I was doing a fresh RecoverPoint 4.1 install recently, and everything wet very smoothly up until I attempted to enter the vCenter server details under the “Register vCenter Server” dialog. History shows this has been a little bit goofy in the past, with the MUI certs and credential entry known to be stubborn, but usually […]
I had a nice little episode with a set of PSOD looping hosts in December which resulted in a lot of guests getting moved around automatically during attempted HA recoveries. This got me thinking about all the automation that goes on ‘behind the scenes’ as a result of DRS and HA. Also when you have multiple […]
Following on from yesterday’s EOY backup topic for ESXi, today I’ll document how to automate the backup of your VNX & VNX2 Array configurations. As usual, I want this to be automated, set-and-forget and reliable. A combination of NavisecCLI and Powershell works beautifully for this. Without any doubt, the best documentation or config backup tool is […]
Regularly throughout the year, I like to take PIT (Point in Time) backups of my ESXi host configurations. These form part of my Critical Config backups that I hope I’ll never have to use. But like any backup, these are merely another safety net as we strive to have more resilient systems. With the calendar […]
The Recoverpoint GUI has improved a lot over time, and the current incarnation in the “Unisphere” framework is the best yet, by a long way. Some operations are still a bit painful, and I’ve found myself this week cooking up some RP-CLI + Powershell goodness to get details in a fast, concise manner. The task […]
Unisphere can sometimes be a fickle beast, particularly with java versions and compatibility. I had a very strange issue with Unisphere a couple of weeks ago where it would not allow any logins. Regardless of trying to login to the Control Station or either of the SPs directly, using LDAP, local or global users, the […]
I’ve previously posted in detail about the VMware ESXi CBT bug here It’s taken a while but VMware have today released patches to address this issue for older versions of ESXI 5.0 & 5.1 Disappointingly, still no fix for ESXI 4.0 and more importantly ESXi 5.5 (Rumoured to be coming Jan 2015) ESXi 5.0 Patch […]
“Enablers” in EMC parlance, are small installable files that unlock licensed features on your array. These include FAST, FAST cache, Mirrorview etc. To see which enablers are installed on your Array, you can use naviseccli : naviseccli -h arraysp ndu -list otherwise you can check from Unisphere on the Software tab under “System Properties”. Many […]
Nothing like a bit of Hyperbole, but some days are better than others! One thing I have learned over the years is to always expect the unexpected. Yesterday’s ‘unexpected‘ was one of these; That’s cool, HA kicked in and the stranded guests began to restart as expected. Not great, […]
The ability to do Performance analysis is an essential requirement for an Admin. Being able to detect bottlenecks that are contributing to degraded performance can have an immediate impact in saving business $$ and remaining agile. Of equal importance is capacity planning and trending. For EMC kit, the old failthful ‘Analyzer’ application is the bread […]