Author Archives: Marco

About Marco

Marco works for ViaData as a Senior Technical Consultant. He has over 15 years experience as a system engineer and consultant, specialized in virtualization. VMware VCP4, VCP5-DC & VCP5-DT. VMware vExpert 2013, 2014,2015 & 2016. Microsoft MCSE & MCITP Enterprise Administrator. Veeam VMSP, VMTSP & VMCE.

Windows 2008 virtual machines lose their Gateway IP address after rebooting

I was working on a Windows 2008 Server in an segmented network. This was a fresh new installation of Windows 2008. After a reboot the server was not reachable from another VLan. After some troubleshooting I found the problem. The gateway address has disappeared. Strange, so I started searching on the internet and I found an Knowledgebase article at the VMware site describing my problem, this is VMware KB1016878.

Symptoms

  • After every reboot, Windows 2008 virtual machines lose their Gateway IP address.
  • Gateway IP address is lost or reset after rebooting

Resolution

This issue may occur if there is a problem with the registry keys DefaultGateway and DefaultGatewayMetric.

Microsoft has identified this issue and has released a hotfix. For more information and to download the hotfix, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 973243.

To work around this issue:

  1. From the Windows Registry Editor, navigate to HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/Tcpip/Parameters/Interfaces/%CLSID%.
  2. Check the DefaultGateway and DefaultGatewayMetric keys for issues. For example:
  • Remove any newline feeds before the correct default gateway IP
  • If the address is missing, add it manually.

My first sponsor, Veeam!

I am proud to announce my first blog sponsor, Veeam! I am using the Veeam Backup & Replication application at my home lab, company network and all of my customer sites. The software is simply awesome. It does what is says, backup & replicate. When a backup is made you can restore this backup in so many ways, and so fast is surprises me every time again.
So I am very happy and proud that they are my first sponsor.

Company info.

Veeam Software, an Elite VMware Technology Alliance partner, develops innovative products for virtual infrastructure management and data protection. Customers can reduce costs, minimize risks and fully realize the promise of virtualization with Veeam.

Veeam is an international company with North American headquarters in Columbus, Ohio USA; European headquarters in Reading, Berkshire UK; and APAC headquarters in Sydney, NSW Australia. Veeam has more than 30,000 customers worldwide and is currently adding new customers at the rate of 1500 per month. The company’s free FastSCP™ tool is used by more than 150,000 VMware professionals, making it the most widely used tool to help manage VMware.

The company was founded in 2006 by the team previously behind Aelita Software, well known for its Windows Server management solutions. In 2008, Veeam acquired nworks, adding solutions that bridge the gap between VMware and enterprise management systems from Microsoft and HP.

Veeam is rapidly expanding its presence and its partner network around the world and will continue to offer innovative and practical solutions to help IT professionals better manage their virtual infrastructure. Today the company focuses on managing VMware, but has announced support for Microsoft Hyper-V.

The Products

Veeam Backup & Replication™ with vPower™ provides advanced Virtualization-Powered Data Protection™ and is the #1 VM backup solution.

Veeam nworks extends enterprise monitoring to VMware and includes the nworks Management Pack™ for VMware management in Microsoft System Center and the nworks Smart Plug-in™ for VMware management in HP Operations Manager.

Veeam ONE™ provides a single solution to optimize the performance, configuration and utilization of VMware environments. It includes Veeam Monitor™ for easy-to-deploy VMware monitoring; Veeam Reporter™ for VMware capacity planning, change tracking and documentation; and Veeam Business View™ for VMware business service management and categorization.

Troubleshoot: Veeam Backup & Replication v6, Failed to index guest file system error

Last week I was trouble shooting a problem that has appeared after I upgraded the Veeam Backup & Replication version 5 to version 6. Before the upgrade the backups where working correctly. No errors and everything was working accordantly. Then I upgraded the application, this went without any problems. The version that is running is 6.0.0.153.

The backup is configured to index the files of the backup so if there is a need to restore a file the customer can search through the backup and select the file that’s need to be restored.
After the upgrade I ran an test backup, this job failed with an error. The backup went fine, but the indexing of the backup file failed. The error was:

Failed to index guest file system. Details: Error: Cannot read data from volume Win32 error:The handle is invalid. Code: 6

In my case both servers where converted from a physical server to a virtual server on an VMware vSphere 4.1 platform. Both servers where running Windows 2003 Server.

I started looking for a solution on internet, Google is your best friend. I found a Veeam Forum article called Guest file indexing. See http://forums.veeam.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9721
This article describes exactly my problem. Also a converted Windows 2003 server. With Veeam version 5 no problems, with Veeam version 6 indexing error.

After reading the whole article my solution for the fix is patch 2 for Veeam 6. How to get this Patch 2, because it is not available for public download. So I created a support case. I uploaded the log files, and after a few hours I received an e-mail with the link to the patch that I need to install. After installing the patch my index error message went away, so the patch worked. Great work Veeam Support for the fast response.

Things that get fixed with patch 2 (http://forums.veeam.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9533#p41806) are:

  • Issue 1. Direct SAN Access processing mode does not work for certain SAN makes and models.
  • Issue 2. Virtual Appliance (Hot Add) processing mode does not work when backup proxy is installed on localized version of Microsoft Windows.
  • Issue 3. Upgrade related issues affecting jobs created in v5 – poor incremenal backup performance, and large VIB file created on the first incremental run.
  • Issue 6. Guest file system indexing fail on certain VMs with the “Win32 error:The handle is invalid” error.
  • Issue 8. For v6 backup servers that were upgraded from v5, jobs fail to send email notifications if SMTP server requires authentication.
  • Issue 9. Reversed incremental backup mode jobs scheduled to run on specific days only will also start on synthetic full backup day (as set under incremental backup mode options in the advanced job settings). Due to the same bug, Replication and VM Copy jobs will always start on Saturday (which is the default day for synthetic full backup).
  • Issue 10. For jobs writing to CIFS-based backup repositories, backup results are not set in the selected VM attribute upon job completion.
  • Issue 11. Added support for Cisco Nexus 1000V switch (port groups were not visible in UI).
  • Issue 13. Added VM heartbit check for Migration jobs. Original VM files will not be removed until the heartbit is received. This was needed because it was reported that under certain circumstances (we were not able to reproduce this to date), the migration job fails to copy the virtual disk contents correctly, but nevertheless deletes the original.
  • Issue 15. Under certain circumstances, the job fails with the following error: “Client error: Cannot allocate memory for an array. Array size: [4198400].”
  • Issue 16. For VMs configured to use VMware DVS (Distributed Virtual Switch), restore and replication into a different vCenter server will fail.

 

Device Manager is running in read-only mode

Today I was creating a template for my VMware environment, when I was trying to change the graphical interface card I was running into some problems. This is the message the Device Manager is giving me.

The result is that I cannot change any drivers or devices.

The solution is very simple but not obvious. My computer name is longer than 15 characters. This is a problem for NetBIOS computers. It turns out this is also a problem for the device manager. So I changed my computer name to a name with less than 15 characters, now everything works normal again.

Holiday gift from Veeam: free Veeam Backup & Replication v6 licenses for your lab

Just as last year, Veeam has a Christmas gift for us as nerds…. A free Veeam Backup & Replication v6 license for in our home lab!! Great…

See http://www.veeam.com/news/holiday-gift-from-veeam-free-veeam-backup-and-replication-v6-licenses-for-your-lab155.html

Holiday gift from Veeam: free Veeam Backup & Replication v6 licenses for your lab

Free NFR Licenses for Evaluation and Demonstration Use available to VMware vExperts, VMware Certified Professionals, VMware Certified Instructors VMUG members, Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals, and Microsoft Certified Professionals

Click to Tweet: Free holiday gift from @Veeam for vExperts, VCPs, VCIs, VMUG members, MVPs, MCPs http://vee.am/freenfr

Columbus, OH – Dec. 14, 2011

Who: Veeam Software, innovative provider of data protection, disaster recovery and management solutions for virtual datacenter environments,  today announced a holiday gift for VMware vExperts, VMware Certified Professionals,  VMware Certified Instructors, VMUG members, Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals, and  Microsoft Certified Professionals.

What: Free software for home labs. In an expansion of last year’s program, any VMware vExpert, VCP, VCI, VMUG member, Microsoft MVP or MCP can receive a free two-CPU socket Not for Resale (NFR) license of Veeam Backup & Replication™ v6 for evaluation and demonstration use.

Where: NFR licenses are available at http://www.veeam.com/nfr/free-nfr-license and http://www.veeam.com/nfr/free-nfr-license-hyper-v.
“Veeam Backup & Replication v6 was downloaded more than 15 thousand times in its first week of availability, and with new support for Hyper-V, we are glad to extend our offer of NFR licenses to the Microsoft community as well as the entire VMUG community,” explained Doug Hazelman, Vice President of Product Strategy for Veeam Software.
“Access to free NFR licenses of Veeam Backup & Replication is another great perk of VMUG Membership. Thank you, Veeam, for supporting the VMUG Community,” said Jim Millard, VMUG member in the Midwest. Derek Schauland, Microsoft MVP said, “Veeam for the Microsoft Community?  Awesome! Having a program giving NFR licenses of Veeam software to the Microsoft community will be invaluable to the home lab and test needs of IT pros in pursuit of training, blogging and other activities. I look forward to this program.”

VCP5 Study Notes

These are my study notes for the VCP5 exam I am going to take in January 2012. I am already a VCP4 so I will take upgrade path, this path is only available until February 29 2012.

How to become a VCP.

There are different paths to VCP5 certification based on your background. Choose your path and complete the three core validation components:

Attend a qualifying VMware authorized course.
Already a VCP4? There is no course requirement until February 29, 2012.
Gain hands-on experience with VMware vSphere 5.
Pass the VCP5 Exam.

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Source: http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=12457&ui=www_cert

Exam Blueprint.

VMware created a blueprint for the VPC5 exam. This document describes what to know, how many points are needed etc. Link to the Blueprint: http://mylearn.vmware.com/register.cfm?course=103110 or http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-16726

Exam Objectives.

These are the objectives discussed in the Exam Blueprint, these are the topics for the VCP5 exam.

Section 1 – Plan, Install, Configure and Upgrade vCenter Server and VMware ESXi

Section 2 – Plan and Configure vSphere Networking

Section 3 – Plan and Configure vSphere Storage

Section 4 – Deploy and Administer Virtual Machines and vApps

Section 5 – Establish and Maintain Service Levels

Section 6 – Perform Basic Troubleshooting

Section 7 – Monitor a vSphere Implementation and Manage vCenter Server Alarms


VMware documentation.

Of course VMware created a lot of documentation, manuals and whitepapers. These are the most important ones. Read them en learn them.

New Features and Release Notes

Compatibility and Configuration Limits

ESXi and vCenter Server Product Documentation

VMware vSphere Basics Guide html pdf epub mobi
vSphere Installation and Setup Guide html pdf epub mobi
vSphere Upgrade Guide html pdf epub mobi
vCenter Server and Host Management Guide html pdf epub mobi
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide html pdf epub mobi
vSphere Host Profiles Guide html pdf epub mobi
vSphere Networking Guide html pdf epub mobi
vSphere Storage Guide html pdf epub mobi
vSphere Security Guide html pdf epub mobi
vSphere Resource Management Guide html pdf epub mobi
vSphere Availability Guide html pdf epub mobi
vSphere Monitoring and Performance Guide html pdf epub mobi
vSphere Troubleshooting html pdf epub mobi
VMware vSphere Examples and Scenarios Guide html pdf epub mobi

Online Archive vSphere 5 Documentation Centre. http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp


What’s new whitepapers.

Books.

There are some very good books that provide you with a lot of knowledge that can be used to prepare for the exam. These are. I have both books and I find them extremely useful.

clip_image003 Mastering VMware vSphere 5Virtualization is hotter than ever. VMware vSphere is the most widely deployed virtualization platform, and this indispensable book by VMware vExpert and VCDX Scott Lowe is your key to harnessing the newest version. Using step-by-step instruction and real-world examples, he takes you under the hood of VMware vSphere 5 and shows you how to get the very most out of all its components. Learn how to install, configure, operate, monitor, secure, and automate your virtual infrastructure from a leading expert and with the leading virtualization solution.ISBN: 9780470890806 | 0470890800

Also available as Kindle e-book

clip_image004 VMware vSphere 5.0 Clustering Technical DeepdiveVMware vSphere 5.0 Clustering Technical Deepdive zooms in on three key components of every VMware based infrastructure and is by no means a “how to” guide. It covers the basic steps needed to create a vSphere HA and DRS cluster and to implement Storage DRS. Even more important, it explains the concepts and mechanisms behind HA, DRS and Storage DRS which will enable you to make well educated decisions. This book will take you in to the trenches of HA, DRS and Storage DRS and will give you the tools to understand and implement e.g. HA admission control policies, DRS resource pools, Datastore Clusters and resource allocation settings.ISBN: 1-4610-4032-9 | 1461040329

Also available as Kindle e-book

Training videos.

David Davis and Elias Khnaser have created an excellent video based training for Trainsignal. This training will help you prepare for the exam. When you watch all the chapters you get familiar with all the new features that vSphere 5 will offer. I have seen them all, and I’ve learned a lot.For more information, see http://www.trainsignal.com/VMware-vSphere-5-Training.aspx clip_image006

VCP5 Resource Blogs

VCP5 practice exams.

These are some practice exams I’ve found online. I should be noted that these do not necessarily indicate the types and styles of questions you will get in the real exam, and the accuracy of these practice exams cannot be guaranteed either.

VCP5 Exam experience

Of course there are other people that already taken the exam, these are there experiences.

Outlook Best Practices

Microsoft have created a video series about best practices in outlook. These tips might be handy sometime.

Harry was fine using Outlook for email and meeting reminders. But new responsibilities in his job began to overwhelm his schedule and make him feel lost in email. Harry’s co-worker, Renee, knows how to use Outlook to control email and scheduling, and begins to show Harry some best practices. (First part of a 9 video training series)

Continue reading

Turn off the Metrostyle desktop in Windows 8

I was testing the Developer Preview version of Windows 8 and I was not so happy about the new metro style desktop.

I immediately was searching for an option to turn it off and put it back to the normal old style of desktop icons. After a few hours of searching I didn’t find an option to turn it off.

Today I ran in to a Tweet with my solution of how to turn it off, see http://deploymentbunny.com/2011/09/18/windows-8-developer-server-preview-switch-to-classic-start-menu/

It turns out it’s a simple registry key that needs to be set to turn everything back to normal. Change the key: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

change the RPEnabled value from 1 in to 0 and everything is back to normal again.

How to solve HP P4000 Cache Status Corrupt

I was working on an HP P4300 Lefthand SAN solution and trying to create a management group when I got an error about an nvram card that is not normal, see screenshot.

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When I run the All Tests at the diagnostics Tasks, the Cache Status was Corrupt.

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I searched the internet for a solution and I didn’t find anything. I contacted HP about this problem and they send me an e-mail with the solution.

The solution is as follows. Go to the Storage tab on the node with the problem. Select Reconfigure RAID…

Note! This was a new HP P4300 device, brand new out of the box with no data on it. If there is data on it, please contact HP for another solution.

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Select the correct RAID configuration, in my case RAID 5. Acknowledge the warning. This takes a few minutes, and when it finishes, go to the diagnostics again. Do the same diagnostic test and now the corrupt cache error message is gone. Problem solved.

VMware vSphere 5 links

Eric Siebert created a list of links about all the VMware vSphere 5 content he could find. See vSphere-Land for the complete list. I’ve selected a few that are important to me or are worth reading.

What’s New Whitepapers

What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0 Platform (VMware)
What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0 Storage (VMware)
What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0 Performance (VMware)
What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0 Networking (VMware)
What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.0 Availability (VMware)
What’s New in VMware vCloud Director 1.5 (VMware)
What’s New in VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.0 (VMware)
What’s New in VMware Data Recovery 2.0 (VMware)

Documentation

VMware vSphere product documentation (VMware)
VMware vSphere Basics Guide
vSphere Installation and Setup Guide
vSphere Upgrade Guide
vCenter Server and Host Management Guide
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide
vSphere Host Profiles Guide
vSphere Networking Guide
vSphere Storage Guide
vSphere Security Guide
vSphere Resource Management Guide
vSphere Availability Guide
vSphere Monitoring and Performance Guide
vSphere Troubleshooting
VMware vSphere Examples and Scenarios Guide

Licensing.

VMware vSphere 5.0 Licensing, Pricing and Packaging (VMware)
vSphere 5 Purchase Advisor (VMware)
vSphere 5 Entitlement Mapping (VMware)
Upgrading to VMware vSphere License Keys (VMware)
vSphere Desktop – vSphere Edition to host Desktop Virtualization FAQ (VMware)
Understanding the vSphere 5 vRAM Licensing Model (VMware – Rethink IT)

Storage

vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 1 – VMFS-5 (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 2 – Storage vMotion (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 3 – VAAI (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.0 Storage Features Part 4 – Storage DRS – Initial Placement (VMware vSphere Blog)

Upgrade

VMware vSphere Upgrade Center (VMware)
Ivo Beerens upgrade blog (IvoBeerens.nl)

Best Practices

Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 5.0
VMware vSphere vMotion Architecture, Performance and Best Practices in VMware vSphere 5
VMware vSphere 5.0 Upgrade Best Practices

vCenter Server

vSphere 5 – vCenter as a linux VM (ESX Virtualization)
vSphere vCenter 5 Design Considerations (Kendrick Coleman)
vCenter 5 – To Appliance or Not? (Kendrick Coleman)
vSphere 5 vCenter Server Virtual Appliance Quick-Start Guide (VMwire)
VMware vCenter Server Virtual Appliance (VCSA) features and benefits (VMwire)

Books

Announcing Mastering VMware vSphere 5 (Scott Lowe)
Hot of the press: vSphere 5.0 Clustering Technical Deepdive (Yellow Bricks)

Certification & Training

vSphere 5 – New Training Courses: What’s New [V5.0] and VCP5 (NTPro.nl)
VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage [V5.0] Training Course by VMware Education (ESX Virtualization)
VCP5 vs VCP4: Comparing exam blueprints (vmDK)

Download

vSphere 5 download link.