vSphere 6.5 – Page 25

Configure new automatic Space Reclamation (VMFS UNMAP) using vSphere 6.5 APIs

10.31.2016 by William Lam // 6 Comments

Since its first introduction in vSphere 5.5, VMFS UNMAP also know as Space Reclamation for a VMFS based datastore has been a pretty popular Storage capability in vSphere. A commonly asked question from customers is when will the "automatic" capability return? Well, it looks like it is now back in the upcoming vSphere 6.5 release as blogged about here by Duncan Epping. Below is a screenshot of where you can find the setting. VMFS UNMAP is now enabled by default and you will need to have a VMFS 6 datastore to take advantage of this new feature.

For customers who wish to automate the configuration of the VMFS UNAMP capability whether that is to check the current settings or to enable/disable it, there are some new vSphere 6.5 APIs that have been introduced which differ from the previous implementations. To change the VMFS UNMAP setting, there is a new vSphere API called UpdateVmfsUnmapPriority() which accepts the UUID of a VMFS 6 datastore as well as an unmapPriority property which can either be "low" which means it is enabled or "none" which means it is disabled. To view the current VMFS UNMAP settings, there is a new property under the Datastore->Info->Vmfs object called UnmapPriority.

To demonstrate this new vSphere API, I have created two small PowerCLI functions called Get-VMFSUnmap and Set-VMFSUnmap which can be downloaded from here.

Here is an example of retrieving the current VMFS UNMAP settings:

Get-Datastore "mini-local-datastore-hdd" | Get-VMFSUnmap

Here is an example of enabling automatic VMFS UNMAP setting:

Get-Datastore "mini-local-datastore-hdd" | Set-VMFSUnmap -Enabled $true

Super easy way of getting ESXi installation date in vSphere 6.5

10.30.2016 by William Lam // 2 Comments

Sometimes it is the small updates which improves an existing feature or enhances the current user experience that I most appreciate with a new vSphere release. One area that I recently came across while working with vSphere 6.5 is just how easy it is now to retrieve the ESXi installation date which can be useful for troubleshooting or auditing purposes. This previously required you to decode the ESXi UUID which was needed to construct the originally installation date as outlined in this VMware KB 2144905 article.

With ESXi 6.5, you can now quickly retrieve the ESXi installation date simply by using this new ESXCLI command:

esxcli system stats installtime get

Note: ESXCLI can be executed either locally within the ESXi Shell or remotely using vCLI or PowerCLI.

In case that was not enough, the Engineer who added this capability was also kind enough to add a native vSphere API to also retrieve the ESXi installation date from a programmatic approach. Under the existing ImageHostConfigManager there is now a new vSphere 6.5 API called installDate() which returns the installation date in UTC format.

To demonstrate this new vSphere API, I have created a small PowerCLI function called Get-ESXInstallDate which can be downloaded from here.

Here is an example of retrieving the installation date for a specific ESXi host:

How to deploy the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) 6.5 running on VMware Fusion & Workstation?

10.27.2016 by William Lam // 31 Comments

As with any new release of vSphere, it is quite common for customers to deploy the new software in either a vSphere home or test lab to get more familiar with it. Although not everyone has access to a vSphere lab environment, the next best thing is to leverage either VMware Fusion or Workstation. With the upcoming release of vSphere 6.5, this is no different. In fact, during the vSphere Beta program, this was something that was asked about by several customers and something I had helped document as the process has changed from previous releases of the VCSA.

In vSphere 6.5, the VCSA deployment has changed from a "Single" monolithic stage where a user enters all of their information up front and the installer goes and deploys the VCSA OVA and then applies the configurations. If you had fat finger say a DNS entry or wanted to change the IP Address before applying the actual application configurations, it would not be possible and you would have to re-deploy which was not an ideal user experience.

In vSphere 6.5, the new UI installer will still allow you to perform a "Single" monolithic stage but it is now broken down into two distinct stages as shown below with their respective screenshots:

Stage 1 - Initial OVA deployment which includes basic networking

Stage 2 - Applying VCSA specific personality configuration

Just like in prior releases of the VCSA, the UI translates the user input into specific OVF properties which are then passed into the VCSA guest for configuration. This means that if you wish to deploy VCSA 6.5 running Fusion or Workstation, you will have two options to select from. You either deploy VCSA and complete both Stage 1 and 2 or just Stage 1 only. If you select the latter option, to complete the actual deployment, you will need to open a web browser to the VAMI UI (https://[VCSA-IP]:5480) and finish configuring the VCSA using the "Setup vCenter Server Appliance" option as shown in the screenshot below.

If your goal is to quickly get the VCSA 6.5 up and running, then going with Option 1 (Stage 1 & 2 Config) is the way to go. If your goal is to learn about the new VCSA UI Installer, then you can at least get a taste of that by going with Option 2 (Stage 1 Config) and this way you can step through Stage 2 using the native UI installer.

One last thing I would like to mention is that there have been a number of new services added to the VCSA 6.5. One example is that vSphere Update Manager (VUM) is now embedded in the VCSA and it is also enabled by default. With these new services, the tiniest deployment size is going to require 10GB of memory where as before it was 8GB. This is something to be aware of and ensure that you have adequate resources before attempting to deploy the VCSA or else you may see some unexpected failures while the system is being configured.

Note: If you have access to fast SSDs and would like to overcommit memory in Fusion or Workstation, you might be able to get this to work leveraging some tricks mentioned here. This is not something I have personally tested, so YMMV.

Here are the steps to deploy VCSA 6.5 using either VMware Fusion or Workstation:

Step 0 (Optional) - Familiarize yourself with setting up VCSA 6.0 was on Fusion/Workstation with this blog post which will be helpful for additional context.

Step 1 - Download & extract the VCSA 6.5 ISO

Step 2 - Import the VCSA OVA which will be located in vcsa/VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-6.5.0.5100-XXXXXX_OVF10.ova using either VMware Fusion or Workstation (you can either double click or just go to File->Open) but make sure you do NOT power it on after deployment. (this is very important)

Step 4 - Locate the directory in which the VCSA was deployed to and open up the VMX file and append one of the following options (make sure to change the IP information and passwords based on your environment):

Option 1 (Stage 1 & 2 Configuration):

guestinfo.cis.deployment.node.type = "embedded"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.addr.family = "ipv4"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.mode = "static"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.pnid = "192.168.1.190"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.addr = "192.168.1.190"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.prefix = "24"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.gateway = "192.168.1.1"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.dns.servers = "192.168.1.1"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.root.passwd = "VMware1!"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.ssh.enabled = "True"
guestinfo.cis.deployment.autoconfig = "True"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.ntp.servers = "pool.ntp.org"
guestinfo.cis.vmdir.password = "VMware1!"
guestinfo.cis.vmdir.site-name = "virtuallyGhetto"
guestinfo.cis.vmdir.domain-name = "vsphere.local"
guestinfo.cis.ceip_enabled = "False"

Option 2 (Stage 1 Only Configuration):

Step 5 - Once you have saved your changes, go ahead and power on the VCSA. At this point, the guestinfo properties that you just added will be read in by VMware Tools as the VCSA is booting up and the configuration will begin. Depending on the speed of your hardware, this can potentially take up to 15min+ as I have seen it. Please be patient with the process. If you wish to check the progress of the deployment, you can open a browser to https://[VC-IP]:5480 and you should see some progress or you can periodically connect to the Hostname/IP Address and once it is done, you should be taken to the vCenter Server's main landing page.