Virtually everything is poshable
ESX
vCheck v5
Mar 26th
That’s right, its finally here, vCheck v5 has arrived !
If you have been using previous versions of this report then its time to update, I have added lots of cool new features and checks which make this report (even if I do say so) awesome !
Some of the highlighted features of v5 are:
Comments
Each section now has comments telling you why I think it may be an issue, there are often links to blog posts and useful information for further reading, an example is below:
Obviously for the experts among you these comments can easily be removed in the script by changing the $comments = $true to $false
Automatic searching for log warnings
There is now a handy link to both the VMware KB site and Google which will automatically search for the errors found on these sites, no longer do you have a reason for not investigating those errors !
Multiple new checks
There are so many new checks that I have now created a dedicated page on my site for this script which lists some basic information, this will of course change over time as more detail is needed and I hope to shoot some video soon showing how to change some of the key areas.
To access the page click the “Featured Scripts” area above and select “vCheck (Daily Report)” or click here.
Thanks
I have been bugging various people to help me with this script, whether it be for information or html help, thanks to everyone who helped me out and also to the beta testers.
To mention a few of the people specifically, thanks goes to:
Raphael Schitz – As always he has contributed some great checks for v5 and thought of areas I would never have. Amazing job my friend.
Duncan Epping – I have bothered him more than once for clarification on the way things work, cheers mate.
Andy Grant – He did a great job helping me tidy up my HTML and add new areas.
The beta testers – you know who you are !
Sorry if I missed anyone !
Dell ESXi Management
Mar 17th
Unlike the traditional ESX software, the ESXi software does not have a service console. It helps reduce the installation footprint of the software and can allow the hypervisor to be directly installed on the system’s internal flash storage or a USB key.
At the moment I am investigating moving to ESXi from ESX, after resolving the DSET issue I was then faced with the management of the ESXi hosts, currently the full fat ESX hosts have the Dell open management agent installed on them and SNMP configured, this allows the Dell management server to keep track of the underlying hardware and report any hardware issues or firmware updates.
But what happens with ESXi 4.0 and the removal of the service console ?
Earlier with ESXi 3.5, OpenManage component were integrated with the downloadable Dell ESX3i ISO image
but from ESXi 4.0 onwards, VMware introduced a new concept called vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB), this allows the end users to download VIB files and install it directly into ESXi 4.0. Dell are now posting their OpenManage component as a VIB on support.dell.com.
To help reduce the system footprint and to simplify deployment, the ESXi software does not have a traditional service console management interface where Dell OpenManage agents are installed. Instead, to provide the required hardware manageability, VMware has incorporated the standard Common Information Model (CIM) management profiles into the ESXi software.
Another reason to upgrade to ESXi
Mar 5th
The reasons why not to upgrade to ESXi are getting less and less recently, I think I knocked the automated configuration on the head at the London VMUG with my recent presentation which can be seen here.
With the improved vSphere API’s and using PowerCLI we are slowly able to replace most of the things which used to be performed at the service console, a few of these can be read about here.
But what happens when PowerCLI can not help ?
At a recent engagement with a customer we pretty much got rid of all reasons why we couldn’t move to ESXi apart from one.
Being based on Dell hardware the customer needed to be able to send a detailed report on what the issue was with the physical host, the Dell readers amongst you will be familiar with a Dell System Extraction Tool (DSET), this is a utility which is run on the host (through the service console) which looks at the logs, the Dell management agents and the system to create a packaged hta file which can be sent to Dell, in our case the customer often found it very hard to get hardware components replaced unless a DSET was sent, if not impossible.
The obvious part of this statement was the fact that it ran in the service console, when checking the Dell documentation it was clearly stated that the DSET application was not supported in ESXi:
So when reading the above statement “The server can be rebooted to a supported Linux environment to use DSET” gave me an idea: Live-CD.
After searching for a while I managed to find a nice repository of Dell Live boot CD’s with various different versions of the Dell Open Manage Client already pre-installed, just booting from this CD not only enabled the web interface which you can normally view by accessing the https://<ip address>:1311 url but also allowed me to design a support mechanism where we could boot to a supported operating system via the live boot CD and copy the DSET app over to the box which runs and produces our hardware report for us.
This might sound simple but believe me, it was nearly a show stopper when moving to ESXi, I hope this post helps others in the same predicament this customer was in.
London VMUG – My Presentation
Feb 26th
Yesterday was a fantastic VMware user group, definitely my favourite one so far, lots of great content from some fantastic people and some real rockstars (I think that is the 2010 word for Guru’s) like Mike Laverick, Carter Shanklin (Carter USM), Stuart Radnidge and many many more.
I was privileged to open the show with a PowerCLI session, this is a pre-show session so wasn’t really part of the main VMUG, as such I was not expecting such a large crowd, if you came to the session then thanks very much, i thing there must have been around 40-45 people in there and I had a great time presenting this one.
We had a great mix of beginners to Pro’s and some great conversations about PowerCLI and what we could do to take the ESX install to the next level, one such example is in my script where we add an A host record to the DNS server as part of our deployment.
If you weren’t there or you would just like to re-live the presentation then please see below: More >
Virtualising XenApp – What’s the magic number ?
Feb 26th
In the past I have virtualised a number of different applications and types of servers, among these have been several Citrix WinFrame/MetaFrame/Presentation Server or as it is currently known XenApp Servers.
Recently I have been asked about this on a number of occasions and the question is always the same:
How many users can you get on a Virtualised XenApp Server ?
That’s like saying how long is a piece of string ! – The answer to this question is the same to most IT related questions I get asked…. It depends !
To be able to give this subject the full attention that is needed I plan on creating a series of blog posts which will enable us to discuss the different configuration types and I will hopefully aid you in working out what your magic number is, how many users you can get on a virtual XenApp server.
The series of blog posts will probably change as I start to delve into the different subjects but all will eventually link from this post.
| Introduction Why Virtualise XenApp ? Design Factors • Sizing • Citrix Desktops • Seamless Applications • Redundancy • Licensing • Cost Cutting Testing • Strategy • Applications • Tweaking Implementation • Templates • Deployment Monitoring Upgrade strategy |
Hopefully this will help with some of the questions I have received recently, if there is anything missing which you would also like me to include then please do let me know via the comments of this post !
If you are also into podcasts then make sure you listen to the recent discussion I had with the Chinwagger himself – Mike Laverick, this can be found on his blog here.
PowerCLI: Configured Maximums – Storage
Feb 11th
With vSphere introduced some new maximum’s which we not only have to memorise for the exams but also have to keep in mind when designing and using your infrastructure.
In the back of your mind when adding a new host to a cluster you should always be thinking, how many hosts should be in this cluster ? or when adding another LUN to your clustered hosts, how many datastores should I have as a maximum before it starts impacting my performance and how many paths are supported ?
The answer to these questions (in my case anyway) is to use PowerCLI to check them 
I will of course add these to the next version of vCheck so they are automatically checked for but in the meantime here are some quick one-liners to check your infrastructure against the configured maximums for storage, I will add more as I write them:
PowerCLI: Changing a VM IP Address with Invoke-VMScript
Feb 5th
One of the cmdlets that has been much improved in the recent version of PowerCLU 4 U1 is the Invoke-VMScript cmdlet,
This cmdlet runs a script or command inside the guest OS of each of the specified virtual machines. To run Invoke-VMScript, the user must have read access to the folder containing the virtual machine and a Virtual Machine.Interaction.Console Interaction privilege.
The virtual machines must be powered on and have PowerShell and VMware Tools installed.
Network connectivity to the ESX system hosting the virtual machine on port 902 must be present.
You must also have both the Host and guest credentials available.
One question asked of me recently was “Is there a way to set the IP address of some windows virtual machines with PowerCI ?”.
So with the power of the invoke-cmdlet in the following example you can see how you can change the ip address by using the netsh command inside the VM.
As a note, you no longer need PowerShell inside the guest OS for this cmdlet to work, as you can see below I am calling a batch command, you can also use this cmdlet against *nix machines to run shell commands.
This of course can easily be adjusted to read all ip addresses from a csv file or text file and apply them to multiple virtual machines if needed.
Learn PowerCLI by video
Feb 4th
So you want to learn PowerCLI, if your not a book kinda person and haven’t purchased Hal Rottenberg’s great book, Managing VMware Infrastructure with Windows PowerShell then there is great news for you.
Trainsignal have let it slip that coming soon to a website near you will be….
Managing VMware vSphere with PowerCLI – Hal Rottenberg
- Video 1 Introduction to Power CLI
- Video 2 PowerShell Basics
- Video 3-1 PowerCLI Concepts – Part 1
- Video 3-2 PowerCLI Concepts – Part 2
- Video 4 Power CLI in the Real World
- Video 5 PowerCLI Cmdlet Deep Dives
So you not only get to learn PowerCLI but you also get to see the man behind the book, the man behind the podcast and the man behind the MVP – Hal himself.
vSphere 4.0 Quick Start Guide – Available in Europe
Dec 14th
The vSphere Quick Start Guide is doing well, I don’t think we will quite take the Christmas Number 1 best seller slot but still, thanks to anyone who has purchased the book so far and a bigger thanks if you have left us a review or published a blog post, its always good to hear how people are finding the book.
After the release I had a few questions about when it would be released on the UK Amazon site, it seams that apart from sharing their name, these two sites do not have anything to do with each other, one would assume that once it was published on the US site it would soon make its way over to the UK site, that doesn’t seam to be the case.
Do not despair, we have now released it via LULU, a self publication site, you can now purchase the book and have it delivered very quickly from here for just…
£12.53 – no I am not missing a 0, that is correct, what a bargain price !
Boot from Paravirtualized SCSI Adapter
Dec 2nd
From vSphere U1, VMware now support booting from a Paravirtualized SCSI adapter, why would you want to do this ? Well why not, check out the VMware Performance Blog where VMware have tested this adapter and shared their results.
VMware were able to achieve 350,000 I/O operations per second on a single vSphere host (ESX 4.0) and 3 virtual machines. From their findings the VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) adapter was able to achieve 12% more throughput with 18% less CPU cost compared to the LSI virtual adapter… Now you see why we should use it !
So in trying to test this the first thing I did was move one of my current virtual machines onto the adapter by clicking “edit settings” go to “SCSI controller 0” and click the change type button, from there you can select “VMware Paravirtual”. More >
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