admin

Browse to your vcenter, and select Flash option. At login page, download the client using link at bottom, and save to disk.

Run this file from an Administrative user.

For IE:

Add the base vcenter FQDN (or IP, if using just that) to Local Intranet zone.

Download the Trusted certs from link in bottom right of https://<vcenter fqdn>/

Extract download.zip

Import the 2 certs (MMC > Add Snapin > Certificates > Local Computer, right click trusted roots, select import, and point at one of the extracted certs. Repeat import for other)

Run IE as Administrator (ie, use the “Run As Administrator” option, not just run as a user with Admin rights), and browse to vcenter FQDN, select Flash link, then on the popup, uncheck the box to ask every time, and select Allow.

All should work now

(If you use web proxies, ensure that https://vmware-plugin:8094 is in the proxy bypass list)

For Firefox

Browse to https://vmware-plugin:8094 (this is added to hosts file during client install) and accept the Exception for duff cert.

Browse to vcenter, and accept any Exceptions for duff certs.

All show work now

For Chrome

You’re a moron. Use a browser with some element of security.

Although its trivial to get the client to work, the fact is you should NEVER use Chrome on Windows, until Google go back to the drawing board and rewrite from scratch thinking about security from the start.

(Particularly on 1Gps links)

Ensure at least 2 paths to each device, and set each path to Round Robin.

Set disk max IO to 512 from 32k

https://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003469

Set Round Robin max IOPS to 1 from 1000:

https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2069356

The max IOPS made the biggest difference in my lab. With default IOPS set to 1000:

With IOPS set to 1:

All the info I was finding was a grepping of the VMX files (always locked/busy on my ESX6.5 environment) or needed a Windows vCenter to run a Powershell command, not available on the current VCSA.

I found this little gem at https://github.com/lamw/vghetto-scripts/blob/master/shell/vswitchInfo.sh and duplicated here (Sept 2017) in case the original goes missing…

# Author: William Lam
# Website: www.virtuallyghetto.com
# Product: VMware ESXi
# Description: Query MACs on internal vSwitch
# Reference: http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2011/05/how-to-query-for-macs-on-internal.html

if [[ $# -ne 1 ]] && [[ $# -ne 4 ]]; then
echo -e “Usage: $0 -l -v [vSWITCH] -p [PORT]\n”
echo ” -l List all ports of vSwitch(s)”
echo ” -v vSwitch to query”
echo ” -p Port to query on vSwitch”
echo -e “\n\t$0 -l”
echo -e “\t$0 -v vSwitch0 -p 1234\n”
exit 0
fi

if [ ! -e /sbin/vsish ]; then
echo “Script is only supported running on an ESXi host as vsish is not available by default on ESX”
exit 1
fi

VSISH_VSWITCH_PATH=/net/portsets

if [ $# -eq 1 ]; then
for vSwitch in $(vsish -e ls ${VSISH_VSWITCH_PATH});
do
VSWITCH=$(echo ${vSwitch} | sed ‘s/\///g’)
for port in $(vsish -e ls ${VSISH_VSWITCH_PATH}/${vSwitch}ports);
do
PORT=$(echo ${port} | sed ‘s/\///g’)
PORTINFO=$(vsish -e get ${VSISH_VSWITCH_PATH}/${vSwitch}ports/${port}status | sed ‘s/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//’);
CLIENT=$(echo ${PORTINFO} | sed ‘s/ /\n/g’ | grep “clientName:” | awk -F “:” ‘{print $2}’)
MACADDRESS=$(echo ${PORTINFO} | sed ‘s/ /\n/g’ | grep “unicastAddr:” | uniq | sed ‘s/unicastAddr://;s/\(.*\)./\1/’)
echo -e “${VSWITCH}\t${PORT}\t${MACADDRESS%%::*}\t${CLIENT}”
done
done
fi

if [ $# -eq 4 ]; then
QUERY_PATH=”${VSISH_VSWITCH_PATH}/${2}/ports/${4}/status”
echo “Querying port path: ${QUERY_PATH}”
PNICS=$(vsish -e ls /net/portsets/${2}/uplinks/ | sed ‘$!N;s/\n/ /;s/\///g’)
echo -e “pNICS for vSwitch: ${PNICS}\n”
vsish -e get “${QUERY_PATH}”
fi

Using Tape drive as SCSI passthru, rather than whole controller.

Often causes glitches such as tape drive going offline after backup etc.

Possible solution, from https://communities.vmware.com/thread/334987 is:

Verify if the tape drive is using VMW_SATP_AULA (which is bad)

SSH into esxi 5 console

esxcli storage nmp device list

naa.500110a0014b774a

Device Display Name: HP Serial Attached SCSI Tape (naa.500110a0014b774a)

Storage Array Type: VMW_SATP_ALUA

Storage Array Type Device Config: {implicit_support=on;explicit_support=off; explicit_allow=on;alua_followover=on;{TPG_id=0,TPG_state=AO}}

Path Selection Policy: VMW_PSP_MRU

Path Selection Policy Device Config: Current Path=vmhba2:C0:T0:L0

Path Selection Policy Device Custom Config:

Working Paths: vmhba2:C0:T0:L0

Note: View the Storage Array Type

To change this to VMW_SATP_LOCAL

esxcli storage nmp satp rule add --satp=VMW_SATP_LOCAL --vendor="HP" --model="Ultrium 5-SCSI"

Next you need to remove any claims to that device

esxcli storage core claiming unclaim -t location -A vmhba1 -C 2 -T 0 -L 0

(your vmbha must match!)

esxcfg-rescan vmhba1
esxcli storage nmp device list

Reboot esxi host

Then add your Tape via SCSI device in the VM settings