vCenter Performance Counters

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-5600

How to enable/disable Intel VT-d on XEN

See: http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/VTd_HowTo

Usually, you just need 'iommu=1' to enable VT-d. At the same time, most of VT-d features (DMA remapping, snoop control, queued invalidation and interrupt remapping) are enabled by default if they are available. You can use 'no-xxx' to disable a feature, for example, 'iommu=no-snoop' disable snoop control.

When RMRR address range is not in reserved memory (BIOS issue), can use 'iommu_inclusive_mapping=1' to work around it.

The grub configuration is like:

title Xen-Linux (2.6.18-xen)

        root (hd0,0)

        kernel /boot/xen.gz iommu=1

        module /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.8-xen root=LABEL=/

        module /boot/initrd-2.6.18-xen.img

How to disable Intel VT-d on ESX

When using Interrupt Remapping on some servers, you may experience vHBAs and other PCI devices stop responding in ESXi 6.0.x, ESXi 5.x and ESXi/ESX 4.1

This issue should be solved by server vendors releasing fixed BIOS version but if there is not a fix available you can use following workaround until new BIOS is released.

Disabling Intel VT-d Interrupt Remapping:

ESX/ESXi 4.1:

esxcfg-advcfg -k TRUE iovDisableIR

(reboot)

ESXi 5.0:

esxcli system settings kernel set --setting=iovDisableIR -v TRUE

(reboot)

Disabling all VT-d features:
Advanced setting VMkernel.Boot.noIOMMU = unchecked = 0

For more info look at https://kb.vmware.com/kb/1030265 

VMware Perl SDK - SSL Certificate verification

PROBLEM:

[root@MON-PROXY vm]# ./vminfo.pl --url https://10.10.4.70/sdk/vimService --username dpasek -vmname mon_proxy
Enter password:
Server version unavailable at 'https://10.10.4.70:443/sdk/vimService.wsdl' at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/VMware/VICommon.pm line 545, line 1.

SOLUTION:

[root@MON-PROXY vm]# export PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0
[root@MON-PROXY vm]# ./vminfo.pl --url https://10.10.4.70/sdk/vimService --username dpasek -vmname mon_proxy

VMware SRM

SRM Scripts
C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager\scripts\SAN

command.pl
discoverArray.pl
discoverLuns.pl
testfailover.pl
failover.pl


SRM Logs
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager\Logs\

Links:
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/01/20/sra-discoverluns/
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/01/10/hacking-site-recovery-manager-srm-a-storage-array-adapter/
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/01/12/fiddling-around-with-srms-storage-replication-adapter-part-ii/

GVRP - GARP VLAN Registration protocol

Very nice introduction to GVRP:
http://startnetworks.blogspot.com/2011/05/gvrp-garp-vlan-registration-protocol.html

Dell OpenManage Offline Bundle and VIB for ESXi

OMSA 6.5
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/555/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?c=us&l=en&s=&cs=555&DriverId=R300511

OMSA 7.0
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/555/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?DriverId=VPTVV&FileId=2922404090&productCode=poweredge-r720&urlProductCode=False

It can be installed with VMware Update Manager (VUM) or with CLI.
VUM is preferred, simpler and more convenient option.

CLI installation:
vihostupdate.pl -server -i -b OM-SrvAdmin-Dell-Web-6.3.0-2075.VIBESX41i_A00.8.zip

vicfg-advcfg --server --username --password --set 1 UserVars.CIMoemProviderEnabled

For example:
vicfg-advcfg --server 10.10.1.72 --set 1 UserVars.CIMoemProviderEnabled

Note:
in ESX5 advanced parameter changed to UserVars.CIMvmw_OpenManageProviderEnabled

The Trouble with CA SSL Certificates and vCenter 5

http://longwhiteclouds.com/2012/02/07/the-trouble-with-ca-ssl-certificates-and-vcenter-5/

http://www.wooditwork.com/2011/11/30/vsphere-5-certificates-1-installing-a-root-certificate-authority-3/