vSphere Integration Plugin v201.5.3 - Release Notes

vSphere Integration Plugin v201.5.3 - Release Notes

About vSphere Integration Plugin v201.5.3

vSphere Integration Plugin provides a set of availability checks and rule actions for the vSphere environment. These checks and rule actions require the plug-in to be configured with a valid vCenter Server account username and password, and the connection details to vCenter Server. 
The vSphere Integration Plugin is automatically installed during Neverfail Continuity deployment on a VMware VM target server. The vCenter Server account is automatically configured with the username and password configured on the Enterprise Management Service console.
The configured vCenter Server account should have at least the minimal VMware permissions listed in Neverfail Continuity Engine 8.5 installation guide.
 

Supported Versions and Platforms

Windows Server versions/editions:

  • Windows Server 2022 Standard/Datacenter
  • Windows Server 2019 Standard/Datacenter
  • Windows Server 2016 Standard/Datacenter
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard/Datacenter
  • Windows Server 2012 Standard/Datacenter
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard/Enterprise/Datacenter

vCenter Server and ESXi versions:

  • VMware vCenter Server / ESXi 6.7 up to U1
  • VMware vCenter Server / ESXi 6.5 (all releases)       
  • VMware vCenter Server / ESXi 6.0 (all releases)
  • VMware vCenter Server / ESXi 5.1 and 5.x (all releases)           

Known Issues

  • Symptom: vSphere Integration Plug-in fails to connect to the configured vCenter Server 6.7 instance - following warning message is logged: (EN-3895)
    • vSphere Integration: Connection invalid. Please configure 
      (or check the configuration of) the VmAdaptor by choosing Application from the 
      menu, the Plugins tab. Select the VmAdaptor plugin and press the Edit button. 
      The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send.
    • Cause: TLS 1.2 connection (required by vCenter Server 6.7) is not supported/enabled on the Neverfail Engine server node, thus the plugin cannot connect to the configured vCenter Server. This is a consequence of the installed .NET Framework version: if older then v4.5 then TLS 1.2 is not supported. This may be seen on Windows Servers 2008R2 with .NET Framework v4.0 installed (v.4.0 is required by Neverfail Engine installation).
    • Workaround: Install v4.5 version (or newer) of .NET Framework.

Plug-in configuration

vSphere Integration Plugin configuration options:

  • vCenter Connection (configured automatically on the Engine cluster with the values configured in the Enterprise Management Service managing the Engine cluster) 
    • IP Address / FQDN
    • Port
    • Username
    • Password
  • Destination for VM migration of Primary server
    • Host (name or IP address as in vCenter)
    • Datastore
    • Resource Pool
  • Destination for VM migration of Secondary server
    • Host (name or IP address as in vCenter)
    • Datastore
    • Resource Pool
  • Destination for VM migration of Tertiary server (if present)
    • Host (name or IP address as in vCenter)
    • Datastore
    • Resource Pool
  • Integrate with vSphere HA Application Monitoring
    • Requires vSphere HA App monitoring enabled for cluster and VM
    • Automatic Engine failover should be disabled

Monitoring

vSphere Integration Plugin monitoring consists of the following:

  • Service Availability Monitoring
  • vSphere Environment Availability Checks and Rule Actions

 

Service Availability Monitoring

Neverfail Engine monitors services specified by the plug-ins to ensure application availability. In the event that a specified service stops or fails, Neverfail Engine can take up to three pre-configured actions to remedy the issue. 

Protected services:

  • VMware Tools

 

vSphere Environment Availability Checks and Rule Actions

Rules

Rules - The following Availability Check 'Rules' are installed by vSphere Integration Plugin: 

  • FT Availability - checks if the vSphere HA cluster on which the Engine VM is running has the Fault Tolerance feature available 
  • HA cluster membership -  checks if the host on which the Engine VM is running is part of a vSphere HA cluster
  • VM monitoring - checks if vSphere HA VM monitoring is enabled
  • vCenter connectivity - checks connection to vCenter Server

Note: For a correct functionality, the above rules require that vSphere Integration Plug-in is configured with a vCenter Server user account which has at leas the minimal permissions mentioned in the installation guide.

To configure/modify these 'Rules', follow the steps below:

  1. Using the Neverfail Advanced Management Client, click on Application-> Rules.
  2. Select the desired 'Rule'.
  3. Click on the Edit button at the top of the 'Rules' pane.
  4. Configure/modify the desired fields (listed below).
    • Condition: (the condition being evaluated) for example, see the Note above.
    • Interval: (the length of time the condition exists)
    • On Failure: (action to take upon first failure) Note: The default is set to 'Log Warning'.
  5. Click OK to save the changes.

Note: This dialog is also used to Enable/Disable the selected 'Rule'. 

Tasks

Tasks - The following 'Tasks' are installed by vSphere Plugins: 

  • Pre Start
  • Post Start
  • Periodic 
    • Protected Services Discovery
    • File Filter Discovery
    • Registry Filter Discovery
  • SendHAAppHeartbeat
  • VMMigrationProgressMonitor

To configure/modify Periodic 'Tasks', follow the steps below:

  1. Using the Neverfail Advanced Management Client, click on Application-> Tasks.
  2. Select the desired 'Task'.
  3. Click on the Edit button at the top of the 'Tasks' pane.
  4. Configure/modify the 'Interval' field. 

    Note:'Interval' is the only field available for configuration/modification and is measured in seconds (secs).
  5. Click OK to save the changes.

Note: This dialog is also used to Enable/Disable the selected 'Task'.

Rule Actions

Rule Actions - The following 'Rule Actions' are installed by vSphere Plugin: 

  • RestartVM - restarts the Engine VM 
  • TriggerMigrateVM - triggers the migration of the Engine VM (as configured in the plug-in)
  • TriggerMigrateVMAndRestartApplications - triggers the migration of the Engine VM followed by the restart of the protected applications (as configured in the plug-in)
  • TriggervSphereHaVmReset - triggers VM reset (requires vSphere Integration plug-in to heve enabled the configuration option: Integrate with vSphere HA Application Monitoring)

These rule actions are offered as additional failure options for the protected services and the defined rules   

Install/Uninstall the vSphere Integration  Plugin Via the Neverfail Advanced Management Client

The vSphere Integration Plugin can be installed either via the Neverfail CE deployment process or by using Application -> Plugins in the Neverfail Advanced Management Client using the procedure below. Neverfail recommends that for initial deployments of vSphere Integration Plugin, installation should be performed using Engine Management Service.

Important: After installation of the vSphere Integration Plug-in you must configure a valid vCenter Server account for the plug-in via the Edit Plug-ins dialog (if not configured automatically).

To manually install the vSphere Integration Plugin, follow the steps below:

  1. Unzip the vSphere Integration Plugin to the desired location.
  2. Launch the Neverfail Advanced Management Client.
  3. Navigate to Application-> Plugins.
  4. Click on the Install button.
  5. Click the Browse button and navigate to the location of the <plug-in name>.dll file.
  6. Click OK to complete the installation.

To remove/uninstall the vSphere Integration Plugin, follow the steps below:

  1. Launch the Neverfail Advanced Management Client.
  2. Navigate to Application-> Plugins.
  3. Select the desired plug-in to be removed/uninstalled.
  4. Click on the Uninstall button in the 'Plugins' pane.
  5. When the plug-in is uninstalled, the files are not removed.  This is by design for future functionality and therefore the following workaround is provided:
  6. Copy the contents of the r2\plugins\<sponsor>\<version>folder to a different location (e.g. C:\temp).
  7. Delete the contents of the r2\plugins\<sponsor>\<version>folder.
  8. To reinstall the plug-in, when prompted for the location of the plug-in files, navigate to the new folder location (e.g. C:\temp).

Note: As an alternative, reinstallation can be accomplished by using the downloaded files from the original download location after removing the plug-in.

Applies To

vSphere Integration Plugin

 


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