Tag Archives: VMware

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vCenter patching failed to update the VAMI build “Got exception while trying to save metadata to a file: Unexpected content in /etc/issue file”

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The issue

After patching/upgrading your vCenter 6.7 appliance, the vCenter UI shows the latest build number, but in VAMI you see the older VAMI build number.

To troubleshoot upgrade issues, you can look at the following file;

  • /var/log/vmware/software-packages.log

In the log, you see the following error;

INFO:vmware.vherd.base.software_update:Setting appliance version to 6.7.0.31000 build 13643870

ERROR:vmware.vherd.base.software_update:Got exception while trying to save metadata to a file: Unexpected content in /etc/issue file. Data: {Unique_Data}

The cause

This issue is thrown when a custom login banner is set by configuring the advanced setting “config.etc.issue” and the default values which include the version number and deployment type have been removed.

Default lines example;

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.0.31000
Type: vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller
  • William Lam documents how to configure custom banners in this blog post.

The Fix

To workaround this issue follow the steps below:

  • Modify the /etc/issue file to the original before patching.

The file ‘/etc/issue’ contents can be customized but the defaults lines which has the version number and deployment type must be kept for patching to succeed.

  • Check the VAMI page for product version and type and update the /etc/issue file accordingly.
Example: /etc/issue  :: (Original Content from a LAB).
Note line 1 and 3 should be blank. Line 2 will have the version and line 4 will have the deployment type, as shown in the below example:

root@vcsa1 [ ~ ]# less -N /etc/issue
      1
      2 VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.0.31000
      3
      4 Type: vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller
      5
/etc/issue (END)

This issue will be fixed in a future release.

Note: Since I originally drafted this blog post, VMware have now produced an external KB.
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/76024

Regards

Dean Lewis
OpenShift

How to deploy OpenShift 4.3 on VMware vSphere with Static IP addresses using Terraform

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Install OpenShift 4.x on vSphere 6.x/7.x

The following procedure is intended to create VM’s from an OVA template booting with static IP’s when the DHCP server can not reserve the IP addresses.

The Problem

OCP requires that all DNS configurations be in place. VMware requires that the DHCP assign the correct IPs to the VM. Since many real installations require the coordination with different teams in an organization, many times we don’t have control of DNS, DHCP or Load balancer configurations.

The CoreOS documentation explain how to create configurations using ignition files. I created a python script to put the network configuration using the ignition files created by the openshift-install program.

Reference Architecture

For this guide, we are going to deploy 3 master nodes (control-plane) and 2 worker nodes (compute This guide uses RHEL CoreOS 4.3 as the virtual machine image, deploying Red Hat OCP 4.3, as per the support of N-1 from Red Hat.

We will use a centralised Linux server (Ubuntu) that will perform the following functions;

  • Load Balancer – HAProxy
  • Web Server – Apache2
  • Terraform automation host – version 0.11.14
    • The deployment will be semi-automated using Terraform, so that we can easily build configuration files used by the CoreOS VM’s that have Static IP settings.
    • Using a later version of Terraform will cause failures.
  • Client Tools for OpenShift deployment
    • OC
    • Kubectl
    • Openshift-install

DNS will be provided by a Windows Server.

The installation will use a Bootstrap server to bring the cluster online, which will be removed at the end of the build process.

OpenShift Deployment Arch Diagram

Deployment Steps

In this guide we will deploy our environment in the following order;

  • Configure DNS
  • Import Red Hat Core OS image into vCenter
  • Deploy Ubuntu Host
    • Configure Apache
    • Configure HAProxy
    • Install Client-Tools
    • Install Terraform
  • Build OpenShift Cluster configuration
  • Configuring the Terraform deployment
  • Running the Terraform deployment
DNS

Openshift uses a “clusterName.BaseDomain” format.

For example; I want to call my Openshift cluster Demo. And my DNS Domain is Simon.local, then my full format used by Openshift is “demo.simon.local”

Below is a table plan of the IP addresses you will use to build the environment.

The last three addresses are cluster level resources that are available on each control-plane node, accessible via the load balancer.

To configure the DNS records in Windows, you can use the Script and CSV file here

Deploy OpenShift VMware Static IP PowerShell Configure DNS Records

In the below screenshot, the script has created the “demo” domain folder and entered my records. It is important that you have PTR records setup for everything apart from the “etcd-X” records.

Deploy OpenShift VMware Static IP DNS Records Deploy OpenShift VMware Static IP DNS Records 2 Deploy OpenShift VMware Static IP DNS Records 3 Deploy OpenShift VMware Static IP Configure Reverse DNS Records

Import Red Hat CoreOS Image into vCenter

Continue reading How to deploy OpenShift 4.3 on VMware vSphere with Static IP addresses using Terraform →

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Link-O-Rama – VMware Announcements – Tanzu, vSphere 7, Cloud Foundation 4.0 and More

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Today VMware ran their announcement event “App Modernization in a multi-cloud world” event, which leads with their vSphere 7 flagship product and the native integration of Kubernetes (Project Pacific).

Below I’ve summarised the available information as of today;

Launch Event

Cloud Foundation Blog

vSphere Blog

Virtual Blocks

Cloud Management Blog

Network Virtualisation

And finally here is the official press release for all of today’s announcements.

Dean Lewis
o WOMAN JOB INTERVIEW facebook

Interview – Matthew Steiner – Cloud Technologist and Author

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Matthew is currently working at VMware as a cloud management technologist, spending the majority of his time visiting customers and discussing their cloud journey. 2020 will mark a milestone, with it being his tenth year at VMware.

matthewsteiner portrait

Since personally joining VMware in 2018, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Matthew on a common customer, which has led us to sharing a number of trips together. During this time, I’ve learnt a lot from Matt and his insights about the industry, also from Matt as a person. This interview post is brought to you from a number of those chats.

You can find Matt online at the below locations, and no doubt presenting at a VMware or VMUG event near you!

Was technology your first calling?

I’ve always been around tech from the very beginning whilst in school, joining the computer club so I could use the Sinclair ZX81 Spectrum. Like most computer clubs, spending time writing code, and was lucky enough to have it published in a computer magazine at the time.

ZXSpectrum

After leaving school, a move to a Chemical manufacturer lead to learning Cobol programming for their CRM system, client software, and configuring a lot of modems. Unfortunately, I was made redundant from one role, and this is where I moved into the contracting world, working for a large European bank. From here I stayed on and moved my way up through the various roles from entry level technician keeping the lights on, to leading the teams keeping the lights on.

Can you recall the moment where you found yourself thinking “I can move beyond day-to-day operations, work with customers in a more strategic capacity?”

There was not an immediate moment of this happening, it was all part of the journey of during my career. In the latter days working for the European bank, as I’d moved up the ladder, I spent time thinking and articulating the effects of the technology and its effects on the business, especially the positive effects.

In 2000, I moved away from the technical administration roles and joined Compaq as a pre-sales consultant. This solidified the move away from break-fix and I got to see the other side of “the fence” so to speak. Certainly, joining a sales organisation and being part of that sales focus was a shock to the system.

But this was also the start of working with a range of customers from a more strategic position and taking my experiences of the positive impacts of technology on a business out to a wider audience.

PHOTO 2020 01 12 19 59 34

Sales Kick off in New York with Compaq, they still meet up each year, the IT space in Scotland is a small world!
Featuring (L-R); Matthew Steiner, Brett Wells, Brian Duffy and Andy Hughes

How would you summarise/guide a person, start focusing on the business before tech? Continue reading Interview – Matthew Steiner – Cloud Technologist and Author →