Category: VMware [en]

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VMworld 2018 – Day 1 – Monday

Time for Networking, Games and Hands on Labs

First official day of VMworld Europe 2018. This is a kind of warm-up. Solution Exchange is not open yet and everybody is busy there to finish work for the opening tomorrow.

There are just a few sessions today so the social area (Virtual Village) is crowded and the WiFi is overloaded with traffic. Finally I got a nice spot in the blogging lounge at VMTN.

In the middle of Virtual Village there is a gaming area with oldschool flippers, arcade games, an XXXL table kicker and a split-screen racing game. I totally failed to keep the car on track and ploughed the green instead of racing. Should have used a 4×4 car instead. 😉 You can can play a 3D desktop version of classic PONG too.

On my way through Virtual Village I’ve met a couple of friends, bloggers, vExperts that I haven’t seen since VMworld 2017. It feels like a family reunion.

 

Whenever there is some spare time, you can launch a Hands On Lab (HOL) session. For those who cannot atted VMworld this time, keep in mind that you can access HOL easily from your desk.

 

Read part 2

Read part 3

Read part 4

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vCenter and AD Domain Functional Level

If you’re running a vCenter appliance with Active Directory integration you should take care about your Domain Functional Level. It is crucial to closely work together with the domain administrators team, for some vCenter versions may not support the latest level supported by Windows Server 2016.

What is the Domain Functional Level?

Functional levels determine the available Active Directory Domain Services domain capabilities. They also determine which Windows Server operating systems you can run on domain controllers in the domain or forest. Choosing a Functional Level of Windows Server 2012 implies that there can’t be any Domain Controllers prior that level (like Server 2008 R2).

Functional levels do not affect which operating systems you can run on workstations or servers that are joined to the domain.

Set the domain and forest functional levels to the highest value that your environment can support. This way, you can use as many ADS features as possible. Continue reading “vCenter and AD Domain Functional Level”

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vSphere 6.7 U1 and Veeam Backup 9.5 U3a

Failed Backup Jobs after Update to vSphere 6.7 U1

On October 16th 2018 vSphere 6.7 Update 1 became available. An update we’ve been desperately waiting for. Finally vSphere-Client (HTML5) has become fully functional. Until that some tasks had to be done with the infamous flash client.

Unfortunately problems emerged soon after users updated their clusters to vSphere 6.7 U1 in combination with Veeam Backup jobs.

Workaround

VMware and Veeam worked hard to identify the root cause of the problem. It turned out that there was a change in the vSphere API which caused communication issues with Veeam Backup.

Latest API version is 6.7.1, but this one seems to be incompatible with Veeam Backup 9.5 U3a. According to Veeam sources, the issue will be settled with the soon to come Veeam Backup Update 4.

For all of those who have already updated their clusters to vSphere 6.7 U1 there’s a workaround. You need to enter a registry key to force Veeam Backup using the older API 6.7.

Warning! This solution is not recommended by Veeam Support. If you’re not yet on vSphere 6.7 U1 and you’re using Veeam Backup, you better wait until release of Veeam Backup 9.5 Update 4. Do not upgrade. Read this passage again!

The workaround outlined below has to be reverted as soon as Veeam 9.5 Update 4 is available.

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication

You need to add a multi-string-value (REG_MULTI_SZ). Enter the Value below:

6.7.1 = 6.7

This registry key forces Veeam Backup to use API 6.7, but might lead to other yet unknown problems. But it enables to run your Veeam Backup jobs again.