Aria Blog Dell PowerEdge VMware
13. December 2024

Add Dell PowerEdge Servers to VMware Aria Operations

In my previous blog post, I described how to prepare your Dell PowerEdge servers for integration with VMware Aria Operations for comprehensive dashboards and monitoring. This time we will talk about how to configure/add them to Aria Operations. First, get the Dell PowerEdge Management Pack from Dell/Broadcom and then log into your Aria Operations instance. Go to Administration -> Integrations -> Repository. There you will […]

Aria Blog Dell Dell PowerEdge
12. December 2024

Configuring SNMPv3 on Dell iDRAC9 for VMware Aria Operations

I am currently working a lot with VMware Aria Operations and the matching Dell Management Packs that are available. One of the most interesting is the integration of PowerEdge Servers, from which you can view various alarms about: These are exactly the informations I want to integrate into Aria Operations to get/build a dedicated dashboard. In order to send these informations to Aria Operations, SNMPv3 […]

Blog Dell Dell OpenManage Enterprise
8. December 2024

Upgrade Dell OpenManage Enterprise 4.0.1 to 4.1

In this blog post I would like to describe the Upgrade Process from OME 4.0.1 to 4.1, but let’s start with some news first: Resolved Issues Platform Support Important Recommendation Limitations For customers who are still on version 3.10.x, a new deployment will be necessary, which I have described in this post: Updating from 4.x upwards is very relaxed. So let’s head over to the […]

Blog Dell Dell OpenManage Enterprise
6. December 2024

Upgrade Dell OME from 3.10.x to 4.0

The latest version of Dell OpenManage Enterprise 4.0 was released on October 30, 2023. Some customers are already using the 4.0 version and are giving generally positive feedback, especially regarding performance. That’s why I would like to describe the upgrade path from 3.10.x to 4.0 in this blog post. Before we start, I want to give you some basic upgrade paths, because you can only […]

Blog PowerCLI VMware
4. December 2024

PowerCLI: Connect-VIServer The SSL connection could not be established

I wanted to make my life easier again in a customer situation and use my PowerCLI scripts to shorten repeating tasks. The customer had given me an Ubuntu OS notebook and I installed PowerShell/PowerCLI on it. When I tried to use my script, I got the following error message: So it’s all about certificates, let’s take a look at our current PowerCLI configuration: As you […]

Blog VMware vSAN
3. December 2024

The Witness host must not be part of a vSAN enabled Cluster

As part of a vCenter 7 to a brand new vCenter 8 migration, the vSAN clusters had to be moved in addition to the normal clusters. When we disconnected the vSAN Witness Appliance from the old vCenter in the last process and then wanted to add it to the fault domain in the new one, we were confronted with the following error message: Although these […]

Blog VMware vSphere
3. December 2024

Host prevents entering Maintenace Mode: There are insufficient memory resource on standby hosts

In a vSphere 8 – 2-Node Cluster Update I have had to deal with the following message during the Check Compliance process: High Availability (HA) Admission Control is enabled and set to specify a failover host, which is reserved for HA failover purposes. However, in a 2-node cluster you ultimately only have the 2nd host and if the resources on this host are not sufficient, […]

Blog VMware vSphere
30. November 2024

A problem with one or more vFAT bootbank partitions was detected. (PSOD Alarm!)

During a VMware vSphere 7 to 8 upgrade, more precisely after the compliance check, I was confronted with the above error message. In this blog post I would like to show you how to solve the problem. Corrupt vFAT partitions already existed in vSphere 6.7 times and unfortunately they also appear today with vSphere 8. The problem? If you go through with the upgrade in […]

Blog VMware vSAN
6. November 2024

Moving a vSAN cluster from one vCenter Server to another

vSphere 7 to 8 updates are slowly in full swing, many customers are migrating to October ’25 -> EOL for vSphere 7. Some of my customers want a brand new vCenter right away, because some of theirs are still from version 5, the ex-colleague fiddled in the Postgre database before he quit and so on and so forth – the reasons seem to be endless. […]

Blog VMware vSphere
4. November 2024

Image Compliance shows hardware compatibility issues

During an ESX server cluster update on image basis, I was confronted with a strange thing. The message says that there are hardware compatibility issues. However, if you look at the details, you will quickly realise that there is nothing under the firmware version. If you then scroll down a little, you will see the warning ‘Device is incompatible with the Driver/Firmware in clusters image‘. […]

Blog VMware vSphere
28. October 2024

vSphere UI Client Plugin is at N/A state before vSphere 8 Upgrade

We are rapidly approaching the end of vSphere 7 support (October ’25), and during a vSphere 8 upgrade pre-check at my customer’s site, we ran into the problem mentioned in the title. The so-called “…vmware.h4…” plugin was in a N/A state. In the past this plugin has appeared several times and should be unregister beforehand, this is the VMware Cloud Director Availability Plugin, which cannot […]

Blog Dell Dell VxRail
23. October 2024

Dell VxRail / vSphere 8.0.310 Update – Advisory Report identified issues with BOSS Device

In a VxRail 8.0.300 deployment, I wanted to upgrade the appliance to the latest 8.0.310 after the initial cluster deployment, but I was confronted with a very strange phenomenon in the advisory report. Important details: Normally, all components of a VxRail node are updated with the RASR or Update image to the version provided by the Image, e.g. 8.0.300. This time, however, I was confronted […]

Aria Blog VMware
19. October 2024

Generate a VMware Aria Operations Passphrase for Node Adding

For new deployments or extensions of Aria Operations Cluster, the admin credentials are required to add the nodes. To prevent this, especially as a security concern, the administrator can generate a temporary passphrase in the Admin Console of Aria Operations. I would like to describe how this works in this blog post. First, we log in to the admin console of Aria Operations: Under “Nodes […]

Blog Dell Dell PowerEdge Dell VxRail
18. October 2024

How to kill a Dell iDRAC Session of another User

Now one or the other will ask themselves, why should I kill an iDRAC session of another user, well, if you know the admin credentials of the iDRAC anyway and the colleague has e.g. forgotten to close his iDRAC session and has gone on lunch break and you absolutely want to complete the RASR process of the VxRail – then it might make sense to […]

Blog Dell Dell PowerProtect
17. October 2024

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager Root Password expired

As the title of the blog post says, it is about restoring the root password of the PowerProtect Data Manager. Because once this password has expired, the system will not run properly until the password is restored. You can set the expiration time for passwords to “never” in the UI of the PPDM, which I recommend for HomeLab purposes, but never for productive environments! Important: […]

Blog Dell Dell PowerProtect
18. July 2024

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager Setup

In this post, I want to give you a feel for how easy the setup of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is. Starting in the welcome area, you can select whether you want to restore from a backup or whether it is a new installation. In my case it is a new installation, I skip the view of the EULA which we have to accept either […]

Blog PowerCLI VMware
26. June 2024

PowerCLI Add-VMHost: Unable to verify the authenticity of the specified host

Yep, I also started using PowerCLI more intensively. It’s really fun and makes repeating tasks easier to apply. As a Rookie in whatever you’re starting out with, there are obstacles that you might not be able to explain straight away. So let’s start with something small and I wanted to add an ESX host to my vCenter with the following command: But this failed because […]

Blog VMware vSAN
11. June 2024

vSAN Skyline Health: A possible storage capacity limitation with vSAN OSA versions 8.0U2 and 8.0U2b

Another Day another Warning inside vSAN Skyline Health. 🙂 Frequent Deletion of VMs….. Hmm….. I’ve been using vSAN since vSphere 6.7 U3 in my home lab and I’m pretty sure I deleted VMs more frequently, especially in my rookie times and never had this kind of warning in vSAN Skyline Health. Anyway, lets try to fix it! 😉 What I really like about vSphere 8 […]

Blog VMware vSAN
10. June 2024

vSAN Skyline Health: Network diagnostic mode (Warning)

Today, I saw the above warning in vSAN Skyline Health, and I would like to share the solution with you. The following information can be found under Details: Network diagnostic mode is enabled more than 24 hours (94 hours). The network diagnostic mode is only used for troubleshooting, if the troubleshooting is done, please disable it. No sooner said than done, we switch to the […]

Dell Dell OpenManage Enterprise
21. April 2024

Dell OpenManage Enterprise Darksite Plugin Implementation

I recently had the challenge of retroactively implementing the PowerManager plugin in a dark site for a Dell OpenManage Enterprise Appliance. Since dark sites are not uncommon, I thought I would describe the process. If you look under Application Settings -> Console and Plugins you should see plugin installation options for an OME appliance with internet access, in a dark site this does not happen […]

Blog Dell Dell VxRail
25. March 2024

Dell VxRail 7.0.482 deployment validation with external vCenter fails

I recently had a VxRail deployment with an external vCenter, which drove me crazy. 🙂 In the normal case, if you select “Join existing vCenter Server” under Global Settings (Step 7), the next Cluster Configuration steps should adapt. This means that under Virtual Network Settings (Step 12), under vCenter Server Network, you only have to choose between Static or Ephemeral Binding. However, I had the […]

Blog VMware vSphere
22. March 2024

The number of VMware vSphere HA datastores for this host is 0, which is less than required: 2

Recently I had the situation that at cluster level, the vSphere HA displayed a heartbeat of datastores at zero, whereby I have defined two specific datastores under vSphere HA settings under Heartbeat Datastores and these must always be pingable. The two defined datastores were no longer visible under Datastores, which is why the warning appeared. After consulting with the storage team, it turned out that […]

Home Lab Stage VIII
4. March 2024

irgNET – LAB 8.0 U1

I want to start my 8.0 HomeLab U1 Update with a full lifecycle, which means that all my 13th Gen Dell PowerEdge servers have been replaced by 14th Gen Dell PowerEdge servers and my Datacenter has even grown. But that’s not all – I’ve implemented 2 new Data Protection solutions in my Datacenter – Dell PowerProtect & Cohesity and I’ve replaced my HPE 1GbE switches […]

Blog VMware vSphere
1. March 2024

How to Reset vCenter 8.0 Root Password

Yep, there are still vCenter’s out there with expired root passwords. 😀 Therefore, I will describe the workaround to reset the root password for vCenter 8.0, which also works for vSphere 6.5 through today’s releases. First, take a snapshot of your vCenter VM: Then switch to the ESXi Host Client and open a virtual console from the vCenter VM: Now reboot the vCenter and watch […]

Blog Dell Dell PowerStore
26. February 2024

Dell PowerStore Upgrade from 3.2.1 to 3.6 (Dark Site)

Last week I had the challenge of upgrading a Dark Site PowerStore from 3.2.1.0 to 3.6.0.0. PowerStore 3.6 brings a lot of new features, for me there are the following highlights: Starting with the Upgrade BIN file, you will first need to login into your Dell Support account, whereupon you will need to enter the service tag of the PowerStore system. Then filter by operating […]

Blog Dell Dell PowerStore
26. February 2024

Dell PowerStore: CPU utilization level too high. Reduce system load prior to NDU. (cpu_usage_level_exceeded)

During a PowerStore Appliance upgrade, one of the most common warnings during a pre-upgrade health check (PUHC) is the message: CPU utilization level too high. Reduce system load prior to NDU: This is a 2-node PowerStore cluster which is to be upgraded from 3.2.x to 3.6.x. The existing checks used to find CPU usage include management and platform CPU cores. As a result, on an idle […]

Blog Dell Dell PowerEdge Home Lab Stage VIII
7. February 2024

irgNET – LAB 8.0

I know it’s been a long time, almost 1 year (in 2 days), so it’s time for another HomeLab update. In my last HomeLab update I told you about my VMware SD-WAN / SASE solution, this time we’ll take another look at my Data Protection Server. Because I replaced it with a Dell PowerEdge T430 in November 2023. You can find the documentation of my […]

Blog Dell Dell PowerProtect
28. January 2024

Dell PowerProtect – Cannot reset CBT while VM has an existing snapshot

In my last backup jobs I noticed in the Dell PowerProtect Data Manager that 1 asset was Completed with Exceptions. The warning was as follows: I have to admit that the warnings and errors in PowerProtect DataManager are mostly self-explanatory and well detailed. We can see that the backup job was successful, but Change Block Tracking (CBT) could not be reset due to an existing […]

Blog VMware vSphere
24. January 2024

Bug Alert: Powering On VM in VMware vCenter stucks at 66%

Today I had a strange issue in my vCenter, after a maintenance operation on my server I wanted to power on several VMs and I noticed that they got stuck at 66% in the power on process. There are no warnings or errors. Some VMs take up to 60 minutes to power on and some remain at 66%. Officially, I could not find a KB […]

Blog
24. January 2025

Capturing Windows Drive and Linux Filesystem…

Capturing Windows Drive and Linux Filesystem Metrics with Aria Operations Capturing Windows Drive and Linux Filesystem… In order to capture Windows Drive and Linux Filesystem metrics, ensure your VM Guest Fileystem Metrics are Activated and have an Activated Instanced State. This tells Operations to calculate these metrics for each instance of the object, think C: drive, D: drive, etc. And /, /boot, /tmp, etc. […] […]

Blog
24. January 2025

Setup HAProxy as a Load Balancer for VMware VCF…

Setup HAProxy as a Load Balancer for VMware VCF Operations _ lifeofbrianoc.com Setup HAProxy as a Load Balancer for VMware VCF… HAProxy is a free opensource load balancer that is supported for use with VMware VCF Operations (formerly VMware Aria Operations). Here are the steps you need to install and configure it on a Debian VM. Add an interface to the Debian VM for the […]

Blog
24. January 2025

VCF Import : Importing vCenter Certificate onto…

VCF Import : Importing vCenter Certificate onto SDDC Manager: A Guide for VMware… VCF Import : Importing vCenter Certificate onto… Learn how to manually import a vCenter root certificate into SDDC Manager for VMware VCF 5.2 and beyond. Follow this step-by-step guide for seamless VCF import. Broadcom Social Media Advocacy

Blog
24. January 2025

Is private cloud having a moment?

Is private cloud having a moment? Is private cloud having a moment? Faced with mounting hyperscaler bills, proliferating data and compute-hungry generative AI, enterprises are weighing alternatives to public cloud. Broadcom Social Media Advocacy

Blog
23. January 2025

Unexplored Territory Podcast Episode 088 -…

Unexplored Territory Podcast Episode 088 – Stretching VMware Cloud Foundation! Unexplored Territory Podcast Episode 088 -… The first episode of 2025 features one of my favorite colleagues, Paudie O’Riordan. Paudie works for the same team as I do, and although we’ve both roamed around a lot, somehow we always […] Broadcom Social Media Advocacy

Blog
23. January 2025

Unexplored Territory Episode 087 – Microsoft on…

Unexplored Territory Episode 087 – Microsoft on VMware VCF featuring Deji Akomol… Unexplored Territory Episode 087 – Microsoft on… For the last episode of 2024, I invited Deji Akomolafe to discuss running Microsoft workloads on top of VCF. I’ve known Deji for a long time, and if anyone is passionate about VMware and Microsoft technology, it is him. Deji went over the many caveats, and […]

Blog
23. January 2025

Modernize with Virtualized Storage

Modernize with Virtualized Storage Modernize with Virtualized Storage Have you already stood up your VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) private cloud? If you have deployed a fresh VCF environment, you are already using VMware vSAN for the VMware Cloud Foundation Management Domain because it’s a required component. This is a foundational vSAN deployment that exposes […] Broadcom Social Media Advocacy

Blog
23. January 2025

Migrating Workloads to VCF – Seamless Solutions

Migrating Workloads to VCF – Seamless Solutions Migrating Workloads to VCF – Seamless Solutions This introductory session provides an overview of the solutions available for seamlessly migrating workloads to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). We will explore the various migration paths and provide a high-level understanding of each option, including HCX, VMware Live Recovery, and the VCF […] Broadcom Social Media Advocacy

Blog
23. January 2025

VMware Private AI Foundation – VMware RAG…

VMware Private AI Foundation – VMware RAG Starter Pack VMware Private AI Foundation – VMware RAG… The Improved RAG Starter Pack will guide you through the phases required to build robust RAG pipelines that allow your LLM-driven applications to improve the accuracy and relevancy of their outputs. We also dedicate a good deal of attention to the evaluation process of RAG pipelines via the use […]

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23. January 2025

Codeium Enterprise on VMware Private AI…

Codeium Enterprise on VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA Codeium Enterprise on VMware Private AI… Generative AI has fantastic potential today. One of the top benefits enterprises are excited about is coding assistants. However, privacy and security of their data remains one of their top concerns. This is why deploying Codeium Enterprise on VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA drives […] Broadcom Social Media Advocacy