Category: Virtualization
Disabling FCOE on vSphere 10gb NICs per VMware KB 2130092
So, we recently had an issue with some of our Dell blade vSphere hosts. Seems they all crashed (PSOD) at the same time (6 nodes across 2 different clusters). After submitting the log bundles and Dell TSRs, support recommended, along with upgrading drivers & firmware (the support go to!) that we remove FCoE from the NICs (as it’s not being…
Creating shortcuts for PowerCLI that automatically log you in.
So, I started a new job a couple of months ago and we have multiple vCenter environments. My friend & temporary co-worker, Brian Spagna (@bspagna) and I both wanted to have shortcuts to launch PowerCLI windows and have a different background color for each to easily identify which environment we were in. We thought it would be cool to have…
Configuring my Dell PowerEdge R920 for dual SD Cards instead of Internal HDs
We recently setup a Dell PowerEdge R920 that was in storage to add to our VDI Environment for additional resources. This server differs from the other R920s in our environment as it has dual SD Cards internally instead of Hard Disks. I had to configure the SD Cards in a mirror so we had fault tolerance, so this is the…
Mission: VMUG Virtual Event – May 17, 2016
As a VMUG Leader, I felt like I needed to post a blog entry on the upcoming VMUG Virtual event on May 17th, 2016. The VMUG Virtual Events are always packed with information from VMware and vendors as well. VMware is presenting on topics like: VSAN 6.2, vRA & NSX Technical Deepdive, AirWatch, Taking Virtualization to the next level, EUC,…
What do you do when a path to a NFS Datastore goes down?
My QA environment uses Isilon as it’s backend storage platform. The Isilon share is one large storage volume that is setup with different paths (IPs) to the storage. This environment has 6 datastores (6 paths). The other day, we had one of those paths go down, taking down approx 75 VMs with it. I debated attempting to remove the down…
Adding a PowerShell Windows Update Script to my VMware Customizations
In my environments, we typically convert the templates to Virtual Machines once a quarter so we can install Windows Updates. This means, there could be a number of patches to install if you’re 2+ months out from the last time they were updated. So I decided to use a PowerShell script that my coworker wrote to do Windows Updates and…
My Experience Upgrading vCenter to 5.5 Update 3b
I recently upgraded my vCenter from 5.5 Update 2, to 5.5 Update 3b. As this is a fairly straightforward process, I didn’t expect anything to go wrong. I proceeded through all the main components and once completed, attempted to connect to vCenter… I found I couldn’t connect. Further investigation found that the service would not start! Attempting to start the…
Patching VMware ESXi Hosts via PowerCLI!
*** Updated 5/17/2017 – See below *** This year, I’m trying something new… Anything that I have to do more than 2-3 times, I’m going to attempt to automate it! In keeping with this mantra, I recently had a task come across my plate to patch the 20+ ESXi Hosts in one of my production environments. Along with installing the…
EMC Elect 2016 – Thank you!
Today I was officially named as an EMC Elect 2016, my 2nd year in a row and 3rd overall year in the program. To say I’m honored and thrilled is an understatement! A while back I remember Duncan Epping saying something on Twitter similar to, “Everyone at VMware should be a vExpert.” I’m paraphrasing but his sentiment is clear – if…
Display list of Multiple vCenter Servers to connect to in your PowerCLI Scripts
If you’re company anything like mine, you probably have multiple vCenter servers in your environment. They may be linked, they may not. In my environment, we have 4 vCenter servers we consider Production, even though one is for QA, and we have a lab environment. Normally, I just connect to vCenter manually in PowerCLI before I run a command/script to…