So I was installing some Fujitsu Primergy RX2530 M4 servers today, and since I mostly work with HPE and Lenovo servers I had lookup the optimal BIOS settings to run ESXi 6.5.
This is what I came up with. From the default settings I only changed a couple of things that I found important. Continue reading Fujitsu Primergy ESXi Install Server Notes – BIOS Settings
Often when I do health checks on vSphere environments I come across VMs that have multiple vNics. That can be a serious security risk if these vNics are connected to different security zones. A VM that is connected both to a DMZ and to a Administration network could allow a hacker easy access to more privileged networks. Sometimes this configuration is acceptable if the operating system is designed to handle it, if for instance we are dealing with a firewall.
I often find VMs that have a configuration where one of the network adapters is disconnected. Sometimes the second vNic was forgotten, and other times it is connected from vCenter when access to the secondary network is wanted for some kind of maintenance.
There is a settings on the virtual network adapter called “allowGuestControl”, and I was wondering if this setting could be a security issue. Could a hacker enable the disconnected network adapter from within the guest operating system, and thereby gain access to a privileged network? Continue reading VMs with multiple vNics could be a security risk
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.
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
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 vCenterToday 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
This is meant as a dynamic article for looking up best practice settings for different storage arrays when adding them to VMware.
When datastores are added to an ESXi host, there are multiple ways that ESXi can leverage the storage. In some cases ESXi will use Most Recently Used path (Active/Standby or MRU) by default, which means that you only leverage one path at the time. This could result in a bottleneck in your storage infrastructure. Many arrays are able to handle Round Robin (Multi path Active/Active or RR) By enabling this will distribute your storage traffic onto multiple adapters, provided that you have multiple adapters.
Other settings can involve how many I/O ESXi should send to a path before switching to another path, or advanced settings that alters the way ESXi handles the storage.
Getting these settings correct will most often result in better performance, but can also help you stay out of trouble that can lead to breakdowns. Continue reading Storage Optimization for VMware vSphere
I ran into an error the other day, when updating an IBM based vSphere 6.0 environment using Update Manager, and I want to share my solution with you and myself, so I do not need to find it the next time I run into it.
ERROR: The host returns esxupdate error code:15. The package manager transactions is not successful. Check the update Manager log files and esxupdate.log files for more details.
If you need to search your vSphere Datastores for orphaned VMDK files, Luc Dekens made a script that can help you.
http://www.lucd.info/2016/09/13/orphaned-files-revisited/
Another possibility is to use rvTools.
