Posts by Sean Whitney | Virtually Limitless

What is a Platform Services Controller (PSC) in vSphere 6.x

April 9, 2015 by: Sean Whitney in: Platform Services Controller, vSphere 6.0, vSphere 6.5 5 Comments

Platform Services Controller With vSphere 6.0 introduced, along came the Platform Services Controller, or PSC for short. The best way to think of the PSC is Single Sign-On (SSO) plus more. What is “more” you ask? Let’s start with the deployment options. The PSC can be deployed as either a Windows Server or an Appliance. You can either embedded your PSC or use it as an external PSC (See Software and Hardware Requirements). In my opinion, I would always deploy the PSC externally because it will future proof your environment if your infrastructure is growing. For a list […]
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Python.exe has stopped working during installation or upgrade to vCenter Server 6.0

April 8, 2015 by: Sean Whitney in: Troubleshooting 2 Comments

If you happen to encounter the error “Python.exe has stopped working” during an upgrade or installation of vCenter Server you may have hit a known issue that VMware is working on resolving. To confirm you are hitting this known issue, reference the vminst.log and the upgradeRunner.log files. You should see the error messages below. vminst.log (%temp%) E: MonitorStatusFile: Process exited with a non-zero exit code; no status monitoring so assuming failure E: LaunchUpgradeRunnerCommon: Failed to run pre-upgrade phase: “Z:\PFiles\VMware\CIS\python\python.exe” “Z:\PFiles\VMware\CIS\cis_upgrade_runner\UpgradeRunner.py” –mode=requirements –configFile=”C:\Users\administrator\AppData\Local\Temp\UpgradeRunnerInput.json” –logDir=”C:\Users\administrator\AppData\Local\Temp\vcsUpgrade” –locale=en –outputFile=”C:\Users\administrator\AppData\Local\Temp\UpgradeRunnerPreupgradeOutput.json” upgradeRunner.log (vCenter_Support_Bundle\vcsUpgrade\) ERROR __main__ Upgrade Runner has encountered an exception Traceback (most recent […]
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Incompatible MSSQL version with vCenter Server 6.0 during install or upgrade

April 7, 2015 by: Sean Whitney in: vSphere 6.0 5 Comments

There has been a new issue surfacing when installing or upgrading to vCenter Server 6.0. The error message seems pretty clear: Incompatible MSSQL version with vCenter Server 6.0. If you dive a little bit deeper and look at additional logs like vminst.log or the CollectRequirements_com.vmware.vcdb_date.log you will see the following entries. vminst.log vcsInstUtil-2562624| I: ParsePreUpgradeOutput: Export disk req: 0 MB, Import disk req: 0 MB. vcsInstUtil-2562624| I: PitCA_MessageBox: Displaying message: “Error: Source vCenter Server validation found an issue: ERROR: Incompatible MSSQL version with vCenter Server 6.0 Resolution: Make sure your database is configured to meet vCenter Server upgrade […]
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ESXi 6.0 SSL certificate replacement and management

April 6, 2015 by: Sean Whitney in: SSL 11 Comments

Note: As a prerequisite, the ESXi 6.0 server must have been a fresh install, and not an upgrade from a previous version. ESXi CA certificates If you are replacing your ESXi certificates with CA certificates, the best method is to make your VMCA a subordinate CA and allow it to sign certificates for the ESXi host. Please see directions here for making your VMCA a subordinate CA. I had received the error “Start Time Error” shown below. To resolve this I added the ESXi host to the domain, and added the VMCA certificate as a Trusted Publisher certificate […]
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Joining the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) 6.0 to an Active Directory Domain

April 2, 2015 by: Sean Whitney in: VCSA 6 1 Comment

Joining the vCenter Server Appliance to an Active Directory Domain in vSphere 6 is much different from in previous versions. Previously, you would use the Virtual Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) by navigating to the FQDN of the server over port 5480. In vSphere 6.0, you need to perform the steps through the vSphere Web Client. Once you know the new process, the task is relatively easy and quick. Note: You can only join a PSC or VCSA with an embedded PSC to an AD domain. Step 1. Navigate to the vSphere Client Web Client https://FQDN/vsphere-client Step 2. […]
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Single Sign On or Platform Services Controller (PSC) fails to install or upgrade with Error code 1603

April 1, 2015 by: Sean Whitney in: Troubleshooting 1 Comment

vCenter Single Sign-On Setup Wizard ended prematurely because of an error Ah, the famous 1603 error code when installing or upgrading the PSC or SSO server. Unfortunately, this is not a clear cut error code, nor is there one way to fix the issue. In fact this error code is so generic you typically need to review other log files to understand what may be happening. That being said, I wanted to compile a one stop shop for troubleshooting this error code, what errors the logs show and any resolutions I have found. The typical error messages […]
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vCenter Server Displays blank or no inventory after upgrading to vCenter Server 6.0

March 30, 2015 by: Sean Whitney in: Troubleshooting 4 Comments

vCenter Server Blank Inventory After reinstalling vCenter Server 6.0 using the same FQDN or IP on the same machine, the vSphere Web Client’s inventory is blank. To resolve this issue, you will need to follow the steps below. Step 1. Navigate to the Managed Object Browser using a web browser: https://FQDN/cm/mob Step 2. Select Search
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vSphere Web Client Displays Error #1009 in vCenter Server 5.1, 5.5 and 6.0

March 25, 2015 by: Sean Whitney in: Troubleshooting 8 Comments

Error 1009 in vSphere Web Client An error that frequently comes up in the vSphere Web Client is Error 1009. This issue occurs in vCenter Server 5.1, 5.5, and 6.0 when navigating through inventory. Typically when this error message pops up you have to refresh your entire session. This issue is almost always caused by cached objects with bad references. These cached objects are stored in the SerenityDB folder under the users name, if by chance any of the cached objects are deleted, but the cache still exists, you get bad Object ID references which will crash the […]
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Repointing vCenter Server 6.0 to a new External Platform Services Controller (PSC)

March 23, 2015 by: Sean Whitney in: Platform Services Controller 11 Comments

Let’s say something happens to your existing external Platform Services Controller (PSC) and it becomes unrecoverable, if this is the case you can always spin up a new PSC and repoint your vCenter Server to the new external PSC! It’s actually very simple to accomplish this task. All you will need to do is run the following commands after installing the new PSC. vCenter Server Appliance 1. Log into the vCenter Server appliance as root 2. Run the following command: /usr/lib/vmware-vmafd/bin/vmafd-cli set-dc-name –server-name localhost -dc-name <FQDN_of_new_PSC> 3. Recycle all services in the vCenter appliance by running the […]
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Listing Services registered with Single Sign-On (SSO) in vSphere 6

March 23, 2015 by: Sean Whitney in: SSO 4 Comments

Listing SSO Services Listing services in Single Sign-On is much different in vSphere 6 than it was in vSphere 5.5 or 5.1. Previously, you would run the ssolscli.cmd but now, you will need to run a Python script called lstool.py. The command to list all of the services registered with SSO 6 is below, you will need to open a cmd prompt and run this from the Platform Services Controller (PSC). “C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\python\python.exe” “C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\VMware Identity Services\lstool\scripts\lstool.py” list –url http://localhost:7080/lookupservice/sdk Once that is complete you should see output similar to the following: […]
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