WilliamLam.com

Quick Tip: Automating PAK Upload & Installation for VCF Operations

by // Leave a Comment

While testing an update workflow, I needed to update VCF Operations directly, which can be performed through the /admin UI and by uploading and then installing the PAK file. Although the process itself is straightforward, the two-step workflow and the waiting between each step make it feel longer than the actual update.


I figured there had to be a way to automate the process, but I was not able to quickly find anything online. After browsing both the VCF Operations API and the VCF Operations Cluster and Slice Administration (CASA) API, I found the APIs needed to automate both the PAK upload and installation.

[Read more...]

Quick Tip: Reducing High CPU Utilization on NSX due to slow Entropy from AMD Zen4/5 CPUs

by // 2 Comments

AMD Zen4/Zen5 processors have been known to have slower entropy generation, which can lead to higher CPU utilization for workloads that depend on random number generation. I recently learned from a colleague (Ross Wynne) about a simple optimization for NSX Manager that can significantly reduce CPU utilization when running on AMD Zen4/Zen5 processors.

Shut down your NSX Manager VM and add the following VM Advanced Setting. This allows the guest operating system to retrieve entropy directly from the ESXi host, which already includes optimizations for entropy generation on AMD Zen4 and Zen5 processors.

isolation.tools.getEntropy.disable = FALSE


Note: Ensure you have applied the recommended entropySource configuration for your physical ESX host in addition to this configuration change.

In my limited testing, I have observed the NSX Manager load average drop to less than 5, whereas it was consistently much higher before applying this optimization. I will continue to monitor my environment, but this is definitely a worthwhile optimization to add to your VCF homelab toolkit. This configuration change can also benefit NSX Edge and NSX Virtual Network Appliances (VNA).

Quick Tip - Automatically Generate VCF Download Tool Commands with Express Patches for VCF 9.0.2 and 9.1.0

by // Leave a Comment

The VCF Download Tool (VCFDT) is the recommended utility for downloading binaries for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) deployments and upgrades. However, because Express Patches (EPs) are versioned and released independently for each VCF component, determining the latest installation or upgrade binaries for a specific VCF release currently requires additional effort when using VCFDT.

The VCF Installer UI currently provides the best user experience by automatically determining the latest supported version of each component for a given VCF release (for example, 9.0.2 or 9.1.0) by parsing the productVersionCatalog.json manifest.


Using a similar approach, I created a small script called Get-VCFLatestComponents.ps1 with the assistance of AI that allows you to specify the target VCF release and whether you are performing an installation or upgrade. The script then generates the appropriate VCFDT commands to download the latest supported binaries.

The script requires the productVersionCatalog.json which can be downloaded using VCFDT (e.g. vcf-download-tool metadata download) or from the Broadcom Support Portal (BSP) and then specify the following:

  • DepotStore - The full path to where you want the binaries to be download to
  • CredentialType - Either ActivationCode or DownloadCode
  • CredentialFile - The full path to either the activation or download code file
  • BaseVersion - 9.0.2 or 9.1.0
  • Type - Either INSTALL or UPGRADE

Here is an example of running the script to generate the download binary commands for the latest VCF 9.1.0 release with latest EPs:

./Get-VCFLatestComponents.ps1 -PVC /Users/lamw/productVersionCatalog.json -DepotStore /Volumes/Storage/Software/VCF-LATEST -CredentialType ActivationCode -CredentialFile /Users/lamw/vcf_activation_code.txt -BaseVersion 9.1.0  -Type INSTALL


You can now copy the generated VCFDT commands and run them sequentially or placed them inside of a PowerShell or Shell script and have it run in the background 😎

An enhancement has already been planned for VCFDT, where a future maintenance release will support downloading the latest install/upgrade binaries for a VCF release, including all applicable Express Patches, using a single command. Until then, I hope this script saves you a few minutes and removes some of the guesswork when downloading VCF binaries.