4 ways to configure adv. settings in CLI

There are a few CLI methods to configure advanced settings in ESXi Hosts. It depends on where you are (vMA/Linux, Windows Client, Console) and what you want to do (configure all hosts or just a specific host, …) which option fits best. Here I describe the options: native PowerCLI, esxcli (console), esxcli (get-esxcli), esxcli (get-esxcli -v2) to:

• List
  • All settings
  • All settings in a specific Tree or Folder (eg.  /UserVars)
  • A specific option
  • All settings that differ from default settings (Delta)
• Set
  • Integer
  • String.

How PDL (Permanent Device Loss) looks like

Some time ago differentiation between PDL (Permanent Device Loss) and APD (All Path Down) was introduced to vSphere. In a PDL situation, the hosts does not expect the device to return. PDL happens for example, when an administrator unpresents a LUN from a host. APD on the other hand is completely unplanned. By default the host tries to get the device back. Starting with vSphere 6.0 there are settings in a HA-Cluster for response to PDL and APD. This post gives some information about the different settings, what happens to VMs with more than one VMDK, custom alarm creation and more.

Create PSP rule for HPE 3PAR

There are a few best practices when implementing a 3PAR into a vSphere environment. One of these is the creation of a custom PSP-rule. With this set, all 3PAR volumes are automatically configured according to best practices when they get mounted. In this post I will show ways to create this rule.

Mount HP Blade enclosure DVD on VMs

Mounting a HP BladeSystem enclosre DVD drive on a VM sounds easy. And it is, but it is not that easy as I thought first. Technically it is a USB drive for the host, but it is not possible to pass through the device as a USB drive. This post describes the steps to take for windows VMs (tested for Windows 2008 and 2012), but this should also work for other OSs.

vROps – Intelligent Workload Placement

There is not very much information out there for the new feature Intelligent Workload Placement in vROps 6.1 and its improvements in 6.2. In this post there are some information that should help to understand what this feature does.

VVOLs in SANsymphony-V10 PSP4 [or VVOLs on a notebook]

With SANsymphony-V10 PSP4 DataCore introduced VMware VVOL support. In this post I write about the installation and administration of this feature. This is also a very nice way to take a running VVOL implementation on a notebook with you.

Upgrade to vCenter 6.0 did not migrate SQL to PostgreSQL

After an upgrade from vCenter 5.5 to 6.0U1 everything looks fine but the vCenter DB was still running in a SQL Express instance. Because this is an unsupported configuration it has to be fixed.