How to Adjust Login Timeouts with Cisco exec-timeout Command

1. First log into the Cisco switch/router.
2. After you log into the system, then get to configuration terminal with the following command:
     a. #configure terminal (also conf t)
3. Once you elevated to config terminal, then you indicate the line console 0 interface with the following command:
     a.#line console 0 (or line con)
4. Once you are in the line console interface, you can perform the exec-timeout command with the following:
     a. #exec-timeout 30
     b. Numbers represent minutes. Range is from 0-525600. 0 disables the timeout along with:
     i. #no exec-timeout
5. You can repeat the process for the VTY terminal lines by selecting them in global config mode:
     a.#line vty 0 4
     b.Line 0 4 will select all 4 VTY lines to be programmed at once.
6. Go back to user mode/exit out of configure terminal and copy the running configuration file to the startup configuration file so upon reboot, your systems will reboot and not lose the new configurations:
     a. #copy running-configuration startup-configuration

Reference:   
https://www.cisco.com/c/m/en_us/techdoc/dc/reference/cli/n5k/commands/exec-timeout.html

UCSM Server Clear Logs When Full

1.    UCS Manager Screen click on Equipment tab
2.    Click on Chassis under the equipment tab on the left
3.    Then select Service Profiles in the middle screen
4.    Once you are in the service profiles section, click on the server you wish to view by clicking
5.    On the blue hyperlink on the right of the server you wish to view.
6.    From here, select SEL Logs tab.
7.    Click on backup to backup
8.    Then click clear to clear the logs.

Reference: https://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/gui/config/guide/141/UCSM_GUI_Configuration_Guide_141_chapter49.html#d20716e687_navtitle

Shut Down and Power Off HyperFlex Storage Cluster

1. First, backup the HX/UCS configuration through the UCS Manager (Click on Creating a Backup Operation).
a. https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/hyperconverged_systems/HyperFlex_HX_DataPlatformSoftware/AdminGuide/3_0/b_HyperFlexSystems_AdministrationGuide_3_0/b_HyperFlexSystems_AdministrationGuide_3_0_chapter_0100.pdf
2. Next, shut down all the VMs in the cluster or migrate the VMs to a new cluster.
3. Log into one of the storage cluster VMs (you can click on one of the storage cluster VMs to get an IP to SSH into).
4. Perform the following command to shut down the cluster:
a. # stcli cluster shutdown
5. Next, run the following command to confirm cluster is offline:
a. # stcli cluster info
b. Confirm the “healthstate” is “unknown” to verify it is offline.
6. Next, power off the storage controller VMs in vCenter by doing the following:
a. Find the storage VMs and right click
b. Select Power>Shutdown Guest OS (Cisco shows Power Off also shuts down gracefully, although I have not called Cisco to confirm this. As all VMs, I use “Shutdown Guest OS” instead for now.
7. Finally, you can now shutdown the ESXi hosts in the cluster in vCenter by doing the following:
a. Locate the ESXi host and right click.
b. Select Power>Shutdown and put in the reason why you are shutting the system down.
8. The cluster is now shut down. If you need to shut down the UCS FIs, then Cisco recommends you can just pull the plug on them since there is no other tasks to shut these down.

Reference for Shutdown Procedures: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/hyperconverged_systems/HyperFlex_HX_DataPlatformSoftware/AdminGuide/3_0/b_HyperFlexSystems_AdministrationGuide_3_0/b_HyperFlexSystems_AdministrationGuide_3_0_chapter_0100.pdf

Getting Rockstor to work in a VM for vSphere/ESXi Deployment

•    Rockstor will not always work with vSphere/ESXi in a VM format. You will have to edit one file after you deploy/install your Rockstor VM.
•    The first step is to navigate to the data store on your ESXi data store. You need to open the VMs folder directory.
•    Within the VM folder directory of your Rockstor VM, click on the .vmx file and download this (this is just the .vmx file which is for VM customization).
•    Once the file is downloaded, open the file in Notepad++ or another notepad type file, and add the following line in the .vmx file Do not use the enclosing quotes, only use the quotes around the TRUE statement:
    o    “disk.EnableUUID=”TRUE””
•    Once this has been changed, save the file.
•    Navigate back to your VM data store and VM folder directory.
•    Click on the Upload link in the top right of the folder directory.
•    Select the new .vmx customized file and upload it.
•    You might also have to do these steps in vSphere to finish the TRUE statement if it does not take:
    o    Right click on the VM.
    o    Click on the VM Options tab.
    o    Click on the Advanced section.
    o    Click Edit Configuration tab.
    o    In the disk.EnableUUID, change from FALSE to TRUE.
•    Now, Rockstor is ready to be used as a VM in your environment.

 

How to Login to vCenter or ESXi with PowerCLI

·         Open PowerShell ISE or the PowerCLI command line.

o   If you open through PowerShell or PowerShell ISE, you need to load the PowerCLI environment variables.

o   Open the "Initialize-PowerCLIEnvironment.ps1 script located at C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\PowerCLI\Scripts.

§  (This will be here after you installed PowerCLI)

·         In order to get the PowerCLI to connect to servers on the network, you have to bypass the certificate error by putting in the following:

o   “Set-PowerCLIConfiguration –InvalidCertificateAction Ignore”

·         Then you can connect to your vCenter/ESXi server with the following command:

o   “Connect-VISever –Server “yourIPaddress/FQDN” –User “yourDomain\UserName” – Password “YourPassword”.

o   Example: Connect-VIServer –Server 1.1.1.1 –User vsphere.local\JohnDoe –Password 12345678

·         You should get a confirmation you have logged into the server and you can now start executing PowerCLI commands.