Provisioning databases with Aria Automation, Cloud Consumption Interface and Data Services Manager – Part 3: CCI Config

In this series of posts, we saw in part 1 how to setup Aria Automation version 8.17. This is required for Cloud Consumption Interface support. In part 2, we saw how to enable the Cloud Consumption interface (CCI) in the Supervisor of vSphere with Tanzu. However, even though CCI is now deployed as a Supervisor Service, it is not yet completely configured to work with Aria Automation. Thus, it is still not yet possible for an Aria Automation user to interact with the Supervisor in vSphere with Tanzu to create TKG clusters or VMs using the VM Service. This is…

Creating a “least privileged” service account for Data Services Manager 2.0.x

Earlier this week, a customer reached out about the installation requirements for Data Services Manager 2.0.x. One of the steps in the installation documentation states the requirement for a vCenter SSO Username. The doc added that this has to be the vCenter server administrator’s SSO username. And even though these SSO admin credentials are not stored, and are in fact discarded after creating a dedicated vCenter service account for VMware Data Services Manager, the customer asked if there was a way to create a “least privileged” user for creating a DSM service account. The answer is yes. This post will…

Distributed Switch to Standard Switch Migrations

I was looking for a way to migrate VMkernel adapters back from a VDS to a VSS. This was because I am testing various upcoming releases of vCenter Server 8.0 and vSphere with Tanzu. vSphere with Tanzu, if you do not use NSX-T, requires a distributed switch and distributed portgroups. After building out some test environments, I wanted to roll back a distributed switch (VDS) configuration to a standard vSwitch (VSS) configuration. The process seems to have changed a few times in the past, and I could not find anything that demonstrated how to do task on vSphere 7.0. Thus…

A closer look at vSphere+ and vSAN+

At this stage, I guess that most readers will already be aware of the recent announcement around vSphere+ and vSAN+. I’m sure many readers are also aware that VMware is on a multi-cloud journey, with a goal of offering the benefits of cloud to on-premises vSphere deployments. vSphere+ and vSAN+ are some of the first steps we are taking at VMware to make this goal a reality. So what advantages does vSphere+ and vSAN+ give to customers? In this post, I will attempt to highlight some of those benefits. Centralized Management First and foremost, vSphere+ offers a new mechanism for…

VASA – Error while removing an entry for the provider in the providerCache

Some time ago, I hooked our Virtual Volume (VVol) capable storage array up to a vSphere 6.5 cluster. I did a few preliminary tests, such as adding the VASA (vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness) Provider, creating the VVol datastore, observing the creation of the Protocol Endpoints (PEs), and of course creating some virtual machines as a set of VVols. All went flawlessly. Then, like many other lab tests, I got distracted by a number of other things. In the meantime, the storage array vendor announced support for an updated VASA version, and we had the storage array updated to accommodate…

VMworld 2017 Session on vSphere 6.5 Core Storage now on YouTube

A quick note to let you know that the session that I delivered on day 1 of VMworld 2017 is now available on YouTube. The session is entitled “A Deep Dive into vSphere 6.5 Core Storage Features and Functionality” and I delivered this with Cody Hosterman of Pure Storage. Judging by the feedback, and the number of passing comments I received in the hallways at VMworld over the past 2 days, it seems that this session was very well received indeed. Hope you like it.

What’s new in vSphere 6.5 Core Storage

Hello from VMworld EMEA in Barcelona. Well, we can finally talk about vSphere 6.5 today. In this post, I want to highlight a number of new and enhanced features that you will find in vSphere 6.5 related to core storage. I am not going to discuss Virtual SAN (VSAN), Virtual Volumes (VVols) or I/O Filter enhancements (VAIO) specifically in this post, although you will no doubt see some new features tie directly into the latter. Instead, I want to talk about those features that are specific to core storage.