ESX4
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.
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.
ESX4 U1 & the Intel 82576 Gigabit Network Adapter
Jan 15th
Previously when installing ESX it has picked up all devices and automatically installed everything needed to use the server as an ESX host, recently whilst installing a new Dell R710 (a great review of the server can be found on the techhead.co.uk site here) I came across an issue where the additional Network Adapter in the PCI slot was not found by ESX.
The R710 has 4 internal adapters which were found as below:
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 >
vSphere 4.0 Quick Start Guide is here
Nov 27th
Its here, I’m an author, watch out JK Rowling !
Its been a while coming but the vSphere 4.0 Quick Start Guide is now available to buy on Amazon (US), we are working at getting it on the UK site but I’m just pleased to see it out there and available to buy.
This book is a co-authored publication bought to you from some of the leading names in VMware bloggers and admins, and they also asked me to contribute too 
The book is designed for you to carry around with you, its not a heavy duty full novel but more of a VMware admins help book which can be referred to when you are in the damp dark datacenter at 4am in the morning with no internet connection !
Having said that there is definitely something in there for everyone, whether you are new to VMware or a seasoned Pro.
Throughout the book you will find great tips, real life situations and numerous PowerCLI examples.
If you haven’t yet heard of this book then please read these wonderful comments already left on the Amazon post.
If you have read it then please, leave your comments along with the others.
ESX4 in Workstation 6.5.1
Nov 6th
I had tried this already as I don’t have any spare hardware at the moment but I just wanted to say a massive thanks to Eric, our test systems will live on !
A few weeks ago I filled a support request, because I couldn’t start a virtual machine on ESX4 while ESX4 was hosted on Workstation 6.5.0. ESX4 kept crashing at 95% during the VM Power On. An anonymous source just brought me up-to-date and whispered the following:
The WS 6.5 bug you noted earlier has been fixed. You will be able to run nested VMs under ESX 4.0 under WS 6.5.1, subject to the usual caveats (hardware virtualization has to be supported on your host for running the outer guest, and the inner guest is restricted to 32-bits). I can’t comment on release schedules, but it is only a dot-dot release, so it can’t be too far off.
Original post: http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/archives/737-Running-ESX4-under-Workstation-6.5.1-will-be-supported.html
Microsoft – Just plain nasty
Sep 20th
OK, until now I have had respect for Microsoft, I have just read this article and a few others and I have to say, that’s completely below the belt, they are resulting to nasty underhand tactics to try and steal the virtualisation market.
Just proves that they cant do it with there software which is more comparable to VMware workstation than VI.
I cant wait for VI4 to come out and really kick some butt.
Rant over !
I would be interested in what your thoughts are on this subject.
