VMware has officially released their updated software.

Just finished upgrading the Lab Core infrastructure, besides the SSO clumsiness (most on my part), it went very well.

On too rolling out some nested ESXi hosts for my vCloud 5.1 and View 5.1.1 Deployments.

It's nice that I can use my Mac's Native OS. There really isn't much pulling at me to hang onto Windows now....

Loving the web interface and yeah..it is pretty fast...I was nervous about that.
 
Vader said:
It's nice that I can use my Mac's Native OS. There really isn't much pulling at me to hang onto Windows now....

Loving the web interface and yeah..it is pretty fast...I was nervous about that.
Click to expand...

Hi Vader. As a Mac user myself I've been waiting to ditch my Windows VM for the sole use of the vClient. Can you access VM consoles from the web client on a Mac?
 
No..unfortunately the Web client console plugin does not work on Mac, I guess Windows will remain on my Macbook..I assumed by mistake since the Webclient worked on a plethora of browsers that the console plugin would be supported. Sux....just have to wait it out.
 
Vader said:
Just finished upgrading the Lab Core infrastructure, besides the SSO clumsiness (most on my part), it went very well.

On too rolling out some nested ESXi hosts for my vCloud 5.1 and View 5.1.1 Deployments.

It's nice that I can use my Mac's Native OS. There really isn't much pulling at me to hang onto Windows now....

Loving the web interface and yeah..it is pretty fast...I was nervous about that.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind View 5.1.1 is unsupported on vSphere 5.1 at this time.
See
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2035268
 
Keep in mind View 5.1.1 is unsupported on vSphere 5.1 at this time.
Click to expand...

Yeah..I saw that...this is only for Lab so not a big deal.
 
Vader said:
No..unfortunately the Web client console plugin does not work on Mac, I guess Windows will remain on my Macbook..I assumed by mistake since the Webclient worked on a plethora of browsers that the console plugin would be supported. Sux....just have to wait it out.
Click to expand...

Yeah..that's been known. It uses the same plugin as vCloud and that doesn't work on Mac yet either. It's coming.
 
NetJunkie said:
Soon. Honestly, are you going to move up to a new SRM and a new vSphere right after release in a prod environment? No way I'd do that. Too many issues. We do our best to have customers hold off for 30 days.
Click to expand...

No not right away but we are still on 4.1 and were scheduling to do 5 here soon so I was looking at 5.1 but SRM is always the hold up for us whether it's the SRA or recoverpoint needing to be a certain version.
 
If the standalone vsphere client is going away, and the web client functions as a component of vcenter, how will standalone (vcenter-less) hosts be managed?

Will the vsphere client continue to be around indefinitely, just as a secondary method, or will ESXi hosts start to run web client hosts?

Also, isn't the issue of "I don't want a webserver running on each host" semi-moot as ESXi has a httpd running on each host by default anyway? Can it even be disabled? I've never tried. Presumably a httpd serving a few static components is going to have a smaller attack surface (and be lighter weight) than a dynamic management site, but still.
 
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No one outside of VMware R&D knows yet. Well, I have some ideas but nothing solid yet. :)

It'll be handled.
 
Vader said:
No..unfortunately the Web client console plugin does not work on Mac, I guess Windows will remain on my Macbook..I assumed by mistake since the Webclient worked on a plethora of browsers that the console plugin would be supported. Sux....just have to wait it out.
Click to expand...

I haven't tried, but one solution until VMware realises how many vSphere admins are Mac users..might be to install WSX in your vMA.
 
I have an issue where all of my TurnKey Linux VMs (ldap, ejabberd, gitlab) respond the same way after upgrading to 5.1.

None will boot correctly. I lose console connection. It says: "unable to connect to the mks: error connecting to /bin/vmx process"

If I try to power off the VM then, it will get stuck at 95% and eventually pink screen.

The turnkey distros come with a vm-tools preloaded. These might need to be upgraded before properly booting.

Anyone else had this issue after upgrading from esxi 5->5.1?
 
terisk said:
I have an issue where all of my TurnKey Linux VMs (ldap, ejabberd, gitlab) respond the same way after upgrading to 5.1.

None will boot correctly. I lose console connection. It says: "unable to connect to the mks: error connecting to /bin/vmx process"

If I try to power off the VM then, it will get stuck at 95% and eventually pink screen.

The turnkey distros come with a vm-tools preloaded. These might need to be upgraded before properly booting.

Anyone else had this issue after upgrading from esxi 5->5.1?
Click to expand...

My Turnkey LAMP VM booted up fine after the upgrade.
 
HellMind said:
exactly
Click to expand...

Honestly surprised to see that it worked in 5.0 passing through an onboard controller usually isnt a great idea even on Whitebox hardware... most of the stuff i do is with a PCI-Express 1068-E controller.
 
After upgrading 3 environments over the course of 2 days, 2 being lab, I have had the opportunity to really use the web client. Right now, here is my take.

The web client brings a rather "seesaw" experience. What I mean is that it definately brings some very good functionality. To point to a few obvious, the fact that you can start a task and put it to the side like creating a VM then having to go back and check something without having to start the task over. This is one of the major pluses, however I found that this does not work with all tasks.

I think some parts of the interface work better than the thick client, for instance the Time Server and Domain Join seems quicker. There are some really nice subtle things that I like. For example when you add an NFS Datastore to one host and you then add it to the next, it understands that there is already a datastore with the same name and autopopulates the NFS connection info for you and all you have to do really is hit finish. That's a nice feature. Overall, I really like the layout of the information that is presented to you. Some things are a bit frustrating to find but that's because well, it's a new interface and it will take time to get used too, that's nothing new with any interface change.

The Web Client is certainly not as quick as the thick client and i'm finding sporadic performance in all types of environments. Obviously the lack of plugins sucks, but it's not like you can't perform the tasks with the thick client unless you have third party plugins that aren't working, for example the EqualLogic HIT.

With that said, I am finding myself going back and forth from the Web client to the vSphere client for now until the issues are fixed. I really want to use the Web Client, believe me, it's a winner, especially when VMware resolves some of the issues.

All that aside there are some other things that i'm not happy about..the first being View 5.1.1 is currently not supported. Based on the link that dasaint listed earlier in this post, it's states that VMware is still working on validating vSphere 5.1 with View. Too me, that's just rediculous. You don't have to be a genious to know that vSphere is the CORE of VMware's big products, vCloud, View, etc. At the very least View should have been validated prior to release.

We had to setup vShield Zones today for a customer. There is little information on VMware's website pertaining any changes to Zones if at all, and it appears that they just changed the vSphere supported version with the March release of Zones. Why that wasn't included in vCloud Network and Security Appliance is beyond me. I realize that it was a stand alone in vShield but they could've wrapped it up into the new Security Appliance.

I think VMware has a great product here, and I think this was an attempt at some sort of transition period for the UI. None of these issues were really show stoppers, with the exception of View. I'm looking forward to continuing this transition, and hopefully VMware tackles some of these issues quickly.
 
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A quick question before I do this to anything paid for...will this upgrade over ESXi 5 and still retain the 5 licenses, or does this need new licenses?
 
dasaint said:
Honestly surprised to see that it worked in 5.0 passing through an onboard controller usually isnt a great idea even on Whitebox hardware... most of the stuff i do is with a PCI-Express 1068-E controller.
Click to expand...

Well the target is to build a cheap "server" if I start buying things then I ll be missing the point.

Isn't easy to get hardware in my location.
 
Vader said:
After upgrading 3 environments over the course of 2 days, 2 being lab, I have had the opportunity to really use the web client. Right now, here is my take.

The web client brings a rather "seesaw" experience. What I mean is that it definately brings some very good functionality. To point to a few obvious, the fact that you can start a task and put it to the side like creating a VM then having to go back and check something without having to start the task over. This is one of the major pluses, however I found that this does not work with all tasks.

I think some parts of the interface work better than the thick client, for instance the Time Server and Domain Join seems quicker. There are some really nice subtle things that I like. For example when you add an NFS Datastore to one host and you then add it to the next, it understands that there is already a datastore with the same name and autopopulates the NFS connection info for you and all you have to do really is hit finish. That's a nice feature. Overall, I really like the layout of the information that is presented to you. Some things are a bit frustrating to find but that's because well, it's a new interface and it will take time to get used too, that's nothing new with any interface change.

The Web Client is certainly not as quick as the thick client and i'm finding sporadic performance in all types of environments. Obviously the lack of plugins sucks, but it's not like you can't perform the tasks with the thick client unless you have third party plugins that aren't working, for example the EqualLogic HIT.

With that said, I am finding myself going back and forth from the Web client to the vSphere client for now until the issues are fixed. I really want to use the Web Client, believe me, it's a winner, especially when VMware resolves some of the issues.

All that aside there are some other things that i'm not happy about..the first being View 5.1.1 is currently not supported. Based on the link that dasaint listed earlier in this post, it's states that VMware is still working on validating vSphere 5.1 with View. Too me, that's just rediculous. You don't have to be a genious to know that vSphere is the CORE of VMware's big products, vCloud, View, etc. At the very least View should have been validated prior to release.

We had to setup vShield Zones today for a customer. There is little information on VMware's website pertaining any changes to Zones if at all, and it appears that they just changed the vSphere supported version with the March release of Zones. Why that wasn't included in vCloud Network and Security Appliance is beyond me. I realize that it was a stand alone in vShield but they could've wrapped it up into the new Security Appliance.

I think VMware has a great product here, and I think this was an attempt at some sort of transition period for the UI. None of these issues were really show stoppers, with the exception of View. I'm looking forward to continuing this transition, and hopefully VMware tackles some of these issues quickly.
Click to expand...

I've thought the same of the web client in the lab, it's just a little too slow for me right now. Also did you setup SSO in a multisite configuration at all? I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this with different vcenters in each region with a few regions having 2 vcenters with the second being for VDI.

Wish we had the option to not use SSO right now doesn't clearly run through these scenarios.
 
I only did a multi vCenter installation onsite in a linked mode, not a multisite, however I would imagine it's similiar if not the same. Are those vCenters linked?
 
Our main regional vcenters are linked but the VDI ones are not since citrix doesn't support it.

And i was trying to figure out what this statement means if anything at all since it seems to go in a circle.


vCenter Server instances in linked mode can be connected to different physical Single Sign On servers, but must be connected to a single logical Single Sign On server. A single logical Single Sign On server can take any of these forms:

A single physical Single Sign On server
Two nodes of a cluster

Note: This is the same as a single physical Single Sign On server because the nodes use the same Single Sign On database.

Two nodes in multisite mode.
Click to expand...
 
LOL...I think I know what they mean. There could be two HA SSO's that are on the backend but connections go to a LOGICAL instance, however one vCenter could be pointing to the one "PHYSICAL" instance and another vCenter pointing to the other "PHYSICAL" instance they just have to both connect via the Logical Instance. Please don't take too much meaning on Physical, i'm just saying there are two that are in a SSO "CLUSTER" so to speak sharing the same DB backend.

I'm sure others can explain it better.
 
So say I have 2 sites and want to use multisite mode so that each site can remain functional if one goes down and want to use them in linked mode.

How does the "logical" SSO get into the picture? Is that something that gets created automagically?
 
This link seems to hold the key to the automagic. It appears the act of joining the servers in linked mode creates the connections with the different SSOs.


http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=2034074


Single Sign On and vCenter Server Linked Mode

You can join vCenter Server instances in Linked Mode only when all of the instances are registered in the same Single Sign On deployment. This includes Single Sign On instances installed on different sites. When vCenter Server B on site B is joined to vCenter Server A on site A, the join tool establishes connection both to Single Sign On A and Single Sign On B.
Click to expand...
 
I'm having some serious issues with SSO and AD authentication, the discovery fails during installation so I have to manually add the AD details on afterwards which all goes fine. Local machine authentication also works fine but as soon as I try to authenticate with AD credentials the vSphere Client will timeout and the web client will take 3-4 minutes to login, after this the local machine credentials have the same problem.

Think it may have started after I replaced the default vcenter ssl certs (which is a nightmare in itself), i've left the SSO and Inventory service certs alone as i've had no sucess following the procedures for replacing them at all. The windows SSO cert replacement procedure is just a joke.

Rebooting the vcenter vm will restore local credentials to full working order but as soon as I try to use AD credentials it all goes to pot again.

Anyone have anything similar? Can't find anything obvious in the logs or any really information anything I could be doing wrong.

2008 R2 domain.
 
bmh.01 said:
I'm having some serious issues with SSO and AD authentication, the discovery fails during installation so I have to manually add the AD details on afterwards which all goes fine. Local machine authentication also works fine but as soon as I try to authenticate with AD credentials the vSphere Client will timeout and the web client will take 3-4 minutes to login, after this the local machine credentials have the same problem.

Think it may have started after I replaced the default vcenter ssl certs (which is a nightmare in itself), i've left the SSO and Inventory service certs alone as i've had no sucess following the procedures for replacing them at all. The windows SSO cert replacement procedure is just a joke.

Rebooting the vcenter vm will restore local credentials to full working order but as soon as I try to use AD credentials it all goes to pot again.

Anyone have anything similar? Can't find anything obvious in the logs or any really information anything I could be doing wrong.

2008 R2 domain.
Click to expand...

:(, I was going to look at replacing my certs today. Great, I sure hope I don't have the same problems. For my lab I set it to be the only vCenter server not the first node of a multi setup. I don't know if that will help me, but we'll see.
 
I've followed these procedures to the T and have had varied and mixed sucess with no extra information avaliable to help deal with the errors.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vsp_51_vcserver_esxi_certificates.pdf

I've tried lots of different methods fresh installs, local only SSO and multisite etc and still end up at the same problem. Let me know how you get on it may help point me in the correct direction.

I also now cannot install VUM or auto deploy either both hang at the credentials page of the installer, definetly points to something wrong with SSO or AD but nothing gives me any errors messages or useful information. I can't believe how much trouble i'm having with 5.1 its always been plain sailing with vCenter previously or easily enough solvable with a google search and vmware docs.

Just trying using the GC port on the DC rather than normal ldap see if that makes any difference, I don't understand by AD auto discovery during the install fails though. Although from the limited information avaliable i'm not the only person to suffer this but I don't think they are also having the same auth issues as I am. Nothing really special about the domain either that I can think of that would cause problems.

Very frustrating. Thank god for ZFS snapshots.
 
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Hmm needs some more testing but looks like it seems to work correctly when specified to use the GC port rather than ldap or ldaps. Still getting a hang at the authentication page during the installer for VUM but i'll leave that running for a bit see if it goes through eventually as there is CPU activity on the vpxinstaller process.
 
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Yea I am not able to get AD authentication to work either. I havnt even messed with the SSL certs or anything. v5.0 AD auth worked perfectly.

I have tried upgrading the current 5.0 to 5.1 vcenter and installing everything and even resorted to the vmca. It connects to the AD (had to do it via command line in the vmca) but when I go to add users to the vcenter from AD it won't show the domain as a place where I can grab users.
 
Is it setup to use the GC port (3268) rather than normal ldap? Works perfectly with GC but all goes to hell with ldap or ldaps (389/636).

I still cannot get VUM to upgrade/install, vciinstallutils.exe vcenter check just goes round in circle and DoS' itself pretty much. I can't believe how much of a mess 5.1 seems to be, everything was pretty damn bulletproof before.
 
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