How to Fix vCenter 5.5 upgrade to 6.0 VCSServiceManager failed with error code 1603?

I decided to upgrade my home lab‘s vcenter 5.5 to 6.0 few days ago and what I thought would be a straight forward process turned into a 3 days of researching and scratching my head as to what was wrong with the upgrade and more troubling, what was I doing wrong? I knew that with… Continue reading How to Fix vCenter 5.5 upgrade to 6.0 VCSServiceManager failed with error code 1603?

VMware vSphere 5.1 Upgrade Guide

VMware vSphere 5.1 is now available for download. This vSphere Upgrade guide describes how to upgrade VMware vSphere™ to version 5.1. To learn how to simplify and automate your datacenter upgrade, see the vSphere Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide. If you want to move to vSphere 5.1 by performing fresh installations that do not… Continue reading VMware vSphere 5.1 Upgrade Guide

Taking Ownership of VM fails, VM appears to be in use, stuck in state error

While working in Vmware workstation, I lost connectivity to a LUN where I’m hosting virtual machines for workstation. As it turns out, the VMs were powered on and after restoring the connection, I could not get into the VM (windows 7) or power it off/restart it. When trying to open the VM in workstation, it… Continue reading Taking Ownership of VM fails, VM appears to be in use, stuck in state error

How to fix “System logging is not configured on host” warning message

When deploying new standalone host within vCenter or in a cluster, VMware vSphere gives you a warning message about system logging not configured on the host. The syslog service (vmsyslogd) logs messages from the host and its components to log files on a syslog server (most likely vCenter server in this case). In this how… Continue reading How to fix “System logging is not configured on host” warning message

Turn off Network redundancy message when configuring VMware HA/DRS

In my lab, when configuring VMware vSphere 5 HA/DRS in vCenter Server, you see the message under the “summary” tab in vSphere Client: Configuration issues: This host currently has no management network redundancy This message appears if VMKernel port does not have network redundancy configured at all or not configured properly. Normally, in production environment,… Continue reading Turn off Network redundancy message when configuring VMware HA/DRS

VMware: Unable to migrate VM, missing snapshot file and out of space Error

The error in the headline is right out of snapshot hell. If you have virtual machines (VMs) with large memory requirements, you probably know that you need extra space on the datastore to store the Memory Swap file (.vswp). When datastore housing the VM runs out of diskspace, you will not be able to create… Continue reading VMware: Unable to migrate VM, missing snapshot file and out of space Error

Invalid configuration for device 4 Error When Cloning or vMotion a Virtual Machine

When performing vMotion on a Virtual Machine (VM) or a template on vDS (virtual distributed switch) configuration, you may come across this error: Invalid configuration for Device ‘4’ I experienced this error in my lab over the weekend and removing the VM from the vDS portgroup fixed the issue. According to VMware, the cause of… Continue reading Invalid configuration for device 4 Error When Cloning or vMotion a Virtual Machine

Enable SSH in Nexus 1000v Virtual Supervisor Module (VSM)

For those users who have Cisco Nexus 1000v VSM deployed (distributed switch), if SSH fails to enable during provisioning or you are unable to SSH into the Nexus 1000v distritubed switch’s Virtual Supervisor Module (VSM), use steps below to enable SSH in VSM. How to enable SSH on Cisco Nexus 1000v VSM: Using CLI, login… Continue reading Enable SSH in Nexus 1000v Virtual Supervisor Module (VSM)