This is kind of new (6.5 beta build 91182), so I wanted to write about how important it will be for any IT professional / enthusiast to have the ability to run ESX 3.5 / ESX 3i in VMware Workstation 6.5 when the final release is ready.

You see, this will not only be good because it could potentially give you the chance to test patches or scripts, but also because it allows you to "learn" about the environment without having to spend a lot of money.

We all know that VMware's licensing is not cheap, nor is the hardware to run the VI3 environment, and that is why I believe VMware should always try to "facilitate" the usage and testing of all its products without having to purchase expensive equipment.

Consequently, having now and in the future the chance to run ESX 3.5 / ESX 3i in VMware Workstation 6.5 is a very welcomed opportunity to experience one of the best virtualization products we have seen so far!

More information and print screens here and here.

Posted by Gabriel Maciel

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

"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

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

Here are the links and articles for the past week:

• 1. Virtualization tools, advice focus on ROI by Server Virtualization Blog
• 2. More on Transient VMs via vmMBA
• 3. Why Retailers are Adopting Virtualization via Microsoft
• 4. Virtualization creates shift in IT job market via SearchServerVirtualization
• 5. Is hypervisor-based virtualization doomed? via SearchServerVirtualization

Since a second SCSI adapter is mandatory for Microsoft Clustering Services running in VMware, and it will also provide better performance for any I/O intensive virtual machine like a database server, file server, etc; adding a second controller may be a necessity or valuable option for us. Here is how it can be done:

• After creating the VM we need to “Edit” its settings and select to “Add...” a new device

• We then choose “Hard Disk” (not SCSI device) and click “Next”

• We accept the defaults and click “Next” (unless we whish to re-use an existing vDisk)

• We input the size and move on to the next screen

• In here we need to select a different SCSI node so…

• We are going to choose “SCSI (1:0)” and then click “Next”

• Now we complete the Add Hardware Wizard by clicking “Finish” and then…

• We will be back to the VM Properties where, after clicking “OK”, the changes are going to be committed

Note: If we select to edit the VM one more time, we will see the second SCSI Controller



Posted by Gabriel Maciel

There are several tools and utilities that I use every day to administer our VMware environment and I would like to share here with you:

Virtual Center and ESX:

• PuTTY is a robust and highly configurable free implementation of Telnet and SSH.
• Veeam FastSCP (Fast & Secure Copy) is my favorite tool for managing files in ESX or Windows. Also, WinSCP is another good utility that has been around for a while.
• Veeam RootAccess gives you an easy way to enable / disable remote root access or create a regular user account. Combine it with FastSCP and you can easily enable root access, transfer your files and disable root access again.
• EsxDiag for ESX Server 3.x is a free console script that will check several services and configurations for you. EsxDiag is part of Veeam Configurator.
• vmCDConnected scans all the Virtual Machines and shows if they have a CD connected to it. After scanning the VM's, you can disconnect the CD's with a simple click.
• SnapHunter will report to you which virtual machines have snapshots. The tool is very useful if you want to automatically track how much space they are consuming in your virtual environment.
• esx-autopatch.pl is another rock solid utility that combined with a Web Server (optional) can quickly patch you entire environment.

• VMware DiskMount GUI is a front-end for VMware's drive mapper.
• VMware DiskManager GUI is a front-end for VMware's disk manager.
• Virtual DiskFactory is another front-end for VMware's disk manager with more advanced functions.
• EasyVMX is the best on-line virtual machine builder.

As always, feel free to add your tools to the list!

Posted By Gabriel Maciel