Plain Virtualization

With the release of vSphere 8 in October, 2022. Many would have asked how do you provide security configuration. Do note this is no longer named "hardening guide" since it is a configuration guide which need to be reviewed by individual organization and see if it deem fit for your requirements. The time have come and the security guide can be found here . Do note that this is an initial availability release. There might be more updates to it based on feedback, etc. so do check back for any updates. This time round, there are new PowerCLI commands that standardize on formatting. Also setting provided that can be modified for the virtual appliance such as vCenter Server. However, do handle with care else any wrong configuration can results in losing your support. Lastly, to reiterate, this is a guide and not an apply all setting runbook. You will have to review the requirements in terms of security requirements in your organization and apply those that are applicable. Do note a...

Recently, I got into a discussion with my colleague regarding vCenter Server High Availability (VCHA) and a good discussion on the area where VCHA could be of use. Before we start, I like to summarize the few questions that always got asked during my course of work and as well when I teach vSphere Install, Configure and Manage course. What is VCHA use for? It is really meant for local site availability. Where a lost of vCenter Server can create an outage to other management components where vSphere HA RTO is not sufficient or vSphere HA is not possible to bring up the vCenter Server. Can VCHA be used in a stretched cluster setup and how should we plan to place the nodes? Yes. You will definitely have two sites in a stretched setup. And if you like to have VCHA implement in such a setup, you will need to have a 3rd site or minimal a separate cluster at the passive node site. Typically you will have active node at site 1, and passive node with witness node at site 2 where witness node is...

Constantly even myself, we found difficult to setup the vSphere web client.  Often I always forgot what to do again and again from vSphere 5.0, 5.1 and now 5.5.  I decide to just document this down so that the web client can work as a breeze.   The first thing after setting up your vCenter 5.5, you would need to: Log into the web client using the SSO administrator: Change the password for the SSO administrator account (administrator@vsphere.local) Change the password expiry to from the default 90 days to your requirement (Note: '0' will not work although the message state so when you click on the textbox, instead do a 9999 if you require no expiry. Refer to KB ) Add your domain into the Identity Sources under Administration>Single-Sign-On>Configuration Set it to Default Domain by clicking on the Global Icon Add your accounts or groups to be SSO administrator going to Administrators under Groups in Administration>Single-Sign-On>Users and Gr...

Was doing a Proof of Concept for Horizon View at one customer with a partner.  The infrastructure was setup and network trunked on the uplinks. We started out deploying all the components leveraging on customer's Active Directory, DHCP server and as well as Database. All was well and setup but two things was encountered: Every Desktop pools will always have some desktops not getting IP address. Horizon View client receive connection error after choosing a desktop or while using a desktop. Spend a bit of time troubleshooting by the partner.  Things like using a Windows DHCP instead of Linux (customer's was linux DHCP) and putting Horizon View Connection Server in the same subnet as the Desktops. I took over to see what have gone wrong since my partner has already done so many work.  Did some tests with my colleague, Wei Chiang who is strong in networking.  We managed to isolate the issue and even set static IP on those Desktops that does not have IP howeve...

Export ESXi configuration file After you configured an ESXi host, you can back up the host configuration data. Always back up your host configuration after you change the configuration or upgrade the ESXi image. IMPORTANT The vicfg-cfgbackup command is available only for ESXi hosts. The command is not available for ESX hosts and is not available through a vCenter Server system connection. Requirements: VMware vSphere CLI installed on workstation Open VMware vSphere CLI Command Prompt Type vicfg-cfgbackup.pl -s [backup_file_name] -–server [server_name_or_ip] --username [user_id] e.g. vicfg-cfgbackup.pl –s c:\esx1_20082011.txt –-server 192.168.1.1 –-username root Restore configuration file After you configured an ESXi host, you can back up the host configuration data. Always back up your host configuration after you change the configuration or upgrade the ESXi image. IMPORTANT The vicfg-cfgbackup command is available only for ESXi host...