8.3 VCAP-DCA Study Guide - vMA (vSphere Management Assistant)

Posted on 04 Jul 2011 by Ray Heffer

If you haven’t already used the vMA (vSphere Management Assistant) then I strongly encourage you to do so as it’s an essential tool in managing your ESX and ESXi hosts, and it really makes the transition from ESX to ESXi straight forward. Understanding and using the vMA is part of section 8.3 in the VCAP-DCA blueprint.

Commands Covered

  1. domainjoin-cli
  2. visudo
  3. vifptarget
  4. vicfg-nics
  5. vicfg-syslog
  6. vifp listservers
  7. vma-update
  8. vicfg-syslog
  9. vilogger
  10. vifptarget (vifpinit)
  11. resxtop

Configuring Active Directory Authentication

Log into vMA as vi-admin then:

# sudo domainjoin-cli join mydomain.local administrator
# sudo domainjoin-cli query
# sudo reboot

Adding an Active Directory Group to the Sudoers file

Log into vMA as vi-admin then:

# sudo visudo

Add a new line under the entry for root:

root    ALL=(ALL)       ALL
%MYDOMAIN\\Domain\ Admins ALL=(ALL) ALL

This translates to: MYDOMAIN\Domain Admins can run from ALL terminals, acting as ALL (any) users, and run ALL (any) command. The reason there are two backslashes before the domain name is because the first slash is an escape character, and says to allow the next character. A backslash is also required when spaces exist, in our case Domain Admins. Again, Domain\ Admins means that it should allow the space.

  1. Save and exit the sudoers file (:wq)
  2. Add vCenter server to vMA

Log into vMA as vi-admin then:

# sudo vifp addserver vcenter.mydomain.local --authpolicy adauth --username mydomain\\administrator

To set this as the default target:

# vifptarget -s vcenter.mydomain.local

Verify that your target has been set:

# vifptarget -d

It should display the hostname of your vCenter server.

Make sure you can run commands against one of your hosts in vCenter:

# vicfg-nics -l --vihost <FQDN of your ESX host>

Tip: Make sure you enter the fully qualified domain name otherwise it will not find the ESX host. List servers that have been added

# vifp listservers

Removing a server from the vMA

Log into vMA as vi-admin then:

# sudo vifp removeserver vcenter.mydomain.local

Using vma-update (vima-update)

# sudo vma-update scan # sudo vma-update update

Tagged with: vmware certification