UBUNTU - Extend LVM Partition

Issue

Few months ago I installed Ubuntu on my MAC M1 apple Silicon to practice with a K8s LAB. I proceeded with a simple installation (for beginner) leaving any options set by default, choosing to use the entire disk (30 GB). I made up my configuration, set up minikube, realized some YAML file (just to test some environment in K8s), than weeks later upgraded the kernel .... and now a warnig telling me that I have terminated the space .... what the hell ... how i did?

Watching better the output of the "df -h" command, I realized that the size of the disk wasn't as expected.

Solution

During the initial installation phase I didn't pay to much attention on how the disk was really partitioned.
Let's perform a couple of commands to be sure on the real size of the disk.

lorenzo@ubuntu:~$ sudo lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT,LABEL

lorenzo@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Verified that we have the original 30GB disk and space not allocated, what we have to do is to extend or resize the LVM partition to the available free space with the lvextend command.
Let's proceed by steps:

1. Locate the partition to extend running the "df -h" command. We have seen that in our case is the root "/" (93% Used).
   
2. With the following command, let's check in the volume group where are the free space:

   root@ubuntu:~# vgdisplay

   
3. Let's run the below lvextend command to extend the file system.

   root@ubuntu:~# lvextend -l +100%FREE /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv

   
4. With previous lvextend command we have extended the file system to use 100% of the free space availabe, but still the file system is not updated untill we execute the following resize2fs command:

   root@ubuntu:~# resize2fs /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv

   
5. Last but not least, check that the space has been expanded as desired, performing "df -h" command again.
   

That's it.

How to retrieve the WWPN of a bunch of ESXi hosts using PowerShell

Issue

I need to quickly retrieve the WWNs of a list of ESXi hosts (not managed by a vCenter)

Solution

To solve this, I thought about making a script in powershell that connects to each ESXi hosts presents in "host-list.txt" file and retrieves the necessary information. As outcome, we create a csv file "wwpn-list.csv" with all gathered information.
What I'm assuming here, in my script is that all ESXi hosts have the same username and password (in my case respectively root and VMware1!).
Below is the script:

# get-wwpn.ps1
# 
# Lorenzo Moglie 
# Version: 1.0 (29.12.2022)
#
$user = 'root'
$pswd = 'VMware1!'
$Hosts = Get-Content -Path '.\host-list.txt'
$report = @()
foreach ($host in $Hosts){
	#Write-Host "Host:", $host
	Connect-VIServer -Server $host -User $user -Password $pswd
	$temp = Get-VMhost -Name $host | Get-VMHostHBA -Type FibreChannel | Select VMHost, Device, @{N "WWN";E={"{0:X}" -f $_.PortWorldWideName}} | Sort VMHost,Device
	$wwpn = @{}
	$wwpn.VMHost = $temp.VMHost.Name[0]
	$wwpn.vmhba64 = $temp.WWN[0]
	$wwpn.vmhba65 = $temp.WWN[1]
	$wwn = New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property $wwpn
	Sreport += Swwn
	Disconnect-VIServer -Confirm:$false
}
$report | Select VMHost, vmhba64, vmhba65 | Sort-Object -Property VMHost | Export-Csv .\wwpn-list.csv

That's it.

Edge VM Present In NSX Inventory Not Present In vCenter

Issue

A customer writes me an email asking for help because two Edge nodes in his NSX-T infrastructure had the following critical error (as shown in the picture below):

"Edge VM Present In NSX Inventory Not Present In vCenter"

Solution

This error message, as we can see from the this link was introduced in version 3.2.1.
The customer has already tried to verify what is indicated in the "Recommended Action" and found that the vm-id is not modified, and the Edge VMs are still in the vCenter Inventory.
Asking if he had made any changes, he replies that the only change made was at the vCenter level to update the expired Machine Cert, and that the certificate was revalidated by NSX-T (indeed the communication between the NSX-T system and the vCenter was showing no errors).
In summary, the Edge VMs were still in inventory, nobody had changed the vm-id, the only thing that had changed was the certificate in vCenter.

The customer fixed it himself on the first attempt, by restarting the cluster appliance the VIP was pointing to. By doing so, when the VIP was switched to another appliance of the NSX Manager cluster, the message resolved itself.

As a second attempt, if the first didn't work, after verifying correctly what is indicated in the "Recommended actions" would be to "Redeploy an NSX Edge VM Appliance" if the edge is no longer connected to NSX Manager; otherwise to replace it inside the Cluster (one by one) as indicated in "Replace an NSX Edge Transport Node Using the NSX Manager UI"

That's it.

MacOS - Running Scripts at Login

Issue

In October 2018 I wrote a short post (in Italian) on how to "Remapping Keys in MacOS".
In the post I also wrote that I would publish a second one on how to make this change permanent. For reasons of time (few time available), work, family, etc. I never managed to write it until I forgot about it. Then thanks to Paolo's comment I remembered that I have not posted it anymore. So, I do it now.

Solution

To solve this issue, and make the fix permanent every time I login into my account I decided to use the LaunchAgent features.
More information about LaunchAgent can be found in "Daemons and Services Programming Guide" and in "Script management with launchd in Terminal on Mac" as well.

Let's see below how to run the script when our user logon.

1. Let's start, creating the folder where to place the script to run. In my case I decide to create a new ".lm_scripts" (hidden folder) under my own directory.
   
2. Create a script similar to the followingg, and place it under the new directory (in my case .lm_scrpts).
   For a complete reading on how to find the various parameters, refer to my original post
   

   #!/bin/bash 
       
    hidutil property --matching '{"ProductID":0x221,"VendorID":0x5ac}' --set '{"UserKeyMapping":[{"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0x700000063,"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x700000037}]}'

3. Give the script executable permissions
   chmod +x remapping.keys.sh
   
4. Create with your favourite editor a new .plist file. I called it com.remapping.keys.plist
   As shown below
   

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
   <plist version="1.0">
       <dict>
           <key>Label</key>
           <string>com.remapping.keys.app</string>
           <key>Program</key>
           <string>/Users/lorenzo/.lm_scripts/remapping.keys.sh</string>
           <key>RunAtLoad</key>
           <true/>
       </dict>
   </plist>

   Note that, the program string above must reflect your user and the path where the script remapping.keys.sh is present.
   
   
5. Then, place the file, in my case com.remapping.keys.plist (just created) under the following directory ~/Library/LaunchAgents/
   
   

Now, at your next login the keys of the keyboard keys will be re-mapped as desired.

That's it.

Clone a VM via PowerCLI

Issue

What I need today? I just need to create a simple PowerCLI script to clone a VM, after it has been powered off.

Solution

Disclaimer: Use it at your own risk.

The following script is used to create a clone of a specific VM (after it has been shut down).
Before running, replace the following fields with your information:

<VCENTER>: Source vCenter (where the VM is running)
<USERNAME>: Username to connect to the vCenter (whit right permition to clone)
<PASSWORD>: Password of the user
<DATASTORE_TARGET>: Datastore target where. to place the cloned VM

Below the script:

##############################################
# LM: Use it at your own risk
# Clone a VM on the specific Datastore and attach the suffix "_Clone" to the VM Name (cloned)
##############################################

if ($args[0].length -gt 0) {
 $vmName = $args[0]
} else {
 Write-Host -ForegroundColor red "Usage: .\CloneVM.ps1 <VM_Name>"
 exit 40
}

Connect-VIServer -Server <VCENTER> -User <USERNAME> -Password <PASSWORD>

$vm = Get-VM -Name $vmName

if ((Get-VM -Name $vmName).PowerState -eq "PoweredOff") {
  Write-Host -foreground Green "- VM "$vmName "is already OFF"
}
else
{
    Write-Host -foreground Red "- VM "$vmName "is shutting down ..." 
    $vm | Shutdown-VMGuest  -Confirm:$false
    While ((Get-VM -Name $vmName).PowerState -ne "PoweredOff") {
        Write-Host -foreground yellow "... waiting for" $vmName "to power off"
    sleep 5
    }
}

$ds = Get-Datastore -Name <DATASTORE_TARGET>
$esx = Get-Cluster -VM $vmName | Get-VMHost | Get-Random
$vm = New-VM -VM $vmName -Name $vmName'_CLONE' -Datastore $ds -VMHost $esx

Set-VM $vmName -name $vmName'_Clone' -confirm:$false

Disconnect-VIServer -Server * -Force -Confirm:$false

That's it.

NSX-T 3.2.0.1 - Function not (yet) implemented

Issue

Function not implemented.
Browsing through the NSX-T logs of an ESXi host (in /var/log/nsx-syslog.log), I found countless INFO messages of nsx-opsagent service, "Function not implemented", as looks like into the image below.

Therefore I asked information to the Global Support Service of VMware ...

Solution

They told me:

"This is only INFO in the logs, and however, based on the amount, I don't think this is good to happen anyway. NSX-T 3.2.0.1 is the latest release; it could be something opsagent is trying to do, but it's not fully implemented on the host side."

And the reply from the Product Engineering confirm that the log is harmless. It just shows that nsx-vim is interacting with other processes, and that there will be fewer logs for "Function not implemented" in 3.2.1.

That's it.

NSX-T 3.2 - Traceflow request failed

Issue

New day, new issue :-)
I'm not able to traceflow traffic between two VMs plugged on VLAN backed segment managed by NSX-T 3.2.0.1, obtaining the following error message:

Traceflow request failed. The request might be cancelled because it took more time than normal. Please retry.
Error Message: Error: Traceflow intent /infra/traceflows/<UID> realized on enforcement point /infra/sites/default/enforcement-points/default with error Traceflow on VLAN logical port LogicalPort/<UID> requires INT (In-band Network Telemetry) to be enabled (Error code: 500060)

Looking inside the official documentation "Perform a Traceflow" I noticed that "Traceflow is not supported for a VLAN-backed logical switch or segment" in version 3.0 and 3.1 but it should be supported in version 3.2.
So, why it doesn't work??
I tried running the indicated REST API call "PUT /api/v1/global-configs/IntGlobalConfig" to enable In-band Network Telemetry (INT). Without success !!!

Solution

I found the solution by googling "nsx-t (In-band Network Telemetry) to be enabled (Error code: 500060)", and a post "NSX-T Traffic Analysis Traceflow fails" by "Brian Knutsson" came out. The post explain how to enable the Traceflow in NSX-T 3.2 for vlan backed. Here are the steps performed in my infrastructure.

I made the follofing REST call:

curl -k -u 'admin' -X GET https://<NSX Manager IP of FQDN>/api/v1/infra/ops-global-config 

I kept note of the revision, and use it into the next call ...

curl -k -u 'admin' -X PUT -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d 
'{ 
    "display_name": "ops-global-config",
    "in_band_network_telementry": { 
    	"dscp_value": 2, 
        "indicator_type": "DSCP_VALUE"
    },
    "path": "/infra/ops-global-config",
    "relative_path": "ops-global-config",
    "_revision": 0
}'       
https://<NSX Manager IP of FQDN>/policy/api/v1/infra/ops-global-config 

Now, thanks to Brian it works!!

That's it.