Deleting Old Snapshots

1.    First off, there are two ways to delete snapshots, you can delete individual ones you do not need, or you can delete all snapshots.
2.    First off, select the VM you wish to edit and then go to the Snapshots tab in vSphere. From here select the snapshot you wish to delete.

3.    Once you select the snapshot you wish to delete, select All Actions menu item and then select delete snapshot.

4.    On the popup, select Yes to confirm the deletion.

5.    Finally, you can delete all of the snapshots for the VM by clicking back on the All Actions menu.
6.    Select Delete All Snapshots in order to clear out and delete all the snapshots while consolidating all of them back into a single vmdk file.

7.    As before, just click yes on the Confirm Delete popup to confirm the delete snapshot action.

Create Cisco HyperFlex Snapshot

1.    First, you can still take your VMware snapshot on VMs running in Cisco HyperFlex, but you do not have the benefits of the HyperFlex snapshots such as:
    a.    Avoids errors with long chains of snapshots
    b.    Does not have errors with deletion of snapshots
    c.    Also saves in I/O penalties and disk consolidation time.
2.    Cisco HyperFlex snapshots are similar to VMware snapshots in how you create them. When you go through the vSphere GUI, the only difference is selecting the HyperFlex API plugin instead of the VMware snapshot selection.
3.    Log into your vSphere system and navigate to the VM you wish to create your snapshot with.
4.    Once you are on your VM you wish to snapshot, right click on the VM and then hover over the Cisco HyperFlex Platform section, and then click Snapshot Now.

5.    Type in the name of your snapshot and a brief description of it (can describe the state, or status of the VM, or whatever you wish to have in here). Once you’re done, click on OK.

6.    You should not select the Snapshot tab in vSphere for your selected VM and then verify the snapshot has been created.


Reference: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/hyperconverged_systems/HyperFlex_HX_DataPlatformSoftware/AdminGuide/3_5/b_HyperFlexSystems_AdministrationGuide_3_5.pdf

VMware ESXi Hypervisor Free Edition Quick Specs

•    Cannot be integrated into vCenter for vSphere management.
•    Maximum of 2 physical CPUs only
•    Can support unlimited cores per physical CPU
•    Unlimited physical memory.
•    Limited to only 8 vCPUs per VM

Reference: https://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor.html

Take a VMware Snapshot

1.    First log into vSphere and locate the VM you wish to take a snapshot with.
2.    Once you are on the VM, right click on the VM, highlight Snapshots, then click on Take Snapshot.

3.    Next, fill in the following:
    a.    Type in a name for your Snapshot.
    b.    Then uncheck the “Snapshot the virtual machine’s memory” (this option will snapshot the system in its current state if you wish to keep the exact state of the machine).
    c.    Click OK

4.    Click on the VM to bring up the VM system in the vSphere and then go to the Snapshot tab.
5.    Verify your Snapshot is in the Snapshot menu.

Creating a New Datastore in Cisco HyperFlex Connect

1.    First log into your Cisco HyperFlex Connect.
2.    Once you have logged in, you will see your Dashboard and can check to make sure the cluster is healthy.

 3.    Once you have verified your cluster is healthy, click on the Datastores tab under the MANAGE section on the left hand side.

4.    Now that you are in the Datastore section, you can click on Create Datastore in the top left corner of the Datastore section.

5.    After you click this, a pop-up box will come up and you can type in the information for your datastore you wish to create.
    o    Datastore Name: You can name your datastore whatever you wish. This will be the name that shows up here, and in your vCenter, or other virtual manager device.
    o    Size: Also simple, you can choose the size of your datastore. This is going to be based on your requirements and available storage.
    o    Block Size: Have not had to mess with this, and I will provide more information once I read more into this. I keep default for now.
    o    Create Datastore: Click here to complete and finish your datastore.

6.    You should see your datastore show up in the HyperFlex Connect datastore list.

7.    Also, you can head over to vSphere and check the datastores in there to verify it also shows up there.

8.    You are finished and can now start adding systems and data to the datastore.

Upgrading the Firmware and IOS for Cisco 4500X

1.    First verify your firmware and your IOS are loaded into the bootflash by executing the following:
    a.    #dir
2.    Once you verified you have the proper files (if you do not, download the correct ones and follow my “Uploading IOS” guide), enter the following commands in order to keep the system from booting into the old IOS. We will do this to force it into the new firmware and IOS files:
    a.    #configure terminal
    b.    #no boot system flash bootflash:YourCurrentLoadedIOS
    c.    #exit
    d.    #write
3.    Next we are actually going to set the config-register and set the device up to load and boot from the files we uploaded into our flash.
    a.    #configure terminal
    b.    #boot system flash bootflash:YourFirmwareUpgradeFileName
    c.    #boot system flash bootflash:YourCiscoIOSFileName
    d.    #config-register 0x2102
    e.    #exit
    f.    #write
4.    Now you need to verify your boot parameters are correct and the system will boot up into your files you want to load:
    a.    #show bootvar
    b.    Look to make sure your BOOT variable is equal to your boot software you wish to boot. ENSURE you check this because I have had where it would load the files out of order, or not put one in. Just verify.
5.    Next you just need to reload the Cisco device and it should start performing the upgrade. It will take up to 5-20 minutes.
    a.    #reload
    b.    Proceed with reload? Confirm
    c.    Not to self and others, sometimes these switches will get stuck and might need to be power cycled. Have a console cable ready just in case troubleshooting is required to get it to boot back up.
6.    Once the switch has loaded up, verify your software has been upgraded with:
    a.    #show version
7.    Next, you need to reset your boot parameters to only load the new IOS and not the firmware file and change back the config-register for proper boot functionality and order:
    a.    #configure terminal
    b.    #no boot system flash bootflash:YourFirmwareFile
    c.    #config-register 0x0102
    d.    #exit
    e.    #write
8.    Finally, you can clean up the files on the system by using the delete command to delete the firmware file. If you have the space and even though you backed up your IOS (you did backup your IOS right?.....), you might still want to keep the old IOS on there just in case you have issues.
    a.    #delete bootflash:YourFirmwareFileName
    b.    Delete filename? Confirm
9.    You have now completed the firmware and IOS upgrade for your system.

Reference:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/catalyst4500/release/note/OL_24829.html#96288

Uploading IOS to Cisco 4500 Device

1.    First, download the appropriate software for your Cisco device.
2.    Once you have the file downloaded, then copy the IOS to the correct folder where your TFTP will pull from.
3.    Now you are ready to upload the file to the bootflash (this is similar to other Cisco devices, but 4500Xs store it in the bootflash).
4.    Next, perform the following commands to perform the upload:
    a.    #copy tftp: bootflash:
    b.    Address or name of remote host? Input_Your_TFTP_IP
    c.    Destination filename? YouCanChangeOrLeaveDefault
    d.    Now you await for the upload to finish.
5.    After your upload has finished, you can now verify the upload has been completed and your file is showing:
    a.    #dir
   
Reference:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/catalyst4500/release/note/OL_24829.html#96288

Backup Cisco IOS on 4500X

1.    First, log into the Cisco device you wish to upgrade.
2.    Perform the following command to verify which IOS version you are currently running:
    a.    #show version
    b.    Scroll up and look for system image file, will say something like “bootflash:cat4500….” or something like this talking about the booting on flash.
3.    Depending on the version or type of switch, you can do either of the following commands to check the directory to verify how much space and what images are loaded on the Cisco system.
    a.    #dir
    b.    #dir flash:/
4.    So once you find the version IOS you are running, and the name of the config file in the directory, you can copy the original IOS to your TFTP server/client by typing in the following, (again, this is to back up the currently running IOS in case any issues arise with the new IOS. If there are any issues, you can easily re-upload this file back into the Cisco system and recover).
    a.    #copy flash tftp
    b.    #Source filename[]?YourCurrentRunningIOS
    c.    #Address or name of remote host[]?YourIPAddressOfSystemToSendIOS
    d.    Then just wait for the copy to transfer to the backup destination.
    e.    You can check the file location you have your TFTP set to download to in order to verify the IOS has been downloaded.

Reference:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/catalyst4500/release/note/OL_24829.html#96288

Linux Firewall Tips

•    Disable the firewall:
    o    >systemctl disable firewalld
•    Install the iptables-service:
    o    >yum install iptables-services
•    Enable iptables
    o    >systemctl enable iptables
    o    Now you can save iptables:
            >service iptables save
•    To stop the firewall:
    o    >systemctl stop firewalld
•    Check status of the firewall:
    o    >systemctl status firewalld
•    To start the firewall:
    o    >systemctl firewall start
•    To enable the firewall:
    o    >systemctl enable firewall