Plain Virtualization

For some of you, you might know I have attempted VCDX defences couple of times and none was a success and after my last attempt recently I have decided to stop doing it.  The reason was not I given up hope, perhaps I have lost more touch toward post sales consulting where I used to do it and feel different from to what I am doing as a Presales.  As all my attempts were submitted with vSphere 4 design which has retired since the last defense, I have no confident in doing a brand new frictional design based on vSphere 5.  Also I can feel the way I perform during defense versus how I face customer were completely difference.  I just cannot bring myself to be the same in a defense environment and felt the different when I did it with real customers perhaps the environment was just different. The purpose of this article would to share all my 3 attempts and the experience I have gained and each time I always feel I could do better and, Yes I can really do better but it'...

I am been called up today on my off day but am not complaining.  It got be to refer to my own post awhile back here in August after VMworld 2012 on the licensing on vSphere 4.x. VMware actually updated the EULA on multi-core licensing and pricing which you can refer here .  This has been quite while back. There is no reason why anyone would still insist to setup a new vSphere environment based on vSphere 4.x with all the limitation and functions set. I think the new EULA multi-core policy would explain for those who are still using vSphere 4 and have a new hardware which exceed your vSphere 4.x edition license entitlement which is pretty common having that most of them are 8 cores and above now. The policy give you a very good example.  I share just explain this with one scenario I was asked today. I have purchased 4 x vSphere 5.x Enterprise Licenses for a server with 4 CPU of 8 cores each.  I downgrade them to vSphere 4.x Enterprise.  So vSphere 4.x...

Once again, I have just learned about iSCSI Multipathing and tested it out in my home lab using a openfiler as my iSCSI virtual SAN and with nested ESX 4.1 and ESXi 5.0. Reason why I taken such a combination of different Hypervisor is to show how this can be done.  In vSphere 5, where ESXi 5.0, there is a GUI to perform the MPIO binding unlike in vSphere 4.x, this has to be done via the command line.  Even changing the MTU value has been made easy in vSphere 5. You can also do a load balance by changing the path selection to round robin. vSphere 5 vSphere 4 Update : After setting up the mutipath, reboot the esx host and the path would be shown correct. iSCSI binding Commands Changing a vSwitch with MTU 9000 (Optional) >esxcfg-vswitch -m 9000 vSwitch0 Add a vmknic to a port group with MTU 9000 >esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 172.16.200.91 -n 255.255.255.0 -m 9000 "Port Group" Where port group is the name of the port group. To view your ...

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 ...

Many have asked me whether if a cluster can be mixed with different versions of ESX/ESXi servers.  The answer is yes even down to ESX/ESXi 3.5, however for version 3.5, you would need to cater the legacy license server.  Please refer to the documentation here . Here is a demo of a setup I did with ESX 4.1 and ESXi 5.0 in the same cluster with HA and DRS enabled managed using a vCenter 5.0. Please note that upgrading VMware Tools to the latest version will still be supported on lower version of ESX/ESXi servers as it only update the OS drivers.  However, upgrading the virtual hardware will only allow it to be supported on the latest ESXi server. In such, that in consideration when doing your migration and upgrading of your vSphere environment and perform the virtual hardware upgrade last if possible unless you have enough resources to cater for your HA. Update 19th Apr 2013 Refresh the video as first half has missing audio.

I have got the chance to play with vSphere 5 RTM release and rather than going through all the new features that can be found on VMware TV in youTube, I shall find some common features that are on both release and see the differences. HA Admission Control Policy vSphere 4 The Admission Control Policy for vSphere 4 as shown on the left in the percentage of cluster resources is fixed and irregardless of CPU or Memory the percentage is applied for both. vSphere 5 In vSphere 5, notice that the percentage has be split out to memory and CPU. This updated percentage options, helps eliminate when you have like to specific different amount for CPU and memory with different tolerance. Virtual Machines Options vSphere 4 In the Virtual Machine Options, in was leave VM shutdown as the default value whenever Host Isolation is detected. Many of my customers actually thought this was the default value recommended by VMware and leave it as it is howeve...