vCenter Domain Authentication
vCenter Domain Authentication KB ID 0001854 Problem Note: This procedure uses vCenter 8.0 Update 2, (the process is the same for vSphere 7). When you setup your VCSA you will have configured SSO, in most cases accepting the default SSO domain of vsphere.local. But If you want to log into VMware you probably want your identify source to be AD (to use you existing usernames and passwords). Note: In this example I will grant...
VMware: PowerCLI Errors
PowerCLI Errors KB ID 0001830 Problem I was doing some work recently and tried to connect to my vCenter server and was greeted with this. PS C:\Users\administrator.PNL> connect-viserver vc-70.pnl.com connect-viserver : Object reference not set to an instance of an object. At line:1 char:1 + connect-viserver vc-70.pnl.com + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Connect-VIServer], NullReferenceException +...
ESX: This PC Can’t Run Windows 11
KB ID 0001763 Problem: This PC Can’t Run windows 11 When attempting to install Windows 11 on ESX (in this example vSphere 6.7) you will receive the following error; Windows Setup This PC can’t run Windows 11 This PC doesn’t meet the minimum system requirements to install this version of Windows. For more information, visit https://aka.ms.WindowsSysReq The reason you are seeing this is probably not because you...
FortiGate DNS: Serving DNS Databases
Fortigate DNS KB ID 0001796 Problem A colleague rang to ask if I had any thoughts about a problem that they were having, we do a lot of VMware VCSA upgrades for customers, the process fails if there is no DNS resolution of the FQDN during the upgrade process. We had tried to fix the problem by creating hosts records (typically we don’t have access to the client’s DNS servers that run in the virtual environment). I had...
ESX SD Card?
KB ID 0001785 Problem For a while it’s been common knowledge that running ESX 7.x from a server that boots with an SD-Card is a no no. VMware themselves said (originally) that they would not support it. Then they said they would ‘sort of’ support it, if there was additional persistent storage. Then in the past week they’ve said, VMware will continue supporting USB/SD card as a boot device through the vSphere...
vSphere Disable Timeout
KB ID 0001118 Problem One annoying thing about the vSphere web client is the fact it throws you out after a period of inactivity. Now I know there are straight forward security reasons for this, and on a production environment thats fine. But on my test network theres just me, sighing every few minutes and logging back in again. As the ‘Flash’ client is getting depreciated I’ll concentrate on the HTML5 client, but...
Download VMware Converter
KB ID 0001778 Problem NOTE Conveter 6.3 can now be downloaded directly from VMware! If you try and Download VMware Converter, you will find VMware ‘pulled’ the files because of a zero day exploit that’s associated with the software, the VMware official posting you can find here. (they are working on publishing a replacement.) Download VMware Converter If you are adamant you want to use this tool and accept the risks...
Upload Files to VMware Datastore Fails
KB ID 0001777 Problem Whilst attempting to upload an ISO into a VMware datastore this morning, I got this error; The operation failed for an undetermined reason. Typically this problem occurs due to certificates that the browser does not trust. If you are using self-signed or custom certificates, open the URL below in a new browser tab and accept the certificate, then retry the operation. Solution I’ve encountered this exact...
vSphere Upgrade VMware Tools Suppress Reboot
KB ID 0001760 Problem If you want to Upgrade VMware Tools and Suppress the Reboot, (because rebooting production servers is always a touchy subject), But putting ‘maintenance windows’ and ‘CAB procedures’ to one side. If you want to deploy new versions of VMware tools from vSphere, if you just right click and select automatically upgrade, it will reboot the server. How do you stop that happening? Solution:...
Can you Backup the Free Version of ESX 7?
KB ID 0001757 Problem ‘Backup the Free Version of ESX?’ This was asked on Experts Exchange this week, I responded with the usual answer of “No the VAPI is not exposed in the free version, so it cannot be backed up by a third party backup application.” The poster responded with, “That’s what I thought, but I’ve got a Technical Consultant here who says it can be done with version 7” This...