WilliamLam.com

  • About
    • About
    • Privacy
  • VMware Cloud Foundation
  • VKS
  • Homelab
    • Hardware Options
    • Hardware Reviews
    • Lab Deployment Scripts
    • Nested Virtualization
    • Homelab Podcasts
  • VMware Nostalgia
  • Apple

Ultimate automation guide to deploying VCSA 6.0 Part 0

02.09.2015 by William Lam // 8 Comments

With vSphere 6.0, there is a new deployment model for vCenter Server which is comprised of following two core components:

  • Platform Services Controller (PSC) Node - Provides VMware Infrastructure services such as vCenter Single Sign-On, vSphere Licensing and VMware Certificate Authority Management (VCMA)
  • vCenter Server Management Node - Provides vCenter Server Service, Inventory Service, vSphere Web Client, vPostgres DB, vSphere Syslog Collector, vSphere Auto Deploy, and vSphere Dump Collector Services

From these two components, there are three deployment types (also shown in the diagrams below):

  1. Embedded Node - Both the Platform Services Controller and vCenter Server Management Node reside on a single system, this is true for both the Windows vCenter Server and the VCSA
  2. External Platform Services Controller Node - You can deploy multiple PSC's and configure them with independent SSO Domains or have them all joined to a single SSO Domain, replicating between each other
  3. vCenter Server Management Node - This requires that you have deployed an external PSC which the vCenter Server can point to

vcsa-6.0-deployment-options-new-2There are currently two supported methods of deploying the VCSA 6.0 Appliance which is using the new HTML based UI (Supported only on Windows) or a new scripted installer method (supports Windows, Mac & Linux). Both of these methods today require direct access to an ESXi host for deployment, which may not work for everyone. What if you want to deploy the new VCSA 6.0 using an existing vCenter Server or running it on top of VMware Fusion or Workstation? Luckily, I spent quite a bit of time going through all these "alternative" deployment methods and documenting the process so that you have a choice on how you would like to test and evaluate vSphere 6 and the new VCSA in your environment.

These alternative methods will be using the VCSA OVA which is actually included in the VCSA ISO. You will need to extract the contents of the VCSA ISO and you can find the OVA in the following path after extraction: VMware-VCSA-all-6.0.0-2562643->vcsa->vmware-vcsa where vmware-vcsa is the VCSA OVA file. Depending on the deployment method you are using, you may only need to just extract the contents of the ISO or possibly rename the vmware-vcsa with .ova extension to deploy. Please refer to the articles below for more details.

Disclaimer: Though these alternative deployment options work, they are however not officially supported by VMware. Please use at your own risk.

In the upcoming days, I will be sharing a 4-part blog series for automating the deployment of the new VCSA 6.0 with the following deployment options:

  • Part 0: Introduction
  • Part 1: Embedded Node
  • Part 2: Platform Services Controller Node
  • Part 3: Replicated Platform Services Controller Node
  • Part 4: vCenter Server Management Node

In each article, I will provide resources on how to deploy to an existing vCenter Server or directly to an ESXi host using ovftool via a shell script as well using PowerCLI, deploying to VMware Fusion and deploying to VMware Workstation. Stay tune for Part 1 ...

Categories // Automation, Fusion, OVFTool, VCSA, vSphere 6.0, Workstation Tags // fusion, vcenter server appliance, VCSA, vcva, vSphere 6.0, workstation

Handy new vSphere 6.0 APIs to be aware of

02.04.2015 by William Lam // 2 Comments

The number of new platform capabilities and features in vSphere 6.0 is by far the largest that I have seen in awhile. One of the things I like to do with each new vSphere release is review all the new APIs that are now available to be consumed. Here are some of the new vSphere APIs that I think are interesting from an Automation point of view for vSphere 6 that I think folks should be aware of. I know for myself, there are several new vSphere APIs that I have personally been waiting for quite some time and I am glad to finally see them available for our customers, developers and partners. Depending on my free time, I may go into more details on how some of these new APIs work and provide some sample codes.

If you would like to see the complete list of new vSphere 6.0 APIs, be sure to check out the vSphere 6.0 API Reference Guide (available when vSphere 6.0 GA's which is Q1 of 2015) which has a "What's New" section on all the new Managed Objects, Methods, Properties, etc.

CertificateManager - API to deploy and refresh VMCA (VMware Certificate Authority) SSL Certificates for ESXi hosts

  • CertMgrRefreshCACertificatesAndCRLs_Task
  • CertMgrRefreshCertificates_Task
  • CertMgrRevokeCertificates_Task

ClusterEVCManager - API to finally manage and configure EVC (Enhanced vMotion Compatibility) for a vSphere Cluster

  • CheckAddHostEvc_Task
  • CheckConfigureEvcMode_Task
  • ConfigureEvcMode_Task
  • DisableEvcMode_Task

IoFilterManager - API to manage the new IO Filter capability

  • InstallIoFilter_Task
  • QueryDisksUsingFilter
  • QueryIoFilterInfo
  • QueryIoFilterIssues
  • ResolveInstallationErrorsOnCluster_Task
  • ResolveInstallationErrorsOnHost_Task
  • UninstallIoFilter_Task
  • UpgradeIoFilter_Task

ClusterComputeResource - API to quickly lookup all the affinity and anti-affinity rules for a VM

  • FindRulesForVm

VSAN 6.0 / VVOL / NFS v4.1 APIs - Please take a look here

HostStorageSystem 

  • Marking a Disk device as either Local or Remote
    • MarkAsLocal_Task
    • MarkAsNonLocal_Task
  • Marking a Disk device as either an SSD or Magnetic Disk
    • MarkAsNonSsd_Task
    • MarkAsSsd_Task
  • Turn On of Off the LED on supported Disk device
    • TurnDiskLocatorLedOn_Task
    • TurnDiskLocatorLedOff_Task
  • VMFS UNMAP operation
    • UnmapVmfsVolumeEx_Task

HostCertificateManager - API to manage and update custom CA signed SSL Certificates on ESXi hosts

  • GenerateCertificateSigningRequest
  • GenerateCertificateSigningRequestByDn
  • InstallServerCertificate
  • ListCACertificateRevocationLists
  • ListCACertificates
  • ReplaceCACertificatesAndCRLs

HostActiveDirectoryAuthentication - API to manage Smart Card Authentication on ESXi hosts

  • DisableSmartCardAuthentication
  • EnableSmartCardAuthentication
  • InstallSmartCardTrustAnchor
  • ListSmartCardTrustAnchors
  • RemoveSmartCardTrustAnchor
  • RemoveSmartCardTrustAnchorByFingerprint
  • ReplaceSmartCardTrustAnchors

HostAccessManager - API to manage new Lockdown Mode capabilities and modify System Users

  • ChangeAccessMode
  • ChangeLockdownMode
  • QueryLockdownExceptions
  • QuerySystemUsers
  • RetrieveHostAccessControlEntries
  • UpdateLockdownExceptions
  • UpdateSystemUsers

VirtualMachine

  • Enable SMP-FT for VM
    • CreateSecondaryVMEx_Task
  • Send NMI (Non-Masking Interrupt) request to VM
    • SendNMI

GuestWindowsRegistryManager - API to manage registry keys for Windows Guest OSes

  • CreateRegistryKeyInGuest
  • DeleteRegistryKeyInGuest
  • DeleteRegistryValueInGuest
  • ListRegistryKeysInGuest
  • ListRegistryValuesInGuest
  • SetRegistryValueInGuest

Categories // Automation, vSphere 6.0 Tags // vSphere 6.0, vSphere API

New vSphere 6.0 APIs for VSAN, VVOLs, NFS v4.1 & more!

02.03.2015 by William Lam // 2 Comments

vSphere 6.0 includes a number of new storage platform capabilities and new features which includes VSAN 6.0, VVOLS and NFS v4.1 to just name a few. For those of you who are interested in consuming these new capabilities programmatically for Automation, here are some of the new vSphere 6.0 APIs to be aware of from a Storage stand point.

Generic Storage Sub-System

  • HostStorageSystem (Existing Managed Object)
    • Methods to manage and configure NFS v4.1
      • ChangeNFSUserPassword
      • ClearNFSUser
      • QueryNFSUser
      • SetNFSUser
    • Methods to mark a Disk device either Local or Remote
      • MarkAsLocal_Task
      • MarkAsNonLocal_Task
    • Methods to mark a Disk device as either an SSD or Magnetic Disk
      • MarkAsNonSsd_Task
      • MarkAsSsd_Task
    • Methods to turn On or Off the LED for supported Disk devices
      • TurnDiskLocatorLedOn_Task
      • TurnDiskLocatorLedOff_Task
    • Method to issue VAAI UNMAP operation
      • UnmapVmfsVolumeEx_Task
VSAN 6.0
  • VsanUpgradeSystem (New Managed Object) - Methods to upgrade to the new VSAN 6.0 on-disk format
    • PerformVsanUpgrade_Task
    • PerformVsanUpgradePreflightCheck
    • QueryVsanUpgradeStatus
  • HostVsanInternalSystem (Existing Managed Object) - Methods to query & upgrade VSAN Objects
    • QueryVsanObjectUuidsByFilter
    • UpgradeVsanObjects
  • HostVsanSystem (Existing Managed Object) - Methods to manage VSAN Node and disks
    • EvacuateVsanNode_Task
    • RecommissionVsanNode_Task
    • UnmountDiskMapping_Task
  • ComputeResource (Existing Managed Object)
    • faultDomainInfo - New Property to configure Fault Domains
VVOL
  • HostDatastoreSystem (Existing Managed Object) - Methods to create and delete VVOL Datastores
    • CreateVvolDatastore
    • RemoveDatastoreEx_Task

Categories // Automation, VSAN, vSphere 6.0, vVOL Tags // NFS v4.1, Virtual SAN, VSAN, vSphere 6.0, vSphere API, VVOL

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 193
  • 194
  • 195
  • 196
  • 197
  • …
  • 224
  • Next Page »

Search

Thank Author

Author

William is Distinguished Platform Engineering Architect in the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Division at Broadcom. His primary focus is helping customers and partners build, run and operate a modern Private Cloud using the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform.

Connect

  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • GitHub
  • LinkedIn
  • Mastodon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo

Recent

  • Ultimate Lab Resource for VCF 9.0 06/25/2025
  • VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) on ASUS NUC 15 Pro (Cyber Canyon) 06/25/2025
  • VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) on Minisforum MS-A2 06/25/2025
  • VCF 9.0 Offline Depot using Synology 06/25/2025
  • Deploying VCF 9.0 on a single ESXi host? 06/24/2025

Advertisment

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Copyright WilliamLam.com © 2025

 

Loading Comments...