vSphere Management Assistant 5.5 Release Notes

vSphere Management Assistant | 31 October 2013 | Build 1387931

Last Document Update: 31 October 2013

The release notes covers the following topics:

Note: The topics in which this documentation uses the product name "ESXi" are applicable to all supported releases of ESX and ESXi.

About vMA

vMA is a Linux-based virtual machine that is pre-installed with a command-line interface and select third-party agents needed to manage your vSphere infrastructure. Administrators and developers can use vMA to run scripts and agents to manage vSphere 5.5, vSphere 5.1 and later, vSphere 5.0 and later systems. vMA includes the vSphere SDK for Perl and the vSphere Command-Line Interface (vSphere CLI). vMA also includes an authentication component named vi-fastpass. vi-fastpass allows direct connection to established target servers without user intervention.

For information about vSphere CLI, refer to the vSphere Command-Line Interface Documentation.

Hardware and Software Requirements

To set up vMA, you need the hardware listed in the following table.

Hardware Description
ESXi host Because vMA runs a 64-bit operating system, the ESXi host on which vMA is to be deployed must support 64-bit virtual machines.
CPU

AMD Opteron, Rev E or later. AMD-V hardware virtualization is not required.

Intel processors with EM64T support with VT enabled.

Note: Opteron 64-bit processors earlier than rev E and Intel processors that have EM64T support but not VT support enabled, do not support a 64-bit guest operating system. For detailed hardware requirements, see the Hardware Compatibility List on the VMware Web site.

By default, vMA uses one virtual processor, and requires 3GB of storage space for the vMA virtual disk. The recommended memory for vMA is 600MB.

You must have the following software to deploy vMA.

Software Description
vSphere 5.5
vSphere 5.1 and later
vSphere 5.0 and later 		You can deploy vMA to an ESXi host by using a vSphere Client connected directly to the ESXi host or using a vSphere Client connected to a vCenter Server system.
vSphere Client You need a vSphere Client to deploy vMA.

You can use vMA to target vSphere 5.5, vSphere 5.1 and later, vSphere 5.0 and later systems.

For information about setting up vMA for a non-English keyboard, see KB 1007551.

Installing vMA

You can deploy the vMA OVF from your vSphere Client connected to a vCenter Server system or ESXi host, as described in the vSphere Management Assistant Guide.

Important: You cannot upgrade from an earlier version of vMA to vMA 5.5. You need to do a fresh installation of vMA 5.5.

  1. Download and unzip the vMA ZIP archive.
  2. In the vSphere Client, choose File > Deploy OVF Template.
  3. When prompted by the wizard, click Deploy from a file or URL and select the OVF in the folder to which you have extracted the ZIP file and follow the instructions in the wizard.
When you start vMA, proceed as follows:
  • Select an option from the menu and configure the selected network setting.
  • When prompted, specify a password for the vi-admin user for logging in to vMA. The password must conform to the vMA password policy. The password must have at least:
    • Nine characters
    • One upper case character
    • One lower case character
    • One numeral character
    • One symbol such as #, $
    The vi-admin user has root privileges on vMA. The root user is disabled.

    Note: If the password contains any blank spaces, then logging in to vMA through the Web UI fails.

Earlier Releases of vMA 5.5

Features and known issues from earlier releases of vMA 5.5 are described in the release notes for each release. To view release notes for earlier releases of vMA, go to the following links:

Resolved Issues

This release of vMA includes few usability-related fixes.

Changed Functionality

To further secure vMA appliance, if a root user creates a file or a directory on vMA, then the file or the directory is only readable to the root user.

Known Issues

Other than the known issues reported in the vMA 5.1 release, this release includes the following known issues.

  • Default gateway configuration fails

    While configuring the network during the first boot of vMA, if you configure the default gateway before you configure static IP address, the gateway configuration is not saved.

  • Unexpected error occurs if you query the status of service /etc/init.d/vmware-tools-services

    If you try to query the status of the service /etc/init.d/vmware-tools-services, the following errors occur:

    Error: Unable to open the installer database /etc/vmware-tools/locations in append-mode
    Error: Unable to open the installer database /etc/vmware-tools/locations in append-mode
    Error: Unable to open the installer database /etc/vmware-tools/locations in append-mode

    Workaround: Run the same command by using sudo.

  • Windows vCenter Server fails to authenticate login request from vMA with active directory domain credentials

    After adding both Windows vCenter Server and vMA virtual machine into the active directory domain by using vma.testdomain and then adding the Windows vCenter Server as a target of vMA, you cannot log in to the Windows vCenter Server with the active directory domain credentials.

  • Resxtop command is not working

    After successfully logging into an ESXi host, the command prompt is returned immediately and resxtop is not loaded.

    Workaround: Run the command sudo mv /usr/lib/vmware-rcli/lib/ /usr/lib/vmware. After running the command, you can connect to your ESXi host by using resxtop.