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...

This is happening to many customers and it seems to be happening on several new models of servers typically most heard on IBM System x M4 series of servers and some Dell ones as well . Did some internet searching however none gave much resolution but refer to resolution for white boxes. These servers must be also be listed in VMware supported list of hardware here . Below are the two common problems identified: Problem 1 "Loading /imgpayld.tgz Relocating the modules and starting the kernel..." Resolution: Make sure all firmware including BIOS is updated.  In this scenario, BIOS firmware was updated and installation was successful.  Seems like this was due to the UEFI used on IBM servers need to be updated.  Do find out from your respective vendor on the latest supported firmware. Problem 2 "Loading /imgpayld.tgz Multiboot could not setup the video subsystem. Relocating the modules and starting the kernel..." Resolution: This is a strange...

Decided to write a post on this as I receive just too times the questions from different customers due to the confusion. Say if you are using a free edition of the vSphere Hypervisor or you are on any purhcased editions of vSphere, and you like to licensed it or upgrade to the next edition.  Now you have the new license key what do you do? This is the most asked question: 1. Do I need to reinstall the ESXi server applying a new license key? Answer is No.  You just need to either go to the Hypervisor via the vSphere client, select the host and on the right under the Configuration Tab and choose Licensed Features.  Click on Edit and enter your serial key.  Alternative if  you have a vCenter, just select Home>Administration>Licensing and choose Manage vSphere Licenses.  The features of the edition you have purchased or licensed will be activated and shown. 2. Can vSphere 5.0 serial keys work in vSphere 5.1? Answer is Yes.  All vSphere...

Decide to start a new chain of post on articles and reference done by various expert that I refer to and read about which might be good to take note of. I will be updating this post as often as possible and updating the date so it will be the first post whenever I update it. For those who are into know more on planning for DRS and Availability I would strongly encourage that you read about the VMware vSphere 5 Clustering technical deepdive. Storage DRS Have datastore clean formatted as VMFS 5 datastores.  This does not just helps but it will also put the load when perform any storage activities like Storage DRS, Storage vMotion to the storage subsystem if VAAI is supported.  Having upgrade the datastore from VMFS 3, would still result in sub-block sizes especially if there are not formatted using 1MB blocksize which is standardize in vSphere 5.  In such, the lod legacy datamover (FSDM) will be use which slow down such activities and making benefits from Storage ...

The vSphere 5.0 migration white paper and the tools are here to help our existing customers migrate to vSphere 5.0 or ESXi from their existing deployments. DB checker tool: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2004286 Upgrade center http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/upgrade-center/upgrade.html Upgrade guide to ESXi 5.0 http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMware-vSphere-50-Upgrade-Best-Practices-Technical-White-Paper.pdf Upgrade checklist to ESXi 5.0 http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMware-vSphere-50-Upgrade-Checklists.pdf Thanks to Akhilesh Dhawan from VMware for sharing this.

vSphere 5 has just launched and there are many who are concern on the performance tuning and various enhancements which are not really mentioned. I will not go into details but rather place some of the good white papers that most of us might be interested in. Do note of this WARNING when managing Hybrid environment ESXi 4.0 U2 not compatible with vCenter Server 5.0 When attempting to manage an ESXi 4.0 Update 2 host with vCenter Server 5.0, a purple diagnostics screen appears. To workaround the issue, upgrade ESXi 4.0 Update 2 hosts to ESXi 4.0 Update 3 or later, prior to upgrading vCenter Server to 5.0. For more information, see the article linked below. Article 2007269 Performance vSphere High Availability Deployment Best Practices Storage vMotion of a Virtualized SQL Server Database Best Practices for Performance Tuning of Latency-Sens...

I was trying to find any article or videos or any help of steps or guide when I encounter setting up of the SQL database for vCenter 5.  I was surprise there wasn't much around.  The closest I got was from Jason Boche . I mean if I were to just assigned DBO to both MSDN and the vCenter DB for the easy way out.  However as security and user rights has become a concern at many customers' requirement.  I tried going through the installation guide to setup database with just enough rights but no DBO. The bad thing is its a lot of work to do it manually following the guide.  The good news is VMware has provided the script however some work need to be done to customize to your own needs. Here my setup is on Windows 2008 R2 with SQL Server 2008 R2. For MSDB, you can assign the DBO directly instead and remove it after installing vCenter and Update Manager.  Yes you hear me.  Do not remove the DBO rights on the vCenter user till you are done wit...

Finally I have save this post as a draft for the longest time exactly a month and finally find some time to do this. Have gone through lots of reading of the deployment of View 5.  It almost similar with View 4.6 except for the Persona Management which I was very keen to try it out. The View Administration for View 5 is a must read to understand the Personal Management and also the VMware View Persona Management Deployment Guide . If  you are already using Roaming Profile, you can carry on using it with Persona Management turn on working together leaving the depository stick with what is already configured in your Roaming Profiles. Persona Management will supercede Roaming Profile if you assign a depository path in the group policy.  Honestly I would like ease of work and administration here and will use everything from Persona Management instead. When doing sizing, if performance is what you are looking for, even with Persona Management or with Roam...

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 ...

The below is a good comparison of Hyper-V Live Migration versus vMotion.  Wiht multiple nics supported for vMotion in vSphere 5 its no longer a constraint. Performance of vMotion comparison with Hyper-V Live Migration: Virtual Reality With the new vSphere 5, multiple nics for VMkernel use for vMotion is possible.  With up to 16 nics for 1GE links and up to 4 for 10GE links. Sadly I am unable to do a demo for this on my home lab since where on earth can I get 10GE link.  But anyway, I would like to point out certain consideration when planning for vMotion with such links. For 1 GE links, you can bundle up mutiple port groups for vMotion.  I was totally confused for this and after watching this video I got a clearer picture however my next question arised. How many port groups of vMotion can I create?  Well the answer is simple up to 16.  I was still not really clear so does it tally with the nics used? Ok here is the simple explanation if you w...

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.

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

So you have been running the evaluation license.  The evaluation period would be 60 days for ESXi server and 30 days for vCenter. Say you like to run on evaluation while getting your license and you couldn't get the license in time and 30 days has reached and your vCenter is expired. What happens after the evaluation period? I did a test and these are my findings. vCenter remain to be operational. All features are still enabled. You will receive a notice below once in awhile. Any action that result in disconnection of the ESXi servers will not be able to join back to vCenter e.g. reboot of ESXi server.  A direct connection using vSphere client is required to manage the VMs on the host. Any changes in configuration will not be possible and can cause any licensed functions not to function. Powered Off VMs cannot be power on.  Refer to KB . In summary, after license expired, all operations remains as it is and no changes even with simple things like power on ...

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.

VMware Blogs actually have a 4 parts series on the Storage features in vSphere 5. Was reading up the VAAI thin provisioning alert and reclaimation and the differences on VMFS volumes and guest portion have me came across this article by Hitachi. It explain in very simple terms which I felt was good to understand.  Those who are not as storage trained like myself would appreciate this portion. Just to recap where we are in the lifecycle of VAAI, vSphere 4.1 introduced three primitives: XCOPY, ATS (Atomic Test & Set) & WRITESAME. vSphere 5.0 adds two new primitives: Thin Provisioning-STUN (TP-STUN) and UNMAP, bringing us to a total of 5 primitives. Here is more detail about these new primitives and what they mean to the VMware & storage admins: Thin Provisioning STUN – This is an Error Code to report “Out of Space” for a thin volume. If a storage array supports this SCSI command, then when a datastore reaches 100% capacity and any of the VM’s requir...

While I was reading up the vSphere 5 Clustering Technical Deep Dive book by Duncan Epping and Frank Denneman, I came across this section which took me to awhile to understand the calculation for the math part. This section on memory share which has been changed in vSphere 5 which is also written in Frank Denneman, Mem.MinFreePct sliding scale function. The example is as below: Let’s use an example to explore the savings of the sliding scale technique. On a server configured with 96GB RAM, the MinFreePct threshold will be set at 1597.6MB, opposed to 5898.24MB if 6% was used for the complete range 96GB. Free memory state Threshold Range Result High 6% 0-4GB 245.96MB 4% 4-12GB 327.84MB 2% 12-28GB 696.32MB 1% Remaining memory 696.32MB Total High Threshold 1597.60MB I was trying to get the calculation for the Result column and thought to elaborate it on a clearer picture which a believe some are confused like myself. The first 0-4GB wi...

I was reading through this article vMotion Architecture, Performance, and Best Practices in VMware vSphere 5 . I was not aware (perhaps only myself) that ESXi 5 introduces virtual NUMA (vNUMA).  What this means that in terms of performance, the ESXi is able to know which is the most efficient way to access the memory.  This was not possible in ESXi 4.x. On reading further, this brought something to me especially for environment who enable EVC with mixed of hardware differences. ESXi 5 introduces virtual NUMA (vNUMA), which exposes the ESXi host’s NUMA topology to the guest operating systems. When using this feature, apply vMotion to move virtual machines between clusters that are composed of hosts with matching NUMA architectures. This is because the very first time a vNUMA-enabled virtual machine is powered on, its vNUMA topology is set, based in part on the NUMA topology of the underlying physical host on which it is running. After a virtual machine’s vNUMA topology is...

Yes the GA binaries of VMware View 5 is out.  It is also released with workstation 8. From the release notes, it glad to see it is compatible with vSphere 4.0 Update 3 and above. Compatibility Notes VMware View 5.0 is supported on the following versions of vSphere: vSphere 5.0 vSphere 4.1 Update 1 or later vSphere 4.0 Update 3 or later For system requirements, see the VMware View Installation documentation. Reference: http://www.vmware.com/support/view50/doc/view-50-release-notes.htm l The technical documentation can be found here . The binaries can be located here . Will be doing the upgrade on my View 4.6 to 5 on vSphere 4.1.  Will be doing the recording as I try this on the first time tonight. So do look back for the new videos!

I was doing my VCP5 studies and was reading the Installation and Setup Guide and came across the below on Page 62. The boot process proceeds as follows. 1 The administrator reboots the host. 2 As the host boots up, Auto Deploy provisions the host with its image and host profile, which are stored in vCenter Server. 3 Virtual machines are brought up or migrated to the host based on the settings of the host. n Standalone host. Virtual machines are powered on according to autostart rules defined on the host. n DRS cluster host. Virtual machines that were successfully migrated to other hosts stay there. Virtual machines for which no host had enough resources are registered to the rebooted host. If the vCenter Server system is unavailable, the host contacts the Auto Deploy server for image profiles and host profiles and the host reboots. However, Auto Deploy cannot set up vSphere distributed switches if vCenter Server is unavailable, and virtual machines are assigned to hosts only if they ...