Overview of Features

• Update BIOS/Firmware on Dell ESXi hosts from vCenter
• Checks for updates automatically and alerts you when there are updates available
• Can leverage an established Dell Repository to avoid data duplication--if you are a heavy Dell shop you should know what this is
• New vCenter Alarms for Dell Hardware
• These Alarms can even trigger hosts to go into maintence mode to evacuate VMs from that particular host if the hardware event is critical (in a DRS enabled cluster of course)
• Supports Dell's Proactive Systems Management
• Works without (the God-awful) SilverStreak to automatically create support cases with Dell when issues arise
• View Warranty information of your Dell hosts
• Allows you to configure a proxy, if your environment requires one
• Bare metal deployment of ESX/ESXi servers
• This leverages Dell Lifecycle Controllers and iDRACs to provision Dell servers somewhat auto-magically.
• First you create a Hardware Profile from a Reference Server--(configures boot order, BIOS settings, iDRAC settings, RAID config)
• Then you create a Hypervisor profile--You point at an ISO, and configure the vCenter, destination container (data center or cluster), and even a host profile for you enterprise plus users.
• Note you can "white-list" service tags so only those hosts you define can be used by the plugin to deploy against.
• OSMA Launcher
• So you can launch directly to your OSMA web console to connect to an OSMA agent on an ESXi host
• Appliance Upgradable
• Does not require replacement by deploying a new OVF when a new version comes out

Appliance Install Guide

Virtual Appliance Specs:

• 2 vCPU
• 3.5Gb RAM
• CentOS 5.5 based
• ~33Gb Disk Space

Installation Steps:

1. Deploy OVF
2. Power on (wait a bit)
3. Login via the console with the username admin
4. Choose new admin password
5. You'll get a menu to configure timezone, network, etc.
1. Use the network menu to configure a static address
6. At the top you will notice a URL for the Admin Portal, Navigate their from your browser -- Note you must type the full URL including the index.html--Dell has not heard of new fangled Web Server features such as DocumentRoot
7. Login with your previously set admin password
8. Now navigate to Appliance Management
9. You'll see 2 lines near the top, Current Virtual Appliance Version and Available Virtual Appliance Version, if the Available version is higher then the current, click Update Virtual Appliance to check for updates
1. I had to do this upgrade in order to get the appliance to register with my vCenter v5

1. If you did request an update, it takes about 5-10min to complete, the virtual appliance will reboot at some point, once you get a login screen at the console it should be ready to proceed
2. Go back to the appliance URL in your web browser and login
3. From here you'll see a link to register with vCenter near the top--click that
1. Enter the IP or Hostname for your vCenter server
2. Provide User Credentials with admin access in vCenter & hit register
4. Once registration is complete you will get a message to relaunch a vSphere Client and connect  to the vCenter to access the plugin, so do that.
5. Goto the home screen in your vCenter to click the new Dell Management Center icon
6. At this point you can follow the various wizards to configure whichever features you want to take advantage of--enjoy!

Further Reading

• Dell Management Plugin for vCenter on Dell.com - Overview/Licensing/Order
• Demo Version - Upgrade to licensed version simply by uploading a license file

First you need to configure SNMP on your DRAC, this screenshot shows the steps:

Once you have SNMP configured on your DRAC you can setup the SNMP Active monitor in WhatsUp as follows:

In the system log all you see is Error: The VMware vCenter Orchestrator Server service terminated with service-specific error Incorrect function..

Poking around we come across a log file @ C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Orchestrator\app-server\bin\wrapper.log which sheds some light on the problem:

Your first thought might be disk space, did a log run away? No that isn't the case--Java Heap refers to memory, looking inside the wrapper.conf from the command above we find more information.

Java has to allocate 2Gb of RAM on startup. My VM only had 1.5Gb, that looks like the issue--this is what you get for ignoring the Minimum System Requirements (assuming your running Orchestrator on same server as your vCenter).  Increase the RAM on your VM and this error should be gone. vCenter Server should have a minimum of 3Gb of RAM.

vCenter Navigation Shortcuts

These shortcuts are for when you are in the a VM's Console

VM Console Shortcuts

These shortcuts are for when you are in the a VM's Console

New Item Shortcuts

Use these shortcuts to create new things in vCenter

VM Shortcuts

These shortcuts are for when you select a VM or are in the a VM's Console

Simple little workflow, thought I'd post it up to save anyone the trouble of recreating...

• Licensed vCenter Server - This can be an evaluation license
• Service Account to perform LDAP Lookups (vco-service is used below)
• Active Directory Security Group for vCenter Orchestrator Admins (vCOAdmins is used below)
• Microsoft SQL Database (vco is used below)
• Credentials for an account with access to above Microsoft SQL Database
• Service Account that is a member of the vCenter Orchestrator Admins Group (vCOAdmins group, vco-service is used below) - yes this can be the same account as your LDAP lookup account

Installation Guide:

1. Start Service
2. Navigate to IP:8282
3. Login with user vmware password vmware
4. Select Network on the left
1. Select IP address to bind to
2. Confirm rest of settings on page (adjust ports if any conflict with other software on the orchestrator host)
3. Click Apply changes at the bottom right
4. Network should now have a green bubble next to it, proceed
5. Select LDAP on the left
1. Select Active Directory from the dropdown if it's not already selected
2. Enter your primary & secondary LDAP hosts (domain controllers) note: secondary is optional
3. Enter your LDAP root path, if your domain is requeny.lan enter: dc=requeny,dc=lan
4. For username enter user@domain ex: vco-service@requeny.lan
5. Password- this should be obvious
6. Enter your User lookup base path: (where all your users are located, ex: cn=Users,dc=requeny,dc=lan (this would point to the Users OU in active directory)
7. Enter your Group lookup base path: (where all your groups are located, ex: cn=Users,dc=requeny,dc=lan (this would point to the Users OU in active directory)
8. Enter the path to your vCO Admins Group, ex: cn=vCOAdmins,cn=Users,dc=requeny,dc=lan
9. Hit apply changes, if all your settings are correct LDAP should now have a green bubble next to it, but before continuing click the Test Login tab at the top and attempt to login with a user in the vCOAdmins group
10. If that test login worked, proceed on
6. Select Database on the left
1. Select SQLServer from the dropdown
2. Enter the username for SQL database (note, don't prefix with domain, or use use@domain format here, just the username)
3. Password - this should be obvious
4. Database host IP address or DNS name - hostname of SQL server ex: sql01
5. Port: 1433 - MSSQL default, change it if your SQL server isn't listening on the default port
6. Database name: this is the name of the database that has been created on your SQL server ex: vco
7. Instance name: whatever your instance name is, ex: sqlexpress
8. Domain: your AD domain here, use the NetBIOS name here, ex: requeny
9. Hit apply changes, if all your settings are correct you will get an error under Validation results that says: Database connection successful.  No schema found.  Please initialize database.  What this means is your connection worked, however there are no tables in the database.
10. At the top you should see a new link Install the database, click that (this should only take a couple of seconds)
11. You should now have a green bubble next to Database, proceed on
7. Select Server Certificate
1. If you don't have a certificate CA, select Create certificate database and self-signed server certificate
1. Enter what your info in the next few boxes, examples below:
2. Common name: orchestrator
3. Organization: requeny
4. Organizational Unit: basement
5. Country: US
6. Click Create at the bottom right
7. Server Certificate on the left should now have a green bubble next to it, proceed onto step 8 below
2. If you do have a certificate CA, you can follow my other post on what to do if you use Microsoft Active Directory: Certificate Services
1. Once server certificate has a green bubble next to it, proceed onto step 8 below
8. Select Licenses
1. You can either enter a vCenter Server license manually, or Orchestrator can connect to your vCenter Server and read the license on it's own.
2. To connect to a vCenter Server and read the license:
1. Check the use vCenter Server license radio button
2. Enter the hostname of your vCenter Server
3. Enter the port of your vCenter Server Web Services (443 by default)
4. Path: leave default
5. Enter username & password of an account that can read license data from vcenter
6. Click submit
7. If you receive an error about 'SSL certificate is missing for this host read my other post on fixing this SSL error
8. Licenses should now have a green bubble next to it, proceed
3. To manually enter a vCenter Server license
1. Check the Add vCenter Server license manually radio button
2. Enter your vCenter Server serial number (remember you must enter a standard edition serial, foundation doesn't include Orchestrator)
3. Enter the name of your License owner
4. Click apply changes on the bottom right
5. Licenses should now have a green bubble next to it, proceed
9. Select Plug-ins (yes we skip Startup Options for now)
1. Enter credentials for a user in the vCO Admin group
2. Username ex: vco-service
3. Password - this should be obvious
4. Click Apply changes at the bottom right
5. Plug-ins should have a green bubble next to it, as well as Startup Options at this point
6. Check the plugins you want to enable/install.  Leave the defaults and ensure vCO WebOperator & vCenter Server are checked, then hit apply changes again
7. You'll notice the status next to many of the plugins is: Will perform installation at next server startup.
10. Select Startup Options
1. Click Install vCO server as service (This will install the Windows Service for vCenter Orchestrator)
2. Now click on Start Service to startup vCenter Orchestrator (vCenter Orchestrator typically takes upwards of 30 seconds to start, you can use the refresh link to check the status)
3. If you have any problems starting the service, click on Log on the left, and set the logging drop down to All then click Apply changes on the bottom right, go back and start the service again and then check the log for any errors
11. Open the vCenter Orchestrator Client from the Start-Menu and login!
1. Don't forget to use your domain login DOMAIN\username
2. Don't forget to be a member of the VCOAdmins group so you can login.
3. If you want to install the client elsewhere use the installer in the vCenter Server ISO @ vCenter-Server\vCO\vCenterOrchestrator.exe

What vCenter Orchestrator is saying is that it doesn't have the certificate installed for that host, unlike other apps/programs, Orchestrator doesn't offer an option automatically install these certificates upon inital connection.  You have to first add the certs then connect to the host, to do this: (refer the screenshot at the bottom if your stuck)

1. Login to your vCenter Orchestrator Configuration Webpage: (http://vCenter-Orchestrator-Hostname:8282) - default user/pass is vmware/vmware
2. Select Network from the left column
3. At the top you'll see a tab for SSL Certificate, click that
4. You can either import the SSL certificate from a file, or from a URL--URL is the easiest as you just enter the hostname and Orchestrator installs the certificate
5. In the URL box, just enter your vCenter hostname, then click Import to the right of that text box
6. You'll see the certificate details displayed if everything looks alright click Import at the bottom
7. Repeat this process for each vCenter you plan to use Orchestrator with
8. Go back to whatever step you were trying to do when you got the error: SSL exception, 'SSL certificate is missing for this host' and try it again, this time it should work successfully

I've been running upwards of 7 VMs on it at once and have had no real problems.  Yes ready times can get high, but I've never had them over 30% under that kind of load.  Again this is a home lab, and somewhat high ready times don't effect anything except a couple extra seconds here or there when I am doing something intensive.

This little box rocks for a home lab, the key thing to remember is that it IS a home lab--run everything with 1vCPU and minimal amounts of ram assigned.  (I don't have a single VM over 1Gb of RAM assigned).  The biggest slow down in my experience with this system comes from swapping on local storage--not CPU contention.  (I haven't connected this to my OpenFiler box yet) 

The only con I can say about this board is that there is no setting for AC Power Resume--such as when power is loss, you can set this in the BIOS to turn the system back on, or just whenever power is supplied turn the system on (so it runs like an appliance).   it out or unplug the power cable from after the install is complete.  There are ways around this, I'll post what method is successful for this board once I give them a shot.

A couple folks have asked "why put this tiny little system in a 4U case?"  I have a bunch of these 4U rack mount cases from previous white-box builds I did throughout the years,  I had a few 1U cases but unfortunately the height of the HSF didn't allow it to fit in those cases.  I really hate my 2U cases as they are steel, not aluminum so I went to my 4Us.   I couldn't resist adding some fresh paint while they were out of the rack  The ASUS plaque on the front is from the motherboard, the board ships with that big airflow blocking thing across the top of the heatsink.  I carefully pried it off as to not deform/bend it (it's thin aluminum) and added fresh double-sided tape.

Tips for an energy efficient Home Lab

•  Also don't leave a CD drive in the system, it's only required for the install--take the drive out, or at the very least unplug the power cable once the install is complete to save a bit more power.
• Use low power CPUs like the AMD Fusion offerings--I would recommend against Intel Atom offerings due to the fact that all the current offerings that support Intel-VT are only single-core.
• Don't use any extra fans--don't plug those case fans in or use them at all.  The thermal load of this system is so low you shouldn't have to use any case fans to keep the system cool.
• Avoid local storage, use a flash drive to boot ESXi from and forgo any local harddrive.  Instead put these in another system to run as your NAS box. 

Reference System

• Motherboard: Asus M35 M1-M Pro
• NIC: Intel Pro 1000/MT
• HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB 7200 RPM Model ST31000528AS
• PSU: Generic 300W
• RAM: x2 - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB DDR3 1333 Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL

Note the use of a generic PSU--if you spent a bit of coin on a PLUS Certified PSU that is more efficient this may knock a few more watts off the various tests.  I didn't bother going that route because the cheapest PLUS Certified PSU is about 50 bucks and I figure the minimal power savings it would bring would not justify that extra cost.

Power Usage

Overview:

This "WhatsUp Enterprise New User System" aka WENUS enumerates a configured LDAP Group (and any nested groups) for user accounts--any users that do not exist in the WhatsUp are created automatically.  It also reads the user account's department attribute and creates access to the device group that has a matching device group description.  In our case we have ~200 remote sites, at each of those sites there are up to 2 techs who use WhatsUp to monitor systems at each site.  These remote sites are broken out into Device Groups, we populated all the device group description fields with the corresponding site/dept code--which is also populated in the user account's LDAP department attribute.  This script can be run nightly or weekly to ensure the proper folks get access to only their respective area.  Furthermore it outputs to the WhatsUp System Activity Log, so you can see new users being created, and any errors there.

This was written for WhatsUp Gold v15 but should work on older versions--perhaps requiring slight modifications.

WENUS Features:

• Enumerates a LDAP Group (and any nested groups) to create WhatsUp User Accounts when additions are made to the group
• Scopes WhatsUp Device Group Security based on Department LDAP attribute & Matching WhatsUp Device Group Description fields
• Outputs to the WhatsUp System Activity Log - any Creates and any Errors are logged centrally.

vCenter Server:

• Windows Server 2003 and earlier - %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs\
• Windows 2008 and later - %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs\
• Linux vCenter Server 5.0 Virtual Appliance  - /var/log/vmware/vpx

ESXi Hosts (v3.5 - v5.x):

• /var/log/messages - VMkernel - Devices, drivers, VM stuff, as well as hostd and vpx logs
• /var/log/vmware/hostd.log - Host service stuff - Host & VMs Tasks & Events, vSphere Client stuff, vCenter Agent (vpxa) and SDK stuff
• /var/log/boot-logs/sysboot.log - More VMkernel startup including modules and other boot bits
• /var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxa.log - vCenter (vpxa) agent logs & hostd logs
• /var/log/vmware/fdm/* - HA Logs - vCenter 5.0 and later
• /var/log/vmware/aam/* - HA Logs - vCenter 4.1 and older

ESX Hosts: (v3.x and v4.x):

• /var/log/messages - Service Console Kernel - Services stuff will be here
• /var/log/vmkernel - VMkernel - Devices, drivers, VM stuff
• /var/log/vmkwarning - VMkernel Warning messages -- these should also be in the vmkernel log file
• /var/log/vmksummary - Host startup/shutdown stuff, hourly log output showing uptime, # of VMs running, service console resource usage
• /var/log/vmware/hostd.log - Host service stuff - Host & VMs Tasks & Events, vSphere Client stuff, vCenter Agent (vpxa) and SDK stuff
• /var/log/boot-logs/sysboot.log - More VMkernel startup including modules and other boot bits
• /var/log/vmkiscsid.log - Logs for the Software iSCSI Client
• /var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxa.log - vCenter (vpxa) agent logs & hostd logs
• /var/log/vmware/fdm/* - HA Logs - vCenter 5.0 and later
• /var/log/vmware/aam/* - HA Logs - vCenter 4.1 and older