VMware: Search the Hardware Compatibility Guide


Jeej, we hoeven niet meer in de pdf’s te zoeken. Sinds kort heeft VMware een zoekfunctie op de site geplaatst.

The new online compatibility guide provides a single point of access for all VMware hardware compatibility guides. The new search tool streamlines the HCL posting process and offers advanced search capabilities and the ability to save the guide(s) or search results in a .PDF or csv format.

The new hardware compatibility guide replaces the following legacy PDF-format HCLs:

    * VMware ESX 3.0.x and above version Systems Compatibility Guide
    * VMware ESX 3.0.x and above version SAN (storage) Compatibility Guide
    * VMware ESX 3.0.x and above version I/O Compatibility Guide
    * VMware View Client Compatibility Guide

 

De Compatibility guide vind je hier:

image

Advertisement

VMware: New product line names vCenter, View


Zoals de meeste mensen misschien al wisten is VMware bezig met het rebranden van haar producten. VirtualCenter en VDM zijn de eerste producten met een nieuwe naam:

VMware VirtualCenter  → VMware vCenter Server
The central management product for VMware Infrastructure
VMware Lifecycle Manager → VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager
Workflow automation product for creation, deployment and decommissioning of virtual machines
VMware Converter → VMware vCenter Converter (for the version integrated into vCenter)
VMware vCenter Converter Standalone (for the separately downloadable version); comes in two flavors: Enterprise and Starter
Physical to virtual (P2V) conversion product
VMware Lab Manager → VMware vCenter Lab Manager
Automation product for application development environments
VMware Stage Manager → VMware vCenter Stage Manager
Automation product for application staging and deployment environments

VMware Update Manager → VMware vCenter Update Manager
Host and virtual machine patch management product integrated with vCenter Server
VMware Site Recovery Manager → VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager
Disaster recovery orchestration product
VirtualCenter Foundation → vCenter Server Foundation
Node limited version of vCenter Server
VMFS → VMware vStorage VMFS
VMware’s cluster file system

VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure → VMware View
VMware’s integrated desktop virtualization solution that delivers enterprise-class control and manageability
Virtual Desktop Manager (VDM) → VMware View Manager
Enterprise class server which manages connections from end points to virtual desktops or hosted desktops while helping rapidly provision desktops

VMware Administrator Interface → VMware View Administrator
Administrator Interface for View Manager
VDM Agent → VMware View Manager Agent
Agent for View Manager to talk to the virtual desktop

VDM Web Access → VMware View Portal
Access to virtual desktops through web browser
VDM Client for Windows → VMware View Client for Windows
Client used to install on Win 32 PC or Win XP embedded thin client to connect to View Manager for virtual desktop access

VDM Client for Linux → VMware View Client for Linux
Client used to install on Linux thin clients to connect to View Manager for virtual desktop access

Bron: http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2008/12/do-they-smell-a.html

Series: Hyper-v, not in my Datacenter part3


Gabrie heeft part3 gepost.

In part 3 of this series, I want to shed a light on the difference between the types of Migration in ESX and Hyper-V and the differences in storage between the both of them. Although I think most of the readers know the differences, I will start with a brief summary.

  • Hyper-V QuickMigration: When you want to move a running Virtual Machine from one host to another with as little downtime as possible, you can use QuickMigration. On host-A the VM will be suspended to disk, and then host-B will unsuspend the VM and run it.
  • Hyper-V & ESX Cold Migration: Moving a VM that is not running, to different host and/or different storage.
  • ESX VMotion: Moving of a running VM to a different host, without downtime.
  • ESX Storage VMotion: Moving the disks of a VM to different storage without downtime (VM doesn’t move).

Lees de rest hier: http://www.gabesvirtualworld.com/?p=107

EMC: Celerra Virtual Appliance and VI3


image

De virtualgeek is bezig met een howto serie over het configureren van de Celerra Virtual Appliance. Deze appliance kun je impoprteren binnen VMware Workstation of ESX server. Hoe dit in zijn werk gaat lees je in de volgende posts:

In de toekomst gaat EMC meer Virtual Appliances aanbieden van haar overige producten. Let wel op deze  appliances zijn alleen bedoeld voor test en studie doeleinden.

VMware heeft ook een document uitgegeven. De pdf kun je hier vinden: VMware_VI3_and_EMC_Celerra_IP.pdf

Series: Hyper-v, not in my Datacenter part2


 

Gabrie heeft Part 2 gepost van zijn serie Hyper-v, not in my Datacenter.

Guest OS

After you installed your hypervisor you want to virtualize your physical servers on it. When doing the research for my presentation I was very surprised to find some strange limitations in which guest are supported with Hyper-V. Can you believe that not all Windows Server versions are supported? Well neither could I.

The guest OS support of Hyper-V:

  • Windows 2000 Server is only supported with SP4 and 1 CPU.
  • Windows 2003 Server is only supported with SP2 and 1 or 2 CPUs.
  • Windows 2008 Server is supported with 1, 2 and 4 CPUs.
  • and there is Linux support for SUSE Linux Server 10 sp1 / sp2 with only 1 CPU.

This does look quite reasonable at first glance, because these are current versions. True, but when looking at the ESX environment I work in now, we would not be able to virtualize as many servers as we have running on ESX right now

Part 2 vind je hier: http://www.gabesvirtualworld.com/?p=104#more-104

Series: Hyper-v, not in my Datacenter part1


image

Gabrie van Zanten (www.gabesvirtualworld.com) is bezig met een serie over Hyper-V, not in my Datacenter.

I’ve written about Hyper-V and ESX is an objective view on how things are at the moment, but still it looks like the only thing I’m doing is Windows-bashing. I decided to dedicate a blog post to it, so everyone can find out for them self if my points are valid. The big question of my presentation is: “Which is better for my datacenter, Hyper-V or ESX?”.
I’m looking at both hypervisors to see which features they have that would make them suited for running in the datacenter discounting nice features that I would rarely use.  Here we go…….

Part 1 kun je hier vinden: http://www.gabesvirtualworld.com/?p=103#more-103.

Uit betrouwbare bron heb ik vernomen, dat morgen Part 2 gepost gaat worden. Dus hou www.gabesvirtualworld.com in de gaten.

VMware: Oh Dear I Lost My Descriptor


Nicolas de Wilde stuurde mij een mailtje met de volgende tip:

Occasionally ESX VMs crash in such a way that the descriptor file of a vmdk gets lost.
If you ever need to recreate a descriptor from scratch but still have the *-flat.vmdk this little tool may come handy.
Tool asks for a flat-file – like used by ESX 3 and Workstation. It ignores the CID and uses a bogus one. Output is named "newdescriptor.vmdk" – rename as needed. Doesn’t work for disks smaller than 1 Gb at the moment.

image

http://sanbarrow.com/moa23/files/oh_dear_I_lost_my_descriptor.zip

 

bron: http://communities.vmware.com/message/1107523#1107523

VMware: Service Console Memory


Als je ESX 3.x standaard installeerd krijgt het Service Console 272 MB geheugen.

image

Via fdisk –l  kun je de partitie informatie opvragen. Zoals je ziet heeft deze ESX server een Swap partitie van 1600MB. 

image

Standaard is de Swap partitie 544MB (2*272mb van het Service Console).  Mocht de swap partitie inderdaad “maar” 544mb groot zijn, dan kun je het geheugen van het Service Console niet verhogen. Hoe je dit verder kan oplossen lees je hier: http://communities.vmware.com/message/685697#685697

Je kunt het gehugen van het Service Console op twee manieren aanpassen, via de de VIC of via de commandline.

Via de VIC

klik op properties.

image

Voer daarna de juiste waarde in (800MB is de max):

image

 

Vanaf het Service Console

Via het onderstaande commando kun je opvragen hoeveel geheugen er voor het Service Console geconfigureerd is.

[root@esxserver root]# cat /etc/vmware/esx.conf | grep -i "memSize"
/boot/memSize = "272"

Als je dit wilt ophogen naar 800MB kun je dat doen via het commando:

vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/memoryinfo 838860800 (http://communities.vmware.com/thread/173359)

Daarna even kijken of de settings is doorgevoerd.

[root@esxserver root]# cat /etc/vmware/esx.conf | grep -i "memSize"
/boot/memSize = "800"

 

Via de VI Toolkit:

$consoleMemMb = 800
Get-VMHost | Get-View | %{(Get-View -Id $_.ConfigManager.MemoryManager).ReconfigureServiceConsoleReservation($consoleMemMb*1mb)}
Thanks to LucD: http://communities.vmware.com/

De bovenstaande code past de setting aan op al je ESX servers in je VirtualCenter.

image

En in de VIC kun je zien dat de settings is aangepast en een herstart nodig is.

image

VMware: Missing Consolidation Button


  

 

Het kan zijn dat je in VirtualCenter 2.5.x geen beschikking hebt tot de Consolidation button. Na wat zoeken in de communities kwam ik de post van kjb007 tegen. Deze oplossing werkt als volgt:

Open c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\vpxd.cfg in Wordpad. Verwijder daarna de geselecteerde tekst en sla het bestand op.

image

De volgende stap is het Installeren van de CapacityPlanner.exe. Deze vind je hier:

<cdrom>\vpx\CapacityPlanner.exe

Na de installatie herstart je de VirtualCenter server.

Zodra deze weer opgestart is op je services.msc en kijk je of de VMware Capacity Planner Service is gestart.

image

Als deze service gestart is kun je de VIC openen. Als het goed is heb je nu weer de beschikking over de Consolidation button.

image