Friday, October 26, 2012

Upgrading vSphere 5.1.0 to 5.1.0a

VMware released the 'a' update to their vSphere 5.1 binaries (both vCenter & Hypervisor) on 25-Oct-2012. I downloaded the ISOs for both ESXi (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-201210001-838463.x86_64.iso), vCenter (VMware-VIMSetup-all-5.1.0-880471.iso)  as well as the offline update (ESXi510-201210001.zip) because VMware vSphere Update Manager (VUM) doesn't perceive these as patches.

Update: Since first posting this, I've been informed that VUM is able to patch the ESXi hosts, whether you're running 5.1.0 or 5.1.0a versions of vCenter. I infer one of two things from this: I went after the updates too soon (before VMware had published the update for VUM to use), or my VUM install isn't getting the update info correctly. This change only affects the way you (can) go about updating the host; the vCenter server upgrade doesn't change.

Note: The offline update package for 5.1.0a is not for use with VUM; you'll have to either install from the ISO or use command-line methods to perform an upgrade of ESXi. The latter will be covered in this post.

Reminder: If you run vCenter in a VM, not on a physical host, use out-of-band console access that bypasses the vCenter Server! As soon as that vCenter service stops—which it must—your connectivity to the VM goes away. You can use the VIC if you connect directly to the ESXi host that's running the vCenter VM; that's the way I do mine. Windows Remote Console should only be used with the "/admin" switch, and even then, your mileage may vary. Any other remote access technique that mimics the physical console access is fine. Just don't use the VIC or Web Client remote access via the vCenter services that you're trying to upgrade. "Duh" might be your first response to this, but the first time you forget and connect out of habit, you'll hopefully remember this post and smile.

As with all upgrades, vCenter is first on the list, and in the new model introduced with 5.1, that starts with the SSO Service. That was recognized as an upgrade, and proceeded and succeeded without any additional user entry beyond the obligatory EULA acceptance.

Just to be sure, after SSO finished updating, I tried logging in using the "old style" client (VIC) from the shortcut on the vCenter desktop: no problem. Then I tried it with the Web Client: failure. On a hunch, I restarted the Web Client Service, but with no luck: "Provided credentials are not valid."

Oopsie.

One more test: I'd used the "Use Windows session authentication" option in the Web Client. This time, I tried using the same domain credentials, but manually enter them instead of using pass-through: Pass.

That may be a bug; it may be a problem with unmatched versions of SSO and Web Client. Moving on with the rest of the upgrade...

The next step is to upgrade the Inventory Service service; like SSO, it can upgrade without specific user input. However, when the service is replaced with the newer version, vCenter Server (and other services dependent on vCenter Service) is stopped and not restarted. Manually restarting the services will allow you back at your system again, just in case you get interrupted while working and need to get back on before updating the vCenter Server service to the new version...

Like the previous services, vCenter Server recognizes that it's an upgrade and click, click, click to complete. Naturally, the services are stopped in order to replace them, but the installer does restart them when it's done. Upgrading the VIC is another click,click,click operation, as is the Web Client.

It did not, however, fix the pass-through authentication issue in the Web Client.
I spent a while in conversation with Chris Wahl and Doug Baer on Twitter, trying to get it straightened out. Both are VCDX and super sharp, and they gave me lots of solid advice for improving bits of my vCenter setup, but this one wasn't budging. At this point, I've given up on it: there's a solid workaround, so it's not a dealbreaker. Watch this space, however: if/when I figure it out, I'll pass along my findings.
VUM isn't updated in this release, so that bit doesn't need to be upgraded or reinstalled. However, the offline package isn't going to work with it (as mentioned above), so the upgrade is done using one of the alternate methods. My preferred choice is to use the busybox shell via SSH.

To use this method, I first used the VIC to upload the offline update to a datastore visible to all my hosts. Next, I put the first host into Maintenance Mode. Because I took advantage of the sweet "ssh AutoConnect" plugin, the console of the host is a right-click away. Once at the console, the following command is executed:

esxcli software vib update -d /vmfs/volumes/[DATASTORE]/[PATCH_FILE].zip

After a short wait, the prompt was back informing me that the update was complete, and a reboot was required to implement. You can use your favorite method of restarting the host, and once it returns to connectivity with vCenter, you have to manually exit Maintenance Mode. Repeat on each host until you're fully updated.

This update didn't replace Tools with a new version; the tools installed as part of the GA version are recognized as current, so I didn't get to see if the promise of no-reboot Tools updates would come to fruition.

Monday, October 22, 2012

vCenter 5.1 Install Notes

This post is a "live document" covering any "gotchas" that I discover as I install vCenter Server for vSphere 5.1 in various environments.

Install Defaults

SSO HTTPS Port: 7444
SSO Lookup Service URL: https://:/lookupservice/sdk
IS HTTPS Port: 10443
IS service mgmt port: 10109
IS linked mode comm port: 10111
IS Memory (small): 3072MB
IS Memory (med): 6144MB
IS Memory (large): 12288MB
VC HTTPS Port: 443
VC HTTP Port: 80
VC Heartbeat: 902
WebSvc HTTP Port: 8080
WebSvc HTTPS Port: 8443
WebSvc ChangeSvc Notification: 60099
LDAP Port: 389
SSL Port: 636
VC Memory (small): 1024MB
VC Memory (med): 2048MB
VC Memory (large): 3072MB
WebClient HTTP Port: 9090
WebClient HTTPS Port: 9443

Process Flow


Service Ports

Chances are very good that you'll be challenged by the Windows Firewall. Make sure that it's either disabled, or the appropriate ports are opened.

SSO Administrator Credentials

The default user (admin@System-Domain) is not changeable at installation, and you'd better keep the password you set well-documented. This is required when installing other dependent services.

JDBC requires fixed ports

The SSO service uses the JDBC library for connectivity to Microsoft SQL. JDBC is ignorant of named instances, dynamic ports and the use of the SQL Browser or SSRP. Before trying to install SSO, you must go into the SQL Server Configuration Manager and configure a static port. If there's only one SQL instance on the host, you can use the default (1433), otherwise, pick something out of the air.
"Dynamic Ports" is blank; "TCP Port" is set to the static port you desire.
If you want to avoid restarting the instance that's already running, you can set the currently-used port as the static port. The server will go on using that port (which it chose dynamically) until it restarts; after that, it'll use the same port as a static port.

SSO requires SQL Authentication

A good sign that SQL Auth is not enabled for the server.
Although the installer makes it look like you can install the services and use Windows Authentication, the service actually uses SQL Auth. This is also a side-effect of using JDBC libraries instead of native Windows ODBC or ADO libraries.
You can install with Windows Auth, but the service can't use it for DB logon.
If your database engine is not configured for SQL Auth, you'll need to talk to your DBAs—and possibly, your security officer(s)—to make it available. Changing the authentication from Windows to "Windows & SQL" may require restarting the instance; your DBAs will let you know when the job is completed.

Changes in 5.1.0a
Looks like VMware took some information to heart on broken installs and modified the SSO install dialog for database connectivity:
JDBC Connection for 5.1.0a SSO Installation
It is no longer possible to install using Windows Authentication. You will need to have created the user & DBA accounts as SQL Auth; the quick/easy way to get it right is to use the CreateUser script in the same folder as the CreateTablespace script.

SSO Service is Java

Like other services in the vCenter suite, SSO is a Java executable. You will want to review the heap size settings to be sure that it's reserving enough space to be useful, but not so much that it's wasteful. The default is 1024MB and can be adjusted by editing the "wrapper.java.additional.9" value in SSOServer\conf\wrapper.conf
Original memory: 1024MB; Running memory: 384MB

Inventory Service Service is Java

Like other services in the vCenter suite, Inventory Service (IS) is a Java executable. Although the installer gives you three choices for the heap size settings, you might want to tweak that value a little to be sure that it's reserving enough space to be useful, but not so much that it's wasteful. The value can be adjusted by editing the "wrapper.java.maxmemory" value in Inventory Service\conf\wrapper.conf
Small memory model: 3072MB; Running memory: 384MB

vCenter Database

Create the 64-bit Server DSN for the vCenter Server database connection before you start the installation. In order to do that, you'll have to create a blank database, too, or you can't set the DSN to connect to the right database by default.

Another gotcha: Using the built-in DOMAIN\Administrator account could backfire on you. Recommended practice, naturally, is to use a service account; however, you've got to run the installer from the account you want for the services to run under if you also want to use Windows Auth. That requires either logging in as that user, or running the installer with the "runas" utility.

vCenter Server Service is Java

Like other services in the vCenter suite, vCenter Server is a Java executable. Although the installer gives you three choices for the heap size settings, you might want to tweak that value a little to be sure that it's reserving enough space to be useful, but not so much that it's wasteful. The value can be adjusted by editing the "wrapper.java.maxmemory" value in tomcat\conf\wrapper.conf
Small memory model: 1024MB; Running memory: 384MB

Friday, October 19, 2012

vSphere Data Protection is still too immature


With the release of vSphere 5.1, I was excited to migrate from the sometimes-flaky "VMware Data Recovery" (VDR) product over to the Avamar-based "vSphere Data Protection" (VDP) appliance.

Unfortunately I found the product to be limited and hard to work with, even when compared to VDR.

While VDP replaces VDR in the vSphere lineup, it's no upgrade: VDR is not supported for v5.1 (but will work in many circumstances) and will not be supported for that environment; VDP will not be back-rev'd to older versions of vSphere. However, there is currently no way to "upgrade" or migrate from VDR to VDP; when you migrate to v5.1, you have to essentially "start fresh" with VDP if you desire to use the supported VMware solution. Any organization with backup retention requirements may find this a trouble spot—but then, you should probably be looking at a purpose-built product, anyway.

Installing VDP is both easy and difficult, and is performed in two stages. In the first stage—which is very easy—VDP is installed as an appliance from an OVF. The main decision you must make comes in the form of selecting the appropriate size of appliance to install: 512GB, 1TB or 2TB. This is where reading the manual comes in handy: you'd better pick the correct size, because you can neither expand the repository on an existing appliance, nor can you migrate the data from one appliance to another. This is one place where VDR had better capability: expanding a repository was pretty easy, and you could migrate a repository from one appliance to another. Additionally, the size is representative of the repository for the backups, not the space that is actually consumed by the entire appliance: the manual indicates that the actual space consumed by the appliance will be ~1.5x the stated size of the repository.

Why not just pick the biggest, you ask? Because the appliance will consume all that space, even if you install it on NFS or select thin disks for block storage. It'll start small, but the initialization process for the appliance (which happens as part of the second stage of the installation) will result in every block being touched and the disk being de-thinned. Worse, if you select "eager-zeroed thick" for the disk, the initialization will STILL go through and touch all blocks/clusters, so don't waste your time with it.

After the appliance is loaded and powered-on, you figure out where the admin portal is published, which is then opened in a web browser. The security-minded will cringe at the requirements for the appliance password (set during the second install phase):

  • Exactly 9 characters (no more, no less)
  • At least one uppercase letter
  • At least one lowercase letter
  • At least one number
  • No special characters
Personally, I have no problem with a minimum of 9 characters, but requiring exactly 9 chars, and not permitting "special characters" really makes me wonder what they're doing.

Other settings are configured (see Duncan Epping's "Back to Basics for VDP" for more details) and depending on your storage performance, it may be an either long or short wait while the system finalizes things and you're able to back up VMs. In my case, I had to redo the install a couple of times, with no rhyme or reason why the install mode wouldn't take the settings the first time.

Once the user interface is available in the Web Client, it's fairly straightforward for a previous VDR user to create VDP jobs that mirror the old system. VDR, however, had far more information about the "goings on" as it interacted with your vSphere environment; you could quickly see which VMs were being backed up at a given time (if at all), and if you had a failure for any reason, one could fairly quickly diagnose the reason for the failure (commonly a snapshot issue) and address the problem.

VDP, on the other hand, gives essentially zero information about machines being protected. Worse, the daily report that VDP can issue will also include information about machines that are not being protected, and there's no way to suppress the information. In my lab, I had 13 VMs to protect, and each day I learned that 2 of them would fail. I struggled to figure out how to determine the VMs with issues, and once I did that, it was nearly impossible to determine what caused the backup to fail. With some patience and Knowledge Base searches, I was able to get an idea of where logfiles might exist, but even once I found them, isolating the logs for the particular VMs of interest was difficult. Of the two failing VMs, one was the vCenter host, which frequently failed to backup in any environment when in-guest VSS snapshots were selected; I never solved that problem because I could never find a cause for the other VM (an Windows SSH host) failed as long as the system was powered on.

Ultimately, I gave up on it, and will be looking at other products like Veeam and Symantec V-Ray. While Avamar may be a phenomenal backup system, this VDP derivative of it is far too immature and unpredictable for me to rely on for my important data: I've uninstalled the appliance and removed the registration from vCenter.