Dell Management Plug-in with DNS Aliases
Posted: October 3, 2012 Filed under: Dell, VMware | Tags: dell, dell management, dell management plug-in, dell management plugin, dell plug-in, dell plugin, management, plug-in, plugin, vcenter plug-in, vcenter plugin Leave a commentA tricky configuration piece of the Dell Management Plug-in that I discovered the hard way was that you must log in to vCenter via the vSphere Client with the same name or IP address with which you used to register vCenter with the Dell Management Plug-in Virtual Appliance. And I mean *exactly* the same, perhaps even with an FQDN. You can’t register vCenter in the Dell virtual appliance with an IP address and then turn around and log in to the vSphere Client with your usual server name or, in my case, a DNS alias or CNAME.
As you can see above, I’ve created a CNAME record for the first of my vCenters that are in a Linked-Mode group. I’ve named it vCenter. This is how I log into the vSphere Client – by just typing vCenter in the Name/IP address field. When I first registered the Dell plug-in via the virtual appliance, I registered the first vCenter server by its FQDN – let’s call it, myvcenter.company.net. Going to the Dell plug-in in the vSphere Client you get a nice error stating that the Dell Management Plug-in cannot access vCenter. Showing details gives you nothing, but don’t despair quite yet.
VMware Converter ColdClone ISOs
Posted: August 20, 2012 Filed under: VMware | Tags: cold clone, cold clone p2v, coldclone, converter, converter coldclone, p2v, vmware converter 28 CommentsI just wanted to document where to find a copy of the VMware Converter ColdClone ISO. This is a useful tool that I wish was still around, but for now, our vFriend over at WhiteboardNinja (@timantz) has archived it for us on Dropbox.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gcidv950p2ekkgg/4p_1C7smR0
Scheduled task to run a PowerCLI script (and delete a named snapshot)
Posted: August 3, 2012 Filed under: PowerShell / PowerCLI, VMware, Windows | Tags: delete snapshot, powercli, scheduled, scheduled task, script, snapshot 1 CommentI had occasion recently to delete a snapshot at a certain time. It’s easy enough to schedule the snapshot using the vSphere Client and built-in functions, but then, how to delete it on a schedule? Enter PowerCLI and the Windows Task Scheduler.
There was a VMTN forum post by Duncan Epping (@DuncanYB) that suggested using the generic form Get-VM | Get-Snapshot | Remove-Snapshot. This worked a charm for me and I put it into the following script.
Delete hidden vNIC, the Eric Siebert way
Posted: July 25, 2012 Filed under: VMware, Windows | Tags: delete hidden device, ghost e1000, hidden, hidden device, hidden e1000, hidden NIC, hidden vNIC, uninstall ghost NIC, uninstall hidden, uninstall hidden device, vNIC Leave a commentA funny thing happened this afternoon. Usually, when you know there’s a hidden NIC in a VM, you simply run the command, set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1. Then you’ll see the hidden device in Device Manager. Well that didn’t happen to me.
The virtual hardware showed an e1000 vNIC installed in this VM, but no icon showed up in Network Connections.
Deploy a VM from template with PowerCLI
Posted: February 17, 2012 Filed under: PowerShell / PowerCLI, VMware | Tags: deploy vm from template, deploy vm from template powercli, powercli, small vm, vm powercli Leave a commentNow that I have a small VM for my test lab, I converted it to a template and looked for a cool way to deploy several VMs from this template with PowerCLI. Turns out it’s actually really easy, anti-climactic, even. The good folks over at VMPros.nl have an excellent tutorial on this topic. Alan Renouf (Twitter @alanrenouf) was the first to comment on their blogpost. He included a nice for loop to replace a single line for each VM deployment. I incorporated Alan’s suggestion as well as a few options from the PowerCLI New-VM cmdlet reference page, like adding the VM to a resource pool and then powering on the VM.
Here’s the code:
Posted: February 5, 2012 Filed under: Site Surveys, SQL Server, VMware, Windows | Tags: srm, vcenter, vcenter design, vmware, vmware update manager, vmware vcenter, vum 3 Comments
In response to Miguel’s post, here are my thoughts:
I’m sure at least one of the VMware dudes Miguel was talking to was once a Windows System Administrator. I’m also sure that that same VMware dude cringed at the thought of needlessly putting multiple services on a single VM. He probably thought that as long as the customer had enough money for Windows Server licenses, compute and disk resources, that one should obviously separate each service into their own server. Now, to take a step back, let us say that, yes, it certainly is possible to put all the services you mentioned, vCenter, SQL 2008, VUM, and maybe even SRM on the same box, whether virtual or physical. But of course, whether this is possible or not is not in question. It’s whether it should or should not be done in the first place. I’m going to pull out the age old consultant’s answer and say, “It depends.”
It depends on if the customer has the budget for more Windows or SQL licenses. Does the customer have the compute and disk resources for several more servers? Is there already an existing SQL box or cluster that could be used? Is a DBA on staff, or at least a competent Windows Server admin? Does the customer’s environment even need a full blown SQL installation or would SQL Express do fine?
Now I’m coming from a background of government contracting where money is usually thrown at such projects. Resources for such an implementation are little thought about because they’re going to be there no matter what. This question could impact SMBs more, but probably not large corporations.
I think there are certainly right and wrong ways to implement based on circumstances. On the one hand, if you have the licenses, compute, disk, and administrative resources, I say absolutely, put each service on it’s own separate box. In more constrained environments, you may need to double up two or more services.
That’s not the least of it. Recovering from a failed VM will cost you less in time, effort, and hopefully, money. With an “all your eggs in one basket” approach, if one VM goes down, is somehow unrecoverable, then you’ve lost a lot of data. Separating your services reduces the liklihood that any one VM failure/loss will result in mutlitple services lost.
So I was having a discussion with a few fellow VMware dudes, and we were discussing the vCenter installation methods. One train of thought is to install vCenter, VUM, SQL 2008,, and SRM on 1 VM with 2 vCPUs, 4 GB of memory an a 100 GB drive, Monitor for performance and adjust as required by analyzing the performance data. I have alwbeen doing installations this way lately without issue. I have also done installations on dedicated SQL boxes \ VMs. I have gotten good performance out of the environment with having all services on a single VM. In larger environments of 20 or more hosts and 300 + VMs, I have used a dedicated SQL server. The SRM documetation recommends a separate server for the SRM installation, but I have not seen any issues with it on the same box, and there was not any performance degradation in an…
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A Small Virtual Machine for a Test Lab
Posted: February 5, 2012 Filed under: Tid-bits, VMware | Tags: damn small linux, damn small linux ova, damn small linux ovf, damn small linux virtual machine, dsl, dsl ova, dsl ovf, dsl virtual machine, dsl vm, linux dsl, mobile test, ova, ovf, small virtual machine, small vm, test lab, testlab 38 CommentsGet my 57MB Damn Small Linux OVA here (rename file extension from .doc to .ova): DOWNLOAD
While I’m traveling, I use my laptop as a mobile test lab. To do anything of significance, I like to run two VMware ESXi 5 hosts, vCenter Server 5, a domain controller (both on x64 Windows Server 2008 R2) and for my recent study focus, a NetApp DataONTAP 8.1 simulator, all on VMware Workstation 8. All these things are great, but with “only” 8 GB RAM to pull from, my resources are limited and I’m pushing RAM utilization to the max before I even start running VMs, as you can see below. The only thing saving me is an Intel 320 Series SSD.
Posted: January 26, 2012 Filed under: Site Surveys, VMware | Tags: analyze, analyze customer requirements, analyze vmware requirements, design, vmware, vmware design Leave a comment
There are a several good points made my new blogging buddy, Miguel. Number one, you don’t include in your design features for the sake of features. This may seem obvious, but perhaps for a passionate (maybe overzealous!) VMware Architect, implementing features on which on-site staff are not proficient or can’t manage is not a benefit. As Miguel shares in this “palm-to-face” anecdote, such features in the hands of untrained staff can have the opposite effect for which they’re designed. So take into account the staff’s abilities before including advanced features in your design. Number two, communication is key in any environment. Communicating to the customer the gravity of the decisions they make in regards to what’s included in the design and certainly sharing planned maintenance times with all stakeholders. A communication strategy and change control process are key to making this work. Number three, as Miguel shared with me, if an admin is looking at his virtual infrastructure like a hog looks at a wristwatch, well, things are pretty bad. And finally, always remember: VMware’s easy.
I had a long-term project at a customer site where I was to analyze, design, and architect a solution based on the equipment, environment, and requirements. Before I rolled in to the customer site as the new VMware SME, there had been a recommendation by a junior and recent VCP to implement distributed switching, linked vCenters and a few other feature sets of VMware and NetApp. There was not any experience with distributed switching by the on-site staff and their exposure to VMware was minimal, although many thought themselves as experts after a few weeks with the product. I kept hearing the comment that VMware was easy. I recommended a hybrid solution with the MC using standard switching, and VM network\storage on distributed switching as a compromise to a fully distributed solution. They decided against this even after I presented them with the advantages.
A few weeks later they had…
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How to Configure LUN Masking with Openfiler 2.99 and ESXi 4.1
Posted: December 22, 2011 Filed under: Storage, VMware | Tags: configure lun masking, configure openfiler, esx, esxi, esxi 4.1, lun masking, openfiler, openfiler 2.99 8 CommentsThis is a duplicate post on this blog but for good reason. I’m back home for vacation and my on-ramp to the interwebs is finally high speed DSL and more reliable than when I first posted several months ago. Therefore, I’m able to include my original screenshots with this post. I had to remove the screenshots in the first post because they wouldn’t upload. I hope this post will give you that visual aid that’s so helpful in walkthroughs.