Microsoft Intelligent Edge: Azure Stack, HCI and Data Box Edge.. oh my!
June 6, 2019
Microsoft Azure Developer Camp – Chicago
June 7, 2019
We released numerous updates to Skyline on June 4th. These updates include new findings now available to Production Support customers, new Inventory details and additional checks to make sure you can upload a log bundle to VMware Global Support Services (GSS) during that critical moment when trying to resolve an issue that is impacting your business.
Note, for current customers, this update does not require a Skyline Collector upgrade. All the new features detailed within this article are automatically available to you within Skyline Advisor, as long as you’re running version 2.1 of the Skyline Collector.
New Findings Now Available to Production Support Customers
Skyline is now analyzing for twenty new potential issues (findings) within Production Support customer environments. Previously, these twenty findings were only available to Premier Services customers. Production Support customers will see these new findings appear within Skyline Advisor. Note, these new findings will only appear within Skyline Advisor if you could be impacted by the potential issue. If you don’t see any of these new findings appear within Skyline Advisor, this is an indication that you have already implemented the recommendations for these findings. You can rest comfortably knowing that you’ve taken necessary steps to create a stable and reliable environment for your business.
These findings are based on configuration best practices. For example, finding vSphere-VMotionNetworkConnection-KB#1007464 can help prevent a virtual machine from losing network connectivity after vMotion. Another finding now available to Production Support customers is vSphere-VMFSExtent-KB#1000936. For this finding, Skyline discovers any VMFS datastores that contain extents, and makes the recommendation to create a new datastore and migrate virtual machines to this new datastore.
There are two NSX for vSphere findings that I want to highlight. First, finding NSXv-ControllerHostLocation-VVD#SDDCVISDN09 checks to make sure your NSX Controllers are all running on separate ESXi hosts within your environment. This ensures NSX for vSphere remains stable and available. Second, finding NSXv-BackupRestoreNSXManager-KB#2144087 checks to make sure you have enabled backups for all of your NSX for vSphere components. Proper backup of all NSX components is crucial to restore the system to its working state in the event of a failure. VMware only supports backing up the NSX Edge and controller through the NSX Manager.
The complete list of twenty findings now available to Production Support customers is as follows:
- vSphere-XHCIUSB3NotSupported-KB#2145191
- vSphere-VMotionNetworkConnection-KB#1007464
- vSphere-VMFSExtent-KB#1000936
- vSphere-VcenterTasksEventsRetentionPolicy
- vSphere-VCenterStatsLevel
- vSphere-SolarisLSISASController-KB#2032296
- vSphere-HANetworkRedundancy-KB#1004700
- vSphere-EsxVersion
- vSphere-EsxRemoteSysLogRuleVVD#SDDCOPSLOG028
- vSphere-EsxNTPRule-VVD#SDDCVIESXi04
- vSphere-EsxHyperThreadConfig
- vSphere-EsxHwConsistencyForFtVms
- vSphere-EsxConfigLimits-KB#1003497
- vSphere-DuplicateIPDetected-KB#1020647
- vSAN-RedirectingSystemLogsTovSan-KB#2147541
- vSAN-CannotCompleteFileOperation-KB#2105091
- VROPS-RemovingPluginfromvSphere-KB#2150394
- NSXv-EdgeSSH100percentdiskusage-KB#2150467
- NSXv-ControllerHostLocation-VVD#SDDCVISDN09
- NSXv-BackupRestoreNSXManager-KB#2144087
More Inventory Options
Inventory was introduced within Skyline Advisor earlier this year. Within Inventory, customers can view high-level details related to their deployed VMware products and services. For example, customers can quickly see the name, inventory, build, integrations and deployed solutions for vSphere, NSX for vSphere, Horizon and vRealize Operations.
This Skyline Advisor update adds Inventory details for vRealize Operations and Horizon. vRealize Operations Inventory details include the name of all vRealize Operations Manager instances, and the version and build of each instance. Horizon Inventory displays all Horizon Connection Servers by name, the version and build of each Connection Server, and the name of the Pod if the Connection Server is part of a Cloud Pod deployment.
Log Bundle Upload Assurance
Skyline Log Assist has been one of the most popular features utilized by customers. Customers are saving hours of time using Log Assist to upload log bundles to VMware Global Support Services (GSS). However, Log Assist requires specific permissions for the account used to add the product to Skyline. These required permissions are listed in the Product User Account Permissions within the VMware Skyline Documentation.
This Skyline Advisor update now checks if the account has the required permissions. If it does, a green check mark will be displayed next to the product endpoint (vCenter Server, NSX Manager, etc.). If for some reason Log Assist cannot check permissions, a yellow exclamation will be displayed. And if you see a Red X, this tells you that the account used does not have the required permissions for Log Assist to transfer a log bundle to VMware GSS.
Furthermore, Skyline can now re-validate account permissions. In the example above, the account used for vCenter Server does not have the required permissions. After updating the permissions, you can click the Re-Validate button to validate that the updated permissions meet Log Assist requirements.
Finally, and most importantly, the Privileges and Re-Validate features ensure that you are able to upload a log bundle to VMware Global Support Services (GSS) when needed. The last thing you want is not to be able to upload a log bundle using Log Assist, potentially delaying troubleshooting and with that, the time-needed to resolve the issue.
The Skyline Advisor Release Notes detail all the new features in this release of Skyline. Visit the Skyline Get-Started page to begin receiving proactive support with Skyline today. Also, our new Getting Started with VMware Skyline on Cloud Services video walks you through creating a Cloud Services Organization, downloading and installing the Skyline Collector, registering your Skyline Collector with your Cloud Services Organization and accessing all your findings and recommendations within Skyline Advisor.
