Clearspace Server Syndication Feed

New VMWare Production Environment!

2008-11-19T08:56:59Z

Today we installed our new production environment!

It is built on 3 ESX servers, VC and iSCSI SAN on 4 Tb. We have tryed a new software to setup the iSCSI, StarWind iSCSI. It is working great!

Hitachi Data Systems Expert Session on SRM

2008-11-05T21:51:33Z

Hitachi Data Systems Solution for Site Recovery Manager

Join this expert session running November 10th-26th, presented by Christophe Bertrand, Senior Director, Platform Marketing, HDS.

This session presents the architecture of the Hitachi Solution for Site Recovery Manager from VMware. It highlights the underlying foundation of Hitachi Data System's array based replication technologies and how SRM leverages market proven products and services for enterprise replication.

Watch the recorded flash video presentation and then post any questions or comments you have for the expert to respond to or just to share with the community. There is also a live online chat feature for networking and real-time discussions.

http://www.vmworld.com/community/experts/hds\

4 Months and ticking..

2008-11-02T11:18:02Z

Hello Everyone,

As you can imagine we are steaming a head with the planning for the 2nd VMworld Europe event. We are trying to get some extra tents to be able to host more session repeats and give more speaking opportunities to the sponsors of the event. I think the solution exchange will be super exciting again with so many companies presenting their solutions for the virtualization industry.

We are hoping to open up the call for papers by the end of November, so if you want to present a session based on real world experiences, we would love to facilitate that. We are limited in the amount of sessions, as we prefer to have a lot of sessions repeated so you have more flexibility during the event. The selection will be difficult, so make sure you will submit really interesting sessions that a lot of people can learn stuff from, because that is really what we are looking for. We will not accept any commercial presentation thru the call for paper system, as that will be part of the sponsorship packages for companies attending the solution exchange.

If you have any suggestions or ideas for us on how to make the event a great success, feel free to drop me an email: Richard@vmware.com

See you all hopefully in Cannes next year.
Richard@vmware.com

Demystifying Virtualization Licensing in Microsoft Environments - Part 3

2008-10-29T13:21:23Z

Alright, time to talk desktops. Many of our customers are talking about virtualizing and streaming operating systems to desktops, laptops, blades and even thin clients, so this has quickly become a topic we discuss on a daily basis.

In this post, I'll cover what you need to use something like Citrix Provisioning Server to stream a desktop OS down to a PC, as well as how to license properly for centralized VMs.

Streaming a Desktop Operating System
You need Software Assurance (SA) to do this! So, if you want to use something like Citrix Provisioning server to 'stream' a Windows Vista or XP OS down to blades, desktops etc; the rights to do this exist in Vista Enterprise, which you can only get as a part of Software Assurance. For more information:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/enterprise/benefits/licensing.mspx

Virtualize Desktops, connect via a Windows Desktop
If you have a desktop, laptop, or basically a device that is capable of running a Windows Operating system, you need to purchase VECD (Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop) for Software Assurance from Microsoft. This is an add-on, per desktop subscription license which is termed the same as your Software Assurance.

If you do not have Software Assurance on your desktops, you need to purchase it (if within 90 days of desktop purchase) and then add VECD for SA. If its been more than 90 days since your desktop purchase, you will need to purchase the Vista Upgrade/SA license, then VECD for SA.

Virtualize Desktops, connect via a Mac
You can purchase a Windows Vista Volume Upgrade License/SA for your Macs, and then install Windows Vista Enterprise via Apple Bootcamp or VECD for SA to access a centralized desktop VMs. You can even PXE boot your Mac to Citrix Provisioning Server due to the benefits of Software Assurance.

Virtualize Desktops, connect via a Thin Client
If you have a thin device that is unable of running a full Windows desktop operating system, you can purchase VECD for Thin Clients. This is subscription-based as well, and is available via Open Value, Select, Enterprise and Campus/Academic agreements.

That should cover almost every option of licensing Windows desktops for virtualized environments and streaming. Just remember that you can't 'move' your OEM licenses that come with PCs; those live and die with the hardware. You can add Software Assurance to them to get Vista Enterprise, diskless benefits etc, and even subscribe to VECD for SA. However, if you throw away that PC, you lose the OEM license and everything that goes with it. You can 'move' your SA to another OEM PC based on the term left, but that can be pretty complex, so you should talk to your Microsoft Licensing Specialist about that.

Hope this helps.

Nathan

Check out my 'Understanding Microsoft Licensing for Virtualized Environments' presentation: http://www.vmworld.com/people/nathan.coutinho?view=documents

How VMware products have you implemented?

2008-10-25T16:32:27Z

Good question and thank you for asking...

One (1) VMware VirtualCenter Foundation Academic
Two (2) VI3 Consolidated Backup Academic
Two (2) Academic VMware Infrastructure Foundation for 2 processors
One (1) VMware Fusion for Mac (Which blows Parallels out of the water. And, I'm making future plans to purchase an addition 200 licenses for faculty and staff)

ESXi 3.5 Remote CLI

2008-10-25T16:08:37Z

It's good to know RCLI, to get information and enable features on your ESXi host, such as snmp. But, I'm having an issue with enabling snmp. I'm receiving an error that says something to the sort, Remote.fault... something or other. Very frustrating.

Well, when I figure it out I'll post a document. On the plus side, my flavor coffee this morning is tasty.

?No Server Left Behind?: Protect and Recover ALL of Your Applications

2008-10-24T20:44:00Z

Disaster recovery is crucial to your business. A combination of Double-Take for Windows and our newest product, Livewire, make it easier than ever to protect and recover your organizations entire infrastructure. These products provide a complete recovery solution for both primary and secondary workloads in a cost effective and simple way without the pain and hassle of dealing with other methods like tape.

Join this technical session to discuss:

The recovery challenge that most IT organizations face: How to make sure systems are up and running as quickly after any kind of outage while staying within budget.
An in-depth technical look at Livewire, which allows you to protect and recover those secondary (or tier 2) systems that haven't made the priority list in the past.
How virtualization platforms like VMware ESX can be leveraged as a recovery platform and how Livewire makes it easy to recover into a VM.
A look at how Livewire "on demand" recovery can be augmented with real-time replication and failover from Double-Take to safeguard critical applications like Exchange and SQL.

Please join the experts from Double-Take Software for this free webinar to learn some new ways to dynamically move, protect, and recover workloads across any combination of physical and virtual server environments with minimal downtime.

How to configure networking from the Service Console command line

2008-10-17T10:12:43Z

{font:'Arial','sans-serif'}{size:10pt}Ensure the network adapter you want to use
is currently connected{font:'Times New Roman','serif'}

~~root@server root~~# esxcfg-nics –l
Name PCI
Driver Link Speed Duplex
Description
vmnic0 06:00.00 tg3
Up 1000Mbps Full Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme
BCM5721 Gigabit Ethernet
vmnic1 07:00.00 tg3
Up 1000Mbps Full Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme
BCM5721 Gigabit Ethernet

Up indicates that the network adapter is
available and functioning.
List
the current virtual switches

~~root@server root~~# esxcfg-vswitch –l
Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports
Configured Ports Uplinks
vSwitch0
32
3
32
vmnic0

PortGroup Name Internal
ID VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
VM
Network
portgroup2
0
0 vmnic0

In the above example, there
exists a virtual machine network named "VM Network" and no
Service Console portgroup. For illustration, we will create a new virtual
switch and place the service console portgroup on it.
Create
a new virtual switch:

~~root@server root~~# esxcfg-vswitch –a vSwitch1
Create
the Service Console portgroup on this new virtual switch:

~~root@server root~~# esxcfg-vswitch –A “Service Console”
vSwitch1

Because there is a space in the
name we chose (Service Console), we must enclose it in
quotation marks.
Uplink
vmnic1 to the new virtual switch:

~~root@server root~~# esxcfg-vswitch –L vmnic1 vSwitch1
If
you need to assign a VLAN, use the command:

~~root@server root~~# esxcfg-vswitch -v <VLAN>
-p “Service Console” vSwitch0

where <VLANID> is the VLAN number. A zero here specifies no VLAN.
Verify
the new virtual switch configuration:

~~root@server root~~# esxcfg-vswitch –l

Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports
Configured Ports Uplinks
vSwitch0
32
3
32
vmnic0

PortGroup Name Internal
ID VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
Service Console
portgroup5
0 1
vmnic0

Switch Name Num Ports Used Ports
Configured Ports Uplinks
vSwitch1
64 1
64 vmnic1

PortGroup Name Internal
ID VLAN ID Used Ports Uplinks
Service Console
portgroup14 0
1 vmnic1
Create
the vswif (Service Console) interface. For example:

~~root@server root~~# esxcfg-vswif –a vswif0 –i
192.168.1.10 –n 255.255.255.0 –p “Service Console”
‘Vnic’ warning Generated New Mac address, 00:50:xx:xx:xx:xx for vswif0

Nothing to flush.
Verify
the configuration:

~~root@esx~~# esxcfg-vswif –l
Name Port
Group IP
Address Netmask
Broadcast Enabled DHCP
vswif0 Service Console 192.168.1.10
255.255.255.0 192.168.1.255
true false

When disaster hits - DR, VMware and Sun Storage Arrays

2008-10-15T20:15:23Z

VMware has obviously revolutionized the concept of Disaster Recovery by introducing Site Recovery Manager earlier this year. SRM takes advantage of a storage array's remote replication capabilities to replicate Virtual Machine data necessary to bring up a Virtual Machine at the DR site without having to create and install a new OS and applications. Currently, Remote Replication configuration needs to be performed at the storage array level. All VMs that need to be part of the DR plan need to be resident on Primary Volumes (P-VOLs) part of a Remote Replication consistency group or pair. SRM simply creates a DR plan, and then makes use of Site Recovery Adapters (Provided by the specific array's Vendor) to replicate the data over to the secondary site. Once replication is complete, SRM can then allow users to perform DR tests without bringing the Production site down and even bring up the DR site if production site does go down. Now this is a very general description of how SRM works. I am not going into the intricate details of SRM's functionality at this time.

So what if one doesn't have SRM, cant use it, cant afford it or the arrays are not supported with SRM currently? Well, the remote replication capabilities of the arrays is already there anyways and these capabilities can be used without SRM. Configuration of the remote replication is performed at the storage array anyways which is just as simple as using Sun StorageTek Common Array Manager Software for the Sun StorageTek 6000 series and via Storage Navigator for the Sun StorageTek 9000 series arrays.

Once RemoteCopy (ST6000 series) or TrueCopy or Universal Replicator (ST9000 series) has been configured and P-VOL <=> S-VOL pairs have been established, it is just a matter of creating VMs using the P-VOLs, syncing the pairs and one will have a DR site ready.

Obviously I make it sound simplistic. It isn't ofcourse and all of the nuances and caveats apply whether SRM is being used or not. Soon, I will post technical specifics on what these nuances and caveats are and configuration best practices to create a successful DR configuration for VMware environments.

VMworld 2008 Attendee Sessions & Labs

2008-10-02T05:49:44Z

VMworld 2008 came to Vegas and swept the virtualizaiton industry by storm. While the physical conference may have ended, the conference sessions, labs, blogs and discussions will live on year-round.

VMworld 2008 Sessions & Labs will be posted to VMworld.com at the end of this week and will be available to all paid attendees of VMworld 2008. For breakout sessions, this includes streaming flash presentations (audio over slides), PDF downloads of all presentations and MP3 podcasts. For labs, this includes PDF downloads of all presentation and manuals.

As an added bonus, VMworld 2008 attendees will get access to all sponsor keynotes as PDFs, MP3s and streaming flash presentations. (VMware, Cisco, Dell, EMC, HP, IBM, Intel, NEC, NetApp, Symantec)

Check VMworld.com on Friday, 10/3 for the release of this content.

Year-round participation
Be sure to participate in discussions with the community on VMworld.com to share questions, comments and documents related to any sessions and labs you view. You can also create or continue a personal blog to share your experiences or knowledge of any session topics.

Enter the Virtual Pavilion as a fun and easy way to navigate through all VMworld.com content as a year-round virtual conference. Within the pavilion, you will find virtual exhibitor booths sponsored by virtualization vendors sharing their community offerings with visitors.

Cheers,
~Tony