Creating Local User Accounts in vSphere

1.    Log into your vSphere environment you wish to add a user to.
2.    Once you are logged in, click on the home icon in the top left of the screen and click on “Administration”

3.    From the “Administration Navigator”, click on “Users and Groups” under the “Single Sign-On” section. Once here, click on the green arrow for “New User”.

4.    On the “New User” pop-up, fill in all of the information required. The main sections required are of course the username and the password. Username, password, First name, and last name are recommended (my personal recommendations). A description is excellent to put in if the account is used for special purposes. Finally, click on once you are done.

5.    Finally, verify your new account pops up in the list in order to verify the account is usable.

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.

Safely Shutdown vCenter Appliance

Safely Shutdown vCenter Appliance

1.       First, you want to go and log on DIRECTLY to the vCenter appliance. DO NOT SHUT DOWN THROUGH ESXi page or vSphere! You can log on directly by going to the IP address/FQDN of your vCenter followed by the port number (5480) in an internet browser.

2.       Once you are logged on, you simply click on the “Shutdown” button in the top right of the web page. Boom, that is it, this is the SAFE way to shut down your vCenter Appliance.

Updating vCenter Appliance through GUI

Updating VMware vCenter

1.       Log onto your vCenter Appliance through the IP address and the port number (5480) at the end in the web browser.

 2.       Once you have logged in, click on the Update tab on the left-hand side.

3.       In the update tab, click on the Check Updates near the top right-hand side.

4.       Click on Check Repository.

5.       You should see a new section under the “Current Version Details”. It will be “Available Updates”.

a.       Here you can verify information on the update such as release date, version number, and more details to view the KB on the update.

6.       Click on the “Install Updates” tab on the right of this “Available Updates” section.

7.       Then click “Install All Updates” to begin the update process. Accept the license agreement, and wait for the display to show completed.

8.       Once all of the updates have been installed, the vCenter Appliance needs to be rebooted. Click on the “Summary” tab in the top left, then click on “Reboot” in the top right of the “Summary” screen.

9.       Verify the vCenter comes back up online, go into the updates and verify your update has been installed.