vSphere Management Assistant 6.5 Release Notes

Updated on: 15 November 2016

vSphere Management Assistant | 15 November 2016 | Build 4569350

Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

What's in the Release Notes

The release notes cover the following topics:

About vSphere Management Assistant

vSphere Management Assistant is a Linux-based virtual machine that is pre-installed using a command-line interface and select third-party agents required to manage your vSphere infrastructure. Administrators and developers can use vSphere Management Assistant to run scripts and agents to manage ESXi 5.0 and later, including ESXi 6.5. vSphere Management Assistant includes the vSphere SDK for Perl and the vSphere Command-Line Interface (vSphere CLI). vSphere Management Assistant also includes an authentication component named vi-fastpass. You can use vi-fastpass to directly connect to the established target servers. vSphere Management Assistant 6.5 also includes DCLI commands which are used to manage services that are new in vSphere 6.5 and are presented by the vCloud Suite SDK interface.

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

What's New

  • Base operating system is updated to the latest patch of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3.

  • The Oracle (Sun) JRE is updated to version 1.7.0_111.

  • The vSphere Command-Line Interface Concepts and Examples Guide is updated with changes made in vSphere Command-Line Interface. For more information, see vSphere Command-Line Interface 6.5 Release Notes
Feature and Support Notice: vSphere Management Assistant is deprecated and version 6.5 is the last release for vSphere Management Assistant. The vSphere Management Assistant deprecation was announced in vSphere Management Assistant 6.0.0.1 release. For more information, see vSphere Management Assistant 6.0.0.1 Release Notes.

Hardware and Software Requirements

To set up vSphere Management Assistant, you need the hardware listed in the following table.

Hardware Description
ESXi host vSphere Management Assistant runs a 64-bit operating system. The ESXi host on which you plan to deploy vSphere Management Assistant must support 64-bit virtual machines.
CPU AMD Opteron Rev E or later. AMD-V hardware virtualization is not required.

VT enabled Intel processors with EM64T support.

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, vSphere Management Assistant uses one virtual processor, and requires 3 GB of hard disk space for the vSphere Management Assistant virtual disk. The minimum memory required for vSphere Management Assistant is 600 MB.

You must have the following software to deploy vSphere Management Assistant.

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

You can use vSphere Management Assistant to target ESXi 5.0 and later systems, including ESXi 6.5.

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

Installing vSphere Management Assistant

You can deploy the vSphere Management Assistant OVF from your vSphere Web 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 vSphere Management Assistant to vSphere Management Assistant 6.5. Perform a fresh installation of vSphere Management Assistant 6.5.

  1. Download and unzip the vSphere Management Assistant ZIP archive.

  2. In the vSphere Web Client, select File > Deploy OVF Template.

  3. When prompted by the wizard, click Deploy from a file or URL, select the OVF in the folder to which you have extracted the ZIP file, and follow the instructions in the wizard.

When you start vSphere Management Assistant, perform the following steps:

  1. Select the Configuration option from the menu and configure the selected network setting.

  2. When prompted, enter a password for the vi-admin user for logging in to vSphere Management Assistant. The password must conform to the vSphere Management Assistant password policy. The password must have at least the following attributes:

    • Nine characters
    • One uppercase character
    • One lowercase character
    • One numeral character
    • One symbol such as #, $

    The vi-admin user has root privileges on vSphere Management Assistant. The root user is disabled.

Earlier Releases of vSphere Management Assistant

Features and known issues from earlier releases of vSphere Management Assistant 6.5 are described in the release notes for each release. To view release notes for earlier releases of vSphere Management Assistant, go to the following links:

Resolved Issues

The following issue is resolved in vSphere Management Assistant 6.5:

  • vSphere Management Assistant prompts for credentials for vCenter Server running with domain account services
    vSphere Management Assistant might prompt for authorization every time you run a command. This happens when a vCenter Server with Active Directory domain account services is added as a target to vSphere Management Assistant.
    If a target that is added with Active Directory authentication policy, running under a domain account, register the SPN for this account on vCenter Server and vSphere Management Assistant as follows:
    • On vCenter Server: setspn -s VC/vcmachine.domain.local DOMAIN\vcservice
    • On vSphere Management Assistant: Vifptarget –s servername domain
      where servername is the targeted vCenter Server

Known Issues

  • resxtop fails with an undefined symbol error
    Attempts to run the resxtop service might fail. An error message of similar to the following is displayed:
    /usr/lib/vmware-vcli/bin/resxtop: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/vmware-vcli/bin/resxtop

    Workaround: Use vSphere Command Line Interface 6.5. For more information, see the vSphere Command-Line Interface Concepts and Examples and vSphere Command-Line Interface Reference.

  • vSphere Management Assistant 6.5 might fail to communicate with the vCenter Server
    The vSphere Management Assistant 6.5 might fail to communicate with vCenter Server. This happens when vCenter Server instance is configured with TLSv1.1 or TLSv1.2 protocols. An error message similar to the following is displayed:

    Connect to ServerIP failed with ssl error 0x1.

    Workaround: Use an independent vSphere Command Line Interface 6.5. For more information, see the vSphere Command-Line Interface Concepts and Examples and vSphere Command-Line Interface Reference.

  • vSphere Management Assistant supports SSLv3 and DHE cipher by default on port 5480

    Support for SSLv3 protocol is enabled by default for vSphere Management Assistant on port 5480. You can disable SSLv3 by changing light-httpd server configuration.

    Workaround:Perform the following steps to disable SSLv3 and DHE cipher:
    1. Log in to vSphere Management Assistant console as vi-admin.
    2. Run the following command to open the /opt/vmware/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf file for editing:
      sudo vi /opt/vmware/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf
    3. Find the following lines:
      VMware ssl
      ssl.engine = "enable"
      ssl.pemfile = "/opt/vmware/etc/lighttpd/server.pem"
      ssl.cipher-list = "TLSv1+HIGH: !SSLv2: !aNULL: !eNULL: !3DES: @STRENGTH"
    4. Edit the ssl.cipher-list attribute by adding !DH to disable weak DH cipher.

      For Example:
      ssl.cipher-list = "TLSv1+HIGH: !SSLv2: !aNULL: !eNULL: !DH: !3DES: @STRENGTH"
      Add the following line to disable SSLv3:
      ssl.use-sslv3 = "disable"
    5. Save the lighttpd.conf file.
    6. Run the following command to restart the light-httpd server:
      sudo service vami-lighttp restart

  • vSphere Management Assistant Certificate Signature algorithm uses SHA-1 certificate instead of SHA-256 on port 5480

    vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) Certificate Signature algorithm uses SHA-1 certificate even after upgrading to SHA-256 certificate on port 5480.

    Workaround: By default the vSphere Management Assistant SSL certificate and private key are stored in a PEM file, which is located at the following location:
    /opt/vmware/etc/lighttpd/server.pem
    Follow these steps to regenerate certificate with SHA-256:
    1. Log in to vSphere Management Assistant console as vi-admin.
    2. Run the following command to create a backup copy of the SSL certificate and private key and certificate generation tool:
      cp /opt/vmware/etc/lighttpd/server.pem /opt/vmware/etc/lighttpd/server.pem.orig
      cp /opt/vmware/share/lighttpd/genSslCert.sh /opt/vmware/share/lighttpd/genSslCert.sh.orig
    3. Run the following command to edit the /opt/vmware/share/lighttpd/genSslCert.sh file:
      sudo vi /opt/vmware/share/lighttpd/genSslCert.sh
    4. Search for the following line:
      -nodes -config $OPENSSL_CONF \
    5. Add -sha256 to -nodes -config $OPENSSL_CONF \ as following:
      -nodes -config $OPENSSL_CONF -sha256 \
    6. Run following command to regenerate the certificate for port 5480:
      sudo /opt/vmware/share/lighttpd/genSslCert.sh /opt/vmware/etc/lighttpd
    7. Run following command to restart the light-httpd server:
      sudo service vami-lighttp restart

  • vSphere Management Assistant fails to operate Windows based vCenter Server 6.0 with Active Directory authentication

    After adding Windows based vCenter Server to an Active Directory domain as a target of vSphere Management Assistant, you cannot log in to Windows based vCenter Server with Active Directory domain credentials.

    Workaround:Use the less privileged vi-user account, navigate to su active directory/user, and then log in to active directory or user to perform all your management tasks.

  • vSphere Management Assistant cannot add ESXi host as target by using Active Directory mode with IPv6 address

    vSphere Management Assistant cannot add an ESXi host as a target by using Active Directory mode with IPv6 address because ESXi host cannot join the domain.

    Workaround: Perform the following steps:
    1. Add the ESXi host to a vCenter Server instance.
    2. Join vCenter Server to the Active Directory domain.
    3. Add the vCenter Server target using fastpass mode with the Active Directory account.
    4. Use the ESXi host through vCenter Server.

  • vSphere Management Assistant configured with IPv6 prompts for credentials for targets that have both IPv4 and IPv6 configuration enabled

    When vSphere Management Assistant is configured with IPv6 only, it prompts for credentials for targets that have both IPv4 and IPv6 configuration enabled.

    Workaround: Configure targets with only IPv6 enabled and then add the targets to vSphere Management Assistant.

  • DCLI command is not set in the default path in vSphere Management Assistant

    DCLI is not part of the path in vSphere Management Assistant and you must run it with the full path. Navigate to the path and run DCLI or add the location to the appliance path.

    DCLI is available at /usr/lib/vmware-vcli/bin/vmware-dcli/.

    Workaround: Navigate to the dcli directory and then run the /usr/lib/vmware-vcli/bin/vmware-dcli/dcli command, set the DCLI to the vSphere Management Assistant appliance path and then run the export PATH=$PATH:/usr/lib/vmware-vcli/bin/vmware-dcli/ command.