Category: Dell

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 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 Dell Dell PowerProtect
27. October 2023

The VM Direct engine cannot complete the backup of this virtual machine because a vCenter API operation did not complete successfully. ABV0016

PowerProtect Data Manager (PPDM) is used to protect the vSphere environment with the Transparent Snapshot Data Mover (TSDM) solution. If you want to learn more about TDSM and PowerProtect please have a look on my PowerProtect blog post: A few VM Asset backups were failing with Error Code ABV0016 when they had completed successfully in the past, more details on this: The cause The affected […]

Blog Dell Dell XR4000
21. September 2023

Computacenter – Datacenter2Go with Dell XR4000 & VMware vSAN

In my last blog post we talked about the Dell XR4000 and I referred you to this post at the end. If you haven’t read the first post yet, you can find it here: After the Dell Technologies World, the XR4000 did not leave us alone. We talked with Marc again and again about how we can bring these server models closer to our customers. […]

Blog Dell Dell XR4000 VMware vSAN vSphere
21. September 2023

Dell XR4000 and VMware vSphere – NextGen Edge Solution

Last year at Dell Technologies World 2022, my mentor Marc Huppert (VCDX 181) and I came across the Dell XR4000 at the Solutions Expo. I mean we have seen it all before, servers, storage and networking but this edge solution from Dell blew us away! CEO Michael Dell said in his keynote that by 2025, more than 50% of IT deployments will happen in the […]

Blog Dell Dell VxRail
20. September 2023

Dell VxRail Health Check with VxVerify Tool

VxVerify is designed to be used after initial VxRail deployments and before upgrades, to proactively identify issues that could lead to complications or failures. I always recommend checking the cluster with VxVerify before making any further adjustments, such as customising the cluster or upgrading to vSphere/VxRail 8 for example. This tool unpacks so-called minions during execution, which are running on each ESXi in the cluster. […]

Blog Dell Dell VxRail VMware vSphere
19. September 2023

Configuring LACP on Distributed Switches – VMware vSphere 8 & Dell VxRail

With Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) support on a vSphere distributed switch, you can connect ESX hosts to physical switches using dynamic link aggregation. Multiple link aggregation groups can be created on a distributed switch to aggregate bandwidth from physical NICs to ESXi hosts connected to LACP port channels. Most of you have probably created a LACP configuration on a distributed switch in various customer […]