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This one goes out to all the students

This is just my opinion based on my experiences and having watched others go through the same program(s) that I did. Take it as you  like, but I hope it helps some of the students out there getting ready to hit that “requires X experience wall” in the job market.

A week or so ago I attended a Program Advisory Committee meeting at the local ITT Tech school. They handed out some folders with the programs that relating to my field of work. In this case thats Information Technology. There were others there representing IT ranging from Government Security to IT Consulting. Overall the experience was pleasant, but showed that there are areas still for improvement. Which of course, was why each of us were there.

They asked a few questions that stood out among the rest. I’ll list the questions below as well as some questions and discussions that I wish we had time for. Continue reading “This one goes out to all the students”

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Active Directory, Aliases and Hostnames, OH MY!

Before I get into this, I need to set it up.

NOTE: Be prepared to reboot the VCSA a couple times… it takes forever for the web-client to initialize and seriously, that needs to stop VMware. Sub 20 second Web-Client Initialization… NEEDS to be in the next release. I think I speak for everyone when I say that the Web-Client is initializing page is old and needs to die. Anywho. back to the fixing.

We have our active directory domains and our DNS domains. They aren’t the same. We are using alias’s, as support loved to keep saying (I didn’t set it up but sure!) Continue reading “Active Directory, Aliases and Hostnames, OH MY!”

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Adding vCenters with the similar hostnames to the same Root AD Domain

If you add a Windows Server to a Domain, you have the option of preventing the Domain Controller from changing the servers hostname. The example is if I have server1.acme.com, and I want to add it to my ad.acme.com domain, during the process of registering the server, it will change the servers hostname to server1.ad.acme.com. Not always ideal.

Whats worse is that since the VCSA is based on SUSE Linux, there is no checkbox the uncheck to prevent this during the PSC’s Join Domain functionality. Continue reading “Adding vCenters with the similar hostnames to the same Root AD Domain”

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Client is not authenticated to VMware Inventory Service after VCSA Upgrade to 6

Had this issue today after upgrading from VCSA 5.5 U3 to 6.6 U1A.

How was the VCSA setup before?

  • DNS servers configured to Prod DNS
  • Time configured to AD servers (automatic when you join the domain from the VAMI)
  • AD configured

Symptoms:

  • Logging into vCenter Server completes successfully with Administrator@vsphere.local
  • AD Users that used to authenticate with vCenter (even Admins) see the following error pop up: “Client is not authenticated to VMware Inventory Service – http://localhost:10080/invsvc”

After looking around, I didn’t see anything that pointed to a specific answer. Also to note, nothing related to vSphere or VCSA 6. A lot of items we found discussed that it was something that was fixed in 5.5 U2. Hmmm.. ok.

Resolution:

  • Since we were using AD for time server because 5.5 U3 VCSA made the AD server the time server, we had no NTP setup in the VAMI. Added the time server and moved on. Oddly for one of our servers, the DNS was missing as well, its odd, but even though it SHOWED the correct DNS servers, when I went to edit the network settings, it was set to automatic. Well that won’t do at all. Set them manually and moved on.

NOTE: Add the vCenter to the root domain if possible, or at least that is what I had to do. If you are adding more than one VCSA to the same domain, with very similar names, read this post as well.

  • Next, I removed any AD Identity sources and then left the domain.
    • If you are unfamiliar with how, first remove the Identity source from Administration > SSO> Configuration > Identity Sources.
    • Then leave the domain from Administration > Deployment > System Configuration > Nodes > {vCenter FQDN} > Manage > Active Directory.
    • Reboot the server after leaving the domain.
  • Once the VCSA comes back up, rejoin the domain:
    • Go back to Administration > Deployment > System Configuration > Nodes > {vCenter FQDN} > Manage > Active Directory, join the domain again.
    • REBOOT! (I know this takes forever, I’m sorry.)
    • Go back to Administration > SSO> Configuration > Identity Sources and add your AD identity source once again.
  • After this is complete, check your permissions and attempt logging in as an AD user.

This fixed it for us, but if you are having worse luck, let me know and I’ll try and work it out with you.

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IBM Spectrum Virtualize (V7000) Updates Coming

Come Novermber 27, 2015, IBM will release Spectrum controller code version 7.6. Spectrum is the name for their mid-range enterprise SAN’s. The main block controller, Spectrum Virtualize, will receive a new update adding a few new features. Also to note, the Spectrum Scale (originally called V7000 Unified) which is the Filers that can be paired

[UPDATE 1] VVols does not seem to be released just yet, there was an issue with the original release, as well as Unified Code version 1.6.0, the original was recalled, and 1.6.0.1 is currently released with a promise that VVols will be released in a future version. Continue reading “IBM Spectrum Virtualize (V7000) Updates Coming”

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Why am I writing anything at all?

As I was getting started in virtualization, I noticed a heavy reoccurrence of a few people sharing information, fixes and know-how on topics that I was searching. People like @anthonyspiteri, @DuncanYB, @lamw, @FrankDenneman to name a few, providing technical deep-dives about the things I was trying to deploy.

I was handed the resources to build an infrastructure and tasks with deploying them in sites across the globe. Pretty heavy for a new guy. These blogs really helped me get to terms with what I needed to understand, what the architecture would look like and how I should go about it.One of the topics that took a bit to understand was Virtual Distributed Switches.Documentation on it for a newcomer was too dense, some blogs matched the language and it made it hard to grasp the idea of it during the day that I spent concentrating on it. I continued looking at diagrams and reading VMware’s own documentation but it was taking too long to click.

I did finally get it after about half an hour or so and why it would meant so much for deploying this infrastructure. But there was always that voice in the back of my head telling me that it could have been easier. It SHOULD be easier. I know that a lot of people just getting into this are not going to have that same opportunity as I had, but they could atlas benefit from someone breaking it down. I won’t call this Virtualization for Dummies, but I do want to help newcomers.

So I’m starting this blog to break down the concepts, functions and roles of different virtualization topics to help those trying to get a basic idea on them, so that when they get to VMware’s documentation, its already deciphered for them. I hope this helps a few people get started and I hope it proves meaningful. So join me for now as I write the “New2” series. I ‘ll write a couple others from the perspective of being a Service Provider (Licensing), Deep-Dive (when I can) and just general topics.

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Write Until My Fingers Fall Off

After reading @kylog‘s blog post about the topics he is going to write for the #vDM30in30 challenge.

I thought I might share of topics as well, before November hits and I need to get writing! So what is #vDM30in30? Its a blogging challenge where you write 30 posts in 30 days. So, while trying to come up with topics for the challenge, I wrote out a list of things technologies or applications that I currently work on, then added applications that I would like to deploy next. There are two parts that makes this challenge hard to accomplish. The first is writing that much content in the period of time. The second is learning the applications that I have not yet worked with. The topics that I have come up with so far are listed below, but I likely won’t follow the order.

  1. My Troubleshooting Theory and Methodology
  2. Cannot connect to one or more vCenters (re-register vCenter server with SSO)
  3. Basics of PowerCLI
  4. Basics of ESXCLI
  5. #Migrate2VCSA
  6. First VMUG Presentation Experience
  7. VMware Community
  8. VMworld First Time Experience
  9. Partner Exchange Experience and Impression
  10. Ideas for Building a Home Lab
  11. Cloud Home Labs
  12. Professional Development for Younger IT Pros
  13. Higher level view for a future of vSphere 6
  14. VCAP-DCA Experience
  15. VCSA 5.5 Update 3 to 6.0 Update 1 Upgrade
  16. Favorite Flings and Why
  17. Testing the Host Web Client Fling
  18. vRealize Orchestrator, Ideas, Impressions and Future Projects
  19. vRealize 6 and my impressions on vRealize 7 (based on blog posts and documentation)
  20. Wrapping My Head Around NSX
  21. IBM SANs and VVols
  22. xCAT Server: Getting it started
  23. xCAT Server: Building on the Foundation (DCUI redirection to xCAT)
  24. DCIM, What I Look for and Why I Chose Device42
  25. AC / DC Power and Circuit Planning
  26. Resources for Data Center Infrastructure
  27. DevOps, What the hell is that about?
  28. Thoughts on Dockers and Containers for Hosted Applications and Deployments (theory)
  29. Rewrite: Virtualization as Schools Teach it
  30. Rewrite: Virtualization as the Industry uses it
  31. My Certification Roadmap (Which ones and Why?)
  32. This is How I Work (play on Lifehacker’s articles)

Might be a couple other topics for the list but this is just for me to pick from when I get a chance to write. Here goes nothing!