In this post, I wanted to walk through the deployment of VMware vRealize Log Insight 4.3. I had heard about this product in the past but had never gotten to leverage its capabilities. If you are like me, parsing through piles of logs may not be one of your favorite pastimes, especially in a crunch. Well, VMware aims to fix that with Log Insight. As per VMware, Log Insight is log collector and analyzer that enables faster and more efficient…
This morning, VMware hosted a free webinar on vSphere 6.5 top issues and troubleshooting. If you are already on vSphere 6.5 or looking to make the jump, I would recommend watching the webcast. In it, VMware dove into top issues reported by customers and discussed how to identify and resolve said issues. If a resolution is not available, a workaround was given. If you missed the webinar, here is a recap of the issues and fixes discussed. Most issues have a…
Last Thursday, VMware distributed a rush post regarding an issue with Windows Server and VMware Tools. The issue pertains to packets being dropped on virtual machines running Windows as the guest OS and VMware Tools versions 9.10.0 through 10.1.5. For reference, 9.10.0 through 10.1.5 were packaged with ESXi 6.0 and 6.5, respectively. The increased rate of dropped packets stems from a malfunction in Windows Receive Side Scaling (RSS) on Windows 2012 and later guests. RSS normally works to distribute network processing…
One of my favorite features in vCenter 6.5 is the built-in Update Manager. VMware Update Manager (VUM) 6.5 is used to patch and upgrade vSphere ESXi hosts, virtual appliances, VMware Tools, and virtual hardware. Previous versions of the vCenter Server Appliance required a separate Windows machine to run Update Manager. For many admins, this was a deterrent in deploying VUM. Now that the embedded Update Manager leverages the vCenter Server Appliance Postgres database, there is no additional vms to install…
As versions of vCenter Server 6.5 are released, admins may be looking to update their environments to leverage the latest functionality and fixes. If you are at that point with your vCenter Server Appliance, don’t sweat the patch process. This update is easily performed using the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) and URL patching. If you are unfamiliar with the VAMI, it is the administrative interface that allows management and monitoring of the vCenter Appliance. If you are all too familiar with…