WilliamLam.com

Search Results for: vsphere MOB

Enabling/Disabling EVC using the vSphere MOB

by // 2 Comments

There were some discussions this morning on twitter regarding the configuration of EVC for a vSphere Cluster using one of the vSphere CLI's such as PowerCLI or directly leveraging the vSphere API. Unfortunately, this is not possible today as the operations pertaining to EVC are not currently exposed in the vSphere API. This means you will not be able to use the vCLI, PowerCLI, vCO or the vSphere API to configure and manage EVC configurations, you will need to use the vSphere Client to do so.

Having said that, one could still "potentially" automate EVC configurations using the vSphere MOB interface using the private vSphere API, but it may not be ideal and will require some "creativity" and custom coding to integrate with your existing automation solution. This particular limitation of the vSphere API is one that I have personally faced and have filed a bug with VMware awhile back. I am hoping this will eventually be added to the public vSphere API, so that users can fully automate all aspects and configurations of a vSphere Cluster.

Disclaimer: This is not officially supported by VMware, use at your own risk and discretion.

Step 1 - Connect to your vCenter MOB and traverse to the vSphere Cluster of interest (note the MOID will be different in your specific cluster).

Step 2 -  Now replace the URL with the following while substituting the cluster MOID that you see in your browser:

https://reflex.primp-industries.com/mob/?moid=domain-c1550&method=transitionalEVCManager

and hit enter and you'll be brought to TransitionalEVCManager() method, you'll then want to click on the "Invoke Method". Once you do so, you should be returned with a task object and you'll have a link to something like evcdomain-cXXXX. Click on this and you'll be brought to ClusterTransitionalEVCManager.

Step 3 - From here you'll have have some basic evcState information which you can click on to see what the current EVC configuration is set to, guaranteedCPUFeatures and valid EVC Modes (the last part will be important for reconfiguring EVC)

Step 4 - Now let's say the cluster currently has EVC Mode set to intel-merom and you would like to change it to Nehalem, you would need to retrieve the key from the previous page, in our example it's intel-nehalem. Now, you need to click on the method link called ConfigureEVC_Task which is pretty straight forward, it just accepts the EVC Mode Key, enter the string and click on "Invoke Method" and now your cluster will be reconfigured if you go back to the evcState or look at your vCenter task. You can also disable EVC by using DisableEVC_Task

 
Note: If EVC is already configured in your vSphere Cluster, you can use the vSphere API to view it's current configuration by looking at the ClusterComputeResource's summary property. You just will not be able to make any changes or disabling EVC using the vSphere API.

Using PowerCLI and vSphere Tags to create/migrate HCX Mobility Groups to VMware Cloud SDDC

by // 3 Comments

If using your voice to create an HCX Mobility Group and initiate a migration to a VMware Cloud SDDC is not your thing, here is a more practical example using PowerCLI which includes HCX cmdlets that was introduced awhile back.


Here are the 12 configurable variables that you will need to update based on your own environment.

$VC_SERVER="vcsa.vmware.corp"
$VC_USERNAME="*protected email*"
$VC_PASSWORD="VMware1!"
$HCX_SERVER="hcx.vmware.corp"

$VSPHERE_TAG_CATEGORY="Cloud"
$VSPHERE_TAG_NAME="VMC"

# vMotion, Bulk, Cold, RAV, OsAssistedMigration
$MIGRATION_TYPE="RAV"

$TARGET_NETWORK_NAME="L2E_HOL-10-f58e483b"
$TARGET_DATASTORE_NAME="WorkloadDatastore"
$TARGET_RESOURCE_POOL_NAME="Compute-ResourcePool"
$TARGET_VM_FOLDER_NAME="Workloads"

$MOBILITY_GROUP_NAME="VMworld-2020-Demo"

[Read more...]

VSAN Managed Object Browser (MOB) in vSphere 6.7 & vSphere 6.7 Update 1

by // 1 Comment

If you have ever spent any time using the vSphere API, you probably have heard of or have used the vSphere Managed Objected Browser (MOB) which is an extremely useful learning and debugging tool when working with the vSphere API. The vSphere MOB is accessed through a web browser connecting to either vCenter Server or ESXi and provides a graphical interface, allowing you to discovery/explore the underlying vSphere API and its data in a very intuitive manner.

As an avid user of the VSAN Management API since its release, I have always wanted something similar, especially when I first got started. I was quite happy when I found out in vSphere 6.7 and VSAN 6.7, the VSAN team has added a VSAN MOB interface directly on ESXi, for the VSAN specific APIs that are available only on an ESXi host. Just like the vSphere MOB which is also available on ESXi host, it is disabled by default and must be enabled.

The following ESXCLI commands can be used to enable/disable the VSAN MOB on ESXi 6.7:

esxcli vsan debug mob start
esxcli vsan debug mob stop

However, when I tried to enable the VSAN MOB, I ran into the following error message:

hostname 'localhost.localdomain' doesn't match '192.168.30.10'


It turns out there is an issue where it fails to match the IP Address of the ESXi host to the default localhost.localdomain and hence it fails to start the VSAN MOB. This issue is fixed in the upcoming vSphere & VSAN 6.7 Update 1, but in the mean time, there is a workaround.

[Read more...]