To reset the lost forgotten root password in vCenter Server Appliance 6.5:

1. Take a snapshot or backup of the vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 before proceeding. (Do not skip this step.)
2. Reboot the vCenter Server Appliance 6.5.
3. After the OS starts, loading the Photon splash press e key to enter the GNU GRUB Edit Menu.
4. Locate the line that begins with the word Linux.
5. Append these entries to the end of the line:rw init=/bin/bash
   
   The line should look like the following screenshot:

 

• Press F10 to continue booting.
• In the Command prompt, enter the command passwd and provide a new root password (twice for confirmation):
  
  passwd
  
• Unmount the filesystem by running this command:
  
  umount /
  
• Reboot the vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 by running this command:
  
  reboot -f
  
• Confirm that you can access the vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 using the new root password.
• Remove the snapshot taken in Step 1 if applicable.

More information: VMware

Some months ago I installed 15 new vSphere 6.0 hosts with local flash disks. After installation I configured the VMware Syslog Service at the vCenter appliance. Few weeks later the vSphere web-client shows some warnings about disk usage

Problem

Filesystem /dev/mapperlog_vg_log usage 100%, mounted on /storage/logs

 
Use this command to verify which disk is experiencing disk space issues:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solution

As you can see the the /storage/logs mount point is located at VMDK5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edit de vCenter appliance virtual hardware, select disk Hard disk 5 and increase the provisioned size, in my case from 10 to 20 GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the virtual disk has been increased, return to the SSH session and execute this command to automatically expand any logical volumes for which the physical volumes are increased:

vpxd_servicecfg storage lvm autogrow

 

 

 

 

 

When the grow operation is successful, you see output similar to:

VC_CFG_RESULT=0

 

Run this command to confirm that the virtual disk has been successfully grown:

df -h

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More information: VMware

Install and configure VMware vCenter Support

1. Download the VMware vCenter Support Assistant

2: Deploy the OVF > Accept license agreement > login to the appliance’s IP via web browser (login/password –  root/vmware)

3: From withing the web UI of the appliance, connect and push the installation of vCenter web client plugin > Enter SSO user name and password > done

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Last week I tried to download some logfiles with WinSCP from the customer vCenter 6.0 appliance but I couldn’t, I received this error message:
  

Host is not communicating for more than 15 seconds. If the problem repeats, try turning off 'Optimize connection buffer size'. 

 

Solution

When you copy files using WinSCP, part of the operation happens on the target Linux system. The default Appliance Shell cannot be the remote partner of WinSCP. You must enable the Bash shell on the appliance, as follows:

1. Initiate an SSH connection to the vCenter Server Appliance.
2. Provide the root user user name and password when prompted.
3. Run this command to enable the Bash shell:
    
   shell.set --enable True
    
4. Run this command to access the Bash shell:
    
   shell
   
5. In the Bash shell, run this command to change the default shell to Bash:
   
   chsh -s /bin/bash root
    
6. Use WinSCP to upload the certificate files to the vCenter Server Appliance.
7. To return to the Appliance Shell, run this command:
   
   chsh -s /bin/appliancesh root

More information: VMware

Few weeks ago I upgraded for a customer vCenter Server 5.5. to 6.0, today I received a yellow warning in the Summary tab:

Quick stats on [SERVERNAME] is not up-to-date

 

Solution

This is a known issue in vCenter Server 5.5 and 6.0.

• This issue is resolved in VMware vCenter Server 5.5.0b.
• Currently there is no resolution for vCenter Server 6.0.

To work around this issue, add these quickStats parameters to the Advanced Settings of vCenter Server:

• vpxd.quickStats.HostStatsCheck
• vpxd.quickStats.ConfigIssues

Note: Adding these parameters to vCenter Server does not affect future upgrades.

To add the quickStats parameters to the Advanced Settings of vCenter Server 6.0:

1. Connect to the vCenter Server using the vSphere Client and administrator credentials.
2. Select Administration > vCenter Server Settings to display the vCenter Server Settings dialog box.
3. In the settings list, select Advanced Settings.
4. Add the following parameters:

vpxd.quickStats.HostStatsCheck = False

vpxd.quickStats.ConfigIssues = False

  


5. Restart the vCenter Server services. For more information, see:
• Windows-based vCenter Server – Stopping, starting, or restarting vCenter services (1003895)
• vCenter Server Appliance – Stopping, starting, or restarting vCenter Server Appliance services (2054085)

More information: VMware

Last week I upgraded VMware vCenter 5.5 server (based Windows 2012R2) at the company environment I work for, the upgrade was very simple.

Pre-install: Please check article “Minimum requirements for the VMware vCenter Server 6.x Appliance (2106572)”

 
Installation process

– Select: Install

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Last week I upgraded my lab to vSphere 5.5, during the install I entered the hostname to configure domain authentication but I received this error:

Error: Invalid hostname. FQDN is required for joining a domain

 

Solution:

Goto Network > Address > Hostname

Add the domain information in the hostname box, sample:

After this change I was able to configure AD authentication:

 

Upgrade VMware Tools, all virtual machines in cluster:

Get-Cluster "Productie" | Get-VM | Update-Tools –NoReboot

Upgrade VMware Tools, located in folder:

Get-Cluster "Productie" | Get-Folder "Beheer servers" | Get-VM | Update-Tools –NoReboot

Upgrade VMware Tools, selected virtual machine:

Get-Cluster "Productie" | Get-VM "BHR-SVR11" | Update-Tools –NoReboot

Get VMware-Tools versions:

Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine | select Name, @{ Name=”ToolsVersion”;
Expression={$_.config.tools.toolsVersion}}

More information: VMware , VMware