VMware Communities : Thread List - Stage Manager

Deploying and PortGroups

venzent — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:16:06 GMT

When I deploy a VM with fencing in&out allowed, a new PortGroup gets created and the VM is connected to it. SM is running in a cluster with 3 ESX servers (3.5), but the portgroup only gets created on the host where the VM resides, so vmotion isn't possible. Is this normal behavior or what am i doing wrong?

Stage Manager conflicts with the Lab Manager agent running on host "XX". Uninstall the Lab Manager agent before trying to prepare the host.

squarecn — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 09:29:09 GMT

when i completed the initial configuration，loged into stagemanager i found in Administration——Resources——Hosts，the hosts activity is“ error in preparing”，clicked the link，

some details appear：Stage Manager conflicts with the Lab Manager agent running on host "192.168.1.6". Uninstall the Lab Manager agent before trying to prepare the host.

but in my virtual infrastructure，this is no lab manager installed，just has a lifecy manager

what is the problem？？？？

server license and capacity license??

squarecn — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:28:09 GMT

can anyone tell me where to get capacity license??? I had just registered an account in the VMware website,then I downloaded the stagemanager software and obtained a evaluation license.but when I installed and configured stagemanager, I found that it needed two license--server license and capacity license, I only have such a evaluation license, what can I do？

Patching several instances of the same application at a single time

VmSolution — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:39:00 GMT

Hi,

I am using stage manager to deploy several instances of the same
application (application and DB reside on the same VM) in a managed services environment. Is it possible to use
stage manager to patch all the instances with just a single "patch and
deploy" process. If yes, can you pls. point me to documentation that describes this. If not, does stage manager expose api's that can be used to custom program this feature .

Regards,

Raja

Using Stage Manager and Lab Manager together

Canicula — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:50:14 GMT

I'm in the early stages of designing and deploying an internal Dev/QA/Test/Demo environment and it looks as if the functionality provided by both Lab Manager and Stage Manager will be useful for this. I plan to use the latter for managing the stages of systems that will end up in production and the former for devs and testers to use to create scratch systems for various reasons, within set resource limits they have.

Are there any white papers or articles anywhere on using Stage and Lab Manager together on the same servers and SAN?

Ian

Using Stage Manager to create Replica / Test environments of Production

Peter.Grant — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:57:34 GMT

Hi,

I'm new to Stage Manager and haven't yet installed it.

Is this a suitable solution to use to replicate our production enviroment every so often into an isolcated Test environment? Is there a better product to use rather than stage manager?

On one of the VMware webcasts it said that in order to clone the production systems they must be taken offline for a small period of time. Is this correct??

Thanks

-----------------------------
Keep low, move fast, trust no one!

Stage Manager in Pharma industry

BRockwell — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:28:13 GMT

Hi -

Just wondering if anyone out there is using Stage manager in the pharma industry? With GxP and SOX regulations and the whole promote to production/validation lifecycle, this product seems to fill a real niche for pharma. I was hoping to tap into what some other IT people in my industry are doing and what their experience with Staging manager has been.

Thanks,

Brandon Rockwell
Infrastructure Team Lead

Creating Multi linked Clone

Balaji.T.K — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:53:49 GMT

Hi,

Is that possible to create Multiple Linked Clone from Single Master VM and power on those?

Thanks

error installating eval copy of stage manager on windows 2003 ent server

puzzledtux — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 07:31:54 GMT

I am getting an error as shown in the attached screenshot while installing an eval copy of Stage Manager. I am installing the SM on a vm with Windows 2003 Server 32-bit. The logs are also attached.

Concurrent connections to a VM through stage manager ?

moiecoute — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:42:39 GMT

Hi,

We trialled Stage Manager when it was in Beta some time ago. We found that we could not have concurrent connections to a VM without one person seeing what the other person is doing.

Has this now changed. Can each person who connects to the VM get their own desktop ?

Thanks

Stage Manager vs. Lab Manager

Sticky — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:44:08 GMT

It would be nice to have someone from VMware CLEARLY define the technical differences between the two products. There is plenty of marketing babble about how they are meant for different situations, but that doesn't tell us the real differences. I think I have a good understanding of the two, however I would like to see this from VMware. It is easy to find material regarding the differences from say VMware Server vs. ESX why not these two products.

Thanks,

Sticky

Correct use of stage manager

david.sullivan — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:07:10 GMT

I am just curious how others are intending to use Stage Manager. My intent is to use it to make quick copies of production for things like testing patch deployment, and duplicating production environments for testing. I don't however want to have to bring my production environment down in order to make a clone in the fenced environment. That being the case, would I import all of my servers into Stage Manager, and build all new servers through Stage Manager, promote them to production, and leave them in there. That way when I want a quick copy I just create a delta copy from the original. I realize there will be some performance degradation, and my stage manager environment could grow quite large. Just wondering if the intent of Stage Manage was to house a copy of all production machines so they can be quickly deployed into test environments.

Stage Manager Usability Study

agrude — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:53:23 GMT

Hi,

The User Experience team at VMware is looking for Lab Manager and Stage Manager users to participate in a usability study. Sessions will take place onsite in Palo Alto for local users and via WebEx for remote users.

We will be testing designs for future versions of LM and SM while still in the prototype phase, so by participating you will have the opportunity to influence the direction of the products and share opinions with the developers and product management team.

If you're interested, please contact Amy Grude (agrude@vmware.com.)

Location: VMware in Palo Alto or WebEx
Date(s): October 20th - 24th
Compensation: $150 (probably via gift card)

Thanks!

Amy Grude
User Experience Researcher

Stage Manager Query

Crawfy — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:03:38 GMT

We would like to start using it soon for our developers, but am aware that it is still a 1.0 product and the interface, etc does not seem as polished and intuitive as it perhaps could be. Does anyone know when the next release will be?

How 2 manually uninstall Stage Manager Agent from esx host?

TCP — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:34:50 GMT

Hi All!

Is anybody know how to mannually uninstall Stage Manager Agent from esx host?

Thanks a lot.

SM Fenced Config Issue

peetschan — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:16:05 GMT

I am running into a hurdle trying to find a way to easily copy files from production into a vm's in a fenced configuration in Stage Manager (1.0.0.1561).

I have production network with server1, server2, server3.

Server1 interfaces with server2, server3 (replication, etc) I would like to import server1 into a fenced config in stage manager, retaining same host name and ip address, and blocking out and blocking in.

I would like to test in this fenced config, without any effects in my production environment. More importantly, I would like to have ability to transfer files from my production network into server1 in the fenced config.

However, I do not want server1 making any calls or replicating with my production environment.

I have discussed with Support. One option is to have fenced config and allow both incoming and outgoing. The problem here is server1 in stage manager would also make calls, replicate, etc with other servers in my production environment - even though server1 is in a fenced config.

Another workaround I'd like to avoid is to copy the files to a production vm then detach and re-attach to the stage manager vm.

Again the goal is to be able to test in an isolated environment yet still have the ability to transfer files in and out.

Any suggestions are appreciated

Importing from Virtual Center Errors

Mark07 — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:27:06 GMT

Hello,

I've been trying to import a virtual machine from Virtual Center, but it times out each time. It successfully clones the VM, but when the VM is done cloning, nothing in Stage Manager knows that it is done. Stage Manager is not able to power on the VM.

When it times out and errors, the only option Stage Manager allows is to delete the VM Template.

Is there something that needs to be changed? Or would this be a bug outside of my control?

Thanks.

StageManager Installation Issue

vmmeup — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:29:00 GMT

I have StageManager installed and I can get to the web interface from the local server that I installed it on, but I can't get to it from anywhere else. I have checked the IIS config and everyhting looks good there. I am not running any firewalls on the server or anything else that would block it. I did already have .net Framework 2.0 SP1 installed on my VM template before I installed IIS. I know the install doc says to install IIS first then the .net Framework but everyhting seems to be working locally from localhost. Anyone run into this or have any ideas on what I could look at. I have checked just about everything I think but I'm sure you guys can think of a few things I haven't.

v2p solution

JohnnyBravo — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:45:07 GMT

Hi,

I'm looking at implementing Stage manager as a more flexible way of deploying our prd systems from dev . The current process is basically deploying test VMs for the dev team on esx and when all UAT is signed off DoubleTake is used to perform a v2p operation because the current business requirement is that all live systems are hosted on physical hardware (for now).

I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on how this can be achieved and whether Stage Manager can other anything in the way of V2P etc.

Sorry if a little vague.

Initialization: Cannot attach Resource Pool

Mark07 — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:56:25 GMT

Hello,

I'm currently evaluating Stage Manager. During initialization, I cannot connect to a resource pool, cluster, or host.

I receive the following error: Stage Manager cannot attach the selected resource pool "test" because it may not exist in VirtualCenter anymore. Try to attach the resource pool again.

The resource pool does exist in VirtualCenter though. I am able to see it and select it from the box on the Select Resource Pool page of the Initialization Wizard.

I have full admin privileges, so I don't think it is a permission issue.

Thanks.

Lab Manager + Stage Manager question

swamy — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:06:35 GMT

I have gone through few docs and found that lab manager best suits for dev-test env and stage manager fits for integration, staging (pre-production env). But my question is what does the default stages dev and testing in the default service template indicates? (does this mean stage manager also replaces lab manager?)

Licensing structure

davez0r — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:19:39 GMT

I'm looking at rolling out Stage Manager at my workplace. I can add "VMware Stage Manager for 1 processor" with varying support contracts to my shopping cart. What does that give me? I will likely want one Stage Manager Server to manage four ESX hosts, and I already have Standard licenses for those hosts. Just curious, would Starter licenses be adequate? And do I need to purchase Stage Manager agents separately, or are they all-inclusive now?