Category: VMware

VMware is a virtualization and cloud computing software vendor based in Palo Alto, California. Founded in 1998, VMware is now a subsidiary of Dell Technologies. VMware bases its virtualization technologies on its bare-metal hypervisor ESX/ESXi in x86 architecture.

vRealize Orchestrator Upgrade (8.X)

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This blog post is about upgrading vRealize Orchestrator 8.X to a newer version. After a couple of vRealize Orchestrator Upgrades since the 8.0 release and getting stuck a couple of times I decided to do a simple write-up with some tips and tricks.

In my lab environment, I have got multiple orchestrators running embedded, standalone, and cluster. Most issues I encountered are related to the standalone version that is connected with the VMware vCenter Server.

vRO upgrade checks

Let’s start with some simple upgrade checks to make sure everything is working before the upgrade and to improve the chance of succeeding.

  • Make sure the root account is not expired on all nodes in the cluster.
  • Make sure you have the correct vCenter SSO password. Verify this by logging in with administrator@vsphere.local on the vCenter Server. The password is required for the standalone upgrade that is directly connected to the VMware vCenter Server.
  • Make sure the time sync is working on all the nodes in the cluster.

vRO upgrade

Let’s start with the vRealize Orchestrator Upgrade. Here is an overview of the procedure and the commands required to perform the upgrade.

Keep in mind: Step six is optional and is only required for the vRealize Orchestrator that is connected to the vCenter SSO. For the vRealize Automation connected upgrade, this step can be skipped.

Procedure:

  1. Create a virtual machine snapshot.
  2. Open an SSH session with the vRealize Orchestrator node.
  3. Login with the root account on the vRealize Orchestrator node.
  4. Mount the upgrade media to the virtual machine.
  5. Mount the media in the linux system (mount /dev/sr0 /mnt/cdrom).
  6. Enter the SSO password as a variable in the shell (export VRO_SSO_PASSWORD=your_sso_password).
  7. Start the upgrade (vracli upgrade exec -y –profile lcm –repo cdrom://).
  8. The upgrade will start. Depending on the size of the vRealize Orchestrator node it will take between 30 to 90 minutes.
  9. After the upgrade is completed restart the system (reboot).
  10. Verification:
    1. Check the virtual machine console for startup issues. Make sure the console is displaying a blue screen with information about the node.
    2. Check the virtual machine console for the version/build number on the blue screen that it is displaying.
    3. Check if the web interface is available and the interface is working.
    4. Login into the vRO interface and verify that authentication is working.
    5. Run a basic workflow.
  11. Remove the virtual machine snapshot.

Screenshot(s)

Here are a couple of screenshots of the upgrade process and the end result after a successful upgrade:

Summary

So that was my short blog post about the vRealize Orchestrator Upgrade experience so far for version 8.X. I hope it was useful. In most cases, there were problems with an expired account or an incorrect SSO password.

It would be nice if the upgrade process would validate the entered SSO password instead of hanging for hours in a crashed upgrade state without returning any error message to the console or shell session.

Thanks for reading and see you next time! Please respond in the comment section below if you got any remarks :).

Official documentation:

HPE ProLiant DL20 Gen9 SATADOM Installation

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Today we are going to work on an HPE ProLiant DL20 Gen9 server. After the initial installation, I was using an SD card as boot media but I still had some Delock SATADOMs laying around from my older lab servers that were replaced. So it was time to improve the performance of the boot media in the servers. In this blog post, I am explaining in detail the SATADOM installation in an HPE ProLiant DL20 Gen9.

So what are the advantages compared to an SD card:

  • VMware ESXi boot time about 50% faster
  • VMware ESXi upgrade time about 70% faster
  • Inventory performance (very noticeable when clicking through the VMware vCenter or VMware ESXi web GUI)
  • The overall stability of the host, this because of the “high” failure rate of the SD card.

The summary of advantages is based on my own comparison between SD cards en SATADOMs in my ESXi Hosts in my Home Lab.

Delock SATADOM Specifications

Here are the specifications of the Delock Satadom devices I am using for both HPE ProLiant DL20 Gen9 servers. Here are some tips about what I have learned so far… I bought them in 2018 so they are not brand new anymore:

  • Buy them a little bit bigger because of the future proof > minimal 32GB I would suggest.
  • Verify before buying if you need the vertical or horizontal model (rack model server go for horizontal / tower model server no really important).

So here are the specifications from the Delock website:

ItemValue
VendorDelock
TypeSATA 6 Gb/s Flash Module 16 GB vertical
Part nr54655
Capacity16 GB
InterfaceSATA 6 Gb/s, SATA 3 Gb/s, SATA 1.5 Gb/s
Performance460 MB/s read – 160 MB/s write
Power usage1.0 W max. (5V x 200mA)

SATADOM Installation

So now it is time to install the device on the server. Of course, it is a little more complicated in a small half-size rack server. For example, there are no Molex power connections available by default. So in the end the cable kit is almost more expensive than the device itself. The preferred option should be to find an HPE cable kit, not sure which one you will need. So after some thinking and looking into the server I came up with the following solution to just plugin the SATADOM.

At first, I needed to find a SATA port on the motherboard. Both ports are available in my case but I used the one that is normally used for the DVD ROM drive number 14 (see the image from the HPE manual).

The storage device itself can be placed in the space of the storage controller battery pack. Both of my machines do not have the expensive storage controller option. Only the onboard default controller. So the space is completely empty and an easily accessible location for the SATADOM.

The power is the most difficult one. I ended up with converters to into the power connection from the storage backplane (keep in mind my server has no internal storage except the boot device (the SATADOM in this post…) If you have your storage filled with SSDs or HDDs you need to figure out a new solution where to get the power from. I have read something about a power kit for the DVD ROM for example. I have never seen it on a picture or in a server so I do not know which connectors are in that cable kit but it might be an option.

To make some more sense and pictures explain more than words… Here is a gallery with some pictures of the SATADOM installation:

DL20 Gen 9 BIOS Settings

After the physical installation, it was time to set up the BIOS. To be honest it was quite easy compared to the HPE Gen8 where I had a lot of problems because of the ports and bios settings.

Here are two screenshots. The first one is the activation of the internal storage controller. Note: make sure you power cycle the machine before the SATADOM is detected. After the power cycle, the VMware ESXi installer should detect the SATADOM when trying to install VMware ESXi.

After this point, the SATADOM installation is completed. Just continue your normal procedures and put your host into production when you are done.

Wrap-up

So that is it for today…! I hope it was useful for other people and interesting to read. Keep in mind this blog post was focused on the HPE ProLiant DL20 Gen9 but I think the procedure will be quite identical to other HPE Gen9 servers. The most difficult part will always be the cabling and after that, the BIOS settings to get the device detected correctly.

So far my hosts have been running for about 40+ days without any issues and are working perfectly fine. If you got additional questions or remarks please respond in the comment section below. Thanks for reading my blog post and see you next time.

HPE ProLiant DL20 Gen9 Home Lab

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This blog post is about replacing my current 24×7 Lab with a new set of two HPE ProLiant DL20 Gen9 servers. In this blog post, I am going to tell you about the configuration of the machines and how they are running on VMware ESXi. Also, I am going to compare them to my other lab hardware and my past home lab equipment.

Hardware

So let’s kick off with the hardware! The HPE DL20 Gen 9 servers I bought were both new in the box from eBay and I changed the hardware components to my own liking.

A couple of interesting points I learned so far nearly all servers that you will find for sale are provided with an Intel Xeon E3-12XX v5 processor. One item you need to take into account: yes you can swap the CPU from a v5 to a v6 like I did but you need to replace the memory modules also! The memory modules are compatible with a v5 or v6 processor but not both ways. The Intel Xeon E3-12XX v5 CPUs are using 2133 MHz memory and the Intel Xeon E3-12XX v6 CPUs are using 2400 MHz memory. So keep that in mind when swapping the processor and/or buying memory.

In the end, after some swapping of components, I ended up with the following configuration. Both ProLiant servers have an equal configuration (like it should be in a vSphere cluster):

ComponentItem
Vendor:HPE
Model:DL20 Gen9
CPU:Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1230 v6
Memory:64GB DDR4 ECC (4 x 16GB UDIMM @2400MHz)
Storage:32GB SD card on the motherboard
Storage controller:All disabled
Network card(s):HPE Ethernet 1Gb 2-port 332i Network Adapter
Expansion card(s):HPE 361T Dual-Port 2x Gigabit-LAN PCIe x4
Rackmount kit:HPE 1U Short Friction Rail Kit

Power usage

So far I have measured the power usage of the machines individually with the listed configuration in the hardware section. When measuring the power usage the machine was running VMware ESXi and on top of about seven virtual machines that were using about 30% of the total compacity. I was quite amazed by the low power consumption of 31.7 watts per host but I have to take into account that this is only the compute part! The hosts are not responsible for storage. Here is a photo of my power meter when performing the test:

Screenshot(s)

Here are some screenshot(s) of the servers running in my home lab environment and running some virtual machine workload:

  • Screenshot 01: Is displaying one of the hosts running VMware ESXi 6.7 (screenshot from HPE iLO).
  • Screenshot 02: Is displaying one of the hosts connected to VMware vCenter and running virtual machines.
  • Screenshot 03: Is displaying one of the hosts HPE iLO web page.

Positives & Negatives

To sum up, my experience I have created a list of positives and negatives to give you some insight into the HPE ProLiant DL20 Gen9 as a home lab server.

Positives:

  • A lot of CPU power compared to my previous ESXi hosts, link to the previous setup.
  • Rack-mounted servers (half-size deep with sliding rails).
  • Out of band management by default (HPE iLO).
  • Power usage is good for the amount of compute power delivered.
  • No additional drivers are required for VMware ESXi to run.
  • The HPE DL20 Gen9 has been on the VMware HCL, link.

Negatives:

  • Noisy compared to my previous setup (HPE ProLiant ML10 Gen8). For comparison, the HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen8 is in most cases “quiet” compared to the HPE ProLiant DL20 Gen9.
  • Would be nice if there was support for more memory because you can never have enough of that in a virtualization environment ;).

Photos

Here are some photos of the physical hardware and the internals, I did not take any pictures of the hardware when the components were all installed. I am sorry :(.

  • Screenshot 01 – Is displaying both machines running and installed in the 19″ server rack.
  • Screenshot 02 – Is displaying the internals of the DL20 Gen9. Keep in mind this one is empty. As you can see in that picture the chassis is just half-size!

Wrap-up

So that concludes my blog post. If you got additional questions or remarks please respond in the comment section below. Thanks for reading my blog post and see you next time.

VMware vCenter SNMP Configuration

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VMware vSphere 6.7 Logo

In this last blog of the year, we are going to set up the SNMP agent on VMware vCenter Server. This blog will cover the vCenter SNMP configuration and I will show some debugging examples to verify the working of the SNMP Agent. In my case, I am using Zabbix Server as the monitoring program to verify the status of my VMware vCenter Server in my lab environments. This reduces the amount of manual troubleshooting and ensures that services are running as expected.

The reason why I did this write-up was because of the lack of documentation from the vendor’s website. As you can see in the source pages below there is a limited set of commands and nearly no examples. To set up my environment I needed some additional commands to get everything working correctly.

Environment

The environment where I configured the SNMP agent was on a VMware vCenter Server 6.7 update 3 (VCSA /appliance). I am monitoring the VMware vCenter Server with a Zabbix Server that is running on CentOS 8. I am currently using SNMP v2 in this example because it is used by most people.

Keep in mind: SNMP v1 and v3 are also supported by both products. My recommendation is to use SNMP v3 of course because of the security improvements like authentication & encryption :).

SNMP

A quick explanation about SNMP (thanks Wikipedia): Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an Internet Standard protocol for collecting and organizing information about managed devices on IP networks and for modifying that information to change device behavior. Devices that typically support SNMP include cable modems, routers, switches, servers, workstations, printers, and more.

SNMP is widely used in network management for network monitoring. SNMP exposes management data in the form of variables on the managed systems organized in a management information base (MIB) which describes the system status and configuration. These variables can then be remotely queried (and, in some circumstances, manipulated) by managing applications.

Commands

Here are the commands I have used for the vCenter SNMP configuration. Note: make sure you have access to the root account to perform the login.

# Step 1: Start an SSH connection with the vCenter Server (use Putty or something equivalent).

# Step 2: Login as the root user

# Step 3: After a successful login you should be in the appliance Shell.

# Step 4: View the current configuration for SNMP
snmp.get

# Step 5: Configure the SNMP Community (in this example I use MySnmpCommunity)
snmp.set --communities MySnmpCommunity

# Step 6: Allow a device to access the SNMP agent (192.168.10.10 = monitoring server)
snmp.set --targets 192.168.10.10@161/MySnmpCommunity,172.0.0.1@161/MySnmpCommunity,localhost@161/MySnmpCommunity

# Step 7: Enable the SNMP Agent
snmp.enable

# Step 7: Verify the SNMP Settings configured
snmp.get

# Step 8: Test the working (in my case it never works... not sure why? Has something to do with my access restrictions?)
snmp.test

# Step 9: Perform a test from the monitoring server (in my case a Linux machine with snmpwalk)
snmpwalk -v2c -c MySnmpCommunity %hostname-vcenter%

Screenshots

Here are some screenshots related to the SNMP configuration:

Wrap-up

So that is it! Hopefully, this blog post was useful and this wraps-up 2020. See you next year and if you have any comments please respond below.

Sources

Here are some sources I used when configuring SNMP on VMware vCenter Server:

vRealize Orchestrator Identifying Version Running

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In this blog post, I am showing a simple vRealize Orchestrator action that receives information about vRealize Orchestrator nodes. This can also be used against remote nodes to compare orchestrator versions between different nodes. It displays the product version, product build, and API version.

So why do you want to verify that? Lately, a hot topic surrounding the vRealize Orchestrator software is migrations. This is because most customers are moving away from version 7 to version 8 (here you see vRO 8.X in action). So as a VMware consultant, you run into questions from customers about compatibility and integration use cases.

Below I will share the code and a video about using the action. You mean workflow right? No since vRO 8.0 you can run the action directly you do not need a workflow around it.

Code explained

Some explanation about the action called “troubleshootVroVersion“:

  • The action requires one input parameter that is called ‘fqdn’. Here you enter for example (vro.domain.local). This action detects which URL and port are required so it automatically supports the following scenarios:
    • This can be a standalone node, an embedded node (inside vRA), the central load balancer in front of the nodes.
    • There is support for the vRealize Orchestrator 7.X version and vRealize Orchestrator 8.X version.
  • No authentication is required because the leveraged API page is publically available without authentication.
  • The only port required between the Orchestrator that is executing the action and the remote Orchestrator is HTTPS TCP 443.

vRO Configuration

Here is an image of the configured vRO Action. You can see the input and return type configured. Also, you see the configured language that is used “JavaScript“.

Video

I have created a recording of a vRealize Orchestrator node running the action against itself. This can also be done against a remote vRealize Orchestrator node as explained before. This might also help somebody to create the action on his own orchestrator.

Code

Here is the code for the action and also the action configuration details for creating the action in vRealize Orchestrator:

// Input validation
if (!fqdn) {
    throw "The input variable 'fqdn' is null, this is not allowed!";
}

// Determine vRO Port
try {
    // Port 8181
    url = "https://" + fqdn + ":8181/vco/api/about";

    // Create URL object
    var urlObject = new URL(url);

    // Retrieve content
    var result = urlObject.getContent() ;

    // Message
    System.log ("Found a vRealize Orchestrator node on port 8181");
}
catch (error) {
    System.log ("No vRealize Orchestrator node found on port 8181 (" + error.message + ")");
}
try {
    // Port 443
    url = "https://" + fqdn + ":443/vco/api/about";

    // Create URL object
    var urlObject = new URL(url);

    // Retrieve content
    var result = urlObject.getContent() ;

    // Message
    System.log ("Found a vRealize Orchestrator node on port 443");
}
catch(error) {
    throw "Could not find any vRealize Orchestrator node on port 443 & 8181 (" + error.message + ")";
}

// JSON Parse
try {
    // Parse JSON data
    var jsonObject = JSON.parse(result);
}
catch (error) {
    throw "There is an issue with the JSON object (" + error.message + ")";
}

// Output data to screen
try {
    System.log("===== " + fqdn + " =====");
    System.log("Version: "+ jsonObject.version);
    System.log("Build number: "+ jsonObject["build-number"]);
    System.log("Build date: "+ jsonObject["build-date"]);
    System.log("API Version: "+ jsonObject["api-version"]);
}
catch (error) {
    throw "There is something wrong with the output, please verify the JSON input (" + error.message + ")";
}

GIT

Here is the Git Repository related to the code as shown above. The action used in the blog post is called “troubleshootVroVersion.js” inside the Git repository that is available on this URL.

Wrap Up

So that is it for today. In this blog post, I showed you an action to retrieve quickly some information about the Orchestrator version. As you can see in the code it is using a JSON object that is retrieved from a URL. This code is because that part easily usable for other items. So happy coding in vRO and see you next time!

vRealize Orchestrator 8.X Download Hotfix

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When running VMware vRealize Orchestrator 8.X at some point in time you need to install a hotfix. When performing this operation at a customer I was running into an issue, I could not find the link on the VMware website in the first place.

After some searching, I found the location so I thought lets write a small blog post about locating the patch files on the VMware website.

Keep in mind: this blog post is focused on a standalone vRealize Orchestrator instance that requires a hotfix bundle. This is not for the embedded version inside vRealize Automation (vRA).

Download location

At first, we need to go to the appropriate location on the VMware website. This update and the latest patched installation files are in my opinion not easy to find. Because you would expect the files to be on the VMware Download page. So where do we need to go?!

Here is a short write-up:

  1. Go to the following URL for the vRealize Orchestrator 8.X downloads.
  2. Log in with your My VMware account.
  3. Select the vRealize Orchestrator product and the appropriate version.
  4. On this page, you will found OVA versions and iso version of the latest vRO hotfixes.

Note:

  • *.OVA = is required for installing a new vRealize Orchestrator instance.
  • *.ISO = is required for patching a currently running vRealize Orchestrator instance.

vRealize Orchestrator Install Hotfix

Here is a short description of how to install a vRealize Orchestrator 8.X hotfix. Keep in mind when writing this blog post vRealize Orchestrator 8.2 did not have a hotfix yet! So far I figured out a difference between the releases:

  • vRealize Orchestrator 8.0 & 8.1 still have a VAMI
  • vRealize Orchestrator 8.2 does not have a VAMI.

So after vRealize Orchestrator 8.2, the upgrade procedure will be slightly different!

Installation Procedure

Before starting the upgrade always make sure you have a backup!

  1. Mount the ISO file to the vRO virtual machine.
  2. Log in to the vRealize Orchestrator VAMI with the root account.
  3. Click on the Update tab.
  4. Modify the download mirror to the CD-ROM drive.
  5. Check for updates
  6. Install the updates.
  7. Wait some time to let the upgrade complete and that should be it!

Wrap-up

This was my short blog post about updating vRealize Orchestrator 8 with a Hotfix. If you have any comments please respond below :)!

vRealize Automation 7 – Creating Business Groups Automatically

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In the blog post were are going to automatically create Business Groups in vRealize Automation 7.X. This can be handy when a customer has a lot of Business Groups and adds additional Business Groups overtime. So it was time to write a little bit of code that makes my life easier.

I wrote it in the first place for using it in my lab environment to set up vRealize Automation 7.X quickly for testing deployments and validating use cases.

Advantages of orchestrating this task:

  • Quicker
  • Consistent
  • History and settings are recorded in vRealize Orchestrator (vRO)

Environment

My environment where I am testing this vRO workflow is my Home Lab. At home, I have a Lab environment for testing and developing stuff. The only products you need for this workflow are:

  • vRealize Automation 7.6 in short vRA.
  • vRealize Orchestrator 7.6 in short vRO.

Note: The vRealize Automation endpoint must be registered to make it work.

vRealize Orchestrator Code

Here is all the information you need for creating the vRealize Orchestrator workflow:

  • Workflow Name: vRA 7.X – Create Business Group
  • Version: 1.0
  • Description: Creating a vRealize Automation 7.X Business Group in an automated way.
  • Inputs:
    • host (vCACCAFE:VCACHost)
    • name (string)
    • adname (string)
  • Outputs:
    • None
  • Presentation:
    • See the screenshots below.

Here is the vRealize Orchestrator code in the Scriptable Task:

// Variables
var domain = "company.local";
var mailDomain = "company.com";

// Input validation
if (!domain) {
	throw "Defined variable 'domain' cannot be null";
}
if (!mailDomain) {
	throw "Defined variable 'mailDomain' cannot be null";
}
if (!host) {
	throw "Input variable 'host' cannot be null";
}
if (!name) {
	throw "Input variable 'name ' cannot be null";
}
if (!adname) {
	throw "Input variable 'adname' cannot be null";
}

// Construct Group Object
var group = new vCACCAFEBusinessGroup();
	group.setName("BG-" + name);
	group.setDescription("vRA Business Group: BG-" + name);
	group.setActiveDirectoryContainer("");
	group.setAdministratorEmail("vra-admin" + "@" + mailDomain);
	group.setAdministrators(["vra-admin@vsphere.local", "vra_" + adname + "@" + domain]);
	group.setSupport(["vra-admin@vsphere.local", "vra_" + adname + "@" + domain]);
	group.setUsers(["vra_" + adname + "@" + domain]);

// Create the group; return the ID of the group.
var service = host.createInfrastructureClient().getInfrastructureBusinessGroupsService();
var id = service.create(group);

// Get the SubTenant entity from vRA
group = vCACCAFEEntitiesFinder.findSubtenants(host , "BG-" + name)[0];

// Add custom property to Business Group
vCACCAFESubtenantHelper.addCustomProperty(group, "Company.BusinessGroup", name, false, false);

// Create update client and save the local entity to the vRA entity
var service = host.createAuthenticationClient().getAuthenticationSubtenantService();
	service.updateSubtenant(group.getTenant(), group);

Screenshots

Here are some screenshot(s) of the Workflow configuration that helps you set up the workflow as I have done!

Wrap-up

This is a vRealize Orchestrator workflow example that I use in my home lab. It creates vRealize Automation Business Groups to improve consistency and speed.

Keep in mind: Every lab and customer is different. In this workflow I use for example the prefix BG- for Business Groups. What I am trying to say is modify it in a way that is bested suited for your environment.

Thanks for reading and if you have comments please respond below.

vRealize Automation 8 Changing Product License

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After a recent deployment in my Lab environment with a new vRealize Automation 8 installation I figured out that my NFR product license was about to expire within a week. So it was time to change the product key on my running environment. Here is a write-up to change the license in vRealize Automation 8 with a standard installation (standalone-node) that is running with an Enterprise license.

Keep in mind: as explained in the vRealize Automation 8 release notes you cannot change the version of the license “After configuring vRealize Automation with the Enterprise license, the system can not be re-configured to use the Advanced License.“.

Connecting with vRA8

Start a connection with the vRealize Automation 8 appliance to get shell access to the system. I like to use Putty but you can use any terminal emulator you prefer that supports SSH.

Procedure:

  1. Start a terminal emulator like Putty on your desktop.
  2. Connect with the FQDN/hostname of the vRealize Automation 8 Appliance.
  3. Login with the root account.

Viewing product license

To validate the currently installed license key on the vRealize Automation 8 appliance you need to enter the following command “vracli license current“. Here can you find a screenshot of the output in my lab environment (keep in mind multiple lines are hidden):

Installing product license

To install a new license in vRA8 you need to perform some steps on the command line.

In this example we are changing the product license from one license key to the other:

  • New license key: AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA
  • Old license key: ZZZZZ-ZZZZZ-ZZZZZ-ZZZZZ-ZZZZZ
### List current license installed
vracli license current

### Install new license
vracli license add AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA

### Remove old license
vracli license remove ZZZZZ-ZZZZZ-ZZZZZ-ZZZZZ-ZZZZZ

### Reboot the appliance to apply the license change
reboot

Wrap-up

I think this covers this small blog about changing the vRealize Automation 8 product license on a running system because there was no procedure available in the official documentation. I have not tested this procedure yet on a clustered deployment with three vRealize Automation 8 appliances. This might behave differently.

Be aware: I have tested this procedure on vRealize Automation 8.0.1 Hot Fix 1. The result may defer on another hotfix or version because of the ongoing product evolution.

Thanks for reading this blog and see you next time!

VMware vRealize Log Insight content pack for Cisco ASA

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In this blog, we are going to set up the VMware vRealize Log Insight content pack for a Cisco ASA device for capturing syslog information. With setting up this pack we are able to provide a central location for storing the logging information and a way to maintain the data for longer periods of time.

Almost a year ago I moved from pfSense to a physical Cisco ASA firewall and it was time to improve the visibility into the firewall rules that were blocking and allowing traffic in my network. This was a nice opportunity to configure VMware vRealize Log Insight with an additional content pack.

Environment

When I was writing this blog post I was using the following software releases:

In essence, the procedure is the same for older and newer versions of Log Insight and a Cisco ASA.

Log Insight Content Pack

Let’s start by installing the content pack on vRealize Log Insight. Make sure you install the Cisco ASA content pack for vRealize Log Insight. This can be found in the VMware marketplace that is available in the central VMware vRealize Log Insight interface.

Here is a screenshot with the location of were you can find the content pack:

Cisco ASA Configuration

Login into your Cisco ASA firewall with a console or SSH session and configure the syslog settings as displayed below. Keep in mind this is an example configuration, change the config based on your needs!

Here is an basic configuration example:

config t
  logging enable
  logging timestamp
  logging trap debugging
  logging host %interface% %ip-address_syslog_facility%
exit

To verify the status of the configuration run the following commands


### Show configuration and logging forwarding status
show logging

### View configuration
show run | grep logging

Here is an example output of my Cisco ASA:

Viewing information

After everything has been set up the dashboards will be populated with information received from the Cisco ASA.

Here are some screenshots from my environment:

Here are some useful examples of with kind of information you can expect from the Cisco ASA Content Pack for vRealize Log Insight. I personally think it is one of the best free content packs because the dashboards are really good at providing a lot of information with good solid diagrams.

Synology DS1618+ Memory Expansion

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After replacing the Synology DS1515+ with a Synology DS1618+ last year it was time for another investment in the Synology DS1618+. Overall it is a great device that is running my VMware iSCSI storage for my ESXi Hosts but based on some metrics the memory was experiencing some issues, so it was time for a memory expansion!

The reason why I am expanding my memory is physical memory swap usage. Based on my monitoring tooling the system is swapping to disk and when that happens the storage latency is increasing extensively on the iSCSI volumes (2500 ms / 2.5 seconds latency dips). The hypervisor and virtual machine survive but they don’t experience it as a good thing ;).

After a good session with a Synology Engineer on VMworld 2019 Europe, he explained that the storage latency I am experiencing multiple times a day must be caused by the swapping to disk and refreshing the read-cache in the physical memory. Synology is using physical memory as a read cache to boost performance by default.

Synology Statement

Here is the official statement from Synology surrounding performance and memory: “Memory usage remains high because the system stores frequently accessed data in the cache, so the data can be quickly obtained without accessing the hard disk. Cache memory will be released when the overall memory is insufficient. High swap space usage indicates insufficient system memory, and will also affect the system performance. You can view the rate of swap in and swap out by choosing Swap from the drop-down menu on the top.”

To clarify, my Synology DS1618+ is only running iSCSI storage with two volumes with both SSD drives in RAID1. The only services that are enabled are SSH, SNMP and off course iSCSI. The machine has no other purpose!

Memory Swap

The metric here is showing the usage of memory swap, the value 100% means it is completely empty, so no swap usage. The value 0% means that all swap is allocated/completely full.

As you can see in the graph there was always some swap activity going on in the last months around 92%. On 03-09-2020 / 03-10-2020 I installed the 32 GB DDR4 memory in the system and it is a steady 100% (so no swap in use).

Memory Expansion

I bought the following kit from Crucial 32GB Kit (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 SODIMM with the following part nr “CT2K16G4SFD832A“. This is the suited memory for the DS1618+ as you can verify on the Crucial website. The memory configurator tool can be found over here: Crucial Advisor Tool.

Luckily expanding the memory in a Synology DS1618+ is quite easy! I created a brief write-up and some photos are located below.

Procedure:

  1. Poweroff the VMware workload.
  2. Poweroff the Synology NAS.
  3. Remove the DS1618+ from his rack/shelf.
  4. Flip the device, the memory hatch is located on the bottom.
  5. Remove the two screws.
  6. Open the hatch.
  7. Remove the original memory.
  8. Install the new memory.
  9. Close the hatch.
  10. Install the two screws.
  11. Install in the rack.
  12. Power on the system (the first time booting will be longer than normal. The DS1618+ is performing a memory check, in my case, it took about 15 minutes).
  13. Power on workload.

Source

Here is the some additional links surrounding the memory expansion: