Author Archives: Alan

About Alan

Alan Renouf has a role of Automation Frameworks Product Manager at VMware responsible for providing the architects and operators of the cloud infrastructure with the toolkits/frameworks and command-line interfaces they require to build a fully automated software-defined datacenter. Alan is a frequent blogger at http://blogs.vmware.com/vipowershell and has a personal blog at https://virtu-al.net. You can follow Alan on twitter as @alanrenouf.

VIOPS – Virtual Infrastructure Operations

VMware are piloting a new extension to the VMware communities called VIOPS – short for Virtual Infrastructure Operations.

The VMware VI OPS portal is a community-based repository for prescriptive, proven, and actionable guidance for operationalizing VMware in your IT organization. Proven practices provided by VMware and industry experts covering a wide range of operational topics are available in an easy to search, consistent format so finding the information you need is quick and easy.

The pilot site is at http://vpp-dev-1.vmware.com. 

They are going live with this soon, with the launch due at VMworld.

Already there is some great content and once launched I can only see this getting better.

Getting Started with the VI Toolkit

I have become a big fan of the Virtual Infrastructure (VI) Toolkit over the last month and it has really helped me learn PowerShell which I knew I would have to learn sooner or later but kept putting off.

I would now like to spread the word and help out those of you wondering what the hype is all about by telling you how to get started.

Do I need to install the VI toolkit on the VI server ?

No, Definitely not, this can be installed on your workstation and can be used to hook into the Virtual Infrastructure, nothing additional will need to be loaded onto the VI server.

What you will need

Download the following and install them in order:

  • .Net framework 2.0 (if not already installed)

This is a Next, Next jobbie until completed.

This is also a Next, Next jobbie until completed.

Just to make a change this is a Next Next

That gets the basics but what you also may want to install is the following:

Once these have all been installed you are nearly ready.

From your desktop start the VI toolkit via the newly created shortcut or choose it from the Start Menu if you prefer, once started type the following and press enter:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

You are now all set to start with PowerShell and the VI toolkit, lets do a simple task just to get you started…

From within the Powershell window now open connect to your Virtual Infrastructure server by using the following command or as you are now using powershell they are know as cmdlets.

Connect-VIServer YourServername

Obviously replace YourServerName with you VI Server.  Once connected you will be able to start issuing commands to the session to retrieve information, try the following simple cmdlet and press enter:

Get-VM

You will now see a list of all Virtual Machines.

And so it begins, this is just a simple cmdlet which will get you hooked from the start, issue the following command to list the other VI Toolkit cmdlets:

Get-VICommand

This should list enough for you to get started, now you can explore PowerShell and the VI Toolkit, for quick examples of what can be done take a look at the VMware examples here:

Managing VMware with PowerShell FAQ

Now there will be no looking back, welcome to the Jedi !

More on the Update 2 Issue

Email received from VMware:

ESX/ESXi 3.5 Update 2

Dear VMware Customers,

Please find the latest update about the product expiration issue. From this point on, we’ll provide an update every two hours. Thanks.

Problem:

An issue has been discovered by many VMware customers and partners with ESX/ESXi 3.5 Update 2 where Virtual Machines fail to power on or VMotion successfully. This problem began to occur on August 12, 2008 for customers that had upgraded to ESX 3.5 Update 2. The problem is caused by a build timeout that was mistakenly left enabled for the release build.

Affected Products:

  • VMware ESX 3.5 Update 2 & ESXi 3.5 Update 2
  • Reports of problems with ESX 3.5 U1 with the following 3.5 Update 2 patch applied.
            1. ESX350-200806201-UG
  • No other VMware products are affected.

What has been done?

  • Product and Web teams pulled the ESX 3.5 Update 2 bits from the download pages last night so no more customers will be able to download the broken build.
  • VMware Engineering teams have isolated the cause of the problem and are working around the clock to deliver updated builds and patches for impacted customers.
  • A Knowledgebase article has been published (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006716), but traffic to the knowledgebase is causing time outs. A new static page has been published at http://www.vmware.com/support/esx35u2_supportalert.html that customers and partners will be able to view.
  • The phone system has been updated to advise customers of the problem
  • Vmware partners have been notified of the issue.

Workarounds:

1. Do not install ESX 3.5 U2 if it has been downloaded from VMware’s website or elsewhere prior to August 12, 2008.

2. Set the host time to a date prior to August 12, 2008. This workaround has a number of very serious side affects that could impact product environments. Any Virtual Machines that sync time with the ESX host and serve time sensitive applications would be broken. These include, but are not limited to database servers, mail servers, & domain administration systems.

Next Steps:
VMware to notify customers who have downloaded this version and provide an update every two hours.

Resolution:

VMware Engineering has isolated the root cause and is working to produce an express patch for impacted customers today. The target timeframe is 6pm, August 12, 2008 PST.

FAQ:

1. What would this express patch do?
More information will be provided in subsequent communication updates.

2. Will VMware still reissue the upgrade media and patch bundles in the timeframe that has been communicated?
Yes. We still plan to reissue upgrade media by 6pm, August 13 PST (instead of noon, August 13 PST) and all update patch bundles later in the week. We will provide an ETA for the update patch bundles subsequently. NOTE: the "patch bundles" referred to here are for the patches listed above under "Affected Products" and the other bundles released at GA. They are not the same as the express patch which is targeted for 6pm, August 12, 2008 PST as stated above.

3. Why does VMware plan to reissue the upgrade media before the patch bundles? That is a wrong priority call!
This is not a matter of priority. Since we can get done building and testing the upgrade media before the patch bundles, we want to make that available to customers first instead of reissuing all the binaries later in the week.

4. Can VMware issue a patch that opens the licensing backdoor in the next hour as a critical measure?
There is no licensing backdoor in our code.

5. Does this issue affect VC 2.5 Update 2?
No.

6. What is VMware doing to make sure that the problem won’t happen again?
We are making improvements on all fronts. The product team had endeavored to deliver a release with support customers deem important. But we fell short and we are deeply sorry about all the disruption and inconveniences we have caused. We have identified where the holes are and they will be addressed to restore customers’ confidence.

VI 3.5 in a box

Looks like Xtravirt have updated there popular document explaining how to install VI into a VMWare Workstation VM, this can be found here and is ideal for testing, time to start buying some of the cheap ram !

Powershell: Is Microsoft Word Installed ?

A quick script to check if Microsoft Word is Installed….

if ((dir  REGISTRY::HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Application) -eq $Null){
       Write-Host "Microsoft Word not installed"
}
Else
{
       Write-Host "Microsoft Word Detected"
}

VMTN Login Issues ?

I’m trying to login to VMTN and it wont let me, is anyone else having issues today or is it just me, tried a couple of PC’s.

Update: Looks like there is an issue as a fellow community friend is also having problems as well as a couple of guys in the US who have been in contact.

Update: 05 Aug 08, 08:30 (GMT) Now Working again.

VMware Powershell Competition

I was wondering whether to enter the VMware Powershell competition or not, Looking at the prizes its a no brainer, how cool would it be to go to Vegas for VMworld 2008 ?!, but as you can see from my scripts on this site so far, they are no prize winners.  This is mainly because I am still relatively new to Powershell and still trying to grasp some of the concepts.

So anyway, I thought, what better way to grasp the concepts than to work towards something, so I have decided to work on my script and see how it goes, if it turns out ok then I may enter the comp just for the fun of it, although I’m sure there will be some master PS creators writing some amazing stuff.

So what am I working on ?

I’m working on something that will certainly be quite useful for myself and hopefully others… A VMware reporting script.

This will basically pull out all the config and details of things like your VMs, Hosts, Datastores, Clusters, Networks etc and put them directly into a nicely formatted Word document, I may even through in a few graphs for good measure to show top 10 Utilised VM’s and hosts, maybee a few pie charts to show how much room is left on the datastores ?!

If you think this is a good idea please let me know, just so I know I am not wasting my time ! and if you can think of anything else to put in there also please let me know – all ideas appreciated.