Without vCenter, can we maintain or manage multiple ESXi servers, vMotion, and SvMotion?

Or, Can we use vMotion capabilities of VMware on standalone ESXi servers?

Or, What is vMotion and How it works?

Question originally posted by a TechiesSphere reader:

Without vCenter can we maintain two ESXI servers and vmotion svmotion?

 

Understanding vMotion

vMotion is a procedure or task initiated by admin manually or system automatically to move a VM from one to another ESXi Host in case of load balancing or redundancy balancing.

If you have two ESXi servers separately and no cluster, vMotion is having no role to play.

However, if you want to manage the ESXi servers separately like standalone servers, you can do that, but to be able to use vMotion, you must have to add these two ESXi servers in to a cluster and enable HA.

You may refer the below KB for more details and explanation on this topic.

How VMware Virtual Machine vMotion works?

 

Please write me back if you have any queries or feedback.

Cheers!

 

How to change VMware vSphere Update Manager’s IP Address?

Or, Re-register update manager server with vCenter Server

Or, Re-register update manager with the vCenter server after changing the IP address of update manager

Or, How to use update manager utility to re-register update manager with the vCenter server?

Descriptions:  You might need to re-register the Update Manager with vCenter Server in certain situations, for example when the IP address of vCenter Server or Update Manager changes. You do not need to worry, because it may not take more than 5 minutes if you do it correctly with the correct approach.

Prerequisites:

1. Stop the Update Manager service

2. vSphere vCenter Server administrator credentials

Error message reference:

The similar error may be reported when Update Manager has not been reconfigured after changing the vCenter Server IP address or Update manager has not been re-registered in the vCenter server after changing the IP address of Update Manager

There was an error connecting to VMware vSphere Update Manager - [x.x.x.x:443]. The request failed because of a connection failure. (Unable to connect to the remote server)

Or,




There was an error connecting to VMware vSphere vCenter Server - [x.x.x.x:443]. The request failed because of a connection failure. (Unable to connect to the remote server)

Steps: Re-register update manager with the vCenter server

1. Login to Update Manager Server

2. Go to the update manager’s installation directory path C:\Program Files(x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\Update Manager

3. Right Click on VMwareUpdateManagerUtility.exe and Choose Run as Administrator

4. Provide all the details as requested e.g. IP Address, User Name, and Password of vCenter Server

5. Click on Login

6. In the Options pane of the Update Manager Utility, click on Re-register to vCenter Server.

7. In the Configurations pane, provide the connection and authentication details as requested e.g. IP Address, User Name, and Password of vCenter Server

8. Click Apply

9. Finally, the confirmation pop-up will appear, and you would be requested to restart the Update Manager Service

10. Click OK, and Close the Utility Windows

Restart the Update Manager services, and the Update Manager server would be re-registered now.

Cheers, Please write me back if you have any query or feedback.

What is EVC in VMware, and how to enable it?

Or, What is EVC in VMware?

Or, How to enabled EVC in VMware?

What is EVC in VMware?

EVC stands for Enhanced vMotion Compatibility. It is used for enabling hardware compatibility between different hardware types of ESXi hosts so that we can easily migrate Virtual machines from one to another host even if the hardware of ESXi hosts are different.

If EVC is not enabled, you can't migrate a Virtual machine to an ESXi host which is having different hardware version with compare to another ESXi host.

Simply we can say that EVC ensures that all hosts in a cluster are VMotion compatible, even if they are not from the same hardware category.

How to enable EVC (Enhanced vMotion Compatibility) in VMware ESXi Cluster?

Few easy steps and you are done with EVC configuration for your ESXi cluster.

IMP Note: Before enabling EVC mode, you must shutdown your all VMs of that particular ESXi host on which you are going to enable EVC mode and migrate VMs to another ESXi host/cluster if possible.

Steps:

- Log in to vCenter Server by using VMware vSphere Client

- Right Click on your Virtual Datacentre Cluster

- Go to Edit Settings

- Select VMware EVC in the left Panel

- Click on Change button to edit the EVC settings

- Select appropriate EVC settings for your Virtual Environment from the drop-down list...

- If validation succeeded with your desired CPU selection for EVC, you should be happy...

- Click OK twice to EVC mode dialog box and cluster setting dialog box...

- Power on your ESXi host.

- Migrate VMs from another host to this host to check if things are done correctly

You are done now... cheers…

Please write me back if you have any query or feedback.

How to update vCenter server appliance

Or, Update vCenter appliance 6.0 update 3a to 6.0 update 3b

Or, Upgrading vCenter server appliance

Descriptions: Updating vCenter server appliance is very easy if you are on vCenter server appliance version 6.0 and above. In vCenter server appliance you have two consoles one is vCenter server management console that you know as vSphere web client and another is vCenter server maintenance console that is also knows as root console.

To perform update of vCenter server appliance, you need to login with root credentials on maintenance or root console or Appliance Management User Interface of vCenter server appliance.

Prerequisites:

1. Root credentials of vCenter server appliance

2. At least 1 hrs of downtime of vCenter server

3. Basic knowledge of vCenter components

4. Internet connectivity on vCenter server appliance (required when checking for update online)

5. Appliance management user interface URL accessible https://<FQDN-or-IP>:5480

Steps: updating vCenter server appliance

Open Maintenance console of vCenter server (https://<FQDN-or-IP>:5480) > Login with root credentials

Go to Update option

Click on Check Updates (select check URL)

Wait for update check to be completed > Once updates are visible under Available Updates section > Click on Install Updates

Accept the license terms and condition > Click on Install

Wait for installation to be completed

Upon successful completion of updates installation, click OK

Now the reboot of vCenter server appliance will be initiated > Wait for reboot to be completed

Login back to maintenance console and verify the Update Version, it must have changed to the latest selected version you had selected while performing update

Cheers, Please write me back if you have any query or feedback.

VMware vSphere Update Manager installation and integration with vCenter appliance

Or, vCenter appliance integration with update manager

Or, Update manager with vCenter appliance

Or, How to use update manager with vCenter appliance

Or, How to install update manager

Or, Enabling Update Manger client plugin for vSphere traditional client

Or, Enabling Update Manger client plugin for vSphere web client

Description: Friends, if you were using update manager on vCenter server with windows server operating system platform and now want to use it with vCenter appliance, or if you have installed vCenter appliance and now want to use update manager with this appliance, you may get all your answers here.

 Scenario: I have recently migrated from windows based vCenter server to vCenter appliance. Now I want to use Update Manager with this vCenter appliance but the challenge is, update manager cant’t be installed on vCenter appliance or Linux based OS, it can be installed on Windows based OS only.

There are two stages in this article, in Stage-1 we will see how to install update manager and integration of update manager with vCenter appliance. In Stage-2, we will be enabling update manager plugin for vSphere web client and vCenter traditional client.

Enabling client plugin on vSphere web client and vSphere traditional client is must because only after this, you would be able to get the Update Manager icon in your vSphere clients.

So now, I have my vCenter server running on vCenter appliance and going to install update manager on windows based operating system and while the installation of Update Manager, I will integrate it with vCenter appliance. Latter in stage-2, I will be enabling Update manager plugin with my vCenter server appliance using vSphere web client and vSphere traditional client.

Stage-1/Steps:  Installation and integration of Update Manager with vCenter appliance

Download the VMware vCenter Server ISO for Windows from MyVmware download portal ( In my case its, VMware vCenter Server 6.0 3a and module for Windows )

Mount the ISO on the Windows Machine (I am having Windows Server 2012 R2)

Right Click on Autorun executable file > Choose Run ad administrator

Click on Install

Wait for the Installation of SQL Express completion

Click Next

Accept the license agreement terms > Click Next

Choose Download updates from default source immediately after installation > Click Next

Fill in all the required details/credentials of vCenter appliance server > Click Next (This is where you are integrating Update Manager with your existing vCenter server appliance)

Give IP or Name of the Update Manager server here > Click Next

If you have proxy server, fill in all the details or leave these fields blank > Click Next

Configure the Installation and Patch Repository directory > Click Next

Click on Install to proceed with the Installation

Wait for the installation to be completed

Click Finish

Now you are done with installation and integration of update manager with vCenter server appliance

Stage-2/Steps:  Enabling Update Manger client plugin for vSphere web client

Login to vSphere Web Client console > Go to Client Plug-ins > Click on Check for New plug-ins > VMware vSphere Update Manager plug-in will be installed

To be able to see the VMware vSphere Update Manager in vSphere Web Client you must have the View Compliance Status privilege.

Log off from the vSphere Web client console and login again > Go to admin Home page > you will be able to see Update Manager icon under monitoring section of the home page.

Steps: Enabling Update Manger client plugin for vSphere traditional client

                                

Login to vSphere traditional client > Go to Plug-ins menu > Click on Manage Plug-ins…

See for the Available Plug-ins > Select VMware vSphere Update Manager > Click on Download and Install hyperlink

Click on OK when prompted

Click on Next

Click on I accept the terms in the license agreement > Click Next

Click on Install

Click on Finish

It’s all done now.

Cheers, please write me back if you have any query or feedback.