VMware

Gabriel Maciel's Blog

May 2008

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2

Thanks to Eric Siebert for this very nice article:

1-Bulletproof VirtualCenter: A VMworld 2007 presentation (you will need to sign-in) on properly configuring and protecting VirtualCenter so it has high availability.

2-VirtualCenter Database Maintenance: SQL Server A white paper from VMware on how to maintain the VirtualCenter database when using SQL Server.

3-Running VirtualCenter in a Virtual Machine: A white paper from VMware discussing the advantages and limitations of running VirtualCenter as a VM.

4-VirtualCenter Database Performance for Microsoft SQL Server 2005: A white paper from VMware on performance statistic collections and there effect on the VirtualCenter database.

5-VirtualCenter 2 Diagnostics: A VMworld 2006 presentation on troubleshooting problems with VirtualCenter.

6-Managing VMware VirtualCenter Roles & Permissions: A white paper from VMware on configuring roles and permissions in VirtualCenter.

7-VirtualCenter 2.0 The Technical Insights: A VMware TSX 2007 presentation on the technical architecture of VirtualCenter.

8-Template Usage and Best Practices: A white paper from VMware on creating, managing and using templates to deploy virtual machines.

9-Replacing VirtualCenter Server Certificates: A tech note from VMware on replacing the default certificates in VirtualCenter.

10-VirtualCenter Technical Best Practices: A document from VMware with technical details on VirtualCenter and VMotion.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

2 Comments Permalink Tags: center, infrastructure, it, virtual, vi, vi3, virtualization, vmware
0

Via NTPRO.NL:

"Rick Wininger posted some interesting information about the new VCDX certification and the number of VCP's worldwide. He was present at the VMware Partner Xchange in San Diego and talked to a number of VMware badged employees. As for the VCDX, VMware is not planning to make money on the exam. They had to write their own test engines for both exams from scratch. As for the review board, initially the panel will consist of VMware PSO's. After that, any of us who have passed the entire track, will sit on the board where people will have to defend their design to us. There are over 20000 VCP's worldwide, however they do not expect more than 100 (one hundred) VCDX worldwide. It will be expensive due to travel costs, but that will be about it. He does know that VMware is toying with the idea of interim certification, but that is still in discussion."

You can view the original link here.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: it, infrastructure, vi, vi3, virtual, virtualization, vmware
0

And the winners for this week are:

  1. Storage options for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V via Jose Barreto's Blog
  2. More on Storage Options for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V via Jose Barreto's Blog
  3. Microsoft Licensing: Part 5 (virtualization) via markwilson.it
  4. Remote Access for Vendors via Life as a Healthcare CIO
  5. Dice reports a 40% increase in the demand for virtualization jobs via virtualization.info
Enjoy!

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: best_of_the_week, infrastructure, it, management, microsoft, storage, virtualization, virtual
2

vmreference VI3 card

Posted by Gabriel Macie… May 24, 2008

"I've just uploaded version 1.2

There are over a dozen corrections, updates, and a few small additions. Many thanks to everyone who has emailed me since the last release, particularly Simon Price and Peter Vroomen."

You can download the vmreference card here.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

2 Comments Permalink Tags: vi, vi3, virtual, virtualization, vmware, 3i
2

"The Xtravirt Virtual SAN (XVS) appliance for VMware ESX3 Server, is a free solution to provide the benefits of shared VMFS storage without the cost of a SAN – this allows the utilization of otherwise unused local storage in the ESX server to facilitate enterprise level features such as VMotion, DRS and HA normally only available through the use of a shared storage device. All volume data is synchronously replicated between hosts, providing full fail-over capability with data integrity in the event of host, disk or appliance failure. The appliance is menu driven and has been designed to be as easy to configure as possible, and full documentation is provided."

Its features include:

  1. XVS is a SAN and local Disaster Recovery all-in-one
  2. It provides enterprise level functionality such as VMotion, DRS, and HA, all using direct attached storage
  3. All volume data is synchronously replicated between hosts providing full failover capability with data integrity in the event of a host, disk or appliance failure
Download the Xtravirt Virtual SAN here.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

2 Comments Permalink Tags: storage, virtualization
0

"We know that ESX can handle a large number of IOPS, but we set out to see just how far we could push it. We went to EMC and got as many storage arrays as we could lay our hands on. We picked a realistic workload of 100% random with a 50/50 read/write mix and 8KB block size and then fired it up. We kept pushing more and more IOPS and managed to get up to 100,000 IOPS before running out of storage array bandwidth. And we still had plenty of headroom to spare with ESX!"

Read the full article here

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: esx, infrastructure, it, storage, virtual, virtualization, vmware, vi3
0

And the Best of the Week is back again this weekend with the following articles:

  1. Getting my head around the Hyper-V architecture via Peering through Windows
  2. Step-by-Step Guide for Testing Hyper-V and Failover Clustering via Microsoft
  3. How a stateless ESXi infrastructure might work via vinternals.
  4. Troubleshooting ESX Logs via VM/ETC
  5. How to be a Great Boss via Life as Healthcare CIO
Enjoy!

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: best_of_the_week, esx, 3i, it, management, infrastructure, microsoft, server, vi, vi3, virtual, vmware
1

This VMware KB has identified the following best practices when upgrading to VirtualCenter 2.5 and ESX Server 3.5:

  1. Backup your VirtualCenter database. VMware recommends detaching the database and copying it somewhere safe.
  2. Grant the System DSN user of the VirtualCenter Database db_owner privileges on the MSDB database as well as the VirtualCenter database. 
  3. Ensure that your ODBC System DSN is using the proper driver. You must have a SQL Server driver if your database is SQL 2000, and SQL Native Client driver if using SQL 2005.
  4. If your ESX Server host is in a DRS or VMware High Availability (HA) Cluster remove it from the cluster so no virtual machines migrate to the ESX Server host.
  5. If possible VMotion all virtual machines off the host to be upgraded. If not, power them down gracefully and power off the ESX Server host.
  6. Log in to your VirtualCenter server with a local Administrator account to run the installation, do not use a domain administrator.
  7. Perform the upgrade to VirtualCenter to 2.5 and ensure all your data is visible in VirtualCenter 2.5 after the upgrade.
  8. Ensure no processes are running that conflict with the ports that VirtualCenter uses, such as IIS.
  9. If there is a SAN connected to your ESX Server host detach the SAN before continuing with the upgrade.
  10. Confirm that all the virtual machines are now migrated from the ESX Server host or powered down, and that ESX Server host is no longer part of an VMware HA or DRS cluster.
  11. Download the newest version of the ESX operating system ISO image and burn it to CD.
  12. Place the CD in the CD-ROM drive of the host and boot from the CD.
  13. Install ESX Server 3.5 with a fresh install or upgrade.

You can find the VMware KB 1003889 article here.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

1 Comments Permalink Tags: esx, infrastructure, it, virtual, virtualization, vmware, reference, vi3, vi
0

VirtualBox 1.6.0

Posted by Gabriel Macie… May 16, 2008

"Sun xVM VirtualBox software is the world's most popular open source virtualization platform because of its fast performance, ease of use, rich functionality, and modular design. VirtualBox 1.6 is a major update, incorporating over 2000 improvements. Among the highlights:

  1. The new Sun livery
  2. Solaris and Mac versions no longer in beta
  3. Guest Additions for Solaris
  4. Seamless windowing for Solaris and Linux guests
  5. SATA support for up to 32 hard disks per VM (first product in the industry to do SATA!)
  6. PAE support for guests (memory model required by some server OSes)
  7. Web Services API for remote management
  8. Significant improvements to scalability"
Download the Manual or VirtualBox 1.6.0

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: virtualization, it, infrastructure
0

"The Microsoft Integrated Virtualization ROI Tool was developed independently by ex-Gartner TCO/ROI experts at leading ROI tool developer Alinean, Inc. This ROI tool helps partners and customers examine current production server, development/QA lab, desktop and application virtualization opportunities, quantifying the potential savings, service level and agility benefits, investment and ROI for implementing Microsoft Integrated Virtualization solutions.
 
The tool collects specific information about current infrastructure costs and opportunities for improvement, then uses research by Alinean to project potential costs and benefits for various optimization strategies using the Microsoft Integrated Virtualization solutions. All research was collected from the Alinean ValueBase™ of IT spending metrics, and Microsoft product and pricing experts to reflect typical costs and savings for similar company type and size."

You can access the tool here.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: microsoft, it, management, infrastructure, virtualization, virtual
3

"The VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) on VMware Infrastructure 3 is an advanced certification developed for design architects of VMware enterprise deployments. There are four core validation components to achieve VCDX:

  • Must be certified as a VMware Certified Professional (VCP) on VMware Infrastructure 3.
  • Pass the VMware Enterprise Administration Exam. Includes live labs and tests a higher level of skill set than the exam for VCP on VMware Infrastructure 3.
  • Pass the VMware Design Exam. This exam focuses on actual design scenarios and contains simulations and situational questions.
  • Submit, present and defend a successful VMware Infrastructure design and implementation plan.

Check your skills here! Follow this link to our qualification review. This is a required first step for those who want to pursue the VMware Certified Design Expert certification. Only those who meet qualifications will continue on to take the exams."

Also, you may want to check the VMware Enterprise Administration Exam blueprint here and the VMware Infrastructure Methodology (VIM) here.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

3 Comments Permalink Tags: infrastructure, it, vi3, virtual, virtualization, vmware
0

Here are the links and articles for the past week:


Enjoy!

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: best_of_the_week, infrastructure, it, management, microsoft, vi3, virtual, virtualization, vmware
0

Last week I mentioned that I was working on a Virtualization / Security project to migrate our physical Anti-Spam and Management Servers into VMware and I promised some updates.

Well, so far everything is working as planned, two of the three servers are now running in our VMware Cluster and processing an average of 54000 emails per hour.

Next week, I am going to be working from Toronto (HP training course), so the last portion of the project will be postponed a little bit. To be continued.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: infrastructure, it, virtual, virtualization, vmware, esx
0

This week I had to upgrade our Virtual Center Server from version 2.0.2 to 2.0.2 Update 3. The upgrade was schedule to occur during the day and it was coordinated between the Infrastructure group and the DBA group. The plan was:

  • 1. Disable the SiteScope alerts for the the Virtual Center Server
  • 2. Stop the Virtual Center and all the associated services
  • 3. Perform a full backup of the Data Base and the OS
  • 4. Upgrade the License Server
  • 5. Upgrade the Virtual Center Server from version 2.0.2 to 2.0.2 Update 3
  • 6. Update all the Virtual Infrastructure Clients
  • 7. Double check everything

I followed the mentioned steps and there were not any apparent problems; but when I tried to access the Web interface default page, there were no links on it!


Ok, the problem seemed to be the page code, maybe a directory that was not properly updated, let us see what Google has to say about it I thought: "virtual center update 3 web interface problem" and the first entry pointed me to "Problems with WebAccess after VirtualCenter 2.0.2 Update 1 upgrade". Mmmh, the link talked abut a problem with the Update 1, the same I was having actually, but this was Update 3... Aha! The issue was still unresolved!

Long story short, after following the posted the instructions, the problem went away.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: infrastructure, it, virtual, virtualization, vmware, center

Gabriel Maciel Ottawa
Click to view Gabriel Maciel Ottawa's profile Member since: Mar 11, 2008

VMware and Microsoft Virtualization - Open Source Technologies - IT Management and Security

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