VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 8.2 installation and configuration!

Hi,

I would like to cover step by step installation and configuration of a new Site Recovery Manager 8.2 deployment.

Site Recovery Manager 8.x version has a lot of new enhancements. The best part is you don’t need a windows OS to install SRM with a SQL database.

SRM 8.x is now available as an appliance with Photon OS and embedded postgress DB.

This will help you save on the OS license cost and the support for OS and DB is now provided by VMware.

Right Click Cluster and select Deploy OVF

Select all the five files part of the SRM installer package

Select a ESXi host to deploy the OVF inside the virtual datacenter and Cluster

Review the details and click Next

Accept the license agreement and click Next

Choose the number of vCPUs. I am going with the default configuration of 4 vCPU and 12 GB RAM

Choose the datastore where you want to deploy this OVF. In this case, it is a VSAN datastore.

For a VSAN datastore also choose the VM storage policy. In this case, it is vSAN Default Storage Policy.

Select the management network for SRM and choose Static-Manual in the IP allocation.

Provide a hostname (FQDN) to the SRM appliance and configure NTP servers.

Choose the root password for the appliance.

Provide all the details like Default gateway, domain name, DNS server, Domain search path and IP address and Netmask.

Review all the details and then click Finish (I have masked all the details in the screenshot)

Once the appliance is deployed open the console of the VM and follow instructions to change the timezone to whatever is the correct timezone.

Open the VAMI portal https://IP_address:5480

Check the timezone from the VAMI

You will notice the srm-server service will be in stopped state since we have not configured SRM yet

Check the version and the build number in the summary tab

Click on Configure appliance to configure SRM

Provide details of the Platform services controller to register SRM to PSC. Also, provide the SSO username and password.

In my case since PSC is embedded with vCenter, the PSC hostname is the same as the vCenter server name.

Username will be administrator@vSphere.local (this may vary in your environment, in case you have a custom SSO domain name)

There will be a security alert for a certificate. On vCenter/PSC, we are using a custom certificate and SRM has a self-signed certificate.

Click on Connect

Select the vCenter server for which you want to configure SRM.

In my case, we are configuring SRM for DR of management VMs so I selected the management vCenter server.

A similar certificate warning for connecting to the vCenter server. Click on connect

Here provide a Site name. This is just a logical name of the location.

Fill in the administrator email Id. This ID will be used to send notifications.

Local host details will be auto-populated. This is the FQDN of the SRM server.

Choose a default extension ID in case you wish to pair this with one SRM only.

Review all the details and click Finish

It will start configuring Site Recovery Manager. Wait for 5-10 minutes.

The SRM appliance is configured successfully. Just validate all the details and the version/build number.

The srm-server service is now in started state.

We now need to follow similar steps on the DR site.

Once SRM is deployed and registered with VC/PSC on both the sites, the next step is to pair these two sites to atuomate the failover operations.

Hope this helps!

Thank you.

vSphere replication 8.2 Installation and configuration!

Hi,

I would like to cover step by step installation and configuration of a new vSphere replication 8.2.

Initially, the plan was to perform a migration from 6.5.x to 8.2 version which failed even after multiple events as there was an isolated traffic for replication configured on the source VR.

So we unconfigured replication for all the VMs and unregistered vSphere replication from vCenter and deployed a new one.

There are articles on internet on how to unconfigure replication and unregister VR.

Steps :

Select the last 5 highlighted files to deploy vSphere replication 8.2 as OVF

Give a name for the vSphere replication VM. It will use this name to register itself to vCenter server

Now here expand the Datacenter and cluster and select an ESXi host where you want to deploy this OVF. In my case we are deploying this on a management vCenter server on a management cluster ESXi host.

Review the details. Here it shows the version of VR appliance and the size on disk

Accept the license agreement and Click Next

Select the number of vCPUs for this appliance. Default is 4 vCPUs

Here choose the datastore to deploy the appliance and also select virtual disk format for this VM

In my case we are deploying this on a VSAN datastore so I also had to choose the VM storage policy as VSAN default storage policy for this VM

Here choose the network for the VM. This will the management network for the VM.

Choose the portgroup which has VLAN of the management network. The VM will get the IP from this VLAN.

Provide the hostname (FQDN) of the VM, NTP servers with comma-separated and root password for the appliance.

In the networking properties section, provide Default Gateway for this VM, Domain Name like abc.com, DNS servers (comma-separated), and Domain search path.

Domain search path may be the same as Domain name.

Also, provide the IP address and Netmask for this VM.

Click Next

The details here will auto-populate. This is register vSphere replication as a vCenter extensions at runtime.

Ensure there is a check against Binding status and the validation message is success.

Review all the configuration details and then Click Finish to start the deployment.

Post the deployment is completed successfully open the VAMI of the vSphere replication appliance.

https://IP_address:5480

Login to VAMI with the root credentials provided during the deployment.

In the configuration tab the VRM service will be in the stopped state till you register VR with the lookup service.

Here in the lookup service address provide the FQDN of the PSC and SSO administrator ID and password.

VRM Host and vCenter server address details will auto-populate.

Specify a VRM Site Name. For Eg : MUM for Mumbai or DEL for Delhi.

If you do not want a separate network for incoming storage traffic it will take the IP address of the vSphere replication appliance management network.

Once you have filled all the details Save and restart the service.

If all the information provided are correct vSphere replication will successfully register itself with the lookup service and the VRM service will be in running state.

 

This completed the deployment as well as the configuration of the 8.2 vSphere replication appliance.

vSphere replication 8.2 has the same streamlined HTML5 user interface as in 8.1.

Below is What’s new in vSphere replication 8.2 :

• VMware vSphere Replication 8.2 adds compatibility with VMware vSphere 6.7 Update 2.
• Support for VM encryption: You can replicate encrypted virtual machines if you are using VMware vSphere 6.7 Update 1 or later.
• Minimize security risks by enabling network encryption: You can enable encryption of replication data transfer in VMware vSphere Replication 8.2, if you are using VMware vSphere 6.0 or later.
• Enhancements to the Site Recovery user interface: With vSphere Replication 8.2, you can monitor target datastores in the replication details pane of the Site Recovery user interface, and use vSphere Replication reports that display transferred bytes per virtual machine and per hour.
• vRealize Operations Management Pack: The new vRealize Operations Management Pack for vSphere Replication 8.2 provides increased visibility into the status of your vSphere Replication environment, RPO violations and other details.

Hope this blog helps you if you are planning to install vSphere replication 8.2.

In the next blog I will cover the installation and configuration of Site Recovery Manager 8.2.

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

TAM Webinar Series for VMware TAM customers!!

Hello,

I have been running VMware TAM R&D webinar series for all the current and prospective TAM customers in India.

The idea is to bridge the communication between customers and the VMware R&D team and also help customers get insights on VMware solutions from R&D and product management perspective.

The webinars also have some roadmap content which can be shared with the customers.

It is a win-win as R&D and product management team also gets to know the feedback from the customers which then further helps in improving the solution to meet their requirements.

We have been running this since almost a year now and have organized 11 webinars on different VMware solutions.

Just thought to upload all the webinars on YouTube and open it up for all. (Old to new)

Watch it and share your feedback on the content :

I will continue to update the list as and when we organize more webinars.

• What’s new in vSphere 6.7 U2  https://bit.ly/39eTZsl
• VMware Cloud on AWS https://bit.ly/32BqnEk
• VSAN Architecture overview and it’s capabilities https://bit.ly/2OI4b3b
• vRLCM architecture overview and capabilities https://bit.ly/2OF0AD7
• Getting Started with Enterprise PKS https://bit.ly/39al6VJ
• What’s new in VMware Cloud Foundation : https://bit.ly/3eMME4B
• vRealize Automation 8.x Architecture overview : https://bit.ly/30rXUOF
• Multi Cloud Management and What’s new in vROPs 8.1 https://bit.ly/3hifYSi
• VMware Horizon Enabling Work from Home Solutions https://bit.ly/3eFkx7m
• What’s new in vSphere 7.0 https://bit.ly/3hiyfyC
• What’s new in SRM 8.3 and Integration of SRM with vVOLs https://bit.ly/3eMfdis

Do share it with your friends and colleagues and spread the knowledge!

Thanks!

 

 

 

Breaking: Oracle and VMware Partner to Support…

Breaking: Oracle and VMware Partner to Support…

New Oracle Cloud VMware Solution will enable Customers to Run VMware Workloads on Oracle Cloud

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Automate vSphere Tags on multiple VMs with VMware PowerCLI!!

Hi All,

I want to introduce Aman Sapra VMware TAM as a Guest blogger for this post. Aman has helped us to automate creation of Categories and tags for multiple virtual machines for one of the customers.

The ask was to associate VMs with multiple tags and later call the same tags in vROPs to create custom groups.

The script worked like a charm and we were able to meet all the customer requirements.

I want to use my blog as a platform to share this script created by Aman.

Thanks Aman. Appreciate your efforts in helping us with this powerful script.

—————————————————————————————————————————————-

Connect-viserver vCenterServerName -user username -pass password

Write-Host “`n”

#Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -Scope User -ParticipateInCEIP $false

#//Import the CMDB CSV file//

$CMDBInfo = Import-CSV “filepath\cmdb.csv”

#//Get list of VMs from the file//

$listVMs= $CMDBInfo.Name

# //Get the header names to use as Tag Category Names//

$TagCatNames = $cmdbinfo | Get-Member | Where {$_.MemberType -eq “NoteProperty”} | Select -Expand Name

$Categories = $TagCatNames | Where {$_ -ne “Name”}

#//Fetch list of Tag Categories which already exist in vCenter//

$vCenterTagCats= Get-TagCategory

Write-Host “////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////” -ForegroundColor White

Write-Host “Tag Category Creation Section:” -ForegroundColor Cyan

Write-Host “////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////`n” -ForegroundColor White

#//Create Tag Category if it does not exist//

foreach ($Categorie in $Categories)

{

foreach ($vCenterTagCat in $vCenterTagCats)

{

if ($vCenterTagCat.Name -eq $Categorie)

{

$printTagCat= 1

}

}

if($printTagCat -eq “1”)

{

#//Tag Category with the specified name already exists in vCenter//

Write-Host “Tag category with name $Categorie already exists`n” -ForegroundColor Red

}

else

{

#//Creating a new Tag Category in vCenter//

Write-Host “Creating Tag Catergory $Categorie `n” -ForegroundColor Green

New-TagCategory -Name $Categorie -Description “$Categorie from CMDB” | Out-Null

}

$printTagCat=””

}

Write-Host “////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////” -ForegroundColor White

Write-Host “Tag Creation Section:” -ForegroundColor Cyan

Write-Host “////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////`n” -ForegroundColor White

#//Create Tag if it does not exist//

foreach ($Categorie in $Categories)

{

$vCenterTags= Get-Tag -Category $Categorie | Select Name

 

#//Get the list of Unique Tags from the $CMDBInfo Variable//

$listCMDBTags = $CMDBInfo.$Categorie | Get-Unique

foreach ($listCMDBTag in $listCMDBTags)

{

foreach ($vCenterTag in $vCenterTags)

{

if($listCMDBTag -eq $vCenterTag.Name)

{

$printTag=1

}

}

if($printTag -eq “1”)

{

#//A Tag with the specified name already exists in vCenter//

Write-Host “Tag with name $listCMDBTag already exists`n” -ForegroundColor Red

}

else

{

#//Creating a New Tag in vCenter//

 

Write-Host “Creating New Tag $listCMDBTag of Category $Categorie`n” -ForegroundColor Green

New-Tag -Name $listCMDBTag -Category $Categorie -Description “$listCMDBTag from CMDB” | Out-Null

}

$printTag=””

}

}

Write-Host “////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////” -ForegroundColor White

Write-Host “Tag Assignment Section:” -ForegroundColor Cyan

Write-Host “////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////`n” -ForegroundColor White

#//Assigning Tag to VM if the Tag of same category is not already assigned//

foreach ($listVM in $listVMs)

{

#//Fetch the list of Tag values for each VM in the CSV file//

$linevalue = $CMDBInfo | where{$_.Name -eq $listVM}

foreach ($Categorie in $Categories)

{

#//Fetch Tag Value for each Category//

$TagValue = $linevalue.$Categorie

$ExistingVMTags = (Get-VM $listVM | Get-TagAssignment).Tag

foreach ($ExistingVMTag in $ExistingVMTags)

{

#//Check if VM already has a Tag of the specified Category Assigned to it//

if ($Categorie -eq $ExistingVMTag.Category.Name)

{

$setvalue=1

Write-Host “VM $listVM already has a Tag of Category $Categorie assigned`n” -ForegroundColor Red

}

}

#//If VM does not have the Tag of specified Category, Assign the Tag to the VM//

if($setvalue -ne “1”)

{

Write-Host “Assigning Tag $TagValue of Category $Categorie to VM $listVM`n” -ForegroundColor Green

$TagAssignment = Get-Tag -Category $Categorie -Name $TagValue

New-TagAssignment -entity $listVM -Tag $Tagassignment | Out-Null

}

$setvalue=””

}

}

Disconnect-VIServer -Confirm:$false

—————————————————————————————————————————————-

Thanks again!

Hope this helps!

Upgrade vRealize Operations Manager from 6.6.1 to 7.5

Hello,

We recently upgraded vRealize Operations Manager at one of my customers environment from 6.6.1 to 7.5.

There has been a 6.7 and 7.0 version released before but since allocation model was discontinued in both the versions we decided to hold on to the upgrade until allocation model is back.

The customer was using a lot of allocation based metrics to perform capacity planning in advance and just using the utilization metrics was not viable.

Once the 7.5 version was out and the allocation model was brought in after hearing feedback from lot of customers we decided to upgrade our vROPs version.

Before you start, it is important to perform an interoperability check of vROPs 7.5 version with all the other solutions integrated with vROPs.

It is very important to run the pre-assessment upgrade pak to know the dashboards, reports, MPs, metrics and super metrics which will be impacted and what are the alternate metrics available if there are any.

In our case listed below metrics were impacted and we managed to find out some alternate metrics against it to minimize the impact.

I was working with vROPs Engineering team to work on this and find out a metric which does not have a replacement metric available.

You may also have to create a super metric where there is no replacement metric against it.

Metric Name	Metric Key	Replacement Metric Name	Replacement Metric Key
CPU|Allocation|Computed Demand	cpu|alloc|base.demand	vCPUs Allocated on all Powered On VMs	N/A
Memory|Total Capacity	mem|actual.capacity.normalized	Memory|Total Capacity	mem|guest_provisioned
Memory|Total Capacity	mem|actual.capacity.normalized	Memory|Total Capacity	mem|guest_provisioned
Summary|Number of Datastores	summary|number_datastore	Disabled, Can be enabled	N/A
CPU|Demand|Provisioned	cpu|demand|consumer.capacity.background	CPU|vCPUS Allocated on all Powered On VMs	N/A
Memory|Demand Reclaimable|Provisioned	mem|demand-waste|consumer.capacity.background	Memory|Memory Allocated on All VMs	mem|memory_allocated_on_all_vms
CPU|Idle time	cpu|idletimepercent	Use Reclaimable Idle	N/A
Datastore I/O|Reads per second|Idle time	datastore|number_read|idletimepercent		N/A
Datastore I/O|Writes per second|Idle time	datastore|number_write|idletimepercent		N/A
Network IO|Data Receive Rate|Idle time	net|received|idletimepercent		N/A
Network IO|Data Transmit Rate|Idle time	net|transmitted|idletimepercent		N/A
Memory|Total Capacity	mem|actual.capacity.normalized	Memory|Total Capacity	mem|guest_provisioned
Summary|Number of Datastores	summary|number_datastore	Disabled, Can be enabled	N/A
Summary|Number of Networks	summary|number_network	Summary|Configuration|No of NICs	summary|config|numEthernetCards
CPU|Allocation|Total Capacity	cpu|alloc|actual.capacity.normalized	Number of physical Cores (CPUs)
CPU|Allocation|Usable Capacity	cpu|alloc|object.capacity	CPU|Allocation|UsableCapacity	This is the number of vCPUs multipled by overcommit ratio setting defined in policy, and MINUS vsphere HA
CPU|Demand|Provisioned	cpu|demand|consumer.capacity.background	CPU|vCPUS Allocated on all Powered On VMs
Memory|Allocation|Total Capacity	mem|alloc|actual.capacity.normalized	Memory|Total Capacity (KB)	mem|host_provisioned
Memory|Allocation|Computed Demand	mem|alloc|base.demand	Memory Allocated on all Powered On VMs (KB)
Memory|Allocation|Usable Capacity	mem|alloc|object.capacity	Memory|Allocation|Usable Capacity

Once you have this sorted the next step is to download the OS and the VA upgrade pak file from here

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=VROPS-750&productId=875&rPId=32115

vRealize Operations Manager – Virtual Appliance Operating System upgrade
File size: 2.31 GB
File type: pak

vRealize Operations Manager – Virtual Appliance upgrade
File size: 1.82 GB
File type: pak

The first step is to peform a OS upgrade and then the VA upgrade.

Before you initiate the upgrade ensure you have necessary backup available to return to the original state in case it is required.

Logon to the management interface of vROps using https://<vrops>/admin URL:

 

The next step is to take the cluster offline.

Select Software update, Install a software update and first upload the OS update PAK file.

 

Upload the OS update PAK file.The upload will begin staging and then let the upload 100% complete.

Select I accept the terms of the agreement

Read the update and release information before you click on Next

To start the update click Next

The installation of the OS upgrade is now in progress.

The upgrade for vRealize Operations Manager Enterprise OS update is now complete. You can now see the new version 7.5.0 build number 13165947

 

Now the next step is to follow the same process for the vROPs 7.5 application PAK file.

Click on Install Software Update and then upload the vRealize Operations Manager – Virtual Appliance upgrade PAK file.

Let the PAK file 100% upload.

Once the PAK file is 100% uploaded, validate it and then click Next.

Accept the terms and conditions and click Next.

Review the update and release information and click Next.

Now click Install to start the update.

The application upgrade is now in progress and the vRealize Operations Manager admin UI becomes unavailable for a small moment.

Once the UI is back login to the admin portal again and check the current progress and monitor the upgrade to complete successfully.

 

 

Once the upgrade is completed successfully login to vROPs main UI and validate the current installed version.

Post the validation is successful do remember to delete the snapshots from all the nodes that you would have taken before initiating the upgrade.

Hope this helps!

 

 

From VMworld: Introducing Project Pacific!

From VMworld: Introducing Project Pacific!

Today VMware announced Project Pacific, what I believe to be the biggest evolution of vSphere in easily the last decade. Simply put, we are rearchitecting vSphere to deeply integrate and embed Kubernetes. Project Pacific evolves vSphere to be a native Kubernetes platform. What’s driving this shift? Fundamentally it goes to what constitutes a modern application. The post Introducing Project Pacific appeared first on VMware vSphere Blog.

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Breaking: Google Cloud and VMware Extend…

Breaking: Google Cloud and VMware Extend…

New solution will support VMware workloads running in GCP; empower customers’ hybrid and multi-cloud strategies

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VMware Social Media Advocacy

The vMotion Process Under the Hood

The vMotion Process Under the Hood

The vMotion Process Under the Hood

The VMware vSphere vMotion feature is one of the most important capabilities in today’s virtual infrastructures. Since its inception in 2002 and the release in 2003, it allows us to migrate the active state of a virtual machines from one physical ESXi host to another. Today, the ability to seamlessly migrate virtual machines is an integral The post The vMotion Process Under the Hood appeared first on VMware vSphere Blog.

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VMware to Acquire Bitnami

VMware announces intent to acquire Bitnami, a leader in application packaging for multi-cloud environments. Find out how #Bitnami will help #VMware accelerate our #multi-cloud and #Kubernetes offerings and efforts!

VMware to Acquire Bitnami

Organizations today are on a multi-cloud journey, and VMware is committed to investing in solutions that address the core needs of our customers. In that spirit, VMware is announcing its intent to acquire Bitnami, a leader in application packaging solutions providing the largest catalog of click-to-deploy applications and development stacks for major cloud and Kubernetes The post VMware to Acquire Bitnami appeared first on VMware Cloud Community.

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