Working with templates in vSphere 7

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One new great feature in vSphere 7 is template versioning. You heard that maybe already somewhere, or read it on various blog posts shortly after the announcement of vSphere 7.

I recently had to restore some of my Windows templates because something went wrong. Then I said, why not try out the new template versioning? Well, it’s easier said than done. I’ve found out that working with templates in vSphere 7 isn’t much of a difference than it is in vSphere 6.x. It’s also not a big difference when working with content libraries. But there are still some differences and maybe even limitations. I’ll update this post when I find out more about this. Maybe I’m just doing it wrong, or it is a bug like the one where VMs and Templates view doesn’t show folders after two levels in vSphere client (KB 78693).

What is vSphere template versioning?

First, it’s a great feature! With vSphere 7, you can now have multiple versions of a template. For example, you create your base template, then there’s the next version when you install patches and updates, and so on. If there’s something wrong, you can revert to the previous version of your template. Also, if you’ve got a huge template chain already, you can delete the oldest versions of your template. In my humble opinion, there is some space for improvement when working with templates and versioning. But I’ll show you later what that means.

How to work with the new versioning?

As far as I have tested it, you can’t convert existing templates to a template with versioning enabled. I mean there is no button like “convert that template”. It’s a manual task. That counts for templates that are stored somewhere on a datastore connected to your ESXi host as well as for templates that are stored in the content library. But as I already mentioned, maybe I’m just doing it wrong (hopefully not). And in case this should work, I’ll find it out and update this post.

How to work with template versioning then? It’s pretty easy. You set up your virtual machine and do everything you need to prepare it as your VM template. Michael White has some great posts about creating VM templates. Let’s assume that you’ve got your VM ready for the next steps.

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Bulletproof tip on how to find the right Windows VMDK

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I did this so many times already, and I never thought that I could document it, or put it somehow into a blog post. And maybe you already know how that works, how you can find the right Windows VMDK to resize it.

It’s not that complicated if you know what to search or look for. And it’s easy as pie when the VM has only one disk, or maybe two. But imagine a SQL server, which has like eight disks or more, depending on its setup or software recommendation? Then it might get tricky to catch the right VMDK at the first shot.

But this bulletproof guide should help you out! Maybe that gets a new category, bulletproof. We’ll see. But let’s get back to the main topic here.

How do I find the right Windows VMDK?

I deliberately write Windows because I only work on Windows machines for that blog post here and not Linux VMs. It might get another blog post for that sometime in the future. But that depends on the Linux distribution or flavor because Linux is not Linux (don’t hate me please). But there are Debians, RPMs, Unixes, and so many other derivates. Not always the same tools available, not the same commands or syntax. You’ll get the point. Let’s focus on Windows VMs for now.

So, you’ve got that huge VM with several disks, and you have to resize one of them. Lucky you if it’s the C: drive because usually, that’s the first VMDK. Usually. But this guide shows you how to find the right VMDK. And always, making the disk bigger is easier than shrinking it. So it’s better to find the right candidate in the first shot, isn’t it?

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Backup and Restore vCenter Server Appliance

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Just a few weeks ago, vSphere 7 saw the light of day. And people went crazy! New ESXi servers with vSphere 7 have sprung up like mushrooms. So many people directly upgraded their homelabs, or maybe even their production systems.

This blog post, I know the last post is some time ago, will show you how you can backup your vCenter Server Appliance with their integrated backup functionality, and also how you can restore it, in case something went wrong. Except for two ways, I went through all options for backup targets and tried to find out how to configure it. So there should be at least one way how you can back up your vCenter data to a proper location in your data center.

Why is it a good idea to back up your vCenter

vCenter is your management central in terms of virtualization. You manage all your ESXi server with it, your clusters, your data center networking maybe (with NSX), you’ve got some automation running, got your host profiles, storage policies, etc. in place there. Why lose all the stuff you’ve configured over a longer period, with maybe much tinkering, try and error? Backing up vCenter is not so hard. You need a backup target, a user and a password. In vCenter 6.7 you can even schedule the backup, which makes things even easier than before, where it wasn’t possible to configure a schedule.

Supported protocols for backup

vCenter supports the following protocols for backup:

  • FTP
  • NFS
  • SMB
  • FTPS
  • SCP
  • HTTP
  • HTTPS

This guide will show you how to configure all of the above protocols, except HTTP and HTTPS. I didn’t see a sense in setting up such a configuration in my lab, because it doesn’t seem to me as such backup targets would exist in a company either. I also think that these two protocols might be the slowest, compared to all the other protocols available. In data centers, no matter if on-premises or cloud, the often-used protocols are NFS and SMB. So chances are high that there might be already a suitable backup target for vCenter. Or it can be easily created. Also, FTP is still commonly used, and we’ve got also secure options with FTPS and SCP.

Backup performance

To be honest, the backup performance was not my top priority. I wanted to configure and test all supported protocols except HTTP and HTTPS. It’s clear that performance matters, at least to a certain degree. Backup windows might be small, or systems should not be impacted with a heavy load. Before we move on, I’d like to show you how the performance was during my tests.

I’ve set up a new vCenter server appliance for this backup and restore test. It is a tiny deployment with 2 CPU, 10GB memory and default disk size (thin). There is nothing configured within vCenter, no hosts, no clusters, nothing except backup. You can see that the amount of data transferred is the same in all tests. In regards to the duration, we’ve got the SMB protocol on the first place, followed by FTPS on the second, and NFS on the third place. Yes, I’m aware of “but there’s ftp:// and not ftps://”. I’ve configured FTPS as you can see later on the screenshots, but when I executed the backup job, it was logged as “ftp”. You can spot the difference at the port used for FTPS.

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My Top 10 Posts in 2019

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Another year is over, it’s 2020 and the beginning of a new decade. With this blog article, I’d like to present to you my Top 10 posts of 2019. Surprisingly, the Top 10 blog posts are not all from 2019. Obviously, people are still searching for solutions for problems they have with some “old” stuff like Windows Server 2012 R2, or they are looking for solutions to problems they have in their current infrastructure. I hope that my blog posts will help the people out there in the tech community solving their problems. I’ll do my best to keep on doing my work and sharing my knowledge.

10. VMware Workstation – Unable to connect to the MKS: Login incorrect

I was trying to connect to my vCenter with VMware Workstation and had some issues. This post shows how I’ve been able to solve it.

https://dj4jukvtzhzcu.cloudfront.net/index.php/2017/03/20/vmware-workstation-unable-to-connect-to-the-mks-login-incorrect/

9. Upgrade VCSA through CLI Installer

At my employer, I had the task to upgrade our vCenter to the most recent version. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. The vCenter was running on a IaaS solution and with no root or administrative access, you can’t just upgrade. This blog post shows how it was done.

https://dj4jukvtzhzcu.cloudfront.net/index.php/2019/08/02/upgrade-vcsa-through-cli-installer/

8. Veeam – Backup Copy “Block is not initialized. Failed to download disk.”

When I was working at a Veeam Platinum Partner in Switzerland, I had many customers running Veeam Backup & Replication. This is another troubleshooting blog post. I had to use some tools the first time and I was able to fix some backup copy issues.

https://dj4jukvtzhzcu.cloudfront.net/index.php/2017/06/05/veeam-backup-copy-block-not-initialized-failed-download-disk/

7. Active Directory – Replication issues after promoting new 2012 R2 DC

Back in the days when I was working at a solution provider, I was tasked to set up a Windows Server 2012 R2 domain controller. After setting up the DC, I had to solve some replication issues.

https://dj4jukvtzhzcu.cloudfront.net/index.php/2017/02/04/active-directory-replication-issues-after-promoting-new-2012-r2-dc/

6. VMware vSAN cache disk failed and how to recover from it

There was a time when I had three DELL PowerEdge servers in use for one of my first homelab versions. I had an issue with the capacity disks and thankfully, I was able to recover from it.

https://dj4jukvtzhzcu.cloudfront.net/index.php/2018/08/18/vmware-vsan-cache-disk-failed-and-how-to-recover-from-it/

5. Synology now with backup for Office 365

Synology got a huge portfolio with NAS systems for all kinds of scenarios. Small home devices or big and high-performance NAS systems for enterprise with SSDs. But all NAS devices have one thing in common. Synology Diskstation Manager (DSM), which is their operating system and management tool. With the more recent DSM versions, you can now add your Office 365 accounts to it for backing it up.

https://dj4jukvtzhzcu.cloudfront.net/index.php/2018/06/24/synology-now-with-backup-for-office-365/

4. “Starting drivers, please wait” – An HPE adventure story

This was one strange issue! Back in the day when I was working at a solution provider, a customer reported an issue. His ESXi hosts have lost connectivity to a storage system. It took some time to solve, and it was a good experience.

https://dj4jukvtzhzcu.cloudfront.net/index.php/2017/07/18/starting-drivers-please-wait-an-hpe-adventure-story/

3. VMware – Clone a VM with snapshots (and consolidate it)

On the third place of 2019, there’s a post about VM snapshots. Most of the time, a VM snapshot is very useful. If it’s to see if the software update is working, or if it is used by your backup solution. But sometimes, snapshots can be a real nightmare.

https://dj4jukvtzhzcu.cloudfront.net/index.php/2018/09/03/vmware-clone-a-vm-with-snapshots-and-consolidate-it/

2. New homelab hardware arrived!

On the second place of 2019, there’s a post about my new homelab hardware. I recently announced that I’ve got new homelab hardware. That’s the first post out of a small blog series. Enjoy!

https://dj4jukvtzhzcu.cloudfront.net/index.php/2019/12/21/new-homelab-hardware-arrived/

1. Microsoft Active Directory – Desktop Shortcuts with Group Policy

And the winner on the first place for my Top 10 blog posts in 2019 is an old one back from 2016. But obviously, people still search for solutions like this. With Active Directory Group Policies you can do so many things. One of them is also creating desktop shortcuts.

https://dj4jukvtzhzcu.cloudfront.net/index.php/2016/11/12/microsoft-active-directory-desktop-shortcuts-with-group-policy/

New homelab hardware arrived!

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Some weeks and months ago the gathering started. I did some long research, read blog posts and found very much helpful stuff. As you can read on my homelab page here, my lab evolved. It all started with VMware Workstation, then I recycled my old gaming rig, I’ve added some real servers and storage, and now, today, I’m announcing the arrival of totally brand-new and shiny homelab hardware!

With this blog post, I’m starting a small series featuring my new homelab. In this very first post, you’ll get the BOM (Bill of Material), so you know exactly what happened. In the next posts, I’ll show you how I’ve set it all up and for what I’m using it.

Basic idea

Instead of having huge servers to heat the basement, I’ve planned to reduce my own data center footprint as much as possible. Ideally, everything related to my homelab should fit into a small 19-inch rack. A really small rack. This rack will be placed in my home office. Also, I want to run an all-flash VMware vSAN cluster with three nodes. I don’t want only two hosts and a witness appliance, even if it works and it is a fully supported concept for small- or branch offices. I want real beef. Each server should have one cache device and at least one SSD for the capacity tier. I went all-in and decided to go with two SSDs for capacity. All servers have to be connected with 10Gig SFP+ for vSAN and vMotion because I already own a 10Gig SFP+ switch (which wasn’t much used until yet). And all three servers should run as silent as possible. Sure, I’ve got headphones for gaming. But when the fans are constantly buzzing around and making noise, it’s not nice. And I’m

To conclude this:

  • Small data center footprint
  • Three node all-flash vSAN cluster
  • 10Gig SFP+ connectivity
  • Small form factor 19-inch rack
  • Silent operations because of home office placement

That’s pretty much it.

For what I’m going to use it?

First, I love hardware! But I’m not buying hardware just for the sake of buying it. I learn new stuff because I didn’t have much to do with Supermicro except reading about it. I’ll install all the vSphere stuff I currently have running, and maybe something more. All that for learning how things work and for my exam preparations. Yes, I don’t have a VCP yet. I tried it several times but failed miserably. But not the next time, for sure! Maybe I’m gonna put also some “production” stuff onto it, like my Pi-Hole (reverse DNS add filter) or my Ubiquiti controller. We will see.

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