Plain Virtualization

Today I have just received my results for my VCAP-DCA. I opened my email  I clicked to open that attached Exam Score Report and I passed this time round!  I am not proud of the score. I was pretty worried as after my examination, I discover I did several stupid things at my lab and one of which did not record down my results which means I have zero marks for it.  Instead of dumping the results to a file I actually missed out just one character and dump to screen and I proceed with the next task. This is a very important lesson learned. Needless say, though I did not score very well but a pass is a pass that was what was once told to me by a VCDX.I wish those who are doing the exam good luck and practice well.  Try to keep a cool mind and not be too anxious like myself. Update Receive my email notification of my certification and I am VCAPDCA-464.

I did a setup of View 5.0 in my environment and have also use the Persona Management with folder redirection.  This demonstration was purely done on my whitebox and an ISP connection of uplink of up to 2Mbps.  The network speed isn't that great however we are able to see the performance. Android View App to View Manager 5.0 Using the new View App version 1.2 which is no longer in Tech Preview, to test out the connection.  Pretty decent within my network. View Client 5.0 to View Manager 5.0 Using my laptop with a View 5.0 client connecting to the View Manager to test out the connection within my network. View Client 5.0 to Security Server 5.0 Connection was done through my 3G connection.  This is an extreme case not because I use 3G but my ISP uplink is only up to 2Mbps.  At the time of recording, I am also sharing with many people in my neighbourhood so this is not a good example.  However with this extreme measure, we ca...

The android view app have been updated to 1.2. I do not see any significant different from the Tech Preview version but I felt connection was faster. Maybe this was psychological. Will post a review on the loading from a View 5.0 performance.

Accordingly to KB2007108 , this causes a delay in ESXi server boot up time. This is due to the cause of each portal will try to connect to the target up to 9 times if it failed to connect, with more portal and more targets, this can result in a long delay. Update: The patch for this issue has been release and a new ESXi 5.0 image is also available.  Please note when downloading you are provided with two different ESXi 5.0 images.  My recommendation is to use the latest though I do not know the reason behind why the previous is still available.

Some you of you might come across when using openfiler like myself of non existing volumes however it is still mapped to the target. Or you wanted to remove those non existing volumes which keep showing in your volumes list. First, to unmap the volumes from your target you have to edit the following file and restart your iSCSI target service. iscsi_settings.xml in:  /opt/openfiler/etc/iscsi/targets remove all ghost target, only from sub tag to tag (included), not then main tag. Secondly, to remove the non existing volumes, my volumes.xml from /opt/openfiler/etc/ The file should look like the below, remove   ... /> for each of your non existing LUN.            

Recently from my previous post, I have upgraded my home lab to VMware View 5.0. Everytime seems working.  For those who ain't aware, my ISP issue dynamic IP.  In such, I created a domain name from dyndns.org. As to match my external IP to my View Security Server with my external dns name, I would need to use a script which was found from the source below. I did some modification to suit my environment and corrected some mistake.  Below is my script. However in View 5.0, it has to be launch using the View PowerCLI and Add-PSSnapin VMware.View.Broker is no long working anymore. (which it did in View 4.6).  This was documented in VMware KB 1034652 . A quick check with the View PowerCLI properties from Start Menu, I realize it is calling a powershell script from C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Server\extras\PowerShell\add-snapin.ps1 so in such I added the change in my script as you can see.  This was documented Now my script is running fine again...

Today I make an attempt to retake my VCAP-DCA.  Yes, the first time I failed by 13 marks as I wasn't prepared enough and as this exam state it is related to Data Center Administrator.  Its more to administrator than a implementer exam (I work as a consultant so daily administration is a problem for me). Beside studying the blueprint, practice is very important.  Luckily for me, I have a whitebox setup with ESXi 4.0 and I was able to test out vMA, VDS, etc.  This flashcard is also very useful. Base on my first experience, I realize I am weak in vicfg commands and as well as performance charting and some hardening/security questions. You will be tested base on ESX/ESXi 4.0 and vMA 4.0.  If you realize that vMA 4.0 and vMA 4.1 there are some changes and commands for e.g. vifptarget does not exist in vMA 4.0. Unlike my first attempt, this time it was very smooth for me and I have my questions answered just in time.  Previously I was rushing the last 10 ...

A friend of mine asked me this question: "Any idea roughly how much IOPS should we estimate for a VM? My estimate is about 400 IOPS per VM – taking physical server for comparison. SAS disk is about 200 IOPS and typically, a server would have 2xHDD for OS, so total IOPS is about 400 IOPS. However, this number can be quite big especially if we have many VMs. I’m now struggling with provisioning more capacity than needed for VMware environment to meet the IOPS requirement. This actually drive up the storage cost." My reply as was follows after a short thinking: Correction. Typically server with RAID 1 does not have 2 x IOPS. It has 1 x IOPS. Its not writing to two HDDs but its mirror to one by the raid controller. Two things to note. Yes take the physical server IOPS using the worse scenario; 1. for database server, 2. for a normal app server. Size two types of datastores, 1. with higher IOPS cater for database; 2. for normal app server. If you can use SSD ...

In the view of the new feature in vSphere 5 on VAAI, the reclaim of space from thin provision datastore whereby a file is deleted from datastore or when a storage vmotion is performed or even a snapshot consolidation.  Performance issue may arise and create error when the above are performed. Details can be found in this blog: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2011/09/vaai-thin-provisioning-block-reclaimunmap-issue.html Knowledge base: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2007427

  Two new white-boxes purchased to add to my current whitebox. Finally I can have a cluster! Am going to try EVC for my Core2Quad box with my new i7 box. Here are the specifications of my new whitebox if you are interested in building one. Note the chipset of the mainboard which is the crucial part whether ESXi can be installed on it. So far I discover P67 chipset seems to be working for all models.  So I bought the Deluxe series as the Evo series was out of supply. I bought my Intel Dual Port from dealextreme.  It took very long to shipped and its not cheap as they are server NICs. Components Parts CPU Intel i7-2600 3.4GHz/8MB/LGA1155 Board Asus P8P67 Deluxe-B3 Memory 4 x Kingston 4GB DDR3 10600/1333 CL9 HDD Western Digital 1TB 64MB Caviar Black SATA 3 NIC Intel Pro 1000/PT Dual Port PCI-E X4 Video Asus EN210 512MB DDR2 HDMI (L/Profile) DVD Samsung SH-S243S 24x ...