Data on K8s, Containers and more
UPDATE: Found out I am going to go. I am signed up for the conference need to reserve hotel and flight.
This helped remind me that I would really like to go to VMworld this year. One of my favorite shows.
“I want to go to there.”
Some VMworld Contests still open:
During the VMware Communities Roundtable today. I learned that Lab Manager 4 only works with vCenter Server 4. Ah! So be sure to plan ahead because even though ESX 3.5 and 4 hosts are supported your vCenter 2.5 is not. So once you upgrade to vCenter 4 you will need to upgrade to Lab Manger 4.
This is no fun because it means after hours work when the users of Lab Manager 3 are at home and happy. Which I started to wonder at what kind of pitfalls will there be upgrading. What do back up to be sure your linked clones stay linked? I guess it is time to read some docs.
Good Luck.
Of any Tier One applicaiton out there Exchange is what a play with most, so I always like some Exchange on such and such virtual platform since that is down my alley. So take a look at the new performance blog post over at VROOM.
I think it is a little more realistic in terms of the tested situation. Unlike some that have a Clarrion with 300 spindles for each set of log and database volumes. Someone might have the ability to have the app on multiple arrays but most of us need to get it to work on the one array we had to fight tooth and nail to get. Four to five EQ PS5000XV could actually exist in a wide variety of IT shops. Thanks for the post guys.
Two new products and a new release for an older product will happen today. Applications aimed for those trying to scale their VMware environment and make it more strategic in their organization. These will be released in the vCenter family but may not actually run on you vCenter Server.
First up is VMware vCenter AppSpeed. This software will alow drilling into the performance of the application level in a VM. One feature I find compelling is the Assured Migration. Take a look at an apps performance before and after migration to be sure the same level of service post virtual migration. This is very cool and needed for VI admins trying to prove that it is not VMware causing the problem. At least AppSpeed helps pinpoint performance issues faster, which is a huge help to anyone with a VMware environment.
Second is vCenter Chargeback. You can guess it, Chargeback provides the ability to apply accounting to your resources and if not charge for those resources at least get a look back to determine the actual costs of a initiative.
Last is the Update to an existing product, vCenter LabManager 4. Big news here is all Stage Manager functionality has been rolled into Lab Manager. Stage Manager will go away supposedly. The pricing for Lab Manager will change. If you have a valid SnS for Lab Manager or Stage Manager you will supposedly get Lab Manager 4. Cool.
So that this doesn’t just look like a copy of a VMware press release. I wanted to include my own thoughts. The appearance of more “manage and automate” applications like these three show that the VMware install base is demanding more and more from their environment. Customers investing in this type of software shows to me they are not looking to bolt to another product any time soon. Wait this is way too positive. Lets say something I don’t like, Lab Manger price will go up but still be less than Lab Manager and Stage Manager combined. As a customer I would not like this move because maybe I just wanted Lab Manager now you say the price has increased due to functionality being added that I didn’t ask for. It could be like Microsoft including SQL 2008 with every 2008 Server license and increasing the cost of the server license by the cost of SQL. Then not letting you buy them separate. The problem with my complaint is I guess many customers came to VMware and said, “Hey, I sure wish Lab Manager and Stage Manager were all one product.”
Well, before I can get to the VCDX Enterprise Administration Exam it becomes more urgent to get the new VCP for vSphere (aka VCP4).
Simon Long has a practice test on his Slog.
Keep check the practice test site, he has added to it a couple times. I really like practice tests. Helps me know if I know what I am doing. Many times scheduling the exam for me comes down to confidence, I hate to waste $175- $225.
Now to remember how much Memory is required for the vCenter Server…
I moved my site to new host and am now using a new blog engine for me. Seems to me I will get alot more control but really I like messing with stuff, so at some point I needed to something new with the blog. I still have a few ideas cooking up and hopefully soon they will be polished enough to be published.
So my first experience trying to deploy the new vShield Zones security product included in VMware’s vSphere.
First vShield Zones is different than VMsafe. The way I understand it is the vShield Zones is like your border security but inside of the vSphere. It divides and segregates networks and virtual machines. The VMsafe is end point protection built into the kernel. Reflex has the first VMsafe certified appliance but I have not had a chance to try it yet. (Need more hardware hint hint)
The User Guide talks about downloading an appliance but you actually download an ISO then run an installer that unzips a folder with the 2 appliances. One is the vShield Zones Manager and the other is the actual firewall. The extra step of using the ISO image was annoying buy I guess I am just a whiner. On a super basic level, (I am not here to re-write the user guide) Import the appliance for the manager then import the firewall. Convert the firewall into a template. The Manager appliance takes care of the rest. Note: Internet Explorer 8 and the Manager Web UI don’t work. I used IE 7 just fine.
All things considered it is a good product I don’t have enough throughput on my little lab machine to really test any impact using vShields would have on performance. If you are a Service Provider I think it would be a great add on to ensure some separation of virtuals.
So I was updating some of my blog posts on the esxcfg-* commands with any changes in ESX 4. I wrote earlier I did not know much about the esxcfg-advcfg command. Since writing that post at the end of 2008, I found Duncan Epping used esxcfg-advcfg in 3.5 to set the option rescan all the Hba’s. I thought this was a great shortcut and decided to try it out in vSphere but:
[root@esx4 ~]# esxcfg-advcfg -s 1 /Scsi/ScsiRescanAllHbas
Exception occured: Unable to find option ScsiRescanAllHbas
So I looked through vCenter 4 and did not find the option under Scsi I looked around some in the other Advanced Options and it is no where to be found.
Has this been removed or moved somewhere else? If you know hit me up on twitter @2vcps
Not that I think I am worthy of winning. There are so many better blogs relating to VMware out there. If though I can get someone besides my Mom, Dad, Wife and myself to vote for me I will be able to sleep tonight. 🙂
Vote for the best 5 VMware Blogs!
Who will be the elusive 5th 2Vcps and Truck vote? I am not beyond envoking sympathy, empathy and begging. So vote the common guy, a blog you can believe in! Write it in!
Woo woo!
These guys would vote for me.
Out.
After the last two entries being somewhat boring and not useful at least in my opinion. I am glad this command has a little more to it.
[root@esx1 root]# esxcfg-module -h
Usage: esxcfg-module
-g–get-options Get the options for a given module and whether it is loaded on boot.
-s–set-options Set the options for a given module. WARNING this may be overwritten by per device options.
-e–enable Enable a given module, indicating it should be loaded on boot.
-d–disable Disable a given module, indicating it should not be loaded on boot.
-q–query Query enabled modules options.
-l–list List all modules and whether they are enabled.
-h–help Show this message.
[root@esx1 root]# esxcfg-module -l
Device Driver Modules
Module Enabled Loaded
vmklinux true true
cciss true true
tg3 true true
qla4022 true true
e1000 true true
qla2300_707_vmwtrue truel
vmdriver true true
vmfs3 true true
etherswitch true true
shaper true true
tcpip true true
cosShadow true true
migration true true
nfsclient true true
deltadisk true true
vmfs2 true true
iscsi_mod true true
[root@esx1 root]#
So a common use I have seen with this command is to turn off unused modules. Go ahead and free up some resources turn off vmfs2! You don’t use it.
Another use is to change HBA options.
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-module -s ql2xmaxqdepth=64 qla2300_707_vmw
Remember to follow it with:
/usr/sbin/esxcfg-boot -b
Check out VCDX Master Ninja/Jedi Duncan Epping using this command combo in a scripted install.