Knowledge

• Identify vMA prerequisites
  
• Identify vMA specific commands
  
• Determine when vMA is needed
  

Skills and Abilities 

• Install and configure vMA
  
• Add/Remove target servers
  
• Perform updates to the vMA
  
• Use vmkfstools to manage VMFS datastores
  
• Use vmware-cmd to manage VMs
  
• Use esxcli to manage ESXi Host configurations
  
• Troubleshoot common vMA errors and conditions
  

Install and configure vMA

Official Documentation:

vSphere Management Assistant Guide vSphere 5.0, Chapter 2 “Getting started with the vMA”, section “Deploy vMA”.
You can deploy vMA by using a file or from a URL. If you want to deploy from a file, download and unzip the vMA ZIP file before you start the deployment process.

IMPORTANT You cannot upgrade an earlier version of vMA to vMA 5.0. You must install a fresh vMA 5.0 instance.

To deploy vMA

1. Use a vSphere Client to connect to a system that is running the supported version of ESXi or vCenter Server.
   
2. If connected to a vCenter Server system, select the host to which you want to deploy vMA in the inventory pane.
   
3. Select File > Deploy OVF Template.
   The Deploy OVF Template wizard appears.
   
4. Select Deploy from a file or URL if you have already downloaded and unzipped the vMA virtual appliance package.
   
5. Click Browse, select the OVF, and click Next.
   
6. Click Next when the OVF template details are displayed.
   
7. Accept the license agreement and click Next.
   
8. Specify a name for the virtual machine.
   You can also accept the default virtual machine name.
   
9. Select an inventory location for the virtual machine when prompted.
   If you are connected to a vCenter Server system, you can select a folder.
   
10. If connected to a vCenter Server system, select the resource pool for the virtual machine.
    By default, the top‐level root resource pool is selected.
    
11. If prompted, select the datastore to store the virtual machine on and click Next.
    
12. Select the required disk format option and click Next.
    
13. Select the network mapping and click Next.
    

    IMPORTANT Ensure that vMA is connected to the management network on which the vCenter Server system and the ESXi hosts that are intended vMA targets are located.
    

14. Review the information and click Finish.
    The wizard deploys the vMA virtual machine to the host that you selected. The deploy process can take several minutes.
    

Next you configure your vMA virtual machine. You perform this task when you log in to vMA the first time.

Configure vMA at First Boot
When you start the vMA virtual machine the first time, you can configure it.
To configure vMA

• In the vSphere Client, right‐click the virtual machine, and click Power On.
  
• Select the Console tab.
  
• Answer the network configuration prompts.
  
• When prompted, specify a host name for vMA.
  The name can contain 64 alphanumeric characters. You can change the vMA host name later by modifying the /etc/HOSTNAME and /etc/hosts files, as you would for a Linux host. You can also use the vMA console to change the host name.
  For a DHCP configuration, the host name is obtained from the DNS server.
  
• When prompted, specify a password for the vi‐admin user.
  If prompted for an old password, press Enter and continue.
  The new password must conform to the vMA password policy. The password must have at least:
  
  • Eight characters
    
  • One upper case character
    
  • One lower case character
    
  • One numeral character
    
  • One symbol such as #, $
    
• You can later change the password for the vi‐admin user using the Linux passwd command.
  This user has root privileges.
  

vMA is now configured and the vMA console appears. The console displays the URL from which you can

access the Web UI.

vMA Console and Web UI
vMA provides two interfaces, the console, which is a command‐line interface and the browser‐based Web UI.
From the console, you can do the following tasks: 

• Log in as vi‐admin
  
• Add servers to vMA
  
• Run commands from the vMA console
  
• Configure the network settings and proxy server settings
  
• Configure the timezone settings.
  The web UI enables you to do the following tasks:
  
• Log in as vi‐admin
  
• Configure the network settings and proxy server settings
  
• Configure the timezone settings.
  
• Update vMA

Add/Remove target servers

Official Documentation:

vSphere Management Assistant Guide vSphere 5.0, Chapter 2 “Getting started with the vMA”, section “Add Target Servers to the vMA”.

For vCenter Server and ESXi system targets, you must have the name and password of a user who can connect to that system.
See “vifp addserver” on page 28 for the complete syntax.

To add a vCenter Server system as a vMA target for Active Directory Authentication 

1. Log in to vMA as vi‐admin.
   
2. Add a server as a vMA target by running the following command:
   vifp addserver vc1.mycomp.com –authpolicy adauth –username ADDOMAIN\\user1
   Here, –authpolicy adauth indicates that the target needs to use the Active Directory authentication.
   If you run this command without the –username option, vMA prompts for the name of the user that can connect to the vCenter Server system. You can specify this user name as shown in the following example:
   Enter username for machinename.example.com: ADDOMAIN\user1
   If –authpolicy is not specified in the command, then fpauth is taken as the default authentication policy.
   
3. Verify that the target server has been added.
   The display shows all target servers and the authentication policy used for each target.
   vifp listservers –long
   server1.mycomp.com ESX adauth
   server2.mycomp.com ESX fpauth
   server3.mycomp.com ESXi adauth
   vc1.mycomp.com vCenter adauth
   
4. Set the target as the default for the current session:
   vifptarget –set | -s <server>
   
5. Verify that you can run a vSphere CLI command without authentication by running a command on one of the ESXi hosts, for example:
   esxcli –server <VC_server> –vihost <esx_host> network nic list
   The command runs without prompting for authentication information.
   

IMPORTANT If the name of a target server changes, you must remove the target server by using vifp removeserver with the old name, then add the server using vifp addserver with the new name.

To add a vCenter Server system as a vMA target for fastpass Authentication

1. Log in to vMA as vi‐admin.
   
2. Add a server as a vMA target by running the following command:
   vifp addserver vc2.mycomp.com –authpolicy fpauth
   Here, –authpolicy fpauth indicates that the target needs to use the fastpass authentication.
   
3. Specify the username when prompted:
   Enter username for machinename.example.com: MYDOMAIN\user1
   
4. Specify the password for that user when prompted.
   user1@machine.company.com’s password: <not echoed to screen>
   
5. Review and accept the security risk information.
   
6. Verify that the target server has been added.
   The display shows all target servers and the authentication policy used for each target.
   vifp listservers –long
   server1.mycomp.com ESX adauth
   server2.mycomp.com ESX fpauth
   server3.mycomp.com ESXi adauth
   vc1.mycomp.com vCenter adauth
   vc2.mycomp.com vCenter fpauth
   
7. Set the target as the default for the current session.
   vifptarget –set | -s <server>
   
8. Verify that you can run a vSphere CLI command without authentication by running a command on one of the ESXi hosts, for example:
   esxcli –server <VC_server> –vihost <esx_host> network nic list
   The command runs without prompting for authentication information.
   

To add an ESXi host as a vMA target 

1. Log in to vMA as vi‐admin.
   
2. Run addserver to add a server as a vMA target.
   vifp addserver <servername>
   You are prompted for the target server’s root user password.
   root@<servername>’s password:
   
3. Specify the root password for the ESXi host that you want to add.
   

   vMA does not retain the root password. Instead, vMA adds vi‐admin and vi‐user to the ESXi host, and stores the obfuscated passwords that it generates for those users in the VMware credential store.
   In a vSphere client connected to the target server, the Recent Tasks panel displays information about the users that vMA adds. The target server’s Users and Groups panel displays the users if you select it.
   CAUTION Remove users added by vMA from the target server only if you deleted the vMA virtual machine but did not remove the target servers.
   

4. Verify that the target server has been added:
   vifp listservers
   
5. Set the target as the default for the current session.
   vifptarget –set | -s <server>
   
6. Verify that you can run a vSphere CLI command without authentication by running a command, for example:
   esxcli network nic list

Perform updates to the vMA

Official Documentation:

vSphere Management Assistant Guide vSphere 5.0, Chapter 2 “Getting started with the vMA”, section “Update vMA”.

You can download software updates including security fixes from VMware and components included in vMA, such as the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server updates and JRE.
IMPORTANT You cannot upgrade a previous version of vMA to vMA 5.0. You need to install vMA 5.0.

To update vMA 

1. Access the Web UI.
   
2. Log in as vi‐admin.
   
3. Click the Update tab and then the Status tab.
   
4. Open the Settings tab and then from the Update Repository section, select a repository.
   
5. Click Check Updates.
   
6. Click Install Updates.
   

Configure Automatic vMA Updates
You can configure automatic download of vMA updates.
To configure automatic updates 

1. Access the Web UI.
   
2. Log in as vi‐admin.
   
3. Click the Update tab and then the Settings tab.
   
4. Click Automatic check for updates.
   
5. Set the schedule for performing the automatic checks by selecting a day and time from the drop down lists.
   
6. In the Update Repository section, select a repository.
   
7. Click Save Settings.
   

Use vmkfstools to manage VMFS datastores

Official Documentation:

vSphere Storage Guide, Chapter 22,”Using vmkfstools”, page 205.

vmkfstools is one of the ESXi Shell commands for managing VMFS volumes and virtual disks. You can perform many storage operations using the vmkfstools command.

vmkfstools Command Syntax
Generally, you do not need to log in as the root user to run the vmkfstools commands. However, some commands, such as the file system commands, might require the root user login.
The vmkfstools command supports the following command syntax:
vmkfstools conn_options options target.
Target specifies a partition, device, or path to apply the command option to.

vmkfstools Options
The vmkfstools command has several options. Some of the options are suggested for advanced users only.
The long and single-letter forms of the options are equivalent. For example, the following commands areidentical.
vmkfstools –createfs vmfs5 –blocksize 1m disk_ID:P
vmkfstools -C vmfs5 -b 1m disk_ID:P

-v Suboption
The -v suboption indicates the verbosity level of the command output.
The format for this suboption is as follows:
-v –verbose number
You specify the number value as an integer from 1 through 10.
You can specify the -v suboption with any vmkfstools option. If the output of the option is not suitable for use with the -v suboption, vmkfstools ignores -v.
NOTE Because you can include the -v suboption in any vmkfstools command line, -v is not included as a suboption in the option descriptions.

File System Options
File system options allow you to create a VMFS file system. These options do not apply to NFS. You can perform many of these tasks through the vSphere Client.

Listing Attributes of a VMFS Volume 
Use the vmkfstools command to list attributes of a VMFS volume.
-P –queryfs
-h –human-readable
When you use this option on any file or directory that resides on a VMFS volume, the option lists the attributes of the specified volume. The listed attributes include the file system label, if any, the number of extents comprising the specified VMFS volume, the UUID, and a listing of the device names where each extent resides.
NOTE If any device backing VMFS file system goes offline, the number of extents and available space change accordingly.
You can specify the -h suboption with the -P option. If you do so, vmkfstools lists the capacity of the volume in a more readable form, for example, 5k, 12.1M, or 2.1G.

Creating a VMFS File System
Use the vmkfstools command to create a VMFS datastore. 

-C –createfs [vmfs3|vmfs5]
-b –blocksize block_size kK|mM
-S –setfsname datastore
This option creates a VMFS3 or VMFS5 datastore on the specified SCSI partition, such as disk_ID:P. The partition becomes the file system’s head partition.
NOTE Use the VMFS3 option when you need legacy hosts to access the datastore.

Extending an Existing VMFS Volume
Use the vmkfstools command to add an extent to a VMFS volume.
-Z –spanfs span_partition head_partition
This option extends the VMFS file system with the specified head partition by spanning it across the partition specified by span_partition. You must specify the full path name, for example /vmfs/devices/disks/disk_ID: 1. Each time you use this option, you extend a VMFS volume with a new extent so that the volume spans multiple partitions.

CAUTION When you run this option, you lose all data that previously existed on the SCSI device you specified in span_partition .

Growing an Existing Extent
Instead of adding a new extent to a VMFS datastore, you can grow an existing extent using the vmkfstools -G command.
Use the following option to increase the size of a VMFS datastore after the underlying storage had its capacity increased.
-G –growfs device device
This option grows an existing VMFS datastore or its extent. For example, vmkfstools –growfs /vmfs/devices/disks/disk_ID:1 /vmfs/devices/disks/disk_ID:1

Upgrading a VMFS Datastore
You can upgrade a VMFS3 to VMFS5 datastore.
CAUTION The upgrade is a one-way process. After you have converted a VMFS3 datastore to VMFS5, you cannot revert it back.
When upgrading the datastore, use the following command: vmkfstools -T /vmfs/volumes/UUID
NOTE All hosts accessing the datastore must support VMFS5 . If any ESX/ESXi host version 4.x or earlier is using the VMFS3 datastore, the upgrade fails and the host’s mac address is displayed. with the Mac address details of the Host which is actively using the Datastore

Virtual Disk Options
Virtual disk options allow you to set up, migrate, and manage virtual disks stored in VMFS and NFS file systems. You can also perform most of these tasks through the vSphere Client.
Supported Disk Formats When you create or clone a virtual disk, you can use the -d –diskformat suboption to specify the format for the disk.
Choose from the following formats: 

• zeroedthick (default) – Space required for the virtual disk is allocated during creation. Any data remaining on the physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on demand at a later time on first
  
• write from the virtual machine. The virtual machine does not read stale data from disk.
  
• eagerzeroedthick – Space required for the virtual disk is allocated at creation time. In contrast to zeroedthick format, the data remaining on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take much longer to create disks in this format than to create other types of disks.
  
• thin – Thin-provisioned virtual disk. Unlike with the thick format, space required for the virtual disk is not allocated during creation, but is supplied, zeroed out, on demand at a later time.
  
• rdm:device – Virtual compatibility mode raw disk mapping.
  
• rdmp:device – Physical compatibility mode (pass-through) raw disk mapping.
  
• 2gbsparse – A sparse disk with 2GB maximum extent size. You can use disks in this format with hosted VMware products, such as VMware Fusion, Player, Server, or Workstation. However, you cannot power on sparse disk on an ESXi host unless you first re-import the disk with vmkfstools in a compatible format, such as thick or thin.
  

NFS Disk Formats
The only disk formats you can use for NFS are thin, thick, zeroedthick and 2gbsparse.
Thick, zeroedthick and thin formats usually behave the same because the NFS server and not the ESXi host determines the allocation policy. The default allocation policy on most NFS servers is thin. However, on NFS servers that support Storage APIs – Array Integration, you can create virtual disks in zeroedthick format. The reserve space operation enables NFS servers to allocate and guarantee space.

Creating a Virtual Disk
Use the vmkfstools command to create a virtual disk.
-c –createvirtualdisk size[kK|mM|gG]
-a –adaptertype [buslogic|lsilogic|ide] srcfile
-d –diskformat [thin|zeroedthick|eagerzeroedthick]

This option creates a virtual disk at the specified path on a datastore. Specify the size of the virtual disk. When you enter the value for size, you can indicate the unit type by adding a suffix of k (kilobytes), m (megabytes), or g (gigabytes). The unit type is not case sensitive. vmkfstools interprets either k or K to mean kilobytes. If you don’t specify a unit type, vmkfstools defaults to bytes.
You can specify the following suboptions with the -c option. 

• n -a specifies the device driver that is used to communicate with the virtual disks. You can choose between BusLogic, LSI Logic, or IDE drivers.
  
• n -d specifies disk formats.
  

Initializing a Virtual Disk
Use the vmkfstools command to initialize a virtual disk.
-w –writezeros
This option cleans the virtual disk by writing zeros over all its data. Depending on the size of your virtual disk and the I/O bandwidth to the device hosting the virtual disk, completing this command might take a long time.
CAUTION When you use this command, you lose any existing data on the virtual disk.

Inflating a Thin Virtual Disk
Use the vmkfstools command to inflate a thin virtual disk.
-j –inflatedisk
This option converts a thin virtual disk to eagerzeroedthick, preserving all existing data. The option allocates and zeroes out any blocks that are not already allocated.

Removing Zeroed Blocks
Use the vmkfstools command to convert any thin, zeroedthick, or eagerzeroedthick virtual disk to a thin disk with zeroed blocks removed.
-K –punchzero
This option deallocates all zeroed out blocks and leaves only those blocks that were allocated previously and contain valid data. The resulting virtual disk is in thin format.

Converting a Zeroedthick Virtual Disk to an Eagerzeroedthick Disk
Use the vmkfstools command to convert any zeroedthick virtual disk to an eagerzeroedthick disk.
-k –eagerzero
While performing the conversion, this option preserves any data on the virtual disk.

Deleting a Virtual Disk
This option deletes a virtual disk file at the specified path on the VMFS volume.
-U –deletevirtualdisk

Renaming a Virtual Disk
This option renames a virtual disk file at the specified path on the VMFS volume.
You must specify the original file name or file path oldName and the new file name or file path newName.
-E –renamevirtualdisk oldName newName

Cloning a Virtual Disk or RDM
This option creates a copy of a virtual disk or raw disk you specify.
-i –clonevirtualdisk srcfile -d –diskformat [rdm:device|rdmp:device|thin|2gbsparse]
You can use the -d suboption for the -i option. This suboption specifies the disk format for the copy you create.
A non-root user is not allowed to clone a virtual disk or an RDM.

Extending a Virtual Disk
This option extends the size of a disk allocated to a virtual machine after the virtual machine has been created.
-X –extendvirtualdisk newSize [kK|mM|gG]
You must power off the virtual machine that uses this disk file before you enter this command. You might have to update the file system on the disk so the guest operating system can recognize and use the new size of the disk and take advantage of the extra space.
You specify the newSize parameter in kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes by adding a k (kilobytes), m (megabytes), or g (gigabytes) suffix. The unit type is not case sensitive. vmkfstools interprets either k or K to mean kilobytes. If you don’t specify a unit type, vmkfstools defaults to kilobytes.
The newSize parameter defines the entire new size, not just the increment you add to the disk.
For example, to extend a 4g virtual disk by 1g, enter: vmkfstools -X 5g disk name.
You can extend the virtual disk to the eagerzeroedthick format by using the -d eagerzeroedthick option.
NOTE Do not extend the base disk of a virtual machine that has snapshots associated with it. If you do, you can no longer commit the snapshot or revert the base disk to its original size.

Upgrading Virtual Disks
This option converts the specified virtual disk file from ESX Server 2 format to the ESXi format.
-M –migratevirtualdisk

Creating a Virtual Compatibility Mode Raw Device Mapping
This option creates a Raw Device Mapping (RDM) file on a VMFS volume and maps a raw LUN to this file.
After this mapping is established, you can access the LUN as you would a normal VMFS virtual disk. The file length of the mapping is the same as the size of the raw LUN it points to.
-r –createrdm device
When specifying the device parameter, use the following format:
/vmfs/devices/disks/disk_ID:P

Creating a Physical Compatibility Mode Raw Device Mapping
This option lets you map a pass-through raw device to a file on a VMFS volume. This mapping lets a virtual machine bypass ESXi SCSI command filtering when accessing its virtual disk.This type of mapping is useful when the virtual machine needs to send proprietary SCSI commands, for example, when SAN-aware software runs on the virtual machine.
-z –createrdmpassthru device
After you establish this type of mapping, you can use it to access the raw disk just as you would any other VMFS virtual disk.
When specifying the device parameter, use the following format:
/vmfs/devices/disks/disk_ID

Listing Attributes of an RDM
This option lets you list the attributes of a raw disk mapping.
-q –queryrdm
This option prints the name of the raw disk RDM. The option also prints other identification information, like the disk ID, for the raw disk.

Displaying Virtual Disk Geometry
This option gets information about the geometry of a virtual disk.
-g –geometry
The output is in the form: Geometry information C/H/S, where C represents the number of cylinders, H represents the number of heads, and S represents the number of sectors.
NOTE When you import virtual disks from hosted VMware products to the ESXi host, you might see a disk geometry mismatch error message. A disk geometry mismatch might also be the cause of problems loading a guest operating system or running a newly-created virtual machine.

Checking and Repairing Virtual Disks
Use this option to check or repair a virtual disk in case of an unclean shutdown.
-x , –fix [check|repair]

Checking Disk Chain for Consistency
With this option, you can check the entire disk chain. You can determine if any of the links in the chain are corrupted or any invalid parent-child relationships exist.
-e –chainConsistent

Storage Device Options
Device options allows you to perform administrative task for physical storage devices.

Managing SCSI Reservations of LUNs
The -L option lets you reserve a SCSI LUN for exclusive use by the ESXi host, release a reservation so that other hosts can access the LUN, and reset a reservation, forcing all reservations from the target to be released.
-L –lock [reserve|release|lunreset|targetreset|busreset] device
CAUTION Using the -L option can interrupt the operations of other servers on a SAN. Use the -L option only when troubleshooting clustering setups.
Unless specifically advised by VMware, never use this option on a LUN hosting a VMFS volume.
You can specify the -L option in several ways: 

• -L reserve – Reserves the specified LUN. After the reservation, only the server that reserved that LUN can access it. If other servers attempt to access that LUN, a reservation error results.
  
• -L release – Releases the reservation on the specified LUN. Other servers can access the LUN again.
  
• -L lunreset – Resets the specified LUN by clearing any reservation on the LUN and making the LUN available to all servers again. The reset does not affect any of the other LUNs on the device. If another LUN on the device is reserved, it remains reserved.
  
• -L targetreset – Resets the entire target. The reset clears any reservations on all the LUNs associated with that target and makes the LUNs available to all servers again.
  
• -L busreset – Resets all accessible targets on the bus. The reset clears any reservation on all the LUNs accessible through the bus and makes them available to all servers again.
  

When entering the device parameter, use the following format:
/vmfs/devices/disks/disk_ID:P

Breaking Device Locks
The -B option allows you to forcibly break the device lock on a particular partition.
-B –breaklock device
When entering the device parameter, use the following format:
/vmfs/devices/disks/disk_ID:P
You can use this command when a host fails in the middle of a datastore operation, such as grow extent, add extent, or resignaturing. When you issue this command, make sure that no other host is holding the lock.

More Information:
VMware KB 1009829 Manually creating a VMFS volume using vmkfstools -C

Use vmware-cmd to manage VMs

Official Documentation:

vSphere Command-Line Interface Concepts and Examples, Chapter 8, chapter 8 “Managing Virtual Machines”, page 101.

You can manage virtual machines with the vSphere Client or the vmware-cmd vCLI command. Using vmware-cmd you can register and unregister virtual machines, retrieve virtual machine information, manage snapshots, turn the virtual machine on and off, add and remove virtual devices, and prompt for user input.

IMPORTANT vmware-cmd is a legacy tool and supports the usage of VMFS paths for virtual machine configuration files. As a rule, use datastore paths to access virtual machine configuration files.

Because vmware-cm is old, i prefere to use the ESXCLI commands instead.

Use esxcli to manage ESXi Host configurations

Official Documentation:

vSphere Command-Line Interface Concepts and Examples and

Getting Started with vSphere Command-Line Interfaces

There are to many commands and options, please look at the documentation. It’s too much to list all the different options here.

Troubleshoot common vMA errors and conditions

Official Documentation:

vSphere Management Assistant Guide vSphere 5.0, Chapter 2 “Getting started with the vMA”, section “Troubleshooting vMA”, page 24.

You can find troubleshooting information for all VMware products in VMware Knowledge Base articles and information about vMA known issues in the release notes.

This release of vMA provides the vma-support script that enables you to collect various system configuration information and other logs. You can run this script by issuing the following command:
> sudo vma-support
The script generates the information and log bundle and appends it to the vmware.log file on the ESXi host on which vMA is deployed.

Other exam notes

• The Saffageek VCAP5-DCA Objectives http://thesaffageek.co.uk/vcap5-dca-objectives/
  
• Paul Grevink The VCAP5-DCA diaries http://paulgrevink.wordpress.com/the-vcap5-dca-diaries/
  
• Edward Grigson VCAP5-DCA notes http://www.vexperienced.co.uk/vcap5-dca/
  
• Jason Langer VCAP5-DCA notes http://www.virtuallanger.com/vcap-dca-5/
  
• The Foglite VCAP5-DCA notes http://thefoglite.com/vcap-dca5-objective/
  

VMware vSphere official documentation

Disclaimer.
The information in this article is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights. This article does not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my employer. It is solely my opinion.