vRamblings - Adventures in virtualization through the eyes of Aaron Bolthouse. IT Manager, Wisconsin VMUG Co-Leader, vExpert 2015 & 2016, and virtualization enthusiast. Follow me on Twitter @Bhouse563!

OpBot – Slack Chat With Your vCenter

OpBot is the Slack-based VMware Chat Bot you never knew you were missing!

I am always looking for quirky, interesting, or simply odd things to mess around with in VMware. While browsing the other day I came across an interesting post by Opvizor about a new software integration they released. They call it OpBot and it seems to have a specific purpose, to allow you a swift communication channel directly to your vCenter server from anywhere you have an internet connection. All you need is a Slack client! For those unfamiliar, Slack is a chat and collaboration tool used both in and outside of the enterprise.

Continue reading OpBot – Slack Chat With Your vCenter

Automate VMware Knowledge Base Analysis

Knowledge Base Searching… Automated!

WARNING THIS IS NOT A FREE TOOL!!!
BUT THERE IS A FREE TRIAL

VMware is an industry leader in a lot of areas but one place they really excel is their public Knowledge Base (KB) offering. They have one of the most extensive KB repositories publicly available from any major tech firm. All you typically need is an error code and access to Google to get several KB articles which contain relevant information to your issue. However, anyone who has tried this method will know that it leads to a lot of dead ends. Nothing is more frustrating to admins than chasing a dead end…

Continue reading Automate VMware Knowledge Base Analysis

vSphere Beta Open for Applications

The new vSphere Beta is about to open and they are taking applicants over here at this site. Just fill out the form to be considered! Before applying however know that there are some expectations from VMware regarding participation:

Online acceptance of the Master Software Beta Test Agreement will be required prior to visiting the Private Beta Community
Install beta software within 3 days of receiving access to the beta product
Provide feedback within the first 4 weeks of the beta program
Submit Support Requests for bugs, issues and feature requests
Complete surveys and beta test assignments
Participate in the private beta discussion forum and conference calls

If the above points are things which you have no issue with then read on!
Continue reading vSphere Beta Open for Applications

Log Insight Now Comes with vCenter

VMware vCenter Log Insight has been a staple of the vRealize suite since inception. Anyone using vRealize knows that Log Insight can be an invaluable tool in problem resolution. With all of the available plugins a full Log Insight installation is practically limitless in what it can monitor inside your infrastructure.

VMware has taken this great tool a step further, as of last month vCenter Log Insight is free for anyone who buys vCenter! There are some caveats to this obviously: Continue reading Log Insight Now Comes with vCenter

ESXi 5.5U3b and SSLv3 – Always Upgrade vCenter First

Recently VMware put out an update to ESXi (5.5U3b) which many people found to be a little disruptive. In keeping tight with their numbering convention, they have muddied the waters on what exactly is allowed in a “minor” update. Due to security vulnerabilities in the SSLv3 architecture, VMware made the call (correctly if you ask me) to disable this feature, however they did so in a minor revision not even a proper ‘Update’. Which has left a lot of people clamoring for what to do when they run security patches in VUM or directly on their ESXi servers only to have them not come back when rebooted!! If you were unfortunate enough to have this situation happen to you, then you were probably very confused and a bit upset. If you would like more information on this particular issue check out this VMware KB kb.vmware.com/kb/2140304.

Continue reading ESXi 5.5U3b and SSLv3 – Always Upgrade vCenter First

I’m in a podcast about VMUG!

I was approached by the gentlemen over at Druva to be a guest on their monthly podcast SOCK(net). They wanted to focus on community with this episode so they asked me on to discuss my experiences with the VMware User Group (VMUG). We spend just under an hour discussing thoughts, trends, and experiences with regards to the tech community.

Go ahead and give it a listen on SoundCloud here

If you would like more information on VMUG take a look here

If you are in the greater Wisconsin area and interested in coming to a local VMUG meeting take a look here

Community is a great way to expand your knowledge and increase your personal and professional network! User Groups are where I have focused here but they are not the only option. Forum communities, volunteer work, meet-and-greets, you name it there are plenty of other options to get involved and grow as a professional.

VMware View 6.2 issues running on ESXi 5.x: Blackscreens and Disconnects Part 2

View Agent 6.2 Video Driver Replacement

Installing a video driver from an earlier version of the VMware View Agent is a valid option for those who would like to run the same version of the Agent as they do on their View infrastructure.

This guide assumes the following:

a. View server infrastructure has already been upgraded to 6.2
b. View Agent 6.2 has already been installed
c. VMtools has already been updated to current or newer on your golden image (or app layer)
d. ESXi version is earlier than 6.0 Update 1a (for a comprehensive interoperability list see VMware’s site here)

If you don’t already have it, go here to download the View 6.1.1 Agent. Creating an account is required to download. Ensure to download the appropriate bit version for the guest OS installed.

This guide is a modified version of an original post by Jeremy Wheeler on the VMware Consulting Blog.

Continue reading VMware View 6.2 issues running on ESXi 5.x: Blackscreens and Disconnects Part 2

VMware View 6.2 issues running on ESXi 5.x: Blackscreens and Disconnects Part 1

There have been some interesting bugs in a plethora of VMware’s products this year. One that bit me pretty hard recently came out of a feature addition to the Horizon View platform. After updating View to the latest version 6.2 we were met with some interesting user complaints. Slow or laggy workstations, disconnections, and black screens after a supposed successful connection to a desktop. After researching the issue quite a bit I determined that this VMware blog had part of the answer, but can be a bit misleading for those of us that cannot upgrade vSphere to the latest (or do not want to) at the drop of a hat. It seems that VMware snuck another major application change into a dot release of their View software (the last one I ran into was the JMS2 secure communications port change between connection brokers and security servers which they added in 6.1 which caused quite an issue with next-gen firewall app definitions, but I will have to blog about that later). This time the change was in the video driver included in the View 6.2 Agent package, this new code has hooks which are exclusive to ESXi 6.0 Update 1a and above. These new features allow for a faster and smoother virtual desktop experience, but the unintended consequence is that if you are running a previous version of ESXi then these new features do not exist and when the Agent driver looks for them it causes the deviant behaviors listed above.

Continue reading VMware View 6.2 issues running on ESXi 5.x: Blackscreens and Disconnects Part 1

Welcome!

Hello virtual travelers! My name is Aaron Bolthouse and I am a 2015 vExpert, Manager of IT Infrastructure for a manufacturer in Wisconsin, Steering Committee Member on the Wisconsin VMware User Group, and all-around virtualization enthusiast. The purpose of this blog is to begin to put my journey through the wild world of virtual computing down for others in the community to use as a resource. Learn from my struggles and discoveries. Thanks for joining me!

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