dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
Search similar:


uniqs
1250

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix

Premium Member

[Virtual] vCenter appliance 5.5a

anyone test the 5.5a vcenter appliance?

also what all would be needed to transition from a windows based vcenter to the appliance?

exocet_cm
Writing
Premium Member
join:2003-03-23
Brooklyn, NY

exocet_cm

Premium Member

I like Derek's installation guides. Check out the 5.5 here: »www.derekseaman.com/2013 ··· ion.html

It was a lifesaver for non-generic SSL certs in 5.1. I'll be visiting this for my 5.5 upgrade as soon as I'm done wrestling a bad port on my P410 RAID controller.

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix

Premium Member

I recall reading that pre-5.5 the appliance was junk, but heard the 5.5 one its actually good, and if the appliance is good now I think I might move from the windows based one to the appliance.

if the appliance is still no good then I'll be looking to upgrade it to 5.5

exocet_cm
Writing
Premium Member
join:2003-03-23
Brooklyn, NY

2 edits

exocet_cm

Premium Member

disregard
cramer
Premium Member
join:2007-04-10
Raleigh, NC
Westell 6100
Cisco PIX 501

cramer to DarkLogix

Premium Member

to DarkLogix
I've used the appliance as long as it's been available -- which means I've even used the defunct vCenter 2.5 for Linux abandoned experiment. It's an interesting turn around from VMware since they all but abandoned that beta, only to offer a linux appliance for all esxi trials (which was the only way to get it, btw) to "in the future, this will be the only way to get it."

(In my opinion, the appliance is infinitely better than the ever growing bloat this is Windows Server. VMware's ever expanding java-bloat is enough of a f'ing hassle. Before they wrote everything as java crap accessed through tomcat (an even bigger pile), vcenter was a nice neat low overhead platform -- in fact, I still have VI3 instances that run in XP w/512MB)

Also, I updated are not-yet-in-use 5.5 lab to 5.5a this evening. And I was blown away that it didn't require hours of me unscrewing all the things it broke. Check for updates, Install updates, Reboot. And it completely WORKED. It might help that the VC doesn't actually do anything (2 hosts, 2 vcloud edge firewall vms)

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix

Premium Member

Could you provide a how to for transitioning from the windows vcenter to the 5.5 appliance?

on the download page they have multiple VMDK's (a OS and a data dick what all is needed?)
cramer
Premium Member
join:2007-04-10
Raleigh, NC
Westell 6100
Cisco PIX 501

cramer

Premium Member

said by DarkLogix:

Could you provide a how to for transitioning from the windows vcenter to the 5.5 appliance?

Our setup isn't complicated, so there's nothing to migrate. Install a fresh image and start from the beginning -- it'll relearn most things as the hosts are added, however, things like resource pools may not be picked up or become completely screwed in the process. (in that case, you may end up having to manually delete the resource pools on the esxi hosts themselves.) Note: VCSA doesn't (yet) support all the things the windows install does -- i.e. VUM, which I've found to be a uselessly broken pile anyway.(*)

on the download page they have multiple VMDK's (a OS and a data dick what all is needed?)

Just use the OVA. The individual components are there for custom installations.

(*) VMWare has the long standing habit of putting things in the metadata before actually making the files available. VUM adds them to the database, fails to download the vibs and then you are very much f***ed because it'll never try again, and there's no way to remove the BS from the database! I run esxupdate pointed directly at the mothership.

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix

Premium Member

Ya I tried stage and remediate on a 5.0 host to update it and it wouldn't update.

exocet_cm
Writing
Premium Member
join:2003-03-23
Brooklyn, NY

exocet_cm to cramer

Premium Member

to cramer
5.5a is really that easy? No spending hours or days screwing with java problems and security settings?
cramer
Premium Member
join:2007-04-10
Raleigh, NC
Westell 6100
Cisco PIX 501

cramer

Premium Member

Well, it still uses VMWare's hacked up "tomcat" with all the SSL cipher set to "high security", so stock IE on XP cannot access it. (which means the viclient on XP will fail to connect to some plugins.) But, yeah, it looks like "it just works" -- granted, we've done thing at all with the 5.5 lab yet.