VCSA 6.7 archive partition filling up

During a cluster routine check with RVtools I’ve seen a warning.

Warnings like this on a vCenter appliance let my alarm bells ring. Partitions filling up close to 100% are not a desirable condition. But let’s have a look into VAMI (vCenter Appliance Management Interface).

https://<vcsa_FQDN>:5480

Now that’s strange. Everything seems to be in a green state. It’s a VCSA 6.7 Update 2a (6.7.0.31000). Older versions did show a storage warning. “File system /storage/archive is low on storage space“. But this appliance seems to be happy. Let’s have a look at the shell, to see what’s really happening.

It looks like mount point /storage/archive is almost filled up.

30. June 201930. June 2019

Login to VCSA VAMI not possible

To manage a vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) there’s a special user interface called Virtual Appliance Management Infrastructure (VAMI). You can access it by entering the FQDN of your vCenter into a browser, followed by port 5480.

https://<mycenterFQDN>:5480

This UI helps you to monitor your vCenter Virtual Appliance. You can change basic settings, apply updates and watch system status.

After updating a VCSA to the latest version of vCenter, I had to reboot the appliance. After the reboot process had finished, I wasn’t able to login to VAMI. Sometimes services need quite some time to become available, but even waiting for a longer period of time (a cup of coffee) nothing happened. VAMI presented a login screen, so obviously the webserver was up and running. But each time I entered the (correct) credentials I got the message “unable to login”. Screenshot is in German but you’ll most likely get the point ;-).

Translation from German: Unable to login.

25. April 201925. April 2019

NSX 6.4 UI problem with older vCenter versions

I’m a great fan of vSphere-Client a.k.a HTML5 client. The user interface based on project clarity is an eye catcher and the user experience is great. But sometimes you’re forced to use the old Flash based flex-client. Not with latest vCenter Server 6.7 but with older releases like vSphere 6.0.

We were facing compatibility issues between flex-client 6.0 and NSX 6.4.4 although it’s a supported combination.

26. February 2019

ESXi host restore with obstacles

Unable to re-join EVC cluster after restore of ESXi system

Changing boot media of ESXi hosts (unfortunately) has become a routine job. It is based on the fact, that many flash media have a limited lifespan. To be fair, I need to point out that many customers use (cheap and dirty) USB flash sticks as boot media. But what is good in a homelab, turns out to be a bad idea in enterprise environments.

The usual procedure for media replacement is fairly simple:

export host configuration
evacuate and shut down host
prepare fresh boot medium with installation ISO that has the same or lower patchlevel as the old installation
boot freshly installed host
apply (intermediate) IP address if no DHCP available
restore host configuration
re-connect to cluster
apply patches if neccessary

So far so good. But last week I had a nasty experience with a recovered ESXi host. Continue reading “ESXi host restore with obstacles”