Compatibility modes

An RDM has 2 compatibility modes:

Virtual = Fully virtualized mapped device and thus is able to take advantage of VMFS benefits such as advanced file locking and use of snapshots. Looks like a standard virtual disk to the VM.

Physical = Minimal SCSI virtualization of the mapped device. VMkernel passes most SCSI commands to the device. All physical attributes of the underlying device hardware are exposed to the VM.
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Enhanced VMotion Compatibility

Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC) processor support

Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC) simplifies VMotion compatibility issues across CPU generations. EVC automatically configures server CPUs with Intel FlexMigration or AMD-V Extended Migration technologies to be compatible with older servers. Requires ESX Server 3.5 Update 2 or higher with Virtual Center 2.5 Update 2 or higher.

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003212
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Service Console command dmesg

Find out what hardware devices were discovered during the ESX boot process with the Service Console command dmesg
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vExpert Awards

On this day in 2009, VMware announces the vExpert Awards. 300 recipients are awarded the first ever vExpert status. vExperts were chosen on the basis of contributions they made to the community of VMware and virtualization users in 2008. VMware will hand out the vExpert awards on an annual basis. In 2010, new vExperts will be announced.

http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2009/02/vmware-vexpert-awards.html
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Ultimate Deployment Appliance

UDA (Ultimate Deployment Appliance) is a popular free PXE boot deployment tool by Carl Thijssen. Out of the box, it's configured with its own DHCP server. Configure UDA to use your network's native MS DHCP service in a 2 step process:
1) Disable DHCP in UDA
2) Set option 066 on your MS DHCP server with the UDA IP address
3) Set option 067 on your MS DHCP server with the string pxelinux.0
http://www.ultimatedeployment.org/
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Lab Manager Media library

The Lab Manager Media library enables the storage of files (typically these will be .ISO or .FLP images) which can be accessed by the Lab Manager users. There's really no magic. A Media library is nothing more than a native ESX datastore with files on it. It's earmarked as a Media library within Lab Manager to provide user access directly to the folder where the files are located to provide some isolation.
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The Fencing feature

The Fencing feature in Lab Manager isolates the virtual machine from other machines on the network and prevents IP and MAC address conflicts that could exist if multiple copies of the same machine are deployed at the same time.

The three modes of fencing are:
1) Allow In and Out
2) Allow Out
3) Block In and Out
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Lab Manager 4 Agent/Service Tidbits

Lab Manager 4 Agent/Service Tidbits

-The agent is installed on an ESX(i) host when it is "prepared" in Lab Manager
-The agent installs in the directory /opt/vmware/vslad
-Logging is in the directory /var/log/vmware/vslad
-The host service name is vslad and can be restarted for troubleshooting
-Debug logging can be enabled by modifying /etc/opt/vmware/vslad/vslad.xml (KB1012319) but not for an extended time
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Building the ESX host

When building the ESX host, create a dedicated partition for /opt.
Without a dedicated /opt partition, /opt is going to be a directory off /. Some instances of VMware HA logging as well as hardware agent logging is stored in /opt. Excessive logging on /opt can chew up all available partition space on /. Running out of disk space on / is less than ideal and that’s putting it mildly. I prefer a 4GB partition size for /opt.
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VMware vSphere 4.0

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.0
VMXNET Generation 3 — The third generation paravirtualized NIC from VMware. VMXNET3 includes many new features not found in Enhanced VMXNET
See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_esx_server_config.pdf http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_esxi_server_config.pdf
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Troubleshooting Adding an ESX Server Host

If you are unable to add an ESX host to a cluster due to HA issues, take a look at VMware KB article 1001596 entitled Troubleshooting Adding an ESX Server Host to a VMware High Availability Cluster. This article contains several steps to troubleshoot HA issues.

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1001596
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Microsoft Active Directory

Integrating Microsoft Active Directory authentication in the ESX Service Console used to be somewhat of a daunting task. Today, however, the steps have been greatly condensed and I find it a cinch:

1. Create a local user account on the ESX host for each AD user account you would like to authenticate
2. Use esxcfg-auth to configure the ESX host to be AD integrated
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VMware vSphere 4.0

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.0
64-bit VMkernel — The VMkernel, a core component of the ESX/ESXi 4.0 hypervisor, is now 64-bit. This feature provides greater host physical memory capacity, enhanced performance, and more seamless hardware support than earlier releases. See the vSphere Resource Management Guide http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_resource_mgmt.pdf
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SAN multipathing

VMware does not support SAN multipathing on the VCB Proxy. If by chance your VCB Proxy is multipathed per the political powers that be, take a look at a workaround published by David Davis:

http://www.petri.co.il/how-to-deal-with-vmware-esx-server-vcb-multipath-issues-consolidated-backup-windows.htm
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VMFS-2 to VMFS-3

One change from VMFS-2 to VMFS-3 was the outcome of a LUN failure when using extents. Because VMFS-3 employs LVM to manage volumes, data is not striped across the extents and therefore the loss of an extent doesn't necessarily constitute a loss of all VMs (although you will lose the VMs on the failed extent). VMs will continue to run on the other extents, unless the "head" extent is lost. Then all is gone.
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Virtualizing Microsoft Network Load Balancing

When virtualizing Microsoft Network Load Balancing (NLB) in unicast mode, be sure the effective "Notify Switches" switch port policy for this VM (whether by portgroup or by vSwitch) is set to "No" or else the VM will have various networking issues with other network hosts. NLB in multicast mode is not impacted by this setting.
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Lab Manager Configuration

Deploying a Lab Manager Configuration registers its virtual machines in vCenter. This is when you'll see new VMs show up in vCenter.

Undeploying a Lab Manager Configuration unregisters its virtual machines from vCenter. At this time, you'll find that the VMs have disappeared from vCenter.
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ESX builds

When deploying new ESX builds, save a lot of time by deploying from the newest build version of ESX available. Avoid using VMware Update Manager to remediate major updates because it takes an extraordinarily long time. For example, remediating Update 3 on an ESX 3.5.0 ESX host takes 1.5 hours on IBM x3850 hardware (including reboots).
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VMFS volumes block aligned?

Are your VMFS volumes block aligned? For optimal disk performance they should be. You can find out in the ESX Service Console with the following command:

fdisk -lu /vmfs/devices/disks/[vmhba_path]

A start value of 63 indicates no VMFS alignment (not the best)
A start value of 128 indicates VMFS alignment (great!)
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VMware vSphere 4.0

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.0
Host Profiles — Host profiles simplify host configuration management through user-defined configuration policies. See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_esx_server_config.pdf http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_esxi_server_config.pdf
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New in VMware vSphere 4.0

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.0
vSphere Management Assistant — The vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) is a virtual machine which includes vSphere Command-Line Interface and other prepackaged software that developers and administrators can use to run agents and scripts to manage ESX and ESXi systems. See the vMA home page for more information on vMA http://www.vmware.com/go/vma
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Media library

VMware doesn't allow Lab Manager users of any permission level to upload files to the Media library. Supposedly this is to protect valuable available storage. Ironically, Lab Manager users without quotas are allowed to freely chew through storage with any number of template and configuration deployments. This results in semi-frequent requests for the Lab Manager/VI admin to upload Media files for Lab Manager users.
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Stranded

When a Lab Manager user that owns objects is deleted, the user is considered "stranded". When a user gets stranded, ownership of its objects must be reassigned before the user can be fully deleted.
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Size, Used, Available, and %Used

Find out Size, Used, Available, and %Used of your ESX file system (including VM datastores) with the following command:

vdf -h

Leaving off the -h omits datastore information in the results, hence only local Service Console storage information is displayed.
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What's New in VMware vSphere 4.0

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.0
Storage Stack Performance & Scalability - Improved storage I/O performance, making even the most I/O-intensive applications prime candidates for virtualization. See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_esx_server_config.pdf http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_esxi_server_config.pdf
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Add a static route

Add a static route for an additional Service Console interface with the following command:

/sbin/route add -net [subnet ID] netmask [subnet mask] gw [gateway for 2nd COS]

Example:
/sbin/route add -net 10.10.24.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.0.2

Make the above change persistent by adding it to /etc/rc.local
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1005212
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New in VMware vSphere 4.0

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.0
1TB Host Memory — ESX/ESXi 4.0 supports systems with up to 1TB of RAM. See the vSphere Compatibility Matrixes for a list of systems for which 1TB host memory is supported http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_compatibility_matrix.pdf
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vSphere 4.0

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.0
vCenter Server 4.0 — vCenter Server 4.0 simplifies management for large environments with one-time setup and configuration, search-based navigation, and a single-pane-of-glass view for multiple vCenter Servers. In addition, vCenter Servers can be interconnected in Linked Mode. See vSphere Basic System Administration http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_admin_guide.pdf
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