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Script to collect LLDP Information of all the hosts connected to vCenter

  Challenge : To have a clean inventory of host to switch mapping, we had to gather the lldp information of all the ESXi hosts. It would be easier if the hosts are a few/ in a single digit.  We had to find an easy and automated script which can generate the output.  Pre-requisites : 1) Requires power-cli to be installed. 2) Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI -Scope CurrentUser  Powershell script :  1) To ignore ssl certificate error Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction Ignore -Confirm:$true  2) Script to connect to vCenter and provide valid credentials, and the script will provide the output in a csv format to the provided location, which can be customized.  # Array of vCenter Server names or IP addresses $vCenterServers = @("192.168.1.62") # Add all your vCenter Servers here # Output file path $OutputPath = "C:\Users\asyed\Documents\ESXi_LLDP_Report1.csv" # Change this to your desired output path # --- Script Start --- Write-Host "Con...
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Convert an activated Windows 2019 Standard VM to Windows 2019 Datacenter VM

Requirement: To convert a windows activation from Windows 2019 STD to Windows 2019 DC   Issue: Unable to convert using dism command    What has been done: After reviewing the logs and few online documentation, found a procedure to first forcefully convert the license to GVLK.  GVLK: Microsoft Generic Volume License Key  Procedure followed: Running the following commands from the powershell CLI  1) dism /online /Get-CurrentEdition  2) dism /online /Get-TargetEditions 3)  DISM /online /Set-Edition:ServerDatacenter /ProductKey:WMDGN-G9PQG-XVVXX-R3X43-63DFG /AcceptEula  reboot  Once the VM is back online  4) DISM /online /Set-Edition:ServerDatacenter /ProductKey:own-key /AcceptEula     This will convert the windows edition from STD to DC
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System Recovery Partition Disk Blocks The Extension of Windows Disk - Sysprep Issues

Requirement : Windows Activated Template on vCenter  Issue : After the windows is installed, system recovery partition end up created next to windows disk.  Resolution Credit : Mohammed Junaid Ahmed                           Resolution :  1) Create a VM using standard procedure on vCenter  2) Power ON the VM and follow below screen instructions  Click Next   Click on ' Repair your computer '  Click on Troubleshoot       Click on Command Prompt     You should see the command prompt Begin with Diskpart   Click Turn off your PC Restart your computer and continue windows installation, and you will see the disk partitions as below
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 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...
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  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...
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Renew SSL Certificate for vCloud Director 10.4

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...
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VCF Host expansion task failed at "Validate vSAN disks for ESXi Host(s)"

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" ...
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