Author: allen

Work through: Upgrade vSphere 5.1 to 5.1 Update 1

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This document is about upgrading vSphere 5.1 to 5.1 Update 1.

 

Phase 1: Preparation

You need these listed below:

  1. vCenter Installation Disc (iso): VMware-VIMSetup-all-5.1.0-1065152.iso;
  2. ESXi update package (zip, optional, will be used in Update Manager): update-from-esxi5.1-5.1_update01.zip;
  3. SSO admin password;
  4. vCenter service account password;
  5. An account within local administrators group of vCenter server; and,
  6. If you have Update Manager Client Plug-in installed on the same server of vCenter, it should be uninstalled before upgrading.

 

Phase 2: Upgrading vCenter and additions

  1. Insert vCenter Installation disc or mount iso.
  2. You cannot perform an upgrading installation by VMware vCenter Simple Install. It is required to upgrade all components manually as the same sequence as items listed in VMware vCenter Installer: vCenter Single Sign On, VMware vCenter Inventory Service, VMware vCenter Server, VMware vSphere Client (optional), VMware vSphere Web Client (optional) and VMware vSphere Update Manager.
  3. While upgrading the SSO (vCenter Single Sign On), you will be notified to enter the SSO admin password. A restart is required after performing SSO upgrading.
  4. Nothing more information is required while upgrading Inventory Service.
  5. Password of vCenter service account is required while upgrading vCenter Server. It is possible but highly not recommended to change service address or port while upgrading.
  6. All other 3 upgrading tasks are easy to perform. All you need is press Next button after starting the processes.
  7. (Optional) Check the server status by logging on from vSphere Client.
  8. (Optional) Install the Update Manager Client Plug-in now.

 

Phase 3: Upgrading ESXi

  1. Log on vSphere Client with Update Manager Client Plug-in.
  2. (Optional) Uploading ESXi upgrading package
    1. In the Update Manager Tab of  the top level of vCenter  Hosts and Clusters (top item from the left panel), select Admin View.
    2. In the Patch Repository tab, click Import Patches and upload update-from-esxi5.1-5.1_update01.zip. It will save downloading time of ESXi upgrading process.
    3. Go back to Compliance View.
  3. Scan your ESXi server.
  4. (Optional) Stage. You may want to stage one server first to test your patch repository before staging all servers.
  5. Remediate. You may need to set the servers in maintenance mode but not necessary. ESXi servers will be rebooted automatically after remediation.

 

Phase 4: VMtool upgrading

Upgrade VMtool on each virtual machine.

 

Phase 5: vSphere Client upgrading

Upgrade vSphere Client on all installed computer.

 

Phase 6: Troubleshooting

If there are some templates in your vSphere, you may need to convert them to virtual machine to upgrading VMtool. If this function is grayed out, you can re-enabled it by removing the related template from inventory and adding it back.

Set Windows Update to use http proxy

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By default, Windows Update will access to microsoft update server or your WSUS server directly, no matter you set a http proxy in IE option window or not. If your computer cannot access the internet directly, that may cause a problem.

To resolve that, you need to:

  1. Set a http proxy in IE option window;
  2. Open cmd window by administrator permission;
  3. Enter this command and press enter:
    netsh winhttp import proxy source=ie

To disable the proxy setting of Windows Update, do the similars above, just changing the step 1 to disable that http proxy.

Show the System Information again in Ubuntu Server

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Every time when I log on my ubuntu server, there always be a System Information displayed. How can we tell to the bash to re-display this screen again?

The command is: landscape-sysinfo

Simply, you just need to type land and press tab key to let the auto complete do the job.

 

Source: http://askubuntu.com/questions/7949/where-does-the-system-information-information-come-from-on-login

Remove A records of Domain Controller from DNS

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Because it’s possible to access the DNS through all IP addresses of domain controller, you will see lots of A records pointed to each IP address of domain controller. That may cause some problem for client while determining the IP address of domain controller.

To resolve this, you have 2 choices:

1 Remove DNS service on some IP address. This will avoid the specified IP address is listed as an A record because it’s not possible to access the DNS through this IP any more.

But if you have to enable DNS on that IP, a public IP address for example, you may want to choose the 2nd way.

2 Create a REG_SZ key named PublishAddresses in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DNS\Parameters, and set value to all IP addresses that you want to listed in DNS. If you need to declare multiple IP addresses, please separate them by space. Reboot when done.

Only all specified IP addresses will be displayed as A records in this way.

This function does NOT affect the failover cluster. All IP addresses belongs to cluster will still remain existed.

 

Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/275554

Shutdown firewall of Hyper-V Server

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After deployment of Hyper-V Server, I trapped in trouble of  linking Hyper-V Server to SCVMM.

Finally, I find a way to shutdown firewall of Hyper-V Server, which helps me resolved the problem.

  1. Log on to Hyper-V Server;
  2. Type this into cmd window:
    netsh advfirewall set allprofiles state off

Enable Jumbo Frame on Hyper-V Server

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I have some hyper-v servers with broadcom NICs. Due to lack of UI (device manager and property window of NIC), it’s not easy to enable Jumbo Frame (MTU9000) setting.

After a google dig and some experiment, I find a way to achieve that.

  1. Install BACS (Broadcom Advanced Control Suite). You may want to use this tool for creating team also. Remember the 4-digit number within brackets before the NIC you want to change MTU.
  2. Open regedit, expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\(4-digit-number-of-NIC) on the left panel, you will get a value named “*JumboMTU” on the right. Change it to 9014 or any other value you need.
  3. Type this command “netsh int ipv4 sh int” to list all network. Remember the Name of the connection you want to change MTU.
  4. Type this command to change it to 9000 or any other value. The value should be the value you’ve set in step 2, minus 14:
    netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface “Connection Name” mtu=9000 store=persistent
  5. Reboot to apply.