Month: May 2016

Testing the vSphere 6.x HTML5 webclient fling

May 16, 2016 Kim Bottu 0

I have been testing the HTML5 webclient and if you want to do the same you have to follow a few procedures. Deploy a new VM from an ova [download] which will use 2 vCPUs and 4 GB or RAM. Indeed, you need to deploy a new VM which will talk to vCenter server.  There is no vCenter deployment which comes with an embedded HTML5 client yet. The procedures on how to deploy the HTML5 webclient are well explained in the HTML5 webclient documentation and don’t take too long. The only thing you really need is a vSphere 6 deployment! Some remarks about the HTML 5 client: It is fast. There is no doubt that it is a lot faster than the current webclient. There are still […]

How a certification changed my life

May 16, 2016 Jason Grierson 3

Around this time last year I believe there was a question either on this community or on the VMware forums about how the VCAP program certifications are received in the work place and if they are worth it. Seeing as my blog portion of my website is still under construction to add new sections like my blog, and the new DCD6 simulator.  I really have no better place to post this then vMusketeers. How a certification changed my life: The last year and half has been a whirl wind to say the least, I guess going on 2 years now.  Two springs ago around May I decided to start my VCDX track and achieve my DCA.  After a few months […]

Dell Compellent and SCSI UNMAP

May 15, 2016 Bilal Ahmed 0

Dead space reclamation (SCSI UNMAP) Basically the UNMAP command is used when you have Thin Provisioned LUNs, you run it against VMFS  5 datastores, hopefully freeing up some space. This will allow the hosts to correctly report the list of deleted blocks on the datastore to the array. It basically is a space reclamation feature that helps reclaim space left by deleted data. The main reasons you would want to run this on all Thin Provisioned LUNs, would be because of: Storage vMotion, VM snapshots and VM deletion. As even though the VM/Snapshot etc has been deleted it doesn’t mean the array is aware of this! It was disabled in ESXi 5.0, due to various issues and enabled in 5.1 by using […]

PSC SUPPORTED DESIGN TOPOLOGIES

May 15, 2016 Kim Bottu 0

Today I stumbled over an article written by Petr McAllister on the VMware TAM blog. It is a good read and for sure one of those articles you instantly recognize as an article to memorize for the VCAP6-DCV Design certification test. Platform Services Controller (PCS) and vCenter Server 6 Maximums “So the question was, “When we run a complex environment with multiple vCenter servers, vRealize Operations servers, vRealize Automation, vRealize Orchestrator, Site Recovery Manager and backup appliances, how can we fit all those solutions under the 10-solution limit?” Finding the correct answer was pretty straight forward; VMware has published a document called “Configuration Maximums vSphere 6.0,” and the information is right there. The document has very specific content on exactly what my […]

RAM Upgrade Procedures on Cisco UCS Servers

May 15, 2016 Graeme Vermeulen 0

I couldn’t find anything on the internet regarding the correct procedure to add more RAM to a UCS blade. Since it’s not out there, maybe I can help prevent others from running into the same problem I had! Firstly, you need to make sure your catalog is updated to the latest version – make a note of what version is currently running by going to Admin and downloading the latest version (note if you’re running 3.0 you can’t use the 3.1 catalog) from here. You’ll need a Cisco ID. This means that the RAM will be recognised when the discovery is re-run. The correct procedure: Put the blade into maintenance mode (if running VMware for example) and power it off. […]

PowerCLI: backup and restore an array of ESXi hosts

May 14, 2016 Kim Bottu 0

The following script makes a backup of the ESXi Host configuration file for an Array of Hosts in a folder on your Management station in C:\BackupMeUp. If you run the backup task multiple times, it will overwrite the saved configuration files for the hosts it already contains a configuration file for. Backup an Array of ESXi hosts Write-Host “Backing up ESXi config to C:\BackupMeUp” $vmhost_array = @(“esxi1.mydomain.com”) foreach ($vmhost in $vmhost_array) { Get-VMHostFirmware -VMHost $vmhost -BackupConfiguration -DestinationPath C:\BackupMeUp } Write-Host “Backup is completed!” The following script restores the host configuration from the folder on your Management station C:\BackupMeUp for an Array of Hosts. Make sure that you know which hosts it will restore, and that you modify this in the […]

VSAN 6.0 On-Disk v2 Calculator

May 14, 2016 Kim Bottu 0

It has taken me some days to create this tool and I sincerely hope you can use it in preparation of your VCAP6-DCV Design exam. It might not look pretty, but it works and compared with calculating VSAN sizing by hand, the spreadsheet will save you lots of time. So feel free to use it and if you have any remarks or questions, feel free to reach out. Take me to the VSAN 6.0 On-Disk v2 Calculator!