Connecting vMA to Active Directory (Troubleshooting)

Recently I set upon a quest, one of grand scope and sure to bring honor to my family. Well, maybe. This quest you ask? This quest was to attach the VMware vSphere Management Appliance to Active Directory. Like any good quest, this was not without it’s challenges. First, Connect vMA to Active Directory: This is[…]

“Could not Format VMFS” – Nested ESX

The Problem! Was doing some work with UDA and nested ESX & ESXi installs this weekend and ran into an interesting hiccup: Or on ESXi: What? Can’t format what? But we’re working with nested ESX, it’s a VMDK, format it! I tried any number of things here: Different controller types, disk sizes, partitioning within the[…]

Finding Virtual Center Logs on Windows Server 2008

Well, if that wasn’t an SEO title, I’m not sure what is. Basically, I find myself often having to find this in either the VMware KB or via Google each time I need it. Where are the logs? C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter The problem you may run into however, is that the “ProgramData” folder is hidden by[…]

Useful Windows Commands for VM Administrators

Over the course of my travels, I’ve found that having a quick reference to random Windows commands is helpful. Here are two sets of commands I use often enough to be useful, but not often enough that I’ve committed them to memory: Managing IP Addresses from the CLI Netsh! – This one predates PowerShell on[…]

vCenter Will Not Start! – vCenter Services Startup Order

This came up on Twitter Sunday, and having happened upon it in the past, I thought I’d share the solution that Ed Haletky (Blue Gears) and I came to. Basically it boils down to the service start order for the vCenter and related services. Specifically the order should be: SQL (MS SQL, Oracle, etc) ADAM[…]