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Aria Operations USB controller report for Critical Severity VMSA-2024-0006

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Yesterday VMware released VMSA 2024 0006 that impact all VMs that have configured an USB controller. Matrix response give us two choice: install ESXi patch or apply a workarounds that consist to remove the USB controller from a VMware ESXi virtual machine. If you decide to use the second option I created a report on Aria Operation to determinate which VMs are impacted.  Below few simple steps to setup the report: 1 - Firs of all you must enable "Disconnected USB controller" properties, in Configure -> Policies -> Policy definitions: 2 - Choose your "Active" policy and click on "edit policy" 3 - Click on "Metrics and Properties" 4 - Search "USB" in virtual machine object type and activate the properties 5 - Create or edit a view adding the "Disconnected USB controller" 6 - Create or edit a report based on the previous view 7 - Filter the column by "false" Now you have the VMs list affected where you must to remo

Aria Operations unable to edit credentials

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  After upgrade Aria Operation from 8.14 to 8.16 one of my customers reporting me that can't manage anymore all credentials. The two options under 3-dots "Edit" and "Delete" was grayed out. I found the solution under the release notes; credentials now require an owner and after assign ownership, are editable once again. Below useful links and detailed snapshot: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Aria-Operations/8.14/rn/vmware-aria-operations-814-release-notes/index.html https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Aria-Operations/8.14/Configuring-Operations/GUID-0D87C202-6F7D-4A7D-A69D-953AC382E37B.html Thanks for reading!

vExpert 2024

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I'm proud to share I became vExpert for the first time. I'm very happy to join in this amazing community! Special thanks to my mentors  Alessandro Romeo  and  Lorenzo Moglie  also to my manager  Nicola Di Lauro  to be supportive on this initiative.

Aria Operations for Logs - Increase datastore alert

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  Here a quick and easy alert configuration in Aria Operations for Logs helpful to know when, how much and who increase a datastore size. In query section insert the two text conditions that contain the key words "user:" and "increased in capacity". Don't forget to put "any" to ensure to match both conditions. Lastly put your email address in "Trigger condition" to notify yourself. Thanks for reading!

vSphere - NetWorker SQL backups fail with error: "Unable to find VSS metadata files in directory"

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In this post I want analyze a curious behavior of NetWorker SQL backup in vSphere enviroment: Symptoms An examination of the MSVMAppAgent logs on the SQL server show the following errors: C:\Program Files\DPSAPPS\MSVMAPPAGENT\logs\msvmcatsnap.log 171634:msvmagentcatsnap: ===Command Line Arguments===:  C:\Program Files\DPSAPPS\MSVMAPPAGENT\bin\msvmagentcatsnap.exe -i -Extracted VSS metadata file 'C:\Program Files (x86)\EMC\vProxy FLR Agent\tmp\695ccb0f-b0f3-43a5-942f-e0c83fcafe26\vm-180966-vssManifest.zip' to directory 'C:\Program Files\DPSAPPS\MSVMAPPAGENT\tmp\VSSMetadata.2021-07-30_09-08-58'168886: msvmagentcatsnap: Unable to find VSS metadata files in directory C:\Program Files\DPSAPPS\MSVMAPPAGENT\tmp\VSSMetadata.2021-07-30_09-08-58.102333:msvmagentcatsnap:  Exiting with failure. Cause When VMware takes a snapshot of a Windows VM with the Quiesce option enabled it uses the installed VMware tools to query theMicrosoft Volume Shadow Copy service. Then creates a file ca

VMware Aria Operations - vCenter CPUs and Cores report

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Last week one of my customer asked me how he can create a report that show the number of physical CPUs and the number of physical cores under some vCenter monitored by his Aria Operations instance. First of all create a custom view with the desired information in six easy steps: Now create the report based on this view following the below steps: And finally run the report on the right objects in our case a subset of vCenter configured on the Aria Operations instance and here the pain point, because there are 2 options: Choose vCenter one by one  Choose all of them (vSphere world)  And now? How we can run this report in a subset of them? The right answer is: use custom groups! Under "Environment" select "Custom Groups" and press "ADD" Insert the group name, select "Group Type", "Policy" and under "Objects to always include" select the desired vCenters. Click on ADD and OK.                                                       

VMware Odyssey Labs

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  Everyone knows VMware Hands on Lab (HOL) the platform that provide a quick and easy way to access VMware products and solutions, testing use cases and learning about the latest features with no installation required.  But not everyone knows that there is a particular section where the learning became a challenge! VMware Odyssey Labs . What is VMware Odyssey Labs? VMware Odyssey Labs is a scenario-based learning experience created by VMware to help IT professionals improve their skills and acquire new ones. This learning experience focuses on everyday IT infrastructure scenarios, such as configuring networks, administering servers, and implementing services. How does VMware Odyssey Labs work? VMware Odyssey Labs allows users to access virtual labs anytime and anywhere. Users can choose from a variety of labs, each offering a different learning experience. Each lab is based on a pre-configured virtual environment, and users have access to a wide range of tools and resources to complet