As you probably are aware, Intel disclosed a CPU Speculative-Execution vulnerability (called L1 Terminal Fault) on August 14, 2018.  Like many others who work with VMware vSphere environments, I read up on the remediation steps (KB 55683) so I could patch my small lab environment.  For my vCenter, I was excited to use the VAMI Update functionality for the first time!

I logged into the Virtual Appliance Management Interface (or VAMI) by pointing my web browser at the IP of my vCenter Server Appliance using port 5480 (for example: https://myvcenter.lab.net:5480) and navigated to the Update tab.  I hit the Check Updates button with the option to check the CD ROM and URL; but to my confusion no updates appeared in the list.

I double-checked KB 2143838 which is the list of vCenter Server build numbers to ensure a new release was available.  Sure enough – vCenter Server 6.7.0d was released on 8-14-2018.

Continue reading “vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 Update function may not list available patches”

Now that you have migrated to the vCenter Server Appliance (or VCSA), you should start exploring some of the features included in the 6.5 version of the VCSA. Today, we will be looking at one of those features that you should definitely be using – Backup!

The VCSA Backup function allows you to create a backup of the vCenter Configuration, Inventory, and Historical data. If the appliance becomes inoperable you can use this backup during a reinstall of the appliance to get back to the current state.

Backing up the vCenter Server Appliance

Login to the vSphere Appliance Management Interface (or VAMI) by pointing your web browser to the VCSA IP Address or FQDN at port 5480.

Enter the username and password for your appliance and click Login. Once the VAMI loads, you will find the Backup function in the Summary section.

Continue reading “Back up the vCenter Server Appliance”