Archive for the ‘ESXi6’ Category
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/02/08
On my research list: [Wayback] ESXi Host with No vCenter Server · VMware vSphere Integrated Containers 1.4 Documentation: Deploy a Virtual Container Host to an ESXi Host with No vCenter Server.
It is a small guide on [Wayback] vmware/vic: vSphere Integrated Containers Engine is a container runtime for vSphere.
vSphere Integrated Containers Engine (VIC Engine) is a container runtime for vSphere, allowing developers familiar with Docker to develop in containers and deploy them alongside traditional VM-based workloads on vSphere clusters, and allowing for these workloads to be managed through the vSphere UI in a way familiar to existing vSphere admins.
Given my virtualisation infrastructure is ESXi based, I need to contemplate on this, as there are basically two choices for me:
- Install a docker host as a VM on the ESXi host and go all the way docker (which needs a very good thought on how many resources to allocate to the docker host)
- Go the VIC way
Food for thought!
–jeroen
Posted in ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/02/02
Posted in ESXi4, ESXi5, ESXi5.1, ESXi5.5, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/02/01
I started my post ESXi: editing /etc/vmware/hostd/vmInventory.xml to fix the datastore UUID for unavailable VMs with
In case I ever need this on ESXi: Insights into the VMware inventory files (vmAutoStart.xml and vmInventory.xml on ESXi; inventory.vmls on VMware Workstation/Player)
Since almost all of my blog is about things I bumped into in real life, this post was a preparation because I kind of expected this to indeed happen, and it did.
Below are the screenshots and steps I took. Of course it is an N=1 experience, so your situation might differ, but I tried to be thorough and not miss any steps.
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Posted in ArchiveTeamWarrior, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Internet, InternetArchive, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi, WayBack machine | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/02/01
Sometimes it is easier to have current and public CA signed TLS certificates for internal servers than to setup and maintain an internal CA and register it on all affected browsers (including mobile phones).
One of my reasons to investigate this is that Chrome refuses to save credentials on servers that have no verifiable TLS certificate, see my post Some links on Chrome not prompting to save passwords (when Firefox and Safari do) about a week ago.
Below are some links for my link archive that hopefully will allow me to do this with Let’s Encrypt (msot via [Wayback/Archive] letsencrypt for internal servers – Google Search):
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Posted in Cloud, Cloudflare, Development, Encryption, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Fritz!, Fritz!Box, Fritz!WLAN, Infrastructure, Internet, Let's Encrypt (letsencrypt/certbot), Power User, Security, Software Development, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi, Web Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/01/27
First the script that display messages for all virtual machines, vim-cmd-display-messages-for-all-VMs.sh:
#!/bin/sh
vmids=`vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | sed -n -E -e "s/^([[:digit:]]+)\s+((\S.+\S)?)\s+(\[\S+\])\s+(.+\.vmx)\s+(\S+)\s+(vmx-[[:digit:]]+)\s*?((\S.+)?)$/\1/p"`
for vmid in ${vmids} ; do
powerState=`vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate ${vmid} | sed '1d'`
name=`vim-cmd vmsvc/get.config ${vmid} | sed -n -E -e '/\(vim.vm.ConfigInfo\) \{/,/files = \(vim.vm.FileInfo\) \{/ s/^ +name = "(.*)",.*?/\1/p'`
vmPathName=`vim-cmd vmsvc/get.config ${vmid} | sed -n -E -e '/files = \(vim.vm.FileInfo\) \{/,/tools = \(vim.vm.ToolsConfigInfo\) \{/ s/^ +vmPathName = "(.*)",.*?/\1/p'`
echo "Messages for VM with id ${vmid} which has power state ${powerState} (name = ${name}; vmPathName = ${vmPathName})."
vim-cmd vmsvc/message ${vmid}
done
exit 0
It is very similar to vim-cmd-reload-all-VM-vmx-configurations.sh from Source: ESXi: reloading all virtual machines from their (potentially) vmx files.
Messages I know either equal “No message” or are about “This virtual machine may have been moved or copied.“
If there is no available message, then you always get the stock message No message., so this is something you can use as a check in scripts.
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Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, ArchiveTeamWarrior, ash/dash, ash/dash development, Development, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/01/26
I had to reload all registered virtual machine configurations after replacing an NVMe adapter in one of my ESXi hosts (see the posts next week).
The below script is based on this series of April last year on listing, stopping, starting, hibernating and waking up VMs, especially vim-cmd-list-all-VMs.sh:
- VMware ESXi console: viewing all VMs, suspending and waking them up: part 1 on Busybox, sed and regular expressions (especially capture groups)
- VMware ESXi console: viewing all VMs, suspending and waking them up: part 2 on
vim-cmd vmsvc commands, especially the on the ones accepting a vmid parameter
- VMware ESXi console: viewing all VMs, suspending and waking them up: part 3 digging deeper into the various
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.* commands
- VMware ESXi console: viewing all VMs, suspending and waking them up: part 4 on amending
vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms with information from vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate and vim-cmd vmsvc/get.config
- VMware ESXi console: viewing all VMs, suspending and waking them up: part 5 on applying the various
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.* commands on a list of relevant virtual machines
Here is the script vim-cmd-reload-all-VM-vmx-configurations.sh:
#!/bin/sh
vmids=`vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | sed -n -E -e "s/^([[:digit:]]+)\s+((\S.+\S)?)\s+(\[\S+\])\s+(.+\.vmx)\s+(\S+)\s+(vmx-[[:digit:]]+)\s*?((\S.+)?)$/\1/p"`
for vmid in ${vmids} ; do
powerState=`vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate ${vmid} | sed '1d'`
name=`vim-cmd vmsvc/get.config ${vmid} | sed -n -E -e '/\(vim.vm.ConfigInfo\) \{/,/files = \(vim.vm.FileInfo\) \{/ s/^ +name = "(.*)",.*?/\1/p'`
vmPathName=`vim-cmd vmsvc/get.config ${vmid} | sed -n -E -e '/files = \(vim.vm.FileInfo\) \{/,/tools = \(vim.vm.ToolsConfigInfo\) \{/ s/^ +vmPathName = "(.*)",.*?/\1/p'`
echo "Reloading vmx of VM with id ${vmid} which has power state ${powerState} (name = ${name}; vmPathName = ${vmPathName})."
vim-cmd vmsvc/reload ${vmid}
done
exit 0
Note that the script can throw errors, for instance the below one:
# vim-cmd vmsvc/reload 27
(vmodl.fault.SystemError) {
faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
faultMessage = ,
reason = "Invalid fault"
msg = "Received SOAP response fault from []: reload
vim.fault.InvalidState"
}
This particular error means that the ESXi system itself is in an invalid state (as opposed to the virtual machine being an invalid state). In this case, it can be thrown if the ESXi system is in Maintenance Mode: in that case, it is not allowed to reload any .vmx virtual machine configurations (it only shows the configuration at the time that hostd got started).
There are two ways to solve this:
- The blunt way: restart the
hostd as this will re-read the .vmx files
- The not so blunt way: bring the server out of maintenance mode, then rerun the
vim-cmd vmsvc/reload command.
On the many places that can throw vim.fault.InvalidState
In this case, the reason for vim.fault.InvalidState was that the server was in maintenance mode. However, be aware that there are way more places that can throw vim.fault.InvalidState.
Via [Wayback/Archive.is] 1-day-SAP-custom/InvalidState.rst at master · bcstryker/1-day-SAP-custom and [Wayback/Archive.is] bcstryker/1-day-SAP-custom, I found [Wayback/Archive.is] InvalidState – vSphere Web Services API – VMware {code} that lists about 200 API calls for this seemingly simple fault:
Fault Description
An InvalidState fault is thrown if the operation failed due to the current state of the system.
For example, at [Wayback] Failed to deploy VM: vim.fault.InvalidState – VMware Technology Network VMTN the cause of vim.fault.InvalidState was deploying an .ova file over a slow WiFi connection.
On VMware services and their names
The VMware service names are very well explained in the [Wayback] what is difference between hostd, Vpxa and vpxd. – VMware Technology Network VMTN answer by [Wayback] About AndreTheGiant – VMware Technology Network VMTN
hostd is the daemon for direct VIC connection (when you use VIC to connect to your ESX).vpx is the original name of vCenter Center, so:
vpxa is the VC agent (ESX side)vpxd is the VC daemon (VC side)
Since ESXi 5.0, the VIC (VMware Infrastructure Client) got gradually replaced by the vSphere Web Client which is serviced by the hostd as well, see:
–jeroen
Posted in ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | 1 Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/01/25
In Determining the ESXi installation type (2014558) | VMware KB, I also showed how to backup the configuration and download it.
Sometimes you want an ISO 8601 time-stamped local tarball just in case you want to revert to it at a later stage.
First a small recap on how to get the tarball, download location and temporary location in the first place (it will be automatically deleted from the temporary location):
# vim-cmd hostsvc/firmware/sync_config
# vim-cmd hostsvc/firmware/backup_config
Bundle can be downloaded at : http://*/downloads/52aa233b-5db4-2298-5e1b-f510b2cd149f/configBundle-ESXi-X10SRH-CF.tgz
# find /scratch/downloads/ -name *.tgz
/scratch/downloads/52aa233b-5db4-2298-5e1b-f510b2cd149f/configBundle-ESXi-X10SRH-CF.tgz
Goal is to get the download filename and save it to a different folder and embed the ISO 8601 timestamp in the filename.
Like many scripts, sed and regular expressions come to the rescue once more, just like in ESXi ash/dash/busybox shell getting current timestamp in UTC ISO8601 format without colons or dashes (which we will need anyway because of the ISO 8601 time stamp, and a bit of fiddling at regex101.com/r/NyrzKF
# SCRATCH_CONFIG_BUNDLE_NAME=$(vim-cmd hostsvc/firmware/backup_config | sed -n -E -e "s/^(Bundle can be downloaded at : http://*)(/downloads/[[:xdigit:]]{8}-[[:xdigit:]]{4}-[[:xdigit:]]{4}-[[:xdigit:]]{4}-[[:xdigit:]]{12}/configBundle-.+?)(.tgz)$//scratch23/p")
# echo "SCRATCH_CONFIG_BUNDLE_NAME: '${SCRATCH_CONFIG_BUNDLE_NAME}'"
SCRATCH_CONFIG_BUNDLE_NAME: '/scratch/downloads/5271677d-97db-30dc-673d-b99e61bed251/configBundle-ESXi-X10SRH-CF.tgz'
# date --utc -I'seconds' --reference "${SCRATCH_CONFIG_BUNDLE_NAME}"
2021-05-09T17:44:42UTC
Note:
Not few people have bumped into this, the only other I could find through [Wayback] “vim.fault.TooManyWrites” “syncConfiguration” – Google Search is [Archive.is] mal wieder purple Screen – VMware-Forum.
Figuring out the various parts of the SCRATCH_CONFIG_BUNDLE_NAME: '/scratch/downloads/5271677d-97db-30dc-673d-b99e61bed251/configBundle-ESXi-X10SRH-CF.tgz' is like at regex101.com/r/J4yU72, regex101.com/r/uID9xs and regex101.com/r/o8a4Am:
CONFIG_BUNDLE_DIRECTORY_NAME=$(echo "${SCRATCH_CONFIG_BUNDLE_NAME}" | sed -n -E -e "s/(\/scratch\/downloads\/[[:xdigit:]]{8}-[[:xdigit:]]{4}-[[:xdigit:]]{4}-[[:xdigit:]]{4}-[[:xdigit:]]{12}\/)(configBundle-.+?)(.tgz)$/\1/p")
CONFIG_BUNDLE_FILE_NAME=$( echo "${SCRATCH_CONFIG_BUNDLE_NAME}" | sed -n -E -e "s/(\/scratch\/downloads\/[[:xdigit:]]{8}-[[:xdigit:]]{4}-[[:xdigit:]]{4}-[[:xdigit:]]{4}-[[:xdigit:]]{12}\/)(configBundle-.+?)(.tgz)$/\2/p")
CONFIG_BUNDLE_DOT_EXTENSION=$( echo "${SCRATCH_CONFIG_BUNDLE_NAME}" | sed -n -E -e "s/(\/scratch\/downloads\/[[:xdigit:]]{8}-[[:xdigit:]]{4}-[[:xdigit:]]{4}-[[:xdigit:]]{4}-[[:xdigit:]]{12}\/)(configBundle-.+?)(.tgz)$/\3/p")
echo "CONFIG_BUNDLE_DIRECTORY_NAME: '${CONFIG_BUNDLE_DIRECTORY_NAME}'"
echo "CONFIG_BUNDLE_FILE_NAME: '${CONFIG_BUNDLE_FILE_NAME}'"
echo "CONFIG_BUNDLE_DOT_EXTENSION: '${CONFIG_BUNDLE_DOT_EXTENSION}'"
Output is like this:
SCRATCH_CONFIG_BUNDLE_NAME: '/scratch/downloads/528f9f5a-0123-f022-2b4d-a5c2e595c51a/configBundle-ESXi-X10SRH-CF.tgz'
CONFIG_BUNDLE_DIRECTORY_NAME: '/scratch/downloads/528f9f5a-0123-f022-2b4d-a5c2e595c51a/'
CONFIG_BUNDLE_FILE_NAME: 'configBundle-ESXi-X10SRH-CF'
CONFIG_BUNDLE_DOT_EXTENSION: '.tgz'
Full backup-config-to-ESXi_configuration_backup-directory.sh script:
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Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, ash/dash, ash/dash development, cron/crontab, Development, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/01/20
For quite some time now, Chrome (think years) refuses to prompt for saving passwords whereas Firefox and Safari do prompt and save them, even for site types that it used to save passwords for in the past.
It has been annoying enough for too long now that I tried to do better than the Google searches I used back when I saw this happen first.
Below are some links based on new searches (starting with [Wayback] adding a password in chrome settings – Google Search); hopefully I can try them after I made a list of sites that Chrome does not show the password save prompt for.
Solutions I tried that failed (but maybe useful for others):
Solutions still to try:
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Posted in Chrome, Chrome, Communications Development, Development, Encryption, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, Firefox, Fritz!, Fritz!Box, Fritz!WLAN, Google, https, HTTPS/TLS security, Internet, Internet protocol suite, Let's Encrypt (letsencrypt/certbot), Power User, routers, Safari, Security, TCP, TLS, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi, Web Browsers, Web Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/01/19
A few links and notes:
- [Wayback] Changing the hostname of an ESX or ESXi host (1010821)
Run these commands to change the hostname in ESXi 5.x, ESXi 6.x,ESXi 7.x, using the command line:
- esxcli system hostname set –host=hostname
- esxcli system hostname set –fqdn=fqdn
- [Wayback] ESX Host appears as localhost.localdomain in VMware Infrastructure/vSphere client (2009720)
The name resolution parameters were not properly configured during the installation of the ESX host.
- [Wayback] Domain repoint for embedded vCenter Server fails with error: “domain_consolidator Failed to set machine id” (71020)
This issue is caused by a mismatch between the FQDN that was configured as the PNID during the vCenter Server deployment and the hostname that is currently configured.
I had a mismatch happen because of the second entry: a host configured in a different domain than it was deployed to.
Here are the commands to list and change the hosts name, domain and fqdn:
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Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, ash/dash, ash/dash development, Development, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2022/01/18
Since ESXi boots from RAM, most files in /etc are not persisted after modification.
The files that are persisted, are only persisted once every hour by auto-backup.sh, so better run auto-backup.sh by hand if you want to reboot after changing them.
The auto-backup.sh script is ran every hour at 1 minute past the hour as per below crontab.
Default ESXi crontab in /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root:
#min hour day mon dow command
1 1 * * * /sbin/tmpwatch.py
1 * * * * /sbin/auto-backup.sh
0 * * * * /usr/lib/vmware/vmksummary/log-heartbeat.py
*/5 * * * * /bin/hostd-probe.sh ++group=host/vim/vmvisor/hostd-probe/stats/sh
00 1 * * * localcli storage core device purge
Schedules deciphered via [Wayback] Crontab.guru – The cron schedule expression editor:
- [Wayback] Every day at
01:01: “This module removes stale temporary files”
1 1 * * * /sbin/tmpwatch.py
- [Wayback] Every hour at
*:01: saves backup to /bootbank/state.tgz.
1 * * * * /sbin/auto-backup.sh
- [Wayback] Every hour at
*:00 logs heartbeat messages to /var/log/vmksummary.log like 2021-02-23T19:00:02Z heartbeat: up 577d2h37m16s, 9 VMs; [[2802426 vmx 4194304kB] [6176344 vmx 4194304kB] [68997 vmx 8388608kB]] [[2802426 vmx 0%max] [6176344 vmx 0%max] [68997 vmx 0%max]]
0 * * * * /usr/lib/vmware/vmksummary/log-heartbeat.py
- [Wayback] Every
5th minute logs to /var/log/hostd-probe.log.
*/5 * * * * /bin/hostd-probe.sh ++group=host/vim/vmvisor/hostd-probe/stats/sh
- [Wayback] Every day at
01:00: Removes storage devices which have not been seen in some time interval.
00 1 * * * localcli storage core device purge
Note that localcli commands are the same as esxcli; for esxcli, a running hostd is required; localcli can run without hostd. See:
–jeroen
Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, ash/dash, ash/dash development, Development, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Virtualization, VMware | Leave a Comment »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 