vCenter

vCenter Certificate Automation Tool 1.0

So for those of us who have experienced the wonderful times of dealing with replacing or updating certificates within our VMware infrastructures, VMware came to the rescue (kind of) and provided a tool for us to use.  This tool has been dubbed vCenter Certificate Automation Tool.  A little excerpt from the release announcement:

Fresh out of development today VMware has a new tool to help everyone with the implementation of custom certificates. The vCenter Certificate Automation Tool 1.0, will help customers update certificates needed for running vCenter Server and supporting components. 

In order to use the tool, you must have the following:

    Administrative privileges on the server(s) you are running the tool on. Although non-administrator users can download and launch the tool, all operations will fail without the proper permissions.

    • Access to each server that has vSphere components for which the SSL certificate will be updated.
    • All vCenter Server components which will have their certificates updated have already been installed and are running.
    • The new certificates already exist and you know the location of the new certificates. For increased security, generate each certificate and private key on the machine where it will be used. The new SSL certificate for each vSphere component must have a unique base DN.

So you don’t have to go around looking, here is a couple of links to KB articles on how to use the vCenter Certificate Automation Tool:


Just wanted to share this with the readers…enjoy!

Host Disconnects from vCenter in a vCloud Director Environment

So I ran into an issue the other day regarding host disconnects within vCenter in a vCD environment.  SSH’d into the host and noticed right off the bat that vmkernel.log was showing the following error:

WARNING: VisorFSObj: 893: Cannot create file tmp:/current.png5557 for process vmx-mks:Cell Profiler x64 (b9d6aa64-d789-4954-bde9-f2875406c159) because the visorfs inode table is full. 2012-10-05T12:38:49.808Z cpu27:6014573)WARNING: VisorFSObj: 893: Cannot create file /etc/vmware/esx.conf.LOCK for process esxcfg-advcfg because the visorfs inode table is full.

And in hostd.log I saw this:

WARNING: VisorFSObj: 893: Cannot create file /etc/vmware/esx.conf.LOCK for process hostd because the visorfs inode table is full.
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Multi-Site vCenter Server Appliance Deployment

When sitting around today thinking about the grand scheme of things for my future state architecture, I was presented with a question from a co-worker about linked-mode.

Does the new 5.1 stuff allow for linked-mode in the appliance?

Knowing the short answer was easy, but explaining how it could be done now with SSO without “linked-mode” spawned a test in my home lab.  The test is to have more than one vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) attached and manageable through the 5.1 vSphere Web Client.  In short, the answer is yes, it can be done.  Here is how:

You will first need to deploy another VCSA somewhere, in my case it was in my lab where my other VCSA was deployed.  Once the deployment of the OVF is done you will want to login to the VAMI by going to https://:5480.  Your initial login is, of course, root and the password is vmware.

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vCenter Orchestrator: Operation Automate – Part Five

Now that we have a completely working automation workflow with some cool little auto-generated stuff in it, we can move to the presentation of the workflow.  Think of this as the GUI for the workflow.  There are two different presentation views controlled by a single presentation configuration view.  These are:

    • vCO Client Workflow Execution View
    • Web Workflow Execution View

The presentation of a workflow is controlled through essentially an advanced form editor, in my opinion.  This editor is found within the Edit workflow portion of the vCO client.  To get to this you just go edit your workflow as usual and select the Presentation tab in the editor.  I won’t go into too much detail as there isn’t much to really go into.  You can play around with the settings within the presentation section and run the workflow to see what it does.  Try running the workflow from the vCO client and from a webview.  You will see how the form pieces react differently within each type of view.

The presentation of a workflow is important because you give your workflow a polished view to the user executing it.  It can offer a roadmap through the workflow and at the same time give a pleasant experience for the user.  If you would like for a more detailed post about the presentation section then please feel free to say so and I will do my best to accommodate.

I have to say that this series has definitely been a fun one to do.  I hope that this gave you a good introduction into vCO and how you can apply it to your daily tasks.  So kick back, automate, and prepare to have more time to do other things than your daily tasks.  On an ending note, please go grab yourself a copy of Cody Bunch‘s book, Automating vSphere with VMware vCenter Orchestrator.  This is by far a great reference and how-to on real world use cases.  Anyway, have a fun time with Orchestrator and as always, if you have any questions then please sound off in the comments and I will see if I can help!

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