Category: ESXi

Reset vSphere VCSA root password

So I absolutely have not forgotten my appliance root password for my VCSA but I am getting the below error when attempting to logon to the GUI – WTF? Fortunately, there is a simple resolution to this problem.  The password has expired and needs resetting.  This will need attention if I want to perform an upgrade, which I most certainly do (vCenter 6.7 to 7). Logon to the appliance GUI with your SSO administrator account and enable SSH. Then open a SSH session on the appliance using Putty and your expired root credentials. *If you have forgotten the password completely...

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Deploy vCenter with CLI Command Line

I have had to deploy vCenter many times over recent months and I keep meaning to try out the CLI command method provided to do so silently (and repeatedly).  I have finally got around to writing this up. Tools required are the VCSA iso from VMware download here and the preparation of a .json file that defines all your configuration.  Oh, and a mac or windows client to run it from.  I am using Windows in this example but have used the same process on a mac. Whilst you can also perform an upgrade or migration this way I needed...

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Create a nested ESXi template in vSphere

Nested Hosts are a great way to try new features out and can be quickly provisioned/removed in a home lab or test environment.  There is no official VMware support for them however so please no production use. Anyway, using nested hosts is certainly not new – William Lam is the go-to for this and has a load of consumable resources which can be found on his excellent website here.  However, like many, I wanted to have a go myself so here is how I created a template in my lab. For starters let’s get an ESXi VM created.  I’m not...

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vSAN Unicast Agent List Issue

I had a few problems with my homelab last week after rebuilding one of the hosts in my vSAN cluster. I moved the ESXi install from an increasingly ancient USB drive to an internal SD card. That part was relatively painless. But when I tried to put the “new” host back into the vSAN cluster I ran into issues. It would just not rejoin. I initially thought I might have knocked a few cables in the change around but vmkpings on all vSAN interfaces checked out so time to run some cli commands. esxcli vsan cluster get This gave me...

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vSphere 7 – ESXi upgrade

So having upgraded vCenter it’s time to do the hosts.  I’d normally use Update Manager for this – which has had an overhaul and is now Lifecycle Manager. One thing to call out here is that I ran a test prior to upgrading my hosts by installing the hypervisor onto a USB stick and booting from that to make sure there were no hardware issues.  I used remote management to attach the iso to the host and plugged in a USB key to install vSphere 7 onto.  If you don’t have remote management the same can be achieved by creating...

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vSphere 7 – VCSA upgrade

So Big News – as you have no doubt heard vSphere 7 is now GA so time to upgrade the homelab and take a look! I am currently running (an increasingly under spec) vSAN 6.7 cluster consisting of 3 HP Gen 8 Microservers.  I keep threatening to take my lab into the cloud but there is something comforting about having the hardware sat in the corner of the room (albeit majorly time-consuming).  Anyway, onto stage 1 vCenter! The VCSA upgrade process is pretty slick now and I had no bother following the basic instructions to complete the migration.  The 2...

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Documentation – vSphere Clusters

I have put this function together for the purpose of documenting cluster settings.  Used it a fair bit to gather information on environments that I have come accross that have not been well documented.  In can be used as is but I’m fiddling around with it to produce some further information so likely to be updated in the near future. Hopefully of some use – connect to vCenter from POWERCLI and run the function. get-clusterdetails  

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Documentation – ESXi Host vMotion IPs

I’ve recently had to audit and document several vSphere environments.  Multiple hosts had been configured manually and there were some mistakes in the IP settings.  I put together this POWERCLI function to report back on these settings and will now use it for documentation moving forward.  Hopefully of some use to others too. Connect to a host or vCenter and give it a go.  

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Documentation – ESXi Host Hardware and Build Details

I don’t know many people that enjoy writing documentation but it is a nessesary evil and can give you the opportunity to be creative with how you produce it. Often I will need to document a point in time install for ESXi hosts so have put together the below PowerCLI function to obtain some hardware and build information back.  Running Get-HostDetails after connecting to a host or vCenter There are loads of good examples available but this works well for me. Output as below

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