Everything-Virtual

Category: Uncategorised

  • Installing ESXi 6 with BlackListed Drivers – Net55-r8168

    My lab is in constant turmoil, it’s a fresh installation every couple of months, back when I was labbing with vSphere 5.1 it wasn’t much of an issue installing the native ESXi 5.0 or 5.1 ISO to the Shuttle SH67H3 chassis that makes up the backbone of my lab (I run 3 of them). When VMware released vSphere 5.5 around 18 months ago they removed the drivers for the Realtek r8168 and r8169 NICs (amongst others) and this caused an issue during my first rebuild (rather than upgrade which kept the original 5.1 driver).

    Move forward to the vSphere 6 launch and VMware have gone one step further and not only kept the driver out of the release but have now gone and blacklisted the driver, so if you had it installed on your 5.5 installation and carried out an upgrade you’re going to be disappointed because ESXi6 prevents installing the older 5.1 drivers via blacklisting (more information can be found over at the excellent @VFrontDe website).

    Now Andreas has gone a step further and created a new driver bundle and placed it on his vibsdepot site and it’s well worth downloading.

    Now I have to admit that I cheated when it came to installing the new vib in to the ESXi 6.0 media, rather than using his ESXi-Customizer-PS utility I simply used his older ESXi-Customizer tool instead, yes it’s been deprecated but actually it still works and it created the ISO using the download ISO rather than requiring the offline bundle.

    Carried out the installation following my VMware Workstation 11 post to ensure that the formatwithmbr setting was used to ensure that the USB drive didn’t turn itself back to Read-Only but apart from that the whole process was simple to do thanks to the hard work that Andreas has done.

  • vROps – One or more ports are experiencing network contention – Temporary Fix

    So VMware have admitted that the alert seen in vROps 6 for the below error and have a KB article written for it.

    vROPS error

    Unfortunately the resolution says to disable the DVPortGroup Dropped Packets alert, this turns out to be easier said than done.

    As an alternative fix I have looked at the configuration for the Alert Definition to allow people to delete the current alert and re-create it if\when vROps 6.0.x comes out and the fix is present there.

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  • Voting now open for the 2015 Top VMware & Virtualization Blogs

    It’s that time again, Eric Siebert from vSphere-Land.com runs a vote for the top VMware and Virtualisation blogs every year. As there are now over 450 blogs listed on the nominations page there are a lot of sites to choose from. top-vblog-2015-1-smaller

    The voting is simple and should take no longer than a couple of minutes and allows you to choose your top 10 favourite listed blogs. The scoring is such that a #1 vote gives you 10 points, #2 vote gives you 9 points all the way down to a single point for a 10th place vote.

    The following criteria should be taken into consideration when voting.

    • How long have they been blogging
    • How long are the posts
    • How often do they post
    • How well are the posts written

    Results last year saw me slide up to 177 (an increase of 9 places over the previous year) but I would love to improve that this year and I can only do that with your help.

    If you like the blog\articles and find them useful please take the time to cast a vote for my blog

    I would really appreciate it, the blogging is done because I want to do it but I hope you the reader also get something out of it.

    Thanks for continuing to read the blog and come back soon.

  • VCP5-DCV (VCP550) Exam Blueprint Downloadable Documents Bundle

    As preparation for my VCP5-DCV (VCP-550) study Guide I downloaded all of the documents mentioned in the blueprint and decided to put them in to an easily downloadable bundle for everyone else to download.

    The zip file contains folders for each objective and contains some duplications but for the most part shared files for each objective can be found under the common files folder in that objective folder.

    The file can be downloaded here

  • VCP-NV Exam Blueprint Downloadable Documents Bundle

    As preparation for my VCP-NV study Guide I downloaded all of the documents mentioned in the blueprint and decided to put them in to an easily downloadable bundle for everyone else to download.

    The zip file contains folders for each objective and contains some duplications but for the most part shared files for each objective can be found under the common files folder in that objective folder.

    The file can be downloaded here

  • Creating a CentOS 7 VMware Gold Template – Updated for Deployment Fix

    I have created a new post here that details the most up to date information for CentOS 7.x Templates.

     

    I have documented how to create a CentOS 7 VMware Gold Template for all the non-Linux admins out there. centos7

    Following the instructions below will yield a template ready for future installs that ensures you can deploy at speed.

    All told this should take no longer than 15 minutes to complete.

    I have amended the post with details on how to fix the guest customisation issues that I was experiencing before.

    I can now successfully deploy new VM’s from the template.

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  • VCAP5-DCA (VDCA550) Downloadable Documents Bundle

    As preparation for my VCAP5 DCA study Guide I downloaded all of the documents mentioned in the blueprint and decided to put them in to an easily downloadable bundle for everyone else to download.

    The Blueprint Docs folder contains some duplications but for the most part shared files for each objective can be found under the common files folder in that objective folder.

    The Exam Docs folder contains the missing documents that weren’t downloaded as part of the Blueprint Docs but mentioned as being present in the exam.

    The file can be downloaded here

  • Microsoft SCCM 2012 R2 – Installing SCCM 2012 R2 and CU4

    In the first three posts of my SCCM 2012 R2 posts I covered the Active Directory, SQL and Windows requirements to install Microsoft SCCM 2012 R2 in a lab environment.

    SCCM 2012 R2 Pre-requisite installs part 1 Covered Active Directory and Schema Extensions
    SCCM 2012 R2 Pre-requisite installs part 2 Covered SQL 2012 Additional Feature Installs (Reporting Services)
    SCCM 2012 R2 Pre-requisite installs part 3 Covered the Windows 2012R2 Requirements for SCCM 2012 R2, this includes IIS, WSUS and ADK

    In part 4 I cover the installation of SCCM 2012 R2 and the recently released Cumulative Update 4 (CU4).

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  • VMware vExpert 2015 Awarded

    After much cajoling by @TroyersDog the excellent Corey Romero did a bang up job of releasing the 2015 VMware vExpert awards nice and early on Thursday 5th of February.

    I am humbled, honoured and pleased to announce that I was awarded the much coveted “non-technical” VMware award for the 4th year in a row and all I can say to Corey and the Team there at VMware is “Thank You”

    As always it’s my intention to keep up the work that has allowed me to be in the same group as loads of excellent bloggers, evangelists and keen VMware product users.

    I also wish to send a big shout out to all my fellow VMware vExperts and say to them “Well done and keep up the great work”

  • Microsoft SCCM 2012 R2 – Pre-Requisite Installs Part 3

    In the first two posts on this multi-part blog post about installing Microsoft SCCM 2012 R2 I covered the pre-requisites for Active Directory and SQL Server (Reporting Services). In Part 3 I am covering the requirements for the Windows OS for the SCCM 2012 R2 Site Server.

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