New ESX builds

When deploying new ESX builds, save a lot of time by deploying from the newest build version of ESX available & patch from there. Avoid using VUM to remediate across 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).

This doesn't apply to ESXi which remediates via a single firmware update.
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Status of all daemons/services

Check the status of all daemons/services in the ESX Service Console with the following command:

service --status-all
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Memory Compression

Memory Compression was introduced in vSphere 4.1. Utilization of compression falls between Ballooning & VMkernel Swap. Pages which would have been swapped out are instead compressed & stored in a compression cache (10% of VM memory) located in the main memory. Access to the page only causes a page decompression which can be an order of magnitude faster than the disk access. This is cool technology!

http://bit.ly/dvGHsp
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Timekeeping articles

A collection of timekeeping articles from VMware:

http://blogs.vmware.com/kb/2009/02/new-timekeeping-articles.html
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Protect VM data

During the installation of ESX, it is extremely important to protect VM data stored on existing volumes. Early versions of ESX would actually destroy LUN data which it discovered during installation. Dominic Rivera outlines several options to protect data, a few of which are automated for unattended installs. Follow the link below and check it out:

http://vmprofessional.com/2009/06/protecting-your-san-luns-during.html
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Licensing In a Virtual Environment

Microsoft Windows Licensing In a Virtual Environment

Windows licenses are tied to physical host hardware, not the VM. This applies to any hypervisor.
-A Windows 2008 Datacenter Edition license entitles an unlimited number of Windows VMs on the host.
-A Windows 2008 Enterprise Edition license entitles up to 4 Windows VMs on the host.
-A Windows 2008 Standard Edition license entitles up to 1 Windows VM on the host.
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@VMwareKB on Twitter

Be the first to see new and updated VMware KB articles by following @VMwareKB on Twitter and subscribing to the following RSS feed:

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/VMwareKnowledgebaseWeeklyDigest

Or visit the VMware Weekly KB Digest with your browser at:
http://blogs.vmware.com/kbdigest/
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Daemons/Services

The maximum size allowed in a vSphere virtual machine is 2TB minus 512B. This is true even for VMs living on NFS volumes which aren't restricted by the 2TB -512B VMFS volume size limit. This true for RDMs as well.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_config_max.pdf
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Network Communication Port

Network Communication Ports for VMware Virtual Infrastructure
443, 902, 903, 2049, 2050-2250,
3260, 8000, 8042-8045, 27000, 27010

For a few different diagrams, see: http://bit.ly/bd7vXC
Here's another great one, the most thorough yet: http://bit.ly/cgzAbx
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vSphere Host Profiles

vSphere Host Profiles cannot be created from scratch and only two methods exist to create a Host Profile:

1. A Host Profile can be generated from an existing ESX or ESXi host
2. A Host Profile can be imported from a .VPF file which was previously exported

However, once created, Host Profiles can be fine tuned in an editor.
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Journaling

By default, VMs which are bound to an internal vSwitch (that is, a vSwitch with no pNIC uplinks) cannot be vMotioned. This behavior can be altered by adding the following to the config flag in the vCenter vpxd.cfg file:
[migrate]
[test]
[CompatibleNetworks]
[VMOnVirtualIntranet]false[/VMOnVirtualIntranet]
[/CompatibleNetworks]
[/test]
[/migrate]
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006701
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Configuration Maximums Comparison

Configuration Maximums Comparison

Linked Mode for vCenter Server 4.1:
Linked vCenter Server system: 10 vCenter Servers
ESX(i) hosts in Linked Mode environment: 3,000 ESX(i) hosts
Powered-on VMs in Linked Mode environment: 30,000 VMs
Registered VMs in Linked Mode environment: 50,000 VMs

vCenter Server 2.5 and below does not support Linked Mode
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New in VMware vSphere 4.1

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.1

Windows Failover Clustering with VMware HA - Clustered Virtual Machines that utilize Windows Failover Clustering/Microsoft Cluster Service are now fully supported in conjunction with VMware HA.

http://vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_mscs.pdf
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RAID rebuild

A RAID rebuild is the most stressful time period in the life of a drive. This is because the drive is busy servicing IO requests to rebuild the RAID set, while also servicing normal read/write IO requests. A drive is more likely to fail during a RAID rebuild. For this reason, it's a good idea to think about smaller RAID 5 sets, use RAID 6 or RAID-DP, or employ the use of a hot spare drive along with RAID protection.
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Virtual disk to an RDM

Convert a standard virtual disk to an RDM with the following commands:
For virtual compatibility mode: vmkfstools -I [srcfile] -d rdm: /vmfs/devices/disks/vmhbaW:X:Y:Z /vmfs/volumes/[datastore]/[vmdir]/[vmname].vmdk
For physical compatibility mode: vmkfstools -I [srcfile] -d rdmp: /vmfs/devices/disks/vmhbaW:X:Y:Z /vmfs/volumes/[datastore]/[vmdir]/[vmname].vmdk
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/3443266
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Configuration Maximums

Configuration Maximums Comparison

Virtual NICs per VM:
ESX(i) 4.1: 10 NICs
ESX(i) 4.0u1: 10 NICs
ESX(i) 3.5 Update 5: 4 NICs
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vSphere 4.1

With vSphere 4.1 being the last version with a Service Console, you will need to learn how to use vMA Appliance 4.1 efficiently. Get to know vi-fastpass & its commands which are used to bind to hosts & execute commands without having to supply a server name & credentials with each command issued. vMA 4.1 eliminates the sudo requirement:

vifp addserver host
vifp removeserver host
vifptarget -s host

http://bit.ly/dp5GTL
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VM networking issues

If you are experiencing host or VM networking issues, take a look at VMware KB article 1004109 entitled ESX Server host or virtual machines have intermittent or no network connectivity. This article contains several links to troubleshoot networking issues.

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004109
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Configuration Maximums Comparison

Configuration Maximums Comparison

Number of virtual machines per host:
ESX(i) 4.1: 320 VMs per host (all cluster feature restrictions lifted)
ESX(i) 4.0u1: 320 VMs per standalone host
ESX(i) 4.0u1: 256 VMs per host in a DRS cluster
ESX(i) 4.0u1: 160 VMs per host in an HA cluster of 8 or less hosts
ESX(i) 4.0u1: 40 VMs per host in an HA cluster of 9 or more hosts
ESX(i) 3.5u5: 170 VMs per host
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ESX snapshots

vSphere's vDS is comprised of two components: The Control Plane (the brain) and the Data Plane (the brawn). vDS configuration and control sits the vCenter Server. This is the Control Plane. The Data Plane performs the actual frame forwarding and resides on each ESX(i) host.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere-vnetwork-deployment-wp.pdf
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Right Sizing

Virtual Machine / P2V Right Sizing (from Merriam-Webster)

Main Entry: right·size
Pronunciation: \ˈrīt-ˌsīz\
Function: verb
Date: 1989
transitive verb
: to reduce (as a workforce) to an optimal size
intransitive verb
: to undergo a reduction to an optimal size

http://east.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rightsizing
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On this day in 2006

On this day in 2006, VMware announced Lab Manager, which enables enterprise software development organizations to more efficiently utilize software development and test lab assets, accelerate software development cycles and increase the quality of delivered software products. Two years later on the same date, version 3.0.1 is released with support for ESX3.5 Updates 3 and 4
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Why EMC PowerPath/VE?

Why EMC PowerPath/VE?
Better availability through:
-active management of intermittent path behavior
-more rapid path state detection
-automated path discovery behavior w/o manual rescan
Better performance:
-through better path selection
-by monitoring & adjusting to ESX host queue depth
-by predictive optimization based on the array port queues
Why not?
-Incompatibilities between PowerPath & non-EMC arrays.
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New in VMware vSphere 4.1

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.1

vCenter Server 4.1 can support three times more virtual machines and hosts per system, as well as more concurrent instances of the vSphere Client and a larger number of virtual machines per cluster than vCenter Server 4.0. The scalability limits of Linked Mode, vMotion, and vNetwork Distributed Switch have also increased.

http://vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_config_max.pdf
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Virtual Computing Environment coalition

On this day in 2009, VMware, Cisco & EMC introduced the Virtual Computing Environment coalition, a collaboration of 3 IT industry leaders. The VCE is created to accelerate customers’ ability to increase business agility through greater IT infrastructure flexibility, & lower IT, energy & real estate costs through pervasive data center virtualization & a transition to private cloud infrastructures.

http://bit.ly/4vm7GX
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vGingerbread Hypervisor

vGingerbread Hypervisor

vSphere 4.0 was released on 5/21/09 and introduced ~150 new features.
vSphere 4.1 was released on 7/13/10 and introduced 150+ new features.
That's 300+ features in 418 days...
or 1 new feature developed every 1.4 days.

Can any competitor catch VMware?
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VMware vSphere Cheat Sheet

Many people stumble on the accurate definition of a VLAN. Although a convenient analogy, a VLAN is really more than just a subnet. Following is a good summary:

"A VLAN is a logical LAN that provides efficient segmentation, security, & broadcast control while allowing traffic to share the same physical LAN segments or same physical switches."
-Scott Lowe, Mastering VMware vSphere 4

http://amzn.to/17CEzy
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