HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

I hope you, your friend, family and loved ones all have a safe and Happy New Year! We have another big year for Virtualization ahead in 2010!

2010-New VMWare Training Opportunties

I have previously shared VMware's New Education Roadmap information from the blog "Punching Clouds".  NTPRO.NIL is reporting new information on the classes scheduled to come in 2010 dealing with the different Virtualization specialist categories of: Virtualization Generalist, Security Specialists, Performance Specialists, Virtual Desktop Administrators, Availability Specialists.

See the links above for more info...

vCenter 4 Update 1 Performance is Amazing

I just wanted to comment again and how impressed I am with the speed and operational improvements we are seeing using the new vCenter 4 update 1. The previous Virtual Center 2.5 update 5 was sluggish and many times kept us waiting as the client timed out between tasks. And I had done all sorts of testing to ensure it was not a SQL database or storage performance problem.

So the only change has been going from Server 2003 SP2 32 bit OS that Virtual Center 2.5 was running on (in a virtual machine) to Server 2008 SP1 64 bit Enterprise and vCenter 4 update 1 (in a virtual machine). Of course it does a database upgrade during the install so maybe it is talking to the database in a more optimized way. But you sure are not left waiting for results anymore.

The other important user friendly part is the search feature, so now you can find anything without drilling down into places.

Great Job VMware!

vCenter 4 Alarms and Thin Provisioning

vCenter 4 has really impressed me as well with the many stock alarms that are present now. Are there are new interesting ones you should consider adding especially for using the new Thin provisioning features and monitoring snapshots. By default you get the "Datastore Usage on Disk" alarm, basically your how full am I. But with thin provisioning you should really consider some of the suggestion from the VCritical site below:

responsible-thin-provisioning-in-vmware-vsphere

vsphere-thin-provisioned-disk-performance

powershell-prevents-datastore-emergencies

easy-recovery-from-a-full-vmware-esx-datastore

vmware-vsphere-4-has-a-snapshot-alarm

VMware Thin Provisioning Performance White Paper

vCenter 4 Upgrade A Success!

Wow after a lot of planning today was the day I pulled the trigger for our big upgrade to vCenter 4. The upgrade went very smoothly and I am really impressed with the speed of vCenter compared to Virtual Center 2.5 update 5. You need to upgrade for that reason alone!

Our virtual center and SQL 2005 servers are both virtual, and our goal was to follow the strong suggestion from VMware: Future releases of VMware vCenter Server might not support installation on 32-bit Windows operating systems. We also wanted it to be the license server for the ESX 3.5 servers as well until we get migrated.

The vSphere Upgrade Guide for Update 1 had some instructions for doing this but I'll walk you through the steps I took below which might help. I had already prepared items in a folder I would need during the rebuild of the new 64bit vCenter.

You will need:
SSL files from old virtual center:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\SSL

SSL files go here on new 64bit server:

C:\Users\All Users\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\SSL

Sysprep files Old:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep
Sysprep files new:
C:\Users\All Users\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep

35 license server files old:
\Program Files\VMware\VMware License Server\Licenses
35 license server files new:
\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware License Server\Licenses

• rename current virtual center 2.5
• deployed new Server 2008 64 Enterprise SP1 vm
• removed my DRS rule to keep the SQL and old virtual center together
• made a note of the ESX server new vcenter vm is on
• shutdown old vcenter, remove from AD
• configure new vCenter 64 bit OS, Join domain
• copy SSL files (make the directory that doesn't exist yet--see above)
• install sql native client (64 bit version)
• setup ODBC (remember to use 32 DSN by running c:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe and select SQL Native driver)
• Perform the vcenter install
• copy sysprep files, check everything out (agent updates take place on the servers)
  
• Install the virtual center 2.5 update 5 license server only and point to your license files
• set vCenter to be the license server for ESX 3.5 servers (under vCenter Server Settings)
• and that was about it...still need to update the other components (update manager, etc)

Hope this helps you...

VMWare KB TV:

Have you checked out the NEW VMware KBTV channel? Go check it out now!
http://blogs.vmware.com/kbtv/

Hot free video instruction of popular KB related issues.

VCP 4 "No-Class" Extension:

NTPRO.NIL is reporting that VMware has extended the deadline to Jan 31, 2010 for current VCP 3 holders to pass the VCP 4 certification without taking the What's New Class. This apparently is due to a rush of people not being able to book the exams.

See the link for more details.

Merry Christmas to you all!

I hope you will enjoy some quality time with Family and friends during this holiday season. I encourage you to remember the true meaning and purpose of this holiday, honoring the birth of Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Lord. I hope you have a relationship with GOD and will spend time in prayer and church celebrating the salvation and thanks we owe Jesus for dying for our sins so that we may have everlasting life and forgiveness of our sins.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Help with HP Insight Management Agents on VMWare ESX 4 server

Nice blog I came across today with some really good info including this tip for those installing HP agents in the service console.

http://blog.mrpol.nl/2009/11/03/installing-hp-insight-management-agents-on-vmware-vsphere-4-server/

IOPS...the big factor in virtualization success

Found this great article that you can really learn a lot from concerning IOPS.

The original info is from here.

Tools you need...Virtualization EcoShell

Powershell tools are becoming the best way to really get fast information and reporting from your virtual infrastructure and even active directory. Recently I had to make a change in our environment that would have taken clicking several times down into the settings of each vm....which for 600+ vms would have taken a long time. With powershell, this task took seconds! That is the difference powershell can make in your administration tasks.

Fortunately we don't all have to be programmers and tools have come along (PowerGui) and (EcoShell) which help us learn and do some amazing powershell stuff. First, head over to The Virtualization EcoShell Initiative to download and get this tool. Videos are available at the bottom of the screen showing you the power of the product. An advanced training video I learned about from ntpro.nil is located on Vizioncore's site.

You will love the vDiagram (generate Visio reports of your environment) and vReporting (Generate html reports) features I am sure!

Nice vSphere HOT-ADD Memory/CPU OS list

Xtravit has a very nice chart showing the OS capabilities with this amazing new features in vSphere 4.

vSphere 4 LUN removal issue

Please see this original post for information on a vSphere 4 storage bug that appears to be getting several people.

It deals with removing a LUN from the server…and the order you perform the process. The proper sequence is:

1. In the vSphere client, vacate the VMs from the datastore being removed (migrate or Storage vMotion)
2. In the vSphere client, remove the Datastore
3. In the vSphere client, remove the storage device
4. Only then, in your array management tool remove the LUN from the host.
5. In the vSphere client, rescan the bus.

vSphere update 1 Round Robin NMP bug

We all should be  aware of this as we move to using Round Robin in our production environments.

 

Original information link.

Build OS Drive Templates using PVSCSI Adapter

Very nice walk through on how to build new clean templates using the new Paravirtualized SCSI Adapter for maximum throughput (and less CPU overhead). This tip does require you to be using vSphere 4 update 1 or higher. Only Server 2003 / 2008 are supported for this.

Read more now.

VCP4 Welcome Kits shipping

This NTPRO.NIL report quotes VMware as saying the VCP4 Welcome Kits will start shipping Dec 14. Should take about 10 days to arrive.

Thanks for this info Eric Sloof.

Boot from Paravirtualized SCSI Adapter

In VMware testing. the VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) adapter was able to achieve 12% more throughput with 18% less CPU cost compared to the LSI virtual adapter. Originally you could use this only for non boot virtual disks. This link explains now that you can now use this for your boot/OS disk since vSphere Update 1, using this procedure.

Core Configurator 2 download

Those of you finding the Hyper-V Server Core configuration (where you configure your servers now without any GUI) a rather challenging experience..then you need to get version 2 of this nice tool which gives you a nice GUI interface to do many of those configuration tasks. Makes you wonder why Microsoft didn't just put this in themselves.
More info is here.

VMware PowerCLI Quick Reference Card

Xtravirt has a nice quick reference card for the VMware Powershell commands. Click here for more info.

I passed vSphere VCP410 certification today!

I have been studying really hard for this, with a personal goal to certify on the new vSphere line by years end. Today that came true, with God by my side. The exam, about 85 questions and 90 minutes to complete, I had about 10 minutes left. This was a much more reasonable # of questions than the 270 we had in the Beta exam.I have posted earlier links to the study material I used. The vreference cards and Simon Long (http://www.simonlong.co.uk/blog/vcp-vsphere-4-practice-exam/) practice exams I think were very helpful in giving me confidence.

Good luck to you all going for your VCP certification! I'm off the donate some $$$ to simonlong.

Three training courses now meet the requirement for VCP4

vSphere: Install Configure Manage
vSphere: Fast Track
vSphere: Troubleshooting

 

Fast Track is still the best option as troubleshooting assumes knowledge from the others.

Read more http://vmwaretraining.blogspot.com/2009/12/new-vsphere-troubleshooting-course.html

 

New VMware Education Classes:


1-day Manage Scalability: covers the specific features of vSphere related to scalability, such as Host Profiles, Distributed Power Management, and vCenter Linked Mode

http://mylearn.vmware.com/descriptions/EDU_DATASHEET_vSphereManageScalability_V424.pdf

4-day Troubleshooting: Very intensive: you will spend most of the time diagnosing and rectifying configuration problems created on VMware® ESX™/ESXi hosts and VMware vCenter™ Server systems.

http://mylearn.vmware.com/descriptions/EDU_DATASHEET_vSphereTroubleshooting_V4.pdf

Awesome VCP410 EXAM study links

Awesome study notes:

http://www.vreference.com/downloads/vsphere4-notes1.0.pdf

 

http://www.b3rg.nl/vcp-4.0/introduction/vmware-certified-professional-on-vsphere-4-learning-guide.html

 

http://www.vreference.com/vsphere4-card/

 

http://www.simonlong.co.uk/blog/vcp-vsphere-4-practice-exam/
http://www.simonlong.co.uk/blog/vcp-vsphere-upgrade-study-notes/
http://www.simonlong.co.uk/blog/vcp-vsphere-upgrade-study-notes/

 

http://www.vladan.fr/vmware-vsphere-4-passing-vcp-exam-training-links/

 

 

Awesome Daily ESX Farm report

Based on Powershell, this is a script I now schedule to run every morning so I have a nice report each day and I save the report in a folder.

http://www.virtu-al.net/2009/07/14/powercli-daily-report/

I donated $25 I thought it was so good. Very customizable by by easy commenting or uncommenting sections in the code.

I scheduled it in task scheduler with these commands:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe
in the arguments section: -PSConsoleFile "C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VIToolkitForWindows\vim.psc1" & C:\Scripts\dailyreport.ps1 vcenter

vcenter would be the name of our virtual center server.

Vmotion Stats: how fast can we go

I came across this little tip from this link:
http://kennethvanditmarsch.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/vmotion-speed-how-fast-can-we-go/

Apparently vSphere 4 will show you stats of your Vmotion performance.

Just do: tail –f /var/log/vmkernel
Article also explores does having a lot of bandwidth really help! Good read!

File Lock tip...how to deal with these:

We had a problem with a template..not being able to turn it on...we would get a file locked error.

Not sure how someone accomplished this but they had used the template VMDK file in a deployed virtual machine. How did I find this out? Using the command shown below, which looks through all the virtual machine config files to find if any other machines were using the file. xpsp2basethin.vmdk was the file in use.

 

 

 [root@esx3srv0301ph xpsp2base]# egrep -i xpsp2basethin.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/*/*/*.vmx

/vmfs/volumes/499f22e3-2239bc87-25f0-001a6459e0f8/vpcuniversity2/vpcuniversity2.vmx:scsi0:0.fileName = "/vmfs/volumes/499f2335-cd135fea-a4dd-001a6459e0f8/xpsp2base/xpsp2basethin.vmdk"

/vmfs/volumes/499f2335-cd135fea-a4dd-001a6459e0f8/xpsp2base/xpsp2base.vmx:scsi0:0.fileName = "xpsp2basethin.vmdk"

/vmfs/volumes/hdsvpc3a/vpcuniversity2/vpcuniversity2.vmx:scsi0:0.fileName = "/vmfs/volumes/499f2335-cd135fea-a4dd-001a6459e0f8/xpsp2base/xpsp2basethin.vmdk"

/vmfs/volumes/hdsvpc6a/xpsp2base/xpsp2base.vmx:scsi0:0.fileName = "xpsp2basethin.vmdk"

 

 

Link to a good KB article with much more on this subject:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=10051

Sorry for being away so long

I really enjoy sharing the information I learn with all of you.  And I really appreciate all the other bloggers out there passing on their knowledge and experience. It's all about giving back to the community and helping others find how important the virtualization technology is to their careers and companies.

 

Unfortunately, I have been extremely busy at work and studying for the VPC 4 exam. Nothing like an economic crisis to get virtual as the first choice for new servers! My work also put in new security software that blocks many blog sites while others it allows..which has really been a pain. Then I remembered I could post via email..so I am back online again.

 

Thanks for visiting my blog. Stay tuned..we have a lot of catching up to do!!

 

VKernel releases Capacity Tool for FREE:

VKernel Corporation, a provider of powerful, easy-to-use, and affordable virtualization management and optimization software, is making perpetual licenses of its Capacity Modeler software for VMware completely free until December 31, 2009. VKernel Capacity Modeler is a free alternative to the expensive VMware vCenter CapacityIQ and can be downloaded at http://www.vkernel.com/free

2 Chances to pass VCP410 Exam by Dec 31, 2009:

If your looking to update your VCP certification to vSphere level you get a free 2nd chance if you fail the first time until Dec 31, 2009. See this link for more info.

Workstation 7 Release Candidate Available!

Download it http://communities.vmware.com/community/beta/workstation

HOT NEWS: vSphere Enterprise Edition not going away!

I just learned from the VMGUY that VMware has reversed it's decision to remove the Enterprise Edition of vSphere as a purchase at the end of this year. This is great news and discountinuing the Enterprise version was forcing corporate customers with maintenance contracts to upgrade to Enterprise Plus (a lot of unexpected costs) in order to maintain consistency.

VMworld 2009 Boot Camp Surprise:

VMware is an awesome company. As I reported earlier, the boot camp had some major technical issues. I received this email today from VMware:

"Thank you for attending the invitation only vSphere Bootcamp on Sunday, August 30th. We realize your experience was not optimal due to system issues. As a valued VMware customer, we would like to offer you a complimentary pass to VMworld 2010, August 30 – September 2 . You’ll automatically receive an email early next year with details on how to register but please keep this email as your reference."

Now that is a company standing behind their VMorld experience! AWESOME!

Hats off to you VMware for making VMworld THE VIRTUALIZATION event to attend!

VMworld 2009: Wednesday: General Session: 

Steve takes the stage, VMware view people centric, not device centric. Large movement to this..and focus area. Efficiency and centralized management, and user experience are key.

vSphere right place to run this:
commonality, security (VMsafe), Availability, Efficiency
centralized image and policy managment
decomposition to shar image, simplify patching

storage concerns, iscsi and thin provisioning help. 


Announcing RTO virtual profiles


User experience, three main areas: wan, lan, local. Rich portable desktop. Leverage the media hardware. Same image, same policies. 
PCOIP shipping later in the year. option to use hardware acceleration...software only solution shipping as well. 
IT give the IT approved DVD for laptop, with policy, bare metal virtulization corportate-owned IT. 
demo that was very impressive..and iphone to access your desktop

Mobile phone virtualization: mobile becoming a personal computer.  Gives device freedom, work approved vphone. application freedom, one device to run all different 
nice demo

Cloud discussion: building a colleciton of resources to combine and build the software mainframe. Giant computer, 6 year anniversary of vmotion. a lot of maturity, breadth, automated usage.
Dec 2003, 359 million vmotions customers have used...admin saving  459 million,, marriage saved 74
network vmotion- may 2009, long distance vmotion. Break ties to anything physical.


DRS gave 40% better performance to sql workload as more workloads caused imbalance.
DRS to include IO.
Saving power. Constant server degrag in the datacenter. Explains DPM. Early reports 20% power savings. 


Control..making admin jobs easier.
Appspeed: how is my application performing...auto discover topology, physical tiers as well. Finger of blame. 
vapp..it service policy descriptor, single unit, giving it SLA definitions. 
vmsafe discussion, vapp can assisgn a security level.
configcontrol demo, database of all changes across multiple vcenters.


VMware lab manager self service portals...VMware will be creating more of these. Let the customer help themselves...more announcements coming.


cool info about vmworld setup  power savings...provide numbers


cloud discussion. clouds can be SRM. 
Long distance vmotion, two vendors mentioned that have solutions now (cisco and f5).
shows announced vendor working in the cloud and standards has been submitted.


vapp: applications is what it is all about. 
vsphere gives the infrastructure, application can be combined with the infrastructure. 
policy, scale on demand, visibility.
consumer wants an application that works.


springsource discussion...and a demo showing how the app is not tied to the hardware or OS...very interesting...uses a springsource foundry.

VMworld 2009: Tuesday: General Session:


Todd Neilson takes the stage, 96% fortune 1000 use VMware. who are not using it? thank vendors, 12,488 attendees this year, goal energize the business via IT , spend more on innovation and less on maintenance,
video..customer testimonials,

Paul Maritz, CEO takes the stage, hunger to get to a world stable, on demand, standards, scalable, easier to expand; we have pillars of complexity but secure and understood. vitualization is the answer because of encapsulation, whether via VMware of others.

server consolidate= capital savings, then clouds (internal or external), big advantages environment becomes easier to manage, automate operations, business agility

vSphere a major release, 1,500 engineers, larger effort than any effort for windows when Paul was at Microsoft.  "Continuously defraging the datacenter"! Storage one of the biggest costs in a datacenter. Thin provisioning will help with this. ALL servers should be virtualized. The most demanding applications. 350,000 iops a sec, entire processing of Visa. Networking important to work closer with as we move everything around in the datacenter.

Enhance availability, FT, storage vmotion, security industry-they need to become virtualized as well.

Can only do this by working with others in the industry. Certified for vSphere 1000 servers, storage devices, 300 network devices, and high level integrated parts in vSphere.

vsphere downloads, 357,151

virtualization journey goals
1. management tools, it can work with other products in the environment, into and out of vc,
      ibm demo, power info sent between ibm and vc and vc and IBM tools
      3650 M2, showing esx 4.1, IBM and vc lowered the power when not needed, then demo showing vc         providing info to ibm tool,
new management products:
capacity configuration, operations scheduling, SRM
plus: act more like clound operator internally,
service profile,service catelog, chargeback, app provisioning, app scheduling.
lab manager demo using linked clones, from single snapshot
charegeback demo, assigned costs to metrics, disk, cpu, etc.

IT in a BOX, vsphere essentials, $166 per proc.
Free ESXi


2. vCloud experience: work with service provider community. key step, new top level concept, virtual datacenters management, work with service provider community---slide a virtual datacenter into a cloud, management looks the same. working with third parties, introduced VMWARE VIRTUALIZED logo to identify them, 100 service providers last year now 1000 have signed up.
vcloud express announced new program,, time and price oriented. fast and cost effective.
vcloud express demo, terremark, impressive easy ordering process for a new server from the cloud.
announce vcloud API, submitting to make open standard

3. desktops, goal to manage users, not devices, million desktops so far, security concerned companies adopted so far (health care listed),
HP comes to stage, Steve dupree, blades, iscsi internal to blade, using lefthand for the storage, hp announcing,be in the fall, kick the tires..see it in the booth,,,HP keynote. hp annoucement supersession 135 insight plugin for vc that allows blade management and info inside of vc..nice!
PCoIP demo with telus.

4. what applications are doing, spring source aquisition, merging in as a division into vmware.
answer, virtualization+lightweight framworks=radical simplifcation
apps, spring/grails frameworks
50% of new java work with done with this product
can put on top of  oracle, IBM, Jboss,

VMworld 2009: Monday: LAB Day: 

I attended LAB02: SRM Advanced operations and this lab went very well. We had some lecture, a three section lab and some troubleshooting to do as part of the lab experience (on purpose).

Lunch was supposed to be provided for lab attendees but they quckly went through 700 lunch boxes and there were a lot of people that missed out on getting a lunch. Rather dissaointing.

Next I headed over to the self-paced labs where you get more hands-on experience and using the product. The menu of available labs was very impressive. Unfortunately, technical issues continued to plague VMworld this year. The self-paced labs were to originally start at 7:30am but were delayed several times and eventually didn't get started until 2pm in the afternoon, with a limited selection of labs. The concept was rather impressive they were doing, as you selected your lab it generated your lab environment for you on the fly via some hooks into Lab Manager.

Next up was the vendor reception that opened at 5:30pm - 8:00pm and this really went great . There were tons of vendors and a mob of VMworld attendees to look at their products. Of course there was also the usual beverage and food.

Overall..day 2 was fun and full of good learning.

Get your vCalendar:

vCalendar is a collection of VMware virtualization facts, tips, best practices, configuration maximums, and historical events delivered to your desktop daily. vCalendar was authored by virtualization virtuoso and Senior Systems Engineer Jason Boche.

http://www.boche.net/blog/index.php/2009/08/19/vcalendar-launch/

VReference Card for vSphere 4:

Forbes Guthrie has done it again and built a new reference card around the vSphere product.


http://www.vreference.com/vsphere4-card/

VMworld 09: Boot Camp: Sunday Review:

Before I say more I want to thank the LAB Team and VMware for putting together this VERY special opportunity of ALL day lab like this. The task of creating the environment for a LAB session of this size is amazing and the man power that was behind trying to pull it off.

That said, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. We didn't get to start any LAB work until about 2:30 in the afternoon, and only a few teams actually were able to complete an actual upgrade. But it wasn't a total wash. We had some good powerpoint material and all got to bond and ask questions and really get some good information that will help I think overall down the road with people moving to vSphere 4.

The vSphere upgrade/migration, we were told, is about 75% strategy/25% tactical compared to the focus in past migrations being more tactical.

You have three choices, update manager upgrade, clean install, or host update utility. There is so much changed between ESX 3.5 and vSphere 4, I think a clean environment build that you migrate too is the best option. Especially with the COS (if you are going to keep it around with VMware telling you that you should be moving away from it) being a virtual machine that has to be placed properly on local VMFS or a NON-shared SAN LUN.

Again LAB team we applaud your effort and look forward to a reunion at the next VMworld on your next LAB like this (just please announce it before we get our flights arranged next time).

VMworld 09: BOOT CAMP-Sunday:

Ok, up early and the first to register at the Marriott 7am registration. Minimal material is given out (Badge and program guide), have to get the other material later at Moscone Center. But that is fine...cause we have a very FULL day on instructor LAB today from 8:30 - 6:30 pm. Going to be a long but fun day!

More later...

I will be Blogging from VMworld 2009!

This is my 4th VMworld event and I am very excited. VMware just has an awesome product line and vSphere 4 raises the bar even higher!

If your looking for some links with coverage from VMworld you can get everything right here:
http://vsphere-land.com/category/vmworld-2009

But stay tuned right here for my own little perspective on the event.
Here is my schedule...and YES that is an ALL DAY Sunday LAB event with vSphere 4 for no extra charge!

Sunday 8:30 AM-6:30 PM-VMBC1000 Bootcamp VMware vSphere 4 Upgrade Boot Camp
Monday 10:00 AM-12:00 PM LAB02 VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager - Advanced Operations
Tuesday 9:30 AM-11:00 AM BC1500 vCenter Site Recovery Manager "Up and Running" - Best Practices & Avoiding the Pitfalls
11:00 AM-12:00 PM TA4940 Navigating the Cloud: IT Management Challenges and Opportunities
1:00 PM-2:00 PM BC3086 A Practical Guide for Recovering Key Applications Using VMware Site Recovery Manager
2:30 PM-3:30 PM BC3197 High Availability - Internals and Best Practices
4:00 PM-5:30 PM TA4060 The Path to COS-less ESX: Migrating Server Operations from ESX to ESXi
6:00 PM-7:30 PM BC3301 DR Architecture Design Workshop with SRM
Wednesday 9:30 AM-11:30 AM LAB09 VMware vCenter AppSpeed
12:00 PM-1:30 PM VM1700 vApps and advanced VM templates in vSphere 4
2:30 PM-3:30 PM TA2405 Best Practices for Virtualization Security
4:30 PM-5:30 PM TA3105 Long Distance VMotion
Thursday 9:30 AM-11:00 AM TA3603 Getting The Most Out Of VMotion: EVC, Performance Tuning, and Troubleshooting
11:30 AM-12:30 PM TA2731 Tips for Planning and Upgrading to vSphere 4
1:00 PM-2:00 PM VM2408 Tech Preview: VMware vCenter ConfigControl
3:00 PM-4:00 PM TA3045 Implementing VMware vSphere 4.0 with HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology
4:00 PM-5:30 PM TA2963 ESXtop for Advanced Users

Lots of VMWorld material open to public:

All the following are now free for viewing:
VMworld Europe 2009
VMworld 2008
VMworld Europe 2008
VMworld 2007
VMworld 2006
VMworld 2005
VMworld 2004

RTFM-Free vSphere Training Videos:

My good buddy Mike, author of many VMware guides, Books, and overall my hero in virtualization, has done it again with some very nice free training videos on vSphere 4.

Check it out.

Chapter01: Part 01: Install ESX4 Classic
Chapter01: Part 02: Create a VM and Install Windows/VMware Tools
Chapter01: Part 03: Clone a VM from the Command-Line
Chapter02: Part 01: Install SQL 2005 Ready for vCenter and Update Manager
Chapter02: Part 02: Install vCenter4
Chapter02: Part 03: Licensing, Creating vCenter Objects, and Adding ESX hosts
Chapter02: Part 04: Install ESXi and Adding to vCenter
Chapter03: Part 01: Standard vSwitches
Chapter03: Part 02: Standard vSwitches Settings
Chapter03: Part 01: Distributed vSwitches
Chapter04: Part 01: Fibre-Channel SAN and VMFS
Chapter04: Part 02: VMFS Volume Grow & VMFS Extents
Chapter04: Part 03: VMware Software iSCSI Configuration
Chapter04: Part 03: NAS and NFS Storage
Chapter05: Part 01: Creating a Template amd Deploy from a Template
Chapter05: Part 02: Managing the VM
Increasing the size of virtual disks, hot-add of disks, Raw-Device Mappings (RDMs)
Setting a Static MAC Address
Enabling advanced features (Hot-add RAM/CPU,NPIV, ParaVirtualization, MMU)
Setting a boot delay
Virtualize ESX!

VMWorld 2009 Boot Camp:

I received special notice about an ALL day vSphere LAB Boot Camp opportunity and I am happy to say I made the 190 person cut-off.

More info is located here:
http://www.vmworld.com/community/conferences/2009/agenda/bootcamp;jsessionid=ACD43B4889B98045533C8EDAD0651EC5

VCP 4/Enterprise Admin Practice/Example/Study Exams:

I learned about this orginally from ntpro.nil.

Good discussion is here.

vcp4 study guide:
http://www.simonlong.co.uk/blog/vcp-vsphere-upgrade-study-notes/

vcp4 practice exams:
http://www.simonlong.co.uk/blog/vcp-vsphere-4-practice-exam/

Enterprise Admin Mock exam:
http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrSurvey/assessLogin.cfm?item=11292&user=9223&refer=0&p=0&ui=Full

Enterprise Admin Exam Lab activity demo:
http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-10386

VMworld 2009 Schedule Builder is OPEN!

https://vmworld2009.wingateweb.com/scheduler/catalog/catalog.jsp

Run ESX 4 Lab Inside ESX 4:

Okay, we have all heard we can do this in Vmware Workstation. But I was shocked and excited to learn from vcritcal.com we now can do this inside ESX 4!

Awesome!

vSphere Evaluators Guide:

Good info for newbies and seasoned professionals.

Direct link to guide

vSphere-land origincal info on this.

VMware Data Recovery-Dedupe Store Setup:

Check out this excellent guide on this topic.

http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1551

NEW Enterprise Plus Upgrade 2 Month SnS Option:

All credit for this goes to vwaretips.com at this link:
http://vmwaretips.com/wp/2009/06/25/vmware-vsphere-4-enterprise-plus-2-month-sns/

This can be an excellent cost savings move for enterprises that need to move up to enterprise plus licensing in order to keep consistency in your enterprise licensing model (since the enterprise version goes away after this year as a purchase option).

Instead of paying $800 some dollars per proc for enterprise plus licences per proc, you can pay only $145, which is good for two months. Then your current enterprise SnS are automatically upgraded to the enterprise plus level at a prorated value of .8226. See your VMware reseller for more!

Best TOP 10 LISTs I have seen:

http://vsphere-land.com/category/top-10-list

Top 10 must read VMware vSphere stuff:

http://vsphere-land.com/top-10-list/top-10-things-you-must-read-about-vmware-vsphere.html

Microsoft SVVP Certifications for vSphere:

See the original info and more details here:
http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/06/24/svvp-certifications-for-vmware-vsphere/


VMware has completed SVVP certifcations on these editions:
· VMware vSphere 4.0 (ESX 4.0 and ESXi 4.0)
· VMware ESX 3.5 Update 4
· VMware ESXi 3.5 Update 4
· VMware ESX 3.5 Update 3
· VMware ESXi 3.5 Update 3
· VMware ESX 3.5 Update 2

VMotion Between Data Centers!

A Cisco and VMware proof of concept. More info at CICSO LIVE and VMworld 2009.

http://blogs.vmware.com/networking/2009/06/vmotion-between-data-centersa-vmware-and-cisco-proof-of-concept.html

Killing a stuck VM on vSphere Host:

Nice discussion on how to do this now in vSphere.

http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/virtualization-pro/killing-a-frozen-vm-on-a-vsphere-esx-host/

EMC Virtual Center Plugins you Need:

http://www.mikedipetrillo.com/mikedvirtualization/2009/04/3-emc-plugins-for-vmware-vcenter.html

Free vSphere Upgrade Training Video:

http://www.mikedipetrillo.com/mikedvirtualization/2009/04/time-to-upgrade.html

VMworld 2009 Sponsors/Exhibitors:

http://www.vmworld.com/community/conferences/2009/sponsors-exhibitors

VMworld 2009 Content Catalog Open for Viewing:

http://www.vmworld.com/blogs/vmworld/2009/06/26/vmworld-2009-content-catalog

PreOrder Windows 7 for $99 June 26, 2009!!!:

Special pricing for a limited time: Read more:
Buy Windows 7 Professional for $99 tomorrow !!!

Be sure to read the fine print at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy/offers/pre-order.aspx. As you can see from that page, “The offer begins on June 26, 2009 and will continue while supplies last, or until July 11, 2009, whichever comes first.”

ESX 4 Web Access Disabled by default:

Check out this link...very helpful it you use that feature.

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/06/15/esx-4-0-web-access/

Very Helpful Storage Discussion:

http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2009/06/vmware-io-queues-micro-bursting-and-multipathing.html

If little too deep..just skip to the bottom for the TAKEAWAYS section.

Starwind's Free new V2V Conversion tool:

Starwind, the company with the free ISCSI Windows solution for VMware, Microsoft, and Citrix environments, has also just released a new conversion tool.

The tool allows VHD to VMDK and vise versa conversions, as well as direct conversion to the IMG ISCSI format.

Great vSphere 4 best Practice Guides:

http://vmetc.com/2009/05/24/vsphere-40-best-practices/

• Installing ESX 4.0 and vCenter 4.0 best practices
• Upgrading to ESX 4.0 and vCenter 4.0 best practices
• vCenter Server Installation Worksheet
• Upgrading an ESX 3.x virtual machine to ESX 4.0

Great vSphere information Links:

http://vsphere-land.com/news/vsphere-the-missing-links-every-vsphere-link-you-need-to-get-started.html
http://vsphere-land.com/news/some-must-read-vsphere-kb-articles.html
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/04/21/vsphere-linkage/
http://vmware.com/products/vsphere/upgrade-center/licensing.html
http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/vsphere

vSphere is again the next revolutionary step in virtualization again led by VMware. Get involved now and learn more!

Windows 7 RC Fix for Running on ESX 3.5:

If your trying to make this available on the current ESX 3.5 update 3 or older you may find the sysprep function will crash (c:\windows\system32\sysprep).

I opened a thread on VMTN and a solution is to stop or disable the "Windows Media player Network Sharing Service".

Set the OS for the virtual machine to Vista for now.

vSphere Launch Screen Saver:

Get it here!

VMware vSphere Podcasts:

www.ntpro.nl has a very nice list of podcasts I think you will want to hear.

What's New in VMware vSphere Part 1: Overview

What's New in VMware vSphere Part 2: vSphere Editions

What's New in VMware vSphere Part 3: Platform Efficiency and Performance

What's New in VMware vSphere Part 4: Hardware and Power Efficiency

What's New in VMware vSphere Part 5: Operational Efficiency and Network Management

What's New in VMware vSphere Part 6: Control of Application Availability

What's New in VMware vSphere Part 7: Control of Application Security

What's New in VMware vSphere Part 8: Control of Application SLAs

VMware vSphere 4 Live Event News today!

WOW. What an exciting day and lots of blogging going on as those of us VMware professionals have been doing Virtualization for over 9 years. We welcome those of you just getting started!

Here are some links summarizing many announcements today. It appears vSphere will be available for order May 21, 2009.

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/04/21/vsphere-linkage/
http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?p=1199
vpc certification news: http://www.van-lieshout.com/2009/03/new-vmware-certifications/

Pricing:

http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vsphere-launch.html
http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/buy/overview.html

VMware Forums and training material:
http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/vsphere
http://www.vmware.com/a/webcasts/index/program/179617

VMware Upgrade Center:
http://vmware.com/products/vsphere/upgrade-center/licensing.html

Vmotion Compatibility Chart:

Very nice chart complied by Dell on the different processors and Vmotion Compatibility.

I originally learned about this from vmetc.com.

Download the chart!

Hyper-V Real-World Technet Suggestions:

Trying not to get into all the bashing back and forth..but I think you might find Microsoft's own documents revealing.

http://vinternals.com/2009/04/microsoft-myths-and-realities/

VMware ESX Networking/Vswitch Explained:

Some really good articles covering how all the networking works inside of ESX. '
Really good reading for review or for those new to ESX and virtual worlds! Also a new and great blog site http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/.

http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/the-great-vswitch-debate-part-1

http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/the-great-vswitch-debate-part-2

http://kensvirtualreality.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/the-great-vswitch-debate-part-3

VMware licenses cover up to 6 cores per Socket:

Just saw this original article searchvirtualization.com.

And VMware's official announcement.

How does VMware license its products for dual- quad- and hexa-core systems?

VMware licenses its server products on a per processor basis. As of the Effective Date referenced above, processor is defined as a single physical chip that contains no more than six processor cores.

vSphere (ESX 4) Launch set for April 21:



Searchvirtualization is reporting the launch of the next game changing revolution in Virtualization by VMware is scheduled for April 21.



I am very excited about the features in this next release and have been involved with the beta of the product, but not commented due to NDA rules.


The article seems to indicate many are not aware of the new features. If you are in that boat I can't stress the importance of attending VMworld and your local VMware User Groups to keep up on all the news.


This new release is guaranteed to rock the virtualization industry!

VMware vCenter Converter 4 Officially Released for FREE!

Get it now !

Great VI3 Networking Diagram:

Original info was here. Get the diagrams here.

VMGuru Releasing 4 FREE Chapters of VI3 book today!

Yes, in these hard economic times it's nice to see my hero's in the virtualization world doing this. Of course you should still buy the book, it is GREAT. But it is also nice to have PDFs for quick searches.

More info here.
Buy the book here
Original knowledge of this came from here

Increase Simultanious Vmotions:

Very intesting information on a tweak to accomplish this along with results in time savings and network activity.

See the original article.

Microsoft SVVP Certification levels for VMware exceed all other competitive Hypervisors:

"These new configurations now allow full Microsoft SVVP support for maximum VM sizes on VMware’s platform. They also exceed all other competitive hypervisor certification levels. Kudos to the team at VMware for the hard work on these certification tests as well as to Microsoft for a great certification and support program."

Read the original full article http://www.mikedipetrillo.com.

VMware New Products and Features coming in 2009:

Click the links to learn more:


VMware Fault Tolerance
VMware VMSafe
VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch
VMware vCenter CapacityIQ
VMware vCenter Data Recovery
VMware vCenter ConfigControl
VMware vCenter Orchestrator
VMware vCenter Chargeback
VMware vCenter AppSpeed (formerly B-hive Conductor)
3rd Party Virtual Switch
vStorage Thin Provisioning @ Linked Clones
VMDirectPath

Best 3 upcoming features from VMware in 2009 poll:

Be sure the visit this great blog and answer the poll (and see the results):

http://vmguy.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/453

VMconverter does Multi-Vendor V2V conversions:

This was an awesome tip from the great VMETC.COM blog!
See this link for the full article!

ESX 2.x
ESX 3.x / ESXi 3.x
Virtual Server 1.x or 2.x
Hyper-V
XenServer
any of the hosted desktop products including (but not limited to) VMware Workstation and Fusion, Microsoft Virtual PC, and Sun xVM VirtualBox.

All that needs to be done is install VMware Converter directly on the VM’s operating system, and then make sure that the source VM has network connectivity the target ESX host. Once you’ve worked those hopefully small details out, VMware Converter is basically oblivious to the fact that the source is not physical hardware and conducts the migration as if it was a p2v. Just choose “physical machine” and “this local machine” as the source type options when configuring an “Import Machine” Converter job.

Interpreting ESXTOP Statistics:

VMware has just released a very nice paper of Interpreting ESXTOP Statistics. ESXTOP is used from the console OS and if often overlooked as a extremely valuable tool. There was an excellent session on this topic at VMworld 2008 that really needed to be two hours in length..but this document looks very nice...so get it now!

Credit for this information goes to: http://ict-freak.nl/2009/01/04/vmware-interpreting-esxtop-statistics/

or the direct link is here.