I haven’t had to change the time on a VMWare ESXi server in a while but the opportunity presented itself today. I thought I would publish this quick article as a refresher. Check current date and time:#date Base Syntax #esxcli system time set-H for Hour-m for Minute-M for Month-s for Second-y for Year If I … Read more
Recently while working in my environment I uncovered a known issue and a KB article with a resolution and work around. Here is a step by step of the applied work around. I applied the immediate work around to avoid a vCenter crash, which is never a good thing. Error:Alarm ‘Host hardware sensor state’ on … Read more
In the past I have spoken about needing to remove mounted ISOs from VMs prior to a VxRail upgrade. I have had many people DM me asking if I use a script or do it manually. First, it would only be possible in a small environment to manually remove mounted ISO files or in environments … Read more
Have you ever been writing a PowerShell or PowerCLI script and wished you could see what would happen if you executed the script just to confirm everything is working properly? Have you ever been been performing single commands that modify the environment and you want to ensure the mod you want is the one applied? … Read more
I know this one should be real basic but sometimes we forget the basics. Have you ever stood up a new environment, installed PowerShell, PowerCLI, imported your favorite scripts and when to execute and got a permission error. Were you rusty on how to change permissions to give yourself the capability to run scripts? Here … Read more
In the last couple of weeks due to a bug that was fixed, I had split brain on a host. Every time, I would place a particular host into maintenance mode it would begin to move VMs to other hosts in the cluster. However, I would get a couple VMs that would flp between hosts … Read more
While i was standing up a new engineering box I needed to install PowerCLI. I figured since I am writing a lot more these days I would show real quick how to install PowerCLI from Powershell. Site for documentation:https://code.vmware.com/web/tool/11.5.0/vmware-powercli Command:Install-Module VMware.PowerCLI -Scope CurrentUser If PowerCLI is already installed and you want to update add the … Read more
Recently, I was asked if there was a way to extend the boot time to give an end user time to access the BIOs because they needed to make changes to the config. It has been a minute since I have had to do this so I thought I would write a refresher blog with … Read more
Recently, I was approached by someone who wasn’t fully familiar with VMWare. They quick ask was how do I get email alerts when our ESXi hosts go offline. It took a few minutes to confirm they had an email server setup and then to walk them through how to edit alarms to send emails when … Read more
Recently, I was attempting to place a ESXi host into maintenance mode via the GUI in vCenter. However, it kept failing even after i restarted services and rebooted the vCenter. This forced me to break out some old commands to perform this task via CLI on the ESXi host itself. Confirm the host is not … Read more
Ping has been a powerful tool for windows/linux/VMWare guys for a long time in troubleshooting network connectivity. VMkping is ping for vmk traffic. You execute the vmkping command from the ESXi host so you will need SSH services enabled. Below I will dust off some old vmkping commands I still use today to help me … Read more
Recently, I got to see something I haven’t had to experience in a while. I had a VM that wouldn’t power down in the GUI even after I vMotion it to another host. I had to go back into my old school archive for the procedure of bringing down a VM via CLI from the … Read more
This year I have been fortunate enough to be made a vExpert for my second straight year. I was asked what does it mean to me to be a vExpert, so I thought I would take a moment to write a blog article on what it means to me to be a vExpert. The Beginning:To … Read more
Recently, I upgraded my vCenter to 6.7 U3 and afterwards I wasn’t able to into my vCenter appliance via SSH and more surprisingly I wasn’t able to log into the VAMI. Resolution:Reboot of the vCenter Appliance Result:I was able to log into the VAMII went to Access > Edit > enable SSHI was then able … Read more
I recently had the pleasure of upgrading one of my older environments running VMware vCenter 6.5 U2 to vCenter 6.7 U3 and thought i would share my experience. I know a lot of people who are planning for this upgrade by the end of the year so I hope this helps everyone out. If you … Read more
I know I am a terrible test taker. Point in fact, the only “exams” I recall being easy/best for me is when I would sit at a terminal and be given tasks to complete in a lab. Taking the educated guess that there are plenty of people like me in the world, I thought I … Read more
I just wanted to take a moment to write a quick article on some useful commands I use for troubleshooting NSX-T 2.4 By no means is this everything and I will update this article routinly. How to find VTEP (Tunnel End Points)From NSX Manager#get logical-switch vtep From ESXi Host to display TEP end point#esxcfg-vmnic -land#esxcli … Read more
Every so often I will get the question, “I need to log into the iDRAC on Host X, do you have it’s IP.” I thought I would put together this quick article with the command to provide this information. StepsIssue the following command from the ESXi host you are attempting to gather the iDRAC IP … Read more
Many asked so here it is. A how to guide on leveraging Tags and Security Groups to apply Firewall Policies/Rules to groups of VMs. My main goal for this article is to simplify a complicated 2.4 Admin Guide, which does not spell out how to do this in step by step options. The Admin Guide … Read more
Whether deploying a new VxRail or deploying a new cluster you will still need a way for the virtual machines to communicate. With VxRail manager it will create a virtual distributed switch (vDS) as part of the initial deployment leveraging the first four onboard ports. However, if you are leveraging an additional daughter card for … Read more
