What Types of VMware Virtual Desktop Pools do you have?

Automated desktop pool>  Template or virtual machine Linked-Cloned

Uses a vCenter Server template or virtual machine snapshot to generate new machines.

Manual desktop pool>  Virtual machines and physical

Provides access to an existing set of machines. Any type of machine that can install Agent is supported.

Microsoft RDS desktop pool > Virtual machines and physical

Connection Server manages RDS sessions in the same way as normal machines.

How do you Retain User Data and Settings?

View Persona Management>

Stores user profiles on a remote file server and delivers them to the desktop upon login.

VMware User Environment Manager (UEM)>

Maps environmental settings (such as networks and printers), and dynamically applies end-user security

policies and personalization.

Raul.

VMware VDI Administrator

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I am trying to set up a small VSAN 6.6 cluster using three HP DL360 G8 servers, each with one ssd and three hdd devices.  The hardware is all on the VMWare and VSAN hardware compatibility lists, and all the drivers/firmware are current.

The devices are all running the latest version of ESXI, build 5310538, and the VCenter is 6.5d. These hosts were connected to our fiber channel SAN and have been running fine.

Each host has a dedicated VMKernel port (vmk2), running on a dual 10Gb connection to a Cisco 10Gb switch.  The ports on the switch are in a dedicated VLAN.  I’ve confirmed that they can all PING each other over the vsan kernel port. I’m using standard switches.  The switch has two uplinks, one active the other standby.

When I enabled the VSAN, it found the SSD/HDD’s on each host, when through the various configurations, but then on the general screen under the the “on disk format version”, it says that the pre check completed with issues.  On the Details it has a yellow triangle and says that the "Virtual SAN cluster is network partitioned" and the "disk format version" section has a yellow triangle and says "all 12 disks on version 5.0"

On the Monitor/Virtual San Health tab, it’s saying that there is a software version compatibility failed.  On the details it says

"Host incompatible due to use of newer on-disk format by other hosts in the cluster”, and the recommendation to “Upgrade ESXi software of this host”.

As I mentioned above, all three hosts are at the same, latest version, 6.5.0, build 5310538

Any suggestions would be appreciated

Mike O'Donnell

After 5 fault free days, I'm fairly confident now that I've seen the last of both the disconnections and PSODs.

Action summary (in maintenance mode):

1) Disable the i40en driver

esxcli system module set --enabled=false --module=i40en

2) Disable TSO/LRO globally

esxcli system settings advanced set -o /Net/UseHwTSO -i 0

esxcli system settings advanced set -o /Net/UseHwTSO6 -i 0

esxcli system settings advanced set -o /Net/TcpipDefLROEnabled -i 0

3) Explicitly disable both HW & SW LRO on Vmxnet 3.

    Probably not necessary, but I wanted LRO really, truly, most sincerely dead.

esxcli system settings advanced set -o /Net/Vmxnet3HwLRO -i 0

esxcli system settings advanced set -o /Net/Vmxnet3SwLRO -i 0

4) Reboot, then confirm use of i40e driver

esxcli system module list | grep i40e

i40e                                true        true

i40en                              false       false

esxcli network nic list

Name    PCI Device    Driver  Admin Status  Link Status  Speed  Duplex  MAC Address         MTU  Description

------  ------------  ------  ------------  -----------  -----  ------  -----------------  ----  ---------------------------------------------------------

vmnic0  0000:02:00.0  ntg3    Up            Up            1000  Full    14:18:77:43:23:78  1500  Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5720 Gigabit Ethernet

vmnic1  0000:02:00.1  ntg3    Up            Up            1000  Full    14:18:77:43:23:79  1500  Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5720 Gigabit Ethernet

vmnic2  0000:03:00.0  ntg3    Up            Up            1000  Full    14:18:77:43:23:7a  1500  Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5720 Gigabit Ethernet

vmnic3  0000:03:00.1  ntg3    Up            Up            1000  Full    14:18:77:43:23:7b  1500  Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5720 Gigabit Ethernet

vmnic4  0000:06:00.0  i40e    Up            Up           10000  Full    3c:fd:fe:03:ac:e0  1500  Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller X710 for 10GbE SFP+

vmnic5  0000:06:00.1  i40e    Up            Up           10000  Full    3c:fd:fe:03:ac:e2  1500  Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller X710 for 10GbE SFP+

5) Confirm non-use of TSO/LRO

esxcli system settings advanced list -o /Net/UseHwTSO

   Path: /Net/UseHwTSO

   Type: integer

   Int Value: 0

   Default Int Value: 1

   Min Value: 0

   Max Value: 1

   String Value:

   Default String Value:

   Valid Characters:

   Description: When non-zero, use pNIC HW TSO offload if available

esxcli system settings advanced list -o /Net/UseHwTSO6

   Path: /Net/UseHwTSO6

   Type: integer

   Int Value: 0

   Default Int Value: 1

   Min Value: 0

   Max Value: 1

   String Value:

   Default String Value:

   Valid Characters:

   Description: When non-zero, use pNIC HW IPv6 TSO offload if available

esxcli system settings advanced list -o /Net/TcpipDefLROEnabled

   Path: /Net/TcpipDefLROEnabled

   Type: integer

   Int Value: 0

   Default Int Value: 1

   Min Value: 0

   Max Value: 1

   String Value:

   Default String Value:

   Valid Characters:

   Description: LRO enabled for TCP/IP

esxcli system settings advanced list -o /Net/Vmxnet3HwLRO

   Path: /Net/Vmxnet3HwLRO

   Type: integer

   Int Value: 0

   Default Int Value: 1

   Min Value: 0

   Max Value: 1

   String Value:

   Default String Value:

   Valid Characters:

   Description: Whether to enable HW LRO on pkts going to a LPD capable vmxnet3

esxcli system settings advanced list -o /Net/Vmxnet3SwLRO

   Path: /Net/Vmxnet3SwLRO

   Type: integer

   Int Value: 0

   Default Int Value: 1

   Min Value: 0

   Max Value: 1

   String Value:

   Default String Value:

   Valid Characters:

   Description: Whether to perform SW LRO on pkts going to a LPD capable vmxnet3

My ESXi version:

esxcli system version get

   Product: VMware ESXi

   Version: 6.5.0

   Build: Releasebuild-5224529

   Update: 0

   Patch: 15

My R430 firmware, per IDRAC:

I've built a custom config file within UEM to export and import manually mapped network drives on linked clone desktops and checking the debug logs, the condition is met but when logging off and then back on, the previously mapped drives are not showing back up.  I've tried with and without the trailing "\" but with no luck.  Any other areas that I can check to troubleshoot?

Scenario:

Linked clone desktop pool

AppVol writable volume (UIA only)

Folder redirection

Local admin access

Thanks

Can you confirm that your vCenter is 6.5.0.5500 Build Number 5318154.

You may want to run the following commands:

esxcli vsan cluster get - make sure that you see all the hosts in the same cluster

If hosts are not seeing each other, you will need to add the hosts to unicastagent

esxcli vsan cluster unicast agent list  - if list is empty then the host has no neighbors.

You can add hosts to the unicast agent list by using the command: esxcli vsan cluster unicast add

Hello all,

I am new to vRealize automation and orchestrator

I have been testing the use of Orchestrator to clone VM's with no customization.

i have few quick questions,

- how do i pull host, cluster, Data store and VM folder information of a virtual machine.

- I want to pull the information of the VM which i want to clone and later i want to place the cloned Virtual machine in same location of original VM.

Thanks for any help you may be able to give

I really appreciate your help in advance.

Thank you!!

Previous import not marked as successful -- skipping export is almost always a symptom of the Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon policy not having been configured, so that would be the first thing to check, I'd say.

If your FlexEngine log level is set to DEBUG, the "config dump" at the start of a path-based export includes information about this policy setting, so that's an easy way to check.

Same issue on one of my machines when loading PowerCLI from the PowerShell Gallery...I can install the modules, but when I go to import them [Import-Module VMware.PowerCLI] it throws the log4net error. 

I had no problem with this on another machine, but it has a lot less other software installed on it...if I had to guess, I'd say that Crystal Reports on the first machine may have the conflicting version (x86 vs 64) that is causing my problems, but that is purely a guess.

BTW, very pumped that PowerCLI is now available in the Gallery...

We are only seeing this problem on the 6.5 HTML client.

vSphere Client version 6.5.0 build 4598948

When we login after the installation of our plugin the resource keys are displayed in the menus and dialogs instead of the resource strings. After logging out and logging back in the resource strings are displayed as expected.

Is this a known issue?

Thanks,

-Darrell

I found my solution. I had assumed 6.2.7 was the latest build since its build number was later than 6.3.1 - thinking vmware had problems w/ their version number. ,In reality, 6.2.7 was a patch for 6.2.x branch of NSX, and 6.3.1 is first version that runs w/ ESXi 6.5x. Once I used 6.3.1, host installation completed.

Thanks

Have you tried VMware Converter? This non-official site indicates that VSAN support has been included in Converter since v5.5.1 (2014): https://www.vladan.fr/vmware-converter-standalone-5-5-1-vsan-support/

If your VSAN datastore is empty (or not yet running production workload) I would give Converter a it a try using a non-production source machine. Worst that can happen is it will fail, and you may have some cleanup to do in VSAN.

I was having some trouble moving a very large VM from a standalone host into our VSAN cluster via regular vMotion. Opened a ticket and Support actually recommend that I try using Converter to move the VM into VSAN. Granted the system was already a VM running on VMFS, but I doubt they would make that recommendation if the tool flat out does not support VSAN.

Hi Nancyz,

I have the same issue when trying to export OVF to VMX format as a root user (same for sudo).

Looking at the logs the tool tries to load the OpenSSL library using the ovftool path as the lib path.

Here's part of the log:

2017-04-26T14:33:05.829-08:00| vthread-4| I120: FileIOErrno2Result: Unexpected errno=20, Not a directory

2017-04-26T14:33:05.829-08:00| vthread-4| W110: FILE: File_Copy failed, from "/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/VMware OVF Tool/ovftool/libcrypto.1.0.1.dylib" to "/var/tmp//vmware-root/safeDir4/libcrypto.1.0.1.dylib"

2017-04-26T14:33:05.829-08:00| vthread-4| I120: SSLOpenLibraries: Privileged SSLMacOSOpenBundledLibs FAILED

2017-04-26T14:33:05.829-08:00| vthread-4| I120: SSLLoadSharedLibraries: Failed to load OpenSSL libraries. libdir is /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/VMware OVF Tool/lib

I have the this problem with OVF Tools provided with VMware Fusion 8.5 (version 4.1.0).

I also tried the standalone version (version 4.2.0) but it's even worse with the only output beeing:

Abort trap: 6

Im using OS X El Capitan ( 10.11.6 )

Any solutions/workarounds? Everything works when exporting using a normal user.

OK, somehow the sound card wasn't configured correctly in the vmx file then.

Thanks for letting us know what fixed and great to hear it now works the way it should be.

--

Wil

Hi,

Ah, my bad, I mixed up my linux variants, in ubuntu/debian it is called slightly different.

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`

--

Wil

Wondering if anyone has successfully migrated the vIDM DB from Oracle to SQL?

I have attempted to migrate the DB using Microsoft's SSMA and then use the vIDM updateManagerDBConnection.hzn utility to change the DB configuration but the result is a broken environment; 404 Page Cannot be Displayed errors when attempting to access Admin GUI/portal.  I have also attempted to manually modify runtime_config.properties and change odbc settings from Oracle to SQL, which also did not work.

I followed procedure from KB2146126 -- Migrating VMware Identity Manager to SQL Database (2146126)

Introduction:

The document will walk you through the setup of a custom F5 BIG-IP Health Monitor for use with VMware Identity Manager appliances when acting as nodes in a cluster.

Background:

In previous versions of documentation from VMware and F5 which discussed clustering of VMware Identity Manager with F5 BIG-IP load balancers, it was suggested to use the `http_head_f5` health monitor.  However, due to security updates within VMware Identity Manager 2.8 and higher, the use of the aforementioned F5 BIG-IP health monitor is no longer a viable option.  Because of this, many customers were using the `gateway_icmp` F5 health monitor as a temporary workaround. Unfortunately, this would allow the F5 BIG-IP to see a node as good even though it may only be responding to a ping, resulting in traffic failures and web pages failing to load for end users.  Therefore, a better health monitor needed to be used.

Solution:

Working together, VMware and F5 come up with a validated custom health monitor using built-in VMware Identity Manager APIs to determine if the node (or appliance) in question is properly responding.

The basic F5 health monitor information is as follows:

Send String:

Receive String:

Receive Disable String:

Creation Procedure:

Here is how to create this within the F5 BIG-IP.

1. Login as administrator to your F5 BIG-IP appliance.
2. Browse to Monitors under the Local Traffic tab in the left hand menu.
3. Click the CREATE button in the upper left to start the creation of a new health monitor.
4. Give it a name such as ViDM_Monitor or something similar and provide a description as needed.
5. Select HTTPS as type.  This will set the parent monitor to https and open up the "Configuration" screen with options for Send String, Receive String, and Receive Disable String among the many shown.
6. Use the following for the Send String.
   GET /SAAS/API/1.0/REST/system/health/heartbeat HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: \r\nConnection: Close\r\n\r\n
7. Use the following for the Receive String.
   ok
8. Use the following as the Receive Disable String.
   404 Not Found
9. Leave the rest of the fields as their default settings.
10. Click the FINISHED button.

Now you need to assign this to the VMware Identity Manager Pool for the F5 BIG-IP virtual server to utilize.

NOTE:  Make sure you do this part during off-hours or scheduled down time.

1. Assuming you are already logged in from above, browse to Local Traffic> Virtual Servers> Pools and select your pool of VMware Identity Manager appliances.
2. Edit the Health Monitors section to remove previous active health monitors and assign your new health monitor you just created above.
3. Click the UPDATE button when ready.
4. Validate the new health monitor works properly and as expected by viewing the pool members status and Virtual Server status within the F5 BIG-IP admin console.

Conclusion:

Now you can rest assured the F5 BIG-IP is properly monitoring your VMware Identity Manager cluster to determine which nodes are live and which are not!

Acknowledgements:

Big thanks to F5's Matt Mabis for helping us work through these settings and to VMware's Michael Almond andKaren Zelenko for guidance and support in testing this.

Dear community,

i'm dealing with vSAN since a couple of weeks and want to integrate it into our vSphere infrastructure during my trainee final project now. I'm now facing the question mentioned in the title.

We've a cluster with 4-nodes. 2 hosts of them are located in Rack A and the other ones in Rack B. I want to create several fault domains in order to save the objects exclusively on the hosts of each rack where the machine is running. For example: Machine 1 is running on a host in Rack A -> Objects should only be saved on the 2 hosts in this rack.

As far as i'm aware of vSAN i need at least 3 FD's with an additional witness appliance and create some storage policies for the machines.

What would be the best design regarding this topic? Should i create 3 FD's (on of them with 2 hosts)?

Thanks in advance for your support,

Sebastian

Hello,

I am trying to download vCenter 6.5d and got an error:

        The downloader was not able to download the missing file VMware-vSphereTlsReconfigurator-6.5.0-4635484.x86_64.rpm

My downloads include Drivers and Tools as well as all Images.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

Prezados,

Boa noite, venho aqui procurar a ajuda de vocês, pois em nosso ambiente temos encontrado constante erros com a seguinte mensagem:

"Failed to communicate with the vCenter Single Sign On server"

Oque eu preciso na verdade, não seria a solução para o erro apresentado, e sim saber se esta mensagem é gravada em algum log do servidor, como por exemplo o diretório abaixo:

E:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\SSOServer\logs

Existem vários logs nesse diretório, entretanto já procurei pelo erro informado, porém, sem sucesso. Meu objetivo com isso seria realizar uma monitoração pró-ativa quando encontrarmos esse erro.

Aguardo retorno, desde já agradeço!

Kaio Franklin!