Uncategorized – Page 37

What's New in vSphere 6.0 Update 1 for VCSA?

09.01.2015 by William Lam // 31 Comments

One of the announcements at VMworld this week is the upcoming release of vSphere 6.0 Update 1 (GA sometime in Q3 2015) and in addition to bug fixes there are also several new enhancements that have been added. Here are some of the new capabilities specifically for the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA).

New Deployment Targets - The VCSA now supports both vCenter Server (brownfield) as well as ESXi (greenfield) as a deployment targets.When using either the Guided UI or Scripted UI, you can now deploy to an existing vCenter Server which might serve as a management cluster for example. Previously, ESXi was the only supported deployment target.
Convert Embedded VCSA to External PSC - An Embedded VCSA deployment can now be re-configured or re-pointed to an External PSC using the new "reconfigure" and "repoint" option found in the /bin/cmsso-util utility. This allows customers to quickly get started using the simple Embedded VCSA deployment and as they get more comfortable and want to scale out to an External PSC for features like Enhanced Linked Mode, you can easily do so.

Two of the most frequently asked questions that I have seen from customers since the release of the VCSA 6.0 is where did the VMware Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) and URL-based patching go? These were definitely two missed features that did not make it into VCSA 6.0 release and today I am pleased to announce that they have returned with some nice enhancements!

VAMI UI - The VAMI UI can be accessed in the familiar 5480 port by visiting the following URL of the VCSA: https://[VCSA]:5480 and requires a local OS account to login like the root user account. The VAMI itself has been completely re-written both on the backend as well as the frontend which is now an HTML5 interface. All VAMI functionality can be accessed both from the UI as well as using the appliancesh command-line interface.

URL-based patching - URL-based patching is also included in the new VAMI UI interface. By default it is configured to point back to VMware's online repository but you can also configure it to use an ISO or a custom repository as previous versions supported. All patching capabilities are also available using the appliancesh command-line interface.

PSC UI - In addition to new VAMI UI, there also now a new Platform Services Controller (PSC) UI which is also written in HTML5. The new UI is located at the following URL: https://[VCSA]/psc and requires an SSO Administrator account to login. This new UI actually uses the same backend as the PSC configurations found within the vSphere Web Client. The idea behind this UI is to provide customers with a way to configure SSO and other related configurations within the PSC for either a greenfield setup or when the vSphere Web Client is unavailable. This can come in handy for troubleshooting purposes. Lastly, with the new PSC UI, you will now be able to replace certificates from a UI standpoint where as previously this was only available in the CLI.

Build-2-Build upgrade support - In prior releases, both a "Major" and "U" (Update) release of the VCSA meant that you had to deploy the new VCSA to perform a migration based upgrade. In vSphere 6.0 Update 1, "U" releases (U1, U2, etc) can now be accomplished by an in-place upgrade or sometimes refer to as a build-2-build. There will be a VCSA 6.0 Update 1 ISO which can be mounted within your existing VCSA 6.0 appliance to perform the upgrade as seen in the screenshot below.

appliancesh automation - The appliancesh interface in the VCSA 6.0 was primarily targeted for interactive usage and did not support any type of Automation. The feedback from customers was to provide a way to be able to call into the various appliancesh commands and in VCSA 6.0 Update 1, you can now execute a series of appliancesh commands within a file and re-directing that into an SSH session. VMware is also looking into providing a proper API for the appliancesh commands, if you have any feedback on this please leave a comment or reach out to Alan Renouf, who is the PM.

Below is the contents of the vcsa-commands.txt file which contains the following appliancesh commands to configure and enable NTP for the VCSA:

ntp.test --servers 0.pool.ntp.org,1.pool.ntp.org
ntp.server.add --server 0.pool.ntp.org,1.pool.ntp.org
timesync.set --mode NTP
ntp.get

Lastly, though this is not specific to the VCSA, I thought it was also worth mentioning that you can now access ALL capabilities of vSphere Update Manager (VUM) within the vSphere Web Client. VUM will still require a separate Windows system, but will fully inter-operate with both the Windows VC as well as the VCSA and you no longer need to rely on the vSphere C# Client to perform remediation or base-line creation and assignments.

As you can see, there are a ton of enhancements in the latest vSphere 6.0 Update 1 release and if you have not taken vSphere 6.0 for a spin yet, I definitely recommend starting with this release.

Instant Clone community customization script repository

08.04.2015 by William Lam // Leave a Comment

I am sure many of you are probably anxious to get your hands on the new VMFork aka Instant Clone PowerCLI Extensions Fling that was recently released! While using the Instant Clone cmdlets to help provide feedback and improvements, I have found that I spent the majority of my time on developing and fine-tuning the pre and post-customization scripts. Instead of having others hit similar issues that I ran into, I wanted to see how I could easily share some of the leanings but also incorporate collaboration?

After thinking about this for a bit, I realized this was a great opportunity to create a community Github repository of Instant Clone customization scripts that anyone can either use and/or contribute back to. I have already added a few OS customization scripts to the repo to start with like ESXi 6.0, Ubuntu 14.x and VMware Photon. To access the repository, simply visit https://github.com/lamw/vmfork-community-customization-scripts

The Instant Clone community customization script repository is broken up by series of OS directories which contain the relevent set of pre/post-customization scripts for that OS and any additional scripts that might be required. It may also contain further instructions on how to use the script as well as an example "driver" script which calls into the Instant Clone cmdlets demonstrating how to use the scripts.

Here is an example for ESXi 6.0 OS:

esxi60
├── post-esxi60.sh
├── pre-esxi60.sh
├── prep-esxi60.sh
└── vmfork-esxi60.ps1

For those that wish to contribute back, just fork the repository and send me a pull request. I am really looking forward to seeing what the community comes up with!

How my daughter almost received an extra shot (vaccine) for her birthday?

07.13.2015 by William Lam // 4 Comments

This past week, our daughter turned 4 months old and this meant another routine visit to the pediatrician office for her vaccinations. It started out like any other visit. The medical assistant took her weight and measurements, and reviewed the vaccines that were due this visit. She noted that our daughter would receive three shots: DTap/Hib/Polio, Hepatitis B, Pneumococcal, and an oral drink for Rotavirus.

Our daughter received a clean bill of health from the pediatrician and we were also pleasantly surprised to hear that she ranked in over 85th percentile for her weight, height, and head circumference. The last thing the pediatrician reviewed with us was her vaccinations. She briefly checked off on the 4-month overview sheet that she would receive the DTap/Hib/Polio, Pneumococcal, and Rotavirus. She crossed out Hepatitis B and said she does not need it this visit because she already received two doses (the schedule for Hep B is at 0, 1-2, and 6 months). The order was placed and the pediatrician quickly left the room while we waited for the medical assistant to return.

During this time, my wife realized that the medical assistant had mentioned that our daughter would be receiving 3 shots, not 2 like what the pediatrician had said. Sure enough, when the medical assistant returned with her tray of shots, there were 3 shots and a drink. My wife quickly stated to the medical assistant that the doctor said there were to be only 2 shots. The medical assistant then went over to the computer to double check the orders and stated that the doctor changed the orders (unbeknownst to her). Luckily, my wife works in healthcare and was able to catch the mistake before it had happened, making this incident a “near miss.”

While driving home, I could not help but think about the near mishap with our daughter. Some might say this was the fault of the medical assistant as the doctor had placed the correct order, but honestly I am not sure I would place the complete blame on her for the mistake. As I discussed this further with my wife thinking through some of the possible scenarios on how this could have happened

Maybe the medical assistant had the vaccination schedule memorized as they work with children all day long, but perhaps she had forgotten it or did not even bother to look at the actual order?
Maybe the medical assistant miss-read our daughters medical record and thought she was due for Hep B shot?
Maybe the doctor actually did change or put in the order right before she had prepared up the shots but didn’t bother to verbally tell the medical assistant?
Maybe the medical assistant was just tired that day?

In all the scenarios that we could come up with, it was clear to me that the mistake was due to the "human factor".

In my mind, why was there not an automated system and safety measures put into place that could alarm the administrator of the drug between what was ordered and what was being checked out, even to the point before the drugs were being administered? One might say having an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system could have prevented this, especially if the drugs have bar codes that could be scanned during the preparation of the order. However, this particular clinic had an EMR system and even if the above process existed, I still believe this mistake could have easily been overlooked since someone would still have to remember to scan the drugs. What if the person giving the drugs was in a rush and just grabbed the drugs in advanced?

This incident actually reminded me of a local story that I had read several months back where a child at the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital was accidentally given dosage that was 38 times over their normal dose. This incident occurred because a nurse had completely relied on the EMR system and had accepted the incorrect measurement conversion which then of course translated to a much higher dosage to be prescribed. Even with a modern hospital where an EMR system was used and was tightly integrated with patient drug orders and the distribution of the drugs, the system was still unable to prevent this mistake from happening.

I know we cannot solely rely on ourselves because of the "human factor" with its unpredictable nature and the primary reason we humans are not good at performing repetitive tasks or even some basic math for that matter. However, I also do not think we are ready (yet?) to place our complete trust onto computers and remove ourselves completely from the equation. What I do know is that whatever solution we come up with, we desperately need an automated system that is "naturally integrated" into the existing processes and workflows of our Healthcare system. The system needs to be an enabler to physicians, nurses, medical assistant, etc. but it cannot be a distraction or an inhibitor when providing patient healthcare.

Sadly, that is not the case today and with a diverse age group with varying digital literacy skills, I often hear from many of my friends who work in the Healthcare system that existing EMR systems are still as problematic as they are helpful. I think ultimately, whatever technology we use, it cannot be something that we have to think about using but it should be seamlessly integrated into the overall patient healthcare process with proper checks and balances.

Today, I learned a valuable lesson and I think that all parents should be vigilant when visiting the doctor, even if it is for a routine checkup. Technology and Healthcare has always been a topic of interest for me and I really look forward to further advancements in these fields as they intersect to better improve our lives.