Tag Archives: VMware

backup error

ESXi 6.0 – More CBT woes

VMware, , , , , ,

Post update 14th May 2015

VMware have released a hotfix KB2116126.

Removed information regarding old CBT workaround for Veeam is incompatible

_________________________________

So it’s come to my attention that the new and mighty ESXi 6.0 has a CBT fault as well. This time its effects are different than previous versions, but causes you backups to either fail, or take a considerably longer time to complete.

Here is the official KB from VMware: KB2114076 – Backing up a virtual machine with Change Block Tracking (CBT) enabled fails after upgrading to or installing VMware ESXi 6.0 (2114076)

The Cause

Below is VMware official note on the issue, which isn’t very promising, and will affect any backup technology using snapshots within VMware.

This issue occurs due to heap exhaustion when attempting to enable Change Block Tracking (CBT). 

If a virtual machine with a large number of virtual disks reached an upper threshold, enabling CBT fails because of heap exhaustion. This issue also occurs with multiple virtual machines with CBT enabled. In case of Windows virtual machines with VSS enabled, taking a quiesced snapshot creates double the amount of memory overhead.

Note: The virtual disks can be spread across virtual machines or can be in a single virtual machine.

2015-05-11_11-47-46_01

You can look in your VMKernel.log from the host the affected VM is on to see various warnings about CBT.

WARNING: CBT: 191: No memory available! Called from 0x418010db750e

Here I’ve used the System Centre Configuration Manager Trace32 Tool for viewing the VMKernel.log

2015-05-11_12-09-42

Continue reading ESXi 6.0 – More CBT woes →

2015 03 12 23 16 34

Deploying VCSA 6.0 fails with supplied system name is invalid

VMware, , , ,

2015-04-14_16-28-02_01

 

A nice and simple one, the supplied system name (which is the FQDN of the VCSA)  is invalid.

This is because when deploying a new VCSA from scratch, your DNS records should already be created, as the new ISO based installer for the appliance runs a number of scripts to setup vCenter services and the Platform Services Controller.

So you get this error either because your DNS Settings are wrong, or you have not created your DNS records for your vCenter and PSC if it is an external server.

 

Regards

Dean


cisco ucs platform emulator

Getting to grips with the Cisco UCS Emulator

Cisco, , , , ,

Cisco have been distributing the UCS emulator for a while now, and thanks to some changes, I am now faced with having to deploy some of the systems, so today I deployed the emulator on VMware Fusion on my MBP.

Downloading

You can download the emulator in a zip or OVA, and it can be run on VMware ESXi, Fusion, Workstation or Player.

https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-37827

I decided to go down the OVA route.

Setting it up

On fusion, I imported the OVA and gave it a name, it is also recommended to run the emulator with around 4GB of memory, however 1GB is the minimum amount.

2015-04-07_20-35-36 2015-04-07_20-35-36_01 2015-04-07_20-35-38 2015-04-07_20-35-37 2015-04-07_20-35-38_01

Continue reading Getting to grips with the Cisco UCS Emulator →

vmware software managerpng

VMware Software Manager – a quick guide

VMware, , , , ,

Downloading a VMware Suite with the Push of a Button using VMware Software Manager

One of VMware’s announcements today alongside the release of VMware vSphere 6 and additional products to support vSphere 6, was VMware Software Manager.

Here’s the official blurb of the product, which I can’t really rewrite better myself;

VMware Software Manager - Download Service is a tool for managing downloads of VMware suite products. The tool allows you to browse and download software, monitor the progress of downloads, and locate your downloaded software in an organized folder structure.

At the time of release, Download Service makes available only a portion of VMware suite releases. Currently available releases include:

VMware vCloud Suite® 5.8 and 5.5
VMware vSphere® with Operations Management™ 5.5
VMware vSphere® 5.5 and 5.1

Additional suites and suite versions will be released in the future and will dynamically show up in Download Service.

The official release notes can be found here.

Installing the Product

Continue reading VMware Software Manager – a quick guide →

SpongeBob Reading Official Rules Advanced Edition

More Blogs and sites I’ve been reading and sharing

General, Uncategorized, , ,

My Firefox tabs have filled up again, some of these tabs have been open since the start of 2014!!!

So time to share!!!

First off, proud to announce that Cisco asked me to produce a blog post, and decided it was good enough to release into the wild on their site!!!

Get Certified, or get left behind!!!!

PowerShell and Scripting

http://explainshell.com/ – write down a command-line to see the help text that matches each argument

scriptcop.start-automating.com – ScriptCop is a tool to help make sure your scripts follow the rules. ScriptCop performs static analysis on your PowerShell, and provides tools for automating testing with PowerShell. Continue reading More Blogs and sites I’ve been reading and sharing →