Jasemccarty's Accepted Solutions

'Host Pinning' is a term often used when using the vSAN Host Affinity feature. Stretched Cluster vSAN (since vSAN 6.6) has allowed for 'Site Affinity' to give you the ability to have data only in one site or the other. Consider 2 VM's with a need for one in each site. Say they are using DAG, or some other application replication technology, and you do not want to write to both sites. Essentially, data is only needed in one site for each VM because data is replicated at the application layer. Create a Storage Policy with the following rules (minimum) for the VM to reside in the Preferred Site: PFTT=0 SFTT=1/2/3FTM=Mirroring/Erasure Coding Data Locality: Preferred Fault Domain Here's that policy in the vSphere Web Client: And here's the same policy in the new vSphere Client (HTML5) Create a Storage Policy with the following rules (minimum) for the VM to reside in the Secondary Site: PFTT=0 SFTT=1/2/3 FTM=Mirroring/Erasure Coding Data Locality: Non-Preferred Fault Domain You'll also want to use VM/Host Groups/rules with the "Must Run On..." option to make sure that the VM for the Preferred Site only runs on the Preferred and the other only runs on the Non-Preferred site. Most of this is covered in detail in the vSAN Stretched Cluster Guide: https://vmware.com/go/vsanstretchedclusterguide I hope this helps. Jase

This is covered in v1.4 of the PowerCLI Cookbook for vSAN on page 87 (as updates are published, this page may change). The section is: Useable vSAN Capacity based on Storage Policy PowerCLI 11.2 Added the VsanWhatIfCapacity property was added to the Get-VsanSpaceUsage cmdlet. First you have to grab the policy that you'll use, and then Here's the code from the example in the cookbook: PS /> $DefaultPolicy = Get-SpbmStoragePolicy -Name "vSAN Default Storage Policy" PS /> $RAID5Policy = Get-SpbmStoragePolicy -Name "RAID5" PS /> (Get-VsanSpaceUsage -StoragePolicy $DefaultPolicy).VsanWhatIfCapacity StoragePolicy                TotalWhatIfCapacityGB FreeWhatIfCapacityGB -------------                --------------------- -------------------- vSAN Default Storage Policy             4471.21875     4201.66796873882 PS /> (Get-VsanSpaceUsage -StoragePolicy $RAID5Policy).VsanWhatIfCapacity StoragePolicy TotalWhatIfCapacityGB FreeWhatIfCapacityGB ------------- --------------------- -------------------- RAID5               6706.8298017066     6302.50352873374 Remember that different policies will give you different usable space. The FreeWhatIfCapacityGB is what I think you are looking for.

ecsaw​ Because vSAN and Management both use the same TCP stack, if vmk0 (Management) and vmk1 (WitnessPg) are on the same subnet, you will observe a multi-homing situation (KB 2010877). You could tag only vmk0 for "vSAN Traffic" if you desire, as this is a supported configuration. Keep in mind you will want to isolate/protect that network from non-administrative access. I go into some more detail here: Understanding the vSAN Witness Host - Traffic Tagging - Virtual Blocks

leosilvapaiola​ I have to agree with GreatWhiteTec​ 1. Storage vMotion - Fully supported to move VM's to vSAN storage. 2. Specific to your vSAN Network: If you hae a Hybrid Configuration, then Dedicated 1Gbps NICs are required If you have an All-Flash Configuration, then Shared 10Gbps are required If you have a Hybrid Configuration with 1Gbps NICs, and choose to change to 10Gbps later, it is supported. There are a few different methods supported to migrate. I'd highly recommend looking into using the vSphere Distributed Switch (included in vSAN licensing) to have more control & better configuration options for vSAN when compared to the traditional vSphere Standard Switch. 3. If you plan on using vSAN 6.5, vCenter 6.5 is required. If you plan on using vSAN 6.2, then the latest vCenter for 6.0 would be recommended. There are definitely some feature enhancements in vSAN 6.5, but I'd also mention that vSAN 6.2 (with vSphere 6.0 Update 3) has some updates that make is an awesome choice as well. 4. The VCSA appliance is a great alternative to the Windows vCenter installation, without requiring a Windows license. The 6.5 version even includes Update Manager in the VCSA. Very easy, and preferred by many.

vSohill‌, I'm not certain what you are trying to do, but I'll try to give some guidance. Virtual SAN is licensed in one of 3 fashions. Per CPU for all workloads other than Virtual Desktops Per Desktop for all Virtual Desktop (VDI) environments Per 25 VM pack for Remote Office Branch Office deployments (ROBO) Stretched Cluster configurations Comprised of between 2 and 15 hosts per site and a single witness (per cluster) 2+2+1… 15+15+1 Virtual SAN Advanced licensing with Virtual SAN 6.1 Virtual SAN Enterprise licensing with Virtual SAN 6.2 2 Node configurations Comprised of 1 host per site and a single witness (per cluster) or 1+1+1 Can be used with any edition of Virtual SAN 6.1 or 6.2 Does not require Advanced or Enterprise licensing. Data is not written and then replicated, as writes occur simultaneously across both sites. Data however is only read from the site that the virtual machine resides on. I highly recommend the Stretched Cluster and 2 Node Guide: Virtual SAN 6.1: https://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsan/VMware-Virtual-SAN-6.1-Stretched-Cluster-Guide.pdf Virtual SAN 6.2: https://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsan/VMware-Virtual-SAN-6.2-Stretched-Cluster-Guide.pdf‌ I hope that helps.

Hi vSohill‌, I maintain the Virtual SAN Stretched Cluster & 2 Node Guide. 1) The witness does not require actual SSD devices. The witness ships with 3 (or more) drives. ESXi is installed on one, one is used for the caching requirement, and one (or more) is used for the capacity requirement. These capacity drives (vmdks) are different sizes are really particular to the number of objects you are protecting. 2) The witness bandwidth is dependent on the number of Objects you are protecting, and ensuring that all of them can be failed over within 5 seconds. The rule of thumb is 2Mbps for every 1000 objects on a Stretched Cluster / 2 Node Configuration. The minimum latency is 500ms RTT for 2 Node configs and 200ms RTT for configurations larger than 2 Nodes. I put together a quick guidance paper around the bandwidth requirements here: https://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsan/vmware-virtual-san-6.1-stretched-cluster-bandwidth-sizing.pdf The Stretched Cluster and 2 Node Guides are here: Virtual SAN 6.1: https://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsan/VMware-Virtual-SAN-6.1-Stretched-Cluster-Guide.pdf Virtual SAN 6.2: https://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsan/VMware-Virtual-SAN-6.2-Stretched-Cluster-Guide.pdf These docs include content for both Stretched Clusters and 2 Node configurations. The original one for 6.1 did not include 2 Node configs, but was updated in January 16'.

When I have had SVMotion failures in the past, I have had to power off the guest, and choose Complete Migration from the VM's menu. This was the same for Plug-in and RCLI based failures. Jase McCarty http://www.jasemccarty.com Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center (ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

Is the SQL Native Client available? Jase McCarty http://www.jasemccarty.com Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center (ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

Yes, it is possible. I've got 2 copies of ESX 4.0, 1 ESX 3.5 U2, 1 XP VM, 1 DC, & 1 vCenter server running on my desktop... Just make sure you have a processor with Intel VT or AMD-V, and have it enabled in the bios. Cheers, Jase McCarty http://www.jasemccarty.com Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center (ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

Take a look at this article: http://www.petri.co.il/use-openfiler-as-free-vmware-esx-san-server.htm Jase McCarty http://www.jasemccarty.com Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center (ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

Welcome to the forums. I am pretty sure this is manual. I boot my P2Ved boxes with network unattached, and set the IPs as I want them. Then I power down the guest and the physical box, and only power back on the guest. Jase McCarty http://www.jasemccarty.com Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center (ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

Had a similar problem on a box. It was having a problem with the onboard IDE drive. Disabled the onboard IDE, and used a USB DVD drive to install ESXi. Not sure if that will help, but that'sa suggestion. Jase McCarty http://www.jasemccarty.com Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center (ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

Welcome to the forums. Same happened to me when I updated to ESXi 3.5 U3. The ICH7 chipset is now supported differently. You'll need to modify the oem.tgz file to include the ICH7 info. Here's what I did to fix the problem. http://communities.vmware.com/message/1104964#1104964 Cheers, Jase Jase McCarty http://www.jasemccarty.com Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center (ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

It might be easiest to run the VMware Converter inside the guest, resizing the disk(s), and posting the new VM to the same ESXi box. Jase McCarty http://www.jasemccarty.com Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center (ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

To get the process names of vCenter, look at the VMware services for their exact locations. Also, you might want to exclude the path of the SQL database, and the location of the Upate manger patches. Don't remember the default, as I'm not using it. Just search for ESX on your file system, and you'll find it. Jase McCarty http://www.jasemccarty.com Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center (ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

Rick, The tools are specific to the hosts, and not vCenter. Jase McCarty http://www.jasemccarty.com Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center (ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

I would attempt a repair installation, as I believe that it will prompt you to enter the appropriate IP info there. Jase McCarty http://www.jasemccarty.com Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center (ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

You just need a processor that supports either Intel VT or AMD-V, and a motherboard that supports it. And you'll need to enable that setting in the bios. Jase McCarty, VCP, vExpert, VTSP http://www.jasemccarty.com Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center (ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

The message tells you, that you will have to modify a file (part of the Web Access piece) to enable the ability to generate a scripted installation config file. Here's the doc you are looking for: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35/vi3_35_25_installation_guide.pdf Start looking at page 101 in that document. Jase McCarty, VCP, vExpert, VTSP http://www.jasemccarty.com Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center (ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct