Vmware Update Manager Utility

VMware Update Manager – Fixing vCenter Plugin Issues

VMware Update Manager is one of the most necessary tools in your environment, it’s also built really well and can be customized to fit your environment.

However there are times that the update manager plugin within vCenter Client can break. So lets look at a hidden tool to fix most of your Update Manager woes.

For this post, I am demonstrating how to fix a faulty database connection, after windows updates broke the Update Manager Service.

The ODBC connects to the DB fine, however Update manager shows the following in the plugin manager and when you try to enable it.

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So here the issue is pretty obvious, no connection to the database. Which we know is online.

So to get Update Manager to reconnect to the database, we can do this using;

C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\Update Manager\VMwareUpdateManagerUtility.exe

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Running this application/executable displays a dialog box which allows you to change 4 settings;

  • Proxy Settings
  • Database Settings
  • Re-Register to vCenter Server
  • SSL Certificate

These options are pretty self-explanatory. For the SSL Certificate, this is where you want to replace the self signed with a company compliant certificate.

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So for me, all I had to do was re-enter the details for the database, and click apply, and you can see that it was successful. I went back into vCenter Plugin Manager and Enabled the plugin.

This main reason behind this post was to highlight the tool for you guys, its small and simple, but removes any hardships of having to reinstall the product or powershelling your way out of trouble.

 

Regards

 

Dean


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Back to the Future – Configure ESX 4.0 iSCSI Multipathing

So I’m in the middle of an upgrade of environment that has;

  • 2 x Hosts on ESX 4.0
  • SAN using SAS connections to Hosts
  • No resources available for failover and testing
  • Limited network ports

I’m installing;

  • 3 x Hosts on ESXi 5.5
  • Nimble SAN – iSCSI

So to move all the virtual machines from the SAS SAN to the Nimble, I need to move the VM’s whilst turned on,

I’ve setup the iSCSI networking on the ESX host,

  • Creating VMKernal ports with IP addresses,
  • Mapping a VMNIC to each VMKernel directly
  • Setting MTU size to 9000

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Continue reading Back to the Future – Configure ESX 4.0 iSCSI Multipathing

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Veeam ONE v8 – New Look, New Features

So I covered Veeam Backup and Replication v8 here. And now for the Veeam ONE Edition of the v8 update post.

The Update Process

Pretty simple, mount the ISO, follow the instructions for Veeam One install, which will detect and upgrade the existing environment.

New Look, New Features

So you will see that straight away a new set of swish icons, sporting the new blue look.

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Veeam: High Level End user case study, from an engineer’s perspective

Sometimes we get so bogged down into the technical details, we forget that some people just want to know about a product and how it’s used, not how to configure it and the advance settings.

This blog post was first wrote for my employers blog by me, but I think it’s a perfect High Level post detailing a customer and how the product met their requirements.

The Company

Working in the financial sector, the company has around 200 on-site employees, projecting to expand up to 300 with a recruitment drive they are planning. After having a new VMware infrastructure implemented and upgrading their Microsoft Servers to the latest and greatest, the backup solution was the next on the upgrade list. Continue reading Veeam: High Level End user case study, from an engineer’s perspective

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Setting iLO IP Address via ESXi CLI

HP iLO is a great tool to have, remote console access, unfortunately it is sometimes forgotten by engineers and technicians to be configured. Which is a pain when you then need remote access to the ESXi.

So here is how to configure the HP iLO IP address using the ESXCLI via SSH.

  1. Turn on your SSH for the host
  • Configuration
  • Security Profile
  • SSH
  • Start

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