vSphere 6.0 – Page 12

Quick Tip - Upgrading VMware Tools for Nested ESXi 6.0

04.03.2015 by William Lam // 2 Comments

I have received several questions about this in the last couple of weeks regarding the process of upgrading VMware Tools for running Nested ESXi 5.x and 6.0 when the physical ESXi host has been upgraded to ESXi 6.0. Instead of individual replies, I thought I would share this quick tip. First off, VMware Tools for Nested ESXi provides a very specific set of capabilities for Nested ESXi guests as shown below:

Provides guest OS information of the nested ESXi Hypervisor (eg. IP address, configured hostname, etc.).
Allows the nested ESXi VM to be cleanly shut down or restarted when performing power operations with the vSphere Web/C# Client or vSphere APIs.
Executes scripts that help automate ESXi guest OS operations when the guest’s power state changes.
Supports the Guest Operations API (formally known as the VIX API).

Unlike traditional VMware Tools which may provide updated capabilities with each new release, VMware Tools for Nested ESXi exposes only a subset of those capabilities which has not changed between ESXi 5.x and 6.0. This is an important fact to be aware of because you may see "Unsupported older version" for the VMware Tools status in the vSphere Web/C# Client and this is perfectly fine and expected.

Here is a screenshot of a Nested ESXi 5.5 VM with VMware Tools installed running on top of an upgraded physical ESXi 6.0 host:

In this scenario, the VMware Tools status will be reported as "Unsupported older version" because the version of VMware Tools does not match the latest version of VMware Tools included with ESXi 6.0. However, you should not be alarm as the expected functionality listed above will continue to work without any problems and you can just ignore the UI warning. The only way to get rid of this warning is to upgrade the Nested ESXi VM to ESXi 6.0 which I go over in more details below. I know upgrading may not be an option if you still wish to run ESXi 5.x, but as far as I know, there will not be an update to VMware Tools VIB for ESXi 6.0 as it is now pre-installed with ESXi 6.0.

Here is a screenshot of the same VM which has now been upgraded to ESXi 6.0 running on top of an upgraded physical ESXi 6.0 host:

In this case, the VMware Tools status will be reported as "Unsupported older version" because the version of VMware Tools does not match the latest version of VMware Tools included with ESXi 6.0. However, because VMware Tools now comes pre-installed with ESXi 6.0. We can easily remedy this by removing the VMware Tools VIB we installed for ESXi 5.x by running the following ESXCLI command and then rebooting:

esxcli software vib remove -n esx-tools-for-esxi

Once the ESXi host has rebooted, the VMware Tools that is pre-installed with ESXi 6.0 will automatically start up if it detects it is running as a VM. If you now look at your vSphere Web/C# Client, you will see that VMware Tools status shows current and is also the default behavior if you are running Nested ESXi 6.0 VM on top of physical ESXi 6.0 host.

With VMware Tools being pre-installed with ESXi 6.0 and only loaded when it detects it is being run as a VM, you no longer need to worry about manually installing additional VIBs get the benefits of having VMware Tools installed for your Nested ESXi VMs.

Are Affinity/Anti-Affinity rules preserved during Cross vCenter vMotion (xVC-vMotion)?

04.02.2015 by William Lam // Leave a Comment

Among other things, vSphere Affinity/Anti-Affinity rules are indeed preserved with a Virtual Machine during a Cross vCenter vMotion (xVC-vMotion) which is a new vMotion capability in vSphere 6.0. If you wish to learn more about this awesome new feature be sure to read about it here and here.

There were a couple of people asking about the details on how this actually worked so I figured I would set this up in my lab and provide some additional information. In my environment I have two vCenter Server 6.0 joined to a single Platform Services Controller (same SSO Domain) which provides me with the Enhanced Linked Mode capability which is one of the requirements for a regular xVC-vMotion as it needs to be visible in the vSphere Web Client. You can also do an ExVC-vMotion, which does not require the vCenter Servers to be part of the same SSO Domain, you can find more details in this blog post here.

I initially had 3 Virtual Machines called: Web1, Web2 and Web3 which ran in my "PA-VSAN-Cluster" which is located in my first vCenter Server. I then create an Anti-Affinity rule called "Web-Rule" that ensures all three VMs are running on separate ESXi hosts. I then manually perform xVC-vMotion (remember automated DRS migration is on a vSphere Cluster boundry and will not vMotion outside of a vSphere Cluster or vCenter Server) each VM to my secondary vCenter Server to my "SB-VSAN-Cluster"

Once the VM has successfully relocated to the destination site, the Affinity/Anti-Affinity rules are then migrated over. You might be wondering why the Affinity/Anti-Affinity rule could not be created in advance and the reason is because it needs the actual VM object to be available to associate the the rules to. Once all three VMs have been migrated over, you will see that the old Affinity/Anti-Affinity rule no longer exists in the source vCenter Server and now lives in destination vCenter Server as seen in the screenshot below. Simple and elegant!

Quick Tip - vCenter Server advanced settings for vSphere 5.5 & 6.0

04.01.2015 by William Lam // 2 Comments

This was a question that was recently asked in an internal thread regarding the list of available advanced settings in vCenter Server. You can find these settings under the "Advanced Settings" section of all places 😉 and this is available both in the vSphere Web/C# Client.

I wrote a script awhile back that allows you to modify these advanced settings and with a slight modification to the existing script, I was able to produce the complete list of available settings (available via the vSphere API) that are user configurable, as not all settings are configurable. Below, is a table of all vCenter Server 5.5 advanced settings and I also have a table for newly added advanced settings for vCenter Server 6.0.

Disclaimer: Most of these settings should be left at their default and if you do need to make a change, make it is through a recommendation by either VMware's documentation or from GSS Support as modifying some of these changes can negatively impact your environment.

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