I had a question the other day on whether it was possible to enable shell access for Active Directory users when logging into the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) via SSH? The answer is yes and though this is documented here, it is not very clear whether this is only applicable to SSO-based users only. In any case, […]
How to remotely run appliancesh & other shell commands on VCSA w/o requiring SSH?
In vSphere 6.0 Update 1, the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) has received a significant enhancement to its Virtual Machine Management Interface also known as VAMI for short. As the name suggests, this interface provides basic configuration, monitoring and management capabilities for the Virtual Appliance which can be consumed through either a UI using a web browser or from […]
Automating post-configurations for both PSC & VCSA 6.0u1 using appliancesh
In vSphere 6.0, we introduced a new command-line option to allow you to automate both the deployment and upgrade of a vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) and Platform Services Controller (PSC) using a simple JSON configuration file. This has been a very popular request from customers and one that I have been asking for some time now and was glad to see […]
How to upgrade from VCSA 5.x & 6.x to VCSA 6.0 Update 1?
I have seen quite a few questions come in on how to properly upgrade from an existing vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) 5.x and/or 6.x environment to the latest vSphere 6.0 Update 1 which was just released today. Before I jump straight into the process, I think its worth covering on how updates (patches) and upgrades have traditionally been […]
vCenter Server 6.0 Tidbits Part 5: New method of patching the VCSA/PSC
In previous releases of the VCSA, patching and updating of the VCSA was performed through what was known as the VAMI interface which provided both a UI as well as a command-line which I have blogged about here. The simplest and easiest method was of course using the UI which just required opening a browser […]