VMware 2 - Mike Tabor

vCenter server service won’t start after upgrading 5.5 to Update 3b

January 5, 2016 VMware

Just a quick heads up! Over the last week I’ve been upgrading our vCenter servers from version 5.5 to the most recent 5.5 Update 3b version and have ran into a small hiccup.

The upgrade of SSO, Web Client, Inventory Service and even vCenter server all went as expected without any issues. Then I rebooted the vCenter server and after the reboot noticed that the vCenter server service hadn’t started and when I tried to start it manually I then received the following error:

Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

Another CBT bug found in VMware ESXi 6.0

November 12, 2015November 29, 2015 VMware

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VMware just published KB 2136854 regarding a new bug found in ESXi 6.0 that causes virtual machine backups, which use Changed Block Tracking (CBT), to be inconsistent. VMware says the cause of the issue is this:

This issue occurs due to an issue with CBT in the disklib area, this causes the change tracking information of I/Os that occur during snapshot consolidation to be lost. The main backup payload data is never lost and it is always written to the backend device. However, the corresponding change tracking information entries which occur during the consolidation task are missed. Subsequent QueryDiskChangedAreas() calls do not include these missed blocks, hence a backup based on this CBT data is inconsistent.

How to setup NFS on Synology NAS for VMware ESXi lab

January 30, 2015January 27, 2015 Synology

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I’ve been asked several times how and why I setup my home lab to use NFS on my Synology NAS and thought a post detailing the steps would be best. First the why, when I purchased my Synology DS412+ about two years I recall seeing several people stating NFS was out performing iSCSI (like this post) on the Synology. It was strictly from reading other peoples findings that I started with NFS and have continued to use NFS without any issue. In fact I’ve been very happy with my DS412+ in a RAID 10 setup.

How I setup NFS on the Synology for my ESXi homelab is pretty simple as well.

VMUG EVALExperience, the new VMware VMTN

January 15, 2015October 15, 2015 VMware

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VMUG EVALExperience

Long ago VMware offered a program called VMware Technology Network (VMTN) which was very similar to Microsoft’s TechNet, which allowed you to download and run various VMware software within your home lab for a small yearly fee. Just like the Microsoft TechNet, the VMware VMTN program was eventually closed. From the time the VMTN program closed many people have begged and pleaded with VMware to bring the program back, there is even a long forum thread asking VMware to bring VMTN back. Though it never did… until now.

Thank you VMware Community!

April 2, 2014April 2, 2014 VMware

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VMware vExpert 2014

So far, 2014 has been a very rewarding year for a number of reasons, two of which has happened in just a week or two span. First, Eric Siebert (@ericsiebert) announced on March 27th, this years results of the 2014 Top VMware & Virtualization Blog voting. My first year entered into voting and made it to 71st place! A huge thanks goes out to not only Eric but just as much so to everyone who voted for me!

To top it off, yesterday VMware announced 2014’s first quarter VMware vExpert list. While vExpert isn’t a technical certification or even a general measure of VMware expertise. The VMware judges selected people who were engaged with their community and who had developed a substantial personal platform of influence in those communities. There were a lot of very smart, very accomplished people, even VCDXs, that weren’t named as vExpert this year. VMware awarded this title to 754 people this year and on that list of many impressive names you’ll find yours truly, Michael Tabor!

I’m both honored and humbled by both lists. It’s a great feeling to be recognized by not only my peers through the voting in the Top vBlog but also by VMware themselves through the vExpert title.

So again THANK YOU very much to the entire VMware community, a spectacular community indeed, and congratulations to everyone else that made the Top vBlog and vExpert lists!

Restore a VM using the {vm}-flat.vmdk file

December 15, 2013January 13, 2015 VMware

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A couple days ago I was asked the question “An admin deleted the vmdk file associated with a VM, there are no snapshots or backups of the VM . Can we restore this VM somehow?“. I believe in backups, I like to have my VM’s backed up so that I can depend on them for events just like this very issue. At first I was stumped, until the {vm-name}.flat.vmdk was mentioned. That’s when I remembered a method to recover a VM using the vm-flat.vmdk file that I had actually done 2-3 years ago.

Easy ESXi 5.5 upgrade via command line

September 23, 2013March 13, 2014 VMware

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ESXi 5.5 was just released general availability (GA) on Sunday (9/22) and I’m itching to upgrade the home lab to run the latest version with all it’s goodies. I wanted to try upgrading my hosts without having to go through the same process that I followed setting up ESXi on the NUC in the first place, injecting custom NIC drivers, etc.

Enter the command line…

Move all VM’s from the host and then put the host into Maintenance Mode.
Go to the Configuration tab > Security Profile and Enable SSH under Services.
Under Firewall, enable httpClient (outbound http).
Open PuTTY (or other SSH client) and SSH into your host.

VMware’s Dual Persona smartphones now available at Verizon Wireless

May 16, 2013 VMware

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VMware Ready for Verizon

VMware has announced that the Android running LG Intuition and Motorola Razr M can now both be purchased with VMWare Horizon Mobile software. The VMWare Horizon Mobile software separates the devices into isolated partitions that allow users to keep their work applications and data separate from their personal applications and data.

Today, VMware and Verizon Wireless announced that the Android-based LG Intuition and Motorola Razr M can now be purchased with VMware’s Horizon Mobile software, which separates the device into isolated partitions that keep a user’s work applications and data separate from personal stuff. Licenses to Horizon Mobile start at $125 per user and can be purchased through local resellers of VMware and Verizon Wireless.

VMware Workstation updated to 9.0.2

March 10, 2013 VMware

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VMware is released a maintenance update for VMware Workstation to version 9.0.2. The update is available for free for all VMware Workstation 9.x customers.

Mostly just bug fixes and a few improvements, here are a few highlights:

Fedora 18 supported as a guest operating system
Windows 8 host permissions issues fixed
VMware Tool updated to support the latest Linux kernels
Improved general host resource management
OVF Tool has been updated to version 3.0.2
Virtual machine sharing improvements
Memory leak which impacted Windows hosts has been fixed

vSphere 5.1 currently not compatible with any VMware View version

September 13, 2012September 13, 2012 VMware

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Before you go updating your vSphere to the new 5.1 version that was just released, VMware had just released this alert yesterday (9/12) that vSphere 5.1 is currently NOT compatible with any version of VMware View.

vSphere 5.1 is in the process of being certified against VMware View. We recommend that you do not upgrade vSphere above the supported versions listed in the VMware View 5.1 Release Notes.

For further updates and more information on this alert, refer to KB article:
vSphere 5.1 is not compatible with any versions VMware View (2035268).

If you don’t use VMware View, and are ready to upgrade to vSphere 5.1 be sure to check out the Installing vCenter Server 5.1 best practices from VMware.