Posted by mike on Mar 31, 2010 in VMware | View Comments
Well, in the final countdown to the VCP. I’m a mere 13 hours away and I’m feeling great! In fact I think it’s going to be hard to sleep. I’m just ready to nail it out right now! I’d like to list out what I used to study as it may be useful for those out there who are wondering. The vSphere 4.0 Quick Start Guide, Mastering VMware vSphere 4.0, the vreference.com 2 page reference “cards”, and the following PDF’s from VMware’s site: Configuration Maximums, Resource Management Guide, Availability Guide, iSCSI configuration guide, and FC configuration guide. I always took the tests on Simon Long’s blog and found them quite useful. I have crossed my fingers, and ate a whole thing of Pepperidge Farm Mint Milano’s. If that doesn’t stack the deck in my favor, I don’t know what will!
- Mike
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Posted by Brian on Mar 31, 2010 in Microsoft, Windows | View Comments
By now most of you should be familiar with how to view CDP details from your VMware ESX server. This can be very helpful when working with your network team to identify what port and VLAN you are connected to. I use this commonly when setting up new ports or troubleshooting a possible network issue. It saves the time of going into the datacenter and trying to trace back the cables.
So this is a pretty easy thing to do on Windows also. You will need to download and install WinPcap and Windump tools. Both of these tools are free and small installs. There are many other uses for these tools, today I will just be covering how to user for CDP captures. One last note before starting is that if CDP is turned off on your Cisco switches you will not get any information when trying this.
The first thing you want to do is to install WinPcap and Windump is just a .exe and requires no install. Not to get a list of all network interfaces in your machine use the following command. You can use this information to choose a certain interface to capture details for. I typically like to capture the information for all interfaces so I do them one by one.
windump -D
Next we can run the actual command to capture the details. Use the command string listed below with the only bit that you will need to change is the -i part. This will allow you to select the different network interfaces that you listed in the previous command.
windump -i 1 -nn -v -s 1500 -c 1 ether[20:2] == 0×2000
Once you run the command above you should see an output similar to image below. I have highlighted the important sections that show the Address of the switches mgmt port, Port ID is the port your connected to and VLAN ID shows you the current VLAN setting for the port.
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Posted by Brian on Mar 29, 2010 in Tools, VMware, vCenter Server | View Comments
Today at the HP Storage Day blogger event HP announced the integration of HP Insight Control with VMware vCenter. This raises the bar with whats been available to this point via CIM agents provided by hardware manufacturers. I have listed some of the main bullet points from HP below. My biggest question will be can I manage the RAID adapters inside the hosts with this new plugin?
The HP Insight Control extension for VMware vCenter Server delivers powerful HP hardware management capabilities to virtualization administrators, enabling comprehensive monitoring, remote control and power optimization directly from the vCenter console. In addition, Insight Control delivers robust deployment capabilities and is an integration point for the broader portfolio of infrastructure management, service automation and IT operations solutions available from HP. Key capabilities integrated into the vCenter console include:
- Combined physical and virtual view: From a single pane of glass, monitor status and performance of virtual machines and the underlying host systems that support them.
- Integrated troubleshooting: Receive prefailure and failure alerts on HP server components and invoke HP management tools, such as Systems Insight Manager and Onboard Administrator, in-context, directly from the vCenter console
- Powerful Remote Control: Remotely manage and troubleshoot HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers using HP Integrated Lights Out Advanced capabilities directly from the vCenter console.
- Proactive power management: Get the most out of your existing power envelope by comprehending and proactively managing power for hosts and pools of virtual machines across hosts
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Posted by Brian on Mar 29, 2010 in VMware | View Comments
There was a press release today that VMware is going to be creating a Global independent VMUG. This new user group will be customer led and driven. It is targeted for launch in June and a steering committee will be announced in the coming weeks. You can see the full release here.
I am excited to share with our User Group members that VMware is supporting the establishment of an independent, global customer-led, customer-driven VMware User Group (VMUG), to be launched in June 2010. Through an independent global VMUG, we believe we strengthen our collective VMware and VMUG value proposition with expanded collaboration, member programs, and benefits.
As a VMware User Group Member, the new independent VMUG will enable you to:
- Tap into new VMUG member benefits and programs, such as Special Interest Groups, webinars, and VMware technical education offerings
- Increase your value to your organization by becoming the recognized VMware subject matter expert through knowledge and contacts gained through VMUG
- Become part of a global, collective customer voice, impacting VMware products/services
One of the most exciting aspects of an independent VMUG organization is that VMUG will be led by VMware customers—your peers. The VMUG Steering Committee has been charged with providing strategic direction and leading the formation of an independent, global VMUG—ensuring long-term value for VMUG members
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Posted by Brian on Mar 27, 2010 in VMware, vSphere | View Comments
Sorry for the crazy post title but I could not resist being a big fan of Zombie movies. Now on to the meat of the subject. The vSphere Host Update utility that comes as an option with the vSphere Client can be a very helpful tool. You can use it for host version upgrades for both ESX and ESXi. It is also a very simple patching tool for ESXi. You have use Host update utility to apply any ESXi security or update patches to your hosts.
So if you a small shot or not a scripting genius this little gem will provide a solid way to keep your hosts up on all the latest patches. The only draw back is that you cannot use it to patch ESX hosts. I will run through how to use this utility so that you can hit the ground running.
Upon opening the utility it should add in your host if you have an open connection to it with the vSphere client. If not just add it in manually via the add option form the top menu. Once added you will need to Download patches from VMware, this is really just downloading a patching list that applies to your host not pulling down the packages.
Once the patch list has been downloaded you will see a display like the one below. It will show your hosts and list how many patches are detected and the status of your host. You will now need to make sure your host that is being patched is in maintenance mode.
Next you will want to click the Patch Host button and you will be presented with the following options. You will now see all of the patches available for your host and be able to select which ones you will download and apply. By clicking on the different patches you will get a short description of what the patch is and what it fixes or updates. Now you can select which patch you want to apply, I will be applying the Update 1 patch and then come back and re-scan and apply anything that is left over. I figured this would be the smartest way and potentially not apply patches that might be in Update 1 already. I did it that way since I am not sure the level of intelligence that is built into the patching selection of this utility. After your selections are made proceed with the install.
Next the vSphere Host update utility begins to download all selected patches and will then apply them. You will see a progress window like below that will show you how things are moving along.
Once your patches have been downloaded and applied the tool will show you a confirmation like the image below. Then the ESXi host will be rebooted.
Once your host has been rebooted you can now re-scan the host to see if there are any more patches for your host.
After applying Update 1 to my test ESXi host I re-scanned and there was only 4 patches left to apply. This is much less than the 13 listed from the original scan. So by applying the latest update I was able to save time and reboots. Now depending on what reason your are patching for this approach may not be the best for your environment. Always research each patch being applied for what it fixes and any potential side affects it might have on your environment.
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