vCenter offers several ways to authenticate users including local OS authentication, SSO provided by PSC and Active Directory authentication. Today we will configure AD authentication and assign global permission to a user group from AD. For the initial configuration vCenter windows, instance and the appliance version has a slight difference. I will only illustrate the steps required to configure VCSA as the windows edition is set to phase out after the current (v.6.7) version. First, log into the vCenter Client (HTML5) and navigate to administration from the menu. Then, select configuration under Single Sign On, and select Active Directory Domain from the tabs. Then, click on Join AD. Provide the…
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Install & Configure: vSphere Replication 8.2 Part 01
Today, we will discuss on how to install and configure vSphere Replication solution. vSphere Replication is the native replication solution designed for data protection and recovery in vSphere environments. The solution is requires no additional license and supports vSphere deployments from vSphere Essentials Plus to vSphere Enterprise Plus. We will be configuring 2 separate sites connected through Embedded Link mode for the deployment (No external PSCs). First we need to download the ISO file containing the replication appliance OVA. The file is located at my.vmware.com under All Products –> VMware vSphere. After downloading the ISO, mount it from the local PC. If you browse to the mount location you will…
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How to configure vCenter Server 6.7 File-Based Backup
With the growth of VMware ecosystem with components such as VSAN and NSX, vCenter Server has become a critical component of vSphere environment. Therefore, VMware has provided a simple way to backup vCenter Server appliance as needed and according to the BCP guidelines of the institution. vCenter Server Appliance supports file-based backup over protocols such as FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, SFTP, NFS, and SMB. We need to provide a remote location as backup destination and VCSA does not retain any backups locally. So let’s start the configuration. I am using an FTP endpoint as a backup location. First, we need to log into the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface. Then,…
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How to update vCenter Server
Applying minor updates to vCenter and Platform Service Controller appliances is little bit different than upgrading to Major versions. You are able to apply the updates using the online repository or using your own repository or using the patch ISO. Today we will look at how to apply minor updates to vCenter and PSA using on-premise repo or patch CD. Update vCenter/PSC using on-premise repository First you need to download the repository bundle from my.vmware.com. Upgrade repository is located in the same place where you find the vCenter installation media, under the name “VMware vCenter Server Appliance Update Bundle” Then extract the update bundle into a web server you prefer.…
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How to Migrate vCenter Server from v5.5 to v6.5
VMware has ended general support for vSphere version 5.5 on September 19th 2018 and suggested to upgrade existing versions to v6.5. Today we will look at how to migrate existing vCenter v5.5 instanceto v6.5. I have chosen to migrate from a windows vCenter to a vCenter appliance since those are the popular/preferred installations of their respective versions. First, as usual we need to download the vCenter Server Appliance installation binary from my.vmware.com. Once you have complete your download, mount the ISO image and then navigate to the mounted CDROM. From there copy the folder named “migration assistant” into your vCenter 5.5 Server. After copy operation completed, navigate inside “migration assistant”…
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Upgrade vSphere Environment Part 2 – Upgrade ESXi Hosts to v6.7
Now that we have upgraded our vCenter Server, we can proceed to upgrade our ESXi hosts. First, let’s look at various options available for upgrade ESXi hosts. There are several different ways to upgrade an ESXi hosts as listed below, Upgrade ESXi host using installation media (DCUI, CLI or Script) Upgrade ESXi host using vSphere Update Manager Upgrade ESXi host using Auto deploy From those methods we will discuss about upgrading ESXi hosts using vSphere Update Manager and using installation media (DCUI). Before upgrade process begins you should verify the system meets the upgrade requirements. You can refer reference links to verify upgrade requirements. Then we need to prepare the…
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Upgrade vSphere Environment Part 1 – Upgrade vCenter Server Appliance to v6.7
Currently, we have deployed a vSphere environment with one vCenter Server appliance v6.5 with external PSC and 3 ESXi 6.5 hosts. VMware has released the latest upgrade for vSphere platform on April 2018. So let’s upgrade our environment to the version 6.7 as well. In this post we will discuss about the method of upgrading vCenter server and we will upgrade ESXi hosts later in a separate post. You should always upgrade vCenter server before upgrading ESXi hosts as vCenter cannot manage hosts which are higher in version. Major version upgrades to vCenter appliance can be consider as a migration as well. Since we have to deploy new VCSA and…
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Add ESXi Hosts to a HA/DRS Cluster
During our previous posts we have installed and configured a vCenter Server and ESXi hosts. Now that we have our cluster configured with HA and DRS features, lets add our ESXi hosts to the cluster. First, right click on the cluster and select Add host. Then, provide the FQDN or the IP address of the host you need to add to the cluster. Click next to continue. Provide the username and password to connect to the host and click next to continue. You will get a prompt about validation of host certification. Accept it to continue. Wizard will provide a summary of information about the host. Click next to continue.…
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Configure HA/DRS Cluster
Now we have a vCenter Server configured and running with an external PSC but we are yet to add hosts to the vCenter and enable vSphere features like vSphere HA and DRS. What is vSphere High Availability vSphere HA is a feature enabled at the vSphere cluster level to reduce unplanned downtimes. vSphere HA can protect applications availability in following ways, It can protect virtual machines against a server failure by restarting affected VMs on a another available host. It can protect against an application failure by continuously monitoring a virtual machine and resetting it once a failure was detected. vSphere HA can protect against a datastore accessibility failure by…
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Install & Configure: VMware vCenter Server 6.5 with External PSC
Now we have multiple ESXi hosts installed and configured in our environment. Managing those ESXi hosts individually through host web client or vSphere legacy client can be a tedious task. Also you are missing features like vSphere HA, DRS, VM cloning and template management. Solution to all those problems is installing an vCenter server to centralize management of ESXi hosts. Now let’s install and configure VMware vCenter server v6.5. You can download a trial version of vCenter Server from my.vmware.com. Since the vSphere version 5.0 VMware offered an appliance version for vCenter but windows version had more capabilities and features. But from version 6.0 and 6.5 VMware has put more…
