Virtualization & Storage
The definition of a VxRail Dynamic node: ‘VxRail systems that are compute-only nodes used to form a vSphere cluster.’ This essentially means that a VxRail Dynamic node cluster relies on having external storage acting as primary. Support for HCI Mesh and FC based external storage compute-only clusters was introduced as part of the VxRail 7.0.240 release. These compute-only ESXi VxRail […]
One method of consuming the available VxRail APIs is by leveraging the VxRail API PowerShell Modules Package from within your Windows OS using PowerShell. Each public API has a corresponding […]
See also related Post: https://davidring.ie/2019/09/18/vxrail-lookup-model-psnt/ In addition to the physical tag at the front of the VxRail appliance you may also leverage PowerCLI, ESXi console or vCenter GUI to pull the ST/SN of each VxRail appliance. PowerCLI Get-Hosts -Server VxRailManager_IP -Username administrator@vsphere.local -Password PW |ft sn, hostname ESXi Console Per individual host: /opt/vxrail/tools/ipmitool fru print 17 vCenter UI With the […]
Prior to VCF 4.3 Application Virtual Networks(AVN)s including the NSX Edge Cluster and NSX network segments were deployed and configured during bring-up by Cloud Builder. Example of this process can […]
One method of consuming the available VxRail APIs is by leveraging the VxRail API PowerShell Modules Package from within your Windows OS using PowerShell. Each public API has a corresponding PowerShell cmdlet included in the VxRail PowerShell modules starting with VxRail 4.7.300. The API User Guide can be found here: https://support.emc.com/docu91468_VxRail-Appliance-4.5.x,-4.7.x,-and-7.0.x-API-Guide.pdf?language=en_US Steps to install the VxRail API PowerShell Modules Package […]
This is the third post in a series of posts covering VCF On VxRail 4.2. The previous posts detailed an example walkthrough covering the process of: Deploying a VxRail Management Workload Domain cluster Deploying VMware CloudBuilder for VxRail Bring-Up of VCF 4.2 Deploying a VI WLD Part 1 & Part 2 Versions used in this example are VCF 4.2 & VxRail 7.0.131. Release Notes: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-Foundation/4.2/rn/vmware-cloud-foundation-on-dell-emc-vxrail-22-release-notes.html […]
This is the second in a series of posts covering VCF On VxRail 4.2. The following detailed post provides an example walkthrough covering the process of deploying a VI Workload Domain with a […]
This is the first in a series of posts covering VCF On VxRail 4.2. The following detailed post provides an example walkthrough covering the process of: Deploying a VxRail Management Workload Domain […]
In order to prevent the opportunity of a Man In The Middle (MiTM) attack VMware have introduced a security feature which validates the SSH RSA fingerprint and SSL thumbprint of […]
‘Can a single vCenter server support/manage multiple VxRail clusters?’ Let me first explain the two methods of deploying a vCenter server to support a VxRail cluster: VxRail Managed vCenter Server […]
VxVerify – Pre-upgrade Health Check Tool VxVerify is an incredibly useful tool to have at your disposal while working with VxRail. Complimentary to the native VxRail manager checks VxVerify performs […]
Switch model: S4048-ON Code Version: 9.10(0.1) 48 Ten GigabitEthernet/IEEE 802.3 interface(s)6 Forty GigabitEthernet/IEEE 802.3 interface(s) Brief detail in relation to setting Layer-2 switchport mode on all 48x10GbE ethernet interfaces to support L2 VLAN based networking: cork-vxrail1-tor#conf tcork-vxrail1-tor(conf)#interface range tengigabitethernet 1/1-1/48cork-vxrail1-tor(conf-if-range-te-1/1-1/48)#switchportcork-vxrail1-tor(conf-if-range-te-1/1-1/48)#no shutcork-vxrail1-tor(conf-if-range-te-1/1-1/48)#exitcork-vxrail1-tor(conf)#exitcork-vxrail1-tor# To revert to non switchport mode: cork-vxrail1-tor#conf tcork-vxrail1-tor(conf)#interface range tengigabitethernet 1/1-1/48cork-vxrail1-tor(conf-if-range-te-1/1-1/48)#no switchportcork-vxrail1-tor(conf-if-range-te-1/1-1/48)#exitcork-vxrail1-tor(conf)#exitcork-vxrail1-tor#
I hit the following issue recently while creating a VCF 4.1 ‘NSX-T VI Workload Domain‘ for a VCF on VxRail solution: Referring to the VMware VCF 4.0.1 Release Notes (extract): VI workload domain creation or expansion operations fail If there is a mismatch between the letter case (upper or lower) of an ESXi host’s FQDN and the FQDN used when […]
Switch model: S4048-ON Code Version: 9.10(0.1) 48 Ten GigabitEthernet/IEEE 802.3 interface(s)6 Forty GigabitEthernet/IEEE 802.3 interface(s) Brief detail in relation to setting an MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) value on all 48x10GbE ethernet interfaces to support Jumbo Frames: cork-vxrail1-tor#conf tcork-vxrail1-tor(conf)#interface range tengigabitethernet 1/1-1/48cork-vxrail1-tor(conf-if-range-te-1/1-1/48)#mtu 9216cork-vxrail1-tor(conf-if-range-te-1/1-1/48)#exitcork-vxrail1-tor(conf)#exitcork-vxrail1-tor#show interfaces tengigabitethernet 1/1 | grep MTUMTU 9216 bytes, IP MTU 9198 bytescork-vxrail1-tor# To revert to default MTU value […]
The following log files can be accessed either via console or SSH to VxRail Manager. Useful VxRail Manager 7.0.010+ Log Files Note: SLES15 is the OS used for VxRail Manager. Monitor VxRail bring-up logs: dayone.log , short.term.log & firstboot.log: dayone.log – detailed information in relation to initial first run configuration. (/var/log/microservice_log/dayone.log) short.term.log – micro services related information. (/var/log/microservice_log/short.term.log) firstboot.log – detailed information […]
For VxRail 4.7 please see earlier post: VxRail 4.7 – Install Notes Note: this is an example for reference only please use the VxRail installation procedures provided by Dell EMC. […]
VxRail code release 4.7.410 and above uses a 2048-bit RSA Public Key for the SSH Server on VxRail Manager . This replaces the 1024-bit DSA Public Key previously used. Image […]
The following post details how to view task information via CLI on an ESXi host. Task details such as: Snapshot operations, for example create/delete/consolidate Clone operations As can be seen […]
UEFI0315: Unable to process an iDRAC request to configure Secure Boot keys because of a communication error between BIOS and iDRAC. Encountered the above error on a VxRail 13G host […]
In a previous post I provided an example walk-through of the process for adding a new host to an existing VCF 4.1 on VxRail ‘VI Workload Domain (WLD)’: https://davidring.ie/2020/12/16/vcf-4-1-on-vxrail-expand-a-cluster-add-node/ In this post I will provide an example walk-through of the process for removing a host from a VCF 4.1 on VxRail ‘VI Workload Domain (WLD)’. There are various reasons you may wish to perform this task […]
Ramblings by Keith Lee
Discussions about all things VxRail.
Random Technology thoughts from an Irish Virtualization Geek (who enjoys saving the world in his spare time).
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