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Monday, October 29, 2018

Unable to deploy OVF with VMware vCenter Server 6.5 on Microsoft Windows Server

Problem

You’re attempting to deploy and OVF within a VMware vCenter Server 6.5 installed on a Microsoft Windows Server but noticed that the deployment within the vSphere Web client fails with the following error:

This version of vCenter Server does not support Deploy OVF Template using this version of vSphere Web Client. To Deploy OVF Template, login with version 6.5.0.0 of vSphere Web Client.

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You noticed that an attempt to use the vSphere Client (HTML5) will show that the Deploy OVF Template… is greyed out:

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You’ve confirmed that all of the services within the Windows services console are started:

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Searching the internet with the error message and symptoms returns plenty of results for the VCSA (vCenter Server Appliance) pointing to the following KB:

OVF deployment fails after upgrading to vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 U1 (2151085)
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2151085

However, the vCenter Server for this example is not an appliance but rather Windows and the version is 6.5 U2c (Build: 8815520):

Build numbers and versions of VMware vCenter Server (2143838)
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2143838

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Troubleshooting

Having no luck finding any other articles or blog posts on the internet that applied to issue with the Windows version of vCenter, I went ahead and checked the Content Library service as noted in the VCSA KB article and noticed that it was indeed stopped:

C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin>service-control --status

Running:

VMWareAfdService VMWareCertificateService VMWareDirectoryService VMwareComponentManager VMwareDNSService VMwareIdentityMgmtService VMwareSTS VServiceManager rhttpproxy vPostgres vapiEndpoint vimPBSM vmon vmonapi vmsyslogcollector vmware-cis-config vmware-license vmware-perfcharts vmware-psc-client vmwareServiceControlAgent vpxd vpxd-svcs vsan-health vsphere-ui vspherewebclientsvc

Stopped:

EsxAgentManager VMWareCAMService content-library mbcs vmware-autodeploy-waiter vmware-imagebuilder vmware-network-coredump

C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin>

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**Note that the content-library service on a Windows vCenter is named content-library while the VCSA has it named vmware-content-library so if you attempt to start the service with the supplied command in the KB then you’ll receive the error below:

C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin>service-control --status vmware-content-library

Failed to get service vmware-content-library status. Err Given service name vmware-content-library is invalid

Service-control failed. Error Given service name vmware-content-library is invalid

C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin>

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Proceeding to start the service on the Windows vCenter 6.5 server failed with the following error:

C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin>service-control --start content-library

Perform start operation. vmon_profile=None, svc_names=['content-library'], include_coreossvcs=False, include_leafossvcs=False

2018-10-19T16:19:40.231Z Service content-library state STOPPED

Error executing start on service content-library. Details {

"resolution": null,

"detail": [

{

"args": [

"content-library"

],

"id": "install.ciscommon.service.failstart",

"localized": "An error occurred while starting service 'content-library'",

"translatable": "An error occurred while starting service '%(0)s'"

}

],

"componentKey": null,

"problemId": null

}

Service-control failed. Error {

"resolution": null,

"detail": [

{

"args": [

"content-library"

],

"id": "install.ciscommon.service.failstart",

"localized": "An error occurred while starting service 'content-library'",

"translatable": "An error occurred while starting service '%(0)s'"

}

],

"componentKey": null,

"problemId": null

}

C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin>

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Attempting to start the Content Library Service from within the vSphere Web Client (Home > Administration > System Configuration > Services > Objects > Services > Content Library Service) will also fail:

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The "Start service" operation failed for the entity with the following error message.

Error (com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.error) => {

messages = [],

data = <null>

}

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Attempting to locate the ts-config.properties file as shown in the VCSA KB article will show that it exists but the corresponding ts-config.properties.rpmnew does not:

C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\content-library\config

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The content library logs also has not been updated during the time of the troubleshooting (this is because it is unable to start so no logs would be written):

C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\logs\content-library

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Solution

One of the reasons why the content library service on a Windows Server vCenter 6.5 server won’t start is if the appropriate local account created during the vCenter 6.5 server install no longer has the Log on as a batch job permission on the Windows server. In the case of this example, checking the properties of the permissions showed that the local server content library account was missing:

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Manually adding the account back into the security permission corrected the issue:

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It is also important to note that the accounts listed in the screenshots above are incomplete as there are many more accounts that need to be added as shown in the list below:

  • cm
  • content-library
  • eam
  • imagebuilder
  • mbcs
  • netdumper
  • perfcharts
  • rbd
  • vapiEndpoint
  • vmware-vpostgres
  • vsan-health
  • vsm
  • vsphere-client
  • vsphere-ui

Note that the list above can be found in this VMware KB:

Error "Logon failure: the user has not been granted the requested logon type at this computer" (2148054)
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2148054

The properties of the Log on as a batch job should look something like the screenshots below:

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With the appropriate account added, the content library service should start as expected:

C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin>service-control --start content-library

Perform start operation. vmon_profile=None, svc_names=['content-library'], include_coreossvcs=False, include_leafossvcs=False

2018-10-19T17:00:34.224Z Service content-library state STOPPED

Successfully started service content-library

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You should now be able to deploy an OVF from either the vSphere Web Client or vSphere Client (HTML5):

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Thursday, October 25, 2018

Deploying vSphere Replication Appliance 8.1 as an OVF via a vCenter 6.5 Content Library

It has been a while since I’ve deployed a vSphere Replication Appliance and since I had the opportunity to do so this week, I took the time to screenshot the process so I can write this blog post demonstrated how to use the Content Library for the deployment.

Begin by downloading the vSphere Replication appliance from the VMware portal:

VMWare-vSphere_Replication-8.1.0-9466424.iso

As the supplied download is an ISO file, you’ll need to unpack the package into a folder as such:

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The files we’ll need to upload into the Content Library is located in the bin folder:

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With the contents ready for upload, log into the vSphere Client, navigate into a Content Library that has been created, select Templates, click on Actions and then Import item:

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Select Local file and then click on the UPLOAD FILE button:

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Select the vSphere_Replication_OVF10.ovf file in the folder and click Open:

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What’s nice about the import process is that it will notify you if you forget to include the required VMDK files as shown in the screenshot below:

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Proceed by clicking on the UPLOAD button again and select the required files:

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The wizard should now have the IMPORT button active:

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Clicking on the IMPORT button will proceed with the upload:

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Once the import / upload has completed, the ovf file should now be available under the Templates section:

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Proceed by right clicking on the vSphere_Replication_OVF10.ovf file and select New VM from This Template…:

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Provide a name for the appliance in the Virtual machine name text field:

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Select a compute resource:

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A brief details summary will be provided

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Agree to the EULA as we always do:

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Select the appropriate vCPU configuration for the appliance:

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The following VMware document provides information on the decision for either a 2 or 4 vCPU configuration:

https://docs.vmware.com/en/vSphere-Replication/6.5/com.vmware.vsphere.replication-admin.doc/GUID-E654F2D8-7D56-4A81-9568-E85172A7022D.html

Note:

Selecting higher number of vCPUs ensures better performance of the vSphere Replication Management Server, but might slow down the replications that run on ESXi host systems that have 4 or less cores per NUMA node. If you are unsure what the hosts in your environment are, select 2 vCPUs.

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I’ll be selecting 2 vCPU for this example:

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Select the datastore for the appliance:

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Select a VLAN for the management network:

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Fill in the required fields for the appliance:

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Review and click Next:

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Review the deployment summary and click on Finish to begin the deployment:

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The Recent Tasks should now display the deployment status of the appliance:

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The new appliance should also be displayed in the client:

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Proceed by powering on the appliance:

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Wait until the following is displayed in the console:

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Launch a browser and navigate to:

https://<replication appliance IP/FQDN>:5480

Log in with the user name root and the password configured earlier in the wizard:

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Click on the Configuration button and fill in the appropriate fields for the vCenter information:

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**Note that the VRM service is stopped and it is expected as the configuration has not completed.

Proceed to click on Save and Restart Service once the configuration parameters have been configured and you should see the status Verifying LookupService’s SSL certificate to be displayed:

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The following Confirm SSL Certificate window will be displayed if you are using a self-signed certificate on the vCenter server so proceed by clicking on the Accept button:

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The status Saving configuration will be displayed:

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The process should completed with Successfully saved the configuration displayed and the VRM service shown to be running:

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The Site Recovery icon will not immediately show up:

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Attempting to log out and back in immediately will likely who the following message:

There are plug-ins that were installed or updated. They will be ready for use next time you log into vSphere Client.

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After logging out a second time and back in should now show the Site Recovery icon:

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