There are a couple of different ways that you can enable AD integration ( vSphere client, vCLI, scripting or Host Profiles). In this post I will cover the method through vSphere client.

Step 1: Connect to your host directly with the vSphere client. You are also suppose to be able to do this same method when connecting to vCenter server, but I have heard mixed results. I will try once my console is updated to vCenter 4.1. You then need to click on the Configuration Tab. Then select the “Advanced Services” selection from the Software box on the lower left. Then you click on the “Properties” link that is shown in the picture below.

Step 2: You will be presented with a Directory Services Configuration window that is shown below. In the select “Service Type” drop down you will need to select “Active Directory”.  The in the Domain field you need to type in the name of your domain that you will be connecting to. Next step is to click the “Join Domain” button and you will be presented with an authentication window shown in the next step.

Step 3: In this part you need to enter in credentials that will allow you to connect and join the ESXi Host to the domain. You can enter your credentials in the format listed below (Domain\user) or use this format ( administrator@test.com). I had more luck using the second option.

Step 4: After successfully entering your logon ID your ESXi host is added to the Domain. You can see from the image below my host was added to the default computer container since I did not specify another OU for them to be placed into.

Step 5: Now that your VMware host was added to the domain you can now add users or groups to the Permissions tab. You can see below once on the Permissions area you right click and select “Add Permission”

Step 6: In this step the Assign Permissions window has opened and you need to select the Administrator role from the section pointed out in the image below. Then click the Add button on the left side to pick your User or Group from the Active Directory connection.

By Mike Mills

This is a walkthrough for HP Command View for EVA. Part of my daily routine is to take a jaunt through CV, to check things over and look for alerts that I may not already be aware of.

Launched from the shortcut on the Windows host, or is accessible via a web browser at https://servername:2372/

You are presented with the login screen:

It is here that you will also see the version number (down below). We have not yet upgraded this server to version 9.2 as we are building a VM to run Command View from and retire this physical box.

After login, you are greeted by the overview page. Here you will see all the EVAs listed, as well as the stats for your overall environment. The first thing of note is that two of my EVAs have bang lights on them, indicating something is amiss. I’ll investigate both as part of my next posting.

On the top right, there are some hyperlinks, your login id, and the ip of the Command View server. Most are self explanatory. Server Options provides for a place to enter license codes, setup RSM relationships, and a few other features. I seldom visit this page, so like once a year?

Moving right along, let’s take a look at a healthy EVA, in this case DS-SAN-2:

As you can see from the above, a healthy EVA has a number of folders beneath it. It breaks out into many subfolders. On the right hand side are the numbers. It would be here that you can get the logs for HP support (I’ll cover that in a separate blog post). You can see the current capacity level, view the Version level (this is the XCS code release running on the EVA. 6220 is the latest for the 8100 series). The left column is broken down like such:

Virtual Disks – this is where the luns (vdisks in EVA-speak) are listed. The folder structure is entirely man-made. That is to say, it’s for human organizational purposes (and plays an important role for setting up RSM jobs. More on that will be covered on a separate posting).

Hosts – here is where hosts are setup in Command View. You will provide the host’s OS, and it’s WWN’s for fiber cards. Hosts MUST be setup on every single EVA that you want to present disks from. Annoying, I know.

Disk Groups – these are comprised of physical disks. Best practice says to build these in multiples of 8, and of all the same speed and size. You can choose to not follow these and your performance will suck majorly. I’ve worked on rebuilding two of the 4 EVAs that had improperly constructed Disk Groups. It is PAINFUL to correct, but I’m glad I did. I will cover that also as a separate blog post. FYI: The ungrouped disks folder is for disks that have failed or been ungrouped on purpose. Ungrouping takes time as the EVA moves data from the drive to free it up to be removed or replaced.

Data Replication – it is here that you can create DR groups. This allows you to replicate (synchronous or asynchronously) between EVA arrays. A replication group is comprised of 1 or more vdisks. Sounding like a broken record, I will have a separate posting on replication.

Hardware – it is here that you can check out the status of the hardware. Both controllers are listed, as are all the disks. If there are hardware issues (per a bang light) then you can come here to find out why. The status of failed items is usually fairly straightforward and understandable as to what happened and what should be done.

About Mike: I have been working in IT since I graduated high school in ‘99.  My love of Linux led me to VMware early on and I’ve been hungry for knowledge ever since.  I am currently a Sys Admin with a storage focus (HP EVAs), and recently received my Vsphere VCP.  I’ve got (and will talk about) the kinds of projects I am doing for myself in my lab, and I’m hoping to continually pull in new hardware and ideas to help others with their labs at home or whatnot.  I can be reached at reverseninja [at] gmail.com should I mumble something of interest.

Unless your lucky enough to use Lab Manager on a regular basis then your probably like most Admin’s. When talking with people everyone seems to have a solid idea of what Lab Manger can do but they have little experience in setting up and supporting a LM environment. The team over at VMware KB has created a few videos to showcase and explain some of the core features. You can view them from VMware KB1020915.

Brian Suhr is a Senior Virtualization Engineer and Architect working for HP Enterprise Services. He’s worked in the IT Industry since 1991, and worked for several companies. He runs the blog virtualizetips to document tips and problems encountered during his projects and reads. A VMware Certified Professional (VCP VI3.5) MCSE on Windows NT – 2000, Cisco CCNA/CCDA. Brian is currently working on upgrading my VCP to vSphere and will be pursuing VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) next.

I’ve seen a few other guides for this same type of install. I just wanted to put something together to save for myself. I will show you how to use the EDA deployment appliance to install vSphere in VMware Workstation. You can follow most of the same steps for a physical machine install with just a few changes.

For this I was testing things for my home lab and created this on my laptop just using Workstation 7.0. I created two virtual machines, one for the EDA appliance and one blank that will get ESX 4.0 installed from the Deployment script.

Step 1: Download the EDA appliance http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/va/89313/download

Step 2: Import the EDA virtual appliance into VMware workstation.

Step 3: After the input I had to add in a CD-Rom to the VM and attached the vSphere .iso file to the CD drive.

Step 4: You can then start up the EDA appliance and choose Reconfigure.

Step 5: Fill out your network information on the screen shown below. Then press enter or click on OK.

Step 6: You can now log into the configuration web page for the EDA appliance. In my configuration it was http://192.168.1.19
You will be presented with several sections that will allow you to configure options for the install. I will briefly cover these parts as I did not change much on them for this test. The Post installation commands section allows you to script any custom changes or adds that you want to make for your install. The General settings section is used for basic network and disk settings for each install, this section is pretty easy to understand.

Step 7: Now you are ready to prepare the Host specific details. Refer to the image below as I describe the steps. You can either modify the sample host that is loaded by default. By clicking on the host name or selecting “new host” you will get a screen like the 2nd picture below. This will allow you to specify host name and IP addresses needed for your base install. Once created if you click on the “ks” link for the hostname you will see what the kick start file contains for commands.

Step 8: Now you will need to setup the options for the DHCP server. Upon clicking on the “configure DHCP server” link from the top menu you will be presented with the following configuration file. I highlighted a few of the important lines that I changed to work for my setup. You will need to make sure all of the normal DHCP options are set in this file.

Step 9: Now you will need to “import PXE files” so that you can boot the server that you will be installing ESX onto. You need to make sure that the ESX CD or .iso file is mounted to your EDA appliance. If the ESX disc or file is properly mounted you will see the confirmation in the top right just like the image below. Then you select the “Import PXE bootfiles” from the menu and you will see a screen like the second image below.

Step 10:  If you are using a physical server to install onto you can start now and have the machine PXE boot.
If you are going to use a virtual machine you need to create a VM with the proper OS select, disk size, memory and number of Nic’s that you wish to use. Once this is done you will see a screen like the one below you start the install. I trust that you know what settings need to be used for installing ESX into VMware workstation, if not there are plenty of good guides for it. If you are using Workstation 7.x the process is now built in and very easy to select from the OS choices.

Note: If you created multiple host install names you will get presented with the options and can type the name of the one you wish to install. I circled in red above as an example.

Brian Suhr is a Senior Virtualization Engineer and Architect working for HP Enterprise Services. He’s worked in the IT Industry since 1991, and worked for several companies. He runs the blog virtualizetips to document tips and problems encountered during his projects and reads. A VMware Certified Professional (VCP VI3.5) MCSE on Windows NT – 2000, Cisco CCNA/CCDA. Brian is currently working on upgrading my VCP to vSphere and will be pursuing VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) next.

By Brian Suhr

Whether your tracking down an issue on your own or collection data to submit a support request to VMware your gonna need to round up the necessary log files.  I have collected and listed some of the main log locations from VMware and also linked to KB articles covering a full list of log file locations.

VMware ESX log files

• From the Service Console
• From the vSphere Client connected directly to the ESX host (click Home > Administration > System Logs)
• From the VMware Infrastructure Client connected directly to the ESX host (click Administration > System Logs)

The vmkernel logs (which log everything related to the kernel/core of the ESX) are located at /var/log/vmkernel.
The vmkwarning logs (which log warnings from the vmkernel) are located at /var/log/vmkwarning.
The vmksummary logs (which provide a summary of system activities such as uptime, downtime, reasons for downtime) are located at /var/log/vmksummary.
The hostd log (which is the log of the ESX management service of the ESX) are located at /var/log/vmware/hostd.log.
The messages log (which log activity on the Service Console operating system) is located at /var/log/messages.
The VirtualCenter Agent log is located at /var/log/vmware/vmware/vpx/vpxa.log.
The Automatic Availability Manager (AAM) logs are located at /var/log/vmware/aam/vmware_<hostname>-xxx.log.
The SW iSCSI logs are located at /var/log/vmkiscsid.log.
The System boot log is located at /var/log/boot-logs/sysboot.log.

VMware ESXi log files – (KB Article) 
The vmkernel, vmkwarning, and hostd logs are located at /var/log/messages.
The Host Management service (hostd = Host daemon) log is located at /var/log/vmware/hostd.log\.
The VirtualCenter Agent log is located at /var/log/vmware/vmware/vpx/vpxa.log.
The System boot log is located at /var/log/sysboot.log.
The Automatic Availability Manager (AAM) logs are located at /var/log/vmware/aam/vmware_<hostname>-xxx.log.

SRM log files – (KB Article)

The SRM configuration files are located at:

• C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\config\extension.xml
• C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\config\vmware-dr.xmlOr
• C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager\config\extension.xml
• C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager\config\vmware-dr.xml

The SRM Logs (on vCenter Server for connection with SRM and on SRM for SRM workflow) are located at:

• %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\Logs, which translates by default to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\LogsOr
• %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager\Logs, which translates by default to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager\Logs

The SRM Installation Logs (on the SRM Server, which may not be the vCenter Server) are located at C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp\1.
The location of the SRA Logs (on the SRM server) depends on the SRA type and vendor. They may be located in:

• C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager\scripts\SAN\*\logOr
• C:\Program Files\<SRA Vendor or Name>\

Brian Suhr is a Senior Virtualization Engineer and Architect working for HP Enterprise Services. He’s worked in the IT Industry since 1991, and worked for several companies. He runs the blog virtualizetips to document tips and problems encountered during his projects and reads. A VMware Certified Professional (VCP VI3.5) MCSE on Windows NT – 2000, Cisco CCNA/CCDA. Brian is currently working on upgrading my VCP to vSphere and will be pursuing VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) next.

By Brian Suhr

The chance that you might have to do this in the future are pretty small. I can’t think of too many reasons that you might need to rollback your upgraded host. But in case you do I have put together a few steps to show you the way. Make sure to read the risks and understand what you might be in for.

Risks and Considerations

• Any changes made to the ESX 4.x service console are lost after the rollback.
• Changes made to virtual machines (such as an installation of VMware Tools) persist after the rollback.
• If you upgraded the virtual machine hardware, the virtual machines will not work after you perform the ESX rollback. To avoid this situation, take a snapshot of the virtual machines before you upgrade the virtual machine hardware. After you run the ESX rollback script, boot into ESX 3.x and revert to the snapshot.
• Only perform the rollback if you are very familiar with the ESX environment and are comfortable running commands from the service console.

Follow these steps to roll back your installation from 4.x to 3.x

Do not perform this process until you have read and understand the Risks. This cannot be reversed.

1. Log onto the service console as Root

2. Run this command: rollback-to-esx3

Note: This command reconfigures the bootloader to boot into ESX 3.x and removes the ability to boot into ESX 4.0. You can include the optional -f (force) flag. If you omit the -f flag, you are prompted to confirm that you want to roll back to ESX 3.x.

3. Next issue the reboot command or a “shutdown -r now” will also work.

Note: When the host is powering on, you can see that the boot menu has reads ESX 3.x.

4.  After the host boots into ESX 3.x, you can safely delete the ESX 4.0 service console VMDK folder from the VMFS datastore. The service console VMDK folder name has the format esxconsole-<UUID>.

Take a look at the full VMware roll-back Document

Brian Suhr is a Senior Virtualization Engineer and Architect working for HP Enterprise Services. He’s worked in the IT Industry since 1991, and worked for several companies. He runs the blog virtualizetips to document tips and problems encountered during his projects and reads. A VMware Certified Professional (VCP VI3.5) MCSE on Windows NT – 2000, Cisco CCNA/CCDA. Brian is currently working on upgrading my VCP to vSphere and will be pursuing VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) next.

By Brian Suhr

I recently setup a HP MSA 2300 series storage array. It was the SAS model with 4 enclosure trays. I have to admit that I have not setup one of these with Fiber or iSCSI but they are very similar other than the assign to host part. In the setup guide I cover how to configure the management interfaces, create Vdisks, create volumes and then assign them to hosts. It covers different ways to setup your hot spare drives.

After reading this short document you will be able to get that new MSA array up and running quickly. I set my array up to talk to a small 3 node vSphere cluster but the setup would be the same if you were using for a Windows cluster or most other uses.

Download How to Setup MSA Array PDF HERE.

Brian Suhr is a Senior Virtualization Engineer and Architect working for HP Enterprise Services. He’s worked in the IT Industry since 1991, and worked for several companies. He runs the blog virtualizetips to document tips and problems encountered during his projects and reads. A VMware Certified Professional (VCP VI3.5) MCSE on Windows NT – 2000, Cisco CCNA/CCDA. Brian is currently working on upgrading my VCP to vSphere and will be pursuing VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) next.

By Brian Suhr

This is something that I have to do on Windows boxes all the time, but less on our ESX boxes. In the past we used to just run the vm-support to collect the support logs and turn those over to the storage team. They no longer are happy with those and since EMC now has a grab that supports both vSphere and VI3.5 it’s hard to deny them now. In case you do not know what a grab is, it’s a log collection utility that will provide the storage admin with all of the details about WWN’s, paths and which LUN’s a host can see. They can use this for planning upgrades and troubleshooting issues.

First thing you will need to do is to download the proper EMC grab version to support your hosts. At the time of writing this its a version 1.2.1 and is supports both ESX 3 and 4. Proceed on over to http://powerlink.emc.com and download it from the support programs area.

Once you have the file you will need to upload it to your host with something like WinSCP. I always upload it into the /tmp folder and unzip it there. It will create a folder called “emcgrab”. You can use the following command to do the unzip in case your not familiar with what to do.

tar -xvf emcgrab_ESX_vSphere_v.1.2.1.tar

Next thing is to move into the emcgrab directory that was created. From within there you will need to execute the following command. If you read the help file included in the directory it will explain some options to supress some annoying confirmation screens about the licensing and such.

./emcgrab.sh -nomsg

Once the program starts to run depending on the options you used it will prompt you to confirm and read the licensing. After you pass that part it will ask you a string of questions about your contact details and some questions about your environment. These are not necessary to complete it you are using these grabs in house. If you plan on sending these to EMC then I would advise to fill them out.

Once the script completes it will ask you if you want to run vm-support to collect the VMware support logs along with the EMCgrabs. This is up to you, if you have a need for them go ahead. Once the script finished it will place the zipped up file in the Output folder and you can pull off the file with WinSCP.

In closing it’s not necessary to be running Powerpath on your hosts to collect these grabs.

Brian Suhr is a Senior Virtualization Engineer and Architect working for HP Enterprise Services. He’s worked in the IT Industry since 1991, and worked for several companies. He runs the blog virtualizetips to document tips and problems encountered during his projects and reads. A VMware Certified Professional (VCP VI3.5) MCSE on Windows NT – 2000, Cisco CCNA/CCDA. Brian is currently working on upgrading my VCP to vSphere and will be pursuing VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) next.

By Mike Laverick

In this short video that I’ve done for TechTarget and NetApp – I show how you configure SnapMirror for SRM. I start from the very basics of creating a volume, setting the NFS permissions, mounting the volume to the ESX hosts – and then I head to show how to configure NetApp SnapMirror – not content with that I show you install the NetApp SRA and configure the “Array Manager” ready to run a recovery plan with VMware Site Recovery Manager – you can watch the whole thing here.

Tip: I recommend you watch in full screen!

Watch the video

Take a look at RTFM Education.com – a website/blog created by Mike Laverick

Jitendra Kumar from virtualization trainings is an IT Professional working as a consultant in the field of server virtualization.