Category: VMware

In this article, I will guide you on how to upgrade VMware vCenter Server 6.7 to vCenter 7.0. Let’s have a look at the process to upgrade an existing VMware vCenter Server (6.7 in my Labe) up to vCenter Server 7.0.

Hardware Recommendations.

VMware Compatibility Guide

Upgrade – Stage 1: deploy vCenter Server.
Upgrade – Stage 2: Data transfer and vCenter Server Setup.

1- Download the necessary version from here

2- Now here is my current vCenter Server version.

I am upgrading vCenter 6.7 to 7.0, so we need to mount the downloaded VMware ISO.
3- Open directory \vcsa-ui-installer\win32\ and double click on the Installer.exe.

4- After opening the vCenter Server Appliance Installer then click on Upgrade.

5- Introduction settings and click on next.

6- Upgrade – Stage 1: Deploy vCenter Server, accept the terms of the VMware license agreement, and then click on next.

Upgrade VMware vCenter Server to 7.0

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7- Now connect to the VCSA via FQDN or IP address.

8- Type SSO username credentials and the credentials of vCenter Server that manages the source vCenter Server. Click on Next.

9- Accept the SSL certificate Warning and click Yes to continue.

10- Type the IP address of ESXi host, the username credentials and then click on next.

11- Accept the SSL certificate warning and click Yes to continue.

12- Set up target appliance VM, type the VM name, username password, and then click on next.

13- Select deployment size, and then click next.

14- Select datastore, which you want to store the VM, and then click on next.

15- Upgrade VMware vCenter Server, Configure network settings, enter the necessary information and then click on next.

16- Ready to complete stage 1, review the deployment details, datastore, network details, and then click on Finish.

17- Deploying the vCenter Server in progress.

18- Upgrade – Stage 1: Deploy vCenter Server, successfully completed. Click on the continue button to start upgrading the configuration right away. You chose to create a new VM for the future vCenter Server 7.0.

Upgrade – Stage 2: Data transfer and vCenter Server Setup.

The next step is to migrate data to the new appliance, click Continue and then go to stage 2.

Upgrade – Stage 2: vCenter Server
Data transfer and vCenter Server Setup.

1- Upgrade VMware vCenter Server, Introduction tab then click next.

2- Now the vCenter Server Installer will connect to the source vCenter Server and then do some checking before the upgrade.

3- Pre-upgrade check result warning and then click close.

4- Select upgrade data options; select the data that you need to save.

5- Upgrade VMware vCenter Server, Configure CEIP, and then click on Next.

6- Upgrade VMware vCenter Server, Ready to complete option, review the settings, make sure you have a backup copy of the source vCenter Server and then click on Finish.

7- The source vCSA 6.7 shutdown warning click OK.

8- Upgrade VMware vCenter Server, copying data from source to target vCenter.

9- Set up target vCenter Server.

10- Import copied data to target vCenter.

11- You will receive a message that you need to update the DHCP settings disables TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1. then click on Close.

12- Upgrade – Stage 2: complete, click on Close.

13- vCenter Server getting started page, click on launch vsphere client.

14- Log in to the new vCenter Server 7.0.

15- vCenter Server Summary, check that VCSA version is now 7.0.0.15934073.

In this blog, I will reset VMware ESX/ESXi 6.7 root password using Linux ISO Gparted. If you forgot the ESXi host root password, then there is no way to recover it.VMware does not provide any utility or methods to recover the ESX/ESXi host root password. Though I have reset the VMware ESXi root password using Linux ISO Gparted. Before reinstalling ESXi, you can just try this method as a last option since you are nothing to lose.

Please Note: VMware does not officially support this method. VMware says that the only supported method to reset an “ESXi host password” is by reinstalling the host. I have tested on ESXi 6.7.

In these steps, I will be using a “Linux ISO Gparted live CD/USB/DVD/HD”, to change the root password on my ESXi 6.7 host. We will be removing the password hash is located in 2 partitions in order to create a new password in the DCUI console.

Download a Live Linux ISO. Download Gparted Live ISO.

Burn your Gparted Live ISO to a USB or CD/DVD.

How to create a Bootable USB/DVD Drive with Rufus. Download Rufus

Reset VMware ESX/ESXi Root Password

1- Put the Gparted Live Media (CD/DVD) to your ESXi host; make sure the ESXi server is able to boot from CD/DVD or USB. Power on the ESXi server and then select Gparted Live (default settings) and press enter.

2- Configuring console-data, press enter.

3- Press enter to continue.

4- Press enter.

Here you can see 2 partitions sized 249.98MB. The “/dev/sda5 and /dev/sda6” are what we are after assuming you installed ESXi host on the first available hard drive/SSD.

5- GParted listing your ESXi partitions found on the primary disk.

6- Right click on desktop, Select Terminals and then select lxterminal with root privileges.

7- 1- sudo su
2- mkdir /boot /temp
3- mount /dev/sda5 /boot or mount /dev/sda6 /boot
4- cd /boot
5- cp state.tgz /temp
6- cd /temp
7- tar –xf state.tgz
8- tar –xf local.tgz
9- rm *.tgz
10- cd etc
11- vi shadow

8- Move to the line starting with the root and Use the Delete key to delete the hash string between the first 2 colons.

9- After deleting the root password, type :wq and press enter.

10- Continue by running the following batch of commands.

1- cd ..
2- tar –cf local.tgz etc/
3- tar –cf state.tgz local.tgz
4- mv state.tgz /boot
5- umount /boot
6- reboot

11- Remove the Gparted live media and boot your ESXI host.

12- After booting ESXi host log on as root from the DCUI console without typing in a password.

13- Now you can configure a new password.

This method is not officially supported by VMware; the VMware doesn’t want you to modify ESXi installation files. it works on various versions of ESXI hosts.

In this blog, I am going to reset the root password, if we have lost or forgotten the existing root password for a vCenter Appliance 6.7 the one I have installed in VMware Workstation.

Indication:

The root account password of VMware vCenter Appliance fails.
The root account of the VMware vCenter Appliance 6.7 is locked or the account is expired.

Note: This guide is definite for the VMware vCenter Appliance 6.5 and 6.7 and will not work for earlier versions. It is your own risk and always back up the appliance before effecting any changes.

Step by step guide to Reset the Root Password in VCSA 6.7.

How to reset the lost forgotten root password in VMware vCenter Appliance 6.7
First, we need to take a snapshot or backup of our VMware vCenter Appliance, Please do not ignore this step.
Reboot the VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7
1- Select your VCSA, Select the Power option, and select Restart Guest.

2- After rebooting the VCSA Photon OS, press the e key to enter the GNU GRUB Edit Menu.

Find the line that opens with the word Linux.
3- Type the below entries to the end of the line after pressing space.

rw init=/bin/bash

Press F10 to reboot.

4- In the Command prompt, type passwd to change the root password.

passwd
Type a new root password and Type it twice and press Enter to confirm. You will see the password successfully updated.
5- You can unmount the file system by typing umount
umount

Changing the root password & unmounting the file system

1- Select your VCSA, Select the Power option and select Restart Guest.

2- Rebooting the appliance.

3- Open a browser and type the FQDN address of the VCSA followed by port 5480 (for example – https://VCSA.xpertstec.local:5480) and press enter. Ensure that you can access the “vCenter Server Appliance” using the new root password.

4- Successfully logged.

Please remove the snapshot taken in Step 1 if applicable.

For more details please visit VMware

In this article, I will show you how to Reset ESXi Root Password via Microsoft Active Directory. VMware vSphere can be incorporated with AD (Active Directory) that is commonly used for the centralized management of users & computers. We can join any ESXi host into an Active Directory Domain and then use the account created on the Active Directory Domain Controller to log in to the ESXi host.

Note: In the VMware ESXi host settings the IP address of the domain controller must be specified as a DNS server since the ESXi server should be able to resolve the domain and domain controller names.

ESXi-01 with forgotten root password IP Address – 10.0.0.11
VMware vCenter Server IP Address – 10.0.0.21
Domain Controller– 10.0.0.20
The Active Directory Domain Controller (ADDC) is deployed on Windows Server 2012.

Step by Step Reset ESXi Root Password.

First we need to create a new user in our Active Directory Users and Computers.

1- Open Server Manager, select Tools and click Active Directory Domain Services.

2- In active directory users and computer, Right-click on Users, Select New, and then click user.

3- Type a user name (esxi-01) and then click next.

4- Type a password for this ESXi-01 user account, this password is used as an example, it is recommended that you change the password to a strong, after recovering the root access for your ESXi host. Select the Password never expires option and clicks the next button.

5- New user successfully created, click finish.

We need to create the ESX Admins group on your Active Directory Domain Controller. The group name must be exactly the same. Users who are the members of ESX Admins global security group automatically get a root advantage on an ESXi host after logging in.

6- In active directory users and computer, select Action tab, Select New and then click Group.

7- Under Group name type ESX Admins and click ok.

8- After successfully creating the ESX Admins group, right-click on the ESX Admin group and properties.

9- Select Members tab and click the Add button.

10- Type ESX user account (in my case esxi-01), Select Check Names. and then click OK.

11- Click apply and then ok.

Now the ESXi-01 user account is a member of the ESX Admins group in your Active Directory domain.

How to join VMware ESXi Host to Domain.

After joining ESXi host to domain, use VMware host client to log in to the ESXi host whose root password must be recovered. Enter the name or IP address of your ESXi host in the browser. For example, https://esxi-01.xpertstec.local or (https://10.0.0.21).
Type the Active Directory user the one we have created before ([email protected]), password, and click the Log in button.

Once we have logged in to the ESXi host whose password we have forgotten, we can reset the password for the root user.

Expand Host, Select the Manage option, Select Security & Users tab, Select Users, select root, and then click the edit user icon.

Now type a unique ESXi password for root on the ESXi host and click the save button.

After resetting the ESXi root password, make the ESXi host leave the Active Directory domain if the domain will not be used for ESXi authentication in the future.

Related: How to Reset VMware ESX/ESXi Root Password Using Linux ISO Gparted.

Multiple NIC vMotion VMware, VMware vMotion has been very successful in technological information when you think about that the commencing because it is been dependable and user-friendly to configure. Over the years, VMware has introduced more and extra one-of-a-kind types of vMotions. One is long-distance vMotion the area you can migrate continue to be digital machines (VMs) to and from cloud businesses or to and from your remote datacenter. Another is Storage vMotion the place you migrate digital disks to unique storage devices.

Multiple NIC vMotion VMware

1- Open web browser type your vCenter username, password and then click login.

2- Select your host, click configure tab, under networking select virtual switches and then click on Add Networking.

3- In my lab, we will create a new vSwitch, select the VMkernel Network Adapter connection type, and then click Next.

4- Choose New Standard switch and then click next.

5- Click + icon to Assigned adapters.

6- Add both NICs you need to use for the vMotion traffic.

Add two NICs to vSwitch2 and configure as Active and Standby

7- After this, select the adapter and set one of them as Active and the other one as Standby.

8- Assign a network label, and then select the vMotion service checkbox and then click next.

9- Enter the IP settings. I’m using the 10.0.0.x network and then click next.

10- Review the configuration and then click finish.

11- Select vSwitch2 the one we created and click the Add Networking tab.

12- The wizard will start again, VMkernel network adapter and then click next.

13- Under select an existing standard switch click the browse button.

14- Select vSwitch2 and then click ok.

15- After selecting vSwitch2 and then click next.

16- Type vMotion2 a network label, select vMotion services and then click next.

17- Select static IPv4, Type IP Address and then click next.

18- Review the settings and then click next.

19- Select vMotion2, click on … and click the edit settings.

20- Select the Teaming and Failover section, select the Override check box, Select the NIC Active and Standby and then click ok.

21- We need to do the same for 2nd NIC, select vMotion1, click on … and click on edit settings.

22- Select the Teaming and Failover, select the Override check box, Select the NIC Active and Standby and then click ok.

23- vMotion1 (Vmnic3 active and vmnic4 standby).

24- vMotion2 (Vmnic4 active and vmnic3 standby)

Follow the above 19 to 23 steps for the second hosts with your cluster.

25- We need to test our vMotions, SRV2012 VM is on esxi-02.

26- Select the SRV2012 VM, select action menu and then click Migrate.

27- Select migration type and then click next.

28- Select host where you need to migrate, compatibility checks succeeded and then click next.

29- Network settings click next.

30- vMotion priority click next.

31- Review the summary and then click next.

32- Now SRV2012 VM successfully migrate to esxi-01.

For more details please visit VMware

This guide will provide steps to upgrade VMware Workstation Pro v15.5 to VMware Workstation Pro v16.

Before upgrading to VMware Workstation Pro v16.

Preparing for the upgrade

Please make sure your physical machine meets the system requirements. For more details, see Introduction and System Requirements section in using VMware Workstation Pro 16.

Shut down your virtual machines.

Upgrading

To upgrade to VMware Workstation Pro 16, you can follow the below steps.

1- When you start VMware Workstation, From the Workstation user interface, select Help and then Software Updates.

2- Select check for updates.

3- Select get more information.

To download VMware Workstation.

Navigate to the VMware Workstation Download Center.

4- Select download now

Based on your requirements, select Go to Downloads for VMware Workstation Pro 16 for Windows or VMware Workstation Pro 16 for Linux.

5- Click Download Now.

Log into your My VMware account profile. If you don’t have a VMware profile, create one.

Click Download Now, Review the End User License Agreement, click Accept and then click Download Now.

6- Open your download folder and then double click to start the installation.

7- Welcome to the VMware Workstation pro wizard, click next.

8- Accept license agreement and then click next.

9- Click next.

10- Click next.

11- Click next.

12- Select the Upgrade button to Upgrade VMware Workstation Pro 16.

13- Upgrading VMware Workstation Pro.

Post-Upgrade

14- After the upgrade to VMware Workstation Pro 16 is complete, Select License.

15- Type VMware Workstation license and then click enter.

16- Click finish.

17- Successfully upgrade to Workstation 16 Pro.

Upgrade the virtual machine hardware version.

1- You can select VM tab, select Manage and then Change Hardware Compatibility.

2- Change hardware compatibility wizard, click next.

3- Choose virtual machine hardware compatibility (Workstation 16.x) and then click next.

4- Choose alter this virtual machine option and then click next.

5- Click Finish.

6- Converting virtual machine, click close.

Might be you will get this popup (software updated) click download and install.

Downloading VMware Tools.

All updated finished click close.

Power on the virtual machine and then update VMware Tools.

1- Select click on VM and then select Update VMware Tools.

2- Open your computer (This PC) and then double-click on the DVD drive to run the VMware tools.

3- Preparing VMware tools for installation.

4- A restart required, click yes.

5- VMware tools setup, click next.

6- Click next.

7- Ready to install VMware tools, click install.

8- Click Finish.

9- Restart the virtual machine.

VMware Workstation Pro 16 Installation

Install VMware Workstation Player 16 is the easiest way to run multiple OS (operating systems) at the same time on your computer. With its easy to use interface, VMware Workstation Player makes it effortless for anyone to try out Linux or the latest Windows 10 releases, or create isolated virtual machines to securely test new software & surf the Web. VMware Workstation Player can also serve to run a virtual copy of an old computer so that you can reprocess the old machines you have under your desk or stored in the closet.

VMware Player allows anyone to try new operating systems without rebooting your computer to switch between them.

Simple Install makes creating VMs with the latest 32-bit & 64-bit Linux and Windows operating systems easier than installing them directly on your computer. Run over 200 supported OS (operating systems) including Windows 8, Ubuntu 9.04, & many other versions of Windows, Linux, and more.

VMware Player is the ideal opportunity to try out a virtual appliance. Virtual appliances are pre-configured, pre-built, and ready-to-run enterprise software applications packaged as well as an operating system in a virtual machine. Easily and quickly experience the benefits of these applications without the installation or configuration hassles.

System requirements

6th generation i5 or later
8 GB of RAM
250 GB SSD (120 GB for VM)

Download VMware Workstation 16

1- You can download VMware Workstation Player 16 for Windows.

2- Double click to launch the application.

3- Select run.

4- You can see the VMware Workstation Player 16 splash screen.

5- Welcome to VMware Player setup wizard, Select Next.

6- Accept the License Agreement and then select Next.

7- Select Next.

8- Select Next.

9- You can choose shortcut for a Desktop and Start menu Programs Folder. Once you have made your select, then select next.

10- Select Install.

11- Installing VMware Workstation 16 player.

12- Select License.

13- Enter license key and then select Enter.

14- VMware Player is now installed, Select Finish.

15- VMware Workstation Player 16.

How to Install VMware Workstation Pro 16 click here

In this blog, I am going to show you how to install VMware Workstation Pro 16. VMware virtualization products are almost at the forefront of the world. VMware recently in the mid of September 2020 , VMWare has been released the next version of VMware Workstation Pro 16 . Workstation will helps IT and programmers use to virtualized the server environment more powerful and capture keep up with more technology trend.

VMware Workstation introduces some new features of virtualization software – VMWARE WORKSTATION 16 PRO.

Container and Kubernetes

VMWare supports Container and Kubernetes in VMWare Workstation with the command line tool: vctl

New Operating Systems Support

RHEL 8.2
Debian 10.5
Fedora 32
CentOS 8.2
SLE 15 SP2 GA
FreeBSD 11.4
ESXi 7.0

DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.1

VMware Workstation Pro 16 will support running games & applications with “Direct3D v11” also known as “DirectX 11” or OpenGL 4.1. Users need up to 8GB of vRAM to accelerate 3D processing for you to maximize 3D game & application performance.

VSphere 7 connection compatibility

It has been updated to support connecting to vSphere 7.0 via ESXi and vCenter for remote VM operation and configuration, as well as providing flexible workload management and compatibility between Virtual infrastructure of Desktop and Data Center.

Dark Mode user interface (Dark UI)

When we launching Workstation Pro 16 for Windows, the first thing you may notice is we added a brand new Dark Mode feature to the Workstation Pro & Player UI.

And here is the dark interface.

Sandboxed Graphics Rendering Engine

VMware Workstation offers a new security enhancement feature, Sandbox Renderer. The SBR runs the virtual graphics engine in separate threads with few system privileges, making Fusion and Workstation safer to use without sacrificing performance or quality.

Linux Server: Vulkan graphics rendering engine

With Workstation 16 for Linux we added a new render engine that takes advantage of the Vulkan API. Our new Vulkan renderer can deliver DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.3 to vms even when using the integrated Intel GPU.

VM servers are allowed to be created with larger hardware

32 virtual CPUs
128 GB virtual memory
8 GB virtual graphics memory

For more details What’s New in VMware Workstation Pro 16

Download VMware Workstation Pro 16

Install VMware Workstation Pro 16

1- Double click on VMware-workstation-full-16 file to run the setup.

2- Select Run.

3- Preparing for installation.

4- Welcome to the VMware Workstation wizard, click next.

5- Select license agreement and then click next.

6- VMware Workstation Pro Setup, click next.

7- User Experience settings, so click Next.

8- Select the shortcuts, and then click next.

9- Click on Install button to start the VMware Workstation installation.

10- Installing VMware Workstation Pro.

11- Select the License button.

12- Enter VMware Workstation Pro license key and then click Enter.

13- Click Finish.

14- VMware Workstation 16 PRO.

Related: how to upgrade VMware Workstation Pro from previous version to v16.

Join VMware vCenter to Active Directory. In this article, I will show you how to join a vCenter to active directory.

1-We need the ESXi host server to join the active directory domain. Login with VMware vSphere HTML5 Client in your browser.

2- Under home tab, click administrator option.

3- Select configuration under Single Sign-On, select Identity Provider, select Active Directory Domain, and then click the Join AD button to join the domain.

 

4- Join Active Directory Domain, type FQDN (xpertstec.

local), type your active directory username and password, and then click the Join button.

5- Now you can see it’s connect-ed to the domain.

But we need to reboot the vCenter Server to apply the change.

For more information how to join vCenter to active directory please visit VMware