Nasty HP software bug hits vSphere 5.1 and 5.5 and helpful info to fix this

Recently I got a call from a customer he was not able to log in to his ESX 5.5 hosts anymore trough ssh, and could not vMotion VM’s anymore. It seemed like the ssh daemon died and trying to start it again did not work.
I was able to log on to one of the hosts (DL380 G8) and have a look at the vmkernel.log file.
In the log file I saw a line that read:
WARNING: Heap: 3058: Heap_Align(globalCartel-1, 136/136 bytes, 8 align) failed. caller: 0x41802a2ca2fd
Google brought me to VMware KB article 2085618 with the title “ESXi host cannot initiate vMotion or enable services and reports the error: Heap globalCartel-1 already at its maximum size.Cannot expand” which sounded exactly like our problem, and seems to be caused by a memory leak in the hp-ams service.

And that’s where the fun started ….

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Add RecoverPoint 4.1 with SRM RecoverPoint SRA 2.2 fails with error “SRA command ‘discoverArrays’ failed” UPDATED

During an installation and configuration of an SRM solution for a customer based on EMC RecoverPoint 4.1 I ran in to an interesting issue.

When I tried to add the RecoverPoint Clusters on both sites using the RecoverPoint SRA 2.2 I received the following error message:

Error

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Batch file to start VSAN Observer on Windows vCenter Server

After reading the blog article by Erik Bussink on how to use the VSAN Observer software on a Windows vCenter Server, I quickly got annoyed by manually having to start the Ruby rvc script and the VSAN Observer every time

I created a little batch file that can be put on your desktop to launch the VSAN Observer

Just enter your credentials, vCenter server Name, Datacenter Name and Cluster Name and make sure the path to the rvc directory is correct, and of you go

After you started VSAN Observer, just connect to it via port 8010 on your vCenter Server, or add an exception for port 8010 in your Windows firewall to access VSAN Observer remotely, like described in Eriks’ blog

Enjoy

VSAN.Observer.bat

Issue with jumbo frames after upgrading nested ESXi servers in the lab to 5.5 and fix

IMPORTANT UPDATE AT THE END OF THE ARTICLE

In my lab I use to test and play with numerous VMware solutions, I have several nested ESXi servers running. Nested ESXi servers are ESXi servers running as a VM. This is a not supported option, but it does help me to test and play around with software without having to rebuild my physical lab environment all the time.

So first a little on the setup of my nested ESXi servers

The VM’s for my nested ESXI servers have 4 NIC’s

The first NIC connects to “vESXi Trunk” This is a port group on my physical ESXi hosts that is configured on a vDS with VLAN type “VLAN Trunking” so I get all VLAN’s in my nested ESXi host:

Screen Shot 2013-11-25 at 20.49.39

I use this VLAN trunk to present my management network and my VM networks to my nested ESXi servers

I also have a NIC that connects to my vMotion network, and two nice that connect to my iSCSI networks. I use two subnets and two VLAN’s for my iSCSI connections.

Screen Shot 2013-11-25 at 20.54.20

In my physical setup I use jumbo frames in these networks, and I did the same in my nested ESXi hosts, and it worked perfectly … Until I upgraded my nested ESXi hosts to vSphere 5.5 … Continue reading

vCenter Operations and the Quest for the Missing Metrics in Barcelona

The VMWorld schedule builder for Barcelona is live, please attend our session at:

Wednesday, Oct 16, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM

VCM5008 – vCenter Operations and the Quest for the Missing Metrics

This session will teach you how to customize vCenter Operations to provide you the information you really need for your business. We do this by giving you some real life examples from the field where we use Custom Dashboards, Super Metrics, Adapters and Alerts in order to give you the best possible view into the well-being of your environment. You’ll also see a live demo of third party integration and you’ll learn how to monitor the performance of your enterprise to diagnose and prevent problems.

Eric Sloof – VCI, NTPRO.NL
Duco Jaspars – Consultant, vConsult

VMWorld session VCM5008 vCenter Operations and the Quest for the Missing Metrics will be repeated

Since the original session by Eric Sloof and myself filled up pretty quickly, there will be a repeat session on Tuesday August 27th at 2 pm in Salon 6 at the Marriott hotel.

This extra session is now available in the Schedule Builder at VMWorld.com

This session will teach you how to customize vCenter Operations to provide you the information you really need for your business. We do this by giving you some real life examples from the field where we use Custom Dashboards, Super Metrics, Adapters and Alerts in order to give you the best possible view into the well-being of your environment. You’ll also see a live demo of third party integration and you’ll learn how to monitor the performance of your enterprise to diagnose and prevent problems.

 

NL VMUG 2.0

nlvmuglogo2

As you all might have noticed on twitter or other social media, there are some changes happening at the NL VMUG.

You ll might know the NL VMUG from the yearly VMUG event and the different smaller workshops they organize trough out the year.

The VMUG in the Netherlands was founded in 2004 by Bouke Groenescheij, and parented  by Viktor van den Berg, the XTG staff and volunteers from the community till 2011, the year the VMUG Customer Council was formed.

One of the roles of the VMUG Customer Council was to support XTG  on organising the the yearly VMUG event.

Over time, the ideas on what the event should look like grew appart. Last week the VMUG Customer Council realised these differences where not likely to be bridged in the near future, and decided something had to change. Continue reading

Tech Preview of Horizon View Desktops Plugin for the vSphere Web Client

During the Horizon View 5.2 Beta I noticed the View Desktops Tech Preview. Since the Beta was covered by an NDA I was not allowed to publish this, but since the product is GA for a while now here’s the story.

The plugin will let you search for usernames in the vSphere Web Client search field and shows you the desktop(s) for this user. Continue reading

Please vote for VMworld Session 5008 “vCenter Operations and the quest for the Missing Metrics”

Hello community, we are reaching out to you for your help.

Eric Sloof from NTPRO.NL and myself proposed a session for this years VMworlds. We both do like the VMware vCenter Operations Manager product a lot, but see lots of people do not get the maximum out of it since they just use the standard dashboards that come with the product.
In our session we want to give you some real life examples from the field on how you can customize vCenter Operations Manager Advanced and Enterprise to show you the information you need. We will show you you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to make this happen.

We need your help to make this happen, so please vote for our session 5008 here Continue reading

Beta training in Frimley: VMware vCenter Operations Manager: Advanced Usage and Dashboard Design

May 8th – 10th 2013 VMware will host  a 3 day beta training at their Frimley UK HQ for their new VMware vCenter Operations Manager: Advanced Usage and Dashboard Design training.

This training course focuses on the advanced capabilities of VMware® vCenter™ Operations Manager™ 5.6, such as adapters, customization and management topics. You will learn how to use adapters, define custom super metrics, customize dashboards, and use the Custom user interface.

I have been fortunate enough to participate in an alpha training for this class and must say I enjoyed it very much. Very useful for people that want to customize their vCOps environment to show specific metrics or combined metrics

Cost for this training is around 50% of the normal price

See the attached info sheet, and if interested, register for this training here

Space is limited

beta announcement – vcops advanced 5 x

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