Category: Management & Automation

  • How to replace vCenter 5.1, SSO, Web Client, vCO Certificates

    With the release of vSphere 5.1 certificates started to play a much more vital role, where having invalid certificates in your environment is not an option anymore as it could break the operation of your environment as well forbid you from logging in. This change has been done to increase the security of your Virtual…

  • vCenter Single Sign On 5.1 best practices

    Since vCenter Single Sign On was introduced in vSphere 5.1, many questions have been rising around it. There seems to be a very limited amount of resources out there that document best practices related to vCenter Single Sign On, which is the reason for me to develop this post where I will try to combine…

  • vCenter 5.1 Installation(Part 2) – Single Sign On Installation

    During the installation of vCenter 5.1, you will need to install 3 components in the following order: Single Sign On => Inventory Service => vCenter Service. In a new installation I would normally install the Web Service after installing the vCenter Service, though during an upgrade I would install the web service right after the…

  • vCenter 5.1 Installation(Part 1) – Preparing the Databases

    After the introduction of vSphere 5.1, there seemed to be a lot of fuzz about the installation of the new vCenter components. I believe most of the hype was caused about how the initial vSphere 5.1 release behaved differently against expired certificates from how vSphere version prior to 5.1 behaved. In earlier releases, vCenter has…

  • vCenter Orchestrator has no vCenter Server 5.0 plug-in tab

    After coming back to a VMware vCenter Orchestrator 4.2 in my home lab that i have installed a while back, I have noticed that the vCenter Orchestrator Configuration interface was not showing the vCenter Server 5.0 plug-in tab. Actually it was showing the vCenter 4.1 plugin tab. As soon I saw that I remembered that…

  • VMware vCenter Chargeback VM instance model is overcharging

    VM instance model in VMware vCenter ChargeBack up to version 2.0.1 still has no prorating on charges. For those of you who is not sure what I am describing by VM Instance below how its described in the “VMware-Technote-Using-vCenter-Chargeback-vCloud-Director” document as well a screenshot of where you configure VM instance in vCenter ChargeBack: “VM Instance…

  • VMware vCenter ChargeBack Cost Models & vCloud Director Allocation models & Overage

    Since the introduction of vCenter ChargeBack integration with VMware vCloud Director & I hear repeatedly questions about how its Cost Models charge in a VMware vCD environment. To be honest, the question usually come in the form that vCenter ChargeBack is not calculating the cost as I expected & something wrong with it. Most of…

  • VMware vCenter ChargeBack Report does not display Disk Read and Disk Write & Network Transmitted and Network Received information

    It seems the problem of vCenter ChargeBack report not displaying certain info is becoming a popular question lately. Actually this was pointed out to me earlier today by a colleague who was reviewing my vCD design. The most common info not displayed in a vCenter ChargeBack Report are below: vCenter ChargeBack Report Does Not Display…

  • PHD Virtual Monitor for VMware Step by Step Installation & Configuration

    As I have spent sometime evaluating PHD Virtual Monitor to post the review on my Backup & Disaster Recovery/Management blog TSMGuru Blog, I have went through the installation/configuration process and thought I may as well share them on here for people trying to install or just test PHD Virtual Monitor for VMware. On here, I…

  • VMware vCenter Server Appliance Error: VPXD must be stopped to perform this operation.

    While playing with VMware vCenter Server Appliance in my home lab, I have been surprised with the following error: Error: VPXD must be stopped to perform this operation. This error has came up while trying to change authentication to active directory authentication and kinda seen the same error when trying to change the database to…

  • Cavemen want efficiency too! Move beyond traditional IT management solutions with VMware.

    I was about to head to bed till I saw this really funny VMware video on my facebook. I thought it was too funny to pass by it and not share it with my readers. Check out how the Cavemen want efficiency too! Move beyond traditional IT management solutions with VMware. Don’t miss this video…

  • VMware vCenter Chargeback Manager 2.0 released

    VMware vCenter ChargeBack was released on Nov 30, 2011. It has quite few awaited enhancement and a bit of interface polishing. For those of you who did not hear of VMware vCenter Chargeback Manager or does not know why its required, I will brief you a bit before going into the details of the new…

  • SolarWinds release more free tools as Christmas gifts

    At the current economy, it seems good free tools are just getting to be more and more popular. SolarWinds have released quite few useful ones lately & I thought I will list them below for the benefits of my readers who is hunting for such free tools: SolarWinds Free VM Console The SolarWinds Free VM…

  • VKernel was acquired by Quest

    It seems the acquisition heat that has been spread like anything into the Virtualization space has got to VKernel this time. VKernel has announced acquisition by Quest Software (NASDQ: QSFT) last week on Wednesday, November 16, 2011. If you all remember Quest has acquired another one of my favorite Virtualization software company (VizionCore) on December…

  • Zombie VM interview just before Hallowe’en

    First of all I would like to say Happy Hallowe’en to everyone. I thought you might want to check how bad Zombie VMs can be to your Virtual Infrastructure. The below interview of a Zombie VM is quite interesting & funny specially just in time for Hallowe’en. Enjoy the video below: Another Zombie VMs Video,…