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

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This is a new introductory video to VMware Site Recovery Manager that explains what SRM can do and provides a demo of the product.

You can watch the video here.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: infrastructure, center, server, technologies, vi, vi3, virtual, virtualization, vmware, vi4
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VM Monitor

Get X-Ray Insight into Your ESX Servers:

• Quickly check the health of your VMware ESX Server

• View detailed virtual machine health statistics

• Get visual alerts when performance degradation occurs

FREE Real-time NetFlow Analyzer

This free desktop tool captures and analyzes NetFlow data so that you can:

• Quickly answer "why's the network so slow?"

• Identify network top talkers

• Analyze traffic spikes and bandwidth consumption

Exchange Monitor

Continuously monitor Microsoft® Exchange health, including:

• Exchange services

• Mail queues

• Host server health

Award Winning TFTP Server

The most robust, widely trusted and easy-to-use TFTP server which enables you to:

• Concurrently upload and download images from multiple devices

• Upload and download configurations to devices

• Transfer files larger than 32MB

Advanced Subnet Calculator

Compute addresses for IP subnets with ease and perform other tasks with:

• Forward and reverse DNS resolution

• CIDR calculator

• Ability to geneate a list of addresses for any subnet

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: center, esx, esxi, infrastructure, it, microsoft, security, server, technologies, tools, vi, vi3, vi4, virtual, virtualization, vmware
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This issue occurs because the machine account password changes automatically every 30 days when a computer is joined to a Windows domain. When the computer's snapshot is reverted to a point in the past, the password in the virtual machine does not match the version on the domain. When the passwords do not match the domain cannot authenticate the machine's system account credentials nor any user logins from that machine.

To ensure domain logins are successful:

  1. Remove the virtual machine from the Windows domain.

  2. Restart the virtual machine.

  3. Join the virtual machine back to the Windows domain.

  4. Restart the virtual machine.

Note: To prevent this issue from happening, disable machine account password updates. For more information, see How to disable automatic machine account password changes.

You can find the full KB article here.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

2 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: microsoft, vi, vi3, vi4, virtual, virtualization, vmware, center
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Great post from Chad at Virtual Geek:

"Glad to see that people are having downloading and success with the Celerra VM on VMware Workstation based on this original post.  I wanted to provide a quick "HOWTO" to help customers Replicate between two VSAs, for many reasons - one of the most fun being VMware Site Recovery Manager.

Celerra Replicator (I hope the Celerra Product team doesn't read this) is a RIDICULOUSLY inexpensive (particularly when compared with the competition) but very sophisticated remote replication capability."

You can read the full article here.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: san, storage, technologies, vi, vi3, vi4, virtual, virtualization, vmware, center, esx, esxi, 3i
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Here you have the 3 must read articles from VMwarewolf about VMware Infrastructure troubleshooting:

  1. Common Network issues in VMware Infrastructure

  2. Common System Management issues in VMware Infrastructure

  3. Common Licensing issues in VMware Infrastructure

"Resolution Paths are collections of modular steps that can be used to solve tech support issues.  Being modular, they can be re-used in other paths. A good example is using the ping command to test network connectivity.  This step is used in all kinds of troubleshooting procedures. Put a number of these steps together, and you have a method...Down the left side in yellow are common problems we get calls on. To the right of each problem are the steps you would take to resolve the problem. I have included hyperlinks to help get you to the answers fast."

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: 3i, center, esx, esxi, it, reference, tools, vi, vi3, virtual, virtualization
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"VMware Update Manager (VUM) is a component of VMware Infrastructure that automates patches and upgrades of ESX hosts as well as Windows and Linux virtual machines. A new white paper, VMware Update Manager Performance and Best Practices, is now available.

In this paper we discuss VUM 1.0 host deployment, latency, resource consumption, guest OS tuning, high-latency networks, and the impact of on-access virus scanning. We also provide performance tips to help customers tune the system for better performance."

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: virtual, virtualization, vmware, tools, vi, vi3, management, infrastructure, it, center
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From Scott Lowe:


From VM /ETC:


From Colin McNamara:


Enjoy!

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: center, esx, esxi, infrastructure, technologies, vi, vi4, virtual, virtualization, vmware
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This problem applies to all ESX 3.5 U2 hosts but should not affect you running VMs. Suggested Workarounds:


For the Virtual Machines:

  • Set DRS to manual

  • Do not VMotion

  • Do not power off or suspend your VMs

  • If you have important VMs you need to turn on again: a. Create a quarantine host b. Set time on this host back c. Cold migrate the VM to the quarantine host d. Verify that your VM does not synchronize its time with that ESX host: Power the VM on, log into it and set the time manually

  • You could also think about temporarily disconnecting the VM to power on from the Virtual Switch - this way you are certain that the VM will not be able to communicate with a DC while it’s out of time-synch

Note: Please take into account that if you change the time on the affected ESX host and VMware tools is configure to synchronize the guest with it, you may adversely affect your running services.


For the ESX Host:

  • Log in as root on the target host

  • Issue the following commands:

    a. service ntpd stop

    b. date -s 08/01/2008

Note: This can also be done using the VI Client (Configuration, Software, Time Configuration, Properties).


Further reading and sources for this article:


Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: 3i, center, esx, esxi, infrastructure, it, security, server, vmware, virtualization
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It seems that VMware is getting ready for next Monday when they are going to officially announce that ESXi will be free!


In the mean time, this is the list of the updated VMware products:



Enjoy!


Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: 3i, center, esx, esxi, vi, vi3, virtual, virtualization, vmware
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Via NTPRO.NL:

Chris Skinner, a Technical Trainer over at VMware created a document for clustering VirtualCenter 2.5 with MSCS. Feel free to distribute to clients and colleagues. A special thanks to Seva and Charu for challenging Chris to do this based on their VC2.0 document. This paper documents the steps to successfully implement a high availability solution for VirtualCenter 2.5 using Microsoft’s cluster services. There are some basic requirements to start the process. Microsoft requires Active Directory for cluster services. Additionally, Windows 2003 Enterprise server or higher will be necessary. This document was compiled from several sources. It demonstrates creating a VC cluster on the same ESX host (cluster-in-a-box) with a SAN-based quorum disk. The hyperlinks at the end of the document has more detailed information for other types of configurations, such as, cluster-across-boxes and physical-to-virtual.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: clustering, center, infrastructure, server, virtual, vmware, virtualization
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Another nice article from Eric Siebert:

1-Understanding Performance in a Virtualized Environment: A VMworld 2007 presentation (you will need to sign-in) on understanding virtualization performance and overhead as well as dispelling common myths. 

2-Interpreting Performance Statistics in V13: A VMworld 2007 presentation (you will need to sign-in) on understanding and interpreting VirtualCenter/ESX statistics in the VI Client and esxtop. 

3-Performance Tuning Best Practices for ESX Server 3: A white paper from VMware with performance tips that cover the most performance-critical areas of VI3.

4-Top 12 ways to Improve Guest Server Performance under VMware ESX Server: A VMworld 2006 presentation (you will need to sign-in) with 12 tips for configuring hosts, virtual machines and guest environments for best performance.

5-Performance Monitoring and Capacity Planning: A VMworld 2006 presentation (you will need to sign-in) on performance tuning methodologies and approaches.

6-ESX Workload Analysis, Lessons Learned: A VMworld 2006 presentation on performing workload analysis and performance analysis of virtual workloads. 

7-VMware ESX Server, Best Practices for Performance: A presentation from EMC World 2007 with recommended performance practices and benchmarking guidelines.

8-VM Performance Monitoring and Logging: A VMUG presentation from VMware on performance monitoring and using log files.

9-ESX3 Performance Tuning: A VMUG presentation from Long View Systems on performance tuning ESX hosts and virtual machines.

10-Performance Tuning for VI3: A VMworld 2006 presentation on basic performance concepts, tools, technologies and recommendations.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: esx, center, infrastructure, it, technologies, vi, vi3, virtual, virtualization, vmware
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Mike Laverick has posted two VMware Site Recovery videos that you may want to check:

"I’ve been working with VMware’s Site Recovery Manager product for sometime,
indeed I’m in the process of completing a book on the product. As a companion to
the book I’ve put together a couple of Microsoft .wmv files that show a test of
a site recovery plan, and the actual run of a recovery plan for really. One of
the reasons for doing this - is a SRM is very dynamic product which automates a
heck of lot of manual procedures - so one click can have multiple actions - and
its good to see that in live action - as you see the changes taking place at the
protected site and the recovery site. Certainly easier to capture a movie of a
recovery plan than describe in painful detail each step with hundreds of screen
grabs - I can tell you"
This is the link to the videos.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: virtualization, vmware, virtual, center
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Back in February I wrote a post about the VMware Tools and Utilities I use to administer our VMware environment. Now, via vmware-land.com we get the following list:

1-Putty - Telnet and SSH client for remotely connecting to the ESX service console
2-WinSCP and Veeam FastSCP - SCP clients for browsing ESX server file systems and transferring files to/from ESX hosts
3-VI3 SnapHunter and SnapAlert - Utilities that can report all running snapshots on ESX hosts including name, size and date. Can also automatically email reports and optionally commit snapshots
4-VI Scripted Backup Utility - A backup utility that is run from the Service Console that provides VMDK level backups of any VM on storage accessible by the host
5-MCS StorageView - A utility that displays all the logical partitions, operating system, capacity, free space and percent free of all virtual machines on ESX 3.x or Virtual Center 2.x
6-SSH Plug-in - A VI client plug-in that integrates an SSH console directly into the client
7-Storage VMotion Plug-in - A VI client plug-in that extends the client’s functionality by providing an integrated, graphical tool that can be used to invoke storage VMotion (SVMotion) operations
8-VMotion Info - A program that will collect Vendor, Model, CPU Types and the CPU feature bits from all hosts to check for VMotion compatibility
9-VMCdConnected - Scans all Virtual Machines and shows if they have a CD connected to it. After scanning the VM’s you can disconnect all the CD’s with a click of a button
10-VMware Converter – (Performs hot and cold conversions of physical and virtual servers to virtual machines. Also converts image formats

Enjoy!

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: center, esx, infrastructure, security, server, storage, technologies, vi, vi3, virtual, virtualization, vmware
0

A while ago I posted an article about an unresolved issue that happened to me when upgrading from Virtual Center 2.0.2 to Virtual Center 2.0.2 Update3 (the problem was that the installer did not copy all the files required for the Welcome page to be viewed properly when it performed the update).

Now, VMware has posted an official knowledge base article (kb 1002858) with the solution:

"After upgrading to VirtualCenter 2.0.2, Update 1, Update 2 or Update 3, the VMware VirtualCenter 2 Welcome home page does not completely render in the browser. The page does not show any text and no links are available."

I do not know if this is still an issue with the recently announced Virtual Center 2.0.2 Update 4, but at least the problem is now well documented.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: center, virtualization, virtual, vmware
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"List of resolved issues:

VirtualCenter 2.0.2 Update 4 resolves previous issues with the following virtual machine management enhancements

- Templates Can Be Cloned to DRS Clusters That Have Their Automation Level Set to Be Fully Automated
This release fixes an issue where cloning a template, when the destination of the cloned template is a DRS cluster
that has its automation level set to Fully automated might fail with an error message similar to following:
Specified Parameter was not correct..."

Version: 2.0.2 Update 4 | 5/30/2008 | Build: 89601

You can download the software and/or  read the release notes.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

0 Comments Permalink Tags: center, virtual, virtualization, vmware
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Gabriel Maciel Ottawa
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VMware and Microsoft Virtualization - Open Source Technologies - IT Management and Security

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