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vMotion error - Failed to write checkpoint data (offset xxx, size xxx): Limit exceeded.

Posted on June 30, 2016

Still in the process of migrating our dev cluster I was doing a whole bunch of storage vMotions to evacuate our old storage backend to the new one. Most of the VMs went smoothly but I ran into an error on one of them that I never encountered before. The... [Read More]

Network core dump to vCenter and configuration on hosts using PowerCLI

Posted on June 27, 2016

In the event of a PSOD (Purple Screen Of Death) ESXi will try to save a core dump of the vmkernel and a screenshot of the console screen, which can be crucial for diagnosing the root cause of the failure. There are two types of locations that can be configured... [Read More]

Enabling datastore alerts on thin provisioning thresholds

Posted on June 17, 2016

Something every sensible VMware administrator is concerned about is the over commitment of the datastores. Since the dawn of times in virtualization it is possible to thin provision the disks of the virtual machines by not allocating the blocks to it, hence over commit the actual physical storage by provisioning... [Read More]

Use vSphere tags to set VM CPU limits

Assign-TagQOS.PS1

Posted on June 15, 2016

In the majority of VMware environments, the use of limits (especially memory limits) is strongly discouraged as it can lead to several misbehaviours such as CPU ready or memory swapping, which no one wants. But in some cases it can be useful to leverage them, provided it is implemented... [Read More]

iDrac 7 undefined links and blocked IP

Posted on June 14, 2016

Undefined links with 404 error I usually use Chrome or Firefox on my workstations but the other day I had to use IE11 to reach an iDrac 7 from a jump box in the DMZ and I bumped into this odd 404 error: My first thought... [Read More]

Migrating Essentials host to new Standard cluster

EVC, license issue and cold vMotion script

Posted on June 9, 2016

At work we are currently in the process of completely rebuilding the development cluster that was composed of 3 hosts running ESXi 5.1 with vSphere Essentials license managed by a vCenter Essentials. I have built and configured my new cluster running the last build of vSphere Standard 6.0 (3825889... [Read More]

Disabling IPv6 on ESXi

And some powerCLI 6.3 R1

Posted on June 5, 2016

Since ESXi 5.1 IPv6 is enabled by default on new hosts, this can be seen in the DCUI interface below the IPv4 address or in the web client in networking (I won’t mention the C# client as it has been officially declared dead by VMware). By now this is probably... [Read More]

Config backup of your ESXi hosts with powerCLI

Backup script with files rotation

Posted on June 4, 2016

For my first article I wanted to start with something basic that every company should do on a regular basis, I am talking about the configuration of the ESXi hosts. It can seem like a no brainer but it is not implemented everywhere. Having a backup of your host’s configurations... [Read More]