Other Techy Stuff

Lab ESXi err_cert_revoked in Chrome

dvdmorera Other Techy Stuff , , , ,

I recently deployed a new lab and encountered an error from Chrome – err_cert_revoked. Usually I click through the Chrome warnings and accept moving forward in “unsafe” mode.

However, there was no option to continue. The error supplied indicated “You cannon visit <yoursite.com” right now because this certificate has been revoked…”

Since this is an internal lab, I don’t worry much about external certs and what not, i just needed to get in my lab to do some work…

Workaround

Rename Hosts to correct name

First I found out all my hosts were named “localhost.mylab.com”, so naturally the first step was to fix the host names. Easy. Go to DCUI and change the host names for each host.

 

Backup certificate and Generate a new certificates

Once I changed all the names, I made a backup of the original certs, just in case by running the following commands under /etc/vmware/ssl 

mv rui.crt backup.rui.crt

mv rui.key backup.rui.key

Then generated new certificates by running /sbin/generate-certificates

Rebooted my hosts

 

Download new certificate

For this step, I opened the esxi UI in FireFox and when I got the error, I had the option to download the certificate and keychain. I clicked on PEM (cert) to download the cert.

 

Trust Certificate

Once I downloaded the cert I opened it on my Mac with Keychain Access. I trusted the certificate by double clicking on the cert and under Trust> changed from Use System Defaults to Always Trust under “When using this certificate” drop-down.

 

THIS IS A LAB ENVIRONMENT (internal). DO NOT TRUST sites you are not familiar with. 

 

Unable to power on VM “vmwarePhoton64Guest’ is not supported”

dvdmorera Other Techy Stuff, VSAN, vSphere , , ,

I was in the process of deploying vSAN Performance Monitor  and came across an error.

The error pops up as “No host is compatible with the virtual machine”

It further describes the error as “vmwarePhoton64Guest’ is not supported”

 

The FIX:

Right Click on the vSAN Performance Monitor VM

Select Compatibility> Upgrade VM Compatibility

 

 

 

Select yes for the upgrade. Warning: This step is NOT reversible.

 

 

Finally, select the version you want the VM to be compatible with depending on the version you are currently running.

 

More info about VM Compatibility Settings available here

ESXTOP not displaying properly?

dvdmorera Other Techy Stuff, Tools , , ,

I’ve seen quite a few posts lately about ESXTOP not displaying properly. Long story short, esxtop does not display the interactive UI and displays the CSV output instead.

If your esxtop looks like this, then you need to change the terminal declaration to something like xterm. Notice here (red rectangle), how the terminal is set to xterm-256color.

xterm-256color

 

You can change the terminal declaration from the cli, but this is not persistent through sessions.

To do this simply type “TERM=xterm“.

To display the current terminal declaration type “echo $TERM”

termxterm

 

 

This will display esxtop interface properly.

esxtop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you want this change to persist, just change your favorite terminal settings to xterm from its current setting. For example, I use my Mac’s terminal to ssh into my lab, the terminal is set to xterm-256color, which causes the display issue. So, I just opened the terminal preferences and changed the declaration to xterm. By default, putty identifies itself as xterm(1), so no need to change that. If putty is set to something else, then you can change the terminal-type string from the Connection>Data section.

term_declaration

 

My Move to VMware: The Road Ahead

dvdmorera Other Techy Stuff

vmwareI am happy to announce that I’m joining VMware as a Storage Solutions Architect. Although I am a little sad to leave my prior employer (High Availability Inc.), I am very excited for what the future holds.

 

I will be focusing on… yes, you guessed it, Virtual SAN. For those that know me, you know that this is “my thing”. I am one that makes educated decisions and calculated risks, and joining the VSAN team during these exciting times is a move I’m more than happy to make.

As a partner, I’ve seen the growing interest on VSAN as well as its adoption on businesses of all sizes. Having been part of large VSAN implementations in the past, I am looking forward to focusing on this technology, and expanding my knowledge base on all things VMware.

I would like to thank Steve at High Availability Inc. for being a super cool boss, and I wish them the best on their fast growth as a top notch VAR.

I’m looking forward to working with old acquaintances such as John Nicholson and Pete Flecha (Virtually Speaking Podcast guys), as well as the rest of the VSAN team.

 

road_ahead

VMworld ’16 TFDx: PrimaryData

dvdmorera Other Techy Stuff

pd_logoAt VMworld 2016 TechField Day extra, PrimaryData announced the launch of DataSphere allowing for simplified management and orchestration, as well as increased application uptime, and ability to scale out any storage vendor.

To be honest, I was not familiar with PrimaryData before TFDx; however, I can see say that there is a future for this technology.

What does PrimaryData bring to the table?

Well, to put it in simple terms, PrimaryData does to storage what VMware did to compute. Yes, PrimaryData virtualizes the data and is able to decouple the data from silo storage arrays, allowing admins to move data between different storage vendors with little to no downtime. PrimaryData is a software solution, so it can be deployed as an OVA or on physical hardware.

This is very powerful, in my humble opinion. I have spent the last year and a half moving customers from NetApp 7-mode to clustered mode. If the customers run VMware, then moves are as easy as a storage vMotion, but other workloads for NAS and SAN can be tricky, mainly because customers are not allowed to have downtime. Although NetApp has a tool called 7MTT, it is ok for basic moves, but not very user friendly to the point where customers require PS in order to be able to use.

I would love to see PrimaryData involved for NetApp migrations. I think this will make the adoption to clustered mode more enticing, faster, and easier.

Aside from migrations, you can look at this solution as a way to tier your data among different vendors and types of media. You can do automatic tiering based on objectives, and the software is smart enough to move your data for compliance of such objectives, whether it is on different storage vendors or the cloud.

PrimaryData works with VMware’s VSAN AND VVols, how cool is that?!?!?

Definitely check them out. This is a technology everyone should keep their eye on…

primary_data

 

Check out their TFDx presentation here