Platform service controller 6.0 – Converged, Hyperconverged Infrastructure & Virtualization

Add External PSC 6.0 U2 to Active Directory Domain

June 12, 2018Pradeep AdapaLeave a comment

I have been thinking of writing this post for a while and here you go…

In vSphere 6.0 U2, you can have an External PSC or an Embedded PSC. The below process is to add an External PSC to the Active Directory Domain.

Login into the vCenter server, go to Administration tab, go to System Configuration –> Nodes and click on the PSC node you want to add to the domain.

psc01_Domain_setting — Click on the node, go to Manage tab, click on Active Directory and click on Join button

psc01_domain_join01 — Provide the Domain name and its credentials (It could be a read-only service account in the domain) to join the PSC to the domain

psc01_domain_join02

once credentials are provided, click OK to proceed.

Note that the only way for you to know that this process is complete is that you get no error and there is no entry in the recent tasks tab in the vSphere web client. If that is the case then the domain add is successful.

Now, you will need to reboot the PSC

psc01_domain_after_psc01_reboot — Once the PSC is rebooted, you can go back into the vCenter server and to the node and you can see that this node (PSC) is now added to the domain.

In a similar way, you can add the remaining PSC’s to the domain and finally, you will need to add the Identity source to the vCenter server itself under single sign-on

PSC’s fail to join Domain after Upgrade from vSphere 6.0 U2 to 6.0 U2b or 6.0U3b

September 6, 2017Pradeep AdapaLeave a comment

Recently, I have come across an issue with the PSC’s not joining to the domain (They disconnected from the domain automatically) after upgrading the vCenter components (PSC01, PSC02 and vCenter windows server) from 6.0 Update 2 build 3634791 to 6.0 Update 2a build 4632154 or to 6.0 Update 3b build 5326079. This issue occurred as the windows domain controller was 2012 R2 and SMB 2 was the communication protocol to the domain controller. we have to enable SMB 2 on the PSC’s for them to communicate to the domain after the Upgrade.

here is the process to enable SMB2 on the PSC’s —

/opt/likewise/bin/lwregshell list_values '[HKEY_THIS_MACHINE\Services\lwio\Parameters\Drivers\rdr]'

check the value of “Smb2Enabled”, this value will be 0, we will need to change it to 1 to enable it.

change SMB2 to be Enabled

/opt/likewise/bin/lwregshell set_value '[HKEY_THIS_MACHINE\Services\lwio\Parameters\Drivers\rdr]' Smb2Enabled 1

Once enabled, we need to restart the service lwio

/opt/likewise/bin/lwsm restart lwio

Check the values again —

/opt/likewise/bin/lwregshell list_values '[HKEY_THIS_MACHINE\Services\lwio\Parameters\Drivers\rdr]'

This time the value of “Smb2Enabled” will be 1.

This process is repeated for PSC02 as well and once this is done on both the PSC’s, you can go ahead and add the PSC’s to the domain and the function works !!

The process to change the SMB value on ESXi 6.0 is a little different and here are the commands —

Check values —

/usr/lib/vmware/likewise/bin/lwregshell list_values ‘[HKEY_THIS_MACHINE\Services\lwio\Parameters\Drivers\rdr]’

Change SMB2 to be enabled

/usr/lib/vmware/likewise/bin/lwregshell set_value ‘[HKEY_THIS_MACHINE\Services\lwio\Parameters\Drivers\rdr]’ SMB2Enabled 1

Restart lwio service

/usr/lib/vmware/likewise/bin/lwsm restart lwio

Reset root password on vCenter PSC 6.0 U2

July 20, 2017Pradeep AdapaLeave a comment

Resetting the root password on a Platform Services Controller (PSC) 6.0 U2 is taken from the following link —

Link to Reset PSC root Password

The above website clearly mentions on how to use the SUSE Linux Rescue CD to create a new root password and update it in the /etc/shadow file on the PSC itself and after reboot you will be able to get into the PSC with the new password.

Hope this helps !!

Restart the services in VCSA 6.0

August 12, 2016August 16, 2016Pradeep Adapa2 Comments

Recently I had to restart the web-client service in vcsa 6.0 U1 appliance and found out that the web client service is called differently than in the windows vCenter. the web client service in the vcsa is called vSphere-client

here are the commands to start, stop and restart any services in the vcsa appliance.

To restart a vCenter Server and/or Platform Services Controller service using the command-line:
Log in as root through an SSH or console session on the vCenter Server Appliance.
Run this command to enable the shell:

shell.set --enabled true

Run this command to launch the shell:

shell

Run this command to change directories to /bin:

cd /bin

Run this command to list the vCenter Server Appliance services:

service-control --list

Run this command to stop a specific service:

service-control --stop servicename

You may also stop all services by typing the command:

service-control --stop --all

Run this command to start a specific service:

service-control --start servicename

You may also start all services by typing the command:

service-control --start --all

Here are all the services in the vCenter server appliance –>

vCenter Server Appliance services:

Service Name	Description
applmgmt	VMware Appliance Management Service
vmware-cis-license	VMware License Service
vmware-cm	VMware Component Manager
vmware-eam	VMware ESX Agent Manager
vmware-sts-idmd	VMware Identity Management Service
vmware-invsvc	VMware Inventory Service
vmware-mbcs	VMware Message Bus Configuration Service
vmware-netdumper	VMware vSphere ESXi Dump Collector
vmware-perfcharts	VMware Performance Charts
vmware-rbd-watchdog	VMware vSphere Auto Deploy Waiter
vmware-rhttpproxy	VMware HTTP Reverse Proxy
vmware-sca	VMware Service Control Agent
vmware-sps	VMware vSphere Profile-Driven Storage Service
vmware-stsd	VMware Security Token Service
vmware-syslog	VMware Common Logging Service
vmware-syslog-health	VMware Syslog Health Service
vmware-vapi-endpoint	VMware vAPI Endpoint
vmware-vdcs	VMware Content Library Service
vmafdd	VMware Authentication Framework
vmcad	VMware Certificate Service
vmdird	VMware Directory Service
vmware-vpostgres	VMware Postgres
vmware-vpx-workflow	VMware vCenter Workflow Manager
vmware-vpxd	VMware vCenter Server
vmware-vsm	VMware vService Manager
vsphere-client	vSphere Web Client
vmware-vws	VMware System and Hardware Health Manager
vmware-vsan-health	VMware Virtual SAN Health Service