{"id":953,"date":"2011-11-03T12:13:17","date_gmt":"2011-11-03T16:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/?p=953"},"modified":"2012-05-10T12:05:32","modified_gmt":"2012-05-10T16:05:32","slug":"gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Gotcha: Disabling VMware DRS with vCloud Director"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the past week there have been a rash of reports about people disabling VMware DRS, while vCloud Director was in place. \u00a0I have tweeted multiple times about this and also brought it up on the Community PodCast yesterday<\/a>. \u00a0The more I bring it up the more people are asking why someone would do such a thing, and second what really happens. \u00a0Well I wanted to take a moment to address both of these. \u00a0First off the reason this is so important is that vCloud Director uses DRS Resource Pools to manage the Provider and Organization Virtual Datacenters. \u00a0This is no secret, if you have played with the product and looked in vCenter you see a lot of resource pools. \u00a0However if you have yet to install it now you know….vCloud Director relies on resource pools like it or not. \u00a0I affectionately refer to the Allocation models as “Resource Pools Done Right”. \u00a0Many have heard me say this at VMworld over and over.<\/p>\n

Why Do Folks Disable DRS?<\/h3>\n

There are a few reasons why people completely disable DRS that I have seen. \u00a0One is that this is a VMware GSS troubleshooting step, but GSS needs to be made aware you are running vCloud Director. \u00a0If they know this going in I have been told they will not have you disable it. \u00a0One other situation had a\u00a0rogue\u00a0vCenter administrator disable it\u00a0because\u00a0they were not aware that the cluster was managed by vCloud Director. \u00a0This is one reason we all suggest a second, locked down vCenter, separate from one that many people may have access to. \u00a0Prevention\u00a0unfortunately\u00a0is one of the keys here. \u00a0The last is simply a “Clicked too fast” mistake when editing settings in vCenter. \u00a0This is probably more common than you think it is, even some of the best people I know have made this mistake. \u00a0If you need to prevent DRS moves simply change the setting to MANUAL, but please do not uncheck the box.<\/p>\n

Isn’t There Any Kind of Warning?<\/h3>\n

Why yes there is! \u00a0The screenshot is below. \u00a0However it does not currently tie the warning to the fact you will completely break vCloud Director. \u00a0This is something being looked at similar to the managed object\u00a0warnings\u00a0on the Virtual Machines themselves. \u00a0The problem is people are still ignoring the message and continuing to do so<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
If you see this.....THINK TWICE!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So What Actually Happens?<\/h3>\n

Without sugarcoating it…..pretty much everything in vCloud Director. \u00a0This is where we get into the meat of the issue and you need some background. \u00a0With vCloud Director, there is a separate database as we all know. \u00a0This Database contains metadata and other information that ties back to vCenter UUID and MoREF information. \u00a0Should these ID’s change in vCenter, vCloud Director’s Database does not know about the update. \u00a0However if vCloud Director inserts an object it tracks them both. \u00a0Think of this as a uni-directional update from vCloud Director to vCenter. \u00a0We have always said changes made in vCenter are not always\u00a0reflected\u00a0in vCloud Director, so again this is no secret. \u00a0Below is a simple config of one cluster that has a single Provider vDC and an Org vDC. \u00a0There is also a vApp deployed to this Organization for argument’s sake.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Now let’s disable DRS and see what happens in vCloud Director. \u00a0As we expected the VM is still there and associated with vCloud as a managed object, but it is no longer associated with the Organization resources in any way. \u00a0Imagine a large number of Organization vDC’s where all the vApp’s just get dropped to the root pool? \u00a0No more service levels for all those paying customers for one!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We also start seeing errors in vCloud Director for simple operations like powering on a Virtual Machine. \u00a0We end up getting all kinds of angry errors, when we want to deploy a new vApp as well. \u00a0You do get the detailed name of the resource pool that was removed. \u00a0I think you get the point by now so I will not bother with more screen shots.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Power on Error<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Associated RP Error<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Backing RP Error<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So How The Heck Do I Fix This!?<\/h3>\n

Well it is not easy, but it is also not impossible, and it is not really something you should do without GSS help. \u00a0First thing is you need to re-enable DRS, and from there a lot of re-work will need to happen to re-create the Resource Pools and re-map them to the vCloud Director Database. \u00a0This may not be as easy as it sounds, as you can see from the initial snapshot, the resource pool name also has a UID associated with it. \u00a0You need to re-create them exactly as they were before the mistake was made. \u00a0Again this is not for people to do on their own. \u00a0I may try to play with this in my now broken lab to see if I can fix it, but I will NOT be posting the Database tables and other information should I get it to work. \u00a0I’m not taking that responsibility should someone break something. \u00a0The real issue is not for two pools, but what if you had 10, 50, or 100 to recreate? \u00a0The whole time your users will not be able to do anything on the organizations and that is not good. \u00a0You also have to know exactly where every Virtual Machine was associated with the right resource pool. \u00a0Some of this may be in the vCloud Director Database as indicated by the error above. \u00a0Obviously it is important to get each organizations Virtual Machines back to the right resource control. \u00a0I have no idea how the ChargeBack data collectors will be affected by this either and what may happen to the billing reports. \u00a0One other thing to consider is you have to also replace the “System vDC” as well but that gets created when you create a Provider vDC, but must also be re-created.<\/p>\n

The Moral of The Story<\/h3>\n

Lock users out of changing this setting, with RBAC, or a completely separate locked down vCenter. \u00a0Sometimes protecting people from themselves is the best option. \u00a0If you do get into trouble call support, you are going to need them, and that is what they are there for. \u00a0Just don’t do it, and think twice before you do. \u00a0You can always set it to manual to prevent DRS migrations, but you need to maintain those Resource Pools. \u00a0The thing to remember is that one way update from vCloud Director to vCenter, and it is not currently the other way around. \u00a0I am currently working on investigating ways this, and other use cases where MoREF ID’s have changed in vCenter can be recovered, but it will take some time and possibly tools like vCenter Orchestrator for example. \u00a0There is also a VMware Labs Fling for Inventory Snapshot<\/a>, which I have yet to test to see if it recreates with the original MoREF ID’s, but I plan on seeing the results this coming week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the past week there have been a rash of reports about people disabling VMware DRS, while vCloud Director was in place. \u00a0I have tweeted multiple times about this and also brought it up on the Community PodCast yesterday. \u00a0The more I bring it up the more people are asking why someone would do such …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[19,9,11,12],"tags":[61,163,181,182,226],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nGotcha: Disabling VMware DRS with vCloud Director \u2022 Chris Colotti's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There is about 100 reasons why you don't want to do this, but see from me what really happens under the covers when you you do\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gotcha: Disabling VMware DRS with vCloud Director \u2022 Chris Colotti's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is about 100 reasons why you don't want to do this, but see from me what really happens under the covers when you you do\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Chris Colotti's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-03T16:13:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-05-10T16:05:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/gotcha1.jpeg?fit=160%2C160&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"160\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"160\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Colotti\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ccolotti\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ccolotti\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Colotti\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/\",\"name\":\"Gotcha: Disabling VMware DRS with vCloud Director \u2022 Chris Colotti's Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/gotcha1.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-03T16:13:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-05-10T16:05:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/#\/schema\/person\/7dd10fd3d400b31cbb9a4a4a14adb0c7\"},\"description\":\"There is about 100 reasons why you don't want to do this, but see from me what really happens under the covers when you you do\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/gotcha1.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/gotcha1.jpeg\",\"width\":\"160\",\"height\":\"160\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Gotcha: Disabling VMware DRS with vCloud Director\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/\",\"name\":\"Chris Colotti's Blog\",\"description\":\"Thoughts and Theories About...\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/#\/schema\/person\/7dd10fd3d400b31cbb9a4a4a14adb0c7\",\"name\":\"Chris Colotti\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c93553a4a3e76f774ead33ebad5dbc1e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c93553a4a3e76f774ead33ebad5dbc1e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Chris Colotti\"},\"description\":\"Chris is active on the VMUG and event speaking circuit and is available for many events if you want to reach out and ask. Previously to this he spent close to a decade working for VMware as a Principal Architect. Previous to his nine plus years at VMware, Chris was a System Administrator that evolved his career into a data center architect. Chris spends a lot of time mentoring co-workers and friends on the benefits of personal growth and professional development. Chris is also amongst the first VMware Certified Design Experts (VCDX#37), and author of multiple white papers. In his spare time he helps his wife Julie run her promotional products as the accountant, book keeper, and IT Support. Chris also believes in both a healthy body and healthy mind, and has become heavily involved with fitness as a Diamond Team Beachbody Coach using P90X and other Beachbody Programs. Although Technology is his day job, Chris is passionate about fitness after losing 60 pounds himself in the last few years.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/chriscolotti.us\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/author\/ccolotti\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Gotcha: Disabling VMware DRS with vCloud Director \u2022 Chris Colotti's Blog","description":"There is about 100 reasons why you don't want to do this, but see from me what really happens under the covers when you you do","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Gotcha: Disabling VMware DRS with vCloud Director \u2022 Chris Colotti's Blog","og_description":"There is about 100 reasons why you don't want to do this, but see from me what really happens under the covers when you you do","og_url":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/","og_site_name":"Chris Colotti's Blog","article_published_time":"2011-11-03T16:13:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-05-10T16:05:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"160","height":"160","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/gotcha1.jpeg?fit=160%2C160&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Chris Colotti","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ccolotti","twitter_site":"@ccolotti","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chris Colotti","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/","url":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/","name":"Gotcha: Disabling VMware DRS with vCloud Director \u2022 Chris Colotti's Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/gotcha1.jpeg","datePublished":"2011-11-03T16:13:17+00:00","dateModified":"2012-05-10T16:05:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/#\/schema\/person\/7dd10fd3d400b31cbb9a4a4a14adb0c7"},"description":"There is about 100 reasons why you don't want to do this, but see from me what really happens under the covers when you you do","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/gotcha1.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/gotcha1.jpeg","width":"160","height":"160"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/vmware\/gotcha-disabling-vmware-drs-with-vcloud-director\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Gotcha: Disabling VMware DRS with vCloud Director"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/#website","url":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/","name":"Chris Colotti's Blog","description":"Thoughts and Theories About...","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/#\/schema\/person\/7dd10fd3d400b31cbb9a4a4a14adb0c7","name":"Chris Colotti","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c93553a4a3e76f774ead33ebad5dbc1e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c93553a4a3e76f774ead33ebad5dbc1e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Chris Colotti"},"description":"Chris is active on the VMUG and event speaking circuit and is available for many events if you want to reach out and ask. Previously to this he spent close to a decade working for VMware as a Principal Architect. Previous to his nine plus years at VMware, Chris was a System Administrator that evolved his career into a data center architect. Chris spends a lot of time mentoring co-workers and friends on the benefits of personal growth and professional development. Chris is also amongst the first VMware Certified Design Experts (VCDX#37), and author of multiple white papers. In his spare time he helps his wife Julie run her promotional products as the accountant, book keeper, and IT Support. Chris also believes in both a healthy body and healthy mind, and has become heavily involved with fitness as a Diamond Team Beachbody Coach using P90X and other Beachbody Programs. Although Technology is his day job, Chris is passionate about fitness after losing 60 pounds himself in the last few years.","sameAs":["http:\/\/chriscolotti.us"],"url":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/author\/ccolotti\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/gotcha1.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1K3dw-fn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscolotti.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}