March 2022 - Certified AWS Solutions Architect Associate

 

Resources for the prep:

Digital Cloud Training
Whizlabs
AWS Free Tier Account
YouTube AWS Training Content (Multiple Channels)
AWS Documentation

VMWare vSphere VCSA/PSC Appliances 6.0 - 'Appliance Shell' Tips

You can switch to Appliance Shell from Bash Shell using below command:
     Permanent Switch to Appliance Shell: chsh -s /bin/appliancesh root
     Temporary Switch to Appliance Shell: appliancesh

Example usage of Appliance Shell: Check/Configure NTP Settings

While in Appliance Shell mode:

Command > ntp.get
Output: Shows the current NTP service status

Command > ntp.server.set --servers timeserver1,timeserver2

Start the NTP service:

Command > timesync.set --mode NTP  (This starts the NTP service with new settings)

Check the status now:

Command> ntp.get

Command to Retrieve Physical Switch Name and Port Numbers to which a particular ESXi host vmnics are connected

vim-cmd hostsvc/net/query_networkhint  | grep -i [Dp][eo][vr][It] |grep -v Capa | grep -v connected

Output format would be:

device = "vmnicX",
         devId = "SwitchName",
         portId = "GigabitEthernetX/Y"

Utility to export ESXi support bundle using web browser

New feature in ESXi5, you can invoke the export log utility via http:

From a web browser browse to https://username:password@ESXHostnameOrIPAddress/cgi-bin/vmsupport.cgi

This will automatically start downloading the support bundle named vm-support.tgz

VMware VirtualCenter Operational Dashboard to view vpxd profiler metrics

We can use VirtualCenter Operational Dashboard to view the metrics data (stored vpxd-profiler-#### file). The dashboard can be accessed by typing the URL https://((hostip or name) or (vcenterip or name)/vod/index.html It will prompt for the credentials provide the details as applicable.

VMware vMotion issue - the virtual machine requires hardware features that are not supported or disbaled on the target host

I recently faced the below issue when trying to migrate a powered on VM (with Hardware Version as 8) from Cisco M3 Blade (Esxi 5.5) to M2 Blade (Esxi 5.5). Whereas when tried to migrate VM (Hardware version 7) between the same set of hosts, it'sworking fine.
The virtual machine requires hardware features that are not supported or disbaled on the target host: General Incompatibilities.

Kill Stuck VM tools installation task in ESXi

While installing VM tools, on one of the virtual machines tools installation task was getting hung. 

Was not able to cancel the task using vCenter or directly connecting to the host. Due to this all the features like Snapshot, Migrate were disabled on the VM.

To kill the VM tools installation task through command line, we need to identify VMID and kill the vm tools insall for the corresponding VM. 

Please follow the below steps. (applicable to ESXi).

1. Enable ssh on the host holding the VM.

2. Login to the host using SSH client. eg., Putty

3. Run the command line /usr/bin/vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms

This will return list of the VMs with VM ID. Then run the below command to kill the VM tools install process for the VM facing issue.

4. /usr/bin/vim-cmd vmsvc/tools.cancelinstall VMID

Hope this quickly helps in getting the VM back to normal.

--Alternate way of achieving the same using PowerCLI would be:
get-vm "VMname" | Dismount-Tools

Thanks!