I downloaded VCSA 8.0 ISO from VMware.com and run the installer.
I choose Install.
1-Introduction
Note: The external Platform Services Controller deployment has been deprecated.
Note: Installing the vCenter Server is a two-stage process. The first stage involves deploying a new vCenter Server to the target ESXi host or a compute resource in the target vCenter Server. The second stage completes the setup of the deployed vCenter Server. Next
2- License agreement, click on the checkbox. Next
3- Specify the vCenter Server deployment target settings. The target is the ESXi host or vCenter Server will be deployed.
On this page, fill in all the blank fields, Next
Accept the certificate warning and click NEXT
4- Enter the new VM name for your VCSA 7.0 Update 3 and set the root password for it, NEXT
5- Select your deployment size, I choose Medium Size. NEXT
6- Select data store, you can select Thin or Thick disk mode, NEXT
7- Configure your network settings, NEXT
10- The installer will begin deploying the new VCSA according to the settings you provided. Finish
1- The second stage process. NEXT
2- Set your Time and NTP servers, and you can enable or Disable SSH access to vCenter Server.
3- You have two option2: 1-Create a new SS domain or 2-Join an existing SSO domain
4- You can now join VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program. This basically allows VMware to collect certain sanitized data from your environment, which could help with future releases.
5-Install – Stage 2
6- This process took about 45 minutes for me.
9- Login to the VCSA by the FQDN or IP address and proceed.
Log in to the vCenter Server Appliance using SSH and root credentials.
Run this command to enable the Bash shell:
shell.set –enabled true Â
Type shell and press Enter.
Use these commands to verify which disk is experiencing disk capacity issues, then trace which SCSI ID will show in the VM edit settings:
df -h; lsblk; lsscsi
5- Using the VAMI address –> https://vcenter:5480 –> Monitor –> Disks
You can find the Hard Disk number that you must be increased.
6- Using the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client, locate the vCenter Server Appliance virtual machine and increase the disk space on the affected virtual disk.
7- After the virtual disk is increased, return to the SSH session and run this command to automatically expand any logical volumes for which the physical volumes are increased:
/usr/lib/applmgmt/support/scripts/autogrow.sh
8- Run this command to confirm that the virtual disk has successfully grown:
Hi, If you set a proxy for your vCenter version 6.7.0.46000 , and it is not working, this post is fit for you.
Today I configured a proxy from UI for vCenter version 6.7.0.46000, but it is not working.
1- login to VAMI.
Https://vcenter-ip-address:5480
Login as a root user.
2- Networking –> Proxy Settings
{This configured not working}.
What is a solution?
It has a trick.
3- Login to VAMI with SSH client like putty.
4- vi this file
/etc/wgetrc
5- Put your proxy address in this file
# You can set the default proxies for Wget to use for http, https, and ftp.
# They will override the value in the environment.
https_proxy = https://proxy_address:port/
http_proxy = http://proxy_address:port/
We’ve reviewed and changed the lay-out for ESXi system storage partitions on its boot device. This is done to be more flexible, and to support other VMware, and 3rd party solutions. Prior to vSphere 7, the ESXi system storage lay-out had several limitations. The partition sizes were fixed and the partition numbers were static, limiting partition management. This effectively restricts the support for large modules, debugging functionality and possible third-party components.
That is why we changed the ESXi system storage partition layout. We have increased the boot bank sizes, and consolidated the system partitions and made them expandable. This article details these changes introduced with vSphere 7 and how that reflects on the boot media requirements to run vSphere 7.
The partition sizes in vSphere 6.x are fixed, with an exception for the scratch partition and the optional VMFS datastore. These are created depending on the used boot media and its capacity.
Consolidated Partition Layout in vSphere 7
To overcome the challenges presented by using this configuration, the boot partitions in vSphere 7 are consolidated.
The ESXi 7 System Storage lay-out only consists of four partitions.
System boot
Stores boot loader and EFI modules.
Type: FAT16
Boot-banks (x2)
System space to store ESXi boot modules
Type: FAT16
ESX-OSData
Acts as the unified location to store extra (nonboot) modules, system configuration and state, and system virtual machines
Type: VMFS-L
Should be created on high-endurance storage devices
The OSData partition is divided into two high-level categories of data called ROM-data and RAM-data. Frequently written data, for example, logs, VMFS global traces, vSAN EPD and traces, and live databases are referred to as RAM-data. ROM-data is data written infrequently, for example, VMtools ISOs, configurations, and core dumps.
ESXi 7 System Storage Sizes
Depending the boot media used and if its a fresh installation or upgrade, the capacity used for each partition varies. The only constant here is the system boot partition. If the boot media is larger than 128GB, a VMFS datastore is created automatically to use for storing virtual machine data.
For storage media such as USB or SD devices, the ESX-OSData partition is created on a high-endurance storage device such as an HDD or SSD. When a secondary high-endurance storage device is not available, VMFS-L Locker partition is created on USB or SD devices, but this partition is used only to store ROM-data. RAM-data is stored on a RAM disk.
ESXi 7 System Storage Contents
The sub-systems that require access to the ESXi partitions, access these partitions using the symbolic links. For example: /bootbank and /altbootbank symbolic links are used for accessing the active bootbank and alternative bootbank. The /var/core symbolic link is used to access the core-dumps.
Review the System Storage Lay-out
When examining the partition details in the vSphere Client, you’ll notice the partition lay-out as described in the previous chapters. Use this information to review your boot media capacity and the automatic sizing as configured by the ESXi installer.
A similar view can be found in the CLI of an ESXi host. You’ll notice the partitions being labeled as BOOTBANK1/2 and OSDATA.
You might notice the OSDATA partition being formatted as the Virtual Flash File System (VFFS). When the OSDATA partition is placed on a SDD or NVMe device, VMFS-L is labeled as VFSS.
Boot Media
vSphere supports a wide variety of boot media with a strong recommendation to use high-endurance storage media devices like HDD, SSD and NVMe, or boot from a SAN LUN. To install ESXi 7, these are the recommendations for choosing boot media:
32GB for other boot devices like hard disks, or flash media like SSD or NVMe devices.
A boot device must not be shared between ESXi hosts.
Legacy SD and USB devices are supported with some limitations listed below, more information in this FAQ.
To chose a proper SD or USB boot device, see Knowledge Base article 82515.You must provide an additional VMFS volume of at least 32 GB to store the ESX-OSData volume and required VMFS datastore. If the boot device is larger than 138 GB, the ESXi installer creates a VMFS volume automatically. Delete the VMFS datastore on USB and SD devices immediately after installation to prevent data corruption. For more information how to configure a persistent scratch partition, see Knowledge Base article 1033696.
If the VMware Tools partition is stored locally, you must redirect it to the RAM disk. For more information, see Knowledge Base article 83376.
You must use an SD flash device that is approved by the server vendor for the particular server model on which you want to install ESXi on an SD flash storage device.
Today, my boss told me we need to move 2 virtual machines from vCenter 6.7 to vCenter 7. And we need to move 1 virtual machine from vCenter 7 to vCenter 6.7. VMware has a solution for these scenarios.
Now, for vSphere 7.0 Update 3, the feature is further enhanced to support bulk clone operation! In addition, there are some quality improvements such as a new enhanced vCenter Server connection form and a new icon.
Prerequisites
Obtain the credentials for the administrator account of the vCenter Server instance from which you want to import or clone virtual machines.
Verify that the source vCenter Server instances are version 6.5 or later.
Verify that the target vCenter Server instance is version 7.0 Update 1c or later if you want to import virtual machines to another vCenter Server instance.
Verify that the target vCenter Server instance is version 7.0 Update 3 if you want to clone virtual machines to another vCenter Server instance.
Scenario1:
Import Workflow:
In order to clone several virtual workloads from another vCenter Server to the current one, right-click on the destination host/cluster and select the “Import VMs” action.
After that, enter the credentials of the source vCenter Server in the import connection form.
On the next screen, select the workloads that should be cloned.
When you complete the wizard, the workloads will be cloned to the destination vCenter Server.
Scenario2:
Export Workflow:
Select the virtual workloads that should be cloned to a foreign vCenter Server and click on “Migrate…”
On the next screen, make sure to select “Cross vCenter Server export” option.
Then, select the destination vCenter Server and, when you complete the wizard, all workloads will be cloned there.
With the enhancements to the XVM in vSphere 7.0 Update 3, users are able to perform a bulk workload clone operation between different vCenter Servers. This makes the feature more versatile and suits a variety of use cases, some of which are:
Migrating/cloning VMs from an on-premise to a cloud (VMware Cloud) environment
Quicker adoption of the new vSphere versions by migrating/cloning the workloads from the old vCenter Server
For a more detailed information of the usage and requirements, please see the official documentation.
Hi, Today i want to write about new feature of vCenter 7 Update 3, With vSphere 7.0 Update 3, vSphere admins can configure vCLS virtual machines to run on specific datastores by configuring the vCLS VMs datastore preference per cluster. Admins can also define compute policies to specify how the vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) should place vCLS agent virtual machines (vCLS VMs) and other groups of workload VMs.Â
First of all, What is vSphere Cluster Services (vCLS) ?
vSphere Cluster Services (vCLS) is a new feature in vSphere 7.0 Update 1. This feature ensures cluster services such as vSphere DRS and vSphere HA are all available to maintain the resources and health of the workloads running in the clusters independent of the vCenter Server instance availability.
In vSphere 7.0 Update 1, VMware has released a platform/framework to facilitate them to run independently of the vCenter Server instance availability. In this release, vCenter Server is still required for running cluster services such as vSphere DRS, vSphere HA etc.
vCLS is a mandatory feature that is deployed on each vSphere cluster when vCenter Server is upgraded to Update 1 or when a fresh deployment of vSphere 7.0 Update 1. ESXi host can be of any older version that is compatible with vCenter server 7.0 Update 1.
Size of the vCLS VMs
vSphere Cluster Service VMs are very small VMs compared to workload VMs. Each consumes 1 vCPU and 128 MB of memory and about 500 MB of storage. Below table shows the specification of these VMs: Â
Memory
128 MB
Memory Reservation
100 MB
Swap Size
256 MB
CPU
1
CPU Reservation
100 MHz
Hard Disk
2 GB
Ethernet Adapter
0 (It is a No NIC VM)
VMDK Size
-245 MB
Storage Space
-480 MB
How can configure this new feature of vCenter:
Login to your vCenter Server.
Click on your Cluster name and select Configure tab and select vSphere Cluster Services –> Datastores
Click ADD
Select one or more DataStores in which you want vCLS VMs to be created.
