PSC

Add External PSC 6.0 U2 to Active Directory Domain

Pradeep 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

 

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SSO Server test failed when Configuring VDP 6.1.8 during vCenter Registration

Pradeep AdapaLeave a comment

Recently, I came across an issue while configuring a new instance of VDP 6.1.8 appliance while performing vCenter Registration to the vCenter appliance 6.5 with an external Platform Services Controller.

below is the error message I have been getting

vdp_error_vcenter_registration

I have provided the administrator account user credentials to the VCSA (vCenter server) with the default ports but still received the error.

Upon some deep troubleshooting, found out that the SSO server is the Platform Services Controller (PSC) since my environment had an external PSC and here is how you resolve this issue:

De-select the checkbox “Use vCenter for SSO authentication”, and add the Platform Services Controller hostname/IP in the new SSO entry line.

vdp_vcenter_registration_01

Now, you can test the connection and it will be a success

vdp_vcenter_registration_02

This is how the issue was resolved. Hope it helps someone out there.

This is with VDP version 6.1.8 connecting to VCSA 6.5 with External PSC

Reset root password on vCenter PSC 6.0 U2

Pradeep 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 !!

Upgrade or Patch An External PSC (Platform Services Controller) vCenter 6.0

Pradeep Adapa6 Comments

Today, I had to patch an external PSC controllers at a customer site, and here is the process I followed:

  1. First, take a snapshot of the platform controllers (PSC01 and PSC02)
  2. Enable SSH on the platform controllers (SSH), I did this by logging in from the DCUI of the PSC appliance and enable SSH
  3. Use a client like Putty to SSH into PSC01
  4. Before doing anything, go ahead and mount the iso, in my case it was “VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-6.0.0.xxxxx-36xxxxx-patch.iso” to the PSC01 virtual machine
  5. After logging into the PSC01 using SSH, login to PSC01 and perform the following commands
  6. Command> software-packages stage --iso --acceptEulas
  7. The above command will stage the code in the appliance
  8. Once the staging is complete, we do the following
  9. Command>software-packages install --staged
  10. This will start the installation of the staged code in the PSC
  11. we repeat the same steps for PSC01

here is the screen of the commands:

Patching_External_PSC_controller

PS: I have observed that the installation process takes quite a while to complete.

Here is the error I have come across when upgrading the PSC:

Error_while_upgrading_PSC

NOTE: I have received an error “specified group ‘Ip’ unknown” while upgrading the PSC and the solution is to enable IPv6 on the PSC before starting the upgrade. This solution was taken from the release notes here

EDIT: I have observed that even if you enable IPv6 on the appliance, you still get the message “Specified group ‘Ip’ unknown”, however the upgrade process fine and completes the upgrade.

 

EDIT: You could also use the following command if you don’t want to stage the code

Command>software-packages install --iso --acceptEulas