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If you never used VMware vSphere 4 update manager before, this video shows you how to get started and how to successfully apply a necessary security patches to your ESX host.
The GUI interface seems to be difficult to understand, but hopefully with this video you’ll be able to find your way around. A terms like schedule patches definitions download, baselines, remediation, ESX hosts, scan of ESX host, maintenance mode will be shown. It’s an easy step-by-step video you can follow if you’re new to VMware and managing Virtual Infrastructure with VMware vSphere 4. Popout
This video details installing patches or updates to your VMware ESX host using VMware vCenter Update Manager. This video was created using ESX 4.0 and Update Manager 4.0. The same basic steps apply to other versions of ESX. This video also shows you how to determine how often your host checks for patches or updates, where to schedule the task, and how to run the task manually.
In VMware vSphere 4 environement, when you move your VM to another host or the VM has different path on the same host, the MAC adress of the VM is changed.
If you want to guarantee that the same MAC address is assigned to a given virtual machine every time, even if the virtual machine is moved, or if you want to guarantee a unique MAC address for each virtual machine within a networked environment you have 2 choices. You can do it on the VM configuration level or you can do it on the guest level.
On the VM level you can do it via GUI or by editing your VMX file (just make sure that you unregister the VM from vCenter first, otherwise vCenter will overwrite the value) you go to Menu VM > Edit Settings > Network Adapter and you set the radio button on Manual. Then you can assign a static MAC address there between the authorised range by VMware. The MAC address range is: 00:50:56:00:00:00-00:50:56:3F:FF:FF
If in some rare cases you need to keep the same MAC as for exaple on your Physical server (for some software license files tightened to a MAC address for exemple), and the MAC adress is outside of the range, you have the possibility to do it inside of your Windows (linux) VM.
On the Windows VM you do it in the properties of your NIC:
Start the VM and in the Windows system go to Control panel > network connections > Properties
Click the Configure button and go to Advanced Tab where on selecting Locally administered value you are able to enter your own value.
And for linux VM you can try this:
ifconfig eth0 down
ifconfig eth0 hw ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
ifconfig eth0 up
There is reference webpage I found about MAC addresses ranges on VMware’s Website here. The page is is for VMware ESX Server 2.1, but it’s still valuable… There might be other resources on that, feel free to post a comment…
VMware update manager hated me and wouldn’t scan any of my hosts, one of the many fixes I was trying was making sure that my VMware Update Manager server could reach the patch stores to download updates and do patch checks and so decided to make sure of this I wanted to remove the painfully irritating Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration. Now before I get loads of comments saying this is dangerous etc etc and that it’s a security risk,I know it is but for testing purposes I wanted to do it so I did. Now the point of this blog is that to disable it isn’t as easy as it used to be in 2003 as you used to just:
Go to Control Panel
Add/Remove Programs,
Add/Remove Windows Components on the left hand side
Untick it from the drop down list
But for Windows Server 2008 I couldn’t find it anywhere in the features drop down lists which has replaced the Windows Components in Server 2008. Fortunately while on another Server 2008 server I noticed the place to disable it. In the Server Manager root page under the Security Information section is Configure IE ESC
All you need to do is click on this link and disable it for either Administrators and/or for Users. I only needed for Administrators so this is what I selected for the testing.
What if you end up with the same vmdk file name on different datastores?
A simple case scenario that can happens:
A single VM has several hard disk attached to it. The hard disk VMDK files are located on different datastores. When creating a new hard disk which location is on different datastore to a VM, the name given to this VMDK is the same as the first VMDK.
For exemple, you VM has a disk called TS01.vmdk which is located on DATASTORE1, and you create a second disk located on DATASTORE2. This disk takes the same name as the first one…. This is not a problem for VMware, but it is for third party backp products like Symantec Backup Exec 2010. In fact what happens to the backup job wanting to backup a VM like this? The VMDK is marked as a corrupted and the job fails, so it's impossible to restore either.
What's the solution? VMware KB had give me an simple answer what to do in the case like this. You'll have to use vmkfstools via command line to do the job. Don't worry, it's not difficult.
How to:
01. First, make sure that the VM has NO Snapshots. Then power down your VM go to menu Edit Settings.
On the next screen you just go to the hard disk you want to rename. Select the hard disk and click the remove button. The screen change and you have the possibility to check a radio button to delete the disk from datastore. Don't check this radio button. Otherwise your disk gets deleted..
02. Validate your choice on clicking OK.
03. Then you must connect to the console of the ESX server to which the datastore2 is attached to. Use putty or go directly to the server room.
04. Via putty navigate to the folder where the hard disk is located and execute following command: vmkfstools -E <old_name> <new_name>
So in our case the command looks like this (I'm renaming from ts01.vmdk to ts01_2.vmdk):
vmkfstools -E ts01.vmdk ts01_2.vmdk
05. Then go to your VI client and add the renamed disk back to the virtual machine. In the Inventory browser by right clicking the datastore and where the VM is stored and select "Browse Datastore", select the folder of the VM than right click the vmx file and select "Add to Inventory".
This works fine for ESX 4, but to be able to use it with ESXi 4 you have several choices:
01. You can use the unsupported (Tech Support Mode) to get to the console of ESXi 4 since the CLI tools won't work for writing data in the free version of ESXi 4.
02. If your ESXi 4 is licensed with paid VMware License you can use PowerCLI or VMA to do the job.
What is FAST? (Fully Automated Storage Tiering) at vBlock
Now available for 3 Flavors (Celera, CX4, Symmetrix)
FAST approach is the Brand new at EMC,
which will automatically move the the LUNs as below..
High I/O LUN’s to Flash Drives (SSD Hdd’s)
Modest I/O LUN’s to F.C Drives
Least I/O LUN’s to SATA Drives
Here are some features, highlights of FAST and how it operates.
• FAST will perform data movement based on IOPS, average I/O size and write percentage.
This is currently true for the Symmetrix V-Max, Clariion CX4 and Celerra NS.
• Three elements that define FAST: Storage Type, FAST policies and Storage Groups.
• FAST is based on user defined -- configuration policies.
• The configuration of FAST is typically done through FAST wizards FAST LUN Migrator for Clariion CX4,
(Symmetrix Management Console) on Symmetrix V-Max and Rainfinity File Management Appliance or VE for Celerra NS.
NOTE: Out of the box thinking by EMC, imagine the flexibility one would have
with a large infrastructure and FAST moving data based on policy.
It’s all about the big picture.
FAST – EMC Hands on Demo
Source : www.storagenerve.com (Full Article Link below)
VMware vCenter Mobile Access (vCMA) - vCMA allows you to monitor and manage VMware Infrastructure from your mobile phone with an interface that is optimized for such devices. Specifically, it allows you to:
Search for virtual machines in your data center
Migrate virtual machines from one host to another using vMotion
Execute recovery plans using VMware Site Recovery Manager
Access Scheduled Tasks, Alarms and Events
And much more..
Installation Procedure & Packaging
The vCenter Mobile Access server is packaged as a virtual appliance. The username/password on the appliance is root/vmware but console access should not be required. The root password should be changed after install.
Download the vCMA OVF distribution zip file from this link (the file is approximately 350 megabytes). The zip file contains the appliance OVF file and other system files.
Follow these steps to install the Mobile Access appliance:
1. Extract the zip file to a temporary directory, for example c:\temp. The files contained in the zip file include :
* vCenterMobileAccess-1.x.y.z.ovf
* system.vmdk
2. Launch the VI Client and log into your ESX box or vCenter instance.
3. In the inventory view, select the menu File-> Virtual Appliance -> Import…
4. Select the option “Import from file:” and browse to the OVF file, for example: c:\temp\vCenterMobileAccess-ovf\vCenterMobileAccess-1.0.0.10.ovf and follow the wizard next steps.
5. In the “End User License Agreement” page, read the license agreement completely and click on the “Accept all license agreements” and continue the steps.
6. In the “Name and Location” page, provide the name for your Virtual Machine.
7. Once the wizard completes, a virtual machine will be created. Select the virtual machine and power it on.
Open your local browser (http://IP Address of vCMA:5480)
On your mobile http:///vim
Once connected, you will see the login screen where you can provide the vCenter or ESX IP address or name as well as username and password.
The following Table is a list of the key features of VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch. For a comprehensive list of VMware vSphere features download the key features summary.
Simplify and Enhance Virtual Machine Networking
Simplified provisioning and administration of virtual networking across many hosts and clusters through a centralized interface.
Simplified end-to-end physical and virtual network management through third-party virtual switch extensions for the Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual switch.
Enhanced provisioning and traffic management capabilities through private VLAN support and bi-directional virtual machine rate-limiting.
Enhanced security and monitoring for virtual machines migrated via VMware VMotion through maintenance and migration of port runtime state.
Now that we understand the basics, we will move on to the topic at hand, NIC Teaming. Although you can team vNIC's within a VM, we are not going to discuss OS vNIC teaming, but rather physical NIC teaming. You may be wondering why someone would want to team physical NIC's? Well why not! Teaming the NIC's will not only eliminate the single point of failure associated with a single physical NIC, but also provide better overall network throughput - what's not to like!?!
ESX offers 3 different methods for load balancing. However, not all methods are created equal, and only one method offers true load distribution. The 3 load-balancing methods include:
Route based on the originating port ID (this is the default if not defined otherwise) - Also know as vSwitch port-based load-balancing, this method chooses an uplink based on the virtual port where the traffic entered the virtual switch.
Route based on source MAC hash - This method chooses an uplink based on a hash of the source Ethernet address.
Route based on IP hash - This method chooses an uplink based on a hash of the source and destination IP address of each packet.
Click below -->Read More for Full Article (Which one will give Real Load Balancing)
The esxtop utility can be used to measure how much I/O is moving across various devices. The esxtop utility is interactive. As such, pressing certain keys changes the view.
Configuring monitoring using esxtop
To monitor storage performance per HBA:
Start esxtop by typing esxtop at the command line.
Press d to switch to disk view (HBA mode).
Press f to modify the fields that are displayed.
Press b, c, d, e, h, and j to toggle the fields and press Enter.
Press s, then 2 to alter the update time to every 2 seconds and press Enter.
See Analyzing esxtop columns for a description of relevant columns.
Click below -->"Read More" for Full Article (Tolerable Threshold Values in Real time)..
Like most VI Admins, I've been using VMware ESXi quite a lot more lately and I'm slowly coming across things that are different to how they are in ESX. Log files being one of these differences.
With the absence of the Service Console, ESXi presents a slightly different architecture. If you haven't yet read The Architecture of VMware ESXi, I would recommend having a good read through.
Here is the common log file structure in ESX (Source)
Click below -->"Read More" for Full Article (Log File Geometry & Snippets)..
One of the most common issues experienced with VMware HA is a split brain situation. Although currently undocumented, vSphere has a detection mechanism for these situations. Even more important the upcoming releaseESX 4.0 Update 2 will also automatically prevent Split Brain of H.A!
First let me explain what a split brain scenario is, lets start with describing the situation which is most commonly encountered:
4 Hosts – iSCSI / NFS based storage – Isolation response: leave powered on
When one of the hosts is completely isolated, including the Storage Network, the following will happen:
Host ESX001 is completely isolated including the storage network(remember iSCSI/NFS based storage!) but the VMs will not be powered off because the isolation response is set to “leave powered on”. After 15 seconds the remaining, non isolated, hosts will try to restart the VMs. Because of the fact that the iSCSI/NFS network is also isolated the lock on the VMDK will time out and the remaining hosts will be able to boot up the VMs. When ESX001 returns from isolation it will still have the VMX Processes running in memory. This is when you will see a “ping-pong” effect within vCenter, in other words VMs flipping back and forth between ESX001 and any of the other hosts.
As of version 4.0 ESX(i) detects that the lock on the VMDK has been lost and issues a question if the VM should be powered off or not. Please note that you will(currently) only see this question if you directly connect to the ESX host. Below you can find a screenshot of this question.
With ESX 4 update 2 the question will be auto-answered though and the VM will be powered off to avoid the ping-pong effect and a split brain scenario! How cool is that…
NFS is a great storage solution within a VMware vSphere environment. But when the connection to the NFS server is lost, you’re in big trouble. In most circumstances some virtual machines are still connected to the NFS Datastore and since it’s in use, you cannot delete and recreate it. I’ve tried this by using the vSphere Client and trough the command line but didn’t succeed. In the end there’s no other alternative than rebooting the ESX host, or is there… If you want to find out how to remount an NFS Datastore you may watch below video. By Eric Sloof
Actual Trick is - NFS data store IP was x.x.x.x, he created a host name (using /etc/hosts file or DNS or alias host name on DNS) to fool the vCenter, then added host name when adding NFS source. vCenter thinks it's getting NFS from different Source..
May be it's a little dragging video, wait till end of video to see the insight
VMware might not want to get into Blues like Microsoft much famed BSOD (Blue Screen on Death). So they named it as PSOD (Pink Screen on Death).. LOL..
As you know PSOD crash normally could have no shortcut to find the source of problem, VMware tried it's best to make to straight, possible PSOD causes as mentioned below
How to Capture the PSOD crash dump (By default PSOD dump is saved on /root)
1) type "vm-support" (on # Prompt) without any options. The utility will run and create a single Tar file that will be named "esx-xxxxxx..tgz".
2) Alternatively, you can generate the same file by using the VMware Infrastructure Client (VI Client). Select Administration, then Export Diagnostic Data, and select your host (VirtualCenter data optional) and a directory on your local PC to store the file that will be created.
Source : VMware KB and www.vmetc.com This is a handy little trick, starting with version 3.5, VMware added support for Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) on the ESX Server vSwitches. CDP support is enabled on a vSwitch with this command:
Verify the current CDP setting for vSwitch2 ESX# esxcfg-vswitch -b vSwitch2
down
The above output is down - which indicates CDP is currently not enabled vSwitch2
To enable CDP on vSwitch2
ESX# esxcfg-vswitch -B both vSwitch2
To Verify the CDP Status (Expect -> Down, Listen, Advertise, Both)
ESX# esxcfg-vswitch -b vSwitch2
Both
Check CDP information on Physical Switch
Once CDP support is enabled on the vSwitch & physical switch - execute below command on Phy.Switch. Which will show the link between each physical switch port and the matching ESX Server NIC. The output will look something like this:
DeviceID Local Intrfce Holdtme Capability Platform Port ID
s3 Gig 0/26 147 T S WS-C3524-XFas 0/24
esx04 Gig 0/22 168 S VMware ESXvmnic0
esx04 Gig 0/21 168 S VMware ESXvmnic1
As you can see in the output above, the CDP output clearly links the physical switch port and the ESX Server NIC. This makes it incredibly easy to identify the NICs in the server. This is particularly helpful in blade situations, since you can’t exactly unplug the NIC and see which one goes down with “esxcfg-nics -l” (a common approach to identifying the NICs in the server). Of course, this requires CDP switches in the blade chassis. Since the internal port mappings on the blade chassis determine which NICs connect to which ports, this command adds the mapping within ESX Server and lets us quickly and definitively identify the NICs in the server as seen by ESX Server.
Check CDP information in VI Client
Now, using the VI Client you can go to the Configuration tab of a host and select Networking. To the right of each vSwitch is what I’ll describe as a dialogue icon.
Clicking this Call out icon (Green circle) brings up the switch port info you are seeking.
I guess, you may use Mr.Mattr workaround (below) in other cases, like data recovery / repair file system times as well. -Source : www.breathalize.co.uk - by mattr
I was upgrading the memory in a Windows 2000 VM to 8GB, and had to alter the boot.ini to use more than 4GB. Unfortunately I was doing this remotely and during the save process my VPN died. When I rebooted the server I was faced with the dreaded ‘NTBTLDR.EXE is missing’.
Now I knew that the problem must lie with the boot.ini, but how to get at it? Because I was remote I did not have a Windows 2000 disk to get a recovery console up and I needed to get the server up and running again. I then realized that I did not need to boot from a CD to get to the VM’s hard drive.
I shut the VM off again, and switched to other VM on same host. In Edit Settings, I simply added the vmdk of the troubled VM to the other VM and rescanned for the disk in Disk Management. Lo and behold the disk appeared and I could access the boot.ini file – I had managed to add a space at the beginning of the file during the save process which was causing the problem.
I rectified the file, removed the disk from the spare server and then the vmdk from the client. I crossed my fingers and restarted the VM … and gratefully saw the windows splash screen appear. If this had been a physical box I would not have had a chance of fixing this remotely, and even on site there would have been much more time expended on finding a chassis with spare slots, array controller configurations etc. so it goes to show even the most basic functions of VMware are worth the effort of putting it in in the first place
VMware ThinApp (formerly Thinstall) is an application virtualization and portable application creator suite by VMware that can package conventional applications so that they become portable applications.
Ex : Ms-Office is Conventional App - Requires Installation & Registry updates, Ex : Putty.exe is Portable App - Portable app runs anywhere without actual installation (may be from pen drive as well) To make a straight cut, ThinApp will emulate Conventional Apps to Portable Apps
VMware ThinApp is an application virtualization solution ThinApp is able to execute applications without them being installed in the traditional sense by virtualizing resources such as environment variables, files and Windows Registry keys. The virtual environment presented to the client is a merged view of the underlying physical and virtual resources, thereby allowing the virtualization layer to fool the application into thinking that it is running as if it were fully installed.
VDR - VMware Data Recovery (My understanding as below)
What is VDR
VDR is a Backup & Recovery Appliance - Customized on Cent OS
(available from VMware as an OVF - Open Virtualization format)
You can download .OVF file & install from vSphere Client
(VM will be created automatically attached to your chosen Phy.ESX Host)
You can install VDR Plug-ins and execute Backup & Restore directly from vCenter, on any level of Infrastructure (entire Datacenter, Cluster or VM level)
Click below -->"Read More" for Full Article (Why VDR, Why not VDR & Demo Video)..
What I liked is - VMware keeps updating this KB article with latest Laundry List of H/w & S/w
Are you excited to know more on Brand new feature of VMware FT - Read my previous FT Blog - Click here Need help on F.T implementation - reach me on HAIIAMPC at GMAIL dot com
Guest OS Clock Sync from ESX (As Guest OS have Virtual Mother Board - no RTC. So, VM will Sync the time from ESX Host (Physical M.Brd RTC) Recommended to sync Guest OS time with ESX (Provided no Time Server on Guest OS)
Mouse & Video Acceleration on Guest OS
--> VM tools installation in Windows & GUI of any Linux flavor
(while Guest OS is running, click VM Menu, install VM tools)
--> VM tools on CLI of Linux Flavors may follow KB Article from VMware
This video details installing VMware Tools in a Linux guest operating system using RPM (Red Hat Package Manager). This video uses VMware ESX 4.0, but the same basic steps apply to other products. The guest operating system in this video is CentOS, but the steps can be used in any Linux distribution that supports RPM.
How to install VMware Tools in a Linux virtual machine using RPM Method (If you require help on Compile Method / for Novell Netware - reach me on HAIIAMPC at GMAIL dot COM)
Updating ESX / ESXi Host Patches, Guest OS Patches (Linux & Windows Service Pack and Patches) & Even amazingly Application Patches on your VM's (Be it Anti Virius or Enterprise Class App or Gaint DB s/w). VMware has tied up with www.shavlik.com to get end-to-end patch managementvia VMware Update Mgr.. I have experienced this first handed - wow, it's beautiful & great flexibility - Hats off to www.SHAVLIK.com & VMware - Few updates may require restart of Applications / Guest OS / ESX Host itself (keep an eye on Update Mgr wizards)
Below article Sourced from VMware Knowledge Base
We have a new video for you today detailing installing patches or updates to your VMware ESX host using VMware vCenter Update Manager. This video was created using ESX 4.0 and Update Manager 4.0. The same basic steps apply to other versions of ESX. This video also shows you how to determine how often your host checks for patches or updates, where to schedule the task, and how to run the task manually.
Cannot connect directly to ESX Server from the VMware Infrastructure Client
Cannot connect directly to the ESX Server from the vSphere Client
You cannot stop or start a virtual machine
A virtual machine is shown as running in VirtualCenter when it is not
VirtualCenter shows the error:
Virtual machine creation may fail because agent is unable to retrieve VM creation options from the host
Purpose
For troubleshooting purposes, it may be necessary to restart the management agents on your ESX Server. This article provides you with the steps to restart the management agents (mgmt-vmware and vmware-vpxa) directly on ESX or ESXi.
This article applies ESX 3 and ESX 4, as well as ESXi 3 and ESXi 4.
Caution: Restarting the management agents may impact any tasks that may be running on the ESX or ESXi host at the time of the restart. For more information about identifying tasks running on an ESX or ESXi host, see Collecting information about tasks in VMware ESX and ESXi (1013003).
Resolution :
Click below -->"Read More" for Full Article (How to restart Mgt agent on ESX & ESXi)..
The command vmkiscsi-tool. Really good stuff, I can complete the rest of my setup without the GUI. One thing though to list out the iqn for iscsi after you enable it you must know the device name (ie vmhba??). Using this command:
# vmkiscsi-tool -I -l
I usually guess the iscsi hba is vmhba33 or 32 but how do I know for sure? Try:
# esxcfg-scsidevs -a
Ok great, now we know it is vmhba33 (Click the above image for full details as well)
[root@esxhost01 sbin]# vmkiscsi-tool -I -l vmhba33 iSCSI Node Name: iqn.1998-01.com.vmware:esxhost01-35151883
[root@esxhost01 sbin]#
Now with a few more vmkiscsi-tool commands I can finish configuring my iSCSI.
Add the Ip of the SAN:
[root@esxhost01 sbin]# vmkiscsi-tool -D -a 172.16.23.251 vmhba33
Now rescan:
[root@esxhost01 sbin]# esxcfg-rescan -a vmhba33
*Disclaimer - (content sources are from public display of respective of vendors)
Xsigo will enables you to have a single 20 Gbps I/O Card on Server
(which provides Virtual NIC, V FC HBA, V iSCSI HBA or any legacy I/O Card) to OS. Hence users need not have look for Physical Compatible slots, cards and additional cabling on server rack.. That's awesome - we don't need to open Server, not required to make make your hands dirty, no downtime negotiations with stake holders - everything is on-the-fly (while OS is up & running - I can present any virtual PCI Card to OS) - today Project requirement is SCSI, tomorrow iSCSI, then FC, then FCOE - don't worry - one Xsigo Card will provide any virtual PCI card to OS.
One card and one cable will be connected to VP780 I/O Director - which provides Virtually every Card to Server.. You may read more about this @ below link.. Good news is --> Gaint OEM vendor "Dell" is Xsigo Partner as well
