vCenter Server Appliance & WinSCP

The other day I had to pull off the SSL certs for the vCSA and I was struggling to connect to the appliance even after enabling SSH and Bash shell access from within the VAMI. Turns out a bit more configuration is required before you can connect to the vCSA via SCP and this is mainly … Continue reading vCenter Server Appliance & WinSCP

Unable to connect to VAMI after upgrading the vCSA

One of the plus points with upgrading your vCenter Server Appliance to 6.0 update 1 is the fact that VMware have re-introduced the Virtual Appliance Management Interface (VAMI). This was one of my bug-bears with 6.0... how any sort of administration/configuration work required you to access the vCSA shell! Recently after upgrading a customers vCSA … Continue reading Unable to connect to VAMI after upgrading the vCSA

Tweak Chrome to fix vSphere Web Client

So one of the reasons my blog hasn't been updated quite as regularly as the previous 6 months is because I've been quite busy with work, plus I'm also trying to write articles for searchvmware.com..... =) Here's a quick 'tip' article of mine that they recently published. http://searchvmware.techtarget.com/answer/Tweak-Chrome-Web-browser-to-fix-vSphere-Web-Client

No coredump target has been configured

So recently a number of customers have been experiencing a core dump target error after rebooting their ESXi hosts.... quite strangely I also recently experienced the same issue when my demo environment went down a few weeks ago due to a power failure. There isn't really a clear explanation why this happens, but it seems … Continue reading No coredump target has been configured

Issues using Windows Session Credentials with vSphere Client and vCenter Server Appliance

So it seems there's a known bug when using vSphere Client to log into your vCenter Server Appliance..... it actually affects vCenter Server Appliance 5.1, 5.5, and 6.0. If you try to log in to vCenter Server by checking the "Use Windows Session Credentials", it bombs out with a General System Error as follows: Looking into the vpxd.log … Continue reading Issues using Windows Session Credentials with vSphere Client and vCenter Server Appliance

ESXi bug – backing up 128GB vdisks and CBT

So I read about this issue a week or so ago when this bug started doing the rounds in the VMware communities and The Register picked up on the issue.... I was planning to blog about it but it slipped my mind due to a busy end of month! >_<" Anyways, VMware have sheepishly recognised the bug … Continue reading ESXi bug – backing up 128GB vdisks and CBT

Update to Shellshock Vulnerability within VMware

New update to the VMware Security Advisory: http://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2014-0010.html There are now patches available to the affected ESX hypervisors (note ESXi is not affected). There are also remediation options for a lot of the vApps...... Please ensure you update your environment as soon as you can.

vCenter Operations Manager – SSL Certificate issues

So during a recent deployment of vCenter Operations Manager (5.8.2) at a customer site I encountered the following error whilst trying to pair the vCOPs vApp to their vCenter Server."Unable to get vCenter Server certificate chain"This was the first time I had encountered this issue deploying vCOPs, fortunately given how much exposure I got to … Continue reading vCenter Operations Manager – SSL Certificate issues

Upgrading vCenter Server

Just a quick post today as I've had numerous clients call me recently regarding the same issue with upgrading their vCenter Server.....If you're upgrading from vCenter Server 5.5 to a later addition (like 5.5 update 1c), then if you mount the ISO and try to update vCenter using the "Simple Install", the installer will probably display … Continue reading Upgrading vCenter Server

Has your root password for your vCenter Server Appliance expired? No problems, check out this KB!!

So it slipped my mind that the root/admin passwords for the vCenter Server Appliance expires after 90 days by default..... and when I tried to access the admin webpage today in my demo environment so that I could update the appliance, I couldn't log in...... dammit.....!Surprisingly this must be a really common issue with customers … Continue reading Has your root password for your vCenter Server Appliance expired? No problems, check out this KB!!