The Virtual Bit

VMware Cloud Foundation "in a box" - Holodeck Homelab Build

After parting with a small Supermicro Homelab in 2022 and having some time away from running my own kit I decided it was time to re-invest and get ready for the incoming VCF v9 release in 2025. Until version 9 of Cloud Foundation is out of beta and widely available

vROPS

Rightsize Virtual Machines in bulk using PowerCLI

If you have attempted to rightsize or correct the CPU or RAM on a large amount of virtual machines you will know this is not always a quick task, while the ability to rightsize virtual machines in bulk does exist within later versions of vRealize Operations Manager (Now known as

vCenter

The resource 'Port-ID' is in use error when removing a host from VDS - The vSphere Distributed Switch configuration on some hosts differed from that of the vCenter Server

After receiving a warning from vCenter about VDS configuration drift I attempted the remediation methods outlined in this KB article (see Method 2). I was unable to attach the blank Virtual Machine created from the KB to the specific ports that were showing as out of sync. The out of

Supermicro

Supermicro IPMI interface Unable to mount ISO

I recently had the need to mount a bootable ISO to the Supermicro server I use in my lab environment using the built in IPMI tool. Its a relatively straight forward process, or at least it should be :) 1. Create a standard windows share and give open or authenticated account

VMware

Hypervisor at the "Edge" - Running pfSense on ESXi as a Home Firewall

A recent requirement came up for a security feature that my existing home router / firewall could not solve so I set about looking for an alternative solution... this post will cover what I now run as the main firewall at home. If you are looking for a firewall that is

VMware

Configuring vCenter HTML5 Client to display English UK Day Date format DD/MM/YYYY

This one has been asked by several colleagues of mine and after researching online there doesn't seem to be much on the topic. While configuring the setting is pretty trivial finding where (and how) to set it is not clear. I will cover how to change to a

VMware

Failure to deploy from Content Library when Proxy settings are enabled on VCSA 7.0

After upgrading to vSphere 7.0 from 6.7 I was unable to deploy any new Virtual Machines from previously created Content Libraries, this looks to be an issue with the appliance using the configured proxy settings for internal file transfer... Here's how I managed to work around

VMware

Modifying DNS on SRM 8.3 Appliance

I recently had to modify the DNS entries on a several SRM appliances, my first port of call was the GUI, after making my modifications I found that the appliance would not remove the old DNS entries, it just added the new ones to the list. This shows 4 entries

VMware

Error when vMotioning or Storage vMotioning - The object 'vim. Datastore:datastore-XXXX' has already been deleted or has not been completely created

Ran in to this error today when trying to storage vMotion a Virtual Machine, on further investigation the ability to perform a standard vMotion was also affected. I then tried to vMotion another VM on the same ESXi host, this reported the same error, pointing to an issue with the

VMware

Useful Commands Collected from VMware GSS tickets

This post is an attempt to capture some of the more useful commands used while troubleshooting issues with vCenter and ESXi in-conjunction with VMware GSS. I will add to this any other commands that I find along the way... ESXi DCUI ALT+F1 - Switches to the console. ALT+F2

VMware

VCAP 6.5-DCV Advanced Deploy Exam Experience

After passing the VCAP 6.5 DCV Design exam in March this year I booked to sit the second part of the certification in early August, this post provides detail on how I found the VCAP 6.5 DCV Deploy exam and my overall experience, along with the material I

VMware

VMware vCSA 6.5 & 6.7 does not accept https proxy settings through the GUI

Having recently moved six vCenter Servers over from Windows to the VMware appliance I ran into an issue with configuring the proxy settings from the GUI to allow the appliance to check for updates online. Here is how I manged to work around the issue both for the 6.5

VMware

VCAP6.5-DCV Design Exam Experience

After completing my VCP 6.5 back in May 2018 I decided to pursue the next round of VMware certifications. I went for the VCAP 6.5 Design exam first as this was multiple choice and I could sit this closer to home, the Deploy exam can only be sat

VMware

Managing Snapshots the Easy Way with vROps 7.0

The use of snapshots within VMware vCenter has always been a useful feature, however managing this easily when there are 1000's of virtual machines in an estate, with multiple IT teams all using the platform can prove to be quite a challenge. I have used fixed rules in

VMware

Update Manager - Cannot Execute Upgrade Script On Host - unequal values of the 'payloads' attribute - ESXi 6.5 to 6.7u1 Upgrade.

Having just upgraded a VMware VCSA from 6.5 to 6.7u1 I set about uplifting the ESXi hosts only to stumble at the first hurdle. Using Update Manager within vCenter to deploy the custom HP 6.7u1 Build the following error was shown... The error thrown was pretty generic

VMware

Reclaimable Capacity Tab missing from vROPS 7.0

Since upgrading from vROPs 6.7 to the latest 7.0 release I have discovered a few changes that have affected our current way of working with the tool, one of these is looking at a specific VM to see if there is any spare capacity across CPU, RAM or

VMware

One Stop Shop for VMware Configuration Maximums

I've often found myself "googling" in search of configuration maximums across the various versions of vSphere, this has sometimes led me to websites holding incorrect or suspicious values that I have the had to go and double check against VMware official material. The last time I

VMware

Modify Content Library Template Settings without Exporting and Importing

Having recently implemented Content Libraries on a vSphere 6.5 environment, I ran in to a problem where I needed to change a setting within one of the VM library templates. On further investigation there seemed to be 2 ways to achieve this: 1. Export the VM from the content