Problem – VMware changes their Licensing model from CPU based to VM based.

Solution:- Spoke to VMware Licensing support about this issue. They were ready to cover 5 VMs per CPU License what we had purchased. I am not sure, from where they got this number. I think there are so many factors which determines the number of VMs per CPU. Factors like – Hardware, CPU, memory etc…I spoke with VMware about this issue and after showing the numbers of VMs in our environment, they readily agreed to cover more than VMs for per processor purchased.

So, earlier we were going to get almost – 100*5=500 VMs protection

Now, we are going to get 100*12=1200 VMs.

Thanks VMware Support for quick resolution !!!

They have a very good support. I had some issues configuring it and they helped me out.

Get-VM | Where-Object {$_.PowerState -eq PoweredOn} | Where-Object {$_.version -lt "v7"}

1. Network issue
2. Switch issue
3. May be the VMware tools had a problem this VM is using VMXNet3 adapter.
4. Logged a call with VMware support and they wanted config logs for Networking switches – Network Manager was not at all happy when he heard that.

I just realized may be there might be a Duplicate MAC somewhere on the network that might be causing this problem. Here comes powershell to rescue. Did a google and found this nice script , from vNugglets which can tell us if there are any duplicate address on the network.

After running the script, we did find that there was indeed duplicate MAC address on the network which was causing this issue.
Thanks for the script it saved us lot of time.

On a side note :- I was wondering if there are duplicate MAC address across multiple VCenter Server, how are we going to troubleshoot that. Need to do some research to get answer to that question.

Description

The Enter-PSSession cmdlet starts an interactive session with a single remote computer. During the session, the commands that you type run on the remote computer, just as though you were typing directly on the remote computer. You can have only one interactive session at a time.
Typically, you use the ComputerName parameter to specify the name of the remote computer. However, you can also use a session that you create by using New-PSSession for the interactive session.
To end the interactive session and disconnect from the remote computer, use the Exit-PSSession cmdlet, or type "exit".

I was having trouble making this cmd work. Every time, I used to get the following error message

PS K:\> Enter-PSSession -computername 10.0.0.1 -credential USA\administrator
Enter-PSSession : Connecting to remote server failed with the following error message : The WinRM client cannot process the request. Default authentication may be used w
ith an IP address under the following conditions: the transport is HTTPS or the destination is in the TrustedHosts list, and explicit credentials are provided. Use winrm
.cmd to configure TrustedHosts. Note that computers in the TrustedHosts list might not be authenticated. For more information on how to set TrustedHosts run the followin
g command: winrm help config. For more information, see the about_Remote_Troubleshooting Help topic.
At line:1 char:16
+ Enter-PSSession <<<<  -computername 10.0.0.1 -credential USA\administrator
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (10.0.0.1:String) [Enter-PSSession], PSRemotingTransportException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CreateRemoteRunspaceFailed

After looking at help manuals and Google I found, using the following cmd "winrm quickconfig" at Powershell prompt on the destination computer will do the trick. It will enable firewall exceptions and will accept WS-Man requests to any IP on this machine.
I would like to have firewall exceptions just for few Ip Address and not "ANY IP address". Will have to do more research on this topic. Perhaps it warrents for another blogpost.

PS K:\> Enter-PSSession corp
[corp]: PS C:\Users\TOM\Documents>

All though I have not tested it throughtly, but I think there is lot of potential to use this cmd-let for day to day troubleshooting specially if you need to quickly connect to vcenter server OR some other server and want to have the link to the log files Or services that are running on the computer for example:-

To get a quick look at the services that are running for vmware

[corp]: PS C:\> Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.Displayname -like '*vm*'}

Status   Name               DisplayName
——        —-                     ———–
Running  ADAM_VMwareVCMSDS  VMwareVCMSDS
Stopped  vCOConfiguration   VMware vCenter Orchestrator Configu…
Running  vctomcat           VMware VirtualCenter Management Web…
Running  vimPBSM            VMware vSphere Profile-Driven Stora…
Running  VMTools            VMware Tools Service
Stopped  vmvss              VMware Snapshot Provider
Running  vpxd               VMware VirtualCenter Server

[corp]: PS C:\>

PowerCLI 5.0 Reference Poster

vSphere CLI ESXi5.0 Reference Poster

As as alternative to installing vCenter Server on a windows machine, you can download the VMware vCenter Server appliance. It is a preconfigured Linux based VM optimized for running vCenter Server.

Prerequisites

1. vSphere Client is already installed
2. You can deploy vCenter Appliance only on hosts that are running ESX version 4.x or ESXi version 4.x and later
3. Appliance required at least 7GB of disk space and is limited to a maximum size of 80 GB
4. Only Support Oracle as external database (Read this somewhere on the net)

I had a hard time in finding the download location. It seems you have to register first, (which makes sense) go to download page, and select the 3 individual files i.e the ovf file, the System disk and the data disk for vCenter Server 5.0 appliance

vCenter Appliance does not support following feature

1. MS SQL Server is not supported for vCenter Server Appliance
2. It does not support IPv6 configuration

The embedded database will note support more than 5 hots and 50 VMs.

Steps to Deploy vCenter Server Appliance

1. Download the appliance
2. Launch Vi Client -> Select Deploy OVf template
3. Select the ovf file from the Source
4. Click next or verify ovf template details
5. Give the VM name to your Appliance and click Next
6. Select the Storage Type and click Next
7. I prefer Thin Provision, click Next
8. Select Network and Click Next
9. Click on finish to start the provision process

Steps to Configure the Appliance

1. Initially when  the appliance boots it is configured to use DHCP. If your network is configured to use DHCP then it is good, otherwise you will have to manually enter the IP Address by selecting the Configure network option using the arrow keys.

1. Connect with your browner to the above IP Address <https://ipaddress:5480>
2. Accept the Certificate error message
3. Login as root and default password is vmware
4. Accept EULA
5. 
6. Wait for couple of seconds, it will show "requesting information
7. 
8. After this your Appliance is up and running but you will need to configure the database for vCenter Service to start. If you try to start the vCenter Server without configuring the database, you will get  a error message
9. 
10. To Configure database, click on the Database tab, from the Database Type drop down select embedded option. i don't have a oracle database to test this setup and click on save option under actions
11. 
12. Go back to the Status tab and start vCenter Server service after few secs vCenter Service will be up and running
13. 

That's it your vCenter Server is up and running.

I am sure, lots of people would like to reduce that RAM requirement, just reduced the RAM to 4GB and still works, this might help people who are working on VMware workstations. I am sure, there must be some reason why VMware recommended 8 GB of RAM. May be for production use its needs that much RAM. In my lab environment, I will further test this.

It also provides some good links to VMware compatibility guide. In my humble opinion everybody should go through this KB and guides before planning any production changes.

KB article 2005099

In earlier version i.e 4.x disabling the remote access was the only way to get rid of the warning message but in vSphere 5.0 things have changed. To disable these warning messages

1. Select the ESXi host from the Inventory.
2. Select Advanced Settings from the Software menu.
3. Navigate to UserVars > UserVars.SupressShellWarning. (This you will find at the very bottom)
4. Set the value from 0 to 1.
5. Click OK.

I don't think it should be disabled.

The above information was taken from kb article -2003637

Here are the few take away points from my VMworld/Vegas experience

1) Try to book your trip via Priceline, I got a good deal from them.

2) Come a day earlier and get enough rest. (No heavy drinking before and during VMworld)

3) Wear comfortable footwear. Just in case if you forget them, go to walking company and get a good insole OR shoes.

4) Collect your pass a day before VMworld  starts and get acclimatize to the entire surrounding. It will help you.

5) Many bloggers have already mentioned don't try to attend each and every session, you won't be able to. Try to make a strong network and have attend labs. Next year, if I get a chance, I will try to finish all the labs and register myself for a free VMworld 2013

6) This year the facility at the Venetian was very good and so was the food.

7) I was lucky to meet Duncan, and got vSPhere Clustering Technical Deepdive book signed by him, had a meeting with him for 15 min. All though I did not register for it, he came 15 mins early and I was able to talk to him. It was a wonderful experience.

8) Met lot of vExperts it was amazing to see, how helpful and down to earth these people are

9) If you like to blog and want to help the community, get in touch with John Troyer, (@jtroyer) he is the guy who can not only help you get in touch with other bloggers but also get your site registered with PlanetV12n
 

Timeshare Tip

During my stay at Vegas, I met lot of people who approached me for Timeshare. They really had a very nice way to approach you – They will start either by asking you – Do you need $250 free gaming chips OR Do you need free show pass. They will ask you to attend a meeting of 2-3 hours and your return gift, is $250 chips to play at casino.

Since, we had some time, my wife and myself went to two different timeshare meeting. Wyndham and Bluegreen. Got $500 gift checks from them and went to casino to enjoy,

Please note – These are not worth $500. You have to win from them and then take that money. You cannot encash them for money. We went to Luxor, and Excalibur casinos. Here they gave us $5 chips, we thought we might get $1 chip but that was not the case and when we went to MGM Grand we got $25 chips. You don't get a option to use $1 chips with the gift cards given by Timeshare company. Moral of the story call the casino and get it conformed from them, the denomination of chips that they will provide, when you produce the Gift checks.