Category: Deployment

Things to know about upgrading vCSA 6.0 to vCSA 6.5

Here is a list of things that you might want to do before you upgrade your vCenter from vCSA 6.0 to vCSA 6.5.

Postgres table owner

First check you postgres database. For some reason the table owner is often wrong. Thanks to black88mx6 There is a way to check this, and also to fix it. Remember that anything you see here is executed at your own risk. An important step to perform before upgrading is taking a backup/snapshot of your vCenter VM, and any related components, so that you will be able to recover from a failed upgrade. Continue reading Things to know about upgrading vCSA 6.0 to vCSA 6.5

ESXi 6.5 Update 1 PSOD on HPE 460c Gen9 after Ixgben driver update

Today I upgraded a customer to ESXi 6.5 Update 1, but unfortunately some of them ended up purple screening at reboot after they were updated.

Affected Servers so far

  • HPE BL460c Gen9
  • HPE DL360p Gen8 (Reported by anonymous user)
  • HPE DL380 Gen9 (Reported by Bernhard)
  • HPE DL380 Gen8 (Reported by Ralf)
  • HPE DL380p Gen9 (Reported by Victor)

PSOD Error

PSOD: #PF Exception 14 in world 68297:sfcb-intelcim IP 0x41801b704d8f addr 0x443919649c000

Continue reading ESXi 6.5 Update 1 PSOD on HPE 460c Gen9 after Ixgben driver update

VMware Auto Deploy stopped working with Parse Error

I ran into a problem with VMware vSphere 6.5 Auto Deploy suddenly stopped working.

When trying to change rules with New-DeployRule or Repair-DeployImageCache I got the following error:

Repair-DeployImageCache
System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException: Parse Error, no assembly associated with Xml key ImagefactoryPkgImageProfile
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessGetType(String value, String xmlKey, String& assemblyString)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessType(ParseRecord pr, ParseRecord objectPr)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessAttributes(ParseRecord pr, ParseRecord objectPr)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.StartChildren()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.ParseXml()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.Run()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.ObjectReader.Deserialize(HeaderHandler handler, ISerParser serParser)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter.Deserialize(Stream serializationStream, HeaderHandler handler)
at VMware.DeployAutomation.Types.PxeProfile.get_ImageProfile()
System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException: Parse Error, no assembly associated with Xml key ImagefactoryPkgImageProfile
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessGetType(String value, String xmlKey, String& assemblyString)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessType(ParseRecord pr, ParseRecord objectPr)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessAttributes(ParseRecord pr, ParseRecord objectPr)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.StartChildren()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.ParseXml()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.Run()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.ObjectReader.Deserialize(HeaderHandler handler, ISerParser serParser)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter.Deserialize(Stream serializationStream, HeaderHandler handler)
at VMware.DeployAutomation.Types.PxeProfile.get_ImageProfile()
System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException: Parse Error, no assembly associated with Xml key ImagefactoryPkgImageProfile
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessGetType(String value, String xmlKey, String& assemblyString)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessType(ParseRecord pr, ParseRecord objectPr)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessAttributes(ParseRecord pr, ParseRecord objectPr)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.StartChildren()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.ParseXml()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.Run()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.ObjectReader.Deserialize(HeaderHandler handler, ISerParser serParser)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter.Deserialize(Stream serializationStream, HeaderHandler handler)
at VMware.DeployAutomation.Types.PxeProfile.get_ImageProfile()
System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException: Parse Error, no assembly associated with Xml key ImagefactoryPkgImageProfile
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessGetType(String value, String xmlKey, String& assemblyString)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessType(ParseRecord pr, ParseRecord objectPr)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.ProcessAttributes(ParseRecord pr, ParseRecord objectPr)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapHandler.StartChildren()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.ParseXml()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapParser.Run()
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.ObjectReader.Deserialize(HeaderHandler handler, ISerParser serParser)
at System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.SoapFormatter.Deserialize(Stream serializationStream, HeaderHandler handler)
at VMware.DeployAutomation.Types.PxeProfile.get_ImageProfile()

Continue reading VMware Auto Deploy stopped working with Parse Error

Migrate folder structure from old to new vSphere vCenter

Sometimes I find it easier to create a new vCenter server then migrate the old one, and it is a perfectly good solution in many cases.

But annoyingly there is a lot of manual work involved.

One problem is the VM’s and Templates folders. They do not follow the host, so you have to create the folder structure manually and move each VM into the correct folder. Well I am way to lazy to do that by hand, so it’s time to Automate!

Continue reading Migrate folder structure from old to new vSphere vCenter

FCoE Adapters and datastores missing after vSphere ESXi 6.5 Install

Today I upgraded some HP BL460c Gen9 Blade Servers from ESXi 6.0 to ESXi 6.5. I always reinstall when going from 5.5 to 6.0 or 6.0 to 6.5, so After the server was done installing I found that the FCoE adapters and datastores was missing.

The servers are connected to some HP 3PAR storage using HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 536FLB Adapters.

To regain access to your storage you need to enable the FCoE adapters using the esxcli command.

Continue reading FCoE Adapters and datastores missing after vSphere ESXi 6.5 Install

VMware vCenter VCSA 6.5 Upgrade “Error: queryAaaa ENODATA”

During an upgrade I got the following error: “A problem occurred  while getting data from the source vCenter Server”

And the install log has the following information. Continue reading VMware vCenter VCSA 6.5 Upgrade “Error: queryAaaa ENODATA”

Assigning vCenter tags using vRealize Orchestrator

Today I needed to assign some vCenter tags to some VMs I was deploying using vRealize Automation.

The scenario was that the customer did not want backup of VMs deployed by the vRA test environment, and in production they wanted a specific backup tier.

They are using Veeam backup, so the vRA test environment needed to have a NoBackup Tag, and production needed some other tag, depending on the type of server being deployed.

vRO does not provide very extensive support for these operations out of the box, but vRO 7.2 does come with some sample workflows.

To get started with vCenter tagging you need to configure a vAPI endpoint and a vAPI metamodel.

Continue reading Assigning vCenter tags using vRealize Orchestrator

Upgrade VMware Horizon Mirage to new server

Are you looking to Upgrade Mirage and move it to a new server, or are you just looking to move Horizon Mirage to a new server, this article will describe what you need to do.

Continue reading Upgrade VMware Horizon Mirage to new server