workstation

How to deploy the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) 8.0 to VMware Fusion or Workstation?

10.04.2022 by William Lam // 20 Comments

VMware Fusion and Workstation continues to be another popular way for customers to run a VMware Homelab while leveraging a users existing desktop. In the early days of vSphere 6.5, the method to deploy the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) to Fusion/Workstation was less than ideal with a lot of manual steps. In 2017, the Fusion/Workstation team introduced native OVF support and that made deploying the VCSA much simpler, especially with the VCSA two stage installer.

Even though this is not an officially supported method from VMware for deploying the VCSA, the process has not changed for the last several releases and it just works which was great for our users. With vSphere 8, it looks like there has been a change to the VCSA installer that causes a failure during the Stage 2 configuration.

I was made aware of this issue from a colleague who was looking to setup a vSphere 8 environment using VMware Workstation.

Taking a look at the log file, he noticed the error was regarding the upgrade.import.directory OVF property not being set, which seems to be causing the issue.

# cat /var/log/firstboot/vlcm_firstboot.py_9117_stderr.log
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/vmware-vlcm/firstboot/vlcm_firstboot.py", line 167, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/lib/vmware-vlcm/firstboot/vlcm_firstboot.py", line 129, in main
    fb = VlcmFirstboot(VLCM_COMP, VLCM_SOLUSERNAME)
  File "/usr/lib/vmware-vlcm/firstboot/vlcm_firstboot.py", line 50, in __init__
    os.path.join(get_install_parameter('upgrade.import.directory'), "vlcm")
  File "/usr/lib/vmware/site-packages/cis/tools.py", line 88, in get_install_parameter
    raise InstallParameterException('Install-parameter %s not set' % param)
cis.exceptions.InstallParameterException: {
    "detail": [
        {
            "id": "install.ciscommon.internal.error",
            "translatable": "Encountered an internal error.\n\n%(0)s",
            "args": [
                "Install-parameter upgrade.import.directory not set"
            ],
            "localized": "Encountered an internal error.\n\nInstall-parameter upgrade.import.directory not set"
        }
    ],
    "componentKey": null,
    "problemId": null,
    "resolution": {
        "id": "install.default.failure.resolution",
        "translatable": "This is an unrecoverable error, please retry install. If you encounter this error again, please search for these symptoms in the VMware Knowledge Base for any known issues and possible resolutions. If none can be found, collect a support bundle and open a support request.",
        "localized": "This is an unrecoverable error, please retry install. If you encounter this error again, please search for these symptoms in the VMware Knowledge Base for any known issues and possible resolutions. If none can be found, collect a support bundle and open a support request."
    }
}

Using one of my previous blog post for guidance, he discovered a quick workaround to the problem by simply ensuring this variable is configured with a default value. After running into the problem myself and verifying the solution, I figure this might be useful for anyone looking to run vSphere 8 using VMware Fusion or Workstation, so here are the instructions to work around this issue.

Disclaimer: This is not officially supported by VMware, use at your own risk
[Read more...]

Workarounds for deploying PhotonOS 2.0 on vSphere, Fusion & Workstation

11.07.2017 by William Lam // 2 Comments

PhotonOS 2.0 was just released last week and it includes a number of exciting new enhancements which you can read more about here. Over the last few days, I had noticed quite a few folks having issues deploying the latest PhotonOS OVA, including myself. I figure I would share the current workarounds after reaching out to the PhotonOS team and seeing the number of questions both internally and externally.

Deploying PhotonOS 2.0 on vSphere

If you are deploying the latest OVA using either the vSphere Web (Flex/H5) Client on vCenter Server or the ESXi Embedded Host Client on ESXi, you will notice that the import fails with the following error message:

The specified object /photon-custom-hw13-2.0-304b817/nvram could not be found.

This apparently is a known issue with the vSphere Web/H5 Client bug with exported vHW13 Virtual Machines. As I understand it, the actual fix did not make it in the latest vSphere 6.5 Update 1 release, but it should be available in a future update. After reporting this issue to the PhotonOS team as I ran into this myself, the team quickly re-spun the vHW11 OVA (since that image also had a different issue) which can now be imported into a vSphere environment using any of the UI-based Clients and/or CLIs. For now, the workaround is to download PhotonOS 2.0 "OVA with virtual hardware v11" if you are using vSphere OR you can install PhotonOS using the ISO.

Deploying PhotonOS 2.0 to Fusion/Workstation

UPDATE (11/08/17) - The PhotonOS team just published an additional OVA specifically for Fusion/Workstation which uses LSI Logic storage adapter as PVSCSI is currently not supported today. You can easily import latest PhotonOS 2.0 without needing to tweak the OVF as mentioned in the steps below, simply download the OVA with virtual hardware v11(Workstation and Fusion) and import normally via UI or CLI.

If you are deploying either of the vHW11 or vHW13 OVA to Fusion/Workstation, you see the following error message:

Invalid target disk adapter type: pvscsi

The reason for this issue is that neither Fusion/Workstation currently support the PVSCSI storage adapter type which the latest PhotonOS OVA uses. In the meantime, a workaround is to edit the OVA to use the LSI Logic adapter instead of the PVSCSI. Below are the steps to convert the OVA to OVF and then apply the single line change.

Step 1 - Use OVFTool (included with both Fusion/Workstation) to convert the OVA to an OVF which will allow us to edit the file. To do so, run the following command:

ovftool --allowExtraConfig photon-custom-hw13-2.0-304b817.ova photon-custom-hw13-2.0-304b817.ovf

Step 2 - Open the photon-custom-hw13-2.0-304b817.ovf using a text editor like Visual Studio Code or VI and update the following line from:

<rasd:ResourceSubType>VirtualSCSI</rasd:ResourceSubType>

<rasd:ResourceSubType>lsilogic</rasd:ResourceSubType>

and save the change.

Step 3 - Delete the OVF manifest file named photon-custom-hw13-2.0-304b817.mf since the contents of the file has been updated

Step 4 - You can now import the modified OVF. If you wish to get back the OVA, you can just re-run Step 1 and use the .ova extension to get back a single file

Upgrading from Photon 1.x to 2.0

I also noticed several folks were asking about upgrading from Photon 1.0 to 2.0, you can find the instructions below:

Step 1 - You may need to run the following if you have not done so in awhile:

tdnf distro-sync

Step 2 - Install the PhotonOS upgrade package by running the following command:

tdnf install photon-upgrade

Step 3 - Run the PhotonOS upgrade script and answer 'Y' to start the upgrade:

photon-upgrade.sh

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.