Change ESXi 5 iSCSI iqn with esxcli
After my previous post about getting the iqn of an ESXi using esxcli Andy Banta (@andybanta) commented on Twitter that you can also change the iqn of the host with esxcli.
As he said it would be tremendously useful if you need to physically replace the server and don’t want to modify all your storage infrastructure, it’s easier to just modify the iqn of the new server and set it to the old name.
The task is as easier as the one described in last post. Using esxcli command with the iscsi namespace you can change the name and the alias of the adapter.
As a precaution first retrieve the current iqn to check that it’s the correct server.
To change the name you have to provide the adapter and the new name.
Hope you find this useful, any comments and suggestions are welcome as always.
Juanma.
How to get iSCSI iqn using esxcli in ESXi 5
Back in 2010 I wrote a post about how to get the iSCSI iqn of an ESXi 4.x server using vSphere CLI from the vMA or any other system with the vCLI installed on it.
The method described in that article is still valid for ESXi 5.0 since the old vicfg and esxcfg commands are still available, however with 5.0 version you can get a similar result using the new esxcli namespaces, following is how to do it.
First task is to get a list of the iSCSI HBAs in order to know the name of the software iSCSI initiator.
Next we get the info of the adapter.
Look at the Name field to get the iqn and we are done.
Juanma.
A bit of troubleshooting of the vCenter Server Appliance
If your vCSA is configured to use the embedded DB2 database and if it’s not properly shutdown, next you power it on may be you should not be able to power on a VM like in the screenshot below…
…or the vSphere Client will not show some of information about the host or the VMs.
We all have seen those kind of errors in our homelabs from time to time. In the Windows-based vCenter it was relatively easy to solve, close the client, log into the vCenter, restart the vCenter Server service and in the next login into the vSphere Client everything will go as expected.
However how can we resolve this issue in the vCenter Linux appliance? Can’t be easier.
There are two ways to restart the vCenter services in the vCSA:
- From he WebUI administration interface
- From the command line
For the first method log into the WebUI of the vCSA by accessing https://<vCSA_URL>:5480 with your favorite web browser.
In the vCenter Server screen in the Status tab there stop and start the vCenter Server service from the Action buttons.
The second method is faster and easier, and to be sincere it feels more natural for me and probably for the other Unix Geek/Sysadmins out there.
The vCenter service in the Linux appliance is vmware-vpxd so with a simple service vmware-vpxd restart we’ll be on business again. Check the screenshot below.
Finally as seen in the screen capture you can check the status of the service.
More on troubleshooting the vCSA in a future post.
Juanma.
VMworld 2012, it’s time to vote
I know that I owe you an apology, it’s been more than a month since my last post but you know how is to join a new company. I had some of the more amazing weeks in my career with long sessions in front of the laptop trying to get all the VMware intranet straight into my brain ;-)
Anyway VMworld is just around the corner and I want to recommend some of the sessions I voted for.
- 1154 - vCloud Director Infrastructure Resiliency – DR of the Cloud – Chris Colotti and Duncan Epping
- 1159 - Architecting and Operating a vSphere Metro Storage Cluster – Lee Dilworth and Duncan Epping
- 1166 – Monitoring a vCloud Infrastructure – David Hill and Andy Troup
- 1168 – Architecting a Cloud Infrastructure – Chris Colotti, David Hill and Aidan Dalgleish
- 1504 – Ask the Expert vBloggers - Scott Lowe, Duncan Epping, Rick Scherer, Frank Denneman, Chad Sakac
- 1199 – vSphere Storage Appliance Deep Dive & New Features – Cormac Hogan
- 2427 - Storage Wars: Conquering and Optimizing the vSphere Storage Layer – Eric Siebert
- 2430 – How to Increase the Availability of Business Critical Applications Using Virtualization – Andrea Mauro
- 2431 – To Block or to File: Choosing the Right Storage Protocol for your VMware Environment – Eric Siebert
- 2442 – Designing vSphere Network using HP Virtual Connect Flex Fabric – Prasenjit Sarkar
- 2508 – Running vFabric GemFire in a Cloud – the Advantages and Challenges with Data Fabrics in VM’s - Michael Ryan and Sudhir Menon
- 2619 – Metro Storage Clusters: Two Storage Vendors Discuss Key Considerations for VMware’s Latest HCL Category – Eric Siebert and Scott Lowe
- 2857 – Building Cloud Ready Applications Using vFabric Application Director - Rajesh Khazanchi
Beside those sessions there are dozens of very interesting sessions to choose so please cast your vote at VMworld.com you have until 8th of June. This edition is going to be huge. Hope to see you there.
Juanma.
New journey, new challenges.
The last four weeks I had a bit of a crazy life, but finally the process has come to an end and I can freely speak about it.
It is with joy that I want to announce that by the 10th of May I will join VMware as PSO Consultant. It has been a hard decision, HP has been my home for almost eight years in two different periods and I leave here smart people, great professionals and more important very good friends.
From here I want to thank all my friends, managers and mentor at HP, this new path that lies ahead of me wouldn’t be possible without you. I sincere wish you all the best.
Juanma.
vExpert 2012, one more time :-)
When I got home after a morning playing airsoft with some friends I found on my twitter stream a very nice surprise. My friend Josep Ros (@josepros) was congratulating me for being awarded VMware vExpert for another year. VMware had published the initial list in a blog post here.
I can’t be thankful enough to VMware for including me again in such a great list of people and in special to John Troyer (@jtroyer) and Alex Maier (@lxmaier) for their excellent work leading this amazing community.
I also want to congratulate the rest of my fellow vExperts for the award, is a real honor to be on the same list. Please continue with your hard and inspirational work.
Juanma
How to upgrade the vMA 5
Last week vSphere 5 Update 1 was released by VMware, along with the main products some of the SDKs and automation tools were also updated, including the vMA.
As you should remember from my first post about vMA 5 the classic vma-update utility is no longer available. So to be able to update our vMA to the new version we have to use the Web UI. Following is the procedure to perform the upgrade.
First access the web interface using the vi-admin user as always.
From the main screen go to the Update tab. In the Status screen click on Check Updates.
After a few seconds a message will appear showing the new update available.
Click on Install Updates and after asking for confirmation the update process will start.
Once the update process is complete the appliance will ask for a system reboot.
Go to the System tab and perform the reboot. After the reboot is done you can check the new version in the appliance console,
And in the vma-release file, located at /etc.
vi-admin@vma:~> cat /etc/vma-release vMA 5.0.0 BUILD-643553 Copyright (C) 1998-2011 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more U.S. Patent Numbers D617,808, D617,809, D617,810, D617,811, 6,075,938, 6,397,242, 6,496,847, 6,704,925, 6,711,672, 6,725,289, 6,735,601, 6,785,886, 6,789,156, 6,795,966, 6,880,022, 6,883,095, 6,940,980, 6,944,699, 6,961,806, 6,961,941, 6,970,562, 7,017,041, 7,055,032, 7,065,642, 7,069,413, 7,069,435, 7,082,598, 7,089,377, 7,111,086, 7,111,145, 7,117,481, 7,149,310, 7,149,843, 7,155,558, 7,222,221, 7,260,815, 7,260,820, 7,269,683, 7,275,136, 7,277,998, 7,277,999, 7,278,030, 7,281,102, 7,290,253, 7,343,599, 7,356,679, 7,386,720, 7,409,487, 7,412,492, 7,412,702, 7,424,710, 7,428,636, 7,433,951, 7,434,002, 7,447,854, 7,447,903, 7,467,067, 7,475,002, 7,478,173, 7,478,180, 7,478,218, 7,478,388, 7,484,208, 7,487,313, 7,487,314, 7,490,216, 7,500,048, 7,506,122, 7,516,453, 7,529,897, 7,543,301, 7,555,747, 7,565,527, 7,571,471, 7,577,722, 7,581,064, 7,590,715, 7,590,982, 7,594,111, 7,596,594, 7,596,697, 7,599,493, 7,603,704, 7,606,868, 7,620,523, 7,620,766, 7,620,955, 7,624,240, 7,630,493, 7,636,831, 7,657,659, 7,657,937, 7,665,088, 7,672,814, 7,680,919, 7,689,986, 7,693,996, 7,694,101, 7,702,843, 7,707,185, 7,707,285, 7,707,578, 7,716,446, 7,734,045, 7,734,911, 7,734,912, 7,735,136, 7,743,389, 7,761,917, 7,765,543, 7,774,391, 7,779,091, 7,783,779, 7,783,838, 7,793,279, 7,797,748, 7,801,703, 7,802,000, 7,802,248, 7,805,676, 7,814,495, 7,823,145, 7,831,661, 7,831,739, 7,831,761, 7,831,773, 7,840,790, 7,840,839, 7,840,993, 7,844,954, 7,849,098, 7,853,744, 7,853,960, 7,856,419, 7,856,531, 7,856,637, 7,865,663, 7,869,967, 7,886,127, 7,886,148, 7,886,346, 7,890,754, 7,895,437, 7,908,646, 7,912,951, 7,921,197, 7,925,850; patents pending. VMware, the VMware "boxes" logo and design, Virtual SMP and VMotion are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. vi-admin@vma:~>
The above procedure use the default VMware repository and your appliance must be able to resolve public DNS addresses and access the internet in order to download de upgrade bits.
Juanma.
