VMWare ESXi editing the Hostfile
Posted by VMbloggie on Jun 4, 2009
If you are as paranoid with redundancy as my team & I are, then entering the hostnames & IPs of all the server in a cluster into the VMware host file is a must. As your VMware HA is dependant on your servers being able to resolve the names of itself & other ESX server in the cluster, the DNS get to play a major role in HA. What if DNS fail? As many customers are using Microsoft DNS as their primary means of DNS, there is a chance it will fail a day or another. Would you like a way to ensure that your HA will work even if your DNS fail? then Adding these records to the host files of each of the ESXi server in the cluster will do the trick. What if you did not even have a DNS & still want to implement HA & other feature that depend on name resolution, then again adding the records to the host file is the solution.
VMware ESXi - Console Access (Unsupported)
Posted by virtualized1970 on Jun 4, 2009
Did the title bring your attention? Have you heard that one of the main reasons for VMware ESXi was to get rid of the service console? Are you sure there is no console in VMware ESXi? The true is there is still a very tiny console in VMware ESXi, though it has way smaller foot print than the one found in the ESX version. In addition, the usage of the VMware ESXi Console Access is not supported unless if instructed by VMware to do so. Please use this tip wisely & don’t try to do wild changes using your VMware ESXi console as that is not supported. Yeah, again I would repeat its not supported :).
VMware vSphere does not support VMware SRM & VMware View
Posted by VMbloggie on Jun 4, 2009
It had been asked so often lately, if VMware vSphere support SRM & VMware View yet. I had even got calls from customers who tried to integrate the two together. The VMware statement is quite clear in this regard, both VMware Site Recovery Manager(SRM) & VMware View are not supported yet by VMWare vSphere 4.0. They will be supported by sometime in the 2nd half of this year. To check the support matrix & when its going to happen for most VMware product with vSphere, please check out the below document:
VMware vSphere 4.0 Software Compatibility Matrix
MS Hyper-V Virtualization Myths Busting
Posted by virtualized1970 on May 31, 2009
I have just came across a video of Microsoft trying to bust VMware top Myths, but what is funny to me it seems Microsoft had just busted them selfes in the video than anything else. The link to the video is below:
http://www.microsoft.com/video/en/us/details/f8c3314f-c82d-4f8d-8b19-6a59733670f8
I have seen Gabe reply on his blog at his Gabes virtualization Blog which seems to be a great busting to this video. Below is what Gabe is saying on his blog or please read it directly on Gabe blog at http://www.gabesvirtualworld.com/?p=445. Please give credit to Gabes & read this on his blog :).
============== Directly from Gabes Virtualization Blog ===========
ESXi cmd addnode failed for secondary node: /opt/vmware/aam/bin/ft_startup failed to complete within three minutes
Posted by VMbloggie on May 24, 2009
In the past few weeks, I had been hit by many calls of many of my colleagues & customers being hit by the following error when trying to configure VMware ESXi HA:
“cmd addnode failed for secondary node: /opt/vmware/aam/bin/ft_startup failed to complete within three minutes”
After investigating the error for sometime & searching on the internet I found many misleading trial and error solutions for this error around Google results. The resolution which seems to work for everyone of my colleagues & customers is below.
1- Disable HA for the affected cluster
2- Delete the User Worlds Swap file called uwswap from all the nodes in the problematic cluster.
3- Enable HA for the affected cluster again.
Changing the VLAN ID of a ESX Service Console using Command Line
Posted by virtualized1970 on May 3, 2009
A good amount of ESX admins ask on dialy basis how to change the VMware ESX Service Console Vlan using command line. As I decided to save time by writing the steps for these kind of questions to send it to others when asked. I will document these commands in here:
First of all check which vSwitch the Service Console is on (and the name of the Service Console) with esxcfg-vswitch -l (Note: The default service Console switch is vSwitch0 & default name is “Service Console”.)
To set a vlan id on the service console use:
esxcfg-vswitch vSwitch0 -v X -p “Service Console” (Replace X with the desired VLAN number)
VMware View manager problem when entering domain administrator for the View Composer setting
Posted by VMbloggie on Apr 19, 2009
While trying to add the domain administrator to my VMware View Composer settings in VMware View Manager, I was getting the following errors repeatedly:
Wrong Domain
Bad user name or Password
I have found out that the problem was caused by my Virtual Center where VMware View Composer reside was not a part of the domain, and was not using my domain controller as a DNS resolver. To resolve this problem I had came up with two solution:
1- Use your domain controller DNS as the DNS resolver on your VMware vCenter / VMware View Composer Server if possible.
2- On the View Composer server, add the domain name to the domain controller’s IP address mapping in the Windows hosts file: %WINDIR%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.
111.345.333.235 <domain name>
VMware VCDX Enterprise Exam 3.5 Study Guide
Posted by virtualized1970 on Apr 16, 2009
As VMware the Virtualization market leader has released their new certification VCDX & More question started poping up of how to prepare for the exam. As there is almost no official study book for VCDX up to the moment. I thought I would share two valuable resources to prepare for the exam. Please note this exam is intended for VCPs who have gotten a great exposure in designing & setting up VMware VI3 enviornemnt.
Official VMware Enterprise Administration Exam Blueprint v3.5
VCDX Enterprise Exam 3.5 study guide by PetervandenBosch
I hope these guide help all of us start preparing for the VCDX Exam. If you had done the exam, or have another good resource for preperation please share it with us in the comments. Thanks.
VMWARE ESXi - Host in HA Cluster must have userworld swap enabled
Posted by VMbloggie on Apr 8, 2009
I had always been using the VMware ESX version in my implementation. As I noticed that VMware seems to be pushing toward the move to ESXi, I had decided to try the latest version for a full scale installation. Though when I was trying to configure HA for my VMware ESXi Cluster, I had been hit with the below error:
HA agent has an error : Host in HA Cluster must have userworld swap enabled
Luckily the VMware support was quite helpfull as the usual and gave me the simple solution for the problem in less than a minute, I was back up and running with HA configured. So I decided to share the solution with you. Read below the steps for the solution:
VMware ESX & USB & Parralel dongles
Posted by VMbloggie on Mar 27, 2009
When ever I attend a VMware presentation, one of the most common question “How would we handle our USB or parralel licenses dongles in VMware ESX.” Are they supported? Can I get them to work some how? What make the question more critical that most presenters are from a sale or pre-sale background and does not have the clear answer. The real answer to the question, yes its workable but you might need some third party utility to get the required setup to run. Some good resources to get you started are below:
VMware ESX Server Using AnywhereUSB to Connect USB Devices
VMware esx21admin_modvm_parallel_running
USB Device Support within VMware ESX 3.x and ESXi
VMware ESX & Virtual Center 3.5 upgrade guide
Posted by VMbloggie on Mar 25, 2009
It might be the time for you to upgrade your VMware ESX servers to VMware 3.5U3 and Virtual Center 3.5U4.
You might even just want to upgrade to any version of VMware ESX & vCenter 3.5. Then this guide linked to below is all you need. It has a great step by step instruction of the process & better its provided by the solution Vendor VMWare :).
VMware ESX & Virtual Center Upgrade guide
VMWare ESX: How to recover your VMFS partition table
Posted by virtualized1970 on Mar 23, 2009
You might wake up for a bad day after a power outage or a storage failure. You thought it was over, after you had succeeded to bring all your machines back up and running. In few minutes you found out that some of your virtual machines are missing. After a small investigation you found out that your VMware Datastores (VMFS) are empty when you try to browse them from VMware vCenter or VI client. If you face this problem there is a big chance that your VMFS Partition table for these LUNs or disks are missing.
To Check Your VMware ESX server VMFS Partition table follow the following procedure:
Top 10 VMware VMworld 2009 Videos
Posted by VMbloggie on Mar 6, 2009
Finally back home :). Don’t get me wrong Cannes was great, though nothing like being back home.
OK for people who did not get to join us in Cannes, I had for them a free ticket for the replay :).
I wish I could afford to give our visitors a VMworld pass for free, but I have not been making that much money yet. Here I will make up for the tickets, by sharing with you the links for the top 10 VMware VMworld 2009 Vids including the CEO Keynotes & the closing :). So you will feel like you were there with us. Below are the long waited links :).
VMware VMworld 2009 General Keynotes Videos
VMworld 2009 announce vSphere, vCenter Server Heartbeat, VMware vShield Zones
Posted by virtualized1970 on Feb 24, 2009
VMworld Europe 2009. VMware has used the VMworld Europe 2009 to announce two new products that will be available this year:
1- vCenter Server Heartbeat:
Comes to solve the problem arising from a possible collapse of the server that manages the VMware virtualized platforum, specifically vCenter Server earlier known by Virtual Center. The vCenter Server Heartbeat comes to provide High availability for the vCenter. Prior to vCenter Server Heartbeat you were only able to have one vCenter to manage your infrastructure if that vCenter fail VMware’s Live migration with VMotion, load balancing with Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), license management, and performance monitoring all cease to function.
VMware ESX - VMware VMotion
Posted by VMbloggie on Feb 24, 2009
What’s VMware VMotion?
VMware VMotion enables the active migration of running virtual machines from one physical server to another without interruption of service, availability of service and complete integrity of transactions.
VMware VMotion moves running virtual machines from one physical server to another while maintaining service availability.
VMware VMotion allows IT organizations to:
- Perform live migrations with zero downtime, undetectable to the user.
- Continuously and automatically optimize virtual machines within resource pools.
- Perform hardware maintenance without scheduling downtime and disrupting business operations.
