Monthly Archives: April 2014

The vSphere Web Client cannot connect to the vCenter Single Sign On server

I was trying to login to my vSphere Web Client the other day, and saw this error:
“The vSphere Web Client cannot connect to the vCenter Single Sign On server”

I Googled around and didn’t really find a suitable answer for me. I was able to resolve it by resetting the following services on my vCenter server:
– VMware vSphere Web Client
– VMware Directory Service

I had to wait a bit and refresh the webpage, but was able to get back in. Hope this helps someone.

If you found this article to be helpful, please support us by visiting our sponsors’ websites.

What it’s like to be a Network Engineer, Translated End-User Language

User: I think we are having a major road issue.

Me: What? No, I just checked, the roads are fine. I was actually just on the roads.

User: No I’m pretty sure the roads are down because I’m not getting Pizzas.

Me: Everything else on the roads is fine. What do you mean you aren’t getting Pizzas.

User: I used to get Pizzas when I ordered them, now I’m not getting them. It has to be a road issue.

Me: As I said, the roads are fine. Where are you getting pizzas from?

User:…I’m not really sure. Can you check all places that deliver pizzas?

Me: No I’m not even sure all the places that deliver pizza. You need to narrow it down.

User: I think it’s Subway.

Me: Ok I’ll check…No I just looked and Subway doesn’t deliver pizzas.

User: I’m pretty sure it is Subway. Can you just allow all food from Subway and we can see if Pizza shows up?

Me: Sigh, fine I’ve allowed all food from Subway, but I don’t think that is the issue.

User: Yeah I’m still not getting pizza. Can you check the roads?

Me: It’s not the roads, the roads are fine. I’m pretty sure Subway isn’t the place.

User: Ok I found it, its Papa Johns.

Me: Ok I looked and Papa Johns does deliver pizza. Is it the local papa johns or one in a different town?

User: I don’t know. Can you allow pizza from all Papa Johns to me?

Me: No I can’t do that. Can you get me an address for Papa Johns?

User: No, I only know it as Papa Johns. Can you get me all the addresses of all Papa Johns and I’ll tell you if one of them is correct?

Me: No I don’t have time for that. Ok I looked at the local one and it looks like they have sent you pizza in the past and they are currently allowed to send you pizzas. Try ordering a pizza while I watch.

User: Yeah still no pizza. I’m guessing they are getting blocked at the freeway. Can you check the freeway to make sure they can get through?

Me: NO this is a local delivery. They aren’t even using the freeway.

User: Ok, well then it has to be a road issue.

Me: NO the roads are fine. OK I just drove from the papa johns to the address they have on file for you and there is nothing there.

User: Hmm, wait we did move recently.

Me: Did you give your new address to Papa johns?

User: no, I just thought they would be able to look me up by name.

Me: No they need your new address. What’s your new address?

User: I’m not really sure. Can you look it up?

Me: sigh, give me a second…Ok I found your address and gave it to Papa Johns. Try ordering a pizza now.

User: HEY PIZZA JUST SHOWED UP!

Me: Ok, good.

User to everyone else they know: I apologize for the delay in the pizza but there was a major road issue that was preventing the pizza from getting to me. The network engineer has fixed the roads and we are able to get pizza again.

Me: but it wasn’t the roads…whatever.

User: oh can you also check on an issue where Chinese food isn’t getting to me? I think it may be a road issue.

If you found this article to be helpful, please support us by visiting our sponsors’ websites.

Get iDrac to work with Chrome and FireFox

I’ve been able to use Dell’s Remote Console, iDRAC 6, to work with Google Chrome without any issues. You can login to the web interface and navigate all of the menus without any re-configuration to the iDRAC settings. However to launch the Virtual Console and Virtual Media interface, you must make one adjustment. You must change the virtual console from Native to Java and specify the javaws.exe as the launcher for the JNLP file that will download.

1. Log into the web interface for iDRAC.
2. Select System from the right menu and then click Console/Media.
3. Select the Configuration screen menu
4. In the Virtual Console section, locate the Plug-in Type drop-down menu and select Java (Native is the default)

5. Click Apply at the bottom of the screen.
6. Select the Virtual Console and Virtual Media screen and then click Launch Virtual Console to launch the server console.
7. The file viewer.jnlp will download. Once the download is complete, click on the file download notification in Google Chrome to open it.
8. Click the Select a program from a list of installed programs radio button and click OK.

9. Click Browse…
10. Navigate to the Java Runtime installation directory on your computer and open the BIN folder (the complete path on my computer, which has a default installation, is C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin)
11. Select javaws.exe from the list of files and click Open. (This program file is called the Java(TM) Web Start Launcher)
12. Check the box Always use the selected program to open this kind of file and click OK.

13. Confirm any security or firewall prompts that appear.

That should be it. If you get the following error, you might have to change some setting in Java:

Error Message: Missing required permissions manifest attribute in main jar

This error appears with newer versions of Java, and you’ll need to do the following:

1. Open Control Panel
2. Click on Java

3. Click on the Security Tab, and then “Edit Site List”
4. Enter the iDrac URL in the List

Now you should be able to follow the above steps and open the .jar file and get to the console!

If you found this article to be helpful, please support us by visiting our sponsors’ websites.