• VMware ESXi 5.1.0 U1
• VMware vCenter Server 5.1.0 U1
• VMware vSphere Data Protection 5.1.10
• VMware vSphere Replication 5.1.1
• vSphere Storage Appliance 5.1.3
• VMware vCenter Orchestrator Appliance 5.1.1
• VMware vCloud Director 5.1.2
• VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.1.1

For vCenter Server one of most notable changes is that it is now officially supported on Windows Server 2012 and with Microsoft SQL Server 2012. There are also multiple security issues fixed in Tomcat server shipping with vCenter Server, along with updated Oracle JRE.

First thing you should note is that you should never ever remove a VXLAN virtual wire port group directly from vDS using vSphere Client. You must always remove VXLAN networks through vCNS (vShield Manager) to keep your VXLAN network database in sync.

To start with we need to go to vShield API Programming Guide and look at “Delete a VXLAN Virtual Wire” REST API example.

Request:
DELETE https://vcns-ip-or-fqdn/api/2.0/vdn/virtualwires/virtualWireID

Looks simple enough, we just need to know ID instead of name of each virtual wire we wish to remove. This requires some work so lets get to it, finished workflow should look close to this:

Listing all VXLAN virtual wires

Listing all virtual wires of a vCNS instance is just a simple GET request

Request:
GET https://vcns-ip-or-fqdn/api/2.0/vdn/virtualwires

Response is a XML document containing all VXLAN virtual wires managed by our vCNS, response will be passed as string to next workflow element.

    
        
            20
            0
            1
            false
        
        
            virtualwire-36
            
                VirtualWire
            
            VXLANtest
            
            1
            VirtualWire
            
            production
            vdnscope-3
            
                
                    dvs-196
                    
                        VmwareDistributedVirtualSwitch
                    
                    dvSwitch
                    126
                    VmwareDistributedVirtualSwitch
                    
                        datacenter-21
                        Datacenter
                        Education
                    
                    
                
                9000
                false
                portgroup
                dvportgroup-379
            
            5003
            225.1.1.5
        
    

Parsing XML response

While listing of all virtual wires is easy as single GET request, we need to do some scripting to parse REST response.

Input parameter containing REST response will be string type variable and it is hard to work with as is so we should convert data into XML type variable for easier access. As content is already in XML format simple typecasting using XML() will do. Once data is in XML type variable we can read values from it by simply accessing XML elements as variables, for example first virtual wire name is located in xmlDoc.dataPage.virtualWire[0].name, ID of this virtual wire is in xmlDoc.dataPage.virtualWire[0].ObjectId and so on.

We are looking for VXLAN virtual wire ID by virtual wire name, so we need to match input parameter containing name against xmlDoc.dataPage.virtualWire[i].name in a loop through all virtual wires.

Once we have match for virtual wire name we can fill output parameter with xmlDoc.dataPage.virtualWire[i].objectId. There is a important catch however, when assigning variable from XML you must typecast output parameter as String. If you fail to do this vCO may pass output parameter as invalid (empty) input parameter for next workflow element. I wasted several hours of my own and @joerglew’s (Sorry Joerg!) time for debugging why vCO was passing empty parameters because of this.

Parameters of “Get virtual wire ID” Scriptable Task element should consist of

Input

• contentAsString: string
• vxlanNetwork: string

Output

• virtualWireID: string

Complete script content

// Convert contentAsString to XML by typecasting
var xmlContent = XML(contentAsString);

// Initialize variables
var i = 0;
var virtualWire = null;

// Loop through all virtual wires
while (virtualWire = xmlContent.dataPage.virtualWire[i]) {
	// Compare virtualWire.name to vxlanNetwork
	if (virtualWire.name == vxlanNetwork) {
		// Typecast virtuaWireID as string
		virtualWireID = String(virtualWire.objectId);
		// We are done, no need to continue loop
		break;
	} else
		System.log("No match");
		
	i++;
}

Removing VXLAN virtual wire

We got our virtual wire ID in previous workflow element so you can pass it as input parameter for your “Delete VXLAN virtual wire” REST API workflow element.

vCenter Orchestrator has REST plug-in which allows easy integration with any RESTful service so I ended up looking at REST API on vCNS. As a first thing I glanced through vShield API Programming Guide and it become clear that it is very easy to command vCNS through a REST API so my disappointment for not having a vCNS plug-in for vCO was quickly forgotten.

For a quick example on how to create a new VXLAN virtual wire using vCNS, just send POST request to https://vcns/api/2.0/vdn/scopes/scopeID/virtualwires with request body of

 
virtual wire name 
virtual wire description 
virtual wire tenant 

vCenter Orchestrator workflow

I deployed VXLAN using vShield Manager web console and I started to work on my virtual wire provisioning workflow.

Connecting to a vCNS REST API

Before I was able to connect vCO to vCNS I had to install untrusted SSL certificate of vCNS into vCO. This is done by running “Manage SSL certificates” workflow in vCO. I guess this step is not necessary if your vCNS is using trusted SSL certificate.

For some odd reason I had to use vCNS host IP address instead of FQDN in host URL to make vCO to download the certificate. Any time I tried with FQDN I just got an error message about URL being invalid.

Now that SSL certificate was installed I was ready to connect vCO to vCNS REST API, this is done by running a “Add a REST host” workflow in vCO. You have to enter following data for this workflow:

• Name: vCloud Network and Security (or anything you want)
• URL: https://vcns-ip-or-fqdn/api/2.0
• Host’s authentication type: Basic
• Session mode: Shared session or Per User Session

Adding a REST operation

Next step was to run a “Add a REST operation” workflow

Parent host should be REST host added in previous step. Template URL is URL for this REST operation. Note that I have {scopeId} in this URL, this means that {scopeID} is a parameter which we need to set for this operation.

Creating a workflow

Once REST operation is added we need to create a workflow of it so we can execute this operation. This is done by running a “Generate a new workflow from a REST operation” workflow, for this you need to browse for recently added REST operation for Operation input.

I now had a bare workflow for executing a REST operation on vCNS, this workflow does however require XML request body as string so I had to do some scripting to build  necessary XML request. I created a “Create VXLAN Virtual Wire” workflow and gave it following input parameters:

• vxlanName: string
• vxlanDesc: string

and created following attributes

• scopeId: string: value vdnscope-1
• tenantId: string: value production
• content: string

then I dropped in Scriptable task element and “Invoke ‘Create VXLAN Virtual Wire..’” workflow I had previously created in my workflow schema

In Scriptable task element I mapped in vxlanName, vxlanDesc and tenantId input parameters and wrote following code

var xmlContent = ;
xmlContent.name = vxlanName;
xmlContent.description = vxlanDesc;
xmlContent.tenantId = tenantId;

// Convert E4X type var to string
content = String(xmlContent);

and I mapped content source attribute to content attribute as output value.

In “Invoke ‘Create VXLAN Virtual Wire..’” element I mapped in scopeID and content attributes and all output parameters to NULL. My workflow was done. I executed this workflow, entered input parameters and watched as VXLAN virtual wire was deployed in vDS.

VDN Scope and Tenant ID

You may have noticed that I had two preset attributes in my workflow, scopeId and tenantId. To find out what your scopeId is you can use any REST client to query this information from vCNS, I used Postman REST Client extension for Chrome web browser, just send GET request to a https://vcns/api/2.0/vdn/scopes.

To find out tenantId I created virtual wire using vShield Manager and sent GET request to https://vcns/api/2.0/vdn/virtualwires, tenantId is returned as part of virtual wires output.

What this setting does, is that in case VMware Tools are out of date, and there are updated version available on ESXi host, VM will perform automatic VMware Tools update during any guest OS shutdown or startup event. I have used this feature with Windows VMs for years and it has proven to be reliable and very useful. With Linux VMs I would still go with manual VMware Tools update process, although automatic update of VMware Tools is supported on Red Hat Linux VMs.

So this is very handy feature, but this setting is not set by default, and going through all VMs in your infrastructure can be quite tedious task if done manually. Instead of clicking through all your VMs you can use an pretty simple vCenter Orchestrator workflow to configure all your Windows VMs for this.

With vSphere 5.1 vCenter Orchestrator (vCO) is configured automatically so I won’t go through all steps required for manual vCO configuration. If your vCO installation is not set up, please go through “Installing and Configuring VMware vCenter Orchestrator” document, you can get vCO up and running in no time with vSphere 5.1. Or you can leave a comment below and I will try to assist.

vCenter Orchestrator workflow

I have created a simple vCO workflow to set VMware Tools update policy to automatic for all Windows VMs in a vSphere cluster. Workflow has following steps:

1. Get list of all VMs of a vCenter Server cluster object
2. Loop through all VMs
3. Check the guest OS id returned by VM object, if Windows check VMware Tools upgrade policy
4. If Tools update policy is automatic already, skip to a next VM
5. If Tools update policy is manual, reconfigure VM with automatic VMware Tools upgrade policy

Schema of workflow looks like this, click the image below to see it in greater detail

JavaScript used in the workflow

vCenter Orchestrator uses JavaScript as its scripting language. Usually you just need to write simple logic code which does not require much of learning if you already know any other scripting language like Perl, Python or PowerShell. I am no programmer by any means and I was able to pick necessary skills for JavaScript in few days.

More complex code like vSphere API calls can be generated automatically with help of VMware Fling Onyx. For example I used Onyx to create API call code for “Set VM Tools Update” script block in this workflow. Onyx is available at http://labs.vmware.com/flings/onyx.

Here are key parts of JavaScript code used in this workflow so you get an idea how Orchestrator scripting looks like.

Custom decision object “Need to set?” script to check guest OS type and Tools upgrade policy

// store VM guest OS type in guestOs variable
var guestOs = curVM.summary.guest.guestId;

// initialize isWindows variable and match guestOs against "windows" keyword
var isWindows = null;

if (guestOs != null) {
    isWindows = guestOs.match(/windows/);
}

// check if isWindows is set
if (isWindows) {
    // System.debug("VM guestOs is Windows");
    if (curVM.config.tools.toolsUpgradePolicy == "upgradeAtPowerCycle") {
        // upgradeAtPowerCycle policy already set, no need to reconfigure
        System.debug("upgradeAtPowerCycle already set, skipping this VM");
        return false;
    } else {
        // upgradeAtPowerCycle policy not set
        System.debug("upgradeAtPowerCycle is not set, continuing to reconfigure");
        return true;
    }
} else {
    // System.debug("VM guestOs is not Windows");
    return false;
}

curVM is a VM object picked up from array of all VMs in a cluster. In that VM object you have all properties of a VM, including guest OS type.

By matching guest OS type to a keyword “windows” we are able to figure out if VM we are processing is a Windows VM or not. If guest OS type is Windows then we check its VMware Tools upgrade policy to avoid unnecessary reconfiguration operations. If VMware Tools update policy is not “upgradeAtPowerCycle” we will exit this Custom description type workflow object with return code “true” which will lead to “Set VM Tool Update” workflow object.

“Set VM Tools Update” script object code

// Following code block is generated using Onyx
var spec = new VcVirtualMachineConfigSpec();
spec.tools = new VcToolsConfigInfo();
spec.tools.toolsUpgradePolicy = "upgradeAtPowerCycle";

// Sleep 1 second before each reconfigure task to avoid stressing vCenter Server too much
System.sleep(1000);

// Execute reconfig task using specification stored in spec
curVM.reconfigVM_Task(spec);

System.debug("Set upgradeAtPowerCycle for " + curVM.name);

In this workflow object we have a code which will set VMware Tools update policy of a current VM to “upgradeAtPowerCycle”. Before we apply this configuration script will sleep for a one second to avoid sending configuration tasks to a vCenter Server with too high rate.

These are two most complex JavaScript code blocks used in this simple workflow.

How to import workflow

To install this workflow download it from a link at the end of this article. Once you have downloaded workflow file open vCO client, login to vCO server and in client select workflows tab as shown on image below

First you need to decide where to import workflow. You can either create a new folder for imported workflows by right clicking at the top most menu item and selecting “Add folder…”, or you could import workflow to a existing folder, like “Library”.

Now right click desired folder and select “Import workflow…” and browse workflow you downloaded. Once done should have “Enable VM Tools upgrade on VM power cycle” workflow added into your workflow inventory.

How to execute workflows

With release of vSphere 5.1 accessibility of vCO workflows has improved a lot. Before vSphere 5.1 you had either to use vCO client or some custom interface to run workflows, in vSphere 5.1 ability to execute vCO workflows is integrated in new vSphere Web Client!

You can execute workflow from vCO client by right clicking a workflow and selecting “Start workflow…” or you can just select it and press CTRL+R. vCO client will then open a dialog window to ask necessary input parameters for a workflow. In case of workflow show here you need to select vCenter Server cluster object in which you wish to execute this workflow. To get list of cluster objects click “Not set” link and press enter in “Filter:” input box, vCO client will then search for all cluster objects and list them for you to choose.

Alternatively you can associate this workflow to a cluster object in vSphere Web Client for easy access.

Login to vSphere Web Client with administrator privileges, and click “vCenter Orchestrator” link on the left side menu.

In next view you should see “vCO Servers: 1” on left side menu if your vCO is properly registered with VMware SSO and Web Client services. Integration is configured automatically when doing vCenter Server Simple install.

If you have vCO registered select “Manage” tab, and click green plus sign to add a new workflow association.

Next browse workflow from the tree menu on the left side, click “Add” and select “Cluster” from available type list.

Now you have associated this workflow with vSphere cluster object, to run workflow go and right click any cluster in Web Client and select workflow from “All vCenter Orchestrator Actions” menu. Any changes made by workflow are listed in Cluster –> Monitor –> Tasks view.

Workflow download

Feel free to download this workflow from link below, you may use, distribute and modify it as you wish. I will not provide any guarantee that this workflow will work as intended in your environment.

http://v-reality.info/files/EnableVMToolsUpgradeOnVMPowerCycle.workflow

VMware also released a new build version 838463 of ESXi 5.1 installation image to address ESXi 5.0 –> 5.1 upgrade issues on hosts with EMC PowerPath/VE 5.7 installed. New ESXi 5.1 build also addresses some CBRC issues with VMware View, but for full vSphere 5.1 compatibility you still need to wait for a new VMware View release. See KB2034549 for more information about patch.

You can find updated ESXi 5.1 installation image just below GA build on the “Download VMware ESXi 5.1 Installable” page at my.vmware.com.

• VMware ESXi 4.1 Update 3 Release Notes

• VMware ESX 4.1 Update 3 Release Notes

• VMware vCenter Server 4.1 Update 3 Release Notes

Beta exam period was very short and deadline was close. Luck was on my side as I didn’t have more than two days of scheduled training for week before exam period closing, so I had time I needed to prepare. After check with local test centers it turned out that none of the available dates for exam fitted my schedule. The fact that beta exam period was to end on the eve of the Finnish midsummer festival really did not help my exam booking efforts, Finland literally shuts down for midsummer festival time as people leave to countryside for their summer cottages or where ever they might spend their time at during summer time.

Picture © Jussi Kaksonen

Helsinki is very close by of Tallinn and there is active (and very cheap) ferry traffic between these two Baltic cities so I was able to widen my scheduling options outside of Finland. I was able to schedule exam for a suitable date at IT Koolituskeskuse OÜ in Tallinn, same test center where I took my VCP5 beta exam last year.

Now that exam and ferry tickets were booked, all I had to do now was to study for the exam. With very little hands on experience of vCloud Director I really had to study a lot.

I prepared my lab with vCloud Director and its necessities, gathered all the documentation I was able to get hold of and BOOM I was called to fill in a fellow instructor who got sick during vSphere Fast Track training .. and I had never delivered a Fast Track training before. I had to put vCloud Director manuals away and begin reading vSphere Fast Track material, which for my luck was very much the same than vSphere What’s New and Install, Configure Manage lessons I had delivered several times already. Training delivery was success with many happy students but I had lost couple days of valuable time to prepare for VCP5-IaaS exam, and I still had scheduled vSphere What’s New training to deliver before exam.

I continued my studying with free VMware vCloud Director Fundamentals [V1.5] online training, this training gave me good overview on features available on vCloud Director 1.5. Then I begun to fill in caps in my knowledge with VMware vCloud 1.5: Deploy and Manage the VMware Cloud training material. I have been told by some sales reps that you do not need any training for vCloud Director as it is so easy to setup, I really have to disagree with that. I agree that vCloud Directory is very easy to install but to manage it successfully and to fully understand the networking infrastructure in it you will find Deploy and Manage the VMware Cloud training invaluable. So I highly recommend you to take it if you find yourself in a position that you have to manage vCD infrastructure.

I worked through Deploy and Manage the VMware Cloud training labs and I was really getting hold of things but time was not on my side, I had to skip some labs I really would have liked to do. It was already day before my exam and I was getting tired of very busy week I have had. I decided to relax and shut down my lab, I was as prepared as I ever would be for this exam.

On day of my exam I had to get up on 5.30 AM to get on a ferry to Tallinn in time. Finnish summer was showing its best as weather was beautiful for a ferry ride.

I arrived at IT Koolituskeskuse somewhat early but I was told that I am allowed to start my exam when I am ready, their service was very good like it had been a year before.

As I took this exam in a country where English is not considered as native language I got 30 minutes extension on exam time, and I really needed all the time I was granted. I finished with 4 minutes to spare on clock. Some questions were quite complex and I had to read those through multiple times to really understand what the question was about. Some questions were obviously wrong in that they didn’t have any correct answers listed, but this was after all a beta exam so it was expected to be work in progress. I gave feedback on questions I felt need of changing and I believe that all errors will be fixed by the time final exam is published.

After exam I had feeling that I had good chances of passing VCP5-IaaS but I won’t know for sure until answers are ran through by VMware Certification Team and scoring is decided. VCP5-IaaS beta exam participants should receive their VCP5-IaaS results in few months time.

If you wish to take VCP5-IaaS when it is launched this is what I recommend you to study with

• Sit through VMware vCloud Director Fundamentals [V1.5] online training, it is free and very good to start with
• Attend VMware vCloud 1.5: Deploy and Manage the VMware Cloud training if possible
• Install vCloud Director 1.5, vShield Manager, vCloud Connector and vCenter Chargeback Manager, you will need hands on experience with them

Depending on your experience with switched networking, firewalls and stuff it varies how long it will take you to familiarize yourself with VMware vCloud. But most of all you will need an open mind as VMware vCloud will totally change they way you build data center networks!

Console is a frontend replacement for cmd.exe, PowerShell or any other CLI on Windows, Console also works well with vSphere PowerCLI and in my opinion makes it much nicer to use.

vSphere PowerCLI in Console

Download latest Console version from http://sourceforge.net/projects/console/ and extract it to your preferred location.

Search for PowerCLI shortcut in your Windows Start menu, right click it and select Properties, select and copy Target entry on Windows clipboard for later use.

Execute Console utility and open Settings by pressing CTRL+S. Select Tabs and either edit existing tab configuration or add a new one. Enter Title for your tab and paste Shell entry from Windows clipboard.

If you like you can set Startup dir and Icon. PowerCLI icon is embedded into Windows executable and you need a tool such as IcoFX to extract it. Location of executable holding the PowerCLI icon can be found at Change Icon … button in PowerCLI properties window.

You can now launch PowerCLI from Console tabs menu.

• VMware ESXi 5.0 Update 1 – Release Notes
• VMware vShield 5.0.1 – Release Notes
• VMware vCenter Server 5.0 Update 1 – Release Notes
• VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.0.1 – Release Notes
• VMware vCloud Director 1.5.1 – Release Notes
• VMware vCenter Configuration Manager 5.5 – Release Notes
• VMware vCenter Chargeback Manager 2.0.1 – Release Notes
• VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat 6.4 Update 1 – Release Notes

Silver Peak WAN optimization can boost VDI user experience over slow WAN, and it is validated with multiple storage replication solutions such as EMC as SRDF, VPLEX Geo, MirrorView and Recover Point.

In addition to enterprise grade virtual appliances Silver Peak is offering community supported and fully functional WAN optimizer VX-X for free.

VX-X is based on same Virtual Acceleration Open Architecture (VXOA) than its enterprise grade counterparts, with few limitations. Free VX-X appliance is limited to 4 Mbps of WAN throughput, optimized LAN throughput is not limited. You may install only two free VX-X appliances per enterprise and you cannot manage VX-X with Silver Peak Global Management System GMS.

Silver Peak VX-X is available for VMware vSphere hypervisor and it is available at Silver Peak Virtual Marketplace.

Silver Peak Virtual WAN Optimization Marketplace is at www.silver-peak.com/marketplace