Tag Archives: VMware

Change VM MoRef ID in Veeam B&R database

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Nothing revolutionary here, but I thought I’ll document the procedure as I happen to use it every now and then.

All VMs are assigned with a MoRef id when they are added to a vCenter deployment.

When you want to backup a VM using Veeam B&R, you add it into a pre-configured job using its name, however on the backend Veeam associates the VM with that job using the MoRef id.

If the VM which is being backed up by Veeam B&R is removed from the vCenter inventory (because you removed a whole host from vCenter or a VM was in an invalid state), the MoRef id for that VM will change when the VM is added back into the vCenter. Veeam will not register the MoRef id change automatically and kick off a new full backup (on the next backup cycle) for the same VM it previously backed up – thinking it’s a completely new VM (due to the unique new MoRef id).

To avoid a new full backup, you need to manually update the MoRef id for that VM in the Veeam database prior to the next backup cycle.

Note that the following steps are not supported by Veeam officially. Mess with the Veeam database at your own risk!

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Enable Hot Add vCPU and Memory on VMs using PowerShell

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I’ve got a new version of this script at this link.

This is a simple script which will allow you to enable the Hot Add vCPU and Memory feature on all or a sub set of your VMs.

IMPORTANT NOTE – the script will recursively power off each VM defined in CSV, apply the config then power each VM back on. So make sure you run this script in an outage window.

When creating the CSV, make sure to include the header row – Name.

#Function to generate wait time progress bar
function Start-Sleep($seconds) {
    $doneDT = (Get-Date).AddSeconds($seconds)
    while($doneDT -gt (Get-Date)) {
    $secondsLeft = $doneDT.Subtract((Get-Date)).TotalSeconds
    $percent = ($seconds - $secondsLeft) / $seconds * 100
    Write-Progress -Activity "Sleeping" -Status "Sleeping..." -SecondsRemaining 
    $secondsLeft -PercentComplete $percent
    [System.Threading.Thread]::Sleep(500)
    }
Write-Progress -Activity "Sleeping" -Status "Sleeping..." -SecondsRemaining 0 - 
Completed
}

#Variables
$HotAddVMs = Import-CSV c:\temp\hot_add_disabled_vms.csv
$vmConfigSpec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec
$vmConfigSpec.CpuHotAddEnabled = "True"
$vmConfigSpec.MemoryHotAddEnabled = "True"

Foreach ($VM in ($HotAddVMs)) {
    
    #Shutdown Guest OS / Power off VM
    Get-VM $VM.Name | Shutdown-VMGuest -Confirm:$false

    #Wait for VM to power off before executing config cmd  
    section – in which case the config cmd will fail 
    while((Get-VM $VM.Name).PowerState -ne 'PoweredOff') {

    Start-Sleep -Seconds 10
    }
    
    #Execute config cmd
    $VMConfig = Get-View -VIObject $VM.Name
    $VMConfig.ReconfigVM($vmConfigSpec)

    #Power on VM
    Get-VM $VM.Name | Start-VM   
}

Upgrade VM Hardware Version after Guest OS reboot

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Last week I was looking for a way to bundle VM Hardware Upgrades with our monthly Guest OS patching. After the Guest OS is patched, it gets rebooted. The goal was to get the VMs to upgrade their hardware after the Guest OS is rebooted. And avoid having to power of the VMs to carry out the hardware upgrades.

It appears this is possible by changing the VM UpgradePolicy to “Always” and setting a VersionKey (i.e. the ESX compatibility level) using Powershell.

To prove that changing these VM settings I mentioned above actually triggers a Hardware Upgrade at Guest reboot, I built a test VM, then carried out the steps below.

I’ve simply used the scripts provided in this blog post. https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2018/09/automating-upgrade-of-vmware-tools-and-vmware-compatibility.html

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Backup Citrix VD templates with OVF Tool utility & PowerCLI

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This script will automate the process of backing up your Citrix VD templates. As a matter of fact, you can use it for backing up any VM in your vCenter server.

The script leverages the OVF Tool utility. This tool can be downloaded from myvmware.com and should be installed on the server you’re scheduling the script on. For more info: www.vmware.com/support/developer/ovf

The script will run the OVF Tool utility for each Template or VM defined in the CSV file. It will then zip the log files generated by the OVF Tool utility and email them to the email addresses defined in the variables section.

NOTE – Each time the script runs the OVF data is overwritten. Export job logs for previous runs are archived in the Log-Archive folder. The script also creates a console log file in the root of the export folder.

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Change VDS Port Group Load Balancing Policy with PowerCLI

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#Get current load balancing policy
$VDS = VDS name
$pg = Portgroup name
Get-VDswitch -Name $VDS | Get-VDPortgroup $pg | Get-VDUplinkTeamingPolicy

#Set new load balancing policy

#Set Route based on IP hash
Get-VDswitch -Name $VDS | Get-VDPortgroup $pg | Get-VDUplinkTeamingPolicy | Set-VDUplinkTeamingPolicy -LoadBalancingPolicy LoadBalanceIP

#Set Route based on source MAC hash
Get-VDswitch -Name $VDS | Get-VDPortgroup $pg | Get-VDUplinkTeamingPolicy | Set-VDUplinkTeamingPolicy -LoadBalancingPolicy LoadBalanceSrcMac

#Set Route based on originating virtual port
Get-VDswitch -Name $VDS | Get-VDPortgroup $pg | Get-VDUplinkTeamingPolicy | Set-VDUplinkTeamingPolicy -LoadBalancingPolicy LoadBalanceSrcId

#Set Use explicit failover order
Get-VDswitch -Name $VDS | Get-VDPortgroup $pg | Get-VDUplinkTeamingPolicy | Set-VDUplinkTeamingPolicy -LoadBalancingPolicy ExplicitFailover

#Set Route based on physcial NIC load
Get-VDswitch -Name $VDS | Get-VDPortgroup $pg | Get-VDUplinkTeamingPolicy | Set-VDUplinkTeamingPolicy -LoadBalancingPolicy LoadBalanceLoadBased

#Remove $pg to apply new load balancing policy to all portgroups on the same VDS
Get-VDswitch -Name $VDS | Get-VDPortgroup | Get-VDUplinkTeamingPolicy | Set-VDUplinkTeamingPolicy -LoadBalancingPolicy LoadBalanceIP

For other Set-VDUplinkTeamingPolicy cmdlet parameters refer to the following documentation:
https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-6-5/index.jsp#com.vmware.powercli.cmdletref.doc/Set-VDUplinkTeamingPolicy.html

SEPM12.1 – Security Virtual Appliance Unknown Status

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I have recently deployed Symantec EndPoint Protection in our my environment.  Great product, unfortunately can be a little tricky to configure sometimes.

For the purposes of this post, I’m assuming you have installed and configured the following:

  • vShield Manager
  • Security Virtual Appliance on each Esxi host, SVA must be installed on each host hosting virtual machines using a vShield-enabled Shared Insight Cache.
  • Symantec EndPoint Protection Manager
  • Symantec EndPoint Protection Client

Once all of the above is installed and configured, you may find you are getting a “Unknown Status” in the Security Virtual Appliance column of the Client table in Symantec EndPoint Protection Manager.

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