Active Directory Web Services encountered an error while reading the settings for the specified Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services instance. Active Directory Web Services will retry this operation periodically. In the mean time, this instance will be ignored. Instance name: ADAM_VMwareVCMSDS

I remember this happening before in vCenter 4.1, the fix was to modify a registry key for the Port SSL Value.  Here is where you need to modify it for vCenter 5.x:

• Key:  HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\ADAM_VMwareVCMSDS\Parameters
• Value:  Port SSL
• Type:  REG_DWORD
• Data:  636

You will notice that there is already a value there but it is a REG_SZ.  You will need to delete this one and create the above value.  Once you do this, restart the VMwareVCMSDS service and you should be good to go.

http://professionalvmware.com/2011/12/brownbag-blow-out-vsphere-lab-give-away/

From what I can see the additions of more prizes tied to this awesome give away just keep piling in.  Go over to ProfessionalVMware.com and check it out…go ahead and sign up for it…maybe you will soon have a lab to build on your knowledge of VMware products.

The wait is over!  Let the alignment begin!

Presenting UBERAlign, a tool for VMware Virtual Machine alignment and Space Reclamation

Some of the features:

• Allows for fast alignment checking of virtual machines with detailed logging.
• Can perform alignment to any offset you want. Even the crazy ones that you shouldn’t choose.
• Works with both Windows 2000/XP/2003/2008 (NTFS) and Linux Distros (EXT2/EXT3/EXT4).
• Is able to work on NTFS boot drives perfectly. It does this by rewriting NTFS Metadata (the right way).
• Auto detects Windows 2008 and Windows 7 native installs (alignment not needed). Will not touch a System Reserved Partition (important for Windows 2008).
• Preserves all Windows drive mapping (AFAIK only one to do so). This means no having to remap drive letters and complete support for non “C:\”  system drives with some Windows builds (some Citrix stuff).
• Completely Storage Array agnostic. That’s right: if it connects to vSphere and host storage UBERAlign will work with it.

That list is only a small portion of the feature list.  The best part of all of this is that this tools is completely free.  Thanks to Nick over at Nickapedia (http://nickapedia.com) for taking the time to develop such a great tool and bring it into the community for that awesome price of FREE!

Head over to Nickapedia to read more and download the tool.  The link is: http://nickapedia.com/2011/11/03/straighten-up-with-a-new-uber-tool-presenting-uberalign/

1. Convert your template VM back to a normal VM.
2. Boot your VM and login.
3. cp /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules /root/.
4. rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
5. Shutdown the VM.
6. Convert back to a template.

Once you do this, every time you deploy from your template a new 70-persistent-net.rules file will be generated with the new MAC address of the virtualized interface.

For reference, you can look at VMware KB Article 1021624 for information regarding this.

Should VMware bring this back to light?  In my opinion, yes, this would definitely be a smart move.  Not only would this benefit those of us who have home labs, it would then be extended to others who could not originally do this.  It would allow companies to maintain a similar lab and also allow for even more exposure for VMware and their line of products.

It has been verified by Duncan Epping at Yellow Bricks that the message has been heard and the talks are stirring.  I urge you to follow both the above linked conversation on the VMTN forums and also follow the #VMTNrevolution hash tag on Twitter.  The more we push for it, the more likely VMware is to answer our call.  So don’t be shy, help start the #VMTNrevolution and support the push today!  Sound off in the comments with your thoughts!

Clean Shutdown of VMs and Host

In order for us to have the ability to interface with the APC SmartUPS 1000′s that we have at each location for the server we must find a way to install the APC PowerChute Business Edition Agent (PCBEAgent) for use with monitoring and shutting down the host and VMs.  In comes the vSphere Management Assistant (vMA).

In order to install the APC PCBEAgent, we needed either a Linux VM or a Windows VM.  In the light of trying to architect a solution that minimizes costs and addition of other hardware, we selected a Linux VM or in this case the vMA.  The vMA is a SLES4VMware-based appliance and therefore gives us the ability to build or install agents accordingly.  Finally, we just grabbed the installer from APC for the RPM which could be installed on the vMA.  Installation on the vMA was simple:

This placed the PBEAgent in /opt/APC/PowerChuteBusinessEdition/Agent.  This will also install the startup script in /etc/init.d.  Once it is installed you will need to do the initial configuration by running the config.sh script from within the aforementioned directory.  This will allow you to setup the administrative username and password to login and control the agent from the webUI that the agent starts.  After you have configured it should start the agent, if not, just start the agent manually.  The startup script is PBEAgent and can be started via /etc/init.d/PBEAgent start.  Once you start the agent you can connect to it via https://<vMA-IP>:6547.  Once you are in the webUI you will notice that there is no communication with the APC unit.  Here brings us into the next step, configure Serial Passthrough on the vMA appliance.

Serial Passthrough on the vMA Appliance

In order to configure Serial Passthrough you must power down the vMA appliance.  Once you have powered down the vMA appliance you can add the Serial Port interface on the VM.  You will select the “Use physical port” option and it should show a device similar to this:  /dev/char/serial/uart0

Once this is done power your vMA appliance back on and connect to the PBEAgent webUI.  Make sure that you have the APC SmartUPS serial cable connected.  It is important to note that you MUST use the provided cable as the pinout is special.  From here you will need to configure the UPS.  You will want to select “Server Shutdown” option on the left side and then select “System Settings”.  Here you will be presented with the options for the signaling type (Smart/Simple/Simple with Interface Expander).  You will want to select Smart and for the port use /dev/sttyS0.  Once you have done this select the “Smart-UPS 1000″ option on the left side to view the status.  If everything was done correctly you should see the Device Status as On line and some other information on the status page.

Configure Server Shutdown Script

Now that we have the proper communication with the UPS and the vMA we need to configure the shutdown script to execute accordingly when we either reach a specified threshold for battery power or as soon as the unit senses loss of power.  I will not go into the details of how to select or configure each but feel free to sound off in the comments if you need help.  All of the scripts or “cmdfiles” (as APC calls them) are located in /opt/APC/PowerChuteBusinessEdition/Agent/cmdfiles.  I have created a simple script that utilizes the vCLI SDK.  Here is the script:

The script can be expanded upon to fit your needs but for the sake of simplicity I have only regarded a single VM and the host itself.  The script must be chmod’d for execution which can be done via chmod 755 /opt/APC/PowerChuteBusinessEdition/Agent/cmdfiles/VmShutdown.sh.

Configure the cmdfile within the PBEAgent

Login back into your PBEAgent webUI.  From here select “Events” on the left side and then select “Actions”.  You will be presented with a long list of Event Actions.  You will want to make sure that the events you want to execute shutdown on are showing that shutdown is selected for the event.

Next we will configure the Shutdown Settings to utilize this cmdfile.  Select “Server Shutdown” on the left side and then “Shutdown Settings”.  You are then presented with the Shutdown Sequence Summary.  At the bottom you can click on “Configure”.  Click Configure and then scroll to the bottom where you can see “Command File”.  Check the checkbox and from the dropdown, select the script to execute.  I have configured a file execution duration of 2 minutes to allow for the script to execute fully before the vMA gets shutdown by the PBEAgent itself.  You can adjust this to your liking depending on the need and amount of VMs on the single host.  Once you have configured this, click on “Apply”.

Fin

This concludes the configuration of the PBEAgent for use on an ESXi standalone host.  This should now allow for a clean shutdown of both your VMs and the ESXi host itself.  It you have any questions then please sound off in the comments below!  Have fun!

http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2011/08/vexpert-spotlight-james-bowling.html

Thanks VMware and thank you to all the others in the community, especially Gregg Robertson for bringing this wonderful idea of the vExpert Spotlight to fruition.

• Enterprise scalability of your virtual backup infrastructure
• Advanced replication
• Multi-hypervisor support

The biggest feature addition is 1-Click File Restore.  You are able to find the file and restore the individual file.  This allows us to take single file restores to our helpdesk people, easing the load on your virtualization and backup administrators.  I am excited to actually see what these other improvements are that Veeam is bringing to the table.

As most of you know, I am fan of Veeam and have used it at many of my companies.  I stand firm behind their product because I feel they are pushing innovation of virtualization backup and replication to the limits and driving all of those wonderful acronyms that we love to push at management in the direction that management likes to see them go! 

Check out the video to get a more detailed view of the new features and enhancements in v6!

Here are some specific links to various pieces of the new release:

• VMware ESXi 5.0
• VMware vCenter 5.0
• vSphere Storage Appliance 1.0
• VMware vShield Zones for vSphere 5

I can’t wait to see how quickly this new version is adopted.  Now we will finally see just how bad the new licensing will affect the different customer deployments.  Feel free to comment on your deployment experiences below!

• Duncan Epping (@DuncanYB)
• Scott Lowe (@scott_lowe)
• Eric Sloof (@esloof)
• Eric Gray (@eric_gray)
• Cody Bunch (@cody_bunch)
• And many others

The list could go on and on.  I am so proud to be able to provide content regarding the technologies that we have grown to love and use so much.  The year was filled with many ups and downs as I got off the ground and into the world of blogging.  The highlight for me this year was definitely being invested the 2011 VMware vExpert Award for my contributions to the community.  This has made me extremely proud of what I have done and I can only hope to build on this to bring even more to the community!

Thanks everyone who has supported me and vSential.com.  We are hoping for another great year!