PowerCLI: Return the iSCSI Software Adapter

June 14, 2011 Leave a comment

In my previous postsabout how to manage iSCSI targets with PowerCLI part 1 and part 2. I used the following line to return the iSCSI adapter:

$hba = $esx | Get-VMHostHba -Type iScsi

But when I used this line against a vSphere 4.1 update 1 host with Broadcom BCM5709 (Dell Poweredge R710). vSphere will use these adapters as Broadcom iSCSI Adapters. And when you run the $hba = $esx | Get-VMHostHba -Type iScsi one-liner, it will return all the vmhba adapters.

[vSphere PowerCLI] C:\> $esx | Get-VMHostHba -Type iScsi

Device     Type         Model                          Status

——     —-         —–                          ——

vmhba32    IScsi        Broadcom iSCSI Adapter         unbound

vmhba33    IScsi        Broadcom iSCSI Adapter         unbound

vmhba34    IScsi        Broadcom iSCSI Adapter         unbound

vmhba35    IScsi        Broadcom iSCSI Adapter         unbound

vmhba37    IScsi        iSCSI Software Adapter            online

This “problem” can easily be resolved with a Where statement. In the following Where statement you look for a Model that equals “iSCSI Software Adapter”. There is only one Software adapter in ESX(i) so it will return the right vmhba. The PowerCLI line will look like this:

$esx | Get-VMHostHba -Type iScsi | Where {$_.Model -eq "iSCSI Software Adapter"}

[vSphere PowerCLI] C:\> $esx | Get-VMHostHba -Type iScsi | Where {$_.Model -eq "iSCSI Software Adapter"}

Device     Type         Model                          Status

——     —-         —–                          ——

vmhba37    IScsi        iSCSI Software Adapter         online

So the bottom line. Test your code on different setups and update it when necessary

Filed under Automation Tagged with iSCSI, PowerCLI, vSphere

Veeam: Change Restore points and deleted VMs retention period

June 3, 2011 1 Comment

If you want to change the amount of restore points and the deleted VMs retention period, you can do this for your backup jobs by hand. But if you need to change a lot of Veeam Backup & Replication Jobs like I needed to do. You can find these settings in the Backup Job properties:

If you’re a reader of my blog, you know I like to automate this kind of jobs with Powershell. So I created a function to perform this change for me.

The function:

#requires -pssnapin VeeamPSSnapIn
Function Change-RestorePoints{
<#
.SYNOPSIS
    Change the Backup restore points and deleted VMs retention period
.DESCRIPTION

.NOTES
    Authors: Arne Fokkema
.PARAMETER JobName
    A Backup Job in Veeam Backup & Replication
.PARAMETER RetainDays
    The amount of restore points
.PARAMETER RetainCycles
    The amount of days for Deleted VMs retention period    
.EXAMPLE
    PS> Change-RestorePoints -JobName "Job-01" -RetainDays "21" -RetainCycles "21"
#>
    param(
        [parameter(valuefrompipeline = $true,
            position = 0,
            Mandatory = $true,
            HelpMessage = "Enter a Veeam B&R JobName")]
            $JobName,
        [parameter(valuefrompipeline = $true,
            position = 0,
            Mandatory = $true,
            HelpMessage = "Enter the amount of restore points to keep on disk")]
            $RetainDays,
        [parameter(valuefrompipeline = $true,
            position = 0,
            Mandatory = $true,
            HelpMessage = "Enter a deleted VMs retention period in days")]
            $RetainCycles
    )

    begin{
        $vbrjob = Get-VBRJob  | where {$_.Name -eq $JobName} 
    }
    
    process{
        $options = $vbrjob.GetOptions()
        $options.RetainDays = $RetainDays
        $options.RetainCycles = $RetainCycles
        Write-Host "Changing RetainDays: $($RetainDays) and RetainDays: $($RetainCycles) for job: $($vbrjob.Name)"
        $vbrjob.SetOptions($options)
    }
}

To change a particular job on a Veeam Backup & Replication server you can use the following one-liner:

Change-RestorePoints -JobName "Job-01" -RetainDays "30" -RetainCycles "30"

To change all the jobs on a particular Veeam Backup & Replication Server you can use the following foreach loop:

foreach($job in (Get-VBRJob | Sort Name)){
    Change-RestorePoints -JobName $job.Name -RetainDays "14" -RetainCycles "14"
}

The output will look like this:

Filed under Automation, Veeam Tagged with Powershell, Veeam Backup

Veeam: How to change the Job notification settings with Powershell

May 13, 2011 Leave a comment

Today just a quick post about how Powershell can help you change the VM attribute option in Veeam Backup & Replication. Imaging that you have 20 backup jobs and you want or need to change the VM attribute settings. You can do this for every job with 10 mouse clicks or you can do it in five seconds by running the script from this post.

This is the setting I am talking about from the GUI:

When you change the “Notes” value to some custom field in you environment, the script will apply this setting for you.

if((Get-PSSnapin -Name VeeamPSSnapIn -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null){
    Add-PSSnapin "VeeamPSSnapIn"
}

$vbrserver = Get-VBRServer | Where {$_.Type -eq "VC"}
Foreach($vbrjob in (Get-VBRJob)){    
    $options = $vbrjob.GetOptions()
    $options.VmAttributeName = "Notes"
    $options.SetResultsToVmNotes = $true
    $vbrjob.SetOptions($options)
}

The first three lines of code checked if the VeeamPSSnapIn is loaded, if this is not the case it will be loaded via the Add-PSSnapin.

The backup options will be loaded via the .GetOptions() method.
VmAttibuteName is the value which you normally enter in the attribute field.
SetResultsToVmNotes is the checkbox to enable this setting.
via .SetOptions() method you can apply the new settings.

Filed under Automation, Veeam Tagged with Powershell, Veeam Backup

Veeam: Change the Veeam Storage Optimization with Powershell

April 20, 2011 1 Comment

In Veeam Backup and Replication you can choose three different types of Storage optimization.

See the blog post on the Veeam website for more info: http://www.veeam.com/blog

From @gostev I received the following tip:

Note that storage optimization will not take effect until next full backup. Setting is used for newly created backup storage only.

There is no standard cmdlet to change this settings, so we have to find the property of the Storage optimization settings. With some trial and error I found the stgBlockSize property. This property can be found inside the vbrjob options.

You can view this properties via:

$vbrjob = Get-VBRJob | where {$_.Name -eq "<vbrjobname>"}
$options = $vbrjob.GetOptions()

and via the StgBlockSize property you are able to find the actual value of this setting.

$options.StgBlockSize

I have tried the three options from the screenshot and found the following three values:

    $localtarget = "KbBlockSize1024"
    $lantarget = "KbBlockSize512"
    $wantarget = "KbBlockSize256"

Now we have found the properties we need to change the settings via PowerShell. We can build some scripts.

If you want to change the Storage option to LAN target on all your backup jobs. You can run the following script on your Veeam Backup and Replication server. Don’t forget to change the StgBlockSize value with the variable you want to use.

if((Get-PSSnapin -Name VeeamPSSnapIn -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null){
    Add-PSSnapin "VeeamPSSnapIn"
}

$vbrjobs = Get-VBRJob 

foreach($vbrjob in $vbrjobs){

    #Storage optimization 
    $localtarget = "KbBlockSize1024"
    $lantarget = "KbBlockSize512"
    $wantarget = "KbBlockSize256"

    #Change Job Options
    $options = $vbrjob.GetOptions()
    $options.StgBlockSize = $lantarget

    $vbrjob.SetOptions($options)
}

Or if you want to change just a couple of your jobs, you can use the following script:

if((Get-PSSnapin -Name VeeamPSSnapIn -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null){
    Add-PSSnapin "VeeamPSSnapIn"
}

$vbrjobs = "<Job1>","<Job2>"

foreach($vbrjobname in $vbrjobs){

    #Storage optimization 
    $localtarget = "KbBlockSize1024"
    $lantarget = "KbBlockSize512"
    $wantarget = "KbBlockSize256"

    #Change Job Options
    $vbrjob = Get-VBRJob  | where {$_.Name -eq $vbrjobname} 
    $options = $vbrjob.GetOptions()
    $options.StgBlockSize = $lantarget

    $vbrjob.SetOptions($options)
}

So with the Powershell toolkit for Veeam you can perform every change you want and can do via the GUI. You can expect some more posts about automating Veeam Backup and Replication with Powershell.

Filed under Automation Tagged with Powershell, Veeam Backup

PowerCLI: Error 1406. Could not write value InstallPath to key….

April 20, 2011 Leave a comment

Today I wanted to install PowerCLI on a new installed Windows 2008 R2 server. But I ended up with the following warning:

To fix this, you have to delete the following Registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\VMware, Inc.

And press retry. The PowerCLI setup will finish without errors.

Source:

http://www.annoying.dk

Filed under Automation, VMware Tagged with PowerCLI, Registry

vSphere: VM “freezes” during the removal of a snapshot

April 6, 2011 1 Comment

If your VM is running on a NFS datastore and Changed Block Tracking (CBT) is enabled, you might experience the following symptoms:

When removing the snapshot of the virtual machine residing on the NFS storage in an ESX/ESXi 4.1 host, you may experience these symptoms:

The virtual machine appears to be in a hung state within the console view

The virtual machine stops responding to ping requests

The virtual machine is inaccessible via remote desktop

But why is this VM freezing? The explanation is the locking mechanism which NFS uses:

This issue may occur if you are using a backup application that utilizes Changed Block Tracking (CBT) and the ctkEnabled option for the virtual machine is set to true. The virtual machine becomes unresponsive for up to 30 seconds as NFS locks on the .ctk file are changed.

The workaround is to disable CBT:

Wait for the virtual machine to become responsive and for the snapshot operation to complete.

Schedule an outage window for the affected virtual machine.

Shut down the virtual machine.

In the Inventory pane, right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.

Click the Options tab and click General.

Click Configuration Parameters.

If the ctkEnabled parameter is not listed, click Add Row, add ctkEnabled, and set it to false.

Power on the virtual machine.

This workaround can impact the backup performance because you can’t use CBT. To Disable CBT in a Veeam job, you have to edit the job and disable CBT in the Advanced Settings under the vSphere tab:

Or if you’re using PHD Virtual Backup you can change the CBT settings in the Options tab on the properties page of a Backup Job:

Source
http://kb.vmware.com	KB1031106

Filed under VMware Tagged with Backup, CBT, Snapshot, Veeam

Storage vMotion only one hard disk to another datastore in vSphere

April 1, 2011 1 Comment

Sometimes it’s necessary to only migrate a single hard disk from a VM. This is the case when someone adds two 1 TB VMDK’s and fills them up completely. The maximum size of a VMFS datastore is 2TB minus 512 bytes. So in this case the datastore will be completely filled with no space left to keep the VM running. So if you want to migrate just one hard disk to make sure the VMFS datastore will not fill up. You can use the vSphere client or PowerCLI to do perform this “advanced” Storage vMotion.

Note: if you want to reclaim your “wasted” storage back from your SAN, you have to recycle the whole datastore. So you have to migrate the other hard disks and configuration files as well.

vSphere Client

Start the Migrate Virtual Machine wizard and select datastore:

PowerCLI: Host Networking Device info

March 27, 2011 1 Comment

In this post I will share a simple PowerCLI script which generates some Network Device information from your vSphere hosts. The information you’ll get is the vmHost name, device name, linkspeed and MAC address.

$vmHostNicInfo = @()
foreach($vmHost in (Get-VMHost | Sort Name)){
    foreach($nic in $vmhost.NetworkInfo.PhysicalNic){ 
        $Details = "" | Select vmHost, Device,Linkspeed,Mac

        $Details.vmHost = $vmhost.Name
        $Details.Device = $nic.Extensiondata.Device
        $Details.Linkspeed = ($nic.Extensiondata.Linkspeed).SpeedMB
        $Details.Mac = $nic.Extensiondata.Mac
    
        $vmHostNicInfo += $Details
    }
}
$vmHostNicInfo | Format-Table -AutoSize

The output will look like this:

But what if you only want to see the devices with a link speed lower then 1000? Well that’s possible with the following end line:

$vmHostNicInfo | Where {$_.Linkspeed -lt "1000"} |  Format-Table -AutoSize

Or if you want to know which device/host belongs to a particular MAC address. You can use the following end line:

$vmHostNicInfo | Where {$_.Mac -eq "00:07:e9:1f:f9:bf"} |  Format-Table -AutoSize

So with a small script, you’re able to export valuable data.

Filed under Automation, VMware Tagged with PowerCLI, vSphere

Release: vSphere 4.1 Update 1

February 11, 2011 1 Comment

Like many others already mentioned today: vSphere 4.1 Update 1 has been RELEASED!

I selected a couple of fixes from the release notes that made our life as a vSphere admin a lot better :

vCenter Storage Monitoring plug-in might not get enabled if vSphere Client 4.1 is connected to vCenter Server 4.0
If you use vSphere Client 4.1 to connect to vCenter Server 4.0, and you then enable the vCenter Storage Monitoring plug-in, the Plug-in Manager Window might display an error similar to the following:
The plug-in failed to load on server(s) vmvc38 due to the following error: Could not load file or assembly 'VpxClientCommon, Version=4.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7c8-0a434483c7c50' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

This issue is resolved in this release.

Performance Overview data might not display after upgrading to vCenter Server 4.1
Performance Overview data for the past day, week, and month might not be displayed after upgrading to vCenter Server 4.1.

This issue is resolved in this release.

Performance data might be missing for certain intervals after upgrading to vCenter Server 4.1
After upgrading to vCenter Server 4.1 or every time that vCenter Server restarts, multiple threads might invoke the same stored procedure to process statistics in temporary tables (VPX_TEMPTABLE[1,2,3]) at the same time causing certain operations to not complete. This might lead to failure in collection of statistics. The performance data in the performance overview charts might be missing for certain intervals.
This issue is resolved in this release.

Replacing SSL certificates in vCenter Server with custom certificates generated using OpenSSL 1.0.0 or later causes Storage Monitoring Service to fail
For this issue, the following error is recorded in the sms.log files:
Error constructing private key
This issue is resolved in this release.

Search functionality might not display results if you use vSphere Client 4.1 to access vCenter Server 4.0
If you use vSphere Client 4.1 to connect to a vCenter Server 4.0 system that is using vCenter Linked Mode, and you then perform a search function, the search results might not appear and might seem that the search function does not complete.
This issue is resolved in this release.

vCenter Server alarm actions are triggered repeatedly even after the state of the alarm reverts to normal †
Some vCenter Server event and state-based alarm actions are triggered repeatedly even after the alert status reverts to green (normal).
This issue is resolved in this release.

Grab your copy of vCenter Server 4.1 Update 1 here: VMware

I made also a short list of fixes in ESX:

Some virtual machines stop responding during storage rescan operation when any LUN on the host is in an all-paths-down (APD) state
During storage rescan operation, some virtual machines stop responding when any LUN on the host is in an all-paths-down (APD) state. For more information, see KB 1016626 at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1016626. To work around the problem in the KB, manually set the advanced configuration option /VMFS3/FailVolumeOpenIfAPD to 1 before issuing the rescan and then reset it to 0 after the completion of the rescan operation. The issue is resolved in this release. You need not apply the workaround of setting and not setting the advanced configuration option while starting the rescan operation. Virtual machines on non-APD volumes will no longer fail during a rescan operation, even if some LUNs are in an all-paths-down state.

Creation of large .vmdk files on NFS might fail
When you create a virtual disk (.vmdk file) with a large size, for example, more than 1TB, on NFS storage, the creation process might fail with an error: A general system error occurred: Failed to create disk: Error creating disk. This issue occurs when the NFS client does not wait for sufficient time for the NFS storage array to initialize the virtual disk after the RPC parameter of the NFS client times out. By default the timeout value is 10 seconds. This fix provides the configuration option to tune the RPC timeout parameter using the esxcfg-advcfg -s <Timeout> /NFS/SetAttrRPCTimeout command.

Updates for the WDDM driver
In this release, the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver is updated to fix some infrequent issues where a Windows virtual machine fails and displays a blue screen.

Cannot take quiesced snapshots of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machine running vCenter Server 4.1
When creating a snapshot of a Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machine that has vCenter Server 4.1 installed, the snapshot operation might fail to complete. This issue occurs on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machines when the ADAM database is installed.
The issue is resolved in this release.

Grab your copy of ESX(i) 4.1 Update 1 here: VMware

Filed under VMware Tagged with Release, Update 1, vSphere 4.1

View Agent is in an unreachable state after deploying a Win XP pool

February 9, 2011 Leave a comment

After the upgrade to VMware View 4.5, I wanted to test a Desktop pool with the new View Agent and Windows XP installed as Guest OS. But when the composer finished his job, it finished with a provisioning error:

So after a quick search I found out that this issue is documented on page 286 from view45_admin_guide.pdf:

Windows XP linked-clone desktops can fail to join the domain if your Active Directory runs on Windows Server 2008.

Problem
When linked-clone desktops are provisioned, the linked clones fail to join the domain. View Administrator displays View Composer provisioning error messages. For example:
5/17/10 3:11:50 PM PDT: View Composer agent initialization state error (18): Failed to join the
domain (waited 565 seconds)

Cause
This issue can occur if your Active Directory runs on Windows Server 2008. The Windows Server 2008 readonly domain controller (RODC) is not backward-compatible with Windows XP virtual machines.

Solution
1 Check the View Composer log for the following error message:
0x4f1: The system detected a possible attempt to compromise security. Please ensure that you
can contact the server that authenticated you. By default, the View Composer log file is generated in the Windows Temp directory: C:\Windows\Temp \vmware-viewcomposer-ga-new.log
2 On the parent virtual machine, apply the Windows Server 2008 RODC compatibility update for Windows XP. See Microsoft Support Article 944043 at the following location:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944043/en-us.
3 Take a snapshot of the updated parent virtual machine.
4 Recompose the linked-clone desktops from the updated parent virtual machine and snapshot.

You can also find the solution on kb.vmware.com:

This issue occurs when Windows XP desktops fail to join the Windows 2008 Active Directory domain.

To resolve this issue:

Ensure that the Windows XP Master is updated with the latest Microsoft patches.

Ensure that the Windows Server 2008 read-only domain controller (RODC) compatibility pack for Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP clients is installed in the master virtual machine.
For more information and to download the patch, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 944043.
Note: The preceding link was correct as of January 28, 2011. If you find the link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.
After applying the patch, create a new snapshot for use with linked clone pools or convert the virtual machine to a template for full clone or deployment using Sysprep.

After applying the latest Windows XP updates and the patch mentioned above. I was able to deploy the XP desktop pool again. So if you are deploying View desktop with Windows XP in a Windows 2008 domain. Install the patch mentioned in KB944043.

Note. I saw this issue only on desktops with the latest View 4.5 agent installed. The desktop pool with the View 4.0 agent did work as expected.

Sources:

Source	Link
VMware	http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1027775
VMware	http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1030462
VMware	http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1027087
Microsoft	http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944043/en-us