Recreating a vmdk descriptor file with vmkfstools
A VMware virtual machine disk is made up of two files: the .vmdk file and the -flat.vmdk file. The .vmdk file is the descriptor file and the -flat.vmdk file contains the data.
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vHersey – VCDX Two to the Seventh Power (#128)
Hyperconverged, Virtualization, VMware, Citrix, Datacenter Administration, and more…
VMware
Jumbo Frames – Make sure it is setup end-to-end.
Jumbo Frames must be configured correctly end-to-end. This means on the vSwitch, vmkernel interfaces, physical switches, and endpoints. The vmkping command can be used to test a vmkernel interface for proper configuration of Jumbo Frames.
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New Book – VMware vSphere 6.5 Host Resources Deep Dive
Just ordered a copy of Host Resources Deep Dive. The VMware vSphere 6.5 Host Resources Deep Dive is a guide to building consistent high-performing ESXi hosts.
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Using vSphere HA to Protect vCenter
The ability to provide HA protection of the vCenter Server is one of benefit of deploying vCenter as a virtual machine. vCenter is required to configure vSphere HA but once vSphere HA is configured vCenter is NOT required for vSphere HA to protect virtual machines in the cluster, including a virtualized vCenter Server.
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Setting up the Weathervane Benchmarking Tool in the Home Lab
Standing up Weathervane in the home lab will provide hands-on for developing skills like creating a template VM, creating a guest customization specification, working with some basic Linux commands, working with an app with multiple tiers, creating a guest customization specification, cloning VMs, and monitoring performance metrics. This post provides an overview of how I set up Weathervane in my home lab, an example of the results generated from the Weathervane runs, and a look at the performance metrics I observed in lab during the Weathervane runs.
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Microsoft Failover Cluster in a Box on SimpliVity
This is a White Paper I worked with SimpliVity Product Management on to provide details on how to implement and operate a Windows Failover Cluster on SimpliVity OmniStack systems. It also details how availability is provided across different failure scenarios
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Automated vSphere Lab Deployment Script
Very handy! @lamw has put together an automated lab deployment script which will deploy a 3 host nested vCenter/ESXi/VSAN/NSX Lab.
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Automate Backup of the VCSA to the vMA
Recently I did a post on how to Target the vMA for VCSA Backups. This post takes things a step further and automates the backup of the VCSA using a shell script, the vCenter Appliance REST API, and cron on the vMA.
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Target the vMA for VCSA Backups
One handy new feature available with vSphere 6.5 is the ability to take a supported backup of the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) configuration and database. VCSA backups can be transferred to a target using HTTP/S, FTP/S, and SCP. This post walks through backing up the VCSA using SCP to target the vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) to store the backup.
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Adding a /workspace Disk to the vSphere Management Assistant (vMA)
The vMA is deployed with a single 3 GB disk with about 1 GB available after deployment. This post walks through adding a disk to the vMA appliance to provide additional storage for scripts, logs, VIBs, iso, backups, etc.
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Add an Entry to ESXi /etc/hosts using PowerShell
I was looking for away to easily add an entry to an ESXi host’s /etc/hosts file without using SSH to connect to the host. ESXi has a file management interface which can be accessed with standard GET/PUT operations. I put together a quick example of doing this with PowerShell using Invoke-WebRequest.
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