Cleanup Failed Tasks in SDDC Manager

I was chatting with my colleague Paudie O’Riordan yesterday about PowerVCF as he was doing some testing internally and he mentioned that a great addition would be to have the ability to find, and cleanup failed tasks in SDDC Manager. Some use cases for this would be, cleaning up an environment before handing it off to a customer, or before recording a demo etc.

Currently there isnt a supported public API to delete a failed task so you have to run a curl command on SDDC Manager with the task ID. So getting a list of failed tasks and then running a command to delete each one can take time. See Martin Gustafson’s post on how to do it manually here.

I took a look at our existing code for retrieving tasks (and discovered a bug in the logic that is now fixed in PowerVCF 2.1.5!) and we have the ability to specify -status. So requesting a list of tasks with -status “failed” returns a list. So i put the script below together to retrieve a list of failed tasks, loop through them and delete them. The script requires the following inputs

  • SDDC Manager FQDN. This is the target that is queried for failed tasks
  • SDDC Manager API User. This is the user that is used to query for failed tasks. Must have the SDDC Manager ADMIN role
  • Password for the above user
  • Password for the SDDC Manager appliance vcf user. This is used to run the task deletion. This is not tracked in the credentials DB so we need to pass it.

Once the above variables are populated the script does the following:

  • Checks for PowerVCF (minimum version 2.1.5) and installs if not present
  • Requests an API token from SDDC Manager
  • Queries SDDC Manager for the management domain vCenter Server details
  • Uses the management domain vCenter Server details to retrieve the SDDC Manager VM name
  • Queries SDDC Manager for a list of tasks in a failed state
  • Loops through the list of failed tasks and deletes them from SDDC Manager
  • Verifies the task is no longer present

Here is the script. It is also published here if you would like to enhance it

# Script to cleanup failed tasks in SDDC Manager
# Written by Brian O'Connell - Staff Solutions Architect @ VMware

#User Variables
# SDDC Manager FQDN. This is the target that is queried for failed tasks
$sddcManagerFQDN = "lax-vcf01.lax.rainpole.io"
# SDDC Manager API User. This is the user that is used to query for failed tasks. Must have the SDDC Manager ADMIN role
$sddcManagerAPIUser = "administrator@vsphere.local"
$sddcManagerAPIPassword = "VMw@re1!"
# Password for the SDDC Manager appliance vcf user. This is used to run the task deletion
$sddcManagerVCFPassword = "VMw@re1!"



# DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE
#########################################

# Set TLS to 1.2 to avoid certificate mismatch errors
[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12

# Install PowerVCF if not already installed
if (!(Get-InstalledModule -name PowerVCF -MinimumVersion 2.1.5 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {
    Install-Module -Name PowerVCF -MinimumVersion 2.1.5 -Force
}

# Request a VCF Token using PowerVCF
Request-VCFToken -fqdn $sddcManagerFQDN -username $sddcManagerAPIUser -password $sddcManagerAPIPassword

# Disconnect all connected vCenters to ensure only the desired vCenter is available
if ($defaultviservers) {
    $server = $defaultviservers.Name
    foreach ($server in $defaultviservers) {            
        Disconnect-VIServer -Server $server -Confirm:$False
    }
}

# Retrieve the Management Domain vCenter Server FQDN
$vcenterFQDN = ((Get-VCFWorkloadDomain | where-object {$_.type -eq "MANAGEMENT"}).vcenters.fqdn)
$vcenterUser = (Get-VCFCredential -resourceType "PSC").username
$vcenterPassword = (Get-VCFCredential -resourceType "PSC").password

# Retrieve SDDC Manager VM Name
if ($vcenterFQDN) {
    Write-Output "Getting SDDC Manager Manager VM Name"
    Connect-VIServer -server $vcenterFQDN -user $vcenterUser -password $vcenterPassword | Out-Null
    $sddcmVMName = ((Get-VM * | Where-Object {$_.Guest.Hostname -eq $sddcManagerFQDN}).Name)              
}

# Retrieve a list of failed tasks
$failedTaskIDs = @()
$ids = (Get-VCFTask -status "Failed").id
Foreach ($id in $ids) {
    $failedTaskIDs += ,$id
}
# Cleanup the failed tasks
Foreach ($taskID in $failedTaskIDs) {
    $scriptCommand = "curl -X DELETE 127.0.0.1/tasks/registrations/$taskID"
    Write-Output "Deleting Failed Task ID $taskID"
    $output = Invoke-VMScript -ScriptText $scriptCommand -vm $sddcmVMName -GuestUser "vcf" -GuestPassword $sddcManagerVCFPassword

# Verify the task was deleted    
    Try {
    $verifyTaskDeleted = (Get-VCFTask -id $taskID)
    if ($verifyTaskDeleted -eq "Task ID Not Found") {
        Write-Output "Task ID $taskID Deleted Successfully"
    }
}
    catch {
        Write-Error "Something went wrong. Please check your SDDC Manager state"
    }
}
Disconnect-VIServer -server $vcenterFQDN -Confirm:$False

As always, comments/feedback welcome!

Site Protection & Disaster Recovery for VMware Cloud Foundation Validated Solution

Along with the release of VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3.1, we are excited to announce the general availability of the Site Protection & Disaster Recovery for VMware Cloud Foundation Validated Solution. The solution documentation, intro and other associated collateral can be found on the Cloud Platform Tech Zone here.

The move from VMware Validated Designs to VMware Validated Solutions has been covered by my team mate Gary Blake in detail here so I wont go into that detail here. Instead I will concentrate on the work Ken Gould and I (along with a supporting team) have been working to deliver for the past few months.

The Site Protection & Disaster Recovery for VMware Cloud Foundation Validated Solution includes the following to deliver an end-to-end validated way to protect your mission critical applications. You get a set of documentation that is tailored to the solution that includes: design objectives, a detailed design including not just design decisions, but the justifications & implications of those decisions, detailed implementation steps with PowerShell alternatives for some steps to speed up time to deploy, operational guidance on how to use the solution once its deployed, solution interoperability between it and other Validated Solutions, an appendix containing all the solution design decisions in one easy place for review, and finally, a set of frequently asked questions that will be updated for each release.

Disaster recovery is a huge topic for everyone lately. Everything from power outages to natural disasters to ransomware and beyond can be classed as a disaster, and regardless of the type of disaster you must be prepared. To adequately plan for business continuity in the event of a disaster you must protect your mission critical applications so that they may be recovered. In a VMware Cloud Foundation environment, cloud operations and automation services are delivered by vRealize Lifecycle Manager, vRealize Operations Manager & vRealize Automation, with authentication services delivered by Workspace ONE Access.

To provide DR for our mission critical apps we leverage 2 VCF instances with NSX-T federation between them. The primary VCF instance runs the active NSX-T global manager and the recovery VCF instance runs the standby NSX-T global manager. All load balancing services are served from the protected instance, with a standby load balancer (disconnected from the recovery site NSX Tier-1 until required, to avoid IP conflicts) in the recovery instance. Using our included PowerShell cmdlets you can quickly create and configure the standby load balancer to mimic your active load balancer, saving you a ton of manual UI clicks.

In the (hopefully never) event of the need to failover the cloud management applications, you can easily bring the standby load balancer online to enable networking services for the failed over applications.

Using Site recovery Manager (SRM) you can run planned migrations or disaster recovery migrations. With a single set of SRM recovery plans, regardless of the scenario, you will be guided through the recovery process. In this post I will cover what happens in the event of a disaster.

When a disaster occurs on the protected site (once the panic subsides) there are a series of tasks you need to perform to bring those mission critical apps back online.

First? Fix the network! Log into the passive NSX Global Manager (GM) on the recovery site and promote the GM to Active. (Note: This can take about 10-15 mins)

To cover the case of an accidental “Force Active” click..we’ve built in the “Are you absolutely sure this is what you want to do?” prompt!

Once the promotion operation completes our standby NSX GM is now active, and can be used to manage the surviving site NSX Local Manager (LM)

Once the recovery site GM is active we need to ensure that the cross-instance NSX Tier-1 is now directing the egress traffic via the recovery site. To do this we must update the locations on the Tier-1. Navigate to GM> Tier-1 gateways > Cross Instance Tier-1. Under Locations, make the recovery location Primary.

The next step is to ensure we have an active load balancer running in the recovery site to ensure our protected applications come up correctly. To do this log into what is now our active GM, select the recovery site NSX Local Manager (LM), and navigate to Networking > Load Balancing. Edit the load balancer and attach it to the recovery site standalone Tier-1.

At this point we are ready to run our SRM recovery plans. The recommended order for running the recovery plans (assuming you have all of the protected components listed below) is as follows. This ensures lifecycle & authentication services (vRSLCM & WSA) are up before the applications that depend on them (vROPS & vRA)

  • vRSLCM – WSA – RP
  • Intelligent Operations Management RP
  • Private Cloud Automation RP

I’m not going to go through each recovery plan in detail here. They are documented in the Site Protection and Disaster Recovery Validated Solution. In some you will be prompted to verify this or that along the way to ensure successful failover.

The main thing in a DR situation is, DO NOT PANIC. And what is the best way to getting to a place where you DO NOT PANIC? Test your DR plans…so when you see this…

Your reaction is this…

BookReview: Rest — Fresh Perception

Trust the plan…test the plan…relax…you have a plan!

Hopefully this post was useful..if you want to learn more please reach out in the comments…if you’re attending VMworld and would like to learn more or ask some questions, please drop into our Meet The Experts session on Thursday.

Take a look at Ken’s post on the Planning & Preparation Workbook for this validated solution for more details.

Checking Password Expiry For VMware Cloud Foundation Management Components

Within a VMware Cloud Foundation instance, SDDC Manager is used to manage the lifecycle of passwords (or credentials). While we provide the ability to rotate (either scheduled or manually) currently there is no easy way to check when a particular password is due to expire, which can lead to appliance root passwords expiring, which will cause all sorts of issues. The ability to monitor expiry is something that is being worked on, but as a stop gap I put together the script below which leverages PowerVCF and also a currently undocumented API for validating credentials.

The script has a function called Get-VCFPasswordExpiry that accepts the following parameters

  • -fqdn (FQDN of the SDDC Manager)
  • -username (SDDC Manager Username – Must have the ADMIN role)
  • -password (SDDC Manager password)
  • -resourceType (Optional parameter to specify a resourceType. If not passed, all resources will be checked. If passed (e.g. VCENTER) then only that resourceType will be checked. Supported resource types are

PowerVCF is a requirement. If you dont already have it run the following

Install-Module -Name PowerVCF

The code takes a while to run as it needs to do the following to check password expiry

  • Connect to SDDC Manager to retrieve an API token
  • Retrieve a list of all credentials
  • Using the resourceID of each credential
    • Perform a credential validation
    • Wait for the validation to complete
    • Parse the results for the expiry details
    • Add all the results to an array and present in a table (Kudos to Ken Gould for assistance with the presentation of this piece!)

In this example script I am returning all non SERVICE user accounts regardless of expiry (SERVICE account passwords are system managed). You could get more granular by adding something like this to only display accounts with passwords due to expire in less than 14 days

if ($validationTaskResponse.validationChecks.passwordDetails.numberOfDaysToExpiry -lt 14) {
               Write-Output "Password for username $($validationTaskResponse.validationChecks.username) expires in $($validationTaskResponse.validationChecks.passwordDetails.numberOfDaysToExpiry) days"
           }

Here is the script content. As always feedback is welcome. Also posted in Github here if anyone wants to fork and improve https://github.com/LifeOfBrianOC/Get-VCFPasswordExpiry

# Script to check the password expiry of VMware Cloud Foundation Credentials
# Written by Brian O'Connell - VMware

#User Variables
$sddcManagerFQDN = "sfo-vcf01.sfo.rainpole.io"
$sddcManagerAdminUser = "administrator@vsphere.local"
$sddcManagerAdminPassword = "VMw@re1!"

# Requires PowerVCF Module
#Requires -Module PowerVCF

Function Get-VCFPasswordExpiry
{

    Param (
        [Parameter (Mandatory = $true)] [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()] [String]$fqdn,
        [Parameter (Mandatory = $true)] [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()] [String]$username,
        [Parameter (Mandatory = $true)] [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()] [String]$password,
        [Parameter (Mandatory = $false)] [ValidateSet("VCENTER", "PSC", "ESXI", "BACKUP", "NSXT_MANAGER", "NSXT_EDGE", "VRSLCM", "WSA", "VROPS", "VRLI", "VRA", "VXRAIL_MANAGER")] [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()] [String]$resourceType
    )
# Request an SDDC manager Token
Request-VCFToken -fqdn $fqdn -username $username -password $password
# Build the required headers
$credentialheaders = @{"Content-Type" = "application/json"}
$credentialheaders.Add("Authorization", "Bearer $accessToken")
# Get all credential objects that are not type SERVICE
if (!$PsBoundParameters.ContainsKey("resourceType")) {
$credentials = Get-VCFCredential | where-object {$_.accountType -ne "SERVICE"}
}
else {
    $credentials = Get-VCFCredential -resourceType $resourceType | where-object {$_.accountType -ne "SERVICE"}
}
$validationArray = @()
Foreach ($credential in $credentials) {
    $resourceType = $credential.resource.resourceType
    $resourceID = $credential.resource.resourceId
    $username = $credential.username
    $credentialType = $credential.credentialType
    $body = '[
    {
        "resourceType": "'+$resourceType+'",
        "resourceId": "'+$resourceID+'",
        "credentials": [
            {
                "username": "'+$username+'",
                "credentialType": "'+$credentialType+'"
            }
        ]
    }
]'
    $uri = "https://$sddcManagerFQDN/v1/credentials/validations"
    # Submit a credential validation request
            $response = Invoke-RestMethod -Method POST -URI $uri -headers $credentialheaders -body $body
            $validationTaskId = $response.id

            Do {
                # Keep checking until executionStatus is not IN_PROGRESS
                $validationTaskuri = "https://$sddcManagerFQDN/v1/credentials/validations/$validationTaskId"
                $validationTaskResponse = Invoke-RestMethod -Method GET -URI $validationTaskuri -headers $credentialheaders
            }
            While ($validationTaskResponse.executionStatus -eq "IN_PROGRESS")
            # Build the output
            $validationObject = New-Object -TypeName psobject
            $validationObject | Add-Member -notepropertyname 'Resource Name' -notepropertyvalue $validationTaskResponse.validationChecks.resourceName
            $validationObject | Add-Member -notepropertyname 'Username' -notepropertyvalue $validationTaskResponse.validationChecks.username
            $validationObject | Add-Member -notepropertyname 'Number Of Days To Expiry' -notepropertyvalue $validationTaskResponse.validationChecks.passwordDetails.numberOfDaysToExpiry
            
            Write-Output "Checking Password Expiry for username $($validationTaskResponse.validationChecks.username) from resource $($validationTaskResponse.validationChecks.resourceName)"
            # Add each credential result to the array
            $validationArray += $validationObject
           #break
}
# Print the array
$validationArray
}

# Run the function
Get-VCFPasswordExpiry -fqdn $sddcManagerFQDN -username $sddcManagerAdminUser -password $sddcManagerAdminPassword

# Run the function with resourceType VCENTER
# Get-VCFPasswordExpiry -fqdn $sddcManagerFQDN -username $sddcManagerAdminUser -password $sddcManagerAdminPassword -resourceType VCENTER

Here is a screenshot of the result

PowerVCF 2.0 Authentication Changes

One of the many major enhancements in VMware Cloud Foundation 4.0 is a switch from basic authentication to token based authentication for the VCF API.

Basic authentication is a header field in the form of Authorization: Basic <credentials>, where credentials is the base64 encoding of a username and password. The credentials are not encrypted, therefore Basic Authentication is not the industry standard for API authentication.

VCF 4.0 has moved to using token based authentication (JWT Tokens to be exact) for securing the API. The token implementation is as follows:

  1. An authorized user executes a POST API call to /v1/tokens
  2. The response contains an access token and a refresh token
    1. The access token is valid for 1 hour
      1. The access token is passed in every API call header in the form of Authorization: Bearer <access token>
    2. The refresh token is valid for 24 hours
      1. The refresh token is used to request a new access token once it has expired

PowerVCF 2.0 abstracts all of this in the following way:

  • An authorized user connects to SDDC Manager to request the tokens by running:

Connect-VCFManager -fqdn sfo-vcf01.sfo.rainpole.io -username svc-vcf-api@rainpole.io -password VMw@re1!

  • The access & refresh tokens are stored in memory and used when running subsequent API calls. As each API call is executed PowerVCF checks the expiry of the access token. If the access token is about to expire, it uses the refresh token to request a new access token and proceeds with the API call. So the user does not need to worry about token management.

We have also introduced roles that can be assigned to users. Initially we have ADMIN & OPERATOR, with more roles planned for a future release.

ADMIN = Full Administrator Access to all APIs

OPERATOR = All Access except Password Management, User Management, Backup Management

To request an API token you must have a user account that is assigned either the ADMIN or OPERATOR role in SDDC Manager. The default administrator@vsphere.local user is assigned the ADMIN role during bringup but it is advisable to add additional users for performing day to day tasks.

Once you have a user added you can then authenticate with SDDC Manager to retrieve your access & refresh tokens.

Tip: You can connect using the administrator@vsphere.local user to add new users using PowerVCF. You can use the New-VCFUser PowerVCF cmdlet to create the user and assign a role like so:


Connect-VCFManager -fqdn sfo-vcf01.sfo.rainpole.io -username administrator@vsphere.LOCAL -password VMw@re1!

New-VCFUser -user vcf-admin@rainpole.io -role ADMIN

Once your user is configured PowerVCF will do the rest when it comes to managing the API access tokens.

 

PowerShell Script to Configure an NSX-T Load Balancer for the vRealize Suite & Workspace ONE Access

As part of my role in the VMware Hyper-converged Business Unit (HCIBU) I spend a lot of time working with new product versions testing integrations for next-gen VMware Validated Designs and Cloud Foundation. A lot of my focus is on Cloud Operations and Automation (vROPs, vRLI, vRA etc) and consequently I regularly need to deploy environments to perform integration testing. I will typically leverage existing automation where possible and tend to create my own when i find gaps. Once such gap was the ability to use PowerShell to interact with the NSX-T API. For anyone who is familiar with setting up a load balancer for the vRealize Suite in NSX-T – there are a lot of manual clicks required. So i set about creating some PowerShell functions to make it a little less tedious and to speed up getting my environments setup so i could get to the testing faster.

There is comprehensive NSX-T API documentation posted on code.vmware .com that I used to decipher the various API endpoints required to complete the various tasks:

  • Create the Load Balancer
  • Create the Service Monitors
  • Create the Application Profiles
  • Create the Server Pools
  • Create the Virtual Servers

The result is a PowerShell module with a function for each of the above and a corresponding JSON file that is read in for the settings for each function. I have included a sample JSON file to get you started. Just substitute your values.

Note: You must have a Tier-1 & associated segments created. (I’ll add that functionality when i get a chance!)

PowerShell Module, Sample JSON & Script are posted to Github here

Create a multi pNIC VMware Cloud Foundation NSX-V Workload Domain with PowerVCF

Hopefully by now you’ve seen my earlier posts about the new PowerShell module for the VMware Cloud Foundation API. If not i’d suggest reviewing these before reading on

With the release of VMware Cloud Foundation 3.9.1 it is now supported, via the API only, to use more than 2 physical NICs (pNICs) per host. In fact the API now supports up to three vSphere Distributed switches and six physical NICs, providing more flexibility to support high performance use cases and physical traffic separation.

There is a tech note that goes into more detail on the use cases for more than 2 pNICs and it also shows how this works using PostMan but we can also achieve this using PowerVCF.

The workflow using PowerVCF is the same as my earlier example for creating a workload domain. The only difference is the content in the JSON file.

Note: There is a validation API to validate the JSON you are passing before making the submission. PowerVCF dynamically formats the validation JSON as the formatting is slightly different to what you submit to create the workload domain.

To get you started there is a sample JSON file with the required formatting. Here is a snapshot of what it looks like

{
  "domainName": "PowerVCF",  
  "vcenterSpec": {  
    "name": "sfo01w01vc01",  
    "networkDetailsSpec": {  
       "ipAddress": "172.16.225.64",  
       "dnsName": "sfo01w01vc01.sfo01.rainpole.local",  
       "gateway": "172.16.225.1",  
       "subnetMask": "255.255.255.0"
     },  
     "rootPassword": "VMw@re1!",  
     "datacenterName": "PowerVCF-DC"  
   },  
   "computeSpec": {  
      "clusterSpecs": [ {  
          "name": "Cluster1",  
          "hostSpecs": [ {  
              "id": "d0693b58-4012-4387-92ed-721cfa709e44",
              "license":"AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA",
              "hostNetworkSpec": {  
                 "vmNics": [ {  
                     "id": "vmnic0",  
                     "vdsName": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private1"  
                  }, {  
                     "id": "vmnic1",  
                     "vdsName": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private1"  
                  }, { 
                     "id": "vmnic2",  
                     "vdsName": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private2" 
                  }, {  
                     "id": "vmnic3",  
                     "vdsName": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private2"  
                  } ]  
               }  
            }, {  
              "id": "7006bec4-fccb-49a0-bff6-fd56c807d26a",
              "license":"AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA",
              "hostNetworkSpec": {  
                 "vmNics": [ {  
                     "id": "vmnic0",  
                     "vdsName": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private1"  
                  }, {  
                     "id": "vmnic1",  
                     "vdsName": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private1"  
                  }, { 
                     "id": "vmnic2",  
                     "vdsName": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private2" 
                  }, {  
                     "id": "vmnic3",  
                     "vdsName": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private2"  
                  } ]  
               }  
            }, {  
              "id": "cc257a80-e179-4297-bf7e-179a0944bbab",
              "license":"AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA",
              "hostNetworkSpec": {  
                 "vmNics": [ {  
                     "id": "vmnic0",  
                     "vdsName": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private1"  
                  }, {  
                     "id": "vmnic1",  
                     "vdsName": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private1"  
                  }, { 
                     "id": "vmnic2",  
                     "vdsName": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private2" 
                  }, {  
                     "id": "vmnic3",  
                     "vdsName": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private2"  
                  } ] 
               } 
           } ],     
    "datastoreSpec": {  
        "vsanDatastoreSpec": {  
            "failuresToTolerate": 1,  
            "licenseKey": "BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB",
            "datastoreName": "vSanDatastore" 
         }  
     },  
     "networkSpec": { 
         "vdsSpecs": [ { 
             "name": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private1", 
             "portGroupSpecs": [ {  
                 "name": "SDDC-DPortGroup-Mgmt", 
                 "transportType": "MANAGEMENT" 
             }, { 
                 "name": "SDDC-DPortGroup-VSAN",  
                 "transportType": "VSAN" 
             }, {  
                 "name": "SDDC-DPortGroup-vMotion", 
                 "transportType": "VMOTION" 
             } ] 
          },  
          {  
             "name": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private2", 
             "portGroupSpecs": [ { 
                "name": "SDDC-DPortGroup-Public", 
                "transportType": "PUBLIC"  } ] 
           } 
        ],  
        "nsxClusterSpec": { 
           "nsxVClusterSpec": {  
              "vlanId": 2237,  
              "vdsNameForVxlanConfig": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private1"  
            }  
          }  
        }  
      } ] 
   }, 
  "nsxVSpec" : {
    "nsxManagerSpec" : {
      "name" : "sfo01w01nsx01",
      "networkDetailsSpec" : {
        "ipAddress" : "172.16.225.66",
        "dnsName" : "sfo01w01nsx01.sfo01.rainpole.local",
        "gateway" : "172.16.225.1",
        "subnetMask" : "255.255.255.0"
      }
    },
    "nsxVControllerSpec" : {
      "nsxControllerIps" : [ "172.16.225.121", "172.16.225.122", "172.16.225.123" ],
      "nsxControllerPassword" : "VMw@re123456!",
      "nsxControllerGateway" : "172.16.225.1",
      "nsxControllerSubnetMask" : "255.255.255.0"
    },
    "licenseKey" : "CCCCC-CCCCC-CCCCC-CCCCC-CCCCC",
    "nsxManagerAdminPassword" : "VMw@re1!",
    "nsxManagerEnablePassword" : "VMw@re1!"
  }
}

You can see that the magic happens in the hostNetworkSpec section where you map each vmnic to a vdsName

<p>"hostNetworkSpec": { "vmNics": [ { "id": "vmnic0", "vdsName": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private1" }, { "id": "vmnic1", "vdsName": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private1" }, { "id": "vmnic2", "vdsName": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private2" }, { "id": "vmnic3", "vdsName": "SDDC-Dswitch-Private2" } ] }</p>

So please try it out and let us know how it goes!

Create a new VMware Cloud Foundation Workload Domain with PowerVCF

So now that we have a PowerShell module for the VMware Cloud Foundation API, just what can we do with it? Well in this example we will create an NSX-V backed VMware Cloud Foundation workload domain, all using PowerVCF to interact with the API. Now all of this could obviously be wrapped up in a single script but I’m going to show you each step, with some tips along the way.

I will be making the assumption that you are familiar with VMware Cloud Foundation Concepts. If not please review the documentation here.

So once you have the initial VCF bringup completed you need to add a workload domain(s) to service our workloads. In my example below I have a management domain only.

And i have only the 4 hosts that are part of the management domain in my inventory. So i need to add new hosts to my inventory before i can create a new workload domain.

The sequence of events is as follows:

  • Install the PowerVCF Module
  • Connect to SDDC Manager
  • Create a network pool
  • Commission hosts
  • Create Workload domain

Install the PowerVCF Module from the PowerShell Gallery

  • Open PowerShell
  • Run the following to install the module

Install-Module -Name PowerVCF

Connect to SDDC Manager

  • To establish a session with SDDC Manager run the following

Connect-VCFManager -fqdn sddc-manager.sfo01.rainpole.local -username admin -password VMw@re1!

Create a network pool

The first thing you need before you can commission new hosts is to create a new network pool, which will include the vSAN & vMotion network details for this workload domain cluster.

To create a new network pool do the following:

  • Before you can create a network pool you first need to create the json body that will be passed in.

TIP: The PowerVCF Module includes a folder of sample json files to get you started

Here is the json format required for creating a vSAN network pool (Please use the same json with the module rather than copying from here as formatting is probably messed up!)


{
"name": "sfo01w01-cl01",
"networks": [
{
"type": "VSAN",
"vlanId": 2240,
"mtu": 9000,
"subnet": "172.16.240.0",
"mask": "255.255.255.0",
"gateway": "172.16.240.253",
"ipPools": [
{
"start": "172.16.240.5",
"end": "172.16.240.100"
}
]
},
{
"type": "VMOTION",
"vlanId": 2236,
"mtu": 9000,
"subnet": "172.16.236.0",
"mask": "255.255.255.0",
"gateway": "172.16.236.253",
"ipPools": [
{
"start": "172.16.236.5",
"end": "172.16.236.100"
}
]
}
]
}

So first off lets get a list of current Network Pools. To do this run the following cmdlet:

Get-VCFNetworkPool

As expected this returns a single network pool.

So to create a new network pool using the json you created earlier run the following:

New-VCFNetworkPool -json .\SampleJSON\NetworkPool\addNetworkPoolSpec.json

Now running Get-VCFNetworkPool should display 2 Network Pools

Commission Hosts

Now that you have a network pool you can commission hosts and associate them with the network pool. For this you need the following json

TIP: For this json you need the network pool name & ID. These were returned when the pool was created and also by Get-VCFNetworkPool


[
{
"fqdn": "sfo01w01esx01.sfo01.rainpole.local",
"username": "root",
"storageType": "VSAN",
"password": "VMw@re1!",
"networkPoolName": "sfo01w01-cl01",
"networkPoolId": "afd314f6-f31d-4ad4-8943-0ecb35c044b9"
},
{
"fqdn": "sfo01w01esx02.sfo01.rainpole.local",
"username": "root",
"storageType": "VSAN",
"password": "VMw@re1!",
"networkPoolName": "sfo01w01-cl01",
"networkPoolId": "afd314f6-f31d-4ad4-8943-0ecb35c044b9"

},
{
"fqdn": "sfo01w01esx03.sfo01.rainpole.local",
"username": "root",
"storageType": "VSAN",
"password": "VMw@re1!",
"networkPoolName": "sfo01w01-cl01",
"networkPoolId": "afd314f6-f31d-4ad4-8943-0ecb35c044b9"
},
{
"fqdn": "sfo01w01esx04.sfo01.rainpole.local",
"username": "root",
"storageType": "VSAN",
"password": "VMw@re1!",
"networkPoolName": "sfo01w01-cl01",
"networkPoolId": "afd314f6-f31d-4ad4-8943-0ecb35c044b9"
}
]

So to commission the 4 new hosts into my VCF inventory i simply run

Commission-VCFHost -json .\SampleJSON\Host\commissionHosts.json

TIP: This returns a task id, which you can monitor by running the following until status=Successful:

Get-VCFTask -id b93e2bc7-627b-4f7c-980b-c12b3497c4ea

Create a Workload Domain

Once the commission hosts task is complete you can then create a workload domain using those hosts. Creating a workload domain also requires a json file. For this you need the id’s of the hosts that you want to use. In VCF hosts that are available to be used in a workload domain have a status of UNASSIGNED_USEABLE so to find the id’s of the hosts you want to add run the following

TIP: Filter the results by adding | select fqdn,id

Get-VCFHost -Status UNASSIGNED_USEABLE | select fqdn,id

This returns the ids you need for creating the workload domain. Here is the Workload domain json. (Replace ESXi licence (AAAAA), vSAN licence (BBBBB) & NSX-V licence (CCCCC) with your keys)


{
"domainName" : "PowerVCF",
"vcenterSpec" : {
"name" : "sfo01w01vc01",
"networkDetailsSpec" : {
"ipAddress" : "172.16.225.64",
"dnsName" : "sfo01w01vc01.sfo01.rainpole.local",
"gateway" : "172.16.225.1",
"subnetMask" : "255.255.255.0"
},
"rootPassword" : "VMw@re1!",
"datacenterName" : "PowerVCF-DC"
},
"computeSpec" : {
"clusterSpecs" : [ {
"name" : "Cluster1",
"hostSpecs" : [ {
"id" : "dd2ec05f-39e1-464e-83f1-1349a0dcf723",
"license":"AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA",
"hostNetworkSpec" : {
"vmNics" : [ {
"id" : "vmnic0",
"vdsName" : "sfo01w01vds01"
}, {
"id" : "vmnic1",
"vdsName" : "sfo01w01vds01"
} ]
}
}, {
"id" : "809b25e8-1db6-464b-b310-97f581c56da5",
"license":"AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA",
"hostNetworkSpec" : {
"vmNics" : [ {
"id" : "vmnic0",
"vdsName" : "sfo01w01vds01"
}, {
"id" : "vmnic1",
"vdsName" : "sfo01w01vds01"
} ]
}
}, {
"id" : "5d3eea32-6464-4ae6-9866-932fb926a5f1",
"license":"AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA",
"hostNetworkSpec" : {
"vmNics" : [ {
"id" : "vmnic0",
"vdsName" : "sfo01w01vds01"
}, {
"id" : "vmnic1",
"vdsName" : "sfo01w01vds01"
} ]
}
} ],
"datastoreSpec" : {
"vsanDatastoreSpec" : {
"failuresToTolerate" : 1,
"licenseKey" : "BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB",
"datastoreName" : "sfo01w01vsan01"
}
},
"networkSpec" : {
"vdsSpecs" : [ {
"name" : "sfo01w01vds01",
"portGroupSpecs" : [ {
"name" : "sfo01w01vds01-Mgmt",
"transportType" : "MANAGEMENT"
}, {
"name" : "sfo01w01vds01-VSAN",
"transportType" : "VSAN"
}, {
"name" : "sfo01w01vds01-vMotion",
"transportType" : "VMOTION"
} ]
} ],
"nsxClusterSpec" : {
"nsxVClusterSpec" : {
"vlanId" : 2237,
"vdsNameForVxlanConfig" : "sfo01w01vds01"
}
}
}
} ]
},
"nsxVSpec" : {
"nsxManagerSpec" : {
"name" : "sfo01w01nsx01",
"networkDetailsSpec" : {
"ipAddress" : "172.16.225.66",
"dnsName" : "sfo01w01nsx01.sfo01.rainpole.local",
"gateway" : "172.16.225.1",
"subnetMask" : "255.255.255.0"
}
},
"nsxVControllerSpec" : {
"nsxControllerIps" : [ "172.16.235.121", "172.16.235.122", "172.16.235.123" ],
"nsxControllerPassword" : "VMw@re123456!",
"nsxControllerGateway" : "172.16.235.1",
"nsxControllerSubnetMask" : "255.255.255.0"
},
"licenseKey" : "CCCCC-CCCCC-CCCCC-CCCCC-CCCCC",
"nsxManagerAdminPassword" : "VMw@re1!",
"nsxManagerEnablePassword" : "VMw@re1!"
}
}

To create the workload domain run the following:

New-VCFWorkloadDomain -json .\SampleJSON\WorkloadDomain\workloadDomainSpec-NSX-V.json

This will return a Task ID. Monitor the workload domain creation by running the following

Get-VCFTask -id b93e2bc7-627b-4f7c-980b-c12b3497c4ea

And that should be it. If you’ve gotten all your json details correct you should have a fully functioning NSX-V workload domain without using the UI!

Introducing PowerVCF – A PowerShell Module for the VMware Cloud Foundation API

Its been a while since I’ve posted something so I thought it was about time! Since joining VMware a year ago I’ve been heads down drinking from the firehose, learning from a phenomenal team and generally keeping very busy. More recently I’ve been playing a lot with VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). A recent release (3.8) introduced a public API and I started getting field questions on how to leverage it so I started digging. The API has been expanded in 3.9. It is based on the OpenAPI standard (formerly Swagger) and can be accessed through the developer center in the SDDC Manager UI or via code.vmware.com

Now I’m not a developer so I fell back on Postman to do some initial testing. I like Postman as it dumbs it down for us non-devs 🙂 but I wanted something a little easier to consume so i started a little side project called PowerVCF (hat-tip to the far superior PowerNSX, PowerVRA, PowerVRO)

Basically I wanted to provide a simple, efficient, PowerCLI style experience for consuming the VMware Cloud Foundation public API.

Solution?

I am delighted to unleash the first iteration of PowerVCF on the community! Creating this has been a great learning experience for me. In the process I’ve improved my PowerShell skills, learned Git, Markdown and have started looking into CI/CD workflows. It’s also my first submission to the PowerShell Gallery.

Automate your VMware Validated Design NSX-V Distributed Firewall Configuration

A few weeks back I mentioned on twitter that i was working on automating the VMware Validated Design NSX-V Distributed Firewall Configuration in my lab. (I admit it took longer than i had planned!) Currently this is a manual post deployment step once VMware Cloud Builder has completed the deployment. This will likely be picked up by Cloud Builder in a future release but for now its a manual, and somewhat tedious, but required, step!

Full details on the manual steps required for this configuration can be found here. Please take the time to understand what these rules are doing before implementing them.

So in an effort to make this post configuration step a little less painful i set out to automate it. I’ve played with the NSX-V API in the past and found it much easier to interact with by using PowerNSX, rather than leveraging PostMan and the API directly. PowerNSX is the unofficial, official automation tool for NSX. Hats off to VMware engineers Nick Bradford, Dale Coghlan & Anthony Burke for creating and documenting this tool. Anthony also published a FREE book on Automating NSX for vSphere with PowerNSX. More on that here.

Disclaimer: This script is not officially supported by VMware. Use at your own risk & test in a development/lab environment before using in production.

I’ve posted the script to GitHub here as its a bit lengthy! There may be a more efficient way to do some parts of it and if anyone wants to contribute please feel free!

As with a lot of the scripts i create it is menu based and has 2 main options:

  1. Create DFW exclusions, IP Sets & Security Groups
  2. Create DFW Rules

The reason i split it into 2 distinct operations is to allow you to inspect the exclusion list, IP Sets & Security Groups before creating the firewall rules. This will ensure that you dont lock yourself out of vCenter by creating an incorrect rule.

Required Software

  • PowerCli
    • The script will check for PowerCli and if not found will attempt to install the latest version from the PowerShell Gallery
    • Currently tested on Windows only
    • If you dont have internet access you can manually install PowerCli by opening a PowerShell console as administrator and running:
    • Find-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI | Install-Module
  • PowerNSX
    • The script will check for PowerNSX and if not found will attempt to install the latest version from the PowerShell Gallery
    • Currently tested on Windows only
    • If you dont have internet access you can manually install PowerNSX by opening a PowerShell console as administrator and running:
    • Find-Module -Name PowerNSX | Install-Module

Required Variables

Before you can run the script you need to edit the User Variables to provide the following:

  • Target vCenter details
    • Required to establish a PowerCli Connection with vCenter Server. This is used when updating the DFW exclusion list
  • Target NSX Manager details
    • Required to establish a connection with NSX manager to configure the DFW
  • IP Addresses for the various SDDC components

Hopefully you will find this useful!

VMware Validated Design – Automated Deployment with Cloud Builder – Part 4: Generating SSL Certificates

This is part 4 of a series of posts on VMware Cloud Builder.

In this post I will cover generating the required SSL certificates for deploying this VMware Validated Design with VMware Cloud Builder.

Friendly warning: This is a long post so maybe get a coffee before reading!

Continue reading “VMware Validated Design – Automated Deployment with Cloud Builder – Part 4: Generating SSL Certificates”