VMware vSphere C# Client will be discontinued

VMware has just announced that the VMware vSphere C# Client will be discontinued in the next vSphere release leaving the current Web Client the only available tool to manage the infrastructure.

It’s still unclear when VMware will release the new version of vSphere but this decision leaves a certain perplexity in the community due to current issues with vSphere Web Client.

To manage the vSphere infrastructure administrators are currently using both C# and Web clients where some actions can be done only using a specific UI. For instance, VUM is fully supported using the C# Client only.

The setup of advanced features like VSAN can be done only through the Web Client instead.

The current version of Web Client still has plenty of problems. It is a flash-based client with a limited devices support, it crashes quite often and it is slow compared to C# Client.

For a long time, the community is claiming for a new HTML5 & JavaScript version of the Web Client which is faster and supported by an higher number of devices and browsers.

So far Fling is the only Web Client based on HTML5 & Javascript but is not fully complete and due to its limited capabilities can’t be a valid solution to replace the C# Client. In addition it’s not robust enough to be installed on production.

Fling is currently offering the following features:

• VM Power Operations (common cases)
• VM Edit Settings (simple CPU, Memory, Disk changes)
• VM Console
• VM and Host Summary pages
• VM Migration (only to a Host)
• Clone to Template/VM
• Create VM on a Host (limited)
• Additional monitoring views (Performance charts, Tasks, Events)
• Global Views (Recent tasks, Alarms–view only)

Fling is compatible with vSphere 6.0 environments and it is deployed as a OVA file with the installation instructions command line-based.

The date or launch timing for the next release of vSphere is not known at this time but we should be prepared to say goodbye to C# Client.

Fling vSphere HTML5 Web Client setup

Fling is a VMware vSphere HTML5 Web Client that can be used to administer the virtual environment although can’t be used as a full replacement of the current vSphere Web Client due to its limitations.

After the recent announcement by VMware to dismiss C# Client in next vSphere release, Fling is the only available Web Client HTML5-based that can be used to manage the virtual infrastructure supported by an higher number of devices and browsers.

Deploy Fling

Download Fling vSphere HTML5 Web Client and open vSphere Web Client to deploy the appliance. Right click the cluster name and select Deploy OVF Template option.

Click Browse and select the downloaded OVA file. Click Next to continue.

Click Next.

Accept the EULA then click Next.

Give the appliance a Name and click Next.

Specify the disk format and the storage then click Next.

Set IP allocation as Static – Manual and configure the network parameters. Click Next to continue.

Enter the Network IP address of the appliance and click Next.

Optionally enable the Power on after deployment option then click Finish to begin the deployment.

Setup the instance of vSphere H5 client

If the VMware appliance is used as vCenter Server, to establish the communication between the Web Client and the VCSA ensure that Bash is the default shell.

Change the VCSA shell

To change the default shell, you need to enable SSH access in the VCSA.

Access the Home > Administration > System Configuration section and click Nodes > <Node_Name>. In the right pane select Manage > Settings, under Common item select Access then set SSH login as Enabled.

If you are using the vCenter Server appliance (VCSA), SSH the VCSA and login as root. Type the following command to enable the Bash shell:

Command> shell.set –enable True

Access the Bash shell.

Command> shell

Run the following command to change the default shell. Change the password if requested.

# /usr/bin/chsh -s “/bin/bash” root

Register Fling

SSH the Web Client appliance entering the following credentials:

username: root
password: demova

To register the appliance against your vCenter Server type the command:

/usr/lib/vmware-client-configui/scripts/configui.sh configure –start yes –user root –vc <IP_Address_vCenter>

# /usr/lib/vmware-client-configui/scripts/configui.sh configure –start yes –user root –vc 192.168.10.80

Type yes when requested and enter the password for the VCSA root.

When the configuration is complete, the vSphere Client Web Server is started.

To sync date and time, you can configure a separate NTP Server using the command:

/usr/lib/vmware-client-configui/scripts/configui.sh configure –start yes –user root –vc <IP_Address_vCenter> –ntp <NTP_server>

# /usr/lib/vmware-client-configui/scripts/configui.sh configure –start yes –user root –vc 192.168.10.80 –ntp 192.168.10.120

Return to the Appliance shell by running the following command in the VCSA:

# /usr/bin/chsh -s /bin/appliancesh root

Access Fling

To access Fling Web Client, open your favorite browser and type the address:

https://IP_Fling_Appliance:9443/ui.

Keep in mind that Fling is not a complete tool and due to limited capabilities should not be used in production.

VMTurbo Operations Manager 5.5 offline update

VMTurbo Operations Manager offline update is a new feature introduced with release 5.5 that allows the upgrade of the VA directly from a .zip file downloaded from VMTurbo.

This procedure is useful if your VMTurbo instance is not connected to the Internet and the on-line update cannot be performed.

Prerequisites

• 5 GB available space in the storage (15 GB for large installations)
• A working full backup to restore the VA in case of any issue during upgrade

Download latest update

Before upgrade, you need to identify if openSuSE (default) or Red Hat is the architecture of your VMTurbo Server to download the correct upgrade file.

To identify the distribution and version in use, login in VMTurbo and select Settings icon > About menu.

From the displayed window you can see both release and architecture of your VMTurbo Server. In the example, the installed version is 5.5.0.

Download

Once you have identified the architecture of the VA, proceed with the download of the correct update:

• openSuSE 64-bit offline update
• Red Hat 64-bit offline update

Install the update

To perform an offline update, open your preferred browser and type the address:

http://VMTurbo_IP_address_DNS_name/update.html

Enter the admin credentials and click Authenticate.

Select Apply Offline Update option and click Choose File to browse the product update file previously downloaded.

Click Upload to begin the update.

The file is uploaded into the server.

When the file has been uploaded, the upgrade process takes place. Don’t restart the VMTurbo VM if the UI is not responding.

When the update process completes, check the installed version from Settings icon > About. In the example, after the update the installed version is 5.5.2.

Since the upgrade requires some restructuring of the database files,  the overall process can take many hours depending on the size of your topology and how much data is retained in your database.

Veeam 9 patch ESXi600-201605001 breaks Instant VM Recovery

The patch ESXi600-201605001 recently released by VMware breaks the Veeam Instant VM Recovery and all dependent features (SureBackup and U-AIR).

Anton Gostev reported this issue in the Veeam Community Forums and confirmed that Veeam already released a hotfix through the technical support for the current version only (9.0 Update 1).

If you have deployed the ESXi patch in your environment and Instant VM Recovery is a feature you rely on, go in touch with Veeam Support to get the fix.

It is also possible to fix the problem reverting to a previous version of ESXi, in this case backup your configuration data before making any changes.

VMTurbo Operations Manager 5.6 released

VMTurbo released Operations Manager 5.6 that includes a turnkey integration with private cloud platform ServiceNow and ships significant performance improvements.

Version 5.6 improves the user interface for a better understanding of the environment and the VA can be updated in online or offline mode.

What’s new

New features have been added to the new release.

New Integration

VMTurbo added a turnkey integration with ServiceNow adding a real-time placement decisions with a plugin that interact with VMTurbo instance.

This way VMTurbo capability can determine best host and datastore to place VMs by understanding the current as well we future resource demand. VMTurbo can tells you if sufficient resources are available while reserving capacity for future projects workloads.

Extended Control for any generic Java Virtual Machine

VMTurbo extends its control beyond JVM platforms to any generic Java Virtual Machine (JVM) providing visibility into metrics like heap utilization and garbage collection within your Java applications.

This metrics allow scaling decisions to assure performance while increasing your environment’s utilization. This feature can be used by any JVM with remote JMX enabled.

UCS Improved Performance

Enhanced fabric market abstraction leads to improved system performance and reduced fabric utilization. The Fabric infrastructure increases VMTurbo’s ability to take informed workload placement decisions, which drive your environment to an even healthier state.

Based on port channel utilization, VMTurbo will tell you whether you should add a new port or remove one in order to achieve the best performance of your applications.

Deeper visibility into CloudStack

By providing increased visibility into your Apache CloudStack environment, VMTurbo can now dive deeper into your data center’s configuration and constraints.

Version 5.6 discovers and adheres to CloudStack anti-affinity policies. Actions are now executed directly via CloudStack rather than through the hypervisor.

Adhering to anti-affinity policies.

Customized Storage & Host Profiles

More accurate plan results with your individual storage and host profiles. It is possible to create, modify and share custom profiles in the Green Circle community.

Storage profile

• VC Storage profiles provide an ability to group Storages to match a profile
• This feature is driven through the use of VC Tags
• Pre-requisites and dependencies: VC version above 5.5

UI and UX Enhancements

Improved Plan Summary.

• Background processing
• Better feedback to the user

Summary of actions in the plan report.

Instance visibility when using Aggregation.

• Easily find which VMTurbo instance the entity is being managed by

Cluster Capacity Dashboard

• Populate the Cluster Capacity Dashboard as the different instances compute the values
• Added an API to retrieve the data directly from the aggregator

Reporting enhancements

• Specify email address in “Generate Now” screen to test email
• Scoped VM Right-sizing Report

Offline Update

Before upgrade, you need to identify if openSuSE (default) or Red Hat is the architecture of your VMTurbo Server to download the correct upgrade file.

To identify the distribution and version in use, login in VMTurbo and select Settings icon > About menu.

In the About Operations Manager window identify the installed release.

To upgrade to the newest release 5.6, download the offline update zip file from the following links:

• openSuSE 64-bit offline update
• Red Hat 64-bit offline update

Check out this guide to perform an offline upgrade.

Additional information about VMTurbo Operations Manager 5.6 can be found in the Release Notes.

PernixData FVP 3.5 and Architect 1.1 released

PernixData released new versions of its products FVP 3.5 and Architect 1.1, two platforms for scale-out server-side storage acceleration and holistic data center design, deployment, operations and optimization.

The new versions extend the capabilities of the software giving an additional level of flexibility introducing the PernixData server as virtual appliance simplifying the deployment process and an enhanced UI to better understand the environment.

What’s new

The new releases bring the following new features and enhancements:

PernixData FVP 3.5

PernixData management server is now coming as virtual appliance making the deployment and management easier allowing to save a Windows licence.

• appliance is deployed using OVA
• dedicated mechanism for upgrading all future releases

Support for accelerating VMs using RDMs.

• support for physical or virtual RDM
• eligibility on a per-VM basis

UI enhancements to better understand the environment.

• separating acceleration rate reports for read/write
• search functionality for FVP cluster

Architect 1.1

Management server is now a virtual appliance and only one server is needed if you run one or both products. No additional software needs to be installed or configured.

• appliance is deployed using OVA
• dedicated mechanism for upgrading all future releases

PDF based performance reports to provide users with predefined reports to help with right info about the environment.

UI enhancements to make the environment clearer.

• additional predefined breakdowns for Latency, IOPS, throughput to understand acceleration in clear way
• separating acceleration rate reports for read/write
• drill-down features in VM Performance plot

Ignore blacklisted VMs in “FVP Acceleration Resource Sizing” feature.

PernixData FVP 3.5

Deploy the VA

The  deployment is pretty straightforward and is similar to most other VAs. The virtual appliance includes both FVP and Architect products.

From vSphere Web Client, right click the datacenter/cluster and select the Deploy OVF Template option.

Click Browse button and select the OVA file downloaded from PernixData Support Portal Login then click Next.

Click Next.

Give the VA a Name and click Next.

Select the size of the virtual appliance to reflect your environment then click Next to continue.

Select the virtual disk format and the datastore to store the VA then click Next.

Set the IP allocation field as Static – Manual and click Next.

Configure network parameters then click Next.

Optionally enable Power on after deployment option then click Finish to begin deployment.

Configure the VA

In your favorite browser, type the IP/DNS name of the VA just installed.

i.e. https://pernixdata-mgm.nolabnoparty.local

Accept the EULA then click OK.

Enter default credentials and click Login.

username: pernixdata
password: pernixdataappliance

Specify the vCenter Server and correct credentials then click Next.

Enter the Network Settings and click Next.

Specify the Time Zone and the NTP Server then click Next.

Enter a New Password to enforce security and click Finish.

Once the installation has completed, click Go to PernixData Management Console button to access the program.

The system starts the Management Service.

To access the Management Console enter the vCenter Server credentials and click Login.

The PernixData Management Console main screen is displayed.

PernixData FVP configuration

To setup PernixData FVP (clusters, fault domains, resources, …), check out this guide.

Upgrade the VA

To upgrade the VA, in PernixData HUB a new tab Global Settings has been added. Select Appliance Configuration tab in the left pane and click the Appliance Configuration URL link.

Enter the local appliance credentials and click Login.

Select Software Update tab.

To perform the update, the bundle must be first downloaded from the PernixData Support Portal. Click Select button to select the bundle in .tgz format then click Update to apply the update.

UI enhancements

Select FVP from the top-down menu.

In Reporting > Virtual Machine there are new columns Read and Write Acceleration Rate (Avg) in a percentage form. This way you can clearly see the status of acceleration.

Search box

Select Overview tab. In the right side there is now the Search box to help searching faster the cluster you want to work with. You might have a large number of clusters vSphere as well as multiple FVP clusters and sometimes the search is challenging in large environment.

Architect 1.1

Select Architect from the PernixData Hub top-down menu.

Go to Reporting > Cluster > IOPS.

In IOPS tab you have available the new Read and Write Analysis items that make simple to understand how much IOPSs are actually accelerated.

The chart with Read/Write Summary.

Reports in PDF

Go to Intelligence tab and select General > Performance Reports and click Create Report.

Select the VMs or the FVP cluster to analyze, specify Start and End time then click OK.

After few seconds you have the report available that you can export in PDF format ready to be delivered to managers.

An example of report (extract) in PDF format.

Acceleration Resource Sizing

Go to Architect > Acceleration Resource Sizing.

The plot now shows only effective estimate resources per Host basis excluding blacklisted VMs set in FVP.

To set VM in the blacklist select FVP from the top-down menu and go to Configuration > Advanced > Blacklist.

Click on Add VMs to specify blacklisted VMs. The VMs inserted in the blacklist are not contributing to the resource size estimation.

Additional information of new releases can be found at PernixData website.

Opvizor Performance Analyzer 3.0 for vSphere

Opvizor released a real-time Performance Analyzer 3.0 for vSphere, a product to get analysis of your virtual infrastructure and instantly identify infrastructure performance and scalability problems in real-time.

The new product comes as a standalone product and it is delivered as a VMware OVF Template. In addition to Performance Analyzer, Opvizor offers VMware Health Analyzer  and Snapwatcher to analyze and maintain your virtual infrastructure performance.

Install Performance Analyzer

From Opvizor website download Performance Analyzer 3.0 for vSphere and extract the ZIP archive.

From VMware Web Client, right click the cluster or datacenter name and select Deploy OVF Template option.

Click Browse button and select the .ovf file extracted from the archive just downloaded. Click Next.

Click Next to continue.

Give the appliance a Name and select a folder or datacenter then click Next.

Select the virtual disk format and the storage then click Next.

The IP allocation is automatically set as Static – Manual. Click Next to continue.

Optionally enable Power on after deployment option and click Finish to start installation.

Configure the VA

Once the deployment has been completed, log into the console using the following credentials:

username: admin
password: VMware123

Change the IP configuration typing 5 then press Enter.

Enter the network parameters and the hostname.

Enter Y to update network settings.

When the network settings has been applied, press Enter to reboot the system.

Using your favorite browser, type the address http://<IP_Address_DNS_name>/admin to access the Opvizor web admin console. Enter same credentials as above and click Login.

In the Overview screen you have the options to Add a purchased license (leaving this field blank, you have a 30-day trial license to test the product) and to perform the upgrade of the appliance. Using the Browse button select the upgrade file downloaded from Opvizor website then click Upload.

Select Infrastructure > VMware tab and click Add new on the right pane to specify the vCenter Server.

Enter the Host and the credentials of your vCenter Server then click Add.

The specified vCenter Server is displayed in the Host’s list. Click Log out to exit the admin console.

Using your favorite browser, type now the address http://<IP_Address_DNS_name> to access the Opvizor web console. Enter same credentials as above and click Log in.

From the Dashboard select Admin > Global Orgs to configure your organization and users.

Click Edit to modify the organization’s name.

Type the Name of your organization then click Update.

The new organization’s name is now set.

Now select Admin > Global Users to configure the users.

Click Edit to modify an existing user or click Add new user to configure a new account.

Edit user’s details and change the Password for security reasons then click Update to save settings.

You can also grant to the user the correct Permissions from the drop-down Role menu.

Click Exit admin to go back to the Dashboard.

Leave the system running for some hours in order to collect information about your environment.

Check data collection

From main Dashboard you can analyze your environment selecting the available statistics through the Dashboard drop-down menu.

Admin: Graphite Server

Select from the drop-down menu the Admin: Graphite Server dashboard to check the data collection related to the appliance.

VMware Statistics: Overall Infrastructure

From the drop-down menu select VMware Statistics: Overall Infrastructure to see your complete environment including vCenter, Datacenter and Cluster.

To select a different time range to see the data history, click on the clock symbol in the top right corner.

Select the time range you need.

VMware Performance: VM Cluster

To check for the Virtual Machines statistics, select the VMware Performance: VM Cluster dashboard. You have a global overview of your environment with the ability to narrow the selection down to a cluster.

Additional details are available scrolling down the dashboard that help to troubleshoot performance bottlenecks.

VMware Capacity Planning: Cluster

Selecting the VMware Capacity Planning: Cluster dashboard you can do some capacity planning on your environment getting information about the current load and the VMs that can still be deployed.

If you click with the mouse in any point within the chart, you can check also the details.

Selecting a different scale, you can adjust the resources available in the cluster. For example, setting the scale as 0.5 only the 50% of the current resources are available to the VMs and the number of VMs that can still be deployed reduces significantly.

VMware Performance: Storage Cluster

Selecting the VMware Performance: Storage Cluster dashboard you can get some statistics related to the storage.

Dashboard Settings

Clicking on the Settings icon you can manage the dashboard, make annotations, export, etc.

Settings available to manage the dashboard.

Download the 30-day trial of Performance Analyzer for vSphere to try out the product.

VMware 6.0 vFlash Read Cache setup

VMware vFlash Read Cache allows to leverage host local SSDs enabling a caching layer for the VMs. No other software or extra VIBs need to be installed on the host since all necessary modules are built-in the ESXi 6.0.

Using host local SSDs brings the benefit of offloading the I/O from the storage to the local SSD improving the performance. The read I/O instead of going directly to the storage, is acknowledged by the vFRC. Currently this feature support write-trough mode only making the system basically a read cache system.

SSDs used for vFRC are formatted using a special file system called VFFS (Virtual Flash File System) and they are aggregated into a pool forming a virtual flash resource available to the VMs as read cache.

Requirements and limits

• VMware Enterprise Plus license
• Supported storage device interface: SATA, SAS and PCI Express.
• 1 virtual flash resource per host
• 400 GB maximum cache for each virtual disk
• 2 TB Cumulative cache configured per host (for all virtual disks)
• 16TB virtual disk size
• 4 TB virtual host swap cache size
• 8 flash devices per virtual flash resource

Setup vFlash Read Cache

From vSphere Web Client, select the host you want to enable the vFlash Read Cache and go to Manage > Settings and select Virtual Flash Resource Management item.

On the right side click on Add Capacity button.

Select the flash device to use then click OK. The selected SSD is formatted using the VSSF file system erasing all existing data on the disk.

After few seconds, the new resource is displayed showing the Capacity and the File System type.

Repeat same procedure for all hosts where the vFlash Read Cache should be enabled.

Select each host and go to the Summary tab to check the Virtual Flash Resource availability.

Enable vFlash on a VM

To enable vFlash on virtual machine, right click the VM and select Edit Settings.

Expand the Hard Disk to accelerate and in the Virtual flash read cache field enter the amount of GB to use as a cache. Click OK to apply changes.

Click on Advanced link to access the advanced configuration to set the block size.

Here you can specify the Reservation and also the value for Block Size useful to optimize some specific applications.

Keep in mind that vFlash Read Cache feature is available only with the vSphere Enterprise Plus license.

Top vBlog 2016 results – spot #57

Top vBlog 2016 results have been announced last Thursday during the live show by Eric Siebert, Eric Wright and John Troyer (watch the recording).

This year Nolabnoparty.com spot #57 and this is a great result for me if I think the giants placed in the top 50. Check out the full results at Eric Siebert’s blog.

A big thanks to all those who found my blog useful and have voted for me.

vSphere 6.0: remove partitions from existing storage devices via UI

In vSphere 6.0 Update 1 a new UI option has been introduced to easily remove all existing data and partitions from existing storage devices in your host.

If you want to re-use an existing storage device, from the vSphere Web Client, click the ESXi host to process and select Manage > Storage > Storage Adapters. Highlight the device you want to erase then click the eraser icon.

Click OK to proceed.

The process takes few seconds to complete.

Partitions have been removed successfully making the storage device available for other purposes.

This feature allows to easily remove partitions with few clicks without using tricky procedures via CLI.

Veeam Agent for Linux setup

Veeam Agent for Linux is a new free backup product released by Veeam available for Debian-based and RedHat-based distributions.

Currently available as a public beta, Veeam Agent for Linux is able to perform image-based backups at the file and volume level and the backup type forever-incremental is enabled using the Veeam’s proprietary CBT driver.

Install Veeam Agent for Linux

Download Veeam Agent for Linux from Veeam’s website and extract the packages needed for the Linux distribution in use (CentOS in the example):

• veeamsnap-1.0.0.499-1.noarch.rpm
• veeam-1.0.0.499-1.el6.x86_64.rpm

Using a tool like WinSCP, copy the two packages in the Linux VM.

List the copied files with the command:

# ll

Install first the package veeamsnap-1.0.0.499-1.noarch.rpm.

# rpm -ivh veeamsnap-1.0.0.499-1.noarch.rpm

Then install veeam-1.0.0.499-1.el6.x86_64.rpm package. Note that Veeam Agent for Linux is installed as a service in the machine.

# rpm -ivh veeam-1.0.0.499-1.el6.x86_64.rpm

In a RedHat/CentOS environment, Veeam Agent for Linux can be easily installed using the EPEL repository.

# yum install veeam*

Configure the Backup Job

From the console run the command veeam to access the software’s UI. Press C (Configure) to configure the backup job.

# veeam

Enter the Job name then press Enter.

Select the Backup mode and press Enter.

Specify the Destination to store the backups and press Enter.

Select the Location (NFS or CIFS) and type the path. Here you can also specify the retention for the backups. Press Enter to continue.

Specify a Schedule for the backup job then press Enter.

Click Finish to save the backup job configuration. You can start the job immediately by enabling the Start job now option.

The backup process begins.

In the State column you can follow the progress of your backup. Press Enter for additional details.

In this screen you have all the backup details. When the backup job runs for the first time, a full backup will be taken. Next backup will be faster due to the CBT driver that backs up only what has changed on the disk since the last backup.

If the column State reports Success, the backup has completed successfully.

To check the backup files, create a directory in your machine and mount the NFS share used.

# mkdir /backup
# mount -t nfs lab-nasts421:/veeamnfs /backup

List the backup files with the command:

# ll /backup/LAB_BackupJob1/

Press C (Configure) from main screen to configure additional backup jobs.

Select Configure new job and press Enter to setup a new job following same procedure previously explained.

Restore files

To restores files from backups, press R (Recover Files) from main screen.

The number on the right side of the backup job name indicates how many restore points are available for that specific backup. Press I (Import backup) to import the backup you want to recover the files from.

Navigate to the location where the backup files are stored (NFS share in the example), select the desired backup then press Enter.

Select the Restore Point you want to mount then press Enter.

The backup has been mounted in the specified directory.

Using a file manager like mc (Midnight Commander), you can restore files directly from the mounted backup.

Restore volumes

Inside the Veeam Agent archive you can find the Debian-based tool Veeam Recovery Media veeam-recovery-media-1.0.0.499.iso to restore your machine in case of need.

Boot the machine from the .iso file to run the Veeam Recovery Media tool. Select the Restore volumes item from main menu then press Enter.

Select Add shared folder to specify the backup location and press Enter.

Select the share type (NFS or CIFS), specify Server/Directory then press Enter.

Browse the mount point and select the backup to use. Select the volume to restore and type S (Start restore) to start the restore operation.

Keep in mind that all existing data will be erased in the target volume.

Veeam 9 CBT issue: VMware Tools 10.0.9 fix quiescence bug

VMware released the VMware Tools 10.0.9 that fix the quiescence bug. Attempts to take a quiesced snapshot after booting a Windows Guest OS fails

You can easily deploy the new VMware Tools release within your organization using VUM.

If you are running ESXi 6.0 Express Patch 6, is strongly recommended to avoid using VMware Tools quiescence due to the CBT bug that involves VMware Tools quiescence since it’s not yet fixed.

Nakivo Backup & Replication 6.0 overview

Nakivo Backup & Replication 6.0 is a complete backup solution you can deploy as VA or installed on Windows or Linux Servers in a physical or virtual environment.

The product is configurable through the web-based UI written in HTML making the UI fast and responsive. The product comes with a built-in database and does not require to install agents on protected VMs or ESXi hosts. In addition, being a low resource consumption solution that can be installed on Linux OS, Nakivo offers an interesting pricing lower than the competition.

Nakivo Backup & Replication can be installed in different platforms:

• VMware VA – download a pre-configured VA and import it in your VMware vSphere
• NAS – install the product directly onto a Synology or Western Digital NAS
• AWS – deploy Nakivo in Amazon cloud from a pre-configured Amazon Machine Image
• Linux – install the software on a Linux OS by running a single command
• Windows – install the product in Windows in a single click

Nakivo is completely managed via web console and requires some components to fully function.

The Transporter component is responsible to perform the actual backup and usually only one transporter per site is required. Backups can be stored to a local or remote repository (CIFS or NFS shares) or to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud. The Replication capability allows to store critical VMs for a quick restore.

Editions

Nakivo is available in six editions and supports all editions of VMware vSphere.

• Enterprise Edition – offers a complete data protection feature set including Flash VM Boot, instant application objects recovery, multi-tenancy, self-service and dynamic license allocation.
• Enterprise Essentials Edition – limited to 6 licenses per an organization and has the same feature set as the Enterprise edition.
• Pro Edition – provides a base data protection feature set and does not include multi-tenancy, self-service and dynamic license allocation.
• Pro Essentials Edition – limited to 6 licenses per an organization and has the same feature set as the Pro edition.
• Cloud Provider Edition – enables qualified service providers to license the product on the per-VM monthly rental basis and has the same feature set as the Enterprise edition.
• Free Edition – provides a quick and simple way to make ad-hoc backups of running VMs for operational, archival, and portability purposes.

Prerequisites

Nakivo Backup & Replication can be installed on a virtual or physical machine with the following characteristics:

Director and Onboard Transporter

• CPU: 2 cores
• RAM: 4 GB RAM + 250 MB RAM for each concurrent job
• Free space: 1GB

Transporter

• CPU: 2 cores
• RAM: 2 GB RAM + 250 MB RAM for each concurrent job
• Free space: 1GB

Supported OS

• Windows Server: 2012, 2012 R2, 2008 R2
• Windows 8 Pro, Windows 7 Pro
• Linux: Ubuntu 12.04 Server, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3

New features in version 6

Latest version of Nakivo Backup and Replication offers some interesting features that assure a higher level of protection of your data.

• Amazon EC2 backup to backup EC2 instances from Amazon’s cloud to a repository in the same region, a different region or to a local backup destination
• Added Backup Copy job feature
• NFS shares are now supported to be used as repository
• Internationalization to customize date and time format
• The Graphic UI has been improved to give a better overview and status of backups

Configuration

The installation takes only few minutes and you can access the web console typing in your favorite browser the address https://IP_address:4443. If Nakivo is deployed as VA, you need to access the console to configure the system parameters (i.e. IP address).

Access the Network Settings configuration to specify the IP address of the VA.

First time you access the web console, you need to set the administrative credentials to Log In.

Three components need to be configured before creating a backup job:

• Inventory
• Transporter
• Repository

Inventory

The ESXi hosts or the vCenter Server of your infrastructure has to be added to the Inventory to access the VMs.

Transporter

A transporter is a service running on a Linux or Windows machine and performs actual backup, replication, and recovery tasks, as well as compression, deduplication, and encryption. The transporter is also responsible for backup repository interaction.

Repositories

Nakivo now supports NFS shares as backup repositories, previous versions only Windows CIFS shares could be used. By default a backup repository is created during installation and each repository must have an assigned transporter.

Additional settings

In General tab you can configure SMTP and email notifications as well as Branding Settings.

In System Settings you can customize local date and time.

Configure a Backup Job

VMware VM snapshots are used to create VM backups. After the initial full backup, all consequent backups are forever-incremental and do not require running periodic full backup or replication.

The backup job is created from the Dashboard > Create menu.

Select the VMs to backup.

Specify the Repository to store the backup files.

Specify a Schedule for the backup.

Assign a Job name and set parameters like Application-Aware, CBT and the Retention.

An overview of executed jobs is displayed in the Dashboard.

Backup Copy Job

New version introduces the Backup copy job feature to create a copy of an existing backup from one repository to another in order to have an additional copy in case of a corrupted backup. The Backup Copy can be stored onsite, offsite and also in the Amazon cloud.

Statistics about Copy backup job are available in the Dashboard.

Replication

Replication creates and maintains copies of criticals VMs on a target ESXi server recovering from a disaster simply by powering on VM replicas.

To setup replication select VMware vSphere replication job option from the Dashboard > Create menu.

Specify the VMs to replicate and the target Container and Datastore.

Define a Schedule and the parameters like Application-Aware, CBT and the Retention.

The VMware replication job is being executed.

Recover

Nakivo Backup & Replication provides different options to restore data from backup:

• VMs from backup – recover the full VM from the backup
• Individual files – recover files and folders directly from compressed and deduplicated backups (Windows and Linux VMs)
• Flash VM boot – boot VMs directly from compressed and deduplicated VM backups
• Active Directory and Exchange Server – recover application objects directly from compressed and deduplicated backups, without the need to recover an entire VM first

VMs to recover from a backup.

Licensing

Nakivo is licensed per physical CPU socket for each server on which you backup or replicate VMs. You do not need to license target servers for your replicas or servers on which you want to recover backed up VMs. Check out Nakivo’s pricing webpage for additional details.

A 15-day trial license for 6 sockets is available for testing purposes. IT professionals VMUG members, VMware vExpert, VCP, VSP, VTSP, or VCI can receive a FREE two-socket NFR license of NAKIVO Backup & Replication for one year.

vRealize Automation 7 minimal installation – pt.1

vRealize Automation is a solution by VMware to automate the delivery of personalized infrastructure, applications and custom IT services.

In version 7 the installation process has been simplified and during the prerequisites check, there is a fix button that automatically fix any missing elements in your Windows servers through the new agent.

Blog series

vRealize Automation 7 minimal installation – pt.1
vRealize Automation 7 configuration – pt.2

Install vRealize Automation VA

From vSphere Web Client, right click the cluster and select Deploy OVF Template option.

Click Browse to select the VMware vRealize Automation OVA file downloaded from VMware and click Next.

Click Next.

Accept the EULA then click Next.

Type a Name for the appliance then click Next to continue.

Select virtual disk format, datastore then click Next.

Click Next to continue.

In the Application area set the password, enable SSH service and enter the Hostname providing the FQDN.

In the Networking Properties area type all the requested network parameters then click Next.

Optionally enable Power on after deployment then click Finish to begin the VA deployment.

The VA is being deployed.

When the process completes successfully, the console displays the parameters to access the VA.

Setup the vRA

Login the virtual appliance using the below parameters then click Login.

User name: root
Password:   configured during setup

Click Next to begin setup using the installation wizard.

Accept the EULA then click Next.

Choose the Minimal deployment option and enable the Install IaaS option. Click Next to continue.

Selecting the Enterprise deployment option instead, you have the possibility to design the topology best suited to your organization’s needs. Note that selecting this option additional steps are required to complete the configuration.

Since the Install IaaS option has been previously selected, in this screen you find a link to download the Management Agent installer. Click on vCAC-IaaSManagementAgent-Setup.msi link to download the application to deploy to your Windows Servers.

Enable the Use Time Server option and type the IP address of your NTP server to keep the time in sync. Click Change Time Settings button to apply the new configuration.

The settings have been updated.

Install the Management agent

For each Windows Server that acts as IaaS machine, run the installer just downloaded. Click Next.

Accept the EULA then click Next.

Leave default destination folder and click Next.

Enter the address and credentials for your vRA appliance. Click the Load button to get the SSL fingerprint and enable the I confirm the fingerprint… option. Click Next.

Enter the credentials of the dedicated Active Directory service account then click Next.

Click Install to begin the installation.

The agent is being installed.

When the process has been completed, click Finish to exit the wizard.

Once the Management Installer finishes, go back to the VA wizard. At the bottom of the screen there is now an IaaS Server listed.

The VA installation is now complete. Part 2 will cover the complete configuration to make vRealize Automation up and running.

vRealize Automation 7 configuration – pt.2

VMware vRealize Automation sets a new standard in cloud automation making fast and easy the automation of delivering IT services.

After installing the vRA and the IaaS machines, the configuration has to be finalized to have the system up and running.

Blog series

vRealize Automation 7 minimal installation – pt.1
vRealize Automation 7 configuration – pt.2

Configure vRealize

Once the Time Server has been set and the IaaS machines has been discovered, click Next to continue with the configuration.

Click Run to execute the prerequisite checker.

If some requirements are not meet, click Fix to automatically install missing components.

The prerequisite checker is being performed.

You may experience some components haven’t been installed because the Windows Server doesn’t have the correct path to the ISO. A manual fix is required to solve the problem.

Once fixed missing components, click Next to continue with setup.

Select Enter host option and enter the FQDN of the virtual appliance then click Next.

Enter a password for your default tenant administrator account and click Next.

Enter the IaaS Web Server address (the Windows IaaS Host previously configured) and select from the drop-down menu the IaaS host to install components on. Enter the administrative credentials of the IaaS host and a Security Passphrase for the SQL database to use for encryption. Click Next to continue.

Enter the MS-SQL Server Name and the Database Name. Thick the Create new database option and click Next. The account that runs the Management Agent on the main website server needs to have System Administrator rights on the SQL server. Keep in mind that MS-SQL Express version is not supported.

Select the IaaS Host Name (only one available in the example) to install the DEM, specify an Instance Name and enter the credentials to install the DEM service. Click Next.

Select a machine to host the agent and the Agent Type from the drop-down menus and complete the configuration values. Click Next.

Select Generate Certificate option to create a self-signed certificate, enter the required info then click Save Generated Certificate.

Select Keep Existing as Certificate Action then click Next.

Repeat same steps for the web certificate. Select Generate Certificate option, enter the required info then click Save Generated Certificate.

Select Keep Existing as Certificate Action then click Next.

Check the certificate information and click Next.

To validate all the settings click Validate button. The process takes some minutes.

The validation process is being executed.

When the validation has been completed successfully, click Next.

As suggested by the installation wizard, take a snapshot of the vRA and configured IaaS Servers. This avoid to start the setup from scratch if something goes wrong. When done click Next.

From the vSphere Web CLient take the snapshots of the vRA and IaaSServers.

Click Install to proceed with installation. The process takes a bit of time.

The installation is being executed.

If the installation fails at Verify that all services are started step, it means some service is not up and running the health check fails and this behavior repeats until maximum number of retries is reach. The number of retries as well as time between every health check retry can be changed.

To change the number of retries and the time between every health check retry, from the VA console, edit the /etc/vcac/vcac-config.properties file.

# vi /etc/vcac/vcac-config.properties

The default values could be the reason of the failure and should be changed.

Set a bigger value and save the file. Go back to the vRA web console and click Install to proceed with the installation again.

When the installation has been completed successfully, all items are marked with a green check marks. Click Next.

Next step is the installation of the New License Key. Type the license key then click Submit Key.

When the license has been submitted, click Next to continue.

Enable or disable the Telemetry submission then click Next.

Enter the Password for configurationadmin and optionally click Create Initial Content button.

The Initial Content Configuration is being processed. When the process has been completed, click Next.

vRealize Automation configuration is now complete. Click Finish to exit the wizard.

Access vRA components

In the browser type the address https://IP_address_DNS_name of the appliance to access the main components of vRA:

• vRealize Automation console – to access vRealize Automation.
• VMware vRealize Automation Appliance management – to manage this appliance.
• vRealize Automation IaaS installation page – to install vRealize Automation IaaS components on Windows.
• vRealize Orchestrator Client – to connect to the built-in vRealize Orchestrator Server.
• vRealize Orchestrator Control Center (the service is stopped by default).

Click on the item you want to work with to access the admin console.

Enter the credentials then click Sign in.

The vRealize Automation console.

TheVMware vRealize Automation Appliance management.

The vRealize Automation IaaS installation page.

The system is now up and running without any issue. Snapshots previously created can be safely removed and vRealize components can be configured in a dedicated backup job.

Altaro VM Backup 6.5 released

Altaro VM Backup 6.5 has been released adding the Change Block Tracking (CBT) feature for Hyper-V that gives the backups a speed boost of up to 33 times on incremental backups.

With the Change Block Tracking (CBT) for Hyper-V Virtual Machines, incremental backups can now be completed up to 33 times quicker since the scan for changes process before each backup is no longer required.

Available editions

Altaro VM Backup 6.5 with CBT is available in three editions:

• Unlimited Edition: all functionality for an unlimited number of VMs and supports clusters
• Standard Edition: most functionality with protection of up to five VMs
• Free Edition: protects up to two VMs

Upgrade to 6.5

The upgrade process is very simple. From the Altaro console click on the icon in the right side and select Check for Updates option.

If a new version is detected, click Go to Update Download Page button to download the update file.

Run the installer to install the update. Click Next.

Accept the EULA then click Next.

Leave default Destination Folder and click Next.

Click Install to begin the installation.

The update is being installed.

When the installation has completed successfully, click Finish to exit the wizard.

Altaro VM Backup has been updated.

More information on VM Backup can be found at Altaro website.

HPE VM Explorer 6.1.5 is GA

HPE VM Explorer 6.1.5 is now available introducing new features like encryption to cloud, enhancing security and fixing some bugs.

In this new release the link to the Windows GUI has been removed leaving the web interface as the main management console. The old GUI is still available by running the command C:\Program Files (x86)\HPE\VM Explorer\VMX.exe but it will be removed before the end of 2016.

What’s new

• Encryption to Cloud: is now possible to enable encryption with a direct backup to cloud. Previously it was required the creation of an encrypted backup to local disk, and then setting up a copy to cloud.

• Inbound/Outbound backup overview: the Scheduled Backups Tab for each host now provides a view that will summarize all the incoming and outgoing tasks.

• Reporting API: this feature is in preparation for future integration with HPE’s Backup Navigator product
• Enhanced Security: the Administrator password requirements are now more stringent
• New support for ESXi: introduced the support for versions 5.0.3982828,  5.1.3872664, 6.0.3825889

HPE VM Explorer is available as 30-day trial for testing purposes.

Veeam 9: using vSphere tags for backup

Veeam Backup & Replication 9 supports and understands vSphere tags allowing the creation of backup jobs by selecting the VMs to backup based on tags.

Tags concept has been introduced in VMware vSphere 5.5 and basically it is a label you can assign to any object (VMs, storage and so on…) in the vSphere inventory. You can assign a tag to a specific category to better identify a VM type or simply the installed OS. Currently only one tag at time can be processed.

Create Tags in vSphere

Open vSphere Web Client and select Tags in the left pane. Select Items tab, click Tags then click on the New tag icon.

Enter a Name, a Description then select New Category in the Category drop-down menu.

Specify a Category Name, a Description, select Many tags per object as Cardinality then select Virtual Machine as Associable Object Type.

Repeat same steps to create all the tags you need.

No Backup tag

A useful tip suggested during Veeam events is the use of the No Backup tag. The No Backup Tag can be used to specify which VMs are not included in any backup on purpose. In big environments operations are often delegated to different administrators and the use of No Backup tag can help to quickly figure out that a specific VM was intentionally excluded from any backup. VMs members of this group won’t be associated to any backup job.

Select Categories tab to display created Categories.

Apply Tags to VMs

To apply tags to VMs, from vSphere Web Client right click the desired VM and select Tags & Custom Attributes > Assign Tag option.

Select the tag to assign to the VM then click Assign.

In the Summary tab under Tags area the assigned tag is displayed.

Repeat same procedure to assign tags to all other virtual machines with same RPO request.

Configure Backup Job using Tags

Open Veeam console and create a backup job by clicking Backup Job button in the Backup & Replication tab.

Specify a Name for the Backup and click Next.

Click Add to add the objects to the backup. Click the tag icon to display VMs and Tags, select the item you want to include in the job then click Add.

Selected Tag is displayed as group of VMs to backup. VMs are automatically added to the job when they are assigned a particular tag. Click Next to continue.

Specify the Retention policy and click Next.

Enable the requested processing features like application-aware then click Next.

Specify the Schedule for the backup job and click Next.

Click Finish to save the job configuration.

Run the backup

Configured the backup job with the correct tags, right click the created Backup Job and select Start to run the backup.

The backup is being executed.

The job has completed successfully and listed in the available Backups.

When a Full VM Restore is performed, you have the option Restore VM tags to restore tags that were assigned to the VM when backup was taken.

Tags can be used to define a policy-driven data protection and they are backed up as any other VM property.

PernixData FVP 3.1 and Architect 1.1 appliance offline update

PernixData FVP 3.1 and Architect 1.1 simplified the deployment process introducing the PernixData server as virtual appliance.

In PernixData HUB a new tab Global Settings has been added with a dedicated mechanism for upgrading new releases.

Download the upgrade file

Login to the PernixData Support Portal and download the upgrade file located in Document and Downloads tab under the Appliance Upgrade File item.

Install the upgrade

Login to PernixData Management Console typing the vCenter Server credentials. Click Login.

In Global Settings tab, select Appliance Configuration item and click the link in the Appliance Configuration URL to access the Management Server Appliance Configuration.

Enter the local appliance credentials then click Login.

Select Software Update then click the link Select in the right side to specify the upgrade file previously downloaded from the PernixData Support Portal. Note the Current Appliance Version.

Select the upgrade file then click Open.

Now click Update button to begin the upgrade.

The update is being installed in the system. The process takes few minutes to complete.

When the process has been completed successfully, click the link PernixData Management Console.

Accept the EULA then click OK.

From the PernixData HUB, click the configuration icon in the right side and select About.

In the Management Server Build column you can find the current installed version.

This easy procedure allows a quick upgrade of the PernixData appliance saving time and reducing the offline. Don’t forget to upgrade the hosts members of the FVP cluster installing the latest version of the Host Extension.

VMware Horizon: manually removing orphaned or stale virtual desktops

Horizon sometimes fails to process some VMs leaving orphaned or stale virtual desktops in pools that cannot be removed from the GUI.

Manually removing orphaned or stale virtual desktops from the vCenter is not enough to clean the VMware View Manager and its database.

Remove the VDI

From the Horizon View Administrator, right click the machine to delete and click Remove.

Click OK to proceed.

This is one type of error you can experience. in the example the vCenter Server is corrupted and the machine cannot be removed.

Clean ADAM database

To remove the orphaned VM, the View database must be cleaned in order to remove all the entries no longer needed. From the Horizon Connection Server, open the ADSI Edit.

Right click the ADSI Edit item and select Connect to…

In the Connection Settings window, enter the following parameters:

Name: View ADAM Database
Connection Point: dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int
Computer: localhost:389

Click OK to confirm.

If the connection to the ADAM database fails, one reason could be that the user logged in the Connection Server doesn’t have the correct permissions to administer VMware View.

In the View Administrators group enter the account to entitle then click OK.

The connection to the ADAM database is now successful.

Right click the View ADAM Database and select New > Query…

Give the query a Name (i.e. VDI) and click Browse. Select Servers and click OK.

Enter the string below in the Query String field specifying the orphaned VM name. Click OK to execute the query.

(&(objectClass=pae-VM)(pae-displayname=VM_to_remove))
i.e. (&(objectClass=pae-VM)(pae-displayname=view-lab-1))

As result, a new ADSI Edit item appears at the bottom of the window (VDI). Take note of the CN string in the right pane.

i.e. CN=ccbace2f-e506-48c4-8248-d92d5821876a

Double click the CN object and check if the pae-DisplayName reflects the name assigned to the VDI. Click OK.

In the Servers OU, locate the entry with the same CN.

Again, double click the CN object and check if the pae-DisplayName reflects the name assigned to the VDI then click OK.

Right click the verified CN object and select Delete.

Click Yes to confirm.

The object has been removed from the ADAM Database.

When you refresh the Horizon View Administrator screen, the orphaned virtual desktop has been removed.

Clean Active Directory

Remove the computer also from the Active Directory.

Click Yes to confirm.

In this procedure the old vCenter Server was corrupted and the Horizon View database installed in the same VM was not available as well. To complete the overall procedure, the orphaned VM should be removed also from the vCenter Server and the Horizon View database.