I have been thinking of doing this for a while after speaking with Dave Simpson and he said he had done but was using AWS so i checked out John Saville YouTube video on this as he explained it really well.
Decided this was possible create Github account and Azure account and followed Harry Lowton video now have a static Web App displaying a blank page.
Now need to Export website from current Hosting provider and export site from wordpress to Hugo which can use Markdown (something else to learn) for the export I used the following plugin wordpress-to-hugo-exporter This was really easy and I now have the complete site in Markdown.
Now I need to work out how to import my markdown file to my new site and what tools I can use on iPad to enable me to use iPad.
This is not a detailed guide just wanted to see if it would work was slow and really need to upgrade m.2 drive, I had configured to use FreeNas for storage. Once I upgrade the m.2 drive I will try again and write a more detailed guide.
Use PowerShell to find the InterfaceDescription names
Get-NetAdapter
In VMware Workstation Pro go to Edit > Virtual Network Editor and click change settings
Select the VMnet0 and Bridge to an unused adapter and click Apply
Now Click “Add Network” and create a new network adapter e.g. VMnet2 and click OK
Select the VMnet1 adapter and click rename enter VLAN1 and click OK
Select the VLAN1 adapter and click bridged then find the network adapter with the PowerShell InterfaceDescription of the VLAN1 (in my case the is “Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter #2”) select from Bridged to: drop down and click OK
Download Auvik OVA from Auvik Trial – Free for 14 Days | Auvik Networks you will need an account or you can trial for 14 days. You will need to makes sure SNMP is setup for Auvik to discover devices on your network automatically for any network devices, servers, etc..
Right click on Datacenter and select deploy OVF template.
Select local file and browse to location where you saved your OVA file and click next.
Name virtual machine and location and click next.
Select Compute resource.
Review details.
Select thin provisioned and datastore.
Select Network
Review and click Finish
Power on Auvik appliance
Select option 1 and configure network interface to static ip address
If Auvik ID Shows as RED then select 2 to upgrade /install collector service this will then reboot appliance and should now be Green.
Now all Green
Go back to your Auvik account
Auvik will now start to scan your network and produce network diagram.
If you had said to me in January 2019 that by December 2020 that I would have spoken publicly at 2 events, have this blog site up and running, and became a VMware vExpert, I would not have believed you. In fact, I probably would have laughed at you!
Well in January 2019, I persuaded my employer to pay for membership for VMUG Advantage for myself and a colleague, giving us benefits like 365 evaluation licenses, etc. etc. By the second VMUG meeting I attended, I decided to give speaking a go.
Whilst at vBeers after London VMUG, I was talking to David Simpson (and Alaric Davies). After a few drinks (for Dutch Courage) I volunteered myself for a vFactor talk at the next London BMUG meeting. But, there were not enough speakers for vFactor so it was decided it would be moved to UK Usercon for July. More drinks followed and again after a few vBeers talking with Chris Porter and Dave Simpson I decided I would do my presentation on VoIP on VMware. I currently support a large VoIP environment and thought it would be good to talk to community about.
London VMUG leaders (Simon Gallagher and Chris Dearden) organised weekly meetings to help us prepare for our presentations. I have never presented in a small meeting! Let alone at a UK UserCon in front of 60 people. There were four presenters: Me, Rick Tyler, Gavin Stephens and Tim Alexander. As a vFactor first time speaker I won a prize. Go me!
In April 2020 I decided to start blogging (CloudITBlog.com). It was a domain which I had bought a while ago but done nothing with it. Having never created a website or blogged in my life, I thought I would give it a go. The idea being to document how I have resolved issues I have faced in my day job and how I resolved them. Putting them on the internet gives others a chance to get helped, and is also a record for me if the same issue popped up again.
In May 2020 I reached out to vExpert Pros regarding becoming a vExpert, and was contacted by Andrew Hancock. We arranged a Zoom call where Andy went through what I had typed up so far and advised where I needed make changes. Andy helped me with my overall application as well. In July I got an email advising I was now a vExpert. I couldn’t believe it.
In November I get a message from Paul Donnachie at Runecast on LinkedIn regarding Runecast call for papers for presenting at Uptime 2020. Had a chat with Paul and I did a fireside chat with Kev Johnson at Runecast titled Stable Systems, Stable Services Keeping Critical NHS Services Delivering In Covid Crisis.
We are now in December 2020 and my journey this last year has been fun. I have pushed myself to do the things that I have never done before and have found I have enjoyed doing all of them some more so then others.
Important Note: Before you start this work make sure you have a full backup of vCenter and backup of Database.
Logon to MyVMware and download VMware-VCSA-all-6.7.0-10244745.iso (latest version).
Once downloaded Mount iso (by right clicking on file and selecting mount)
Copy migration-assistant to C drive
Goto migration-assistant folder on C drive and double click on VMware-Migration-Assistant.
You should then get the screen above. Then minimise the screen DO NOT CLOSE THIS CONSOLE UNTIL THE MIGRATION IS COMPLETE.
Goto CD drive VMware VCSA – vcsa-ui-installer – win32 – double click on installer.exe
Click on Migrate
Select Deploy appliance and Next
Accept the terms of Licence aggreement and click Next
Enter your Window vCenter FQDN, Username and Password and click Next
Yes
Enter details for ESXi host where you want to install vcsa
Yes
Enter Name for vcsa, root password and confirm root password. Next
Choose deployment size
Selct Datastore for vcsa. Next
Enter network details. Step 4 you will need to provide a tempory IP address for vcsa at the end of the migration vcsa will have the original IP of your vCenter.
Check details are correct before clicking Finish
Progress bar will now show
Click Continue
Next
Next
Enter details to join vcsa to AD Domain. Next
Select Migration Data. Next
This one is up to you, I would recommend you join CEIP. Next
Make sure you have done what step 1 says before you tick this box. Finish
OK
Progress bar for Data transferfro vCenter to new vcsa
Click on Launch VSPher Client (HTML5) to access your new vcsa
I had this happen to me 4 times I think on the sam customers vCenter sometimes when we rebooted the Windows server for Microsoft patching the vCenter webpage would load with just headings no configuration or content. Which I must admit the first did make you panic a bit.
Searching the web and talking to other peers only answer people could recommend was to rebuilt vCenter an option, but, not the best solution.
So I logged a ticket with VMware the issue appeared to be with the vCenter Postgres DB having corruption. The engineer to took a backup of DB and VMware investigated this and came back to me and resolved the issue.
To resolve this issue I would recommend you have a backup of your vCenter DB this can be done by following this VMware KB2091961 and logging a ticket with VMware
Select the Configure tab, System / Security Profile Services click on Edit:
Enable SSH on each host in the VSAN cluster:
Launch a terminal application like Putty to SSH onto your hosts.
Note: When restarting the vCenter Management Agents on the ESXi host, you will get a brief interruption to the host manageability. This is perfectly safe and will resolve itself automatically. In some cases, the host may momentarily enter a not responding state in vCenter Server, however this is rare.
Run the following command to restart the Management Agents:
/etc/init.d/vpxa restart
Run this command on all VSAN nodes. This updates the cluster information in vCenter Server and clears the message.
If you are still getting this error you can try the following:
Remove the host from the VSAN cluster and re-add. This forces all hosts to update the information about the cluster membership and clears the message.
Warning: When you attempt to remove and re-add the host, data synchronisation does not occur when the host is in maintenance mode and out of the VSAN cluster. If you select the Ensure accessibility maintenance mode option, some objects may be unprotected while executing the workaround.
To remove a host from the VSAN cluster and re-add:
Select the ESXi host in the vSAN cluster that can be put to the maintenance mode temporarily Best Practice: VMware recommends to select the least busy/utilized host.
In the vSphere Web Client, right-click the ESXi host and click Enter Maintenance Mode. Note: Select either the Ensure Accessibility or Full data migration options for vSAN maintenance mode.
If applicable, allow powered-off virtual machines to be migrated to the remaining ESXi hosts.
Remove the host from the vSAN cluster
Select the host.
Drag the host out of the cluster.
Place the host in the datacenter object in the vCenter Server inventory.
Note: After moving the host into the datacenter, wait for approximately two minutes
Drag the host back into the vSAN cluster.
After adding the host back in the vSAN cluster, right-click the host and click Exit Maintenance Mode.
Note: The message on the remaining hosts should be clear.
I was getting an error where I wasn’t able to download patches one day. This was the fix that I found.
On Windows server where VUM is installed Stop VMware vSphere Update Manager Service.
In Windows Services, stop the vSphere Update Manager Service as below:
Open up Windows ODBC 64-bit, select ‘System DSN’ tab and highlight VMware vSphere Update Manager, click Configure.
Then click Next until you reach Finish:
Click Test Data Source
Came back successfully as below:
If OK, go to the next step but if not look at error and resolve the issue:
Launch the VMware vSphere Update Manager Utility (located Program files/ VMware/ Infrastructure/ Update Manager.) Login with vSphere Credentials.
Available options once you login:
First I would normally try to re-register to vCenter Server. Enter the relevant details and click Apply. Restart the VMware vSphere Update Manager Service.
Try patching the hosts again with VUM. If successful, well done, you are finished.
If you still have issues go to the next step.
Launch VMware vSphere Update Manager Utility (located Program files/ VMware/ Infrastructure/ Update Manager.) and login with vSphere Credentials.
Select Database Settings and click Re-intialize Database, and then click Apply. WARNING: This will reset the database back to default! Any HPE / Dell Custom Baselines and Images you had added to downloads will need to be recreated along with custom baselines.
