VMGuru.nl – I choose (a virtual) life!

While I was updating the Determining VMware vCenter and ESX Build Numbers post I thought I would semi-automate the updating of the post with new build numbers for new releases, while working on it I started too fill an excel sheet and ended up with an excel sheet with the following products and build numbers for easy reference:

VMware vSphere 4 Suite (combines several products)
VMware Infrastructure 3 Suite (combines several products)
Cisco Nexus v1000 (1.0)
VMware ESXi (4.0, 3.5, 3.0)
VMware ESX  (4.0, 3.5, 3.0, 2.5, 2.0, 1.5, 1.0)
VMware Server (2.0, 1.0)
VMware vCenter Server (4.0, 2.5, 2.0)
VMware vCenter Converter Standalone (4.0, 3.0)
VMware vCenter Lab Manager (4.0, 3.0, 2.5, 2.4)
VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (4.0, 1.0)
VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat (5.5)
VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager (1.0)
VMware vCenter CapacityIQ (1.0)
VMware vCenter AppSpeed (1.0)
VMware vCenter Chargeback (1.0)
(more…)

Back in April we we’re the first to report the limited management and automation support in vSphere, but now VMware has released version 4.0 of vCenter Site Recovery Manager.

Besides that vCenter Site Recovery Manager can now be used with VMware’s vSphere 4 it has some additional new features and improvements, like:

• Support for NFS storage arrays;
• Support for Shared Recovery Sites;
• Support for VMware Fault Tolerance;
• Support for Distributed vSwitches;
• Maximum number of protected VMs increased to 1000;
• Graphical interface to advanced settings;
• Support for DB2 as an SRM database server;
• Fully compatible with Distributed Power Management.

Licensing remains to be socket based as it was the case with SRM 1.0

For more information visit VMware’s website or see the release notes.

Filtering through my e-mail after a short, one week, holiday I ran into an e-mail from one of my colleagues pointing me to VMware KB Article 1013013. This KB article describes one of the first patches for vCenter Server 4.

The problem is that High Availability in a vSphere 4 virtual environment may not work when a host failure occurs and the node failure detection algorithm fails when using certain IP addresses. VMware found out that this is due to the fact that all of the Service Console Port(s) or Management Network IP address(s) on an ESX host fall within the following range:

3.x.x.x – 9.x.x.x
26.x.x.x – 99.x.x.x

Note: You are not affected if one of Service Console Port(s) or Management Network IP address(s) on your ESX host falls outside of this range.

The problem can obviously be solved by changing (one of the) Service Console Port(s) or Management Network IP address(s) or install vCenter Server 4.0 Patch 1.

More information can be found here.

Usually everybody is on holiday during this period and because of that we lack new projects and great news. ‘Komkommertijd‘, as we call it in the Netherlands. Fortunately (for us) Duncan Epping, known from Yellow-Bricks, isn’t  on holiday (yet) and he pointed me to some great new VMware whitepapers.

So,do you want to get educated on VMware now?

Then you should definitely visit Duncan’s blog or directly download and read the following whitepapers:

• VMware vSphere 4: The CPU scheduler in VMware ESX 4;
• Virtual Machine execution modes in VMware vSphere 4;
• VMware vSphere 4 Fault Tolerance: Architecture and Performance.

And to top it of, yesterday Duncan posted an addition to his ‘HA deepdive‘ discussing HA and slot sizes.

So that’s four documents which will help you through your day.

Across the room Anne Jan is working on an article discussing his first vCenter Chargeback implementation. So after you have read the four documents get back here as soon as possible.

The post frequency on VMGuru.nl has been a bit low because I have been on ‘holiday’ for the last three weeks. During these three weeks I’ve been very busy moving to my new house.
Now I’m back and the first thing to do is to plough through my Inbox and check all interesting RSS news to discover what has happened in the world of virtualization during my absence.

I decided to create a small and concise update in chronological order.

July 7th – VMware ESX Configuration Maximums Matrix:
In between packing, flooring and cabling I came across a great ‘VMware ESX Configuration Maximums Comparison Matrix‘ on Daily Hypervisor.com.  A great documents which sums up the maximums of ESX 3, ESX 3.5 and 3.5 U1, ESX 3.5 U2 and up and of course vSphere. Very handy when studying for your VCP exam or when designing a new virtual infrastructure.

July 10th – vCenter Server 2.5 Update 5 released:
As of July 10th vCenter Server 2.5 Update 5 (English and localized) is available for download. Virtual Center 2.5 Update 5 fixes some important known issues and includes significant performance and scalability improvements to VMware High Availability. Use or update to vCenter Server 2.5 Update 5 when you have more than 35 virtual machines per host in an HA cluster.

For more information read the release notes. For details regarding compatibility check this out. vCenter Server 2.5 Update 5 can be downloaded here.

July 13th – New VMware Partner Central ONLINE:
On July 13th the new VMware Partner Central came online. VMware Partner Central now has some new/improved features like customized content on your program, partner level, and role. Improved Partner Locator that allows customer and prospect searches on your locations, competencies, partner levels and partner types. Dedicated pages for products & solutions, promotions, sales & marketing tools to help you develop your virtualization practice.

So go to http://www.vmware.com/partnercentral and check out the new features. I think it is definitely worth it.

July 13th – VMware View 3.1.1 released:
On July 13th VMware also released an important update for VMware View 3 which update to version 3.1.1. This maintenance release addresses some customer issues and eliminates some known bugs. It also addresses the following: ‘View clients might unexpectedly disconnect from the desktop when tunneled‘ described in knowledge base article 1012388.

More information regarding this release can be found in the release notes. The new version (3.1.1) can be downloaded here.

July 14th – vSphere Sales reference sheet:
Today I received a very handy vSphere Sales reference sheet from our VMware Reseller Manager. The sheet shows the different version of vSphere and associated support options with the (European) prices. So if you want to compare vSphere version and pricing, check out this vSphere Sales reference sheet. Maurice thanks!

July 15th – New vCenter Management products:
VMware picked my birthday to release their new vCenter Management products, vCenter Lab Manager 4, vCenter AppSpeed and vCenter Chargeback.

VMware Lab Manager 4 .0 automates management of internal cloud resources for development and test environments, providing self-service access for end users while ensuring IT control.

vCenter AppSpeed enables virtual infrastructure administrators to ensure performance levels for virtualized-multi-tier applications.

vCenter Chargeback provides cost modeling, accounting and reporting/billing for virtual resources.

July 16th – vSphere upgrade exam material:
Today I received an e-mail from a colleague which some nice information to prepare for the vSphere 4 upgrade exam. The VSP 4 Upgrade guide and the VMware vSphere Software compatibility matrix combined with the VMware ESX Configuration Maximums Comparison Matrix is a good foundation for the upgrade exam. Edwin thanks!

So far the 7 most important VMware/virtualization facts from the last 3 weeks out of my Inbox.

Update April 22th 2009: Today the rumor mentioned below was confirmed during the vSphere 4 launch.

Rumor in the VMware community has it that the next version of VMware ESX, vSphere, has very limited support for the VMware management and automation suite. vSphere will of course be available with vCenter for basic management and automation tasks but the rest of VMware’s great product suite is not supported in the initial release of vSphere.

So there won’t be support for:

• VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager
• VMware vCenter Lab Manager
• VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager
• VMware vCenter Stage Manager
• VMware View

In my opinion this is a mistake. I understand the pressure is on and VMware should  release a new version fast to challenge the competition. But releasing a product which does not support the majority of your former product suite is not a clever move.

From what I understand this is also a discussion within VMware so let’s hope VMware gets wiser and postpones the release or add support for the VMware Management & Automation suite soon.

Title: Technical Track: Demo of DR Testing with VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager
Location: online
Link out: Click here
Description: In this webcast, we will provide a live demo of the disaster recovery (DR) testing features of VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager. This solution makes DR testing much more reliable and realistic by automating testing in a way that is non-disruptive to the production environment.

Start Time: 19:00 (GMT+2) / 11:00 (PST)
Date: 2009-04-08
End Time: 20:00 (GMT+2) / 11:00 (PST)

Note: Please double check the time on the VMware webcast page. Timezones, daylight saving differences etc makes it hard to get the time right.

Yesterday I ran into VMware HA problems again. With my past HA troubleshooting experiences I thought configuring HA wouldn’t be a problem any more but unfortunately it bit me in the ass again.

We all know VMware ESX implementations where not all information, access, etc is available when you start with the installation. Exactly this was the case at this project. I only had 4 ESX hosts connected to the network and an EqualLogic SAN and the network was limited to the rack so only the ESX hosts and the SAN were connected. The network guys had to establish a connecting to the HQ but to do that the had to change IP addresses.

I installed the complete VMware Infrastructure with the new addresses waiting for the connection to be made so I could add the servers, like vCenter, to the corporate Active Directory.

(more…)

February 10th I participated in a VMware WebEx on their new vCenter addon, vCenter Server Heartbeat and today the news will be released in Cannes at VMWorld Europe 2009.

vCenter Server Heartbeat is an important addon which creates high availability for vCenter Server. vCenter Server Heartbeat monitors and protects VMware’s management platform against network, hardware, OS or application issues. This fully protects the infrastructure which helps VMware users to deploy critical applications on VMware.

(more…)

Yesterday VMware announced a new vCenter Server add-on, VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat.

As customers expand their use of VMware, maintaining a highly available management infrastructure is quickly becoming a key requirement. So VMware created a high availability solution for vCenter Server.

Today I participated in a VMware WebEx ‘Introducing VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat‘ where more details were uncovered. This information is under strict embargo and I was asked not to publish any detailed information on this subject, which I respect (and others do not ). So check out the news from VMWorld Europe 2009, I think we can tell you more as there is a session called ‘Chosing a Solution for vCenter Server Availability (DC10)‘ 

Fellow blogger Duncan Epping of Yellow Bricks has added a great section to his site.
The section is called ‘High Availability “Deepdive”‘ and describes all ins-and-out of VMware HA. Have you always wondered how HA realy works, what primary and secondary nodes are, how to setup isolation response and so on? Then you should read Duncans new HA section.

The High Availibility “Deepdive” is subject to change so bookmark it and check back regularly.
Also check out the HA Advanced options if you want to know even more about VMware HA.

Last year when I attended VMWorld Europe 2008 my wife was 9 months pregnant. As a souvenir I brought a little VMware teddy bear and a VMWorld bib with the text ‘Embracing your Virtual World – VMWORLD 2008‘. He is now 8 months old and this weekend I couldn’t resist to take his picture wearing the bib as proof that the love for VMware starts at a very young age. We can’t help it, it is congenital!

Strange thing is that these children still don’t know what a virtual machine is.

Yesterday VMware published the speaker and sessions catalog for VMworld Europe 2009 which will take place Febr 24-26 in Cannes, France.

Pre-registration for sessions is not available. Additional sessions and details from various presenters and speakers will be added between now and the conference, so please check back for new information.

For people who have a VMworld login, the speaker and session catalog can be found here.
For those of you who don’t have a VMworld login (yet), the static speakers & sessions catalog can be found below. (more…)

Today we finally received conformation of our special bloggers invite.

This invite gives us access to the press lounge, video recording room and special bloggers seats at the sessions.

This is not only great news for us but also good news for you, our VMGuru audience because this means we can give you    front row seats while we report live from VMworld Europe 2009 from Monday Feb 23 (Partner day) until Thursday Feb 26. So  check out VMGuru.nl during this period to get the latest news on the virtualization marketplace.

Today I recieved the following e-mail from Richard Garsthagen, organiser of VMWorld Europe 2009, and I didn’t want to keep this from you.

In 7 weeks time the 2nd VMworld in Europe will be opening its doors!

[...]

This year we will offer even more hands-on labs at the event, where
you can get your hands on the latest technologies. To create even more
capacity all the labs will be self-paced, so you can come when ever
you like and how often you like! We will provide terminals where you
can sit down and work through these labs, but we will also allow you
to connect with your own laptop. When you bring your own laptop there
is even less chance of waiting in line. (Do make sure you run windows
on your laptop, we will provide the VDI environment to connect.

(more…)

Last few weeks I have been very busy solving HA issues at a client site. As you may have read I solved the problems by swapping out the USB sticks and troubleshooting BIOS settings. Now my collegues asked me if I could write down all checks I performed (together with VMware support) to target these HA issues.

(more…)

Yesterday VMware released Update 1 of their killer product vCenter Site Recovery Manager 1.0.
So what’s new in Update 1:

• New permissions required to run a recovery plan
• Full support for RDM devices
• Batch IP property customization
• Limits checking and enforcement
• Improved support for virtual machine that span multiple datastores
• Single action to reconfigure protection for multiple virtual machines
• Simplified log collection
• Improved acceptance of non-ASCII characters

It lacks the long awaited NFS support as requested in many communities but I don’t care so much as I rarely use NFS. The support for RDM is something I do like as I am a big RDM user/implementer.

For more information on the new features in this release read (more…)

It may sound a bit strange, BIOS settings causing HA problems…… At the client site were I previously had problems with faulty HP USB sticks I still experience problems. After the problems with the green USBs after 1,5 week we received new black USBs. This seemed to solve our problems, we swapped all USBs, configured all ESXi hosts and build a new cluster and enabled HA. All seemed well untill I updated all hosts with all the latest patches. (more…)

It’s a new hype and many blog have reported on this subject, ‘SRM in a box‘

I’m not going to write a totaly new blog on this subject, instead I will give you a few nice links and give all credits to Tomas Ten Dam, Eric Sloof and Arne Fokkema.

(more…)

At the same client site where we had the problems with VMware Update Manager and ESXi we are now struggling with HA. We can NOT get it to work and even WMware support can NOT get it to work either. We have been on the phone with VMware support for almost a week now and have tried various fixes but none of them work. We created a hosts-file to rule out DNS problems, we added advanced HA settings like ‘das.allowNetwork[n]‘ and ‘das.allowVmotionNetworks‘, we created new clusters, checked FT_HOST files and deleted all host from the cluster to build it again from scratch. All without positive results.

(more…)

October 13th I met Eric Sloof, the man behind NTPRO.NL, at the VMware Partner Forum 2008 in Brasschaat. He was busy filming various presentations. Today I visited Erik’s site and discovered his video collection. If you are interested in the ‘live’ presentations of VMWorld 2008 or some nice product demo’s, check out Erik’s videos on Vimeo.

Here are three of my favorites:

• Brian Madden VDI versus Terminal Services Video
• VMworld 2008 | VMware Site Recovery Manager Video
• Designing the Next Generation Data Center – Cisco and VMware

For all who have not seen ESXi4 beta or presentations at VMWorld 2008, VMware announced a new feature called Fault Tollerance (FT). A system with two virtual machines in an active/passive configuration. All instructions that are executed on the active virtual machine are copied over a high speed network to the passive virtual machine. When the active virtual machine fails the passive virtual machine takes over with zero downtime so no service interruption.

This information is based on a ESXi4 beta so there is no guarantee that this feature will appear in the final product.

A demo of this feature can be found here.

(more…)

With the release of VMware ESX/ESXi 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5 U3 VMware implemented a few interesting changes in it’s HA implementation.  In this document VMware HA and the latest changes are descibed in detail.

This document is intended for experienced HA cluster admins who are planning to migrate to Update 3 as well as admins who are interested in the explanation of some cluster essentials.