Syed's Notes

 VCF 9.0.1 How to update DNS IPs for VCF 9.0.1 environment. While deploying the VCF, I deployed it with only one Domain Controller which was serving NTP & DNS for the deployment itself. Post deployment, I had to reboot the DC and realised that there is only one DNS and NTP serving the whole stack, so I had to build a redundant DC and join it as secondary DC.  Once I finished with secondary DC, I had to update the secondary IP address on all the components, so make the new IP usable on all components, you have to update it on SDDC Manager and follow these steps. I have used VCF API Explorer in the SDDC Manager's Developer Center. Step 1: Perform a GET request to view the current configuration. Step 2: Perform a PUT request with the updated DNS servers in the request body, ensuring the isPrimary flag is set correctly for each server.  For example: {   "dnsServers": [     {       "ipAddress": "172.16.128.225",       "isPrim...

  Resolving Cross-vCenter Migration Issues with Large VMs (>30TB) Credits of this article: During cross-vCenter migrations, we encountered issues with large VMs (>30TB), resulting in prolonged migration times (days) and frequent failures (every 3rd migration). VMware support provided a workaround to extend the port reservation timeout. *Workaround Steps:* Step 1:  SSH to vCenter and take a backup `vpxd.cfg`:  cp /etc/vmware-vpx/vpxd.cfg /etc/vmware-vpx/vpxd.cfg.bak   Step 2:   Edit `vpxd.cfg` and add below ``` <vpxd> <dvs> <PortReserveTimeoutInMin>7200</PortReserveTimeoutInMin> </dvs> </vpxd> ```   This extends the port reservation timeout to 5 days (7200 minutes). 1. Restart `vpxd` service: ` service-control --restart vmware-vpxd ` 2. Retry vMotion for large VMs. 3. Post-migration, revert `vpxd.cfg` to its original state: `cp /etc/vmware-vpx/vpxd.cfg.bak /etc/vmware-vpx/vpxd.cfg` 4. Restart `vpxd` service ag...

Hello There, I would like to give credit for this article to my colleague Muhannad S. Aljaghthami who worked on this task and gave us full insight on how to do. Now lets talk about replacing an expired/ about to expire SSL certificate for the vCloud Director application which is hosted on internet. Prerequisites: Digicert Certificate utility for windows.  Putty/Mobaxterm application for SSH to vCD cells. Winscp to transfer the files to vCD cells. SSH access should be validated on vCD Cells Backup tool to take a backup of vCD cells. Versions & products used while writing this article: vCloud Director 10.4 NSX AVI 22.1.1 Step by step procedure: Initiated a CSR request using Digicert utility for windows and shared the CSR with the team who manages the SSL certificates.  Post submission of CSR,we received the root & SSL certificate for our vCloud Director URL. Using the Digicert utility, we have extracted the pfx file and key file, sample screenshot below.     No...

Hello There, This article briefs about an issue faced during expanding the cluster with vSAN ready node via SDDC Manager. VCF: 4.5.0 ESXi : VMware ESXi 7.0.3 build-20328353 Thanks to my colleague Ahmed Alameri for his contribution. We were recently working on cluster expansion via SDDC Manager and the task was failed at "Validate vSAN disks for ESXi Host(s)" We had to quickly login to the ESXi host and check if the disks are healthy and are eligible to be used for vSAN. We enabled SSH service on the host, and through CLI we validated if the disks were eligible for vSAN by running command ' vdq -q ' Output Sample: [    {       "Name"     : "t10.NVMe_NVMe_Pxxxx_MU_U.2_1x.xTB________000xxxxxxxxx",       "VSANUUID" : "",       "State"    : "Eligible for use by VSAN",       "Reason"   : "None",       "IsSSD" ...

Hello There, In this article, I shall share you with two commands in order to get the iDRAC IP address from esxcli or localcli 1) esxc li command: esxcli hardware ipmi bmc get 2) localcli command: localcli hardware ipmi bmc get                                                

  Hello There, I was working recently on upgrading the firmware for Dell Power Edge servers due a requirement. As usual, I did the download of the necessary firmware update file and uploaded it in the iDRAC and started the upgrade. Waited for couple of minutes, If I can say, it was almost 15 minutes without any progress. I tried to check the log/job queue in the iDRAC and found it was full of old entries and I tried clearing it but found no option. Later after findings, I managed to find a command which clears the jobqueue, and below is the command I used after logging into iDRAC via SSH. racadm jobqueue delete -i JID_CLEARALL_FORCE Once the above command was executed, I tried to login to iDRAC and check the job queue and found everything was cleared. Whats next?? Tried uploading the file again and then managed to successfully update the firmware.