vSphere – Virtual Machine Will Not ‘Power Off’ (Hangs at 95%)
KB ID 0000911 Problem I had a virtual machine crash on me, while I was doing some work on it As I was unable to shut it down gracefully, I attempted to ‘Power Off’. It progressed to 95% and stopped there. Expecting it to ‘time out’, I carried on with some other work and kept an eye on it. 30 minutes later there was still no progress. Solution 1. Enable SSH access on the ESX host that is hosting the problem VM....
VMware vCenter Install ‘Error 26002’
KB ID 0000941 Problem While attempting to install vCenter 5.5, I got the following error. Error 26002. Setup failed to register vCenter Server. This might indicate a problem with the SSL certificates for vCenter Server. Search the VMware Knowledge Base (http://kb.vmware.com) for “Error 26006” for more information. Earlier on in the install it had asked me if I wanted to overwrite the certs, and I just clicked OK, this...
vSphere Client cannot be installed on a Domain Controller
KB ID 0000968 Problem I tried to install the VI client on my test network and this happened; vSphere Client requires Windows XP SP2 or later. vSphere Client cannot be installed on a Domain Controller. Solution Well I’m not over the moon about that? Ive only got one permanent VM and it’s a DC? Who came up with this? What about sites who have a single DC on an ESX box? What are they going to do! Turns out its quite easy to...
vSphere – Floppy Drive ‘Won’t Appear’
KB ID 0001020 Problem “It’s 2015 why are you messing around with floppy drives?” I hear you ask! Well for importing certificate requests, and issued certificates from an offline root CA server, it’s still considered best practice to use a virtual floppy drive rather than connect the offline root server to the production network. So today while deploying a PKI infrastructure, I needed to present a floppy drive...
vSphere – Adding a Serial Port to a VM
KB ID 0001039 Problem I wanted to perform command line access to a virtual firewall on my home ESXi server, (a Juniper Firefly vSRX) via a console session. To do that I needed to add a serial port to that VM. Solution 1. From Within the VI client > Select the ESXi Host > Configuration > Security Profile > Firewall Section > Properties. 2. Locate and enable ‘VM serial port connected over network’ > OK. 3....
vSphere – Adding Domain Users/Groups to vCenter
KB ID 0001063 Problem Note: This article is for vSphere 6, for vSphere 7 and vSphere 8 see the following article. vCenter Domain Authentication Despite my best efforts to keep working with the VMware VI client, my recent move to a MAC has finally forced me to start using the web client. So when I rebuilt my vCenter this week, I went out of my way to use that. Note: If you have your vCenter and Platform Services Controller (PSC)...
vSphere Web Client – Options Greyed Out (Cannot install Client Integration Plug-in)
KB ID 0001064 Problem While working on the vSphere Web Client in Google Chrome, I was unable to ‘Open Console’, the option was on the right click menu, but disappeared and was then greyed out after a second or so. Essentially this happens because the plug-in has either not been installed, (from the login page) or a pop-up blocker is stopping the plug-in working. Solution 1. With Chrome there’s an extra hoop to jump...
Replacing the vCenter 5.5 Certificate using Microsoft Certificate Services – Part 1
KB ID 0001076 This article is from long time site supporter: Daniel Newton Problem Assuming you have a Windows PKI (Certificate Services) and want to replace the self signed certificates in vCenter. Solution 1. Firstly, Open the Certification Authority on the PKI Server. 2. Then duplicate the “Web Server Template”</p? 3. Give the certificate a sensible name. 4. Now click on the “Extensions” tab and under “Application Policies” and...
VMware ESX – WDS Fails “The network location cannot be reached”
KB ID 0000308 Problem Whilst trying to contact a WDS server from an ESX client machine (though this can happen on a physical machine also). You see the following error, The network location cannot be reached, For information about network troubleshooting, se Windows Help. Solution This is because the WindowsPE image you are using to Capture/Deploy does not have the network drivers for the NIC in the machine you are imaging (At...
Windows 10 – Install The VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client
KB ID 0001082 Problem Have you installed the VI client on Windows 10? My boss asked me this week, I replied no, but if it didn’t work then loads of people would soon be moaning. I remember sometime ago I had to use comparability mode to install it on Windows 8. I had the brainwave, “Why not ThinApp the client” it would work then, but the 5.5 client stubbornly refused to fire and the ThinApp package size was...