VMware Archives - Page 2 of 6

VMware Horizon View 7: Deployment and Installation [Part 1]

April 21, 2026April 22, 2016 by Daniel Boring

VMware Horizon View enables users to access virtual desktops and applications through a single pane of glass. There have been many improvements added to the release of Horizon View 7 such as Blast Extreme protocol, Instant Clone, enhanced security and policy management. VMware Horizon 7 What’s New. In this blog series I will be going through installation and configuration of Horizon View 7 in my lab environment.

vBoring Blog Series:

Operation Jumbo Frames – MTU 9000 for VMware Networking

April 21, 2026April 15, 2016 by Daniel Boring

Wanted to make a quick post about enabling Jumbo Frames in my VMware environment! My switches (Cisco SG-200 & SG-500) support Jumbo Frames so I thought why not? It would surely help push more data through the network for faster for VSAN and vMotions. I’ll do some speed tests later to compare!

Hardware Requirements:

Before you start out on this quest ensure your physical switch support jumbo frames. When enabling it on my Cisco switches a switch reboot was required:

The next step is to ensure the NICs in your servers support jumbo frames. If they are server NICs then they should. My Dell T620/R520 both have Broadcom NetXtreme 5709 which in fact support Jumbo Frames.

Deploying VMware vRealize Log Insight

April 21, 2026April 14, 2016 by Daniel Boring

In this post I will be deploying VMware vRealize Log Insight version 3.3 appliance in my home lab. Log Insight is part of the vRealize suite of VMware management products. It provides real time log monitoring of your vSphere environment and can even integrate with vRealize Operations Manager. Normally your vCenter/host logs are collected but you never get use out of them, now with Log Insight it gives you a visual way to see any issues that could be happening behind the scenes. Basically vRealize Log Insight gives you structure for your unstructured logs!

An important announcement with 3.3 release is all users with a supported vCenter Server 6.0 license are entitled to a 25-OSI pack of Log Insight! Log Insight will accept the license key of vCenter 6.0 Standard, Enterprise or Enterprise Plus. If you have vCenter Server 5.x a license key can be obtained from the Log Insight download page then select Read More. Check out VMware Blog – Log Insight for vCenter FAQ for additional information about this release.

Deploying VMware Update Manager 6.0 Update 2

April 21, 2026March 23, 2016 by Daniel Boring

With the release of vSphere 6.0 Update 2 I needed to update my hosts! VMware Update Manager [VUM] makes updating and patching your environment very easy. It can also be used to upgrade VMTools and VMHardware versions on your virtual machines. In this post I will be installing VUM on Windows Server 2012 R2 VM using the SQL Express database and attaching it to my VCSA 6.0 U2 appliance. Once installed then I will use VUM to update my environment!

Requirements:

Must have a vCenter.
Software: .NET Framework 3.5 needs to be installed on the VUM server. For two install methods click here and here.
Hardware: 2 GB of RAM if separated from vCenter. 8 GB of RAM if installed on a Windows vCenter.
Storage: VMware recommends at least 120 GB of free space for the patching repository. Sizing Estimator for vSphere Update Manager 6.0.
Database:
- SQL Express: If you have a small environment (VMware says 5 hosts and 50 virtual machines or less) then the embedded SQL Express database is just fine.
- External: If you have a larger environment then you will want to use a external database. Click here and here to read more about having a external database.
For a full of requirements check out the VMware Update Manager 6.0 Update 2 Release Notes.
Click here for all VMware Update Manager documentation.

Updating vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 to Update 2

April 21, 2026March 22, 2016 by Daniel Boring

In this post i’ll go through how to upgrade the vCenter Server Appliance [VCSA] 6 to Update 2. To read about all the new features Update 2 adds check out my post VMware vSphere 6.0 Update 2 is available!

There are two sets of instructions, one if you already upgraded your VCSA to Update 1 and the other is if you are still running the initial 6.0.0 release. When scrolling down I made each upgrade type a super large header so you shouldn’t miss it!

In my environment I have the Platform Services Controller [PSC] embedded with the VCSA. If you deployed an external PSC separately from vCenter then this post will still work for you! The upgrade procedure is the exact same on both the vCenter and PSC just upgrade the PSC first before vCenter. To upgrade the PSC scroll down and use the second update method.

How to Upgrade if you are on VCSA 6 Update 1 or 1b:

If you already have your VCSA updated to 6.0 Update 1 then the upgrade is super simple! Log into the appliance Management User Interface [MUI] by opening a web browser and entering the following:

HTTPS://<fqdn or ip>:5480

VMware vSphere 6.0 Update 2 is available!

April 21, 2026March 21, 2016 by Daniel Boring

It’s finally here! VMware vSphere Update 2 released on March 16th, 2016 and is available for download. With it comes many new features and of course bug fixes.

What’s New with vCenter 6.0 U2:

Download VMware vCenter Server 6.0 U2

Two-factor authentication for vSphere Web Client: Protect the vSphere Web Client using the following form of authentication:
- RSA SecurID
- Smart card (That is the UPN based Common Access Card)
Support to change vSphere ESX Agent Manager logging level: This release supports dynamic increase or decrease of vSphere ESX Agent Manager (EAM) logging levels without restarting EAM.
vSphere Web Client support: vSphere Web Client now supports Microsoft Windows 10 OS.
vCenter Server database support: vCenter Server now supports the following external databases:
- Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 3
- Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1
Resolved Issues: This release of vCenter Server 6.0 Update 2 addresses issues that have been documented in the Resolved Issues section.
Read the full release notes here.

VMware VCSA 6: FSCK Failed on Boot

April 21, 2026February 22, 2016 by Daniel Boring

This past weekend I decided to do some rewiring of my home lab and accidentally pulled the power to the host that my VCSA was running on. While booting my VCSA 6 was booting back up I received the following error:

fsck failed. Please repair manually and reboot. The root file system is currently mounted ready-only. To remount it read-write do:
bash# mount -n -o remount,rw

VMware Guest Customization – Could not parse or process the unattend answer file

April 21, 2026February 16, 2016 by Daniel Boring

While deploying a virtual machine from template I received an error when guest customization was running: Windows could not parse or process the unattend answer file for pass [specialize]. The settings specified in the answer file cannot be applied. The error was detected while processing settings for components [Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup]. Per VMware KB 2008221 a ‘wrong product key‘ could cause this. Coincidentally I created and used a brand new Guest Customization for this deployment. Turned out I used a Server 2012 Datacenter KMS key instead of the Server 2012 R2 Datacenter KMS key (Microsoft KMS Keys). I deleted the VM and redeployed after correcting the Guest Customization thus solving the problem!

Updating vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 to Update 1 & 1b

April 21, 2026November 30, 2015 by Daniel Boring

VMware released vSphere 6.0 Update 1 on September 10th, 2015 and Update 1b on January 7th, 2016. In this post i’ll go through how to upgrade VCSA 6.0 to Update 1 & 1b.

vCenter Server Appliance 6.o Update 1 Release Notes:

Customer Experience Improvement Program: The Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) provides VMware with information that enables VMware to improve the VMware products and services and to fix problems. When you choose to participate in CEIP, VMware will collect technical information listed below about your use of the VMware products and services in CEIP reports on a regular basis. This information does not personally identify you. For more details, see the vSphere Documentation Center.
Feature Enhancement: Suite UI is now enabled by default for the vSphere Web Client.
Support for SSLv3: Support for SSLv3 has been disabled by default.
vCSA Authentication for Active Directory: VMware vCenter Server Virtual Appliance (vCSA) has been modified to only support AES256-CTS/AES128-CTS/RC4-HMAC encryption for Kerberos authentication between vCSA and Active Directory.
Hybrid Cloud Manager: Hybrid Cloud Manager has been updated for vSphere, and can be accessed directly from the home page of vSphere Web Client.
FT-vSAN Interoperability: vSAN and FT work together.
Appliance Management user interface: Appliance Management has a new user interface, written in HTML5.
Backup and Restore with external PSC: vCenter Server deployments with external PSC, also called MxN have support for backup and restore.
Platform Services Controller UI: The Platform Services Controller now provides UI option to view, renew and replace certificates. For more details see Explore Certificate Stores from the Platform Services Controller Web Interface
Installation and Upgrade using HTML 5 installer: The following installation and upgrade scenarios are supported for vCenter Server using HTML 5 installer:
- Installation using HTML 5 installer and target as vCenter Server is supported
- Upgrade using HTML 5 installer and target as vCenter Server is not supported
- Upgrade using command line and target as vCenter Server is supported
Resolved Issues: This release of vCenter Server 6.0 Update 1 addresses issues that have been documented in the Resolved Issues section.
Full release notes can be found here

vCenter Server Appliance 6.o Update 1b Release Notes:

ESXi 6.0 Update 1b enables support for TLS versions 1.1 and 1.2 for most of the vSphere components without breaking the previously supported compatibility/interoperability. Some of the vSphere components that still support only TLS version 1.0 are listed here:
- vSphere Client
- Virtual SAN Observer on vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA)
- Syslog on vCSA
- Auto Deploy on vCSA
- Auto Deploy/iPXE
The ESXi 6.0 Update 1b now supports all TLS versions 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2 with the exceptions listed above. See Knowledge base article 2136185 for the list of supported TLS protocols.
Support for the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with 128/256-bit key length is added for RPC header authentication in the NFS 4.1 Client.
Note: See resolved Security Issues section for more information.
This release of ESXi 6.0 Update 1b addresses issues that have been documented in the Resolved Issues section.
Full release notes can be found here

A General System Error Occurred: Cannot get user info

April 21, 2026October 26, 2015 by Daniel Boring

After a fresh deployment of the vCenter Server Appliance 6 (VCSA) I got the error below when using “Use Windows session credentials” check box on the thick and web client. After some searching I found VMware KB 2050701 which states this is a known issue affecting vCenter Server Appliance 5.1, 5.5, and 6.0.