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Please join us for the Q4 2009 Minneapolis Area VMware Users Group meeting

jasonboche — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:29:02 GMT

Q4 2009 Minneapolis Area VMware Users Group meeting
Jason Boche, Minneapolis area VMUG leader – Email: jason@boche.net
Friday December 18th, 2009 1:00 – 4:00 PM

1:00 – 1:15 General business, Updates, Open Floor Discussions

1:15 – 2:00 Presentation: Todd Barton, Pillar Data Systems: “Extending Virtualized Application Compliancy into the Storage Framework”

2:00 – 2:10 Break

2:10 – 2:55 Presentation by eG Innovations and Virteva: Matt Bhakta, Virteva: “Advanced VM and VDI management and monitoring solutions”

2:55 – 3:05 Break

3:05 – 3:50 Presentation: Dave Logue/Robert Bloomquist , Kroll Ontrack: “Data Recovery Considerations for Virtualized Environments”

3:50 – 4:00 Q & A, Door Prizes, Closing

Stick around to win great door prizes from Pillar Data Systems, eG Innovations, Kroll Ontrack, and VMware.
(Please bring business cards to enter your name in the door prize drawings)

Meeting Sponsors:
Meeting Location and Snacks provided by Pillar Data Systems
• http://www.pillardata.com/ - The First and Only True Application Aware Storage
Door prizes provided by Pillar Data Systems, eG Innovations, Kroll Ontrack, and VMware
• http://www.pillardata.com/ - The First and Only True Application Aware Storage
• http://www.eginnovations.com/ - Virtualization Monitoring and Management
• http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/ - Data Recovery Services, Software, and Solutions
• http://www.vmware.com/ - The planet’s most innovative virtualization solution ever

Meeting Location:
Hilton Bloomington
3800 American Blvd East
Bloomington, MN 55425-1658
Phone: 952-854-2100

VMware User Group Event Registration (registration opening soon):
http://www.vmware.com/resources/communities/usergroup/events.html
VMware User Group Membership Registration (subscribe):
http://info.vmware.com/forms/UserGroupSubscribe?session=Minneapolis

Jason Boche, vExpert
boche.net - VMware Virtualization Evangelist
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader
vCalendar Author

esxupdate patch script

Hiney — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:24:04 GMT

I know this entry is a bit old, but there might be people who still look to doing this.

I've discovered that

esxupdate -n -r http://<servername>/vci/hostupdates/hostupdate/esx/esx-3.5.0 update

works if you have update manager installed and running.

really useful if you are updating across the wan, as lwpdownload is more WAN tolerant that whatever update manager is doing.

I prefer service firewall stop to the other settings as it doesn't alter the settings.

/usr/sbin/esxcfg-firewall -o 80,tcp,out,HTTPAccess
also works if you just want to allow port 80

"I have an inferiority complex, it's just not a very good one."

Lab Manager: Users ability to upload media to media stores

jasonboche — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:03:18 GMT

Lab Manager: Less privileged users ability to upload media to media stores. Please add this permission or feature.

Jason Boche, vExpert
boche.net - VMware Virtualization Evangelist
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader
vCalendar Author

ESX automatic partitioning to more closely follow discussed best practices

MattG — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:51:13 GMT

Amen to that. It is a real pain when you need to modify and document the "default" partition layout. With the ample amount of local disk storage, how many users would be negatively affected with larger separate paritions?

Even if they could just give an option for Good, Better, Best partition config radio buttons that would assign larger partitions by nature of your choice.

-MattG

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

VI: DNS and DG shouldn't be required for guest customization

jasonboche — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:56:07 GMT

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/81401?tstart=0

Why are DNS and default gateway fields required in TCP/IP configuration for guest customization? They shouldn't be.

Jason Boche, vExpert
boche.net - VMware Virtualization Evangelist
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader
vCalendar Author

VI: Uptime lost during VMotion

jasonboche — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:53:54 GMT

http://www.boche.net/blog/index.php/2009/01/11/uptime-lost-during-vmotion/

We lose the uptime statistic during every VMotion. I’m speaking to the uptime performance metric tracked in the VirtualCenter database. It’s a bug that was introduced in VirtualCenter 2.0 and has remained in the code to this day. Here’s how it works:

Sometimes the VIC console will show the uptime counter start over at 0 days, then on to 1 days, etc. Other times the uptime counter will remain blank for days or weeks.

This brings us to an interesting discussion. What would you like uptime in the VIC to mean exactly? Following are my observations and thoughts on VMware’s implementation of the uptime metric in VirtualCenter.

In previous versions of VirtualCenter, a soft reboot of the VM inside of the OS would reset the uptime statistic in VirtualCenter. I believe this was a function of VMware Tools that triggered this.

Today, a soft reboot inside the guest VM does not reset the uptime statistic back to zero.

A VM which has no VMware Tools installed that is soft rebooted inside of the OS (ie. we’re not talking about any VMware console power operation here) does not reset the uptime statistic.

I could see the community take a few different sides on this as there are two variations of the definition of uptime we’re dealing with here. Uptime of the guest VM OS and uptime of the VM’s virtual hardware.

Should uptime translate into how long the VM virtual hardware has been powered on from a virtual infrastructure standpoint?
Or should uptime translate into how long the OS inside the VM has been up, tracked by VMware Tools?
The VMware administrator cares about the length of time a VM has been powered on. It is the powered on VM that consumes resources from the four resource food groups and impacts capacity.

The guest VM OS administrator, whether it be Windows or Linux, cares about uptime of the guest OS. The owner of the OS is held to SLAs by the business lines.

My personal opinion is that the intended use of the Virtual Infrastructure Client is for the VMware administrator and thus should reflect virtual infrastructure information. My preference is that the uptime statistic in VirtualCenter tracks power operations of the VM irregardless of any reboot sequences of the OS inside the VM. In other words, uptime is not impacted by VMware Tools heartbeats or reboots inside the guest VM. The uptime statistic should only be reset when the VM is powered off or power reset (including instances where HA has recovered a VM).

At any rate, due to the bug that uptime has in VirtualCenter 2.0 and above, it’s a fairly unreliable performance metric for any virtual infrastructure using VMotion and DRS. Furthermore, the term itself can be misleading depending on the administrators interpretation of uptime versus what’s written in the VirtualCenter code.

I submitted a post in VMware’s Product and Feature Suggestions forum in January of 2007 recording the uptime reset on VMotion issue. As this problem periodically bugs me, I followed up a few times. Once in a follow up post in the thread above, and at least one time externally requesting someone from VMware take a look at it. Admittedly I do not have an SR open.

VMware, can we get this bug fixed? After all, if the hypervisor has become an every day commodity item leaving the management tools as the real meat and potatoes, you should make sure our management tools work properly.

Thank you,

Jas

Jason Boche, vExpert
boche.net - VMware Virtualization Evangelist
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader
vCalendar Author

VI: Comma separators in all performance, charts, graphs, logs, etc.

jasonboche — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:49:26 GMT

VI: Comma separators in all performance, charts, graphs, logs, etc.

Example: Looking at the huge numbers with no comma separators in a vCenter memory or disk utilization graph makes me go blind.

Jason Boche, vExpert
boche.net - VMware Virtualization Evangelist
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader
vCalendar Author

VI DRS (anti)affinity rules - allow more than 2 VMs per rule

jasonboche — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:40:02 GMT

http://www.boche.net/blog/index.php/2009/03/27/anti-affinity-rules-are-not-honored-in-cluster-with-more-than-2-virtual-machines/

VI DRS (anti)affinity rules - allow more than 2 VMs per rule.
Having to create more than 1 rule for 3 or more VMs is ridiculous and tedious.

Jason Boche, vExpert
boche.net - VMware Virtualization Evangelist
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader
vCalendar Author

vSphere Virtual Machine Performance Counters Integration into Perfmon

jasonboche — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:43:54 GMT

http://www.boche.net/blog/index.php/2009/07/08/vsphere-virtual-machine-performance-counters-integration-into-perfmon/

here is what needs work with vSphere Virtual Machine Performance Counters:

Must support vSMP VMs
Must support Linux VMs
Support for Solaris VMs would also be nice
More objects: VM Disk and VM Networking

Jason Boche, vExpert
boche.net - VMware Virtualization Evangelist
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader
vCalendar Author

Lab Manager 4 and vDS

jasonboche — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:42:37 GMT

http://www.boche.net/blog/index.php/2009/09/19/lab-manager-4-and-vds/

While Lab Manager 4 Host Spanning is a step in the right direction for more flexible load distribution across hosts in a Lab Manager 4 cluster, I find the process for entering maintenance mode counter intuitive, cumbersome, and at the beginning when I didn’t know what was going on, frustrating. Unsuccessful maintenance mode attempts have always been somewhat mysterious in the past because vCenter Server doesn’t give us much information to pinpoint the problem as far as what’s preventing the maintenance mode. This situation now adds another element to the complexity. VMware should have enough intelligence to disable Host Spanning for us in the event of a maintenance mode request, or at the very least, tell us to shut it off since it is conveniently and secretly enabled by default during host preparation. Of course, all of this information is available in the Lab Manager documentation, but who reads that, right?

Jason Boche, vExpert
boche.net - VMware Virtualization Evangelist
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader
vCalendar Author

VI Templates that can migrate to different hosts like VMs

jasonboche — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:37:06 GMT

VI Templates that can migrate to different hosts like VMs. Unreg/rereg is a PITA. Unavailable hosts (think DPM) kill template use

Jason Boche, vExpert
boche.net - VMware Virtualization Evangelist
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader
vCalendar Author

Build number problem with the new 8/6 patch

jasonboche — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:48:02 GMT

VMware KB article 1013637 Do not use both ESX and ESXi hosts in clusters with fault tolerant virtual machines has been released addressing the FT incompatibility issue between ESX and ESXi hosts having the 8/6 patches.
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1013637

Jason Boche, vExpert
boche.net - VMware Virtualization Evangelist
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader
vCalendar Author

A random collection of what’s new vSphere eye candy

gendolli — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:58:27 GMT

Please join us for the Q3 2009 Minneapolis Area VMware Users Group meeting

jasonboche — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:59:29 GMT

VISI Cloud Seminar on 10/21 w/ hot breakfast: http://www.visi.com/cloud2009
Nexus vSphere/View/Windows 7 training: http://nexusmn.com

The new vSphere Quick Start Guide is not being authored by RapidApp but it is being authored in cooperation with Ron Oglesby, an ex-RapidApp employee. I spoke to Duncan Epping of http://yellow-bricks.com/ and they are still deciding on whether or not to use lulu.com as their publisher. I imagine they will know in a month or less. Stay tuned to Duncan's website/blog where I'm sure he'll keep us updated.

Jas

Jason Boche, vExpert
boche.net - VMware Virtualization Evangelist
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader
vCalendar Author

Passed VCP4 exam

jasonboche — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 06:42:49 GMT

My thoughts:
http://www.boche.net/blog/index.php/2009/09/05/vcp4-exam/

Jason Boche, vExpert
boche.net - VMware Virtualization Evangelist
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader
vCalendar Author

The Nursery

jasonboche — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:52:09 GMT

Where did the nursery go in ESX 4? It's not visible as an advanced system resource any longer in the vSphere client.

This was asked in the "Ask the Expert" session at VMworld 2009.

Thank you,
Jas

Jason Boche, vExpert
boche.net - VMware Virtualization Evangelist
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader
vCalendar Author

Tech: How to enable passthrough authentication in VMware VirtualCenter 2.5

kaghaiepour — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:15:34 GMT

I have tested this with the following results. In a windows domain with cross realm trust with an MIT kerberos realm, where hosts are configured to know about the MIT kerberos realm, while still joined to the active directory domain, I have had success with logging into the host that runs VirtualCenter Manager and using passthru authentication using "localhost" or FQDN of the host with the virtual center client application. I suspect it is because when I login and authenticate against the external MIT Kerberos KDC, I get the following credentials:

(assuming my AD realm is MY.ORG, and my MIT Kerberos realm is EXTERNAL.MY.ORG )

krbtgt/EXTERNAL.MY.ORG@EXTERNAL.MY.ORG

krbtgt/MY.ORG@EXTERNAL.MY.ORG

(some cifs and ldap related service principals)

and most importantly:

host/my-virtual-center-manager-host.my.org@MY.ORG

With the above credentials, the passthru works fine. Unfortunately this only works on the host that runs the virtual center manager windows service. If I install the virtual center client on a machine that is remote to the virtual center manager host, for example, my-citrix-server.my.org, then the host principal I have is:

host/my-citrix-server.my.org@MY.ORG

and when I attempt to use passthru auth to the remote vi manager host, it fails. Why can't virtual center allow for authentication against a remote Kerberos or LDAP server?

vmreference.com

forbes — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:46:26 GMT

Hi,

Just to let you know, I've moved my website to vReference.com

Forbes Guthrie
http://www.vReference.com

Please join us for the Q2 2009 Minneapolis Area VMware Users Group meeting – V Forum Edition

garetjax — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:21:27 GMT

Not sure were the lab is, but I just dug this link out of my junk mail. . .

Virtualization Forum 2009 Minneapolis

DRS separateVMs rule bug

tahir — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:30:40 GMT

Hi,

This is Tahir in the VC team at VMware. The VC release in 2010 would support more than 2 VMs per rule.

Thanks.

Tahir.

Please join us for the Q1 2009 Minneapolis Area VMware Users Group meeting - VDI Edition

jasonboche — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:58:28 GMT

Roger, I didn't blog on it but as you can see the agenda was posted in this forum and VMware did send out the email blast as usual. Sounds like you fell off the email blast list. You'll probably want to get signed back up so you do not miss future invites.

Jas

Jason Boche, vExpert
boche.net - VMware Virtualization Evangelist
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader

VirtualCenter 2.0.1 resets Uptime statistic during VMotion

Rob.Bohmann — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:09:50 GMT

Hi Jason,

Just read your blog post, it brings back memories....lol

Hopefullu they will include a fix with the next major release.... (ahem..... ahem...)

This got me thinking about if there are other things that may not be well defined or measure what one would expect. (still think uptime should be a power /reset measurement for uptime btw)

Save the date: CloudCamp Minneapolis 4/19/08 9am-3pm

jasonboche — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:25:38 GMT

The future of the enterprise datacenter is cloud computing. So check this out:

"CloudCamp is an unconference where early adapters of Cloud Computing technologies exchange ideas. With the rapid change occurring in the industry, we need a place we can meet to share our experiences, challenges and solutions. At CloudCamp, you are encouraged you to share your thoughts in several open discussions, as we strive for the advancement of Cloud Computing. End users, IT professionals and vendors are all encouraged to participate.

Our first event in the Twin Cities area will be held Saturday, April 18th at the University of Minnesota."

Registration is free but there is very limited availability (about 87 tickets left as I write this).

http://www.cloudcamp.com/?page_id=382

Jason Boche
boche.net - VMware Virtualization Evangelist
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader

Useful/relative links from the Q4 2008 VMUG discussions

jasonboche — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 06:05:13 GMT

VI documentation:
http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vi_pages/vi_pubs_35u2_3i_e.html

Configuration Maximums:
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35u2/vi3_35_25_u2_config_max.pdf

VirtualCenter (VMware vCenter) Memory Statistic Definitions:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~omerta/VI%203.5%20Memory%20Statistic%20Definitions.pdf

New VI HCL Portal:
http://www.vmware.com/go/hcl

VMware Compatibility Guides:
http://www.vmware.com/resources/guides.html

KB1007899 VM may unexpectedly reboot when using HA with VM Monitoring on ESX/ESXi 3.5.0 u3:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1007899&sliceId=1&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&dialogID=11356231&stateId=1%200%2011358304

Site Recovery Manager (SRM) Links, Lessons, and Labs:
http://vmetc.com/2008/12/26/vmware-site-recovery-manager-links-lessons-and-labs/

Jason Boche
boche.net - VMware Virtualization Evangelist
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader

Please join us for the Q4 2008 Minneapolis Area VMware Users Group meeting

jasonboche — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:41:47 GMT

An additional FYI, EMC is sponsoring a happy hour after the VMUG adjourns. I hope you will be able to make it!

Jason Boche
boche.net - VMware Virtualization Evangelist
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader

VMWare Server 2 installs older (insecure) Java Client?

azmir — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 00:44:50 GMT

Yes, this will be addressed in the the next maintenance release of Server 2.

Thanks

Azmir

Please join us for the Q3 2008 Minneapolis Area VMware Users Group meeting

MTBrownTopTechVM — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:45:30 GMT

Thanks Jason for putting this together and thanks to Dell for sponsoring the room. It was a pleasure for me to share what we are doing here at Hennepin County and I appreciate the feedback that I've been getting from some of the VMUG members. I am checking with my management about posting the ppt here and other documentation that may be helpful. We are not on the bleeding edge, but then again we are interested in up-time more that cool new features.

I am FINALLY able to post the presentation from our last user group meeting. I apologize for the delay! See attached.

Michael T. Brown

Chip PC free thin client?

khughes — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:56:37 GMT

I'm interested to see how the terminals worked out. I missed the booth so I didn't get a free one sent here, bummer =/

If you don't feel like posting the findings on the boards shoot me a message

Kyle

VI Ports

jasonboche — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:05:31 GMT

VI Ports

Inspired by the thread http://communities.vmware.com/message/835185

If you see any updates that need to be made, please let me know.

See attachments.

jgb updated 11/6/08

VMware Converter boot .iso - no speed/duplex config!

jasonboche — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 03:39:29 GMT

This has been resolved.

Jason Boche
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader

Where are the vmkernel logs on ESXi?

dilpreet — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:36:21 GMT

Ok, let me try and do a better job. All logging previously logged in
vmkernel, vmkwarning is logged in /var/log/messages. There is no cron
or dmesg log since they are not needed.

VC2.5u2 maintenance mode won't VMotion VMs

Goodspd — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:32:51 GMT

Hi,

I'm with the same problem with a 2 hosts cluster, i'm using VC 2.5 U3, if i disable HA i'm able to put the host in Maintenance Mode.

After all this VC release did not correct the problem.

Regards,
Goodspeed

Moving from HP to Dell hardware

joergriether — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:37:14 GMT

We run 6 DELL 2950´s all with ESX3.5U2 connected to 4 Equallogic Arrays. No problems at all. DRAC is OK and if you update to latest BIOS VC will discover the Hardware Status of your 2950´s very well.
my two cents.

best regards
Joerg

Consolidation adding machines for analysis

jasonboche — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:59:38 GMT

VirtualCenter 2.5u3

I'm seeing some weirdness when testing the Consolidation feature and was curious if anyone else is seeing the same results.

1. If I manually add a machine named W by FQDN to analyze, Consolidation adds a machine named X.
2. If I manually add a machine named Y by IP address to analyze, Consolidation adds a machine named Z.
3. If I choose a machine using the domain pulldown list, Consolidation adds the correct machine this time.

Jason Boche
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader

Virtualization Congress Cancellation

tom howarth — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:20:33 GMT

Yes it is a real shame, it was not for lack of sponsers though. it was lack of delegates.

Tom Howarth
VMware Communities User Moderator

VMware Physical Disk Helper Service

jasonboche — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:22:58 GMT

At what point does the VMware Tools installation decide to install the VMware Physical Disk Helper Service? I'm not seeing this service on most of the VMs in my environment, however, I'm seeing that it is installed on a Windows XP Professional VM that was once a physical machine and it was subsequently P2Vd. VMware Tools insists on installing this service on the P2Vd VM and I'm trying to prevent it from installing because the service fails to start when not installing the Toolbox component of the VMware Tools installation.

Thank you,
Jas

Jason Boche
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader

Back up and restore your ESX configuration with vicfg-cfgbackup.pl

seby00 — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:09:00 GMT

Thanks Jason,

I'll give it a try.

Seb

VirtualCenter 2.5u3 has been released

jasonboche — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:17:45 GMT

This release fixes the HA and Maintenance Mode issues I discussed at our VMUG on Wednesday.

Jas

Jason Boche
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader

Affordable ESX host hardware

jasonboche — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:25:32 GMT

Community-Supported Hardware/Software for VMware Infrastructure
http://www.vmware.com/resources/communitysupport/
In 2007, VMware began maintaining a web page of non-HCL hardware that works with VMware ESX. This is a list of hardware and software components that have been reported to work with VMware Infrastructure, either by the community or by the individual vendors themselves. Great for people trying to build a cheap lab out of dubious or whitebox hardware. If your hardware is not on the official VMware HCL, check this list to see if someone has reported that your particular piece of hardware works with ESX.

Additional Resources for Community-Supported Hardware/Software for VMware Infrastructure
http://www.vm-help.com/Whitebox_HCL.php
http://ultimatewhitebox.com/
http://www.vmweekly.com/articles/hardware_recommendations_to_build_cheap_esx_server/1/
http://mikedatl.typepad.com/mikedvirtualization/2008/10/building-a-500.html

Jason Boche
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader

63% of respondents not utilizing Resource Pools

weinstein5 — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 01:02:42 GMT

Jason I agree with you 100% - I have gone into too many clients and seeing only very light utilization - probably averaging 2 vCPUs per core -

ACE: Easy 10 points

jasonboche — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:39:16 GMT

I found the ACE options once I created a VM as you had pointed out. Thank you.

Jas

Jason Boche
VMware Communities User Moderator
Minneapolis Area VMware User Group Leader

vimsh: change vmnic from standby to active

vmpert — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:04:16 GMT

Thx a lot - this did the "trick".....

Schedule Builder Feedback

JDLangdon — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:42:46 GMT

I had overlapping content in my schedule. Granted I've since dropped one of the overlapping sessions but they did overlap.

Once upon a time...

Dave.Mishchenko — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:30:28 GMT

And we'll still be buying more memory because the games need it.

FYI: Changes made to Breakout Session Schedule

Kirk S — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:35:12 GMT

Ok, that scared me. My schedule was all built last week, and I was stuck in an appointment when I got this email this morning. Fortunately, appears to be no impact on my own personal schedule.

Way to scare a guy on a Monday morning!

tar.gz compression: P2V Assistant versus Converter

jasonboche — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:56:44 GMT

I'm marking this question as answered.

Jason Boche
VMware Communities User Moderator

ESX350-200804403-BG patch installation issue

MschulzInWisconsin — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:40:07 GMT

I received the same issues on my farm (BL260C blades and DL380s). Found a similar situation. Had to reboot the host after it hung up. Didn't ever have to reboot my VC, but had to kick off a remediate again after they became responsive (after the reboot). Annoying little glitch that will hopefully get looked at to prevent it from happening with future patches.

VI 3.5 Update 1 upgrade experiences

Badsah — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:56:26 GMT

Locking this thread. Please continue discussion in the other thread referenced by JohnTroyer. Thanks.

---
Badsah Mukherji
Senior Community Manager, VMware Communities

VI3.5 Update 1 Released

jasonboche — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:02:33 GMT

VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 1 and ESX 3.5 Update 1 were releasaed on 4/10/08.

For those of you who have already downloaded it, please be aware that as of 4/14/08, the VirtualCenter .ZIP file download does not always match the published MD5SUM value. This means that there are unintentionally two different versions of the .ZIP file being distributed from the VMware download site. VMware was notified of this on Friday afternoon and is working on the problem. Public discussion on the new Update 1 features as well as issues (including MD5SUM value issue) are being discussed in the following thread: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/138793?tstart=0

Jas

Jason Boche
VMware Communities User Moderator

Please join us for the Q1 2008 Minneapolis Area VMware Users Group meeting

jasonboche — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:46:28 GMT

Hi MitC and thank you!

You can subscribe to the mailing list at the following link:

VMware User Group Membership Registration (subscribe):
http://info.vmware.com/forms/UserGroupSubscribe?session=Minneapolis

Jason Boche
VMware Communities User Moderator

New version of Veeam FastSCP released but...

jasonboche — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:09:44 GMT

Yattong wrote:
Thats what i said dude... shortcut button under tools...

You said "No putty connection button". I was trying to point out that there was a PuTTY connection option from the pulldown menu.

Another thing ive found annoying is once you've connected to the server, instead of showing the contents of /, it shows / as a folder in which you have to double click to see the content.
An extra step of double clicking...

Man, I must seem really moany... I swear im not

Sounds like the free Veeam software is not a viable product for you. Perhaps write to Veeam and offer your suggestions as feature requests, or search for an alternative tool.

Dude

Jason Boche
VMware Communities User Moderator

ESX Installation Times

williamarrata — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:58:34 GMT

Hey guys , can I get some of your help. Under "Installation and Configuration" Subject, ESX server booting up, This guy needs help.

HP MSA SAN not on VI3.5 HCL

jasonboche — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:52:34 GMT

We've had 3 problems over the last year with the MSAs and while I do plan on phasing the MSAs out of our DEV environment where they exist, I'd have to phase out the MSAs before we upgrade to VI3.5 if the MSAs aren't supported. I was originally planning on going to VI3.5 first, then getting rid of the MSA SANs. All of our DEV environment is going to be migrated off the MSA onto the HP EVA where our PROD environment exists.

I'll assume the oversight is the mention of the MSA still exists in the multipathing checklist, and not the removal of the MSA from the VI3.5 HCL - removal of hardware from the HCL seems much more deliberate and plausable.

Jas

Jason Boche
VMware Communities User Moderator

Customize TCP/IP configuration - DG and DNS required

jasonboche — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:45:21 GMT

In VC2.5, guest network customization is still requiring a default gateway and DNS server configuration. I feel these shouldn't be required.

Jason Boche
VMware Communities User Moderator

Maintenance mode and DRS rules

jasonboche — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:32:55 GMT

Still need some help here from VMware. I'll try flagging the thread to see if that helps at all.

Jason Boche
VMware Communities User Moderator

Oracle upgrade from 9i to 10g

jasonboche — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:12:44 GMT

No upgrade scripts needed for Oracle since we were already on a VC 2.0.x database. The Oracle upgrade scripts are for going from a VC 1.x to 2.x database structure.

Tech: How to enable passthrough authentication in VMware VirtualCenter 2.5

jasonboche — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:04:41 GMT

Saw a cool article cross my RSS reader today on How to enable passthrough authentication in VMware VirtualCenter 2.5.

I just tested it; it works.

Source: http://www.virtualization.info/2008/03/tech-how-to-enable-passhrough.html Thank you Stuart Radnidge and Alessandro Perilli!

To use it, simply add -passthroughAuth -s vchostname to the end of the shortcut used to launch the VI 2.5 client.

By default it uses the Negotiate SSPI provider, however since they have fully implemented the interface you can change that behaviour to use Kerberos by adding the following within the node in the vpxd.cfg file on the VC server:

<sspiProtocol>Kerberos</sspiProtocol>

HP Proliant and Compaq MPS Table BIOS Settings for ESX Server

jasonboche — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 03:25:07 GMT

For those of you who use VMware ESX and Compaq/HP Proliant servers, I came across a helpful entry on Vincent Vlieghe's blog. As I wanted to integrate this into the VMware Communities, I've created a document for it, crediting Vincent Vlieghe.

This basically has to do with how to optimize the server's BIOS configuration for running VMware ESX Server. Most options in the BIOS may be easily interpreted and safe irregardless of the configuration, however, two configuration parameters stand out as important.

Thank you Vincent Vlieghe for doing the homework on this.

The document is located at
http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-3280

Jason Boche
VMware Communities User Moderator

HP Proliant and Compaq MPS Table BIOS Settings for ESX Server

jasonboche — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 03:12:24 GMT

HP Proliant and Compaq MPS Table BIOS Settings for ESX Server

For those of you who use VMware ESX and Compaq/HP Proliant servers, I came across a helpful entry on Vincent Vlieghe's blog: http://virtrix.blogspot.com/2006/07/hp-proliant-and-compaq-mps-table-bios.html

This basically has to do with how to optimize the server's BIOS configuration for running VMware ESX Server. Most options in the BIOS may be easily interpreted and safe irregardless of the configuration, however, two configuration parameters stand out as important.

Thank you Vincent Vlieghe for doing the homework on this.

donderdag, juli 27, 2006
HP Proliant and Compaq MPS Table BIOS Settings for ESX Server
I read an interesting article on ESX on proliant servers:

Summary

HP ProLiant servers (and pre-merger Compaq ProLiant servers) require specific BIOS settings in order to run VMware ESX Server. These settings ensure that the physical hardware can be addressed properly and consistently by the VMkernel. Use of BIOS settings with values other than those identified below may result in operational instability.

Discussion

On HP ProLiant servers (and pre-merger Compaq ProLiant servers), the BIOS may not fully populate the PCI interrupt routing entries in the MP Configuration Table (part of the Intel MultiProcessor Specification) if the MPS Table Mode setting within the BIOS is incorrect. An incomplete MP Configuration Table may result in failure of an initial installation of ESX Server, failure to complete the boot process, or instability during normal operation.

For stable operation on these systems, ESX Server requires a BIOS MPS Table Mode setting of Full Table APIC. With the exception of the specific systems referenced below, the following BIOS settings must be applied in order if available:

System Options > OS Selection: Select Windows 2000.

Advanced Options > MPS Table Mode: Select Full Table APIC.

When presented with multiple Windows options (Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows .NET, and so on) select Windows 2000. If both BIOS settings are available and can be modified, both must be set correctly. You should confirm these settings after any BIOS upgrade operation.

For the HP ProLiant DL 740 and DL 760 servers specifically, set the OS Selection BIOS setting to Linux to allow for proper operation when hyperthreading is enabled. The remainder of the BIOS settings, and the order in which they are applied, are as specified above.

If any BIOS setting is incorrect, you may see one or more messages in /var/log/messages or /var/log/vmkwarning on the Service Console similar to the following:
May 11 22:36:30 esx101 vmkernel: 0:00:00:00.00 ALERT: Chipset: 303: no PCI entries - Check BIOS Settings

May 11 22:36:30 esx101 vmkernel: 0:00:00:00.000 cpu0) ALERT: Chipset: 433: no PCI entries in MPS table - check BIOS settings

May 11 22:36:30 esx101 vmkernel: 0:00:00:00.000 cpu0) WARNING: IOAPIC: 986: no PCI entry for busID 2 busIRQ 8 - trying ISA irq 15

You may also see unnecessary hardware interrupt sharing, which is explained in detail in knowledge base article 1290 at www.vmware.com/support/kb/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1290.

You may need to use the ROM-Based Setup Utility (RBSU), SmartStart CD, or other BIOS configuration tool to make these adjustments. Hewlett-Packard's Web site includes extensive documentation on how to adjust BIOS settings on HP and Compaq systems, including generalized RBSU guides which may be found at search.hp.com/query.html?qt=title%3A%22ROM-Based+Setup+Utility+User+Guide%22.

The "OS Selection" section of the HP RBSU User Guide notes that, in certain circumstances, adjusting the OS Selection BIOS setting may result in an automatic change of the MPS Table Mode BIOS setting (emphasis added):

The OS Selection option allows you to select the primary OS for the server. A list of supported OSs for the server displays on the menu, with the ROM defaulting to Microsoft Windows 2000 when the server supports it. Default server Multi Processor (MP) settings and PCI Hot Plug reservation settings are automatically set based on the OS selected.

Although an automatic change may occur, the individual BIOS settings should be confirmed explicitly if you intend to use this system with VMware ESX Server. For additional assistance in making these changes, please contact HP Technical Support.

Comparing Microsoft and VMware Virtualisation

JohnTroyer — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:55:59 GMT

The Yankee report has been (temporarily?) pulled and has a number of inaccuracies:

VMware's reply.
http://blogs.vmware.com/virtualreality/2008/02/those-darn-de-1.html

Ports 902 and 905

jasonboche — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:08:55 GMT

Document created at:

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-2500

Let's move future discussion there so there aren't parallel threads.

Jason Boche
VMware Communities User Moderator

VCB Compatibility Matrix?

Chris_S_UK — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 17:29:11 GMT

the "vi3_35_25_compat_matrix.pdf" states that 1.0.1 , 1.0.2 and 1.1 are compatible with your setup....

Chris

Upgrade to VC2.5: SQL database issue

sdaniely@fullarmor.com — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:05:22 GMT

Hi -

I am going to upgrade from 2.02 to 2.5. I have not yet attempted the upgrade. I am trying to do my homework to make sure I do not experiance any db issues.

Also, under SQL Server DSN configiration I am using With Windows NT Authentication using the network Login ID.

Please join us for the Q4 2007 Minneapolis Area VMware Users Group meeting

jasonboche — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 04:19:15 GMT

Thank you all for attending the meeting today. I hope that you received good information and found the meeting to be valuable.

Congratulations to the door prize winners, especially those who triumphed in the "trivia round" - you earned your prize!

Jas

Jason Boche
VMware Communities User Moderator

VI 3.5 Released

jasonboche — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 02:28:48 GMT

VMware VirtualCenter 2.5 and ESX Server 3.5 have been released. Many enhancements have been made solidifying VMware's lead in the battle of virtualization supremacy.

VC 2.5 SQL 2000 permission configuration needs

jasonboche — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 04:12:10 GMT

The solution to the problem is here:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/820174

Jason Boche
VMware Communities User Moderator

Please join us for the Q3 2007 Minneapolis Area VMUG

Pete_McKenna — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:32:17 GMT

I'm planning on coming, the registration site seems to be down.
Not sure who owns it.

Pete

type Status report

message /community/usergroups

description The requested resource (/community/usergroups) is not available.

VIC Client Settings Remote Command Timeout doesn't stick

martentrogen — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 01:55:41 GMT

This is the case with VIC 2.0.1 with VC 3.0.1 as well.
Marten

Discussion Point: Practical usefulness of VM templates?

Jwiedow — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 22:49:39 GMT

Using a template in conjunction with the
customisation wizard you do all the "filling in" up
front then click deploy and walk away. Sysprep,
server renaming, Volume License Key entering (which
we use anyway) etc is all automatic so when you get
back from your next meeting the VM is up and ready to
go.

Using a clone, why wait for sysprep to kick-in and
wait for you to complete the mini-setup wizard?

Not so with 64-Bit Windows 2K3 but that may be nit-picking at this point.

All in all a great thread -- I love it when the usefulness of things get the devils advocate treatment!

Eagan VMware gig

jasonboche — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 22:20:23 GMT

Yes it was at Thomson West. Great money but I was afraid it might make me become sick of VMware.

VMLogix LabManager

MacInEnterprise — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 21:23:15 GMT

I've done some testing of VMLogix LabManager and I'm fairly impressed. It has some quirks and show-stoppers, but so does VMWare Lab Manager.

As I've mentioned before, VMLogix LabManager can manage vm's in Microsoft Virtual Server 2005. And, as I wrote before, it can also manage the imaging of physical x86 systems. I discovered that on the VMware product front, it's much more flexible than I thought. It can also manage vm's in VMware Server, VMware Workstation and VMware ESX Server 3. It's also no secret that the company announced last year the future capability to manage vm's in Xen, although no more details have been published regarding this.

No idea on cost.

The access control functionality is also more fine grained than the VMware Lab Manager product.

Just coming from testing VMware Lab Manager, the VMLogix interface and approach takes some getting used-to, but from the little I've used it, it appears much more flexible.

Of course....your mileage may vary. As always, make sure you thoroughly test it in your environments before making any decisions or judgments.

Hung at Retrieving chart data...

mstahl75 — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 18:07:00 GMT

Sorry to drag this back up but thought I would post my recent results. Somehow I had missed the release of VirtualCenter patch 2 and after upgrading to that and changing the time-out interval I seem to have good stats.

It has only been 6 days but so far it looks promising. If I get to the 1 month mark without dropouts I'll be very happy.

VIC Client Settings Remote Command Timeout doesn't stick

jasonboche — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:34:24 GMT

Thanks guys. I'll mark this question as answered and go bring it up in the feature request forum where I post all other bugs.

Jas

Trust or rebuild the ESX host after ungraceful shutdown?

DFATAnt — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:39:41 GMT

Don't waste any more time. Rebuild it and you'll sleep easy at night...

Please update documentation for SQL2005SP1

jamome — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 19:25:44 GMT

I agree too

Please join us for the Q2 2007 Minneapolis Area VMUG

jasonboche — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 20:36:43 GMT

Please join us for the Q2 2007 Minneapolis Area VMUG

Jason Boche, VMUG leader Email: jason@boche.net

Thursday June 21st, 2007 2 - 5 PM

2:00 2:15 General business

2:15 3:00 Steve Anderson, Compellent: Virtual Storage or Virtual Servers

3:00 3:10 Break

3:10 3:55 Claude Robinson and Steve Lytle, Data Domain: Consolidate Backup and Disaster Revoery for your VMware Environment

3:55 4:05 Break

4:05 4:45 Special Interest Group round table discussions
Hosted workstation products (Workstation, Ace)
Hosted server products (Server, GSX)
Enterprise products and hardware (ESX, VirtualCenter, migration, patching)
New technologies and concepts (Lab Manager, VDI)
3rd party tools (automation, managing, monitoring, backup, replication, etc.)
Disaster Recovery, Business Continuation Planning

4:45 5:00 Collect surveys, door prizes, Q & A, closing

We will have generous door prizes and gifts to distribute from Compellent, Data Domain, and VMware

Meeting location provided by Compellent http://www.compellent.com/

Snacks provided by Data Domain http://www.datadomain.com/

Location:
Prairie Conference Center
7500 Flying Cloud Drive
Suite 125
Eden Prairie, MN 55344

Please register here: http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/usergroups
(Registration may take a few days to open subsequent to the date of this posting)

VI client and other VMware products installed on same machine?

jasonboche — Thu, 31 May 2007 12:54:23 GMT

Resolved.

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=640130&#640130

Q2 2007 VMUG - Save the date! 6/21/2007

jasonboche — Sat, 12 May 2007 02:55:46 GMT

Date/Time: Thursday, June 21st from 2-5PM.

Location:
7500 Flying Cloud Drive, Suite 125
Eden Prairie, Minnesota 55344

Final agenda is coming...

Microsoft Virtualization Products Delayed

jasonboche — Fri, 11 May 2007 14:22:15 GMT

Update for this thread:

Microsoft cuts key Longhorn virtualization features
Features would have helped it compete withVMware
http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=620563

This latest development is being discussed in this thread:
http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=84129&tstart=0

Virtual Infrastructure Client not compatible with VMware Server

jasonboche — Tue, 08 May 2007 16:51:36 GMT

It was the path statement. Adding VMware Server binaries to the path statement kills the Virtual Infrastructure Client. It's working now.

Further Analysis:
Using Process Explorer (I know what I said earlier, but I got real curious), I've found the root cause of this error message to be the file vmnetmgr.dll. This file exists in the VMware Server directory, but not in the VIC directory.

When VMware Server is in the path, the VIC attempts to load this file for some reason and it causes the error message.

When VMware Server is not in the path, the VIC doesn't load this file and the VIC launches successfully.

Thank for your help esiebert.

Jas

Conveter error 1% 5%... 97%

ThomasV — Sat, 05 May 2007 11:36:48 GMT

The progress just jumps to 97% and then displays failed.

export the logs to a shared directory and check em (especially the converter log). I've done quit some conversions and always there is a good reason if it fails.

ESX Books

esiebert7625 — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 22:43:10 GMT

Cool, another book to look forward to. Never knew you could cheat, will have to check it out.

Microsoft licensing thread

ejewett — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 21:48:45 GMT

Micosoft's licensing applies equally to all virtualization technologies. There is no licensing advantage to running Virtual Server over ESX, other than the cost of ESX.

Because VMware Server is free like Virtual Server, I guess it would be better to say there is no licensing advantage to running Virtual Server over VMware Server: same dollars to Microsoft (and no dollars to VMware).

COS Linux version?

larstr — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 18:10:49 GMT

Jas,
The Console OS is not a true RedHat clone. In fact, esx 2.5.3 contains rpms derived from both redhat 7.2, rhel2.1 and rhel3. The kernel is still derived from redhat 7.2 so there's no straight answer to your question.

Lars

VMware ESX integration with HP Storage Essentials

jasonboche — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:03:38 GMT

LPE are the Emulex adapters. We standardize on QLogic.

I'm about to test this out in the lab for stabililty and see how things go. I'll follow up later.

Thank you,
Jas

New beta tool: esxPatcher

jasonboche — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 17:54:22 GMT

At our 3/9 meeting, I mentioned something about a mounting need for patch management for ESX due to the amount of patches VMware is putting out there for us.

The first 3rd party tool that I know of has arrived:

http://www.virtualization.info/2007/03/tool-esxpatcher.html

Pasting scripts into PuTTY - exceeding the buffer?

oreeh — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 19:14:13 GMT

It seems that this is a problem in putty - I was able to successfully paste a script to the COS using SecureCRT.
The same didn't work with putty.
The script had a size of 220KB.

so the limit seems to be around 200-220KB

my guess is that this has a lot to do with the used terminal emulation too

Message was edited by:
oreeh

Need a little scripting help

sbeaver — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 18:46:26 GMT

FYI

esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /Disk/UseDeviceReset

This is the only one you need. The other is set to 1 by default

Here is my snip
[code]

SANConfig()
{
esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /Disk/UseDeviceReset
service mgmt-vmware restart
}
[/code]

VMUG email blast issues

jasonboche — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 02:56:53 GMT

I just wanted to pass along a piece of information on a known issue. Some of you may not be receiving the email blast when the VMUG agendas are announced. Here is the detail from VMware on that issue:

Thanks for letting me know about you not receiving the invite. We have had trouble since changing to a new system in January with people not getting the invites. We are working on it now and will be uploading old registration lists from 2006 to make sure these people are also on the list. If you registered for a meeting in 2006 you will be on the next invite email list.

Be sure to watch this forum for upcoming VMUG agenda announcements. As I stated at the 3/9 VMUG, we're looking at a May or possibly June meeting for Q2 and it will be on a Wednesday.

Jas

VI3 quick start guide book

jasonboche — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 03:55:34 GMT

Download/Purchase link to the book I discussed at the 3/9 VMUG meeting:

http://www.lulu.com/content/712361

Veeam Products

jasonboche — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 03:54:01 GMT

Link to Veeam products discussed at the 3/9 VMUG meeting:

http://www.veeam.com/products.asp

Veeam FastSCP new version released yesterday

Abaronov — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 09:14:35 GMT

I think the new protocol we are using is faster than ftp. We compress!

Q1 2007 Minneapolis Area VMUG

BrianG — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 22:40:34 GMT

Hey Kix.

I will more than likely not be able to make the meeting because of a local engagement.

But, if you are in town, we need to get together and have a soda

Bri

Only 1 iSCSI target supported?

oreeh — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:30:25 GMT

openfiler and iscsitarget have nothing to do with a HP MS1500 iSCSI SAN

What to do with all those VMware tattoos

larstr — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 14:10:31 GMT

They is just no love anymore

Don't worry, Steve. We still love you.

I even bought your book.

Lars

/etc/ntp.conf mask 255.255.255.255 ?

jasonboche — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 05:51:46 GMT

Thanks guys. More footnotes for my documentation.

I'll mark correct tomorrow. Need to leave this post tagged so I don't forget to review it at work.

Jas

Maintenance mode and DRS rules

jasonboche — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 03:50:15 GMT

Please see the following topic:

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=71101

VI3 Alarms Are Not Robust Enough

tom howarth — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 23:52:53 GMT

I have to agree totally, error handling is immature to say the least. it would be nice to be able to set thresholds and limits in the same way you can in a Citrx environment.

Jason put it much better.

New VI3 Video Presentation

kix1979 — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 02:21:02 GMT

Nice video I was glad I had the chance to meet Richard at VMworld this year. Great guy.

Kix

PS. Us shaved head guys stick together!

Fedora Core 5 iSCSI w/ ESX software initiator

enDemand — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 04:44:56 GMT

The Fedora Core 5 iSCSI target is basically the iET project found on SourceForge. There are a few things that you can check:

* More a comment than something to check, but all the read and write I/O for the cold migration is happening without the benefits of true caching, as found with hardware-based storage platforms.

You are right, though, about the CPU hit in the Service Console when doing cold migrations. Since the SC is limited to 1/2 of CPU 0, you really can't run many intensive process in it. I would consider using a QLogic QLA4050 series iSCSI HBA (I've seen them for as little as $600), especially since even a TOE-enabled NIC will still manifest heavy CPU utilization in the SC.

If you do plan on using this for production rather than a development lab...you'll definitely want to stick with supported components.
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_san_guide.pdf
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_io_guide.pdf