Deploying a VM

Cloning a VM or deploying a VM from a template is much more efficient now in vSphere in terms of storage space used & operation time taken. During these operations, vSphere supports Thin & Thick (zeroedthick) destination disk formats. In both cases, the destination disk is not "zeroed" at creation time which is the key enabler for both efficiencies.
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Microsoft .NET Framework

If the vSphere Client seems to be taking an unusually long amount of time to install, it's because the Microsoft .NET Framework is being installed in the background (which is a required component). Notice the word 'Microsoft' on the installer title bar as opposed to 'VMware'.
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New in VMware vSphere 4.1

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.1

ESX(i) Active Directory Integration - Allows seamless user authentication for ESX(i). You can maintain users & groups in Active Directory for centralized user management & you can assign privileges to users or groups on ESX(i) hosts. In vSphere 4.1, integration with AD allows you to roll out permission rules to hosts by using Host Profiles.

http://bit.ly/bNrQRZ
http://bit.ly/9a2NoE
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Shut down all running VMs

From the ESX Service Console, you can run a short script to shut down all running VMs that are registered on the host. The following script will enumerate the running VMs, try to first shut them down gracefully, and power them off if a graceful shutdown is unsuccessful:

vmware-cmd -l | xargs -i'{}' vmware-cmd '{}' stop trysoft hard
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vSphere virtual machine

A vSphere virtual machine can initially be built with a maximum of 4 vNICs. This can be increased to a maximum of 10 vNICs afterwards by editing the VM settings.
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Recent ESX builds

Recent ESX builds (English) & release dates
ESX 4.1, 7/13/10, Build 260247
ESX 4.0 u2, 6/10/10, Build 261974
ESX 4.0 u1, 11/19/09, Build 208167
ESX 4.0, 5/21/09, Build 164009
ESX 3.5 u5, 12/3/09, Build 207095
ESX 3.5 u4, 3/30/09, Build 153875
ESX 3.5 u3, 11/6/08, Build 123630
ESX 3.5 u2, 8/13/08, Build 110268
ESX 3.5 u1, 4/10/08, Build 82663
ESX 3.5, 12/10/07 & re-released 2/20/08, Build 64607
http://bit.ly/aK8zQ
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Purple Screen Of Death

Decoding PSOD (Purple Screen Of Death) Messages

If you work with ESX long enough, you may encounter a PSOD. It's the equivalent to the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) in Windows. Use the following VMware KB article, Decoding Purple Screens, to help make sense of the problem:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004250
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VMware Knowledge Base

For an index of the entire VMware Knowledge Base, visit the following URL:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/google/searchpage.jsp

As of 8/22/10, there are 8,668 KB articles (tallied at the bottom of the page).
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Guest vNICs

Guest vNICs can be altered using a drag-and-drop method in the View|Inventory|Networking context of the vSphere Client. Just drag the VM onto the desired network.

This is much more efficient than editing the settings of each VM, using the pulldown box, and clicking OK.
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Configuration Maximums Comparison

Configuration Maximums Comparison

Size of RAM per host:
ESX(i) 4.1: 1TB RAM per host
ESX(i) 4.0 Update 1: 1TB RAM per host
ESX(i) 3.5 Update 5: 256GB RAM per host
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Default SSL certificate

You can replace the default SSL certificate which ships with vCenter with a certificate signed by a Microsoft Certificate Authority, however it is a fairly lengthy process. The steps can found in the following thread (follow the 11 steps from user 'astrolab'):

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/88053
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Virtual infrastructure storage options

When weighing virtual infrastructure storage options, consider all of the following together, and in this order:
1. Availability - business is down if storage is unavailable
2. Performance - business & productivity slows when storage does
3. Capacity - business can't grow if capacity is limited
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Migration to ESXi

If you are an ESX shop contemplating a migration to ESXi and the benefits that it has to offer, keep in mind the two products do not share an identical list of compatible hardware. Generally speaking, the ESXi Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) is more limited in terms of hardware than ESX. There is a chance the hardware you have running ESX in the datacenter right now may not be supported by VMware for running ESXi.
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Compressed tarball

At the ESX Service Console, to create a compressed tarball of files and sub-folders, use the following command:
tar -czf tarballname.tar.gz /directory/

To list the files in a compressed .tgz file:
tar -tzf tarballname.tgz

To extract a tarball:
tar -xzvf tarballname.tar.gz
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Configuration Maximums Comparison

Configuration Maximums Comparison

Number of vCPUs per host:
ESX(i) 4.1: 512 vCPUs per host
ESX(i) 4.0u1: 512 vCPUs per host
ESX(i) 3.5 Update 5: 192 vCPUs per host
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Overhead Memory

Overhead Memory on Virtual Machines (in MB)
BASE RAM - 1vCPU - 2vCPU - 4vCPU - 8vCPU
256 - 113 - 159 - 242 - 417
1024 - 124 - 176 - 258 - 446
4096 - 166 - 243 - 325 - 562
8192 - 222 - 331 - 414 - 716
16384 - 335 - 508 - 592 - 1028
32768 - 560 - 863 - 949 - 1647
65536 - 1011 - 1572 - 1660 - 2884
131072 - 1912 - 2990 - 3083 - 5379
262144 - 3715 - 5831 - 5938 - 10329
http://bit.ly/aEesSu
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SpringSource

On this day in 2010, SpringSource, a division of VMware, announced the acquisition of Rabbit Technologies, an open source software company based in the UK and RabbitMQ Cloud Messaging Technology. SpringSource will add the RabbitMQ open messaging system into its suite of technologies that reduce the complexity associated with development, deployment and management of enterprise applications.

http://bit.ly/dd3YUo
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SQL Server

If installing vCenter Server in conjunction with a remote SQL Server using Windows authentication, be sure to install vCenter under the context or user account which has the required permissions to the database. The vCenter installer lacks the flexibility to specify the privileged user account.
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vCenter installation

An easy step to forget in a vCenter installation is the copying of the Windows Sysprep files. It's easy to miss because vCenter gives the false indication of functioning without them, until performing a Windows guest customization.

Sysprep file install location:
W2K3:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\
W2K8:
C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\
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VMware User Group

Join a VMware User Group (VMUG)
VMUGs are run by the users, for the users. This isn’t corporate propaganda jammed down our throats. These are peer level meetings with a wide range of expertise and experience. It’s straight talk about VMware virtualization benefits, strategies and related 3rd party products, and we don’t sugar coat, overlook, or ignore VMware issues.
http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmug
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w command

At the ESX Service Console, the w command will display a summary of every user logged in to the host, what that user is currently doing, and what load all the activity is imposing on the host.
i.e.
[root@esx3l /etc]# w
19:44:32 up 7 days, 20:00, 1 user, load average: 0.18, 0.06, 0.01
USER TTY FROM LOGIN@ IDLE JCPU PCPU WHAT
root pts/0 workstation 2:53pm 0.00s 0.07s 0.01s w
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vSwitch Failback policy

Going back to at least August of 2008 and through the time of this writing (August 2010), the vSwitch Failback policy in ESX(i) has been dysfunctional. The pNIC failback mechanism always triggers, even if Failback is set to "No". The only exception is if Failback is set to "No" and at least one Standby Adapter exists - then it works as intended. VMware confirmed resolution of this issue after the vSphere 4.1 release.
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SAN for shared storage

When using fibre channel SAN for shared storage in ESX(i) environments, be sure to set the following advanced options:

Disk.UseLunReset=1 (1 is the default)
Disk.UseDeviceReset=0 (1 is the default)

The reason for disabling DeviceReset is because it can perform a complete SCSI bus reset, clearing all SCSI reservations, which can disrupt the fibre channel SAN fabric.
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VMware Tools on Linux

Before attempting to install the VMware Tools on a Linux VM, be sure to have the GCC Compiler and Kernel Source installed. More often than not, these components are required during the VMware Tools vmware-config-tools.pl configuration script.
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RDM compatibility modes

An RDM has 2 compatibility modes:

Virtual - Fully virtualized mapped device. Able to take advantage of VMFS benefits such as advanced file locking & 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. Physical attributes of the underlying device hardware are exposed to the VM.

Both support vMotion.
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vCenter Server 4.1

vCenter Server 4.1 is compatible with and may be used to manage ESX 3.0.x, 3.5 (all Updates), and 4.1.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_compatibility_matrix.pdf
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Cheaper/slower/less redundant

Saving Your ESXTOP Workspace
If there is a group of metrics you commonly add/remove in ESXTOP, you'll notice you have to configure them each time you run ESXTOP. Save your workspace permanently by running ESXTOP, choosing your preferred settings, & then hit the 'W' key to save the settings to a configuration file located at ~/.esxtop3rc or /root/.esxtop41rc. Future ESXTOP sessions will be run with your preferred settings.
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