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 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:
HPE ProLiant DL20 Gen9 – Motherboard SATA port
HPE ProLiant DL20 Gen9 – Satadom installation – sata port
HPE ProLiant DL20 Gen9 – Satadom installation – power
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.
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.
In this blog post, we are going to talk about VMware ESXi and the ability to start & stop a virtual machine from the ESXi shell.
Recently, I ran into a situation where the vCenter Server was powered-off manually and the ESXi host that was responsible was not able to open the VMware Host Client to start VMware vCenter with a single mouse click. So it was time to figure out how to boot a virtual machine from the VMware ESXi shell.
I was lucky because SSH was enabled on the ESXi Host so I was able to connect and log in with the root account, but then I ran into the issue… Which command do I need to power on a virtual machine? I knew for sure that it was possible but it took me some time to find the right commands.
So based on that experience, it was time for a quick write-up to show you how to boot a virtual machine from the shell with VMware ESXi. To complete the article I also added the commands for powering off.
Note: The environment was running on vSphere 6.7 Update 2. So all commands are valid for vSphere 6.7 and probably older versions of VMware vSphere.
Start a Virtual Machine from Shell
Here is a step-by-step procedure for booting a virtual machine from the VMware ESXi shell.
# Step 01: Connect with SSH (for example Putty).
# Step 02: Login as a user with root privileges
# Step 03a: View ESXi host virtual machine inventory
vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
# Step 03b: View ESXi host virtual machine inventory with filter
vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | grep %VMname%
# Step 04: Write-down the VMid, in my case:
183
# Step 05: Verify the current power status
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate %VMid%
# Step 06: Power-on virtual machine
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on %VMid%
# Step 07: Command has been executed the virtual machine will be power-on. To verify you can use:
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate %VMid%
Screenshots
Here are the screenshots of performing a VMware vCenter virtual machine startup from the VMware ESXi shell.
VMware ESXi – 01 – SSH Login
VMware ESXi – 01 – SSH Login
VMware ESXi – 02 – Find VM inventory
VMware ESXi – 02 – Find VM inventory
VMware ESXi – 03 – Verify VM status
VMware ESXi – 03 – Verify VM status
VMware ESXi – 04 – Shell Power-on Virtual Machine
VMware ESXi – 04 – Shell Power-on Virtual Machine
VMware ESXi – 05 – Verify VM status
VMware ESXi – 05 – Verify VM status
Stop a Virtual Machine from Shell
Here is the procedure for stopping a virtual machine from the VMware ESXi Shell.
# Step 01: Connect with SSH (for example Putty).
# Step 02: Login as a user with root privileges
# Step 03a: View ESXi host virtual machine inventory
vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
# Step 03b: View ESXi host virtual machine inventory with filter
vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | grep %VMname%
# Step 04: Write-down the VMid, in my case:
183
# Step 05: Verify the current power status
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate %VMid%
# Step 06: Power-on virtual machine
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.off %VMid%
# Step 07: Command has been executed the virtual machine will be power-off. To verify you can use:
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate %VMid%
Conclusion
You can easily perform this procedure if you know the right commands. There is not a lot of new information available about the vim-cmd command but I added the source(s) below.
This time I decided to do a blog post about the HPE Smart Array RAID controllers with their wonderful ssacli tool. The tooling of HPE is very powerful because you can online manage a VMware ESXi host and migrate for example from a RAID 1 volume to a RAID 10 without downtime or change the read and write cache ratio.
So far as I know I haven’t seen an identical tool yet from the other server hardware vendors like Cisco, Dell EMC, IBM, and Supermicro. The main difference has always been that the HPE tool can perform the operation live without downtime.
So far as I can remember it has been there for ages. It was already available for VMware ESX 4.0 and is still available in VMware ESXi 6.7. So thumbs-up for HPE :).
Let’s talk about controller support. The tool supports the most HPE SmartArray controllers over the last 10 to 15 years, for example, the Smart Array P400 was released in 2005 and is still working fine today.
Here is an overview of supported controllers:
HPE Smart Array P2XX
HPE Smart Array P4XX
HPE Smart Array P7XX
HPE Smart Array P8XX
HPE SSACLI – Location
In case you are using the HPE VMware ESXi custom images. The tool is already pre-installed when installing ESXi. The tool is installed as a VIB (vSphere Installable Bundle). This means it can also be updated with vSphere Update Manager.
Over the years the name of the HPE Storage Controller Tool has been changed and so has the location. Here is a list of locations that have been used for the last ten years for VMware ESXi:
I have collected some screenshots over the years. Screenshots were taken by doing maintenance on VMware ESXi servers. The give you an idea what valuable information can be shown.
HPE SSACLI – Status Physical Drives
HPE SSACLI – Logical Drive Rebuilding-Recovery
HPE SSACLI – Drive Failure
HPE SSACLI – Abréviation
All commands have a short name to reduce the length of the total input provided to the ssacli tool:
### Shortnames:
- chassisname = ch
- controller = ctrl
- logicaldrive = ld
- physicaldrive = pd
- drivewritecache = dwc
- licensekey = lk
### Specify drives:
- A range of drives (one to three): 1E:1:1-1E:1:3
- Drives that are unassigned: allunassigned
HPE SSACLI – Status
To view the status of the controller, disks or volumes you can run all sorts of commands to get information about what is going on in your VMware ESXi server. The extensive detail is very useful for troubleshooting and gathering information about the system.
# Show - Controller Slot 1 Controller configuration basic
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 show config
# Show - Controller Slot 1 Controller configuration detailed
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 show detail
# Show - Controller Slot 1 full configuration
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 show config detail
# Show - Controller Slot 1 Status
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 show status
# Show - All Controllers Configuration
./ssacli ctrl all show config
# Show - Controller slot 1 logical drive 1 status
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 ld 1 show status
# Show - Physical Disks status basic
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 pd all show status
# Show - Physical Disk status detailed
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 pd all show status
# Show - Logical Disk status basic
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 ld all show status
# Show - Logical Disk status detailed
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 ld all show detail
HPE SSACLI – Creating
Creating a new logical drive can be done online with the HPE Smart Array controllers. I have displayed some basic examples.
# Create - New single disk volume
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 create type=ld drives=2I:0:8 raid=0 forced
# Create - New spare disk (two defined)
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 array all add spares=2I:1:6,2I:1:7
# Create - New RAID 1 volume
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 create type=ld drives=1I:0:1,1I:0:2 raid=1 forced
# Create - New RAID 5 volume
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 create type=ld drives=1I:0:1,1I:0:2,1I:0:3 raid=5 forced
HPE SSACLI – Adding drives to logical drive
Adding drives to an already created logical drive is possible with the following commands. You need to perform two actions: adding the drive(s) and expanding the logical drive. Keep in mind: make a backup before performing the procedure.
# Add - All unassigned drives to logical drive 1
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 ld 1 add drives=allunassigned
# Modify - Extend logical drive 2 size to maximum (must be run with the "forced" flag)
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 ld 2 modify size=max forced
HPE SSACLI – Rescan controller
To issue a controller rescan, you can run the following command. This can be interesting for when you add new drives in hot swap bays.
### Rescan all controllers
./ssacli rescan
HPE SSACLI – Drive Led Status
The LED status of the drives can also be controlled by the ssacli utility. An example is displayed below how to enable and disable a LED.
# Led - Activate LEDs on logical drive 2 disks
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 ld 2 modify led=on
# Led - Deactivate LEDs on logical drive 2 disks
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 ld 2 modify led=off
# Led - Activate LED on physical drive
./ssacli ctrl slot=0 pd 1I:0:1 modify led=on
# Led - Deactivate LED on physical drive
./ssacli ctrl slot=0 pd 1I:0:1 modify led=off
HPE SSACLI – Modify Cache Ratio
Modify the cache ratio on a running system can be interesting for troubleshooting and performance beanchmarking.
# Show - Cache Ratio Status
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 modify cacheratio=?
# Modify - Cache Ratio read: 25% / write: 75%
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 modify cacheratio=25/75
# Modify - Cache Ratio read: 50% / write: 50%
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 modify cacheratio=50/50
# Modify - Cache Ratio read: 0% / Write: 100%
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 modify cacheratio=0/100
HPE SSACLI – Modify Write Cache
Changing the write cache settings on the storage controller can be done with the following commands:
Viewing or changing the rebuild priority can be done on the fly. Even when the rebuild is already active. Used it myself a couple of times to lower the impact on production.
# Show - Rebuild Priority Status
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 modify rp=?
# Modify - Set rebuildpriority to Low
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 modify rebuildpriority=low
# Modify - Set rebuildpriority to Medium
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 modify rebuildpriority=medium
# Modify - Set rebuildpriority to High
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 modify rebuildpriority=high
HPE SSACLI – Modify SSD Smart Path
You can modify the HPE SDD Smart Path feature by disabling or enabling. To make clear what the HPE SDD Smart Path includes, here is a officialstatement by HPE:
“HP SmartCache feature is a controller-based read and write caching solution that caches the most frequently accessed data (“hot” data) onto lower latency SSDs to dynamically accelerate application workloads. This can be implemented on direct-attached storage and SAN storage.”
For example, when running VMware vSAN SSD Smart Path must be disabled for better performance. In some cases worse the entire vSAN disk group fails.
# Note: This command requires the array naming type like A/B/C/D/E
# Modify - Enable SSD Smart Path
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 array a modify ssdsmartpath=enable
# Modify - Disable SSD Smart Path
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 array a modify ssdsmartpath=disable
HPE SSACLI – Delete Logical Drive
Deleting a logical drive on the HPE Smart Array controller can be done with the following commands.
In some cases, you need to erase a physical drive. This can be performed with multiple erasing options. Also, you can stop the process.
Erase patterns available:
Default
Zero
Random_zero
Random_random_zero
# Erase physical drive with default erasepattern
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 pd 2I:1:1 modify erase
# Erase physical drive with zero erasepattern
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 pd 2I:1:1 modify erase erasepattern=zero
# Erase physical drive with random zero erasepattern
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 pd 1E:1:1-1E:1:3 modify erase erasepattern=random_zero
# Erase physical drive with random random zero erasepattern
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 pd 1E:1:1-1E:1:3 modify erase erasepattern=random_random_zero
# Stop the erasing process on phsyical drive 1E:1:1
./ssacli ctrl slot=1 pd 1E:1:1 modify stoperase
HPE SSACLI – License key
In some cases a licence key needs to be installed on the SmartArray storage controller to enable the advanced features. This can be done with the following command:
In this blog post, we are going to automate the installation of VMware ESXi 5.5, 6.0 and 6.5. This can be done with a so-called “kickstart” configuration file which is officially supported by VMware. The file contains the configuration for a VMware ESXi Host to configure settings like IP address, subnet mask, hostname, license key, datastore, etc.
The kickstart configuration file can be made available in the following locations:
FTP
HTTP/HTTPS
NFS Share
USB flash drive
CD/DVD device
Personally, I prefer to use the HTTP protocol.
Use Case
You might ask yourself, why should I install an ESXi Host with a kickstart file? Some of the use cases I identified over the years are:
The very first ESXi Hosts for your SDDC environment (before VMware vCenter is deployed or vSphere Auto Deploy is configured).
A standalone ESXi Host for a small environment.
A Home Lab environment to install nested VMware ESXi Hosts.
Setup a web server
To make the kickstart configuration file available for the ESXi host we need a web server. Basically, every web server available on the market can serve this file. Here is a list of web server products that I have used: Apache, Microsoft IIS and NGINX.
In this environment/example I used a Microsoft IIS server on a Windows 10 Client. Do not forget to add the cfg extension to the MIME types.
Configuration file
Now it’s time to create a text file with your favourite text editor. The text file in this example is called (ks.cfg). I have added two configuration files as samples, one with the minimum settings and one I normally use for my Lab environment.
Configuration file – Simple (ks.cfg)
This is a default ks.cfg configuration file with just the minimum of settings required.
#
# Sample scripted installation file
#
# Accept the VMware End User License Agreement
vmaccepteula
# Set the root password for the DCUI and Tech Support Mode
rootpw mypassword
# The install media is in the CD-ROM drive
install --firstdisk --overwritevmfs
# Set the network to DHCP on the first network adapter
network --bootproto=dhcp --device=vmnic0
# A sample post-install script
%post --interpreter=python --ignorefailure=true
import time
stampFile = open('/finished.stamp', mode='w')
stampFile.write( time.asctime() )
Configuration file – Advanced (ks.cfg)
This is the more advanced version of the configuration file that also configures a lot of other settings like NTP servers, search domain, CEIP and a static IP address for the management interface.
### ESXi Installation Script
### Hostname: LAB-ESXi01A
### Author: M. Buijs
### Date: 2017-08-11
### Tested with: ESXi 6.0 and ESXi 6.5
##### Stage 01 - Pre installation:
### Accept the VMware End User License Agreement
vmaccepteula
### Set the root password for the DCUI and Tech Support Mode
rootpw VMware1!
### The install media (priority: local / remote / USB)
install --firstdisk=local --overwritevmfs --novmfsondisk
### Set the network to DHCP on the first network adapter
network --bootproto=static --device=vmnic0 --ip=192.168.151.101 --netmask=255.255.255.0 --gateway=192.168.151.254 --nameserver=192.168.126.21,192.168.151.254 --hostname=LAB-ESXi01A.lab.local --addvmportgroup=0
### Reboot ESXi Host
reboot --noeject
##### Stage 02 - Post installation:
### Open busybox and launch commands
%firstboot --interpreter=busybox
### Set Search Domain
esxcli network ip dns search add --domain=lab.local
### Add second NIC to vSwitch0
esxcli network vswitch standard uplink add --uplink-name=vmnic1 --vswitch-name=vSwitch0
### Disable IPv6 support (reboot is required)
esxcli network ip set --ipv6-enabled=false
### Add NTP Server addresses
echo "server 192.168.126.21" >> /etc/ntp.conf;
echo "server 192.168.151.254" >> /etc/ntp.conf;
### Allow NTP through firewall
esxcfg-firewall -e ntpClient
### Enable NTP autostartup
/sbin/chkconfig ntpd on;
### Rename local datastore (currently disabled because of --novmfsondisk)
#vim-cmd hostsvc/datastore/rename datastore1 "DAS - $(hostname -s)"
### Disable CEIP
esxcli system settings advanced set -o /UserVars/HostClientCEIPOptIn -i 2
### Enable maintaince mode
esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e true
### Reboot
esxcli system shutdown reboot -d 15 -r "rebooting after ESXi host configuration"
Installing an ESXi Host with Kickstart file
The following procedure needs to be performed to boot from a kickstart file:
Boot the ESXi host with a VMware ESXi ISO (ISO file can be obtained from the VMware download page).
Press the key combination “shift + o” at boot.
Enter one of the following lines after runweasel:
For an HTTP share: ks=http://%IP_or_FQDN%/kg.cfg
For an HTTPs share: ks=https://%IP_or_FQDN%/kg.cfg
For a NFS share: ks=nfs://%IP_or_FQDN%/ks.cfg
The installation will start and use the kickstart configuration file (ks.cfg).
After the installation is complete the ESXi Host will reboot.
Screenshots
Here are some screenshots of the procedure:
HTTP Path to ks.cfg file on webserver.
ESXi Host is downloading/reading file from HTTP mirror
Article updates:
2018-10-04 – This article has been updated.
2018-11-16 – Code blocks were not displaying correctly.
VMware vSphere 6.5 is General Available (GA) so this means it is available for download on the VMware website!
For those who like to try out vSphere 6.5. The download mirrors are listed below.
It might be a good idea to wait a couple of months or even until vSphere 6.5 Update 1 is released to put into production.
For those who are interested. In vSphere 6.5 the following features are now available. Keep in mind there are a lot of more items new or changed in this release. I just listed the most interesting:
VMware vCenter Appliance Enhancements:
Migration Tool
Improved appliance management
Native high availability
Native backup and restore
New API Explorer
VMware vCenter Administrative Interfaces:
vSphere Web Client enhancements
vSphere Web Client integration with vSphere Update Manager
vSphere Web Client integration with Host Profiles
vSphere Web Client integration with Auto Deploy
vSphere Client is onboard (HTML5)
vSphere 6.5 – Availability Enhancements
Proactive HA
VMware vSphere High Availability Orchestrated Restart
vSphere HA Admission Control Improvements
vSphere HA Support for NVIDIA GRID vGPU Configured VMs
vSphere 6.5 – Fault Tolerance Enhancements
Improved integration with vSphere DRS
Reduced network latency
Support for multiple port groups
vSphere 6.5 – Storage Enhancements
Advanced Format Drives and 512e Mode
Automated UNMAP
LUN Scalability (maximum number of LUNs to 256 and paths to 1,024)
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