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New vSphere 4.1 CLI Utilities Marketing Did Not Tell You About Part 1

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With the new release of vSphere 4.1, there are new additions to the CLI utilities that administrators can leverage for configurations and troubleshooting. Although, not all were treated equally from an announcement and documentation standpoint. 


Here are some of the new and/or subtle changes with the CLI utilities:

1. vmkfstools undocumented "-D" option now outputs to console along with an entry in /var/log/vmkernel, whereas in the past, to locate the entry within the vmkernel logs for identifying locked files by a particular host as documented in this article. 

Here is an example of the old version of vmkfstools and -D option:

Here is an example of the new version of vmkfstools and -D option:

 2. storageRM is a debugging utility for Storage I/O Control at the host level.


[root@esx4-1 ~]# /usr/lib/vmware/bin/storageRM -h

Default Values:
SleepTime: 4000
Threshold: 35
Gamma: 0.25
Beta-per-host: 4.00
LowerBound: 4
UpperBound: 64
Storage I/O Control-- This tool does flow control at the host
in order to maintain disk I/O latency close to a
threshold and queue sizes converge at values
proportional to the beta parameter.

The following histogram related options are available:
-a, --print the list of all luns, their latency threshold,
queue depths and if Storage I/O Controlis set/unset
-b, --Beta per host value
-d - put debugging info in the given file
-f, --force the run without checking version or checksum
-g, --defGamma value for use in control equation
-h, --help will print the usage
-l, --lower bound on the length of lun queue, (default 4)
-n, --no anomaly detection is done
-r, --reset issue queue for all luns to default
-s, --sleep time in ms for periodic execution
-t, --threshold on the latency (in ms), for rate control
-u, --upper bound on the length of lun queue (default 64)
-v, --debug log level value
storageRM Usage:
storageRM [options]

3. net-lbt is a debugging utility for the new Load-Based Teaming feature.

[root@esx4-1 ~]# /usr/lib/vmware/bin/net-lbt -h

Usage: [-d] [-t time] [-v] [-s threshold]
-d run in daemon mode
-t daemon sleep period in seconds, minimum 10 seconds
-v run with verbose logging
-s saturate threshold [10, 100], i.e. 60 for 60% of line rate

4. net-dvs is a debugging utility for Distributed vSwitch. 

[root@esx4-1 ~]# /usr/lib/vmware/bin/net-dvs -h

Warning: This is an unsupported command. Use at your own risk.
net-dvs -a [ -P maxPorts] switch_name
net-dvs -d switch_name
net-dvs [ -A | -D ] -p port switch_name
net-dvs [ -s name=value | -u name ] -p port switch_name
net-dvs -l [ switch_name ]
net-dvs -i (init database)
net-dvs [-S | -R | -G ]
net-dvs -T
net-dvs -v "vlanID[;t|p[0-7][;min-max,min-max...]]
net-dvs -V "primaryVID,secondaryVID,i|c|p;primaryVID,secondaryVID,i|c|p..."
net-dvs -m "sid;dname;snaplen;

[oiveld];encapvlan;wildcardsIn,wildcardsOut;dstPort1,dstPort2,...;srcInPort1,srcInport2,...;srcOutPort1,srcOutPort2,...;:sid2;dname2..."
net-dvs dvswitch -k "respool1_id;respool2_id;..."
net-dvs dvswitch -p dvport -K "respool1_id:shares:limit;respool2_id:shares:limit;..."
net-dvs dvswitch -p dvport -z "respool_id"
net-dvs dvswitch -j [activate|deactivate]
net-dvs -L uplink_name1[,uplink_name2,...] -t team_policy_type -p port switch_name
net-dvs dvswitch -H "red|yellow|green:some message" switch_name
net-dvs -o "depth,param|classname;depth,param|classname;... -p port|globalPropList switch_name
net-dvs --mtu mtu_value [-p dvport] switch_name
net-dvs --x 0|1 -p dvport switch_name
net-dvs --vlan vlanID -p dvport switch_name
net-dvs --reset -p dvport switch_name
net-dvs --cap cap_value -p dvport switch_name
net-dvs --states -p dvport switch_name

5. remoteDeviceConnect is a new utility that allows you to mount various remote devices including floppy and USB. 

/usr/lib/vmware/bin/remoteDeviceConnect: option requires an argument -- h

VMware remote Device Connect
Usage: /usr/lib/vmware/bin/remoteDeviceConnect OPTIONS filename
Options:
-h : hostname (localhost)
-p : Port to connect to (63079, 902 for authd)
-t : (Req.) cd-raw, cd-iso, cd-normal, cd-raw-ex, floppy
-d : (Req.) Device node to connect to (floppy0, ideX:Y)
-n : the VM's floppy drive number
-f : fileType
-A : use Authd to connect
-U : username for authd (your username)
-V : the VM to use. (NULL)
-P : password.
Examples:
remoteDeviceConnect -t floppy -d floppy0 -f device /dev/fd0
remoteDeviceConnect -t floppy -d floppy0 -f file image.flp
remoteDeviceConnect -t usb "path:2/1 vid:0x0547 pid:0x2131"

6. sensorD looks to be a debugging utility that can connect to an ipmi device.

[root@esx4-1 bin]# /usr/lib/vmware/bin/sensord

sensord: failed to open ipmi device: No such file or dir
sensord: unsupported hardware

7. statedumper looks to be a debugging utility for output information about the system and its states.

[root@esx4-1 bin]# /usr/lib/vmware/bin/statedumper -h

statedumper [-f filename] [-s off] [-e off] [-b] [-o] [-r] [-x]

The following options are supported:
-e - end dump at offset
-f - use filename rather than the default state.log
-o - output entry offsets
-r - output all registers, output 64 bits with -r64
-s - start dumping at offset
-b - filter on branch count, use -s and -e for start/end
-x - dump extra debug data

8. vmkeventd looks to be a utility for capturing VMkernel events

[root@esx4-1 bin]# /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmkeventd -h

/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmkeventd: invalid option -- h
Usage: /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmkeventd [-d]

9. analyze-esx-init-boot.py looks like a debugging utility to analyze the COS boot up logs

[root@esx4-1 ~]# /usr/sbin/analyze-esx-init-boot.py -s -S /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/esxconsole-4c27dd75-a38d-5044-5670-005056927558/logs/sysboot.log -V /var/log/messages
ERROR: Could not find 'cpu 0: early measured tsc speed' in the log
This is one of the very first log messages after boot
POST boot times will not be relevant
Unable to find vsish. Please ensure that you have debugging tools installed and your PATH is correctly setup.
VMKernel: 0.0000 secs
POST Tests: 0.0000 secs
Init Scripts: 0.0000 secs

ESX Boot Time: 0.0000 secs
Hardware/BIOS: 0.0000 secs

Total Boot Time: 0.0000 secs

Serial port output was on

Quick Tip - How to monitor when ESXi filesystem and partitions are filling up?

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Here is another tidbit on how you can leverage the power of vSphere Events, which now includes over 2K+ as of vSphere 8.0 Update 1 to help monitor when an ESXi filesystem and/or partition is low on disk space.

With vSphere 6.7 or later, we have two events that you can use to help alert when either an ESXi ramdisk (e.g. /var) or VFAT partition (e.g. bootbanks) has filled up.

  • Ramdisk: esx.problem.visorfs.ramdisk.full
  • VFAT: esx.problem.vfat.filesystem.full.other

When either of these occur, you can easily find them under the Monitor->Events section for an ESXi host as shown in the screenshot below.

[Read more...]

ESXi on GMKtec EVO-X1 with AMD Ryzen AI Pro 300 Series (formally Strix Point)

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My experiences with small form factor (SFF) systems and Mini PCs over the years have primarily involved Intel-based systems, as they have been the most capable and compatible with the VMware ESXi Hypervisor—especially when it comes to onboard networking options.

Intel's introduction of their Hybrid CPU core architecture starting with 12th Gen (Alder Lake) and continues with 13th Gen (Raptor Lake), 14th Gen (Meteor Lake), and now 15th Gen (Arrow Lake), presents a unique challenge for running ESXi.

When AMD announced their Ryzen AI 300 Series processors (formally codenamed Strix Point) based on their new Zen 5 architecture, I was pretty excited with their approach to a "Hybrid" processor:

AMD's approach to its 'compact' Zen 5c cores is inherently different than Intel's approach with its e-cores. Like Intel's E-cores, AMD's Zen 5c cores are designed to consume less space on a processor die...But the similarities end there. Unlike Intel, AMD employs the same microarchitecture and supports the same features with its smaller cores.

Since both the Zen 5 and Zen 5c cores contain the exact same CPU features, they would be considered uniform cores unlike the Intel platform, which now includes three different core types (Performance, Efficiency & Low-Power Efficiency), requiring additional workarounds to be able to utilize most of the cores available on the SoC.

While there is currently only a handful of Ryzen AI Pro 300 Series kits that are available for purchase, I was fortunate to get hands on with one from a company called GMKtec, who is a relatively new player in the small form factor market. I have personally never used a GMKtec system before, so I was looking forward to seeing what they had to offer.


Disclaimer: As of publishing this blog post, a fellow colleague has not had any luck in contacting GMKtec to initiate a return, they have been completely non-responsive for several weeks now. I have also observed simliar negative feedback on various Reddit threads, which is certainly concerning for potential prospects. Users may want to consider purchasing GMKtec systems using Amazon, rather than directly from the vendor in case you need an exchange or return.

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