We have multiple clusters within our vCenters that are defined as a rack. Each rack has its own storage, so storage is not shared between clusters. I needed to develop a way to easily replicate templates between clusters, so a local copy existed on each cluster to take advantage of VAAI.

I really wanted to utilize the vSphere Content Libary for these, but there is currently no publicly available documentation on how to deploy a VM from a Content Library via a Script. I am hoping when that is available, I will update this post.

For conformity, we like to set the UCS Equipment labels to match the Service Profile Name. This allows us to match it quickly without having to dig down into the assigned profile. This script will set the UsrLbl and Name fields on the equipment tab to match the name of the Service Profile.

Pre-Requsites

• UCS Powertool

Link to Script

• Set-UCSEquipmentLabel.ps1

Preparing to Execute the Script

The script is pretty straight forward, just need to define a few variables seen below and then you execute the script. I will walk you through the process.

Automation, Automation, Automation! I had to download some support bundles for every chassis in our multiple zones. Instead of manually going through the GUI, I figured why not script it! This script will connect to each UCS domain and automatically generate a support bundle and download it for each chassis.

Pre-Requsites

• UCS Powertool

Link to Script

• Create-UCSTechSupport.ps1

Preparing to Execute the Script

The script is pretty straight forward, just need to define a few variables seen below and then you execute the script. I will walk you through the process.

For the past week, I have been troubleshooting the strangest issue. I have been attempting to move some Windows 8.1 VM’s from our legacy datacenter(iSCSI) to our new datacenter(FC).

Whenever I would move the VM to our new DC, it would fail to boot properly. It would boot straight to Windows Recovery. If I moved the same VM to any other type of storage(NFS, iSCSI, Local) the VM would boot perfectly fine. I opened a case with VMware and our Storage vendor and no one had any idea what was causing it.

Welcome to my post about upgrading your VMware vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) to 6.0 U1b.

This process is very straight forward. We will begin with updating our Platform Service Controllers (PSC) and then proceed with the vCenter Appliance.

• SSH to your Primary PSC.
• If you are currently in the bash shell, type appliancesh to switch shells to run the update.
• Run software-packages install –url –acceptEulas to download and install the packages from the VMware Repo.
  • You can use the –ISO switch or supply a custom url as well if needed.
• Sit back and wait. Once it is finished …