Selective deletion of tasks, events, and historical performance data in vSphere 5.x and 6.x
by lunarg on January 11th 2019, at 10:04

In the event of migrating your old vCenter Server to a new version (or from Windows to the appliance), it may become necessary to first clear out old historical data. Not only will this speed up the migration process considerably, it will also prevent certain issues which may block the migration from completing successfully.

VMWare provided a KB with database scripts which allow you to selectively purge historical data and decreasing the database size: KB 2110031.

 
Barracuda VPN Client on Mac crashes on macOS Mojave
by lunarg on January 11th 2019, at 09:06

The Barracuda VPN Client does not work properly on macOS Mojave: after connecting the VPN, the UI crashes and restarting it immediately makes it crash again. The VPN tunnel itself does work, but other than manually killing the process (kill -9), it is not possible to terminate the tunnel (other than rebooting of course).

An updated version of the client, Barracuda VPN Client 5.0.2.5 for macOS is available which resolves these issues.

 
Using libdvdcss with Handbrake on macOS
by lunarg on January 4th 2019, at 16:40
Handbrake offers the ability to convert copy-protected DVD's (aka "rip") too. It is not able to do this out of the box, but instead, relies on a specific library called libdvdcss. This library is installed by default when you also use VLC media player, but a version compatible with Handbrake is also available for download.

For Mac OSX, an installer was made available to easily install the library and have Handbrake use it, but due to the write-protection of system folders, introduced with macOS High Sierra, this method no longer works. As a result, it became difficult to use Handbrake. Fortunately, there are a number of workarounds and other methods of installing the library, whic  ...
 
Windows Server 2016: upgrade from evaluation to full
by lunarg on December 20th 2018, at 15:10
On Windows Server 2016, when attempting to enter a full edition product key on an evaluation edition, you will get the error: "This edition cannot be upgraded". Fortunately, you can workaround the issue by "upgrading" via DISM (a built-in command-line tool).

Note that you will have to reboot the server when performing the upgrade, so schedule some downtime for it. Also, you cannot only convert full GUI versions of Windows Server. Server Core or Nano Server cannot be upgraded. Additionally, if you have the ADDS role installed, you need to uninstall this role before performing the upgrade.

Start an elevated command prompt, then type in the commands listed below.

First, m  ...
 
PowerCLI: Starting/stopping SSH service on ESX hosts
by lunarg on December 20th 2018, at 11:17
Starting or stopping the SSH service on multiple ESXi hosts can be a tedious job when having to do this via the vSphere (Web)Client. Fortunately, you can also use PowerCLI to start/stop services quickly. With a little scripting, you can expand this to start/stop services on a set of hosts, a cluster, or the entire vCenter.

First, start PowerCLI and make a connection to the vCenter. For automation, you can use something like this (note that you have to add code for credentials, if needed):

if (-not (Get-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) { Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core | Out-Null }Connect-VIServer vcenter.domain.local

Once that's done, you can ga  ...
 
Yealink IP Phones: contents of LCD via webpage
by lunarg on November 20th 2018, at 12:23

A nifty little feature of the Yealink IP Phones the ability to display the contents of the LCD via the management page.

Access the web management page, and after authenticating, change your browser URL to http://IP_of_phone/screencapture. Refresh the browser to update the capture.

This works on the following models: SIP-T48G, SIP-T46G, SIP-T42G, SIP-T41P, SIP-T29G, SIP-T28P, SIP-T27P, SIP-T26P, SIP-T23G, SIP-T23P, SIP-T22P, SIP-T21P E2.

 
HP 3PAR default passwords
by lunarg on November 19th 2018, at 11:07

The following default passwords are used for HP 3PAR storage systems:

UsernamePasswordUsed for
3paradm3pardataManagement port (MGMT) for admin control
Setupusr / root(blank)SP initial default credentials (before config)
Spvar3V#rparSP default credentials (after config)
3parcust3parInServSP default credentials, meant for customers to use
 
Updating the vCenter Server Appliance via ISO and CLI
by lunarg on October 26th 2018, at 13:29

You can easily update your vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) offline by downloading a product patch ISO and via the CLI.

Download the latest patch from VMware Patch Download Center. Select VC from the Search by Product drop-down menu, then select the correct version (i.e. 6.0 or 6.5). Download the patch ISO and attach it to the VCSA.

Log in to the shell (using SSH or VMRC) and initiate the update:

  1. Stage the ISO updates:
    software-packages stage --iso --acceptEulas
  2. Optionally, you can view the list of packages to be updated:
    software-packages list --staged
  3. To install the updates, run:
    software-packages install --staged

After the update has finished, you will have to reboot the VCSA.

 
 
 
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