Category: vSphere 7.0

HPE ProLiant Removing SD Card iLO Degraded

Recently I was removing an SD card from one of my lab servers but after removing it, the server kept complaining about it. The HPE ProLiant is equipped with HPE Integrated Lights-Out (iLO). This is an out-of-band management system to manage and configure the server. It also is responsible for monitoring the components inside the server.

This means it also monitors the health state of the SD card that is located on the motherboard slot. So when I removed the SD card it just kept checking the health of the component and causing health alerts.

In this blog post, I going to explain what I did to reset the HPE iLO to stop it from monitoring the SD card after permanent removal.

Environment

Here is a short list of information about the HPE ProLiant system that I used for this blog post:

  • Hardware: HPE Proliant DL360e Gen 8
  • HPE ilO version: 4
  • HPE SD card: HP 32GB SD card / Part nr: 700135-001
  • Firmware: HPE iLO version: 2.78
  • Software: VMware ESXi 7.0.3

Location – SD Card

To make the blog post complete I added the motherboard drawing from the HPE manual. The SD card slot is located on the HPE ProLiant DL360e Gen 8 motherboard and the slot is located at number 29 in the drawing below.

Problem – Removing SD card causes degraded state

The issue occurred when the SD card failed. After the SD card failure, I removed the SD card from the system and moved to an SSD-based boot media for VMware ESXi.

I performed some basic troubleshooting like removing the power from the server and restarting the HPE iLO but the health status was still degraded and it was still searching for the SD card.

Here are the error messages in the interface:

  • Error message on the login page: iLO Self-Test report a problem with: Embedded Flash/SD-CARD. View details on Diagnostics page.
  • Error message on diagnostics: Controller firmware revision 2.10.00 NAND read failure

Here are some screenshots related to the error messages:

Resolving – Resetting the SD card slot

Resolving the issue isn’t partially hard… if you know which buttons to push and in what order ;). Before starting, make sure the SD card is removed from the system and that the iLO has been rebooted.

To make sure that everything just works directly… open a clean browser and login into the iLO and directly follow the procedure described below.

Closing words

In the end, it cost me about three hours to get it fixed. The reason why I wanted it so badly fixed was that it kept triggering my monitoring system and that drove me crazy. This server in particular powers on and powers off regularly and during every power cycle, the health state resets and triggers monitoring alerts.

This wraps up the blog article hopefully it is useful for somebody, please respond below if you have any comments or additional information! See you next time! 🙂

VMware Tanzu HAProxy Unattended Deployment

In this blog post, I am going to share my script to automate the HAProxy deployment for Tanzu with vSphere or in short TKGs. Because of my interest in the Tanzu product family, I ended up testing and redeploying parts of TKG many times. To reduce the change of mistakes and improve my speed I automated the HAProxy deployment part. To start with a special thanks to William Lam for this blog post which pointed me in the right direction for automating the HAProxy OVA file.

Goal

The reason behind the creation of the code was the following:

  • Automate as much as possible
  • Standardize deployment
  • Streamline the process
  • Improved the speed of the deployment process

Environment

My environment for performing this unattended deployment of HAProxy is listed below. All additional requirements can be found in the README.md file in the GIT Repository like DNS records etc.

  • Server:
    • VMware ESXi 7.0 Update 3
    • VMware vCenter 7.0 Update 3
  • Workstation:
    • OS: Windows 10
    • Components required: PowerShell and PowerCLI

Recording

Here is a recording of the HAProxy unattended deployment in my lab environment. I have changed the variables in the script to match my environment. You must change the variables in a way so that it matches your environment to perform a successful deployment.

Code

Here is an overview of the code and a link to the GIT repository. Keep in mind to always use the GIT repository version of the code because there could be new improvements.

HAProxy Tanzu Deployment:

<#
    Script: HAProxy Tanzu Deployment
    Author: M. Buijs
    Original concept developed by: William Lam - https://github.com/lamw/vmware-scripts/blob/master/powershell/deploy_3nic_haproxy.ps1
    version: 1.0 - 2021-12-17
    Execution: HAProxy_Deployment.ps1
#>

# Set variables

	# Script variables
	$global:script_name = "HAProxy_Tanzu_Deployment"
	$global:script_version = "v1.0"
	$global:debug = 0
    $global:temp_directory = "C:\Temp\"

    # vSphere
    $vCenter = "LAB-VC01.Lab.local"
    $ClusterName = "Lab"
    $DatastorePrefix = "iSCSI - Production - *" # datastore prefix
    $DiskProvisioning = "thin" # thin or thick
    $Hardware = "v14" # Virtual hardware

    # HAProxy General
    $HAProxyDisplayName = "LAB-HAProxy01"
    $HAProxyHostname = "lab-haproxy01.lab.local"
    $HAProxyDNS = "192.168.126.21, 192.168.126.22"
    $HAProxyPort = "5556" # 5556 default port

    # HAProxy Management
    $HAProxyManagementNetwork = "Management"
    $HAProxyManagementIPAddress = "192.168.151.40/24" # Format is IP Address/CIDR Prefix
    $HAProxyManagementGateway = "192.168.151.254"

    # HAProxy Frontend
    $HAProxyFrontendNetwork = "TKG - Frontend"
    $HAProxyFrontendIPAddress = "192.168.127.40/24" # Format is IP Address/CIDR Prefix
    $HAProxyFrontendGateway = "192.168.27.254"
    $HAProxyLoadBalanceIPRange = "192.168.127.128/26" # Format is Network CIDR Notation

    # HAProxy Workload
    $HAProxyWorkloadNetwork = "TKG - Workload"
    $HAProxyWorkloadIPAddress = "192.168.128.40/24" # Format is IP Address/CIDR Prefix
    $HAProxyWorkloadGateway = "192.168.128.254"

    # HAProxy Users
    $HAProxyUsername = "haproxy_api"

# Functions
function banner {
    # Clear
	Clear-Host

	# Clear errors
	$Error.clear()

    # Message
    Write-Host "`n---------------------------------------------------------" -foreground Red
    Write-Host "               $script_name - $script_version" -foreground Red
    Write-Host "---------------------------------------------------------" -foreground Red
}

function script_exit {
	Write-Host -Foreground Yellow ""
	Write-Host -Foreground Yellow "ERROR Message: $($Error[0].Exception.Message)"
	Write-Host -Foreground Yellow ""
	Write-Host -Foreground Cyan "Exiting PowerShell Script..."
	exit
}

function validate_media {
    ##### Message
    Write-Host "`nValidating media:"

        #### Locate temp directory
        If (-not (Test-Path "$($Temp_Directory)")) {
            Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- The temp directory is not created ($Temp_Directory)"
            script_exit
        }
        else {
            Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Located the temp directory ($Temp_Directory)"
        }

        #### Locate OVA file
        Try {
            Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green  "- Searching for OVA file"
            $script:OVF_HAProxy = $(Get-ChildItem -Path "$Temp_Directory" -Include haproxy-v*.ova -File -Recurse -ErrorAction Stop | Sort-Object LastWriteTime | Select-Object -last 1)

            ### In case of no results
            if ([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($OVF_HAProxy.name)) {
                throw
            }
            #### Message
            Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Located HAProxy OVA file ($($OVF_HAProxy.Name))"
        }
        Catch {
            Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red  "- Could not find HAProxy OVA file in location ($Temp_Directory)"
            script_exit
        }
}

function ask_passwords {
    # Banner
    Write-Host "`nPasswords:"

    # Ask passwords
    $script:HAProxyOSPassword = Read-Host -asSecureString "- Enter the HAProxy user password (root)"
    $script:HAProxyPassword = Read-Host -asSecureString "- Enter the HAProxy user password ($HAProxyUsername)"

    # Validation
    If ($HAProxyOSPassword.Length -eq 0) {
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- HAProxy root account password is empty"
        script_exit
    }
    # Validation
    If ($HAProxyPassword.Length -eq 0) {
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- HAProxy user account password is empty"
        script_exit
    }
}

function connect_vcenter {
    # Banner
    Write-Host "`nvCenter connection:"

        # Disable vCenter deprecation warnings
        Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -DisplayDeprecationWarnings $false -Confirm:$false | Out-Null

        # Disable vCenter certification errors
        Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction "ignore" -Confirm:$false | Out-Null

        # Determine script or user input
        if ($vCenter) {
            Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Connecting with vCenter server ($vCenter)"
        }
        else {
            # Ask required vCenter information
            $script:vCenter = Read-Host "- Enter the vCenter IP address or hostname"
        }

        if ($global:DefaultVIServers.Count -gt 0) {
            Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Session already established ($vCenter)"
        }
        else {
            # Check IP address for connectivity
            if (test-connection -computername $vCenter -count 1 -quiet -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) {
                Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Host is alive ($vCenter)"
            }
            else {
                Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- Host is not responding ($vCenter)"
                $vCenter = ""
                Break
            }

            # Connect with vCenter
            try {
                Write-host -ForegroundColor Green "- Connecting to vCenter, please wait..."

                # Connect to vCenter
                Connect-ViServer -server $vCenter -ErrorAction Stop | Out-Null
            }
            catch [Exception]{
                $status = 1
                $exception = $_.Exception
                Write-Host "- Could not connect to vCenter, exiting script" -foreground Yellow
                Write-Host ""
                Write-Host "Exit code: $status" -foreground Yellow
                Write-Host "Output: $exception" -foreground Yellow
                Break
            }
        }

        # Message
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Connection successful"
}

function ovf_config {
    # Banner
    Write-Host "`nOVF Configuration:"

    # Start
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Creating OVF Configuration"

    $script:ovfconfig = Get-OvfConfiguration $OVF_HAProxy

    # Three nic configuration
    $script:ovfconfig.DeploymentOption.value = "frontend"

    # General
    $script:ovfconfig.network.hostname.value = $HAProxyHostname
    $script:ovfconfig.network.nameservers.value = $HAProxyDNS
    $script:ovfconfig.loadbalance.dataplane_port.value = $HAProxyPort

    # Network port groups
    $script:ovfconfig.NetworkMapping.Management.value = $HAProxyManagementNetwork
    $script:ovfconfig.NetworkMapping.Frontend.value = $HAProxyFrontendNetwork
    $script:ovfconfig.NetworkMapping.Workload.value = $HAProxyWorkloadNetwork

    # Management
    $script:ovfconfig.network.management_ip.value = $HAProxyManagementIPAddress
    $script:ovfconfig.network.management_gateway.value = $HAProxyManagementGateway

    # Workload
    $script:ovfconfig.network.workload_ip.value = $HAProxyWorkloadIPAddress
    $script:ovfconfig.network.workload_gateway.value = $HAProxyWorkloadGateway
    $script:ovfconfig.loadbalance.service_ip_range.value = $HAProxyLoadBalanceIPRange

    # Accounts
    $script:ovfconfig.loadbalance.haproxy_user.value = $HAProxyUsername

    # Password root
    $BSTR1 = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($HAProxyOSPassword)
    $HAProxyOSPassword = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto($BSTR1)
    $script:ovfconfig.appliance.root_pwd.value = $HAProxyOSPassword

    # Password user
    $BSTR2 = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($HAProxyPassword)
    $HAProxyPassword = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto($BSTR2)
    $script:ovfconfig.loadbalance.haproxy_pwd.value = $HAProxyPassword

    # Finish
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Completed OVF Configuration"
}

function pre_deployment {
    # Banner
    Write-Host "`nPre-deployment:"

    # Cluster
    $script:Cluster = Get-Cluster $ClusterName
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Selected cluster ($Cluster)"

    # VMhost
    $script:VMHost = Get-VMHost | Where-Object { $_.ConnectionState -eq "Connected" } | Get-Random
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Selected ESXi Host ($VMHost)"

    # Datastore
    $script:Datastore = Get-VMhost -Name $VMHost | Get-Datastore -Name $DatastorePrefix | Select-Object Name, FreeSpaceGB | Sort-Object FreeSpaceGB -Descending | Select-Object -first 1 | Select-Object Name -expandproperty name
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Selected datatore ($Datastore)"

    # Check virtual machine name exists
    $VMname_check_query = Get-Cluster -Name $ClusterName | Get-VM -name $HAProxyDisplayName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

    if (! $VMname_check_query) {
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Virtual machine name is not in use ($HAProxyDisplayName)"
    }
    else {
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- Virtual Machine with name ($HAProxyDisplayName) already exists. Exiting script cannot continue!"
        script_exit
    }

	#### Ask for conformation
	Write-Host "`nThis task is going to build the HAProxy virtual machine for TKGs."
	$confirmation = Read-Host "Are you sure you want to proceed? [y/n]"

	if ($confirmation -eq 'n') {
		Write-Host "Operation cancelled by user!" -Foreground Red
		base_exit
	}

	if (!$confirmation) {
		Write-Host -Foreground Red "No input detected!"
	    base_exit
	}
}

function deployment {
    # Banner
    Write-Host "`nDeployment:"

	# HAProxy deployment of OVF
	try {
		### Message
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Starting HAProxy Deployment ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)"

        $script:vm = Import-VApp -Source $OVF_HAProxy -OvfConfiguration $ovfconfig -Name $HAProxyDisplayName -Location $Cluster -VMHost $VMHost -Datastore $Datastore -DiskStorageFormat $DiskProvisioning

        ### Message
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Finished HAProxy Deployment ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)"
    }
	catch [Exception]{
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- HAProxy Deployment Failed ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)"
		script_exit
	}
}

function post_deployment {
    # Banner
    Write-Host "`nPost-deployment:"

	# Configure OVF
	try {
		### Message
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Starting HAProxy OVF Configuration ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)"

        $vappProperties = $vm.ExtensionData.Config.VAppConfig.Property
        $spec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec
        $spec.vAppConfig = New-Object VMware.Vim.VmConfigSpec

        $ovfChanges = @{
            "frontend_ip"=$HAProxyFrontendIPAddress
            "frontend_gateway"=$HAProxyFrontendGateway
        }

        ### Message
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Finished HAProxy OVF Configuration ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)"
    }
	catch {
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- HAProxy OVF Configuration failed ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)"
		script_exit
	}

    try {
        # Message
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Starting HAProxy Update Specification ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)"

        # Retrieve existing OVF properties from VM
        $vappProperties = $VM.ExtensionData.Config.VAppConfig.Property

        # Create a new Update spec based on the # of OVF properties to update
        $spec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec
        $spec.vAppConfig = New-Object VMware.Vim.VmConfigSpec
        $propertySpec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VAppPropertySpec[]($ovfChanges.count)

        # Find OVF property Id and update the Update Spec
        foreach ($vappProperty in $vappProperties) {
            if($ovfChanges.ContainsKey($vappProperty.Id)) {
                $tmp = New-Object VMware.Vim.VAppPropertySpec
                $tmp.Operation = "edit"
                $tmp.Info = New-Object VMware.Vim.VAppPropertyInfo
                $tmp.Info.Key = $vappProperty.Key
                $tmp.Info.value = $ovfChanges[$vappProperty.Id]
                $propertySpec+=($tmp)
            }
        }
        $spec.VAppConfig.Property = $propertySpec

        # Message
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Finished HAProxy Update Specification ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)"
    }

    catch {
        # Message
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- HAProxy Update Specification failed ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)"
		script_exit
    }

    # HAProxy reconfigure task for virtual machine
    try {
        # Message
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Start Reconfigure VM task ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)"
        $task = $vm.ExtensionData.ReconfigVM_Task($spec)
        $task1 = Get-Task -Id ("Task-$($task.value)")
        $task1 | Wait-Task | Out-Null
    }
    catch {
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- Reconfigure VM task failed ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)"
        script_exit
    }

    # Message
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Completed the reconfigure VM task ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)"
}

function boot {
    # Banner
    Write-Host "`nBoot:"

	# Upgrade Virtual Hardware
	Try {
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Upgrade Virtual Hardware ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)";
		Get-VM -Name $vm | Set-VM -Version $Hardware -Confirm:$false | Out-Null
	}
	Catch {
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- Upgrade Virtual Hardware failed ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)";
		script_exit
	}

	# Power-On Virtual Machine
	Try {
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Power-on HAProxy started ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)"
		Get-VM $vm | Start-VM | Out-Null
	}
	Catch {
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- Starting HAProxy failed ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)"
		script_exit
	}

    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Power-on HAProxy completed ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)"
}

function check {
    # Banner
    Write-Host "`nCheck:"

    # Set total of retries
    $TOTAL = "10"

    # Host retry interval (seconds)
	$HOST_WAIT = "10";

    # Start loop
    For ($i=0; $i -le $TOTAL; $i++) {

        # Number conversion to 2 digit:
        $NUMBER = [INT]$i + 1
        $NUMBER = "{0:D2}" -f $NUMBER

        # Check Host
        $Host_check_query = Test-Connection -computername $HAProxyHostname -count 1 -quiet -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

        # Validate, else retry after a wait
        if ($Host_check_query -eq $false) {
            Write-Host -Foregroundcolor green "- [$NUMBER/$TOTAL] Checking HAProxy availability ($HAProxyHostname)"
            Start-Sleep $HOST_WAIT
        }
        else {
            Write-Host -Foregroundcolor green "- [$NUMBER/$TOTAL] Checking HAProxy availability ($HAProxyHostname)"
            Write-Host -Foregroundcolor green "- [Ready] HAProxy is available ($HAProxyHostname)"
            break
        }
    }
}

function retrieve_certificate {
    # Banner
    Write-Host "`nRetrieve certificate:"

    # Build URL
    $script:url = "https://${HAProxyHostname}:${HAProxyPort}/v2/info"

    # Configure local system
    try {
        # Message
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Disable certificate checking on local system"

        # Disable certificate check
        [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::ServerCertificateValidationCallback = {$true}
    }
	catch {
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- Could not disable certificate checking on local system"
		script_exit
	}

    # Download certificate
    try {
        # Message
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Get HAProxy certificate ($url)"

        $req = [Net.HttpWebRequest]::Create($url)
        $req.ServicePoint | Out-Null

        # Authentication
        $req.Credentials = New-Object Net.NetworkCredential($HAProxyUsername, $HAProxyPassword);
    }
	catch {
		Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- Could not get HAProxy Certificate ($url)"
		script_exit
	}

    # Store error messages in variable to not crash a try and catch statement.
    $GetResponseResult = $req.GetResponse()

    # Store certificate as X.509 file
    try {
        # Message
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Store HAProxy certificate as X.509 ($url)"

        $cert = $req.ServicePoint.Certificate
        $bytes = $cert.Export([Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509ContentType]::Cert)
        set-content -value $bytes -encoding byte -path "$pwd\$HAProxyHostname.cer"
    }
    catch {
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- HAProxy X.509 certificate could not be saved ($url)"
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- Result from GetResponse: ($GetResponseResult)";
        script_exit
    }

    # Convert certificate to Base-64 file
    try {
        # Message
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- Store HAProxy certificate as Base-64 ($url)"

        $InsertLineBreaks=1
        $sMyCert="$pwd\$HAProxyHostname.cer"
        $oMyCert = New-Object System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate2($sMyCert)
        $oPem = New-Object System.Text.StringBuilder
        $oPem.AppendLine("-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----") | Out-Null
        $oPem.AppendLine([System.Convert]::ToBase64String($oMyCert.RawData,$InsertLineBreaks)) | Out-Null
        $oPem.AppendLine("-----END CERTIFICATE-----") | Out-Null
        $oPem.ToString() | out-file "$pwd\$HAProxyHostname.pem"
    }
    catch {
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "- HAProxy Base-64 certificate could not be saved ($url)"
        script_exit
    }
}

function complete_banner {
    # Message
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "- HAProxy deployment completed successfully! ($HAProxyHostname / $HAProxyManagementIPAddress)"
}

##### Main
banner
validate_media
connect_vcenter
ask_passwords
ovf_config
pre_deployment
deployment
post_deployment
boot
check
retrieve_certificate
complete_banner

Wrap-up

I hope this blog about HAProxy unattended deployment was useful for some people or that the PowerShell code inspires people to deploy other types of OVA appliances.

If you got any improvements please commit them to the GIT repository and if you got any questions please respond below. Thank you for reading my blog post and see you next time!

VMware Tanzu HAProxy Troubleshooting

This blog post is dedicated to HAProxy Troubleshooting for vSphere with Tanzu or also known as TKGs. Based on your configuration and deployment and the various items you need to configure you can make mistakes or items are not correctly configured. In my case, there were multiple problems at different deployments with parameters and reachability related to the network. In the end, after all the hours of troubleshooting, I ended up with a list of commands that might help others out. So that is the topic of this blog post.

HAProxy Background

First an introduction about the product HAProxy. HAProxy is a load balancer that is used by vSphere with Tanzu. This is not mandatory but is a product to choose from. The main reason for HAProxy compared to the others is that it is completed free/open-source. The HAProxy OVA is packaged and delivered by VMware and can be found in the following repository. All commands below have been tested against the HAProxy v0.2.0 version (haproxy-v0.2.0.ova) that is at the moment of writing the most recent version available.

Appliance access (SSH)

After a successful deployment, you can access the HAProxy appliance with an SSH session. This session can be established with a tool like PuTTY. The user account that should be used in the root account.

Keep in mind: Do not change configuration unless you absolutely know what you are doing. Almost all the issues I ran into were related to entering incorrect information into the deployment wizard or firewall issues.

Troubleshooting Services

One of the first things to check at first is that all services are running on the HAProxy appliance. When services are not started this is mostly caused by an invalid/incomplete configuration that is filled by the deployment wizard of the OVA.

### Check failed services
systemctl list-units --state=failed

### Check primary services for HAProxy and Tanzu Integration
systemctl status anyip-routes.service
systemctl status haproxy.service

### Restart services
systemctl restart haproxy

Troubleshooting Configuration Files

There are multiple configuration files in use by HAProxy here are the most important ones. Also, keep in mind what I already said before… do not change anything unless…

### Anyip-routes configuration file
cat /etc/vmware/anyip-routes.cfg

### HAProxy configuration file
cat /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg

### HAProxy dataplane api configuration file
cat /etc/haproxy/dataplaneapi.cfg

### Validation of configuration file
haproxy -c -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg

Troubleshooting HAProxy process output

Sometimes it is good to check the latest messages generated by the HAProxy process. There will be information about the startup of the process and the pool members.

### Show logging
journalctl -u haproxy.service --since today --no-pager

Troubleshooting IP Settings

By entering wrong IP information in the deployment wizard the configuration files surrounding the IP address settings, gateway, etc can be configured incorrectly. What I noticed is there is not really a check inside the deployment that verifies if the address that is entered is valid in any sort of way.

### List IP Settings
ifconfig

### Config files (incase of three NIC configuration)
cat /etc/systemd/network/10-frontend.network
cat /etc/systemd/network/10-workload.network
cat /etc/systemd/network/10-management.network

### Routing check
route
ip route

Troubleshooting Certificates

Certificates files used by the HAProxy application are inside the HAProxy directory on the local system. The certificates are BASE-64 encoded!

### Certificate authority file:
cat /etc/haproxy/ca.crt

### Certificate server file:
cat /etc/haproxy/server.crt

### Certificate URL by default:
https://%HAProxy-Management-IP%:5556

Troubleshooting NTP

One of the all-time favorites that are notorious for disrupting IT systems is off course NTP. Here are some commands for troubleshooting on Photon OS.

### Check service status
systemctl status systemd-timesyncd

### Show NTP peers
ntpq -p

### Restart service
systemctl restart systemd-timesyncd

### Configuration file
cat /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf

Troubleshooting the HAProxy API

The HAProxy API is used by Tanzu to configure HAProxy for the management and workload components. Authentication is set up when deploying the OVA and the credentials are entered in the wizard. With the second URL you can verify those credentials:

### Info page
https://%IP-address%:5556/v2/info

### Authentication should work with the HAProxy user account (specified in the deployment wizard)
https://%IP-address%:5556/v2/cluster

Wrapup

Thank you for reading this blog post about HAProxy troubleshooting for vSphere with Tanzu or in short TKGs. I hope it was useful to you! If you got something to add? Have additional tips or remarks please respond in the comment section below.

Have a nice day and see you next time.

Source

HPE ProLiant DL20 Gen9 SATADOM Installation

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

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.

The VM Remote Console changed to VMware Workstation instead of VMRC

Lately, I discovered an annoying feature in combination with VMware vCenter and VMware Workstation. When installing VMware Workstation on your management computer it becomes the default Remote Console viewer. To be honest, I like the VMware Remote Console (VMRC) very much. The application has all the features and is quick and light. This is compared to starting VMware Workstation to open a Remote Console.

What is VMware Remote Console: “The VMware Remote Console (VMRC) is a standalone console application for Windows. VMware Remote Console provides console access and client device connection to VMs on a remote host. You will need to download this installer before you can launch the external VMRC application directly from a VMware vSphere or vRealize Automation web client.”

In October 2017, I already fixed my problem on my management computer… but after a recent VMware Workstation update, it changed the Remote Console back to VMware Workstation. Currently, there is no option in the GUI to change the default Remote Console. Ok, but how do we get VMRC back?

When I was comparing the Windows Registry, I discovered that the following registry keys were different between machines. To speed up to process I created some PowerShell one-liners to fix the problem.

### View settings in registry
Get-Item "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Classes\vmrc\DefaultIcon"
Get-Item "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Classes\vmrc\shell\open\command"

### Change settings to VMRC
Set-Item HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Classes\vmrc\DefaultIcon -Value '"C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Remote Console\vmrc.exe",0'
Set-Item HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Classes\vmrc\shell\open\command -Value '"C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Remote Console\vmrc.exe" "%1"'

When you change the registry keys, the settings are direct in effect. No Operating System reboot or browser restart is required. The change is instant. I hope the blog post helps some vSphere Administrators that also prefer VMRC above VMware Workstation for viewing Remote Consoles.

@VMware: I would like to have an option to control the behavior without changing registry keys by hand… 🙂 Thanks!

Environment

The issues occurred with the following combination of software:

  • VMware vCenter Server 6.5 (Update 1e)
  • VMware VMRC (10.0.2-7096020)
  • VMware Workstation (12.5.9 build-7535481)
  • Management Workstation: Windows 10 X64

VMRC Screenshots

Here are some screenshots that display the changes when opening the Remote Console of a Virtual Machine in VMware vCenter.

Article updates:

  • 2019-11-25: Image updates to support new layout changes.
  • 2020-10-30: Fixed code block after WP updates
  • 2022-08-15: Fixed layout issue after WP updates