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 it. To restore the vswif, the command is esxcfg-vswif -e [vswif_name].
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Decoding FT Problems

Decoding FT Problems

Receiving errors while trying to configure FT on a VM and stumped as to the reason why? Examine the vCenter server log in your vSphere Client and find the entry when the FT error occurred. Note the "reason = " line and cross reference it in the following URL:

http://bit.ly/114K3E
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vCenter Converter ports

Required VMware vCenter Converter ports
Powered on Windows OS (P2V): TCP 443, 445, 139, 902, 9089, UDP 137, 138
Powered on Linux OS (P2V): TCP 22, 443, 902, 903
Existing VM (V2V): TCP 139, 443, 445, 902, UDP 137, 138

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1010056
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New in VMware vSphere 4.1

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.1

vCLI Enhancements - vCLI adds options for SCSI, VAAI, network, and virtual machine control, including the ability to terminate an unresponsive virtual machine. In addition, vSphere 4.1 provides controls that allow you to log vCLI activity.

http://vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp4_41_vcli_inst_script.pdf
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Service Console vSwitch

A Service Console vSwitch with only 1 pNIC will result in a constant yellow warning banner in vCenter indicating the lack of network redundancy for the Service Console. This warning can be disabled by changing the advanced HA setting das.ignoreRedundantNetWarning from false to true. However, do understand the negative implications of no Service Console redundancy.
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License per CPU socket

Applications that license per CPU socket will cost extra $ in a vSMP VM. The following tweak will allow the application to see CPU cores instead of CPU sockets:
1. Power off the VM & Edit the VM settings
2. Options tab
3. General (in the Advanced options section)
4. Configuration Parameters
5. Add Row
6. Enter "cpuid.coresPerSocket" in the Name column
7. Enter a value of 2, 4, or 8 in the Value column
http://bit.ly/9yiROJ
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VI3 License File Locations

VI3 License File Locations

Centralized server based license files are located on the vCenter License Server in the default directory of C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware License Server\Licenses

Decentralized host based server license files are located on the ESX host at /etc/vmware/vmware.lic

vSphere utilizes license keys as opposed to centralized server based license files.
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dmesg

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

dmesg
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vCenter Server service

The vCenter Server service can fail to start because of a lack of transaction log space. To commit and shrink the transaction logs, execute the following query in SQL Management Studio on the vCenter database:

BACKUP LOG vc WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY
DBCC SHRINKFILE(vc_log,2)

Where vc is the trans log file you want to process.

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003979
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003980
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vCenter Server 4.x installation

During the installation of VMware vCenter Server 4.x, the NETWORK SERVICE account must have READ NTFS permissions at the root of the installation drive letter or else the installation of the local ADAM instance will fail and the entire installation process will roll back.

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1010938
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Snapshots

Snapshots do not grow to infinity. Snapshots are a delta bitmap of the parent .vmdk file. Snapshots grow in 16MB increments (by default) up to a maximum size equal to the size of the parent disk. An update to an existing sector in the snapshot will be overwritten; it's not a continuous append or transaction log which grows forever.
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Backing up virtual infrastructure

Use a "one-two punch" approach to backing up your virtual infrastructure by implementing both file level and image level (.vmdk) backups. File level backups will facilitate the day to day restore requests. Image level backups offer rapid recovery options in disaster recovery scenario. The best backup products available will offer both types of protection. Some packages employ both methods of protection simultaneously.
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New in VMware vSphere 4.1

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.1

Storage Performance Statistics - Offers enhanced visibility into storage throughput & latency of hosts & virtual machines, & aids in troubleshooting storage performance issues. NFS statistics are now available in vCenter Server performance charts, as well as in esxtop. New VMDK & datastore statistics are included. All statistics are available through the vSphere SDK.

http://bit.ly/9q9HW8
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Thinstall

On this day in 2008, VMware announced the acquisition of Thinstall. The Thinstall product is rebranded as ThinApp and VMware released ThinApp 4.0 on 6/27/08. ThinApp creates portable applications that can be leveraged across a variety of operating systems (Windows XP, Vista, 7, NT, 2000, 2003, 2008, 2008 R2) and plug into a variety of deployment infrastructures (SMS, LANDesk, Citrix, BMC, and others)
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Guest VLAN Tagging

To configure VM Guest VLAN Tagging (VGT), configure the vSwitch portgroup for VLAN 4095. A vNIC in a VM configured to use this portgroup will be VGT enabled. The guest OS network configuration must be set correctly for VLAN tagging including having the associated VLAN tagging driver installed. Use VGT if the vSphere VM requires more than 10 VLANs configured.
http://bit.ly/bVu10L
http://bit.ly/bSmaDy
http://bit.ly/Irmqr
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Enabling SSL

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. A resolution can be found in the following VMTN discussion (find the post by 'Tigernoy'):

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/54721
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Zimbra

On this day in 2010, VMware announces its acquisition of Zimbra, open source email, calendaring & collaboration software, for $100M. The acquisition is completed on 2/16/10. There are 2 primary reasons for the acquisition:
1. Zimbra will further VMware's mission of simplifying IT
2. Zimbra will add to the portfolio of offerings VMware provides to its vCloud partners

Read more from Steve Herrod at http://bit.ly/6e68rA
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Assured Computing Environment

On this day in 2005, VMware released ACE (Assured Computing Environment) 1.0. ACE is a revolutionary product that reinvents desktop management and security. ACE is a great fit for contractor, telecommuter, and mobile laptop users with a single mechanism that combines security, user autonomy, and centralized management.
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Multivendor Post

A “Multivendor Post” to help iSCSI customers using VMware

Shared storage is the key to unlocking many of the VMware Virtual Infrastructure components. EMC, VMware, NetApp, Dell/EqualLogic, and HP/LeftHand all conspired to create one of the most informative VMware on iSCSI documents available.

http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2009/01/a-multivendor-post-to-help-our-mutual-iscsi-customers-using-vmware.html
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Uptime command

At the ESX Service Console or ESXi busybox console, quickly find out the uptime of the host with the uptime command.

i.e.
[root@esxhost /etc]# uptime
19:45:34 up 7 days, 20:01, 1 user, load average: 0.06, 0.05, 0.01

~ # uptime
02:21:55 up 7 min, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
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Root file system

Microsoft Windows utilizes a multi root file system where folders collapse to one root but there can be multiple roots, each with a directory tree (ie. C:\, D:\, etc.)
C:\apple
D:\banana

Linux variants use a single root file system where all folders collapse to a single root (ie. /)
/apple
/banana
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VMware vSphere 4.1

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.1

DRS Interoperability for VMware HA & Fault Tolerance (FT) - FT-enabled virtual machines can take advantage of DRS functionality for load balancing & initial placement. VMware HA & DRS are more tightly integrated, which allows VMware HA to restart virtual machines in more situations & provide optimal VM restart placement.

http://vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_availability.pdf
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Log files using Syslog

Centralization of log files using Syslog requires UDP port 514 to be open between the ESX(i) host & the Syslog server. Open a Syslog port in the ESX firewall with the following command:
esxcfg-firewall -o 514,udp,out,"syslog". Syslog is configured on ESX in /etc/syslog.conf

There's no firewall in ESXi.

Splunk is a popular Syslog server solution. Also look at Simon Long's use of vMA for Syslog http://bit.ly/bds96h
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Running ESXTOP

Running ESXTOP in replay mode:

1. Capture statistics using vm-support in snapshot mode using the command:
vm-support -S -d duration -i interval
2. Unzip & untar the resulting tar file so that esxtop can use it in replay mode
3. To run esxtop in replay mode, enter the command:
esxtop -R [vm-support_directory_path]
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HA cluster

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 heartbeats to primary nodes only.
To find out which hosts in the cluster are primary & which are secondary, run the following command in the Service Console:

cat /var/log/vmware/aam/aam_config_util_listprimaries.log
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New in VMware vSphere 4.1

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.1

Network I/O Control - Traffic-management controls allow flexible partitioning of physical NIC bandwidth between different traffic types, including virtual machine, vMotion, FT, and IP storage traffic (vNetwork Distributed Switch only).

http://bit.ly/bNrQRZ
http://bit.ly/9a2NoE
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Access to VMware Tools

Disable access to VMware Tools in the Windows system tray (doesn't restrict access thru Control Panel) 1) Go to c:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\ 2) Apply Deny permission for Read & Execute, & Read for the users on file VMControlPanel.cpl 3) Right click on the VMware Tools system tray icon and choose disable 4) Run regedit & delete the VMware Tools key in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
KB1006354
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Access to VMware Tools

Disable access to VMware Tools in the Windows system tray (doesn't restrict access thru Control Panel) 1) Go to c:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\ 2) Apply Deny permission for Read & Execute, & Read for the users on file VMControlPanel.cpl 3) Right click on the VMware Tools system tray icon and choose disable 4) Run regedit & delete the VMware Tools key in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
KB1006354
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