So I interested to trying to deploy latest release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 5.0 on my Windows 11 Home PC witch have 128GB and 16 core intel cpu.
VCF-M01-CB01 (4GB and 4CPU) Only needed through First Deploment
Network settings on my PC
1 IP In my home network
172.16.12.1 (To Fool Cloudbuilder)
172.16.13.1 (To Fool Cloudbuilder)
Procedure:
Install en Configure ESXi
Step 1 – Boot up the ESXi installer from de iso mount and then perform a standard ESXi installation.
Step 2 – Once ESXi is up and running, you will need to minimally configure networking along with an FQDN (ensure proper DNS resolution), NTP and specify which SSD should be used for the vSAN capacity drive. You can use the DCUI to setup the initial networking but recommend switching to ESXi Shell afterwards and finish the require preparations steps as demonstrated in the following ESXCLI commands:
esxcli system ntp set -e true -s pool.ntp.org
esxcli system hostname set –fqdn vcf-m01-esx01.wardvissers.nl
Note: Use vdq -q command to query for the available disks for use with vSAN and ensure there are no partitions residing on the 600GB disks.
Don’t change time server pool.ntp.org.
To ensure that the self-signed TLS certificate that ESXi generates matches that of the FQDN that you had configured, we will need to regenerate the certificate and restart hostd for the changes to go into effect by running the following commands within ESXi Shell:
Step 3 – Deploy the VMware Cloud builder in a separate environment and wait for it to be accessible over the browser. Once CB is online, download the setup_vmware_cloud_builder_for_one_node_management_domain.sh setup script and transfer that to the CB system using the admin user account (root is disabled by default).
Step 4 – Switch to the root user and set the script to have the executable permission and run the script as shown below
su –
chmod +x setup_vmware_cloud_builder_for_one_node_management_domain.sh
./setup_vmware_cloud_builder_for_one_node_management_domain.sh
The script will take some time, especially as it converts the NSX OVA->OVF->OVA and if everything was configured successfully, you should see the same output as the screenshot above.
Step 4 – Download the example JSON deployment file vcf50-management-domain-example.json and and adjust the values based on your environment. In addition to changing the hostname/IP Addresses you will also need to replace all the FILL_ME_IN_VCF_*_LICENSE_KEY with valid VCF 5.0 license keys.
Step 5 – The VMnic in the Cloud Builder VM will acked als a 10GB NIC so I started the deployment not through powershell but normal way in Cloud Builder GUI.
Your deployment time will vary based on your physical resources but it should eventually complete with everything show success as shown in the screenshot below. (I have one retry for finish)
Here are some screenshots VCF 5.0 deployment running on my home PC.
Virtual Machine with Windows Server 2022 with KB5022842 (Feb 2023) installed en configured with secure boot enabled will not boot up on vSphere 7 unless updated to 7.0u3k (vSphere 8 not affected)
In VM vmware.log, there is ‘Image DENIED’ info like the below:
2023-02-15T05:34:31.379Z In(05) vcpu-0 – SECUREBOOT: Signature: 0 in db, 0 in dbx, 1 unrecognized, 0 unsupported alg.
2023-02-15T05:34:31.379Z In(05) vcpu-0 – Hash: 0 in db, 0 in dbx.
2023-02-15T05:34:31.379Z In(05) vcpu-0 – SECUREBOOT: Image DENIED.
To identify the location of vmware.log files:
Establish an SSH session to your host. For ESXi hosts
Log in to the ESXi Host CLI using root account.
To list the locations of the configuration files for the virtual machines registered on the host, run the below command:
#vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | grep -i “VM_Name”
The vmware.log file is located in virtual machine folder along with the vmx file.
Record the location of the .vmx configuration file for the virtual machine you are troubleshooting. For example:
If you already face the issue, after patching the host to ESXi 7.0 Update 3k, just power on the affected Windows Server 2022 VMs. After you patch a host to ESXi 7.0 Update 3k, you can migrate a running Windows Server 2022 VM from a host of version earlier than ESXi 7.0 Update 3k, install KB5022842, and the VM boots properly without any additional steps required.
On the 16th of September, a KB article was published by VMware, which contains statements of Removal of SD card/USB as a standalone boot device option.
USB/SD is not the right choice going forward! Why? The volume of reads/writes to and from the OS-DATA partition continues to increase with every release, which means that the lower grade devices will simply wear out faster.
I must also move al lot of VM’s from different datacenters to other datacenters. I use the script from Michael Wilmsen to move the VM’s. But along the way I counter some problems with this script. So I begon tweaking and tweaking and tweaking this script to create for me the ultimate Cross vCenter PowerCLI Script.
Coolfeatures: – Info through Whattsapp (Default not enabled) – Dryrun (Test Run) – Logging – Selection through GUI – Multiple Nic support maximum of 4. – Datastore en Host selection based on Free space en Free Memory – Check of Destination Host or Datastore in Maintance – Destination Store exist in Destination Cluster
MoveVM.ps1: #Filename: MoveVM.ps1
#Author: M. Wilmsen / W. Vissers
#Source: http://virtual-hike.com/nlvmug-2018/
#Version: 2.0
#Date: 21-10-2018
#ChangeLog:
# V0.9 – M. Wilmsen First Version
# V1.0 – Fixed Multiple Nics to maximium of 4 nics
# – Logfile name VM name
# V1.1 – Destination Cluster not the first Host
# V1.2 – Selected Destination host based on memory used
# V1.3 – Fixed folder location and VirtualPortGroup
# V1.4 – Fixed Datastore in Maintance
# V1.5 – Using Get-VICredentialStoreItem + Logpath Fixt
# V1.6 – Fixed Log in Hours in 24 uurs
# V1.7 – Fixed Using DatastoreCluster name based on Cluster name!
# V1.8 – Check if Destination has the same datastore
# – Ask know for input
# – VM selection with VMhost
# – Fixed Ping Check
# v1.9 – Added Destination Store exist in Destination Cluster
# v2.0 – Fixed Destination Store exist in Destination Cluster
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Script to migrate a virtual machine
.DESCRIPTION
Script to migrate compute and storage from cluster to cluster. Log will be in current dir [VM]-[-timestamp].log
.EXAMPLE
MoveVM.ps1
#>
################################## INIT #################################################
#Set WebOperation timeout
# set-PowerCLIConfiguration -WebOperationTimeoutSeconds 3600
#Define Global variables
$location = “D:\xmovewhattsapp”
$LogPath = “.\”
$DataStoreClusterPrefix = “SAN-“
$SourceVC = Read-Host “Give Source vCenter”
$DestinationVC = Read-Host “Give Destination vCenter”
$DRSRecommendation = $true
$Dryrun = $false
$SendWhatsApp = $false
$WhatsAppNumbers = “0123456789”
$WhatsAppGroup = “Namehireyourwhattsgroup”
$instanceId = “23” #chang this line
$clientId = “demo@demo.nl” #change this line
$clientSecret = “Puthiersecretid” #change this line
################################## PASSWORD STORE ##############################################
#Username
# Check if credentials exist in credential store if not ask for credentials and put them in credential store
if ($DatastoreExistinOthervCenter ) { LogWrite “Datastore exsist $DestinationCluster in destination vCenter $DestinationVC “ $destinationDatastore = $DatastoreExistinOthervCenter } Else { LogWrite “Datastore does not exsist in $DestinationCluster destination vCenter $DestinationVC” # Select DataStore with the most free space and not in maintance $DatastoreCluster = “$DataStoreClusterPrefix”+”$DestinationCluster” $destinationDatastore = Get-DatastoreCluster $DatastoreCluster | Get-Datastore | Where {$_.State -ne “Maintenance”} | Sort-Object -Property FreeSpaceGB -Descending | Select-Object -First 1 }
LogWrite “Start move: $vm” Logwrite “VM IP: $vmip” Logwrite “VM Disk Used (GB): $VMHDDSize” Logwrite “VM Folder: $vmfolder” Logwrite “Source vCenter: $SourceVC” Logwrite “VM Source Cluster: $SourceCluster” Logwrite “Destination vCenter: $DestinationVC” Logwrite “VM Destination Cluster: $DestinationCluster” Logwrite “Destination host: $DestinationHost” LogWrite “VM Source PortGroup: $SourceVMPortGroup” LogWrite “VM Destination Portgroup: $DestinationVMPortgroup” Logwrite “VM Destination Datastore: $destinationDatastore” LogWrite “Destination Datastore FreeSpace GB: $destinationDatastoreFreeSpace “ if ( $Dryrun ) { $FreespaceAfterMigration = $destinationDatastoreFreeSpace – $VMHDDSize if ( $FreespaceAfterMigration -lt 0 ) { Logwrite “ERROR: Datastore $destinationDatastore does not have sufficient freespace! Virtual Machine needs $VMHDDSize. Only $destinationDatastoreFreeSpace available.” } else { Logwrite “Virtual Machine will fit on datastore $destinationDatastore. Freespace after migration is: $FreespaceAfterMigration GB” } } #Test if VM responsed to ping if ($vmip -eq $null) { LogWrite “Virtual Machine ip address not known” Logwrite “No ping check will be performed after moving the Virtual Machine” } else { Test-Connection -comp $vmip -quiet LogWrite “Virtual Machine $vm response to ping before being moved. Virtual machine will be checked after being moved” $PingVM = $true }
#if ( $VMHDDSize -eq if ( -NOT $Dryrun) { #Migrate VM to cluster LogWrite “Move $vm to vCenter $DestinationVC and datastore $DestinationDatastore” Try { $Result = Move-VM -VM $vm ` -Destination $DestinationHost ` -Datastore $DestinationDatastore ` -NetworkAdapter $NetworkAdapter ` -PortGroup $DestinationVMPortgroup ` -ErrorAction Stop } Catch { $ErrorMessage = $_.Exception.Message LogWrite “ERROR: Move of $vm to cluster $DestinationHost failed!!!” Logwrite “ERROR: Move Status Code: $ErrorMessage” SendWhatsApp “ERROR: Move of $vm failed!!! $ErrorMessage” $MigError = $true } #Migrate VM to folder LogWrite “Move $vm to vCenter $vmfolder” Try { $VMtemp = get-vm $vm $Result = Move-VM -VM $vmtemp -InventoryLocation $vmfolder -ErrorAction Stop } Catch { $ErrorMessage = $_.Exception.Message LogWrite “ERROR: Move of $vm to folder $vmfolder failed!!!” Logwrite “ERROR: Move Status Code: $ErrorMessage” SendWhatsApp “ERROR: Move of $vm failed!!! $ErrorMessage” $MigError = $true } }
$MigError = $false #Test if VM is running on destination cluster if ( -NOT $MigError -AND -NOT $Dryrun ) { LogWrite “Check $vm is registered in $DestinationVC” try { $CheckVM = get-vm -name $vm -server $DestinationVC -ErrorAction Stop
if ( $CheckVM ) { Logwrite “$vm registered in $DestinationVC” } else { Logwrite “ERROR: $vm not found in $DestinationVC” } } catch { $ErrorMessage = $_.Exception.Message Logwrite “ERROR: $vm not found in $DestinationVC” Logwrite “ERROR: $ErrorMessage” SendWhatsApp “ERROR move: $vm not found in $DestinationVC” } } #Test is VM response to ping, if $PingVM = $True if ($PingVM) { if (Test-Connection -comp $vmip -quiet) { LogWrite “Virtual Machine $vm response to ping after move” SendWhatsApp “Virtual Machine $vm response to ping after move” } } sleep 1 SendWhatsApp “Finished move action: $vm from $SourceVC to $DestinationVC” Logwrite “Finished move action: $vm from $SourceVC to $DestinationVC”
New features available on VMware vSphere PowerCLI 11.0 is to support the new all updates and release of VMware products , find the below following has been features,
New Security module
vSphere 6.7 Update 1
NSX-T 2.3
Horizon View 7.6
vCloud Director 9.5
Host Profiles – new cmdlets for interacting with
New Storage Module updates
NSX-T in VMware Cloud on AWS
Cloud module multiplatform support
Get-ErrorReport cmdlet has been updated
PCloud module has been removed
HA module has been removed
Now we will go through above mentioned new features to find what functionality it bring to PowerCLI 11.0
What is PowerCLI 11.0 New Security Module
The new security module brings more powerful automation features to PowerCLI 11.0 available new cmdlets include the following
Get-SecurityInfo
Get-VTpm
Get-VTpmCertificate
Get-VTpmCSR
New-VTpm
Remove-VTpm
Set-VTpm
Unlock-VM
Also New-VM cmdlet has enhanced functionality with the security module functionality and it includes parameters like KmsCluster, StoragePolicy, SkipHardDisks etc which can be used while creating new virtual machines with PowerCLI .In addition to that Set-VM, Set-VMHost, Set-HardDisk, and New-HardDisk cmdlets are added.
Host Profile Additions
There are few additions to the VMware.VimAutomation.Core module that will make managing host profiles from PowerCLI
Get-VMHostProfileUserConfiguration
Set-VMHostProfileUserConfiguration
Get-VMHostProfileStorageDeviceConfiguration
Set-VMHostProfileStorageDeviceConfiguration
Get-VMHostProfileImageCacheConfiguration
Set-VMHostProfileImageCacheConfiguration
Get-VMHostProfileVmPortGroupConfiguration
Set-VMHostProfileVmPortGroupConfiguration
Storage Module Updates
These new Storage Module updates specifically for VMware vSAN , the updates has predefined time ranges when using Get-VsanStat. In addition Get-VsanDisk has additional new properites that are returned including capacity, used percentage, and reserved percentage. Following are the cmdlets have been added to automate vSAN
Get-VsanObject
Get-VsanComponent
Get-VsanEvacuationPlan – provides information regarding bringing a host into maintenance mode and the impact of the operation on the data, movement, etc
These products are not compatible with vSphere 6.7 at this time:
VMware NSX
VMware Integrated OpenStack (VIO)
VMware vSphere Integrated Containers (VIC)
VMware Horizon
Environments with these products should not be upgraded to vSphere 6.7 at this time. This article and the VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes will be updated when a compatible release is available.
Upgrade Considerations
Before upgrading your environment to vSphere 6.7, review these critical articles to ensure a successful upgrade For vSphere
It is not possible to upgrade directly from vSphere 5.5 to vSphere 6.7.
Upgrades to vSphere 6.7 are only possible from vSphere 6.0 or vSphere 6.5. If you are currently running vSphere 5.5, you must first upgrade to either vSphere 6.0 or vSphere 6.5 before upgrading to vSphere 6.7.
VMware is announcing vSphere 6.7, the latest release of the industry-leading virtualization and cloud platform. vSphere 6.7 is the efficient and secure platform for hybrid clouds, fueling digital transformation by delivering simple and efficient management at scale, comprehensive built-in security, a universal application platform, and seamless hybrid cloud experience.
vSphere 6.7 delivers key capabilities to enable IT organizations address the following notable trends that are putting new demands on their IT infrastructure:
Explosive growth in quantity and variety of applications, from business critical apps to new intelligent workloads.
Rapid growth of hybrid cloud environments and use cases.
On-premises data centers growing and expanding globally, including at the Edge.
Security of infrastructure and applications attaining paramount importance.
Let’s take a look at some of the key capabilities in vSphere 6.7:
Simple and Efficient Management, at Scale
vSphere 6.7 builds on the technological innovation delivered by vSphere 6.5, and elevates the customer experience to an entirely new level. It provides exceptional management simplicity, operational efficiency, and faster time to market, all at scale.
vSphere 6.7 delivers an exceptional experience for the user with an enhancedvCenter Server Appliance (vCSA). It introduces several new APIs that improve the efficiency and experience to deploy vCenter, to deploy multiple vCenters based on a template, to make management of vCenter Server Appliance significantly easier, as well as for backup and restore. It also significantly simplifies the vCenter Server topology through vCenter with embedded platform services controller in enhanced linked mode, enabling customers to link multiple vCenters and have seamless visibility across the environment without the need for an external platform services controller or load balancers.
Moreover, with vSphere 6.7 vCSA delivers phenomenal performance improvements (all metrics compared at cluster scale limits, versus vSphere 6.5):
2X faster performance in vCenter operations per second
These performance improvements ensure a blazing fast experience for vSphere users, and deliver significant value, as well as time and cost savings in a variety of use cases, such as VDI, Scale-out apps, Big Data, HPC, DevOps, distributed cloud native apps, etc.
vSphere 6.7 improves efficiency at scale when updating ESXi hosts, significantly reducing maintenance time by eliminating one of two reboots normally required for major version upgrades (Single Reboot). In addition to that, vSphere Quick Boot is a new innovation that restarts the ESXi hypervisor without rebooting the physical host, skipping time-consuming hardware initialization.
Another key component that allows vSphere 6.7 to deliver a simplified and efficient experience is the graphical user interface itself. The HTML5-based vSphere Client provides a modern user interface experience that is both responsive and easy to use. With vSphere 6.7, it includes added functionality to support not only the typical workflows customers need but also other key functionality like managing NSX, vSAN, VUM as well as third-party components.
Comprehensive Built-In Security
vSphere 6.7 builds on the security capabilities in vSphere 6.5 and leverages its unique position as the hypervisor to offer comprehensive security that starts at the core, via an operationally simple policy-driven model.
vSphere 6.7 adds support for Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 hardware devices and also introduces Virtual TPM 2.0, significantly enhancing protection and assuring integrity for both the hypervisor and the guest operating system. This capability helps prevent VMs and hosts from being tampered with, prevents the loading of unauthorized components and enables guest operating system security features security teams are asking for.
Data encryption was introduced with vSphere 6.5 and very well received. With vSphere 6.7, VM Encryption is further enhanced and more operationally simple to manage. vSphere 6.7 simplifies workflows for VM Encryption, designed to protect data at rest and in motion, making it as easy as a right-click while also increasing the security posture of encrypting the VM and giving the user a greater degree of control to protect against unauthorized data access.
vSphere 6.7 also enhances protection for data in motion by enabling encrypted vMotion across different vCenterinstances as well as versions, making it easy to securely conduct data center migrations, move data across a hybrid cloud environment (between on-premises and public cloud), or across geographically distributed data centers.
vSphere 6.7 introduces support for the entire range of Microsoft’s Virtualization Based Security technologies. This is a result of close collaboration between VMware and Microsoft to ensure Windows VMs on vSphere support in-guest security features while continuing to run performant and secure on the vSphere platform.
vSphere 6.7 delivers comprehensive built-in security and is the heart of a secure SDDC. It has deep integration and works seamlessly with other VMware products such as vSAN, NSX and vRealize Suite to provide a complete security model for the data center.
Universal Application Platform
vSphere 6.7 is a universal application platform that supports new workloads (including 3D Graphics, Big Data, HPC, Machine Learning, In-Memory, and Cloud-Native) as well as existing mission critical applications. It also supports and leverages some of the latest hardware innovations in the industry, delivering exceptional performance for a variety of workloads.
vSphere 6.7 further enhances the support and capabilities introduced for GPUs through VMware’s collaboration with Nvidia, by virtualizing Nvidia GPUs even for non-VDI and non-general-purpose-computing use cases such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data and more. With enhancements to Nvidia GRID™ vGPU technology in vSphere 6.7, instead of having to power off workloads running on GPUs, customers can simply suspend and resume those VMs, allowing for better lifecycle management of the underlying host and significantly reducing disruption for end-users. VMware continues to invest in this area, with the goal of bringing the full vSphere experience to GPUs in future releases.
vSphere 6.7 continues to showcase VMware’s technological leadership and fruitful collaboration with our key partners by adding support for a key industry innovation poised to have a dramatic impact on the landscape, which is persistent memory. With vSphere Persistent Memory, customers using supported hardware modules, such as those available from Dell-EMC and HPE, can leverage them either as super-fast storage with high IOPS, or expose them to the guest operating system as non-volatile memory. This will significantly enhance performance of the OS as well as applications across a variety of use cases, making existing applications faster and more performant and enabling customers to create new high-performance applications that can leverage vSphere Persistent Memory.
Seamless Hybrid Cloud Experience
With the fast adoption of vSphere-based public clouds through VMware Cloud Provider Program partners, VMware Cloud on AWS, as well as other public cloud providers, VMware is committed to delivering a seamless hybrid cloud experience for customers.
vSphere 6.7 introduces vCenter Server Hybrid Linked Mode, which makes it easy and simple for customers to have unified visibility and manageability across an on-premises vSphere environment running on one version and a vSphere-based public cloud environment, such as VMware Cloud on AWS, running on a different version of vSphere. This ensures that the fast pace of innovation and introduction of new capabilities in vSphere-based public clouds does not force the customer to constantly update and upgrade their on-premises vSphere environment.
vSphere 6.7 also introduces Cross-Cloud Cold and Hot Migration, further enhancing the ease of management across and enabling a seamless and non-disruptive hybrid cloud experience for customers.
As virtual machines migrate between different data centers or from an on-premises data center to the cloud and back, they likely move across different CPU types. vSphere 6.7 delivers a new capability that is key for the hybrid cloud, called Per-VM EVC. Per-VM EVC enables the EVC (Enhanced vMotion Compatibility) mode to become an attribute of the VM rather than the specific processor generation it happens to be booted on in the cluster. This allows for seamless migration across different CPUs by persisting the EVC mode per-VM during migrations across clusters and during power cycles.
Previously, vSphere 6.0 introduced provisioning between vCenter instances. This is often called “cross-vCenter provisioning.” The use of two vCenter instances introduces the possibility that the instances are on different release versions. vSphere 6.7 enables customers to use different vCenter versions while allowing cross-vCenter, mixed-version provisioning operations (vMotion, Full Clone and cold migrate) to continue seamlessly. This is especially useful for customers leveraging VMware Cloud on AWS as part of their hybrid cloud.
Learn More
As the ideal, efficient, secure universal platform for hybrid cloud, supporting new and existing applications, serving the needs of IT and the business, vSphere 6.7 reinforces your investment in VMware. vSphere 6.7 is one of the core components of VMware’s SDDC and a fundamental building block of your cloud strategy. With vSphere 6.7, you can now run, manage, connect, and secure your applications in a common operating environment, across your hybrid cloud.
This article only touched upon the key highlights of this release, but there are many more new features. To learn more about vSphere 6.7, please see the following resources.
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