this post I will show a basic configuration of Cisco Nexus 1000v after deployment presented here. We have deployed two Nexus 1000v VSM machines. Let's configure it! The following configuration is based on some requirements: L3 control via mgmt0 interface Five VLANs: 22 (system vlan, L3 capability), 150, 300, 450, 777 Port-Profile with LACP
- [What's new in EMC RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines (VMs) 4.3?](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-emc-recoverpoint-for-virtual-machines-vms-4-3/) - Today EMC released the next version of RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines VMs - 4.3. This is a solution that allows replicating virtual machines with virtual machine level granularity. There are another similar solutions such VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) with vSphere/array replication or Zerto Virtual Replication. I wrote some posts about RecoverPoint for VMs 4.1:
- [How to restore VMware VMs backups by NetBackup?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-restore-vmware-vms-backups-by-netbackup/) - In this article I will show how to restore VMware VMs by NetBackup to original or alternate location.
- [HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) Version 2015.04.0 has been released.](https://www.settlersoman.com/hp-service-pack-for-proliant-spp-version-2015-04-0-has-been-released/) - The next weekend is going to be a little bit busy because I'm patching some HP Proliant Servers :) During checking new firmwares and softwares, I found out that fortunately, HP has released a new version of very useful tool: HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) :) What is the HP Service Pack for ProLiant?
- [How to install/run Hyper-V host as a VM(nested) on vSphere 5 or 6?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-installrun-hyper-v-host-as-a-vmnested-on-vsphere-5-or-6/) - Yesterday I prepared a lab for a presentation for my customers about Zerto 4.0 new features and replication between VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2. Unfortunately I didn't have enough physical machines to install mentioned hypervisors so I decided to run/install Hyper-V hosts as virtual machines (nested). Yes, it is possible to run some
- [How to configure Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 5.8 or 6.x with vSphere Replication?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-configure-site-recovery-manager-srm-5-8-or-6-x-with-vsphere-replication/) - This post covers integrating Site Recovery Manager (SRM) with vSphere based replication. There are some others post that you should read before: Site Recovery Manager (SRM): Architecture overview Site Recovery Manager (SRM): installing with embedded database Site Recovery Manager (SRM): installing with external database Installing and configuring vSphere Replication 6.0 After you install SRM and
- [Higher memory utilization (TPS disabled) on vSphere 5.0/5.1 or 5.5/6.x after patching?](https://www.settlersoman.com/higher-memory-utilization-on-vsphere-5-05-1-or-5-5-after-patching/) - I decided to write this post to remind you one important memory setting that has been changed in ESXi recently. I have been contacted by my customers about higher memory utilization of ESXi hosts after patching of VMware environment. As it was mentioned some months ago at VMware site: By forcing a flush and reload
- [How to install Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 5.8 or 6.x Part 2: using external database.](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-install-site-recovery-manager-srm-5-8-or-6-x-part-2-using-external-database/) - In the previous post here I showed how to install Site Recovery Manager using embedded database. In this post I will show how to install Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 5.8 or 6.x using external database. Installing Site Recovery Manager (SRM) with external database To install Site Recovery Manager with external database please follow below steps
- [VMware vSphere basics: How to deploy an OVF Template?](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-vsphere-basics-how-to-deploy-an-ovf-template/) - I decided to write this post because VMware products are going to be based on OVF templates (appliances) and the post can be used as procedure how to perform the deployment of OVF files. OVF is a file format that allows for exchange of virtual appliances across products and platforms. The OVF format offers the
- [How to install Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 5.8 or 6.x Part 1: using embedded database.](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-install-site-recovery-manager-srm-5-8-or-6-x-part-1-using-embedded-database/) - In this post I will show how to install Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 5.8 or 6.x using embedded database. SRM is disaster recovery solution that provides automated orchestration and non-disruptive testing of centralized recovery plans for all virtualized applications. For more information about this solution please follow my another post: Site Recovery Manager 5.8: Architecture
- [How to reset the VMware SSO/Platform Services Controller administrator (PSC) password?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-reset-the-vmware-ssoplatform-services-controller-administrator-psc-password/) - I forgot? or just a password that I memorized didn't want to work with Platform Services Controller (PSC) installed on Windows in my lab :) Fortunately, there is a way to reset and set up a new password for administrator. I followed the below steps: Log in to the vCenter Server with a domain administrator
- [What is Avamar Data Migration Enabler (ADMe)?](https://www.settlersoman.com/what-is-avamar-data-migration-enabler-adme/) - Avamar Data Migration Enabler ADMe is a utility (free) providing automation around the need for extending the retention of Avamar backup data by migrating their content to a different storage medium such as tape, disk (VTL or DDBoost as well), cloud based storage or just stand alone USB hard drives. Unfortunately, the migration has to
- [NetBackup Master Server Disaster Recovery - Overview](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-master-server-disaster-recovery-overview/) - In this article we discuss the High Availability/Disaster Recovery for the NetBackup Master Server. NetBackup is a scalable, heterogeneous backup system which can be used to backup primary but also secondary site. DR for NetBackup Master Server should be prepared and can be based on follow possibilites: Disaster Recovery with full or partial catalog recovery Full
- [EMC VPLEX: Architecture Overview](https://www.settlersoman.com/emc-vplex-architecture-overview/) - In this article we talk about storage virtualization solution - EMC VPLEX. VPLEX supports both EMC storage arrays from other storage vendors, such as HDS, HP, and IBM. VPLEX supports operating systems including both physical and virtual server environments with VMware ESX and Microsoft Hyper-V. VPLEX supports network fabrics from Brocade and Cisco, including legacy
- [Cisco Nexus 1000v for VMware - Architecture overview and features.](https://www.settlersoman.com/cisco-nexus-1000v-for-vmware-architecture-overview-and-features/) - Cisco Nexus 1000v is very popular and still supported in VMware environments (vSphere 6.0 also as you can read here). I have written some posts about this solution and in this post we discuss the architecture of Cisco Nexus 1000v. Cisco Nexus 1000 represents a distributed switch solution. The distributed switch provides a centralized interface
- [What is vPC Host Mode Pinning for Nexus 1000v?](https://www.settlersoman.com/what-is-vpc-host-mode-pinning-for-nexus-1000v/) - In this article I will explain what vPC Host Mode is and when to use.
- [What is SAN Client in NetBackup and how to configure it?](https://www.settlersoman.com/what-is-san-client-in-netbackup-and-how-to-configure-it/) - In this post I will explain what NetBackup SAN Client is and how to configure it. A SAN client is a special NetBackup client that can back up large amounts of data rapidly over a SAN rather than a LAN. So when we can use it? The reasons can be as follows: LAN backup and
- [vRealize Hyperic Agent - could not send plugin status to server.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vrealize-hyperic-agent-could-not-send-plugin-status-to-server/) - Recently I have been doing a POC of vRealize Operations Manager. During the installation of Hyperic Agents on Windows Machines, I got problems with auto-discovery agents by Hyperic Server. In the agent.log I could find the following error: 21-04-2015 08:56:24,573 CEST INFO [autoinventory-scanner] [AutoinventoryCommandsServer@367] no resource is auto approved 21-04-2015 08:56:24,573 CEST ERROR [autoinventory-scanner] [AutoinventoryCommandsServer@280]
- [NetBackup Appliance 5330 - Overview.](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-appliance-5330-overview/) - Last week, I attended at the NetBackup 5330 Appliance Deployment Training in Reading, UK, During this training I could play with NetBackup 5330 Appliance and I can admit that I'm impressed with NetBackup 5330 Appliance because of capacity, performance and security. NetBackup 5330 Appliance provides the following software "onboard": Symantec Appliance Operating System (based on
- [Failed to register NetApp VASA Provider - NVPF-00014: Unable to contact VASA server on host.](https://www.settlersoman.com/failed-to-register-netapp-vasa-provider-nvpf-00014-unable-to-contact-vasa-server-on-host/) - Recently I have been playing with VVOL on NetApp. During registering VASA Provider for clustered Data ONTAP with VSC for VMware vSphere I got the following error: NVPF-00014: Unable to contact VASA server on hosts of xxx In the Virtual Storage Console nvpf.log (C:\Program Files\NetApp\Virtual Storage Console\log), I found the following info: [2015-04-10 20:22:40,262] [qtp129672157-30]
- [How to upgrade Cisco Nexus 1000v for vSphere: VSM and VEM?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-upgrade-cisco-nexus-1000v-for-vsphere-vsm-and-vem/) - Last weekend, I did an upgrade of Nexus 1000v at my customer site and I decided to share how to perform it smoothly :) There are two main upgrade phases as follows: Upgrade the VSMs. Upgrade the VEMs. There are some prerequisites for upgrading VSMs: Check the Upgrade Guide :) Save all changes in the
- [How to upgrade Zerto Virtual Replication 3.5 to 4.0?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-upgrade-zerto-virtual-replication-3-5-to-4-0/) - It's time to upgrade Zerto Virtual Replication 3.5 in my lab :) Soon I'm going to upgrade vsphere 5.5 to 6.0 so one of a step before is upgrading Zerto to the version supporting vSphere 6.0. Fortunately, Zerto 4.0 supports vSphere 6.0 already. This post covers how to upgrade Zerto Virtual Replication 3.5 to 4.0.
- [How to upgrade ESXi host with Cisco VEM installed?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-upgrade-esxi-host-with-cisco-vem-installed/) - Recently I have shown how to upgrade Cisco Nexus 1000v components: VSM and VEM. The next step would be upgrading of ESXi host. As I will show in this post, the upgrade of ESXi host with VEM installed on it requires some additional steps. ESXi image does not contain VEM VIB so during upgrading ESXi
- [How to create customized ESXi image: ISO or zip (bundle file) including 3rd VIB?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-create-customized-esxi-image-iso-or-zip-bundle-file/) - Sometimes we need to upgrade our ESXi hosts with installed 3rd vSphere Installation Bundle (VIBs). Before I show you how to customize ESXi image (using Image Builder), let's clarify some important things about VIBs. VIB is comprised of three parts: A file archive - contains the files that make up the VIB. An XML descriptor
- [How to upgrade vCenter Appliance 5.1 or 5.5 to VCSA 6.0 ?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-upgrade-vcenter-appliance-5-1-or-5-5-to-vcsa-6-0/) - In this post, I will show how to upgrade vCenter Appliance (VCSA) 5.1 or 5.5 to 6.0. vCenter Appliance upgrade prerequisites There are following prerequisites to perform the upgrade of vCenter Appliance: ESXi hosts 5.x. If you have any ESXi 4.1 please update to version 5.x. If you choose not to upgrade, you must remove
- [NetBackup Self Service (NSS) - Overview.](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-self-service-nss-overview/) - At last! Symantec has "released" a very important NetBackup component - Self Service (NSS). In this post you will find answers for the following questions: What is NetBackup Self Service? Can we provide BaaS using NetBackup? What are prerequisites to install and configure it? Overview of NetBackup Self Service NetBackup Self Service is a solution
- [VMware vSphere on HP ProLiant Server: Driver and online/offline firmware deployment options.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-vsphere-on-hp-proliant-server-driver-and-onlineoffline-firmware-deployment-options/) - All Admins should update firmware systematically because it corrects (at least should :) ) product issues, improves system performance and security. This post covers HP drivers and firmware deployments options on ProLiant Servers with installed VMware vSphere ESXi. Step by step instructions to use below possibilities will be covered in the next posts :) Driver
- [Error connecting to /bin/vmx process and cannot open a local pipe to local virtual machine](https://www.settlersoman.com/error-connecting-to-binvmx-process-and-cannot-open-a-local-pipe-to-local-virtual-machine/) - Today, when I wanted to power one my virtual machine, I got the following error: An error was received from the ESX host while powering on MK_SIM. Connection error while establishing connection (11): Error connecting to /bin/vmx process. Cannot open a local pipe to local virtual machine '/vmfs/volumes/.... Under investigating I realized that there was
- [What's new in NetApp Virtual Storage Console (VSC) 6.0 and VASA 6.0 for VMware vSphere?](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-netapp-virtual-storage-console-vsc-6-0-and-vasa-6-0-for-vmware-vsphere/) - NetApp has released Virtual Storage Console (VSC) 6.0 and VASA 6.0 for VMware vSphere. On quick reminder, by running VSC, you can perform tasks such as the following: Manage storage and configure the ESX host Provision datastores and clone virtual machines Perform online alignments and migrate virtual machines individually and in groups into new or
- [Passed VCP Network Virtualization (VCP-NV)!](https://www.settlersoman.com/passed-vcp-network-virtualization-vcp-nv/) - Recently I focus on Network Virtualization and I decided to take VCP-NV exam. Fortunately I passed! As VMware says: The VCP-NV certification validates ability to install, configure, and administer NSX virtual networking implementations, regardless of the underlying physical architecture. With the knowledge validated by the VCP-NV certification, you will be prepared to install and administer
- [How to deploy the vCenter Server 6 Appliance with an Embedded Platform Services Controller?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-deploy-the-vcenter-server-6-appliance-with-an-embedded-platform-services-controller/) - This post covers how to deploy the vCenter Server Appliance with an Embedded Platform Services Controller. Why Appliance? Because as I mentioned here, the vCenter appliance is the future! Fortunately, it was released a tool which you can use to migrate vCenter from Windows Machine to the Appliance. For more information please follow my another
- [How to deploy External Platform Services Controller Appliance?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-deploy-external-platform-services-controller-appliance/) - This post covers how to deploy the External Platform Services Controller. As I described in my another post here, there are some possibilities to build the vCenter and the External Platform Services Controller highly available! In this post you will find answers for the following questions: What is the External Platform Services Controller Appliance or
- [Invalid credentials appears during connecting vCenter Server with external Platform Service Controller in vSphere 6.](https://www.settlersoman.com/invalid-credentials-appears-during-connecting-vcenter-server-with-external-platform-service-controller-in-vsphere-6/) - During deployment of vCenter 6 Appliance with the External Platform Service Controller I faced with the following error: Invalid Credentials As it is shown on the above figure, I used FQDN of Platform Services Controller to register it with the vCenter and I receive the error: Invalid Credentials. When I changed to IP address it
- [Zerto Virtual Replication 4.0: How to deploy it and perform initial configuration tasks?](https://www.settlersoman.com/zerto-virtual-replication-4-0-how-to-deploy-it-and-perform-initial-configuration-tasks/) - This post covers how to deploy Zerto Virtual Replication and perform initial configuration tasks. There are the following tasks to perform: Installing Zerto Virtual Manager (ZVM). Adding Zerto license. Installing Zerto Virtual Replication Appliances (VRA). Pairing Sites to Enable Replicating From One Site to Another Site. Optional - Enabling Replication to the Same Site. The
- [The vShield Manager - Lost communication with ESX module](https://www.settlersoman.com/the-vshield-manager-lost-communication-with-esx-module/) - I have got twice the following error in vShield Manager console: Lost communication with ESX module. The first reason for receiving this error can be time mismatch so ensure that the time on the ESX/ESXi hosts is synced with vShield Manager. To configure the NTP Server in vShield Manager: Log in to the vShield Manager
- [Installing Zerto Virtual Replication 3.5 for VMware DR.](https://www.settlersoman.com/installing-zerto-for-vmware-dr/) - In this article I will show how to install Zerto for DR/BC VMware protection. Run Zerto Virtual Replication Installer.exe. Click Next. Accept the license agreement and click Next. Choose where to install Zerto Virtual Replication and then click Next. Choose an installation type and click Next. (default Express) Select the type of database to use.
- [What’s New in VMware vSphere 6.0: Host Profiles Enhancements](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-vmware-vsphere-6-0-host-profiles-enhancements/) - The Host Profiles feature creates a profile that encapsulates the host configuration and helps to manage the host configuration, especially in environments where an administrator manages multiple hosts or clusters in vCenter Server. The Host Profile workflow starts with the concept of a reference host; the reference host serves as the template from which the
- [vSphere 6 GA available!](https://www.settlersoman.com/vsphere-6-ga-available/) - Today, 12th VMware "shared" officially vSphere 6. vSphere 6 or another products binaries are available for download!To find out what's new in vSphere 6 please follow: The most important new features in vSphere 6 and What's new in vSphere 6 vSphere 6 Release Notes There rest vSphere 6 documentation available here. To download vSphere 6
- [How to upgrade NSX 6.x?  Part1 - upgrading NSX Manager.](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-upgrade-nsx-6-x-part1-upgrading-nsx-manager/) - Few months ago I deployed NSX Manager 6.0.5 in my lab and it's time to upgrade it ;) (I didn't upgrade it earlier because I was preparing to VCIX-NV exam that is based on NSX 6.0.x). This post covers an upgrade process from NSX 6.0.5 to 6.1.2. To perform the upgrade, please follow the below
- [Voting is now open for the Top vBlog 2015!](https://www.settlersoman.com/voting-is-now-open-for-the-top-vblog-2015/) - Yesterday, Eric Siebert from vSphere-land.com started annual voting for the best VMware & Virtualization blogs (Top vBlog).This year the content is sponsored by Infinio and it’s available on this site: http://info.infinio.com/topvblog2015 You can vote (please click here) for your top 10 favorite VMware & virtualization blogs and also rank them in your order of preference after you pick
- [What's new in vSphere 6.0? New features list.](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-vsphere-6-0-new-features-list/) - 2nd of February VMware announced a vSphere 6 with the following features! One of the most awaited features are: vSMP Fault Tolerance, Long Distance vMotion and across vCenter, VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOLs). There are new features as follow: vSphere and vCenter Long Distance vMotion (150ms RTTs) Cross vSwitch and vCenter vMotion (min. required bandwidth 250
- [Backup Enterprise Vault Partitions by NetBackup - error 2.](https://www.settlersoman.com/backup-enterprise-vault-partitions-by-netbackup-error-2/) - One of my customer had problem with backup of Enterprise Vault partitions. They use NetBackup to protect Enterprise Vault and they got an error 2 during backup of closed partition. In the job status, we found the following error (status 2): 2015-03-03 11:29:33 - Info bpbrm(pid=24503) from client ev1.int.nbp.pl: TRV - BPRESOLVER has executed on
- [What is and how to configure VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache (vFRC)?](https://www.settlersoman.com/what-is-and-how-to-configure-vmware-vsphere-flash-read-cache-vfrc/) - This post covers a feature introduced in vSphere 5.5 - VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache (vFRC). VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache (vFRC) is a feature that provides server side read cache from local solid-state devices (SSDs - PCIe flash cards or solid-state drives). By using local flash storage, vFRC creates a large, low latency read
- [How to migrate (convert) vCenter with MS Sql to the vCenter Appliance with vPostgres database ?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-migrate-convert-vcenter-with-ms-sql-to-the-vcenter-appliance-with-vpostgres-database/) - Some months ago I wrote a post how to move vCenter properly from physical to virtual machine. It was not possible to migrate vCenter installed on Windows to vCenter Appliance (Linux). As you can find in my another post here, the vCenter Appliance supports and provides almost the same features as vCenter Server installed on
- [How to upgrade vCenter Hyperic Server to the vRealize Hyperic Server?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-upgrade-vcenter-hyperic-server-to-the-vrealize-hyperic-server/) - This post covers steps required to upgrade the vCenter Hyperic Server to the vRealize Hyperic Server 5.8.4. As mentioned here, I deployed vCenter Hyperic Server 5.8.2 some months ago and it's time to perform an upgrade. There are some prerequisites to perform the upgrade: Snapshots of the vCenter Hyperic and vPostgreSQL database to retain as
- [What’s New in VMware vSphere 6.0: vSphere editions and features.](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-vmware-vsphere-6-0-vsphere-editions-and-features/) - There is available a new comparison of VMware vSphere Editions are as follow: The most important news: Fault Tolerance (FT) is licensed per vCPU - 2 vCPU available in Standard and Enterprise License, 4 vCPU Enterprise Plus. Content Library available in Enterprise Plus. vMotion - Cross Switch available in Standard and Enterprise License, Cross
- [vSphere Data Protection Advanced (VDPA) - included in Essentials+ license or higher!](https://www.settlersoman.com/vsphere-data-protection-advanced-vdpa-included-in-essentials-license-or-higher/) - As I mentioned in post about what’s new in vSphere 6.0, VMware announced that vSphere Data Protection Advanced will be included in Essentials+ or higher vSphere license! The features of VDPA are as follows: Scale up to 8Tb of deduplication (variable-length and global per appliance) storage as well as 400 VMs per VDP appliance. Support for up to
- [How to install or upgrade vSphere Data Protection (VDP) 5.8](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-install-or-upgrade-vsphere-data-protection-vdp-5-8/) - How to install VMware Data Protection 5.8 or upgrade from earlier versions.
- [NetBackup OpsCenter upgrade fails or unable to be uninstalled.](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-opscenter-upgrade-fails-or-unable-to-be-uninstalled/) - NetBackup OpsCenter Analitycs is a useful software to manage NetBackup domains. As a part of NetBackup upgrade project, I needed to do an upgrade of OpsCenter server from 7.5.0.7 to 7.6.0.1 version. Unfortunately, during the upgrading of NetBackup OpsCenter I faced the following errors: 12-15-2014,15:38:14 : [INSTALL_WARNING] SRVRCustAct[Exit]::ExecutePreDbUpgrade Failed 12-15-2014,15:38:14 : [INSTALL_FAIL] OpsCenter database upgrade
- [Achieved VMware vExpert 2015!](https://www.settlersoman.com/achieved-vmware-vexpert-2015/) - Today, 5th February, VMware announced the list 2015 vExperts. I would like to announce that I am honored because I have been selected and awarded! Just for a quick reminder on vExpert: The VMware vExpert is an annual designation for people who have given back to the community of VMware users by sharing their technical expertise and
- [VASA and VAAI - important vSphere features?](https://www.settlersoman.com/vasa-and-vaai-important-vsphere-features/) - This post covers two important vSphere features: VMware vSphere API for Array Integration (VAAI) and VMware vSphere API for Storage Awareness (VASA). After reading this post, you will know answers for the following questions: What is VAAI and what does this feature require? How to determine if my storage supports VAAI? What are the fundamental
- [What’s New in VMware vSphere 6.0: Multi-CPU Fault Tolerance](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-in-vmware-vsphere-6-0-multi-cpu-fault-tolerance/) - This post covers Fault Tolerance (FT) improvements available in vSphere 6. I am so happy that at last Fault Tolerance (vSMP supported) can be used to protect the business critical systems. Just for a quick reminder what are limitations of Fault Tolerance available in vSphere 4.0-5.5: Only 1 vCPU per FT virtual machine. Shared storage
- [Fast migration (conversion) VMs between hypervisors by NetApp Shift.](https://www.settlersoman.com/fast-migration-conversion-vms-between-hypervisors-by-netapp-shift/) - NetApp created a Project Shift which allows customers to change the virtualization platform their VMs run on without migrating any data
- [Virtual machine powers off and causes file lock](https://www.settlersoman.com/virtual-machine-powers-off-and-causes-file-lock/) - Recently my customer has faced a problem with VM which was powered off by NetBackup snapshot and the VM was not possible to be powered on because of file lock.
- [NetBackup Media Server Deduplication Pool (MSDP): Overview.](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-media-server-deduplication-pool-msdp-overview/) - This post covers Media Server Deduplication Storage Pool (MSDP) which is an embedded deduplication technology that ships and is installed with base NetBackup 7.6 software, and that is provided on NetBackup appliances running version 2.6 software. There are below benefits of deduplication: Reduce the amount of data that is stored. Reduce backup bandwidth. Reduce backup
- [How to deploy and configure VMware Data Protection (VDP) 5.5?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-deploy-and-configure-vmware-data-protection-vdp-5-5/) - vSphere Data Protection (VDP) is a robust, simple to deploy, disk-based backup and recovery solution. VDP is fully integrated with the VMware vCenter Server and enables centralized and efficient management of backup jobs while storing backups in de duplicated destination storage locations. The benefits of vSphere Data Protection (VDP) are as follows: Provides fast and
- [Perennial reservation: long boot time of esxi host](https://www.settlersoman.com/perennial-reservation-long-boot-time-of-esxi-host/) - Within last year, I have been asked by my customers or I have had to do the troubleshooting many times why ESXi hosts 5.x need much time to boot. More often the reason of slow booting were caused by RDM used by Microsoft Cluster Services (MSCS). Why? Because the active node has persistent SCSI reservation
- [Minimum permissions to join vCenter appliance to AD.](https://www.settlersoman.com/minimum-permissions-to-join-vcenter-appliance-to-ad/) - Recently I got a question: what are the minimum required permissions to join vCenter appliance to AD? Do I need to use a domain admin account? The answer is: No, you don't have to use admin account. By default domain users (Authenticated Users) can add 10 machines to the domain. So it means that you
- [VMware NSX configuration error - No route to host](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-nsx-configuration-no-route-to-host/) - During basic configuration of NSX appliance I faced an error (ConnectionException.java.not.NoRouteToHostException: No route to host): As you can see on the above picture, the error happened during configuration a connection to Lookup Service (located on vCenter Appliance). I got an idea that the error can be related to SSL certificates on vCenter Appliance because some
- [Failed to promote replica devices on NetApp cluster mode.](https://www.settlersoman.com/failed-to-promote-replica-devices-on-netapp-cluster-mode/) - Recently my customer as a standard procedure wanted to check if SRM works well. Unfortunately, they have got problem during come back to the DC with the error: Error - Failed to promote replica devices. Failed to promote replica device '//netapp184/vmware_55/lun_repl'. SRA command 'failover' failed for device '//netapp184/vmware_55/lun_repl'. Failed to map the SAN device on
- [Netbackup Accelerator for VMware backup – Part 2: Configuration](https://www.settlersoman.com/netbackup-accelerator-for-vmware-backup-part-2-configuration/) - As I mentioned in the previous article Netbackup Accelerator is a powerfull feature for VMware backups. In this article I will show how to use the feauture in Netbackup. At first please ensure that CBT is enabled on virtual machines. To check/enable CBT in a virtual machine: Note: Ensure that you power off the virtual
- [Running VMware Web Client 5.5 on Windows 2012 R2](https://www.settlersoman.com/running-vmware-web-client-5-5-on-windows-2012-r2/) - To run Web Client on Windows 2012 R2, you have to add flash (it's integrated in windows 2012 R2 - Feauture named Desktop Experience). To add Desktop Experience please follow steps: Open Server Manager and click Add Roles and Features. When the Add Roles and Features Wizard appears, specify the appropriate values on the Installation
- [NetApp Flash Accel for VMware](https://www.settlersoman.com/netapp-flash-accel-for-vmware/) - In this article I will describe NetApp Flash Accel which makes server-side flash storage available as cache for applications that read from and write to NetApp back-end storage. In a Flash Accel-enabled system, applications write to cache as well as to back-end storage, so that future application reads can be serviced locally from cache. Flash
- [The content ID of the parent virtual disk does not match the corresponding parent content ID in the child.](https://www.settlersoman.com/the-content-id-of-the-parent-virtual-disk-does-not-match-the-corresponding-parent-content-id-in-the-child/) - Recently I have worked again and again on the following issue: Cannot open the disk '/vmfs/volumes/4a496b4g-eceda1-19-542b-000cfc0097g5/virtualmachine/virtualmachine-000002.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on. Reason: The parent virtual disk has been modified since the child was created. My customer was not able to power on a virtual machine. As mentioned in the following
- [VCDX Mentor Program](https://www.settlersoman.com/vcdx-mentor-program/) - What is this? “This process helps a candidate determine if the candidate, documentation and presentation are ready for presentation by the candidate to a customer.” – John Y. Arrasjid, VCDX#1 This is a program (volunteer) to help VCDX candidates for achieving the highest VMware certificate. The main goals are to: provide 3-4 months of mentoring assistance
- [EMC VSPEX Blue powered by VMware EVO:RAIL - Overview.](https://www.settlersoman.com/emc-vspex-blue-powered-by-vmware-evorail-overview/) - Yesterday (3rd February) EMC announced the GA of VSPEX Blue. This is a hyper-converged infrastructure appliance (like Nutanix) that uses a software-defined building block approach combining compute, storage, network and management components into a single solution. EMC VSPEX BLUE runs the VMware EVO: RAIL software - which is built on: VMware vSphere, VMware vCenter Server,
- [How to define a Virtual Machine Storage Policy for Virtual SAN (VSAN) ?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-define-a-virtual-machine-storage-policy-for-virtual-san-vsan/) - This post covers configuration of a Virtual Machine Storage Policy for Virtual SAN (VSAN). Before we define a Virtual Machine Storage Policy, we should discuss capabilities (five available) in Virtual SAN (VSAN) which are used to set the capacity, performance and availability policies on a per VM basis when that VM is deployed on the vsanDatastore.
- [How to configure VMware VSAN in a nested ESXi without SSD?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-configure-vmware-vsan-in-a-nested-esxi-without-ssd/) - Recently, I have received some questions and requests about configuring VSAN at home without having SSD disks. Of course, you can play with VSAN without SSD disk. You can use either ESXi or VMware Workstation where you have to install at least three nested ESXi with SSD emulation. Please notice that it is recommended to
- [How to configure VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN)?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-configure-vmware-virtual-san-vsan/) - In this post, we discuss how to configure Virtual SAN (SAN) which virtualizes local physical storage resources of ESXi hosts and turns them into pools of storage that can be carved up and assigned to virtual machines and applications according to their quality of service requirements. There are some VSAN requirements: A minimum of three
- [How to upgrade VMware Log Insight 2.0 to vRealize Log Insight 2.5?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-upgrade-vmware-log-insight-2-0-to-vrealize-log-insight-2-5/) - In this short post, I will show how to do an upgrade of VMware Log Insight 2.0.x to the vRealize Log Insight 2.5. Log Insight is a powerful "Syslog Server". Before upgrade, please confirm: Create a snapshot or backup copy of the Log Insight virtual appliance. Obtain a copy of the Log Insight upgrade bundle
- [How to reset password of domain administrator account?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-reset-domain-administrator-account/) - Recently, I needed to use my lab and I forgot domain administrator password to Windows 2012 R2 Domain Controller. Fortunately I was able to recover it by doing following steps: Boot Windows 2012 R2 Domain Controller from Windows 2012 R2 ISO. Click Next. Click Repair your computer. Click Troubleshoot. Change directory to D:\Windows\system32 and run
- [Site Recovery Manager 5.8: Architecture Overview and Features](https://www.settlersoman.com/site-recovery-manager-5-8-architecture-overview-and-features/) - In this article we discuss architecture of SRM and new features in SRM 5.8
- [SRM placeholder datastore design](https://www.settlersoman.com/srm-placeholder-datastore-design/) - Recently I was doing a VMware project with 14 HA Clusters (DC) and 8 HA Clusters (DRC) . During the design considerations I wondered how many datastores should be created for Site Recovery Manager (SRM) placeholders. The placeholder is a file which holds configuration information corresponding to the Protected virtual machines. Following VMware documentation placeholder
- [Tools for monitoring and deleting VMware snapshots](https://www.settlersoman.com/tools-for-monitoring-and-deleting-vmware-snapshots/) - Recently we have discussed about snapshot best practices and recommendations. In this article I will show how to monitor and detect (orphaned) snapshots. Nowadays, I think everybody has faced at least once with problems caused by snapshots (or orphaned snapshot). These problem could be: Low performance of VM Disk consolidation needed Out of space on
- [How to deploy and configure vRealize Operations Manager 6.0? Part 2](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-deploy-and-configure-vrealize-operations-manager-6-0-part-2/) - In my previous posts, I showed how to deploy vRealize Operations Manager and migrate from VMware Operations Manager 5.8.1 or later. This post is the second part of deployment vRealize in a new VMware environment. I will show how to add a new vCenter to be monitored by vRealize Operations Manager. Log in to VMware
- [How to deploy and configure vRealize Operations Manager 6.0? Part 1](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-deploy-and-configure-vrealize-operations-manager-6-0/) - In this post I will show how to deploy and configure vRealize Operations Manager 6.0. Log in through vSphere Client or Web Client to the vCenter and Deploy OVF Template. Select OVA file. Click Next. Review details and click Next. Accept EULA and Click Next. Specify a name and location for the deployed appliance. Click
- [What's new for VMware in NetBackup 7.6.1?](https://www.settlersoman.com/whats-new-for-vmware-in-netbackup-7-6-1/) - Symantec has just released the newest version of NetBackup - 7.6.1. There are some new features for VMware backups: NetBackup Plug-in for VMware vSphere Web Client The plug-in allows virtualization administrators to access the following functionality directly from within the vSphere Web Client administration console: Monitoring and reporting of VM backups Self-service restores of VMs
- [How to configure Multi-NIC vMotion with Cisco Nexus 1000v?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-configure-multi-nic-vmotion-with-cisco-nexus-1000v/) - In this article I will explain how to configure Multi-NIC vMotion with Cisco Nexus 1000v.
- [How to install and configure NetBackup plugin for VMware vCenter?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-install-and-configure-netbackup-plugin-for-vmware-vcenter/) - In this article, I will show how to deploy and configure NetBackup plugin for monitoring backups of virtual machines.
- [Symantec NetBackup Catalog Manipulation](https://www.settlersoman.com/symantec-netbackup-catalog-manipulation/) - NetBackup Catalog Manipulations = Migrating, merging, split and clustering NetBackup Catalogs, migrating to Symantec Appliance and rename Master/Media Servers.
- [What is EMC ScaleIO? Architecture overview.](https://www.settlersoman.com/what-is-emc-scaleio-architecture-overview/) - EMC ScaleIO is a software-only server-based storage area network (SAN) that converges storage and compute resources to form a single-layer. It uses existing local disks and LANs so that the host can realize a virtual SAN with all the benefits of external storage. The ScaleIO software consists of three software components: Meta Data Manager (MDM)
- [Where is my vCenter VM?](https://www.settlersoman.com/where-is-my-vcenter-vm/) - If you have a big VMware infrastructure and need to solve any problem with vCenter VM, it is not a seldom problem that it is difficult to know where (exactly, on which ESXi host) the VM is located. How to mitigate that problem? Generally, depends on size of infrastructure, I recommend two options: Dedicated Management
- [vSphere components integration.](https://www.settlersoman.com/vsphere-components-integration/) - The below diagram provides integration of vSphere components (vCAC, vCO, NSX, APPD): APPD - vCloud Application Director automates application provisioning in the cloud including deploying, configuring, and updating the application's components and dependent middleware platform services on infrastructure clouds. vCAC - vCloud Automation Center provides a secure portal where authorized administrators, developers or business users
- [How to recover missing .vmx and .vmdk (descriptor file)?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-recover-missing-vmx-and-vmdk-descriptor-file/) - This week, I've done an upgrade vSphere from 5.0 to 5.5 U2 with latest patch. After upgrading one of ESXi host and rebooting it, I realized that one VM's .vmx, .vmdk files dissapeared and VM was shown as "inacessible" in the vCenter inventory. Fortunately after investigating datastore, we could find "VM-flat.vmdk" file. It has not
- [Based on the current configuration, the SSL certificate of the authentication server was not trusted.](https://www.settlersoman.com/based-on-the-current-configuration-the-ssl-certificate-of-the-authentication-server-was-not-trusted/) - The following error: can happen when you change the network identification for the vCenter Server Appliance (by default, certificate is generated for something like localhost.localhost) To resolve this issue, toggle the certificate settings. To toggle the certificate settings: Log in to the vCenter Server Appliance Web interface at https://hostname:5480/. Click the Admin tab. Regenerate certificates:
- [Storage vMotion - The migration has exceeded the maximum switchover time of 100 second(s)](https://www.settlersoman.com/storage-vmotion-the-migration-has-exceeded-the-maximum-switchover-time-of-100-seconds/) - My customer needed to relocate data (generally Virtual Machines) on NetApp storage. Almost relocation was done by Storage vMotion but some VMs could not be migrated: A general system error occurred: The migration has exceeded the maximum switchover time of 100 second(s). ESX has preemptively failed the migration to allow the virtual machine to continue
- [VMware Update Manager database - Windows Authentication does not work](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-update-manager-database-windows-authentication-does-not-work/) - Recently, during the VUM 5.5 U2 installation and configuration I have faced again an error when I tried to enable the VUM plugin: There was an error connecting to VMware vSphere Update Manager. Database temporarily unavailable or has network problems. If you check VMware Update Manager release notes for 5.1 (U1 or U2) or 5.5
- [Problem with vCops admin password.](https://www.settlersoman.com/problem-with-vcops-admin-password/) - Yesterday my customer called me because he wanted to upgrade vCOPS from 5.8.1 to 5.8.3. To do it, it is necessary to log in admin page (https://vcops_ip/admin). Unfortunately he couldn't log in. He got an error: The user ID and password combination is invalid. Please try again. It was really curious because we could log
- [vCenter Hyperic Server - integration with vCenter Operations Manager](https://www.settlersoman.com/vcenter-hyperic-server-integration-with-vcenter-operations-manager/) - In this article, I will show how to integrate vCenter Hyperic with vCenter Operations Manager. This is a continuation of the previous article: How to deploy vCenter Hyperic Server. Log in to Hyperic UI: https://IP_address:7443 Click Administration --> HQ Server Settings. Type vCenter IP address and credentials (admin). Click OK to save settings. Login in
- [How to deploy vCenter Hyperic Server?](https://www.settlersoman.com/how-to-deploy-vcenter-hyperic-server/) - In this article I will show how to deploy vCenter Hyperic Server 5.8.2. As you can find on vmware.com: VMware vCenter Hyperic is a component of the VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite. It monitors operating systems, middleware and applications running in physical, virtual and cloud environments. The architeture of vCenter Hyperic and integration with vCenter
- [VMware NSX Fundamentals: Deploying NSX Manager](https://www.settlersoman.com/vmware-nsx-fundamentals-deploying-nsx-manager/) - In this article I will show how to deploy VMware NSX Appliance. Log in to the vSphere Web Client. Right click on Datacenter and Deploy OVF Template. Click Local File and select OVA file. Check "Accept extra configuration options" and click Next. Accept EULA and click Next. Select Name and folder. Select a resource. Select

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