VMmark 2.5.2 Released

[jpschnee]

Hello,

VMmark 2.5.2 has been released.  This is a patch release that is intended to update an existing VMmark 2.5 or VMmark 2.5.1 installation to VMmark 2.5.2; it includes all updates found in the VMmark 2.5.1 patch.  For installation instructions and a detailed description of the changes in this patch, please see the Readme.txt included in the patch zip file.  All results with VMmark 2 are comparable with this release.

Along with this patch the pre-built VMmark2 workload virtual machine templates have been updated (now based on virtual hardware version 10 with current VMware Tools), we've added a new VMmark2SubmissionChecker application to help users find issues in their environments and the VMmark Benchmarking Guide has been updated with improved instructions and troubleshooting sections.

Please note that April 15, 2014 will be the last cycle into which VMmark 2.5.1 submissions will be accepted.

All updates are available now on the public VMware VMmark2 website. 

[jmccaffrey]

I have a customer who is trying to setup VMware's performance benchmark VMmark 2.5.2.

They have downloaded all the different OVA files. But when they  try to import them, they always receive an error:

The OVF package required unsupported hardware. Details: Line 30: Unsupported hardware family 'vmx-10'.

If they manually edit the OVF file and change this to 'vmx-08', the import error is: File <ovffilename> fails integrity check and might have been corrupted during transfer.

Why does it require 'vmx-10'? I think the latest hardware version is 9 which comes with vSphere 5.5?

How can they change it in a way that they will able to run it in a vSphere 5.1 environment?

The Installation Guide is saying  that vSphere 5.0 and later is supported.

[dmorse]

Hi John,

The VMmark 2.5.2 templates were created with hardware version 10, which is the latest version and corresponds to ESXi 5.5.  Virtual hardware version 9 maps to ESXi 5.1.

To run with legacy versions of ESXi and/or virtual hardware, the SLES templates would need to be created from scratch.  To do this, follow the instructions starting on page 125, "Create and Configure the SLES Virtual Machines".

[jmccaffrey]

Some feedback from end customer.

thanks for this update.

Could you please forward my feedback below to the product manager? I'm really frustrated with this product and I hope they will improve it sooner than later.

I really don't know why they upgraded their templates to HW 10 because this makes absolutely no sense to me.

If the oldest supported version is vSphere 5.0 then they should offer the templates in a format which is compatible to all releases from vSphere 5.0 and above which would be HW version 7.

I think compatibility should be a much higher priority instead of supporting the newest features.

I don't think that VMMark is broadly used and such things (like upgrading templates to HW version 10) doesn't help them neither. I mean every customer who wants to use VMMark can upgrade the hardware version later if they want to.

The Windows releases which are used in VMMark is also something which is very annoying.

Why do they use such old Windows releases? I mean Server 2003 is almost 12 years old. Support is ending soon (July 2015).

Why don't they offer a simpler installation process?

I think the whole installation process could be dramatically simplified by just importing an OVA File (like vCOPs) into vSphere where all VMs are preconfigured in a vApp and you just need to boot them up The actual benchmarking guide is 188 pages long!

Is there a new release of VMMark planned where actual Windows OS releases are supported and the installation process is much more simplified?

[kszczygiel]

Hi,

There's an error in VMmark2PSbe.ps1 file at line 1414:

WriteOut "$Func : $VC : $Cluster:$tiles: $global:OutFile" "both"

Fixed line:

WriteOut "$Func : $VC : $Cluster : $Tiles : $global:OutFile" "both"

Kind regards,

Kamil

[jpschnee · Accepted solution]

Hello,

PowerShell variables are not case sensitive, so $tiles == $Tiles. 

Thanks,

Joshua

[kszczygiel]

It's more about missing whitespaces near the colon ($Cluster:$Tiles should be $Cluster : $Tiles) than case sensitivity. With original version, I'm getting "Variable reference is not valid" error.

Btw. How long does it take for 1 tile to finish? It's running for 3 hours now (around 200 iterations so far).

Kind regards,

Kamil

[jpschnee]

Kamil,

It shouldn't throw any errors, the only issue that might occur is that the Tile number might not show up for that error statement.  You should not be hitting that under normal circumstances as the tile number is validated in other checks.  Few things since you seem to be new to the forums.

1.  Modifying VMmark2 source is against the run and reporting rules.  Any modification is going to invalidate all the runs you do.  I highly recommend reinstalling VMmark 2.5.2 from scratch to make sure your runs are good.

2.  Please post new questions to the forum in a new thread (discussion).  This discussion is just a notice letting forum users know about the release of 2.5.2.

3.  When you post your question, be sure to provide as much detail as possible.  We can't help if we don't understand what you're seeing.  Typically we ask that you include the output from the run you're referencing so we can review the output files. 

Once you post your question in a new discussion someone will assist.

[admin]

I did not manage to find a solution neither. However it seems directly LicenseAssignmentManager.html UpdateAssignedLicense Deprecated. As of vSphere API 6.0 use cis.license.management.SystemManagementService This is probably linked to the move of the “licensing service” to the platform service controller introduced with vSphere 6.0 I have looked for more information regarding cis.license.management.SystemManagementService without any success. Consequently, i have opened a case with VMware to ask for some clarification, and how we can access via API this “cis.license.management.SystemManagementService” When I will get an answer from VMware support I will post it here

[admin]

We like to run vmmark v2.5.2.

With 1 tile, it ran well with the "turbo" mode (the result is in the attachment turbo.zip), but failed with "normal" mode at the last step of collecting result ("Process: InfraOps: Collect Events and Perf failed to start/complete. Returned: RC=1, STAFResult=", refer to the attachment true.zip for detail).

For the reference, the difference between the normal and turbo running is just un-mark/mark "turbomode=1" in the file vmmark2.config

Anyone can help?   http://goo.gl/8aE6LK   |  http://goo.gl/LYLHhG

[jpschnee]

Hello,

Welcome to the forums.  Please do not use this "discussion/thread" to post new questions.  Please create a new discussion.  This discussion is just a notice letting forum users know about the release of 2.5.2.  Additionally, there was no attachment associated with your post.  Once you create a new discussion and add the attachment, someone will assist you.

Thanks,

Joshua