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Archive for the ‘ESXi7’ Category

Patching ESXi so you can boot a MacOS virtual machine from it

Posted by jpluimers on 2022/01/13

This is totally opposite to yesterday’s Secure Boot post: [Wayback/Archive.is] shanyungyang/esxi-unlocker: VMware ESXi macOS

macOS Unlocker V3.0.2 for VMware ESXi
=====================================

1. Introduction
---------------

Unlocker 3 for ESXi is designed for VMware ESXi 6.5, 6.7 and 7.0

The patch code carries out the following modifications dependent on the product
being patched:

* Fix vmware-vmx to allow macOS to boot
* Fix libvmkctl to allow vSphere to control the guest

The code is written in Python as it makes the Unlocker easier to run and
maintain on ESXi.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| IMPORTANT:                                                                  |
| ==========                                                                  |
|                                                                             |
| Always uninstall the previous version of the Unlocker before using a new    |
| version. Failure to do this could render VMware unusable.                   |
|                                                                             |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

2. Installation
---------------
Copy the distribution file to the ESXi host datastore using scp or some other
data transfer system. If you want to use the source version (i.e. from GIT) see
"5. Building" fist.

Decompress the file from the ESXi console or via SSH:

    tar xzvf esxi-unlocker-xxx.tgz

(xxx - will be the version number, for example, 300)

Run the command from the terminal:

    ./esxi-install.sh

Finally reboot the server.

3. Uninstallation
-----------------
Open the ESXi console or login via SSH and change to the folder where the files were extracted.

Run the command from the terminal:

    ./esxi-uninstall.sh

Finally reboot the server.

4. Notes
--------
A. There is a command added called esxi-smctest.sh which can show if the patch is successful. It must be run from a
terminal or SSH session. The output should be:

/bin/vmx
smcPresent = true
custom.vgz     false   32486592 B

Note: The uncompressed size reported for custom.vgz will vary depending on the ESXi version.

B. The unlocker can be temporarily disabled during boot by editing the boot options and adding "nounlocker".

5. Building
-----------
If you want to use a version which is not availbale as a distribution (e.g. the code from "master" branch)
you need to first build the package.

Checkout the repository:

    git clone https://github.com/shanyungyang/esxi-unlocker.git

(if you don't have git installed you can download ZIP archive from GitHub instead)

Enter the directory and build:
    
    cd esxi-unlocker
    ./esxi-build.py

If everything went correctly the ouput should be:

    ESXi-Build for macOS

    Timestamping files...

    Creating unlocker.tgz...
    etc/
    etc/rc.local.d/
    etc/rc.local.d/unlocker.py

    Creating esxi-unlocker-301.tgz...
    unlocker.tgz
    esxi-install.sh
    esxi-uninstall.sh
    esxi-smctest.sh
    readme.txt

The package you need to copy in the example above is esxi-unlocker-301.tgz (NOT unlocker.tgz!).

6. Thanks
---------

Thanks to Zenith432 for originally building the C++ unlocker and Mac Son of Knife
(MSoK) for all the testing and support.

Thanks also to Sam B for finding the solution for ESXi 6 and helping me with
debugging expertise. Sam also wrote the code for patching ESXi ELF files and
modified the unlocker code to run on Python 3 in the ESXi 6.5 environment.

History
-------
26/09/18 3.0.0 - First release
01/05/20 3.0.1 - Fix for ESXi 7.0
10/18/20 3.0.1 - Fix for ESXi 7.0 U1 (7.0.1)

(c) 2011-2018 Dave Parsons

–jeroen

Posted in Apple, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

On my research list: “ESXi” “Secure Boot” – Google Search

Posted by jpluimers on 2022/01/12

On my research list: [Wayback] “ESXi” “Secure Boot” – Google Search.

Some links about it:

[Wayback] Using ESXi Kickstart %firstboot with Secure Boot
[Wayback] ESXi 6.7 – Secure Boot and startup script – VMware Technology Network VMTN
[Archive.is] Secure Boot for ESXi 6.5 – Hypervisor Assurance – VMware vSphere Blog
[Archive.is] Prepping an ESXi 6.7 host for Secure Boot – VMware vSphere Blog
[Wayback] virtualization – ESXi 7.X file permissions – how to buypass new security measures – Server Fault

Even in ESXi 7.0 some files can still be edited, e.g. /etc/rc.local.d/local.sh. This script will be executed by /etc/rc.local, so you can add your commands there.

You just need to be aware that this script will not be executed if you have UEFI Secure boot enabled on your host.
[Wayback UEFI Secure Boot for ESXi Hosts
Secure boot is part of the UEFI firmware standard. With secure boot enabled, a machine refuses to load any UEFI driver or app unless the operating system bootloader is cryptographically signed. Starting with vSphere 6.5, ESXi supports secure boot if it is enabled in the hardware.

…
UEFI Secure Boot Troubleshooting

If secure boot does not succeed at any level of the boot sequence, an error results.
The error message depends on the hardware vendor and on the level at which verification did not succeed.

If you attempt to boot with a bootloader that is unsigned or has been tampered with, an error during the boot sequence results. The exact message depends on the hardware vendor. It might look like the following error, but might look different.

UEFI0073: Unable to boot PXE Device…because of the Secure Boot policy

If the kernel has been tampered with, an error like the following results.

Fatal error: 39 (Secure Boot Failed)

If a package (VIB or driver) has been tampered with, a purple screen with the following message appears.

UEFI Secure Boot failed: Failed to verify signatures of the following vibs (XX)
To resolve issues with secure boot, follow these steps.
1. Reboot the host with secure boot disabled.
2. Run the secure boot verification script (see Run the Secure Boot Validation Script on an Upgraded ESXi Host).
3. Examine the information in the /var/log/esxupdate.log file.
- Run the Secure Boot Validation Script on an Upgraded ESXi Host
  After you upgrade an ESXi host from an older version of ESXi that did not support UEFI secure boot, you might be able to enable secure boot. Whether you can enable secure boot depends on how you performed the upgrade and whether the upgrade replaced all the existing VIBs or left some VIBs unchanged. You can run a validation script after you perform the upgrade to determine whether the upgraded installation supports secure boot. [Read more]

–jeroen

Posted in ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

VMware ESXi and vSphere: vmNIC speeds are limited by your CPU and RAM speeds, only in part by the vNIC drivers

Posted by jpluimers on 2022/01/11

Still a lot of people think that network speed depends on the vNIC driver and vNIC speed settings.

This is not true: it mainly depends on CPU and RAM speeds as that is where the bottleneck of virtual network processing is.

What does matter is the VM/host overhead is far less when drivers use paravirtualisation (i.e. shortcutting calls from the guest OS to the hypervisor) like PVSCSI for disk or VMXNET3 for networking. This means that VMXNET3 has even more performance than E1000.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in ESXi5, ESXi5.1, ESXi5.5, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

Some links and graphs on ESXi capping/throtteling disk speeds

Posted by jpluimers on 2022/01/06

As promised in “Solution” on ESXi 6.7 smartinfo throwing error Cannot open device, here are a few links in capping throttling disk speeds by ESXi followed by a few graphs of my own:

GUI operations might be capped, try dd: [Wayback] datastore – How can I speed up file tranfers on local storage in vSphere 5? – Server Fault

I never got any official confirmation for this, but I believe the I/O is capped (or at least de-prioritized) for datastore copy/move operations from the GUI as I have seen rather similar behaviour in different ESXi environments on from version 3.5.
[Wayback] Solved: ESXi disk performance, possibly capped? – VMware Technology Network VMTN

Question:

When I copy a 3GB ISO file from the raid set to the sata disk, the average disk transfer is 50MB/sec. This puzzles me, because the SATA disk can do 100MB/sec easy. When I start a second copy, the average disk transfer doubles to 100MB/sec.

…

Answer:

File transfer speeds are capped in the console so you will not be able to get maximum speeds

My own observations on ESXi 6.7 update 3:

One rsync operation:

1 rsync from 860 EVO SSD to 960 PRO NVMe
Two rsync operations:

2 rsync from 860 EVO SSD to 960 PRO NVM
Resume actions were about 10 times faster than the single rsync read speeds:

Resume action
Suspend actions were between 4 and 6 times faster than rsync write speeds:

Start of suspend action

Finish of suspend action

For each rsync operation, I had a separate SSH session going, and the speed doubled.

The resume action of all Virtual Machines was almost a flat speed curve.

The suspend action of all Virtual Machines started fast (when all machines were suspending) and finished slower (when only the largest virtual machines were still suspending)

–jeroen

Posted in ESXi5, ESXi5.1, ESXi5.5, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

“Solution” on ESXi 6.7 `smartinfo` throwing `error Cannot open device`

Posted by jpluimers on 2022/01/05

After writing Some notes on ESXi smartinfo throwing error Cannot open device, I bit the bullet and experimented with disabling the vmw_ahci driver (shown as ahci in the storage adapters view), which forces the sata_ahci driver to be used (shown as ahci in the storage adapters view).

Poof! All problems were gone.

All? Not all: on the console and terminal, there seems to be some throttling going on, as I observed the read or write speed limit to be capped somewhere close to 60 MB/s. More on that in a future post.

Basically, the smartinfo trouble tripped me into thinking the device was bad, where I should have understood that the latency warnings in the vmkernel.log file indicated the vmw_ahci driver was the culprit. Oh well: never too old to learn.

References

I’m not alone on this; these posts also discuss latency issued:

[Wayback] Esxi 6.7 ssd i/o latency spikes – VMware Technology Network VMTN (I fixed spelling mistakes)

Seeing latency spikes in excess of 100ms on my 2 samsung 860 evo SSDs. The throughput is fine getting 500Mbps+ on them but the vmkwarning.log has “performance has deteriorated. I/O latency increased from average value” warnings. This is a home server that’s why I’m using regular samsung SSDs.

…

I’ve seen similar issues (high latency spikes of 200ms ) with even the latest 6.7U3 as of September 2020. This in combination with Samsung EVO 860 SSD.
Which driver is your sata-port using?
Have you tried disabling the vmware ahci driver? (below command and a reboot will make ESXi use the ahci driver instead of the vmw_ahci driver).
you can check this under storage adapters through the host ui. When using the ahci driver you should be seeing ALL your sata ports. (the vmw_ahci only showed me 1 or 2).
[Wayback] ESXI 6.7: Strange storage issues | ServeTheHome Forums

ecosse said:

This is semi interesting – VMware Knowledge Base

Maybe you could try the other driver option?

This is more or less want I am trying right now. I found the info on : ESXi 6.5 vmw_ahci SSD extreme high latency and vm freeze issues – vDrone.

My server is running with this config since 12 hours now. Too soon to make any conclusion but at least your info makes me believe that I might be in the right direction.
[Wayback] ESXi 6.5 vmw_ahci SSD extreme high latency and vm freeze issues – vDrone

Since the upgrade to ESXi 6.5 on my homelab i got bugged with a strange issue.
All my SATA SSD got really high latency and my VM’s randomly froze when i generated a big file copy actions. Latencies in the 5000/15000ms! Yes IEW!
[Wayback] Fix VMWare ESXi 6.* slow disk performance on HP b120i controller | Johan Draaisma
[Wayback] HomeLab – SuperMicro 5028D-TNT4 Storage Driver Performance Issues and Fix – VIRTUALIZATION IS LIFE!

This is different from the transfer speed issues that were part of ESXi 4, though I have a gut feeling there is some correlation:

[Wayback] Esx4 very slow throughtput in service console or V… – VMware Technology Network VMTN
[Wayback] Slow disk read speed on ESX4 | vNotion (the web-site is gone, but this article was archived)

On AHCI: Advanced Host Controller Interface – Wikipedia

On native drivers versus legacy drivers:

[Wayback] Troubleshooting native drivers in ESXi 5.5 or later
A new native driver model feature is introduced in VMware ESXi 5.5 that replaces an older model that employs a Linux compatibility layer.

In this article:
- Drivers using the new model are referred to as native drivers
- Drivers using the old model are referred to as legacy VMKLinux drivers
This article provides troubleshooting information for the native driver model.

The following inbox Native Drivers are included in default installation of ESXi 5.5: – See more at: http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2013/11/esxi-55-introduces-new-native-device.html
[Wayback] ESXi 5.5 introduces a new Native Device Driver Architecture Part 2

…

A new concept of driver priority loading is introduced with the Native Device Driver model and the diagram below provides the current ordering of how device drivers are loaded.

As you can see OEM drivers will have the highest priority and by default Native Drivers will be loaded before “legacy” vmklinux drivers. On a clean installation of ESXi 5.5 you should see at least two of these directories: /etc/vmware/default.map.d/ and /etc/vmware/driver.map.d/ which contains driver map files pertaining to Native Device and “legacy” vmklinux drivers.

…

Steps

This is how you disable the native vmware_ahci driver:

Suspend all virtual machines
Bring the ESXi box into maintenance mode, for instance by running esxcli system maintenanceMode set --enable true

On the console or terminal, run this:

# esxcli system module set --enabled=false --module=vmw_ahci
# reboot

After booting, get the ESXi box out of maintenance mode, for instance by running esxcli system maintenanceMode set --enable false
Power on all suspended virtual machines

To re-enable the native vmware_ahci driver (in case not all your SATA devices are recognised):

Suspend all virtual machines
Bring the ESXi box into maintenance mode, for instance by running esxcli system maintenanceMode set --enable true

On the console or terminal, run this:

# esxcli system module set --enabled=true --module=vmw_ahci
# reboot

After booting, get the ESXi box out of maintenance mode, for instance by running esxcli system maintenanceMode set --enable false
Power on all suspended virtual machines

Suspending and unsuspending all virtual machines can be done on the console/terminal, see Source: VMware ESXi console: viewing all VMs, suspending and waking them up: part 5 how.

Results: storage adapters

With native vmware_ahci, the storage adapters are these:

Storage adapters with vmw_ahci enabled

With legacy ahci, the storage adapters are these:

Storage adapters with vmw_ahci disabled

What you see is that the Patsburg 6 Port SATA AHCI Controller has been split from a single vmw_ahci adapter in six separate ahci adapters.

Results: read/write speeds and latency when suspending/unsuspending all virtual machines

With vmware_ahci, the storage adapters are these:

Latency issues after resume/suspend cycle of all virtual machines: the latency stays up in the 15 millisecond region

With ahci, the storage adapters are these:

Latency after resume/suspend cycle of all virtual machines: the latency goes down to the 2 millisecond region

For both cases, the read and write rates are roughly the same (and OK for an EVO 860 SATA device). The latency drops a lot (and with prolonged vmw_ahci use goes up to like 15+ seconds, that is 15000+ milliseconds):

[Wayback] SSD 860 EVO 2.5″ SATA III 500GB Memory & Storage – MZ-76E500B/AM | Samsung US

Speeds are consistent, even under heavy workloads and multi-tasking allowing for faster file transfer. The 860 EVO performs at sequential read speeds up to 550 MB/s* with Intelligent TurboWrite technology, and sequential write speeds up to 520 MB/s. The TurboWrite buffer size* is upgraded from 12 GB to 78 GB.

* Performance may vary based on SSD’s firmware version and system hardware & configuration. Sequential write performance measurements are based on Intelligent TurboWrite technology. Sequential performance measurements based on CrystalDiskMark v.5.0.2 and I0meter 1.1.0. The sequential write performances are Intelligent TurboWrite region are 300 MB/s for 250/500 GB and 500 MB/s for 1 TB.
* Test system configuration: Intel Core i5-3550 CPU @ 3.3 GHz, 4 GB, OS – Windows 7 Ultimate x64, Chipset: ASUS P8H77-V .
* The TurboWrite buffer size varies based on the capacity of the SSD; 12 GB model, 22 GB for 500 GB model, 42 GB for 1 TB model and 2/4 TB for 78 GB. For more information on the TurboWrite, please visit http://www.samsungssd.com.

–jeroen

Posted in ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

On my research list: “ESXi 7” “kickstart” – Google Search

Posted by jpluimers on 2022/01/04

On my research list [Wayback] “ESXi 7” “kickstart” – Google Search.

Some links from it:

–jeroen

Posted in ESXi7, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

Some notes on ESXi `smartinfo` throwing `error Cannot open device`

Posted by jpluimers on 2021/12/29

I wrote about the built-in smartinfo command before at NVMe and SATA health data on ESXi: some links to investigate.

It is at /usr/lib/vmware/vm-support/bin/smartinfo, which is not in the path. I used it recently after having trouble with some 2.5-inch SSD devices, of one which is listed below.

Some note on this error what smartinfo from ESXi throwed on some devices over time on various ESXi machines:

Failed to get SMART stats for t10.ATA_____Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_500GB_______________S3Z2NB0M529545P_____ error Cannot open device 
-----------------------------------------------------

The same SSD sometimes had very big latency times:

2021-05-01T16:23:20.306Z cpu7:2097783)WARNING: ScsiDeviceIO: 1564: Device t10.ATA_____Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_500GB_______________S3Z2NB0M529545P_____ performance has deteriorated. I/O latency increased from average value of 59147
2021-05-01T16:23:20.306Z cpu7:2097783)WARNING: microseconds to 1274466 microseconds.
2021-05-01T16:23:20.306Z cpu7:2097783)WARNING: ScsiDeviceIO: 1564: Device t10.ATA_____Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_500GB_______________S3Z2NB0M529545P_____ performance has deteriorated. I/O latency increased from average value of 59150
2021-05-01T16:23:20.306Z cpu7:2097783)WARNING: microseconds to 2664445 microseconds.
2021-05-01T16:23:20.847Z cpu7:2097190)ScsiDeviceIO: 1530: Device t10.ATA_____Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_500GB_______________S3Z2NB0M529545P_____ performance has improved. I/O latency reduced from 2664445 microseconds to 526814 microseconds.
2021-05-01T16:23:38.477Z cpu5:2097783)ScsiDeviceIO: 1530: Device t10.ATA_____Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_500GB_______________S3Z2NB0M529545P_____ performance has improved. I/O latency reduced from 526814 microseconds to 116553 microseconds.
2021-05-01T16:24:01.380Z cpu9:2097674)NMP: nmp_ResetDeviceLogThrottling:3586: last error status from device t10.ATA_____Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_500GB_______________S3Z2NB0M529545P_____ repeated 1 times

[Wayback] “smartinfo” “error Cannot open device” – Google Search delivered mainly results around the old smartinfo.sh tool that is now replaced by the smartinfo binary:

[Wayback] “ESXi” “smart” “error Cannot open device” – Google Search returned no relevant results.

I think an 860 EVO 2.5-inch SSD is not on par running half a dozen Windows VM’s that have regular write actions, but I will later give this a try, though I doubt it will help as this is on a VMware 6.7 update 3 based system which should not have the vmw_ahci driver slowness:

[Wayback] NVMe SSD Fast, but SATA SSD slow ! – VMware Technology Network VMTN (hyphen fixes mine):

I have done the esxcli system module set --enabled=false --module=vmw_ahci and rebooted, and I got a small performance increase. But still not what I thought.

It refers these other posts:

[Wayback] HomeLab – SuperMicro 5028D-TNT4 Storage Driver Performance Issues and Fix – VIRTUALIZATION IS LIFE!
[Wayback] Easy fix for Supermicro and other Xeon D systems experiencing SATA3/AHCI slowdown on ESXi 6.5 | TinkerTry IT @ Home
[Wayback] AHCI (vmw_ahci) performance issue resolved in ESXi 6.5 Update 1 (hyphen fixes mine):
With the release of ESXi 6.5 Update 1, I am happy to report the observed performance issues with the Native AHCI driver have now been resolved! I have been running on earlier release of ESXi 6.5 Update 1 build for couple of weeks now and have not seen any of the problems I had before. For those interested, the official fix went is in version 1.0.0-37vmw or greater of the vmw_ahci driver.

…

If the Native AHCI driver is disabled as shown in the previous command, then you can re-enable it by running the following ESXCLI command:
```
esxcli system module set --enabled=true --module=vmw_ahci
```

The system with this behaviour is on these versions:

# esxcli software vib list | grep ahci
sata-ahci                      3.0-26vmw.670.0.0.8169922             VMW     VMwareCertified   2021-04-03
vmw-ahci                       2.0.7-2vmw.670.3.143.17700523         VMW     VMwareCertified   2021-04-04

–jeroen

Posted in ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

ESXi: editing /etc/vmware/hostd/vmInventory.xml to fix the datastore UUID for unavailable VMs

Posted by jpluimers on 2021/12/23

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): [Wayback/Archive.is] astraia/VMwareInventory: A tool that is capable of editing the VMware Inventory (vmAutoStart.xml, vmInventory.xml and inventory.vmls) from the Command line.
[Archive.is] What causes ESX VMFS to “disappear”? – NetApp Knowledge Base (code markup and XML fixes mine):

Put first ESX host into maintenance mode, or disable automatic DRS.

Migrate functioning VMs onto other hosts.

SSH into ESX service console.

cd /vmfs/volumes
ls -l:
[root@esx1 volumes]# ls -l
drwxrwxrwt    1 root        1260 Nov 27 11:58 474c4a74-b4cc8c53-6e29-000423c3e840
drwxrwxrwt    1 root         980 Nov 27 08:49 474c4aa2-772bdc66-e441-000423c3e840
drwxrwxrwt    1 root        1260 Nov 27 11:58 474c955b-527b5a13-1417-000423c3e840
lrwxr-xr-x    1 root          35 Nov 29 13:36 snap-00000002-VMFS11 -> 474c955b-527b5a13-1417-000423c3e840
lrwxr-xr-x    1 root          35 Nov 29 13:36 VMFS11 -> 474c4a74-b4cc8c53-6e29-000423c3e840
lrwxr-xr-x    1 root          35 Nov 29 13:36 VMFS13 -> 474c4aa2-772bdc66-e441-000423c3e840
Note (or copy) the new UUID(s) of the datastore(s) on which the inaccessible VMs live. You may need to look in the VMFS themselves to be sure which VMs live where.

cd /etc/vmware/hostd

cp vmInventory.xml vmInventory.xml-save

Edit vmInventory.xml and change the UUID for the inaccessible VMs to the correct UUID for their datastores. (If unsure which VMs are in which datastore, look in each datastore to ensure you have the right UUID for each VM).

Save vmInventory.xml and exit the editor.

To make ESX re-read vmInventory.xml:
[root@esx1 hostd]# service mgmt-vmware restart Stopping VMware ESX Server Management services: VMware ESX Server Host Agent Watchdog [ OK ] VMware ESX Server Host Agent [ OK ] Starting VMware ESX Server Management services: VMware ESX Server Host Agent (background) [ OK ] Availability report startup (background) [ OK ]

Verify all VMs are properly accessible.

Bring the ESX host out of maintenance mode and/or return DRS to original settings.
Sample vmInventory.xml file with UUID paths for VMs in an NFS and a VMFS datastore:
[root@esx1 hostd]# more vmInventory.xml
<ConfigRoot>
  <ConfigEntry id="0006">
    <objID>112</objID>
    <vmxCfgPath>/vmfs/volumes/9f801592-14465f39/WinNFS8/WinNFS8.vmx</vmxCfgPath>
  </ConfigEntry>
  <ConfigEntry id="0027">
    <objID>608</objID>
    <vmxCfgPath>/vmfs/volumes/46e5a3bf-2d233fa0-1546-0014220f1381/houwin2003sp2-8/houwin2003sp2-8.vmx</vmxCfgPath>
  </ConfigEntry>
</ConfigRoot>

Note about restarting the VMware Management stack through service mgmt-vmware restart:

[Wayback] service mgmt-vmware restart may not restart hostd in ESX/ESXi (1005566)
[Wayback] Solved: Re: Difference between services.sh restart and Restart Mgmt Servcies from DCUI on v5.1 ?… – VMware Technology Network VMTN
ESXi Management agent can be restarted in couple of ways

DUCI
1. Connect to ESXi Host
2. Press F2, provide the credentials (Login using root)
3. Go to Trouble shooting , Navigate to Restart ,Management Agents
Local Console or ssh
1. Method 1 : No Down time to VMs
  
  /sbin/services.sh restart
  
  will restart all the management agents, hostd, ntpd, sfcbd, slpd, wsman, vodb
2. Method 2 :Run following commands,
  
  /etc/init.d/hostd restart
  
  /etc/init.d/vpxa restart
3. Method 3 :
  
  service mgmt-vmware restart
  
  service vmware-vpxa rest
  
  If Automatic Startup/shutdown is enabled on VMs , virtual machine may restart.

…

little addition: You can also use the dcui via ssh.

Just enter dcui in your ssh session. Then you can restart the management agents like on the local console.

To quit hit Ctrl+C

Running VMs won’t be affected

For troubleshooting ESXi connectivity issue, restart the management agents on your ESXi host. Warning: If LACP is configured on the vSAN network, do not restart[Wayback] Restarting the Management agents in ESXi (1003490)
Restart Management agents in ESXi Using Direct Console User Interface (DCUI):
1. Connect to the console of your ESXi host.
2. Press F2 to customize the system.
3. Log in as root.
4. Use the Up/Down arrows to navigate to Troubleshooting Options > Restart Management Agents.
5. Press Enter.
6. Press F11 to restart the services.
7. When the service restarts, press Enter.
8. Press Esc to log out.
Note: You can also restart services using the Host Client. In Host Client, select Host >> Manage >> Services and select the service to restart.

Restart Management agents in ESXi Using ESXi Shell or Secure Shell (SSH):
1. Log in to ESXi Shell or SSH as root.For Enabling ESXi Shell or SSH, see Using ESXi Shell in ESXi 5.x and 6.x (2004746).
2. Restart the ESXi host daemon and vCenter Agent services using these commands:/etc/init.d/hostd restart/etc/init.d/vpxa restart
Alternatively:
- To reset the management network on a specific VMkernel interface, by default vmk0, run the command:esxcli network ip interface set -e false -i vmk0; esxcli network ip interface set -e true -i vmk0Note: Using a semicolon (;) between the two commands ensures the VMkernel interface is disabled and then re-enabled in succession. If the management interface is not running on vmk0, change the above command according to the VMkernel interface used.
- To restart all management agents on the host, run the command:services.sh restart
Caution:
- If LACP is enabled and configured, do not restart management services using services.sh command. Instead restart independent services using the /etc/init.d/module restart command.
- If the issue is not resolved, and you are restarting all the services that are a part of the services.sh script, take a downtime before proceeding to the script.
- If NSX is configured in the environment, do not run the /sbin/services.sh restart command because this will restart all services on the ESXi host. If you need to restart the management agents on the ESXi host, restart vpxa, host.d, and fdm individually. If you also need to run the /sbin/services.sh restart command because restarting each management agent does not work, then migrate all the VMs off the ESXi host and put the host in maintenance mode if possible.
- If you are unsure that NSX for vSphere is installed on an ESXi host, run this command to verify:
esxcli software vib list –rebooting-image | grep esx-*

Look for the following VIBs to determine if NSX is installed on the ESX host:

vsip-esx

esx-vxlan
- If using shared graphics in a View environment (VGPU, vDGA, vSGA), do not use services.sh. This will shut down the xorg service which is responsible for graphics at the guest OS level. By ripping the graphics out of the guest OS you will in term cause the crash of your VDI workload using the shared graphics. Ensure you are using shared graphics to only restart hostd, and vpxa if you are not in maintenance mode.

When editing the inventory fails

If all else fails and all VMs need to be re-registered: [Wayback] Virtual machines appear as unknown in Inventory on host and invalid in vCenter Server (1031605)

Symptoms

vSphere Client direct to host show virtual machine(s) as unknown.

The vSphere Client connected to vCenter Server shows virtual machine(s) as invalid.

No errors on storage or on vmkwarning.

All the virtual machines on the host are functional and responding.

Resolution

To resolve this issue:

For ESXi 3.5, 4.x, 5.x, 6.x

Log in to the VMware ESX/ESXi host as the root user. For more information on VMware ESXi 4.1 and ESXi 5.x Technical Support Mode, see Using Tech Support Mode in ESXi 4.1 and ESXi 5.x (1017910)

To list all running virtual machines and their corresponding VMIDs, run these commands:vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
cd /etc/vmware/hostd/

Make a copy of vmInventory.xml file by running this command:cp vmInventory.xml vmInventory.xml.bak

Stop the vpxa and hostd services by running these commands:/etc/init.d/vpxa stop
/etc/init.d/hostd stop

Rename the vmInventory.xml file by running this command:Note: This action unregisters all virtual machines from the host.mv vmInventory.xml vmInventory_xml.bak

Start the vpxa and hostd services by running these commands:/etc/init.d/vpxa start
/etc/init.d/hostd start

Log in to vSphere Client and verify that the virtual machine Inventory is now displayed as blank.

Use this command to register every virtual machine back to Inventory on the host:vim-cmd solo/registervm full_path_of_VMXFor Example: vim-cmd solo/registervm /vmfs/volumes/datastore_name/VM_directory/VM_name.vmx

–jeroen

Posted in ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

VFrontDe/ESXi-Customizer-PS: PowerCLI script that greatly simplifies and automates the process of creating fully patched and customized VMware ESXi installation images

Posted by jpluimers on 2021/11/30

On my list of things to try, as it allows me to have an ISO at hand in case I ever need to quickly re-install a machine to the current patch level (for instance when the USB boot stick breaks down: these things happen in reality): [Wayback] VFrontDe/ESXi-Customizer-PS: PowerCLI script that greatly simplifies and automates the process of creating fully patched and customized VMware ESXi installation images

ESXi-Customizer-PS is a Powershell script that greatly simplifies and automates the process of creating fully patched and customized ESXi 5.x and 6.x installation ISOs using the VMware PowerCLI ImageBuilder module/snapin.

…

Requirements

A Windows computer (XP or newer) with Powershell 2.0 or newer

VMware PowerCLI version 5.1 or newer

…

You can get the code from [Wayback] ESXi-Customizer-PS/ESXi-Customizer-PS.ps1 at master · VFrontDe/ESXi-Customizer-PS.

The old site (which still has most of the documentation) can be reached at two places:

[Wayback] esxi-customizer-ps.v-front.de which redirects to
[Wayback] www.v-front.de/p/esxi-customizer-ps.html

A video showing how to use it is below the signature.

The above links via [Wayback] Custom ESXi ISO with ne1000 driver for install on Intel NUC Frost Canyon – seanwalsh.dev.

Oh: you can check if you have a PXE, USB or HDD installation of ESXi via the steps here: Determining the ESXi installation type (2014558) | VMware KB.

Some bash parameter propagation links that hopefully will work with ash/dash too

Posted by jpluimers on 2021/10/27

For my link archive; I started with [Wayback] dash get all parameters quoted – Google Search:

[Wayback] Handling positional parameters [Bash Hackers Wiki] has this handy table:

Parameter(s) Description

$0 the first positional parameter, equivalent to argv[0] in C, see the first argument

$FUNCNAME the function name (attention: inside a function, $0 is still the $0 of the shell, not the function name)

$1 … $9 the argument list elements from 1 to 9

${10} … ${N} the argument list elements beyond 9 (note the parameter expansion syntax!)

$* all positional parameters except $0, see mass usage

$@ all positional parameters except $0, see mass usage

$# the number of arguments, not counting $0

These positional parameters reflect exactly what was given to the script when it was called.

Option-switch parsing (e.g. -h for displaying help) is not performed at this point.

See also the dictionary entry for “parameter”.

[Wayback] Handling positional parameters: mass usage [Bash Hackers Wiki] has this summary table:

Syntax Effective result

$* $1 $2 $3 … ${N}

$@ $1 $2 $3 … ${N}

"$*" "$1c$2c$3c…c${N}"

"$@" "$1" "$2" "$3" … "${N}"
[Wayback] Parameter expansion [Bash Hackers Wiki]
The elaborate answer to [Wayback] How to pass all arguments passed to my bash script to a function of mine? – Stack Overflow by [Wayback] User Gordon Davisson – Stack Overflow of which the first part is:
The $@ variable expands to all command-line parameters separated by spaces. Here is an example.
```
abc "$@"
```
When using $@, you should (almost) always put it in double-quotes to avoid misparsing of arguments containing spaces or wildcards (see below). This works for multiple arguments. It is also portable to all POSIX-compliant shells.

It is also worth nothing that $0 (generally the script’s name or path) is not in $@.

The Bash Reference Manual Special Parameters Section says that $@ expands to the positional parameters starting from one. When the expansion occurs within double quotes, each parameter expands to a separate word. That is "$@" is equivalent to "$1" "$2" "$3"....
Last part of the [Wayback] Accessing bash command line args $@ vs $* – Stack Overflow answer by [Wayback] Serge Stroobrandt:

If the arguments are to be stored in a script variable and the arguments are expected to contain spaces, I wholeheartedly recommend employing a "$*" trick with the input field separator set to tab IFS=$'\t' [Wayback].

and comment by Serge as well:

Here is [Wayback] an example, which includes quoted input. The input also matters!

Parameter(s)	Description
`$0`	the first positional parameter, equivalent to `argv[0]` in C, see the first argument
`$FUNCNAME`	the function name (attention: inside a function, `$0` is still the `$0` of the shell, not the function name)
`$1 … $9`	the argument list elements from 1 to 9
`${10} … ${N}`	the argument list elements beyond 9 (note the parameter expansion syntax!)
`$*`	all positional parameters except `$0`, see mass usage
`$@`	all positional parameters except `$0`, see mass usage
`$#`	the number of arguments, not counting `$0`

Syntax	Effective result
`$*`	`$1 $2 $3 … ${N}`
`$@`	`$1 $2 $3 … ${N}`
`"$*"`	`"$1c$2c$3c…c${N}"`
`"$@"`	`"$1" "$2" "$3" … "${N}"`

[Wayback] Propagate all arguments in a bash shell script – Stack Overflow (thanks [Wayback] Sdaz MacSkibbons for the answer and [Wayback] Ilan Schemoul to make it understandable by applying proper naming of the script files):

Use "$@" instead of plain $@ if you actually wish your parameters to be passed the same.

Observe:

$ cat no_quotes.sh
#!/bin/bash
echo_args.sh $@

$ cat quotes.sh
#!/bin/bash
echo_args.sh "$@"

$ cat echo_args.sh
#!/bin/bash
echo Received: $1
echo Received: $2
echo Received: $3
echo Received: $4

$ ./no_quotes.sh first second
Received: first
Received: second
Received:
Received:

$ ./no_quotes.sh "one quoted arg"
Received: one
Received: quoted
Received: arg
Received:

$ ./quotes.sh first second
Received: first
Received: second
Received:
Received:

$ ./quotes.sh "one quoted arg"
Received: one quoted arg
Received:
Received:
Received:

–jeroen

Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, ash/dash, ash/dash development, bash, bash, Development, ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, ESXi7, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | Leave a Comment »

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The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘ESXi7’ Category

Patching ESXi so you can boot a MacOS virtual machine from it

On my research list: “ESXi” “Secure Boot” – Google Search

UEFI Secure Boot Troubleshooting

VMware ESXi and vSphere: vmNIC speeds are limited by your CPU and RAM speeds, only in part by the vNIC drivers

Some links and graphs on ESXi capping/throtteling disk speeds

“Solution” on ESXi 6.7 `smartinfo` throwing `error Cannot open device`

References

Steps

Results: storage adapters

Results: read/write speeds and latency when suspending/unsuspending all virtual machines

On my research list: “ESXi 7” “kickstart” – Google Search

Some notes on ESXi `smartinfo` throwing `error Cannot open device`

ESXi: editing /etc/vmware/hostd/vmInventory.xml to fix the datastore UUID for unavailable VMs

ESXi Management agent can be restarted in couple of ways

DUCI

Local Console or ssh

little addition: You can also use the dcui via ssh.

When editing the inventory fails

VFrontDe/ESXi-Customizer-PS: PowerCLI script that greatly simplifies and automates the process of creating fully patched and customized VMware ESXi installation images

Some bash parameter propagation links that hopefully will work with ash/dash too

Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

Subscribe

Archives

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

Blog Stats

Meta title

Tag Cloud Title

Top Clicks

Top Posts

My badges

My Flickr Stream

Pages

All categories

Email Subscription

Archive for the ‘ESXi7’ Category

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UEFI Secure Boot Troubleshooting

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References

Steps

Results: storage adapters

Results: read/write speeds and latency when suspending/unsuspending all virtual machines

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ESXi Management agent can be restarted in couple of ways

DUCI

Local Console or ssh

little addition: You can also use the dcui via ssh.

When editing the inventory fails

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