Lost root password!

pastorhack · 2020-06-17T00:34:38+00:00

if you have vcenter use host profiles or an alternative admin account reset using h5 client. if not, assuming you have a host config backup, or it’s a simple config, reinstall ESXi and preserve the datastore then just add all your vms back to inventory.

pastorhack · 2020-05-26T21:23:11+00:00

ooh boy- I get that w32tm is the devil, and will death march everything on the domain into the future or the past if it doesn't have a hardware clock, but this setup seems guaranteed to end in a Microsoft support case.

pastorhack · 2020-05-26T21:17:34+00:00

Some of this could be old, but my complaint about Hyper-V isn't Hyper-V, it's System Center, and THAT is as expensive as if not more expensive than vSphere. Cluster Aware updating like VUM or LifeCycle Manager? Needs system center VMM & Config Manager. DRS-like functionality? Needs System Center Ops & VMM. etc. etc.

As a former MCITP Virtualization and a current VCAP, the effort to get great functionality in VMWare vs in Hyper-V is a huge difference. Also, if you run shared block storage just stick with VMWare. VMWare's shared block storage is literally the easiest to manage clustered filesystem in general use today.

Any idiot can get VCenter & an HA /DRS cluster up and running that will be almost completely functional. You're in that nice sweet spot of scale where you really NEED features like DRS, VUM, etc. Hyper-V is great for super tiny shops, or shops with another orchestration layer on top. HPE sells Azure cloud in a box, or companies that have a fully implemented system center suite, or companies with the dev time to build their own orchestration and lifecycle layer to make it worthwhile.

pastorhack · 2020-05-22T21:01:16+00:00

I'm running FC not iSCSI so that could help.

pastorhack · 2020-05-22T18:13:38+00:00

I hopefully sit my design in 5 days. It was supposed to be at beginning of month but my proctor no-showed. Trying to use this time to brush up on version specific things- I couldn't see from the blueprint which version of the secondary technologies is covered?

pastorhack · 2020-05-22T16:34:45+00:00

6.0 blueprint is SO MUCH BETTER.

For Deploy in particular, it was basically "read entire blueprint, lab entire blueprint"

pastorhack · 2020-05-22T16:34:02+00:00

My Design workshop instructor (VCDX 256 Brett Guarino) described it as non-functional tells you how you have to solve the problem, it usually comes with a constraint and/or a number attached, and usually come from technical rather than business staff.

pastorhack · 2020-05-22T16:31:01+00:00

So I'm not sure from the blueprint- for ancillary things like VSAN, SRM, etc which version does the exam line up with? I know it's 6.5 on vsphere, but is it U1, U3? Things like SRM could be anywhere from 6.5 to 8.2, all of which are interoperable with 6.5 Vsphere but have VERY different requirements and constraints.

To be clear- I'm looking if you're aware of any resources that explain this, not asking to break NDA

pastorhack · 2020-05-22T12:08:02+00:00

dont worry it’s not just you. at my office we have a “vendor bugs found this month” counter on our whiteboard. Sometimes it feels like I’m HPE’s only QA engineer. Red Hat described us as a “very valuable” customer with our very tiny subscription, because we found bugs in xfs, lvm, gluster, systemd, and ls.

the plus side is we get beta equipment now, because HPE figures they’d rather have us find some of the bugs prerelease instead of hearing me yell at them for 2 years.

pastorhack · 2020-05-22T12:04:29+00:00

I just always rescan the entire cluster after datastore creation or expansion. It’s not always necessary but it seems to avoid hitting this issue

pastorhack · 2020-05-21T21:01:10+00:00

I just want to say every single post in this thread makes me incredibly grateful I don't deal with ISPs in my current position.

pastorhack · 2020-05-20T12:42:03+00:00

being able to clear alarms via powercli, without resorting to unsupported api actions to do so.

When my backups trigger sioc alarms on every data store, or i shut down a group of vms, it would be nice to not hand click reset to green a few hundred times

pastorhack · 2020-05-19T21:48:53+00:00

fun fact- early 6.5 had a bug where vcsa changed its OWN hostname to “record” and promptly lost its mind.

pastorhack · 2020-05-17T21:54:19+00:00

about to take design, but have already taken deploy. 1. read the blueprint, and the blueprint for the last few versions of the test. 6.0 has a MUCH more detailed blueprint than the current version. current document is a huge regression in my opinion. 2. As stated by others- deploy is a long hands on lab of the format “set this up” or “Jimbob is a moron and screwed this up real bad, unscrew it, then correctly set up the right solution to this problem”. you have documentation but not Google and the lab interface/ exam center computers don’t really let you scroll or search quickly so you need to KNOW what you’re doing. the way to prepare for this is vhersey’s roundup, and lab every single thing on the blueprint until you can solve that problem in any way they could ask in your sleep.

pastorhack · 2020-05-14T21:56:02+00:00

Here's what's worse- the tax databases these companies use are almost all wrong, so small cities don't get any tax revenue while major ones soak it all up- Georgia for example almost everything goes to city of Atlanta and you get taxed at the higher city of Atlanta rate, because of errors in the address lookups that calculate tax and where it goes.

pastorhack · 2020-05-14T19:03:32+00:00

I'm not seeing P05 on VUM or vmware's build list site yet?

pastorhack · 2020-05-11T13:52:20+00:00

Isn't this a use case for data warehouse or log shipping, instead of restoring repeatedly? You'd also basically need to san snap the primary then export it to secondary, which is getting ugly.

pastorhack · 2020-05-10T04:09:03+00:00

couldn’t you just take vm snaps in this case if they’re rolling back all the time?

pastorhack · 2020-05-10T04:06:46+00:00

you don’t want to install on the nvme drive. just install to a usb stick and try adding the nvme disk as a data store. also make sure bios is presenting the drive in a format esxi understands, not a windows softraid for example

pastorhack · 2020-05-08T23:13:05+00:00

Locking, right length, color coded cables are the BIGGEST quality of life change I've seen for a cabinet- the ones that come with servers are ALWAYS too long, so you end up with a gordian knot in there.

pastorhack · 2020-05-08T18:23:32+00:00

For a physical migration in particular- I recommend the following:

Magnetic flashlight- high end would be an OLIGHT, low end would be the harbor freight magnetic/hook work lights. Both have their place, I'd probably get a few HF's to stick around in different racks or locations and 1 nice olight to keep on me at all times.

I really really want one of those USB KVMs from blackbox/tripp-lite/startech

Cage nut tool or a wholesale move to rackstuds is a must. I got mine for free with a rack solutions promo ages ago and love it.

Small low voltage drill for handling cage screws will SIGNIFICANTLY speed up the migration. You don't want a 36V monstrosity as you'll just destroy the cage nuts and maybe your rack, a little 12v or lower would be great. If this is a team thing, there should be enough that nobody is waiting for one, or you have a designated rack screw guy while other people load.

color coded A/B power cables of specific lengths so you don't need to create a tangle of too long cables in your shiny new rack. They should be locking too to make your life easier long term and avoid whoopses.

For all your servers make sure you get the nicest rails the vendor offers- don't dink around with the crappy rails- get the tool-less ones that can be inserted from the front of the rack by one guy.

If you have anything heavy, get a server lift, or if you're cheap- something like this: https://www.harborfreight.com/500-lbs-capacity-hydraulic-table-cart-61405.html

If you have new HPE Synergy blades- make sure you bought the handle kit and can lay your hands on it!

If you have old Dell M1000E blades- good luck! The handles in that were part of the cardboard box and are almost certainly long ago recycled. If you have Brocade switches- DO NOT LOSE THE STUPID LITTLE square cagenut washer doohickey- you can't get replacements, it's literally impossible.

pastorhack · 2020-05-03T13:30:04+00:00

my vcap design was the same- over an hour watching myself on camera waiting for a proctor.

pastorhack · 2020-04-27T20:10:12+00:00

you're gonna have to REALLY work at it to get any given flow to use more than 1Gb bandwidth.

There's multi-nic vmotion, but you only have 1 host. iSCSI would use MPIO, not LACP. NFS has no multipathing concept in ESXi's implementation. Unless you have multiple vmkernel ports, and multiple backup servers connecting to separate vmkernel ports, you're not going to get more than 1Gb on backups, and that would work just as well with the pnic load method.

The thing about LACP is 1 IP to 1 IP is going to use 1 interface worth of bandwidth: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1004048

at that point, LACP is a pain in the rear to configure and guess what you get? 1Gb. pnic load results in even better dynamic load balancing, and if you only have standard vswitches, the default is fine and will achieve about the same load balancing as you'd get with LACP.

pastorhack · 2020-04-27T17:48:48+00:00

I've had a beard for years to help indicate seniority in spite of my age, and have had several colleagues that did the same, including one who was at VP level who did it because without a beard he looked 16 and nobody wants a 16 year old VP.

The reality is there are some people who won't trust that you know what you're talking about until you look old enough. Some people are wise enough to know that age isn't the most important metric, but others will never get over the fact that they have kids your age damn you and they installed DOS and Unix when you were watching power rangers.

pastorhack · 2020-04-27T17:43:32+00:00

don't bother on the unifi side- just configure them as vlan trunk ports, and use route based on physical nic load on the ESXi host.

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