Installing vMA 5.5 and SSH

vSphere Management Assistant is a Suse Linux Server based Virtual Machines which provide command line interface to manage ESXi hosts and vCenter Server. It can be used to collect the logs and run scripts centrally without having you to login to each ESXi hosts individually. It’s a free appliance available in ovf format and installation is simple

1. Download and extract vMA zip file.
   
2. Connect to vCenter Server via Web-Client and select the option to "Deploy OVF Template" under "Actions". Point to the ovf file within the extracted folder.
   
3. Accept the EULA and proceed and give a name to vMA.
   
4. Select the appropriate Host, Datastore and Network. You have option to Select Static IP settings.
   
5. If you have selected Static option, then in next step it prompts for the static IP.
   
6. That brings up the last step to finish the setup and start the deployment.
7. After Deployment it didn't took the Static IP which I provided, but it took me to "Main Menu" to setup network configuration. For any reason if you miss any networking configuration and are not able to open the vMA configuration on browser then run the below command which brings the same Main Menu

 sudo /opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_config_net

8. After completing the network configuration when you exit, it will prompt for the old password for username "vi-admin", which is "vmware". After entering the default password, it prompts to change the password and until it find the new password complicate enough, will not let you proceed.
   
9. Now you are all set to manage your complete environment.

SSH:

In this version of vMA (5.5), ssh is already enabled. However, to disable ssh you may type the below command

 sudo vi /etc/hosts.allow

Go the bottom of the page and put # infront of

 #sshd: ALL : ALLOW

Save and exit.

vCenter Operations Manager 5.7.2 Installation and Configuration with vCenter Server Appliance 5.5

This blog demonstrate deploying vCenter Operations Manager 5.7.2 on vCenter Server Appliance 5.5. This is a vApp consisting of 2 Virtual Machines,  Analytics VM and UI VM. Analytic VM has Postgres DB and FSDB, it collects the data from vCenter Server. UI VM also has a Postgres DB and it’s the front end VM which provides the user interface. The installation is pretty straight forward. It is available as an ova file, which needs to be downloaded from Vmware website and deployed as summarized below

1. Connect to vCenter Server via Web Client and select "Deploy OVF Template" under actions tab.
   
2. Point to the vCenter Operations Manager ova file.
   
3. Review details and accept the EULA.
   
4. Give a name to the vCenter Operations Manager like vCOPs, short and easy to understand and select the folder or location for the deployment.
   
5. Select Configuration: Depending on the size of the environment choose this option. Small Configuration is suitable for deployments less than 1500 VMs.
   
6. Select Resource: Now select host which has good amount of resources (CPU/Memory) available.
   
7. Select Storage: It would be a thin provisioned disk, so select a Datastore accordingly.
   
8. Setup Network: Make sure appropriate Network Port Group is selected. Select IP Allocation as "Static Manual" if you are not using DHCP and update rest of the networking information.
   

          9.  Customize Template: If you had selected Static Allocation in the                      previous step, then you would get 2 alerts to update the Static IP                    for both the VMs i.e., UI and Analytics VM.

10. Now review all the information provided and click on finish to deploy both the VMs.
    
11. This is how both the VMs looks after the successful deployment. The deployment of both the VMs would take 20-30 mins.
    
12. To login into Analytics VM user the default username "root" and password "vmware" and to connect to vCenter Operations Manager Admin page (UI VM)use the default username "admin" and password "admin"
    
13. The successful login brings up the "Initial Setup Wizard", starting with "Virtual Appliance Details" and click on next and accept the warning and proceed
    
14. Reset both the passwords - root and admin account.
    
15. Specify the details of vCenter Server to be Monitored and I have skipped the collector user details.
    
16. Next step looks for the vCOPs plugin and linked vCenter Server and collects the information from them. In my case I do not have a linked vCenter Server at this moment.
    
17. That’s brings us to the last step of the configuration. After clicking on finish, it takes few minutes to register the vCenter Server.
    
18. Check the vCenter Server for new plugin. Also, open a browser and enter the vCOPs UI VM's IP Address.
    
19. Select any object on the left inventory and find the details on the right.
    

That was about installation and configuration of vCenter Operations Manager 5.7.2 registered with vCenter Server Appliance 5.5. I hope this post was helpful and there is lot more to do with vCOPs, I will update soon with few more posts on vCOPS.

Installing and Configuring vCloud Director Appliance 5.5 [Lab]

It is very simple to install and configure vCloud Director and build your own cloud. I am Installing vCloud Director 5.5. Just needs to make sure of few pre-requisites i.e.,

1. At least one vCenter Server.
2. vCloud Networking and Security needs to configured with the vCenter Server.
3. 2 IP address for UI and Console Access of vCloud Director.

Let's go ahead and install and configure vCloud Director 5.5. I am setting up my own lab so I am using the vCloud Director Appliance which is very quick to deploy and configure

1. Download the vCloud Director Appliance 5.5 ova file from vmware website.
2. Connect to you vCenter Server using web client.  In my case I will have two clusters, Management cluster and a resource cluster. Management cluster would consists of all the Management VMs including vCloud Director, vShield (vCloud Networking and Security), vCenter Server and other management VMs. The Resource cluster is dedicated for my vCloud Director, where all my Organizations reside.
   
3. Point to the vCloud Director Appliance ova file.  
   
4. Accept the EULA and proceed.
   
5. Give a name and select the Host or Cluster to deploy the vCloud Director Appliance.
   
6. Select the Datastore of your choice. It only gives Thin Provision option for Virtual Disk Format as it’s an Appliance in my case.
7. Setup Networks.
   
8. Now the most important settings: Customize template

Set the root password and guest password

For lab I am using the bundled Database which comes along with vCloud Director.

Now Expand the "Networking Properties"

Enter the two IP addresses and other networking information.

 9.   Now confirm if all the supplied setting are correct and click on "finish".

10. After the vCloud Director is deployed, you would also get the IP address to configure networking later if required.
    
11. When you enter the IP (vCloud Director's IP) in a browser, it will take you to the First time vCloud Director setup Wizard.
    
12. Accept the Eula and enter the License Key- Mandatory step.
    
13. Now create a Administrator account with which you will login to the vCloud Administrator page to manage all the clouds.
    
14. Give a name for this vCloud Installation and complete the wizard.
    
15. When you click on the finish button, it will take 2-3 minutes and automatically takes you to the login screen.
    
16. That completes the installation of vcloud Director and you ready to build your own cloud.
    

 I will walk you through the process of building your own cloud in my next post. I feel the most important part of vcloud Director is networking and visibility & understanding of each object at each layer and how they interact i.e., vApp >>Organization>>Provider Virtual Datacenter etc. Complete Networking and Security is provided by vShield Manager and it is linked with the vCloud Director, as vShield Manager is registered to a vCenter Server and this vcloud Director is associated to that vCenter Server. Automatically you will see vShield Edge getting deployed depending upon the networking pools we create while creating the organizations or clouds. I hope this post was helpful.

Installing and Configuring vCloud Networking and Security 5.5

Before installing vCloud Director, it is required to register vShield Manager (vCloud Networking and Security) to the vCenter Server. It is simple to install vShield Manager (now known as vCloud Networking and Security).

1. Download the vCloud Networking and Security Appliance from Vmware website and deploy that OVF using Web-Client or vSphere Client.
   
2. Power on the VM after the Appliance  is successfully deployed.
3. Login with the default username = "admin" and password = "default".
   
4. Now type "enable" and hit enter and enter the password (default).
   
5. Now type "setup" and hit enter. This will takes you the networking configuration page. Enter the appropriate values and exit.
6. It would take few minutes for changes to take effect.
   
7. Now open the browser and enter the IP provided to vShield Manager in the previous step. Login with the same default username and password. This default password can be changed in the admin console.
   
8. Now click on "edit" button next to "vCenter Server" and enter the vCenter Server details.
   
9. Accept the security warning
   
10. After the successful registration of vShield Manager to the vCenter Server, the vCenter Server inventory populates on the left side.
11. The above configuration is sufficient to configure vCloud Director. There are lot of security configurations which can be done on vShield Manager, which I will try to cover as and when I am setting up in my lab.

Install vCenter Server 5.5 on Windows Server 2008 R2

Vcenter Server is available as an Appliance and can also be installed as usual on Windows Server Operating System. This post demonstrate installing vCenter Server 5.5 on Windows Server 2008 R2.

1. Make sure the Windows Virtual Machine or the physical machine is part of Domain and please remember vCenter Server cannot be installed on a machine which is a Domain Controller.
2. Mount the vCenter Server installer ISO and launch the installer.
3. I am installing all the components on the same machine, hence selecting "Simple Install". i.e., Single Sign On, Web Client, Inventory Services and vCenter Server.
   
4. Accept the EULA and the installer automatically checks the pre-requisites for Single Sing On.
   
5. Set the Administrator Password for Single Sign On.
   
6. Give a name for this site, in future if you are adding new Datacenter, SSO can later be added to this site in a multisite or HA mode.
   
7. Proceed with the default options and click on "Install".
   
8. After the successful install of SSO, the installer takes you back to the same screen and prompts to install the next component in sequence which is Web-Client and then the Inventory Services.
   
9. Now comes the turn of the last component, vCenter Server.
   
10. Enter the License Key or can be updated later.
    
11. Database Option: I am using the MS SQL 2008 Express which is bundled with the vCenter Server installer. People who are using the separate supported Database select the "Use an existing supported Database option" and point it to the 64-bit DSN
    
12. Proceed with the default options and default ports and click on Install. If you are changing the default port for any reason make sure that from here you use the changed ports wherever required.
    
13. After the installation completes, a message pops up informing all the 4 components have been installed.
    
    
    
14. Now you may connect to vCenter Server using Web-Client pointing to the vCenter IP/FQDN:9443.

https://vcenter_fqdn:9443