I’m open to change, usually. New technology, new releases, new features, new options; I just like new. Though I do like new there is some “new” I struggle to get behind and that “new” is the vSphere Web Client. Even though it has been around awhile, with vSphere 5.5 there are things you have to use the web client for in order to administer your VMs (assuming they’re Harware Version 10). As a man not quite ready to make the leap to full-blown Web Client administration (and how can you since you still need the thick client to run Update Manager), I decided to install NetApp’s Virtual Storage Console 4.2.1 so I can continue to perform NetApp administration in the vSphere thick client.
As the primary VMware and NetApp engineer, having one place to create, mount, and resize volumes is a time saver. Plus the ability to create volume-level snapshots that quiesce the guest operating systems of your VMs provides a quick, point-in-time recovery time for your infrastructure. The steps below show how to install and configure the VSC 4.2.1 plugin in vSphere 5.5 connecting to an HA-pair of NetApps running ONTAP 8.1.2 in 7-mode.
Prerequisites:
1. A server that will run the VSC service (I usually install it on the Windows Server that hosts the vCenter Service or Update Manager as there are no port conflicts)
2. A domain account with “Administrator” rights to vCenter and local administrator on the Windows Server (this account will run the VSC service)
3. Credentials for the NetApps (I use ‘root’ for this, but a new user can be created on the NetApps with appropriate permissions)
Steps:
1. Run VSC-4.2.1-win64.exe as administrator
2. Click “Next”
3. Read through the “Shared Credentials” notes, click “I Understand” then click “Next”
4. Check the box for “Backup and Recovery” (if licensed) and click “Next”
5. Set the installation directory (I prefer to install to a non-OS drive) and click “Next”
6. Note the URL and click the “Install” button
7. When the installation completes click “Finish” and you should have a browser pop-up to the URL above
8. On the browser page, continue through any security warnings
9. Choose the IP of the local service the plugin will use to communicate with vCenter (This is the IP of the server you are installing VSC to)
- a. Enter the IP of the vCenter server
- b. Enter a service account username and password (this should not be your own credentials)
- c. Click “Register”
- d. You should see this message below if successful
10. On the server, go to “Start”, “Administrative Tools”, and click on “Services”
11. Locate the “Virtual Storage Console for VMware vSphere Server” service, right click and choose “Properties”
12. Click the “Log On” tab then click “This account”
- a. Enter the account username and password used to connect to vCenter then click “OK”
- b. Click “OK” for the message about granting Log On As A Service rights
- c. Click “OK” about not taking affect until the service is restarted
13. Right-click on the service and click “Restart”
14. Login to the vSphere thick client to the vCenter server
- a. You should receive a Security Warning pop up, click the box to install the certificate and click “Ignore”
15. Click “Plug-ins” then “Manage Plug-ins” at the top
16. Locate the “Virtual Storage Console” plugin, right click it and click “Enable” then click “Close”
17. Click the “Home” button towards the top left then click “NetApp” under “Solutions and Applications”
- a. If you receive a Security Alert click “Yes” to proceed
18. Right-click on one of the storage controllers listed at the top and click “Modify Credentials”
19. Enter the management IP address, username (likely root) and password (try with SSL, but if it doesn’t work try without SSL) and click “OK”
- a. Click “OK” for the controller privileges summary
- b. Repeat for any additional Storage Controllers
- c. Once completed this is what you should see
20. Click on “Provisioning and Cloning” towards to the bottom left
21. Click the link for “Storage controllers” and click the “Refresh” link towards the top right
22. Right click on one of the controllers and click “Resources”
23. Move the NFS/iSCSI network interface(s) to the right column, move any volumes that VMware will manage to the right column and move any aggregates to the right column to be managed as well. Click “Save” (The 10.32.22.x network is for management of the NetApp while the 192.168.10.x network is a private, non-routable network for NFS traffic. All volumes should be mounted on that network.)
- a. Repeat for any other controllers
*The original documentation I posted showed changing the role in vCenter for the “netappvsc” user to “VSC Administrator” instead of just “Administrator”. Turns out this breaks the Virtual Storage Console. When you attempt to mount or provision datastores, you receive the following error; “HTTP ERROR 403. Problem accessing /kamino/index.html. Reason: Forbidden”
At this point you are ready to manage your NetApp filers from the vSphere thick client. By right-clicking on your cluster in vCenter you can provision volumes to all the hosts in a cluster saving so much time of provisioning a new volume and then mounting it one host at time. Too bad you can mount a volume that’s already been created at the cluster level; it can only be done one host at a time.
