VMware

Guide to choosing raid type on VMware ESX for beginners

Posted by Brian on Mar 9, 2010 in VMware | 0 comments

For newer admins or those without a storage background, this is a common question that I hear often. What type of RAID should I use for my data stores to host Virtual Machines. This is not meant to be a high level storage best practice document. I’m just covering some basic details that should help new admins and SMB customers.

First thing you need to do is do some research on what type of servers you will be Virtualizing and what their IO needs might be. The main reasons for choosing different RAID levels will be performance and redundancy. Most people tend to lean towards RAID 5 which provides good performance with a high level of redundancy. See the chart below for some more details. You can also review some details from VMware here.

Summary of the different RAID types

VCP Studyin’ and on to the next book

Posted by mike on Mar 7, 2010 in VMware | 0 comments

Welp I finished up the two books I set out to read initially today.  I’m moving on to the last VI3 book I’ve got, then it’s on to the Vsphere books.  I’ve also got a copy of the Train Signal Vsphere dvds to peruse, which sounds like they are quite good.  I’m going to, for good luck, eat a burger at Boston Blackie’s on the Monday evening I get in to Chicago.  It’s on the walk from the train station to the la quinta where I am staying.  I hear great things about such tasty bovine delicacies.

How to use ESXplot to read your ESXTop reports

Posted by Brian on Mar 4, 2010 in Featured, Performance, Tools, Troubleshooting, VMware | 0 comments

By now everyone should know that esxtop is a great tool that you can use to find out what might be causing performance issues on your ESX host. I don’t plan on writing a post on how to use esxtop. You can refer to Duncan’s ESXtop post for details on thresholds or to VMwares esxtop bible for good base information.

This post is more of a starting point on what ESXplot is and how to install and use. By now most of you should know that ESXplot was born out of the mind of Geoff White of VMware. Geoff is a coworker of Scott Drummonds the well known ESX performance expert.  Esxplot is a GUI application that lets you explore the data collected by esxtop in batch mode. The program takes a single command line argument which is the esxtop batch mode output file.

Why would you want to use esxplot? Well in the past your options to examine these files were to use Excel or Perfmon. Both options were very slow, sometimes taking hours to import the file before viewing. With esxplot your dump file will open within seconds usually. For more details you can read Scott’s post on version 1.0.

If you are using Windows to view your files you have 2 options. You can use the Windows binary file or run the python script. If you wish to run the python script you will need the following applications installed.
Python 2.6 or higher but not Python 3.x – Download
wxPython – Download
NumPy is also needed – Download

Once installed the application is very easy to use. First thing to do in capture some data from esxtop in batch mode using the command below. Then copy the file over to your workstation that you will run esxplot on. Open the app and the File ->Import->Dataset option from the menu to view your file. Then from the lower left section that will list your Hosts name open the tree to view all the captured values.

esxtop -b -d 2 -n 100> esxtopcapturefile.csv

You can download esxplot from here.

Countdown to Vsphere VCP class: 20 days

Posted by mike on Mar 3, 2010 in VMware | 1 comment

I’m scheduled for my class at the Microtek facility in Chicago for a March 23rd – 26th class.  I’m taking the train down as parking is 36 bucks a day, ouch!  I’ve been working on preparing for the class by reading 4 books (mostly because I had them already).  The first two are these (oldies but goodies):

Now, I know, I am taking the Vsphere class, but I’ve got the quick start guide that I’ll be devouring shortly.  In these posts, I’ll also talk about the lab environment I have built in the spare room in my apartment (which warms up a cozy 8 degrees when the servers are on).  Plus I’ll be sure to document my experience with the class and my (fingers crossed) eventual success at the certification test.  Then I need to get a job with a larger VM implementation

- Mike

VMware vSphere Manage for Performance class coming soon

Posted by Brian on Mar 2, 2010 in Featured, Training, VMware, vSphere | 0 comments

It has been suggested by many and is going to be available to the public very soon. Thanks to the hard work and persistence of Scott Drummonds the class is going through the Train the Trainer process currently. Once the trainers are up to speed the class will become available to the general public.

You can see the Course description, schedule and datasheet here.

Course Description: This hands-on training course explores the management of performance in a VMware vSphere™ environment. It provides the knowledge and skills necessary to make fundamental design decisions that enhance performance and to meet performance goals in an already-deployed vSphere installation. The course is based on VMware® ESX™ 4.0, ESXi 4.0, and vCenter™ Server 4.0.

Module Outline:
Module 1: Course Introduction
Module 2: Performance in a Virtualized Environment
•  Discuss the vSphere performance troubleshooting methodology
•  Discuss software and hardware virtualization techniques and their impact on performance
•  Monitor performance using vCenter Server performance charts and the ESX/ESXi resxtop command
Module 3: CPU Performance
•  Discuss the CPU scheduler and other features that have an impact on CPU performance•  Monitor key CPU performance metrics
•  Troubleshoot common CPU performance problems
Module 4: Memory Performance
•  Discuss memory reclamation techniques and memory overcommitment
•  Monitor key memory performance metrics
•  Troubleshoot common memory performance problems
Module 5: Guidelines for DRS and Resource Controls•  Discuss performance guidelines for DRS clusters, resource pools, and resource allocation settings
Module 6: Network Performance
•  Discuss the performance features of modern network adapters
•  Monitor key network performance metrics•  Troubleshoot common network performance problems
Module 7: Storage Performance
•  Discuss how storage protocols, VMware vStorage VMFS configuration, load balancing, and queuing affect performance
•  Monitor key storage performance metrics
•  Troubleshoot common storage performance problems
Module 8: Virtual Machine Performance•  Discuss guidelines for configuring a virtual machine for optimal performance
Module 9: Application Performance
•  Discuss tools and guidelines for application performance

Setup a HP MSA 2312sa SAN for use with ESX 4 cluster

Posted by Brian on Mar 1, 2010 in VMware, vSphere | 0 comments

Well today I finally got to break the seal on our new HP MSA 2312sa Storage. Its a lower end SAN configuration that uses SAS drives and controllers. It is supported in vSphere and ESX 3.5 Update 3 and up. The MSA line of storage is the lower end offering from HP and cost was a big reason why the client choose this configuration.

The MSA 2312sa was configured with 4 chassis’s and has redundant controllers. We also have dual port SAS HBA’s in the ESX hosts. Each of the chassis can hold 20 disks, which are available in 450 gb up to 1 tb each at the moment. The 2 tb disks are expect by summer of 2010. The MSA offers a variety of RAID options and the ability to tie a hot spare disk to a specific vDisk or operate as a global spare for all vDisks.

The setup and management of the MSA series is done from a web based console. The console looks a lot like the server iLo screens but on steriods. You can create you vDisks and then cut them into LUN/Volumes that you can then present to your hosts. The console offers both list views and picture options. The picture option shows you what the front or back of the configuration would look like including which lights would be lit at the time.

So far I am pretty impressed on the ease of use for a lower end piece of storage gear. I will write a new blog post on how well it performs once I start loading on some VM’s.