vCenter Server 4.0

vCenter Server 4.0 is compatible with and may be used to manage ESX 2.5.x, 3.0.x, 3.5 (all Updates), and 4.0.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_compatibility_matrix.pdf
More vQuotes

Lab Manager 3

Two of the Lab Manager 3 software installation requirements are Microsoft Internet Information Services 6.0 and Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 or higher.

IIS 6.0 must be installed before .NET Framework.
More vQuotes

first 5 nodes in an HA cluster

By default, the first 5 nodes in an HA cluster are primary nodes. Remaining nodes are secondary. Primary nodes maintain all node states & this information is synchronized with other primary nodes. Secondary nodes send info to primary nodes.
To find out which hosts in the cluster & primary and which are secondary, run the following command in the Service Console:

cat /var/log/vmware/aam/aam_config_util_listprimaries.log
More vQuotes

VMware vSphere 4.0

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.0
Fibre Channel over Ethernet — Extends the number of I/O consolidation options available to VMware customers by adding Fibre Channel over Ethernet support on Converged Network Adapters (CNAs). For a list of supported Fibre Channel over Ethernet CNAs with vSphere 4.0, please see the IO Devices tab in the Hardware Compatibility Guide http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php
More vQuotes

Enabling SSL certificates

Enabling SSL certificates in vCenter often results in guest customization password decryption error messages after upgrading to a new version of vCenter. The error message will show up when trying to apply a guest customization to a VM. The resolution can be found in the following VMTN discussion (find the post by 'Tigernoy'):

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/54721
More vQuotes

VMFS-3 as a datastore

Both VI3 and vSphere utilize VMFS-3 as a datastore format. Making the jump from VI3 to vSphere requires no VMFS upgrade.

While the native vSphere VMFS datastore version does increment from VMFS 3.31 to 3.33, there is currently no known advantage to upgrading to this VMFS version. In short, it would be counterproductive and a waste of valuable time.
More vQuotes

"Access denied"

On the Lab Manager Server, the NETWORK SERVICE account minimally needs READ NTFS permissions in the Lab Manager installation directories or the Lab Manager services will fail to start with an "access denied" error message.
More vQuotes

Cached Virtual Infrastructure

Cached Virtual Infrastructure Client host connection entries are stored in the Windows registry and are tied to each individual user profile (HKU). You’ll find the comma delimited list of entries in the following registry key:

HKU\[User SID]\Software\VMware\VMware Infrastructure Client\Preferences\
The value name is RecentConnections and the type is REG_SZ
More vQuotes

The VMware Fusion team

The VMware Fusion team has put together a great “how to” guide for installing Microsoft Windows 7 (beta) on Fusion. The screenshots and detailed explanations should have you up and running Windows 7 in no time.

Some report that Windows 7 on a VM runs very well, better than Vista, with as little as 512MB RAM.

http://blogs.vmware.com/teamfusion/2009/01/windows-7-on-mac-with-vmware-fusion-a-practical-guide.html
More vQuotes

SCSI reservation conflicts

Scan your ESX logs for SCSI reservation conflicts with the following command at the Service Console:

grep -i reservation /var/log/vmkernel*
More vQuotes

New in VMware vSphere 4.0

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.0
Events and Alarms Enhancements — Alarms are triggered only when they satisfy certain time conditions to minimize the number of false triggers. See vSphere Basic System Administration http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_admin_guide.pdf
More vQuotes

Virtualized Citrix Access Gateway Appliance

Virtualized Citrix Access Gateway Appliance

Citrix Access Gateway is a pay-for hardware appliance from Citrix allowing flexible and robust remote access to Citrix farms. It is the successor to Citrix Secure Gateway (which was free). The following URL contains information on virtualizing CAG with VMware. Unsupported by Citrix.

http://cns-service.blogspot.com/2008/07/citrix-access-gateway-456-on-vmware.html
More vQuotes

DRS Affinity/Anti-Affinity rules

DRS Affinity/Anti-Affinity rules are nice features which I consider the precursor to vApps where VMs are tied together to run on the same host. VMware provides no export feature to document the rules and by virtue of their location, they are hidden and easily forgotten. Dominic Rivera provides a PowerShell script to export anti-affinity rules.

http://vmprofessional.com/2009/06/drs-and-anti-affinity-rules.html
More vQuotes

esxcfg-vmhbadevs

Use the Service Console command esxcfg-vmhbadevs to display the mappings between vmhba names and /dev names.

i.e.
esxcfg-vmhbadevs
or
esxcfg-vmhbadevs -m
More vQuotes

ESX4.0 Service Console

New features in the ESX4.0 Service Console:
Support for both 32-bit and 64-bit apps; 64-bit driver support; Console root file system is a VMDK file; IPv6 support; Security Enhancement (ASLR); 64-bit Perl environment; Linux standard packages; Support for remote file systems; VMware configuration CLI support (esxcfg-*); Command-line utilities; DMTF SMASH 2.0 support; New vmware-cmd commands (listvms & getid)
More vQuotes

vCenter memory statistics

Misinterpreted vCenter memory statistics:

Usage = Percentage of memory used as a percent of all available machine memory
Granted = Memory granted to the VM by the host. Memory is not granted until it is touched one time
Active = Memory used by the VM in the past small window of time
Consumed = Absolute host memory consumed by the VM
Shared = Memory shared with other VMs as a result of Content Based Page Sharing
More vQuotes

Lost in the ESX file system

Windows administrators may become lost in the ESX file system. There are two methods I know of for locating files in the ESX Service Console.

whereis - It's the shorter of the two methods but only works with source/binary files. On the plus side, it also locates manual sections.
ie. whereis esxcfg-vswitch

find - This is the method I commonly use
ie. find / |grep .iso (or find / -iname *.iso) note the different results
More vQuotes

Tweaks

For a small performance gain in certain operations on ESX3 and newer, disable the vmfs2 driver in the VMkernel. In smaller storage deployments, the gain probably won't be noticeable but for those who pride themselves in tweaks, this one's for you. The thread below describes a few different methods:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/67384
More vQuotes

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.0

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.0
Resource Usage Statistics — vCenter Server now displays detailed CPU and memory usage statistics at both the virtual machine and resource pool aggregation levels in a cluster. Statistics include CPU usage and demand, and private, shared, ballooned, and swapped memory usage breakdown. See the vSphere Resource Management Guide http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_resource_mgmt.pdf
More vQuotes

Virtual hardware as a first choice

Your hardware platform standard for new deployments, especially with the availability of vSphere, should be virtual hardware as a first choice.

For workloads that are not virtualization candidates, traverse the normal route of selecting blades or full size rack servers.
More vQuotes

Lab Manager Roles

Lab Manager Roles:

(System) Administrator-Lab Manager Administrator; highest global authority
Organization Administrator-Highest authority in the Organization (save Administrator)
Template Creator-Can create VM Templates & Configurations
Application Owner-Can create Configurations
User-Can deploy Configurations & check out LiveLink Library Configurations
View Only-Can view Workspace Configurations only
More vQuotes

Windows Security Policy Requirements

Windows Security Policy Requirements for Lab Manager 3

Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (always) - disabled
Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (if client agrees) - disabled
Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level - Send NTLM response only
More vQuotes

HA isolation response

To test HA isolation response, you don't necessarily need to physically pull the Service Console NIC cables from the host. You can disable the vswif interface remotely with the command esxcfg-vswif -d [vswif_name]. Be sure you have out of band remote access to the host hardware because you will lose network connectivity to the host. To restore the vswif, the command is esxcfg-vswif -e [vswif_name].
More vQuotes

VMware licensing issues

Purchasing a product and not being able to install or use it due to licensing issues can be frustrating. VMware provides at least two resource inlets to resolve licensing issues:

Email VI-hotline@vmware.com
or
Call 1.877.4.VMware (1-877-486-9273)

Manage your VMware account (and licenses) at: https://www.vmware.com/account/index.do
More vQuotes

ESX Users and Groups

ESX Users and Groups

-Users are stored in the /etc/passwd file
-Groups are stored in the /etc/group file
-Encrypted passwords for the Users are stored in the /etc/shadow file

If you're a Red Hat Enterprise Linux administrator, this should sound strangely familiar to you.
More vQuotes

New in VMware vSphere 4.0

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.0
VMware vShield Zones — Enables customers to monitor and enforce network access to sensitive areas of the virtual datacenter, including the DMZ, or to servers with sensitive data that is subject to regulations such as PCI or SOX compliance. See the VMware vShield Zones documentation http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vsz_pubs.html
More vQuotes

Oracle 9i R2

Oracle 9i R2 is a supported database back end for vCenter Server versions through 2.5 Update 4.

vCenter Server 4.0 requires Oracle 10g R2 or newer (including Oracle 11g).
More vQuotes

VMware Infrastructure 3 Advanced

Scott Herold owns and operates the VMGuru.com website. Together with co-authors Ron Oglesby and Mike Laverick, Scott is offering free downloads of their book "VMware Infrastructure 3 Advanced Technical Design Guide". This is one of the best VMware VI books on the market today. Find the downloadable book at the link below:

http://www.vmguru.com/index.php/component/content/article/83
More vQuotes

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.0

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.0
255GB RAM — Up to 255GB RAM can be assigned to ESX/ESXi 4.0 virtual machines. See vSphere Basic System Administration http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_admin_guide.pdf
More vQuotes

Snapshot on ESX(i)

When creating a snapshot on ESX(i), consider not snapshotting the virtual machine's memory. By default the virtual machine memory will be included in the snapshot. Snapshotting a VM without the memory state will take a lot less time and disk storage. Understand, however, that you cannot revert to a live running VM without the saved memory state. The snapshot will be crash consistent.
More vQuotes

VMware vSphere 4.0

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.0
64-bit Service Console — The Linux-based Service Console for ESX 4.0 is now 64-bit. The new Service Console version is derived from a recent release of a leading Enterprise Linux vendor. See the vSphere Resource Management Guide http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_resource_mgmt.pdf
More vQuotes