Cisco UCS Central: Manual Refresh of Inventory.

We recently had an issue where the power state of several B-Class servers did not match within the server and the service profile view.

The Server view correctly had the power state as Power On.  However, the service profile associated with this server incorrectly showed the Status as Power Off.  There was definitely a disconnect.  Shutting down and powering on the server did not resolve the issue.

To resolve this issue, ssh in the Cisco UCS Central VM:

Once logged in enter the folowing:
connect resource-mgr
scope domain-mgmt
show ucs-domain detail

The last command will give you the ID of the system you would like to perform the refresh on:

Confirm that you are scope'd in on the correct domain by running the following;
scope ucs-domain xxxx
show detail

Once you have confirmed you are in the correct domain, run:
refresh-inventory
commit-buffer

The Commit-buffer command commits the transaction.

 Cisco UCS Central is now syn'd up from Central down to the servers.

Windows Server 2016 pvscsi and vmxnet3 drivers

With the release of the GA version of Windows Server 2016, it's time to start playing!

I spun up a fresh VM using the Paravirtual SCSI Controller (PVSCSI) and a vmxnet3 NIC.  Well, as expected, the PVSCSI controller driver was not included on the Windows Server 2016 ISO.  For this initial VM build, I simply supplied the SCSI controller driver, and once I installed the VMWare tools, the vmxnet3 nic was recognized.

However, I wanted to provide the SCCM team with the necessary VMware drivers to successfully deploy a 2k16 server within VMware if the need arises.

Here are the steps to get the necessary drivers:

Download the appropriate version of VMware-tools-xxx-xxx-x86_64.exe for your environment from the following location:

https://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/index.html

Then run the executable with the /a option.  This will allow you to extract all the driver files.

 Select Next.  Then specify the location you would like the drivers and click Install:

 The drivers will be located in the location specified above:

Now you can provide the SCCM team with the necessary drivers and have them inject them into the WinPE Boot Media. 

How to test Jumbo Frames on a vmkernel port

Here's an "Oldie but a Goodie".  I've been using it recently to sort out some iSCSI issues, so I figured I'd share.

The vmkping command sources a ping from a vmkernel port on the ESXi host.

-I - Allows you to specify a vmkernel port.

-d - Sets the Do Not Fragment bit on the packet.  This MUST be used to test Jumbo Frames.

-s - is the size of the payload.  

From the ESXi shell run the following command:

vmkping -I vmk1 -d -s 8972 x.x.x.x

In my case, I specified vmk1, which is used for the software iSCSI initiator.  x.x.x.x. was my storage array. 

The payload size must be set to 8972 due to the ICMP (8 bytes) and IP (20 bytes) header. .

Fix - Cisco UCS - Virtual Media redirection is already in use by another user

While performing an ESXi install on one of the Cisco UCS Blades, I received the following error:

I confirmed that no other users were using the UCS KVM, rebooted the blade from within the ESXi OS and through UCS Central etc.

To resolve this issues log into UCS Manger.  Then from the Equipment tab select the server exhibiting this behavior:

From the Servers General tab, select Recover Server and select Reset CIMC.  Resetting the CIMC will not cause a disruption of service.

That's it, I was then able to launch the KVM and attach Virtual Media.

PowerCLI: Getting Host Hardware Information with Get-VMHostHardware

I was recently asked to gather the hardware specs for all of our ESXi hosts globally. 

Previously, I've used scripts to successfully gather this information.  However, I did a quick search and it looks like VMWare replaced a majority of their functionality with one cmdlet!  This is great for audit and management purposes.

Get-VMHostHardware

This cmdlet was introduced in PowerCLI 6.0 R2 and retrieves the following information:
VMHost    
Manufacturer    
Model    
SerialNumber   
AssetTag   
BiosVersion    
CpuModel    
CpuCount    
CpuCoreCountTotal    
MhzPerCpu    
MemorySlotCount    
MemoryModules    
PowerSupplies   
NicCount

Example Output against one ESXi host:
Get-VMHostHardware -vmhost MyHost.MyDomain.com | fl

All I did was connect to all of our vCenter servers in PowerCLI and run the following one-liner.  This got me nearly all the information I needed!

Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostHardware -SkipAllSslCertificateChecks | Export-Csv D:\VMHostHardware.csv

Old Keyboard and Mouse Ports, Connectors and Adapters

One of my New Years resolutions was to clear out my old junk and organize.  I thought I'd share the old/vintage/classic adapters I've accumulated over the years. 

Here are some of the names I recall calling them (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong):

5-Pin DIN  

DIN 5  

AT  Connector

RS-232

Serial mouse

PS/2

And No, I didn't throw them out.  I'll probably keep them for another 15-20 years...  til I decide to "Organize" once again.

DIY Wrench Organizer

Thank you GarageJournal.com for helping me with one of my new years resolutions!  To get organized!

Over the years, I've purchased and inherited quite a few miscellaneous wrenches.  They all ended up in my "Misc. Wrenches" drawer.

Since it was a miss-matched set with doubles and sometimes triples of one size, the commercial organizers didn't fit my needs.  (Not to mention they were pricey...)

Fortunately, the members of GarageJournal had a solution that fit my needs.  I wound a 14 gauge, solid copper wire around a broom handle with the number of "loops" I needed.

The result was perfect!