Configuration

/etc/vmware/esx.conf stores much of the configuration for both ESX and ESXi hosts. It wouldn't be a bad idea to capture snapshots of this file on a monthly or quarterly basis to discover unknown changes to the infrastructure. The 'diff' command will reveal the difference between two file versions. For example:

diff /etc/vmware/esx.conf /etc/vmware/esx.conf.old
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New in VMware vSphere 4.1

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.1

Concurrent VMware Data Recovery Sessions - vSphere 4.1 provides the ability to concurrently manage multiple VMware Data Recovery appliances.

http://vmware.com/pdf/vdr_12_admin.pdf
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vSwitches

vSwitches cannot be connected with any type of virtual uplink native to the hypervisor. Because of this, there are no potential loop conditions to avoid and thus vSwitches have no need to run Spanning Tree Protocol. This can be viewed as a benefit when comparing virtualized vSwitches to physical switches in your network infrastructure.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/virtual_networking_concepts.pdf
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Jumbo Frame

Any packet larger than 1500 MTU is a Jumbo Frame. vSphere fully supports Jumbo Frames for virtual machines as well as NAS & iSCSI traffic.

Configure a vSwitch for Jumbo Frames with:
esxcfg-vswitch -m [MTU] [vSwitch_name]

Configure a VMkernel interface for Jumbo Frames with:
esxcfg-vmknic -a -i [ip_address] -n [netmask] -m [MTU] [portgroup_name]
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New in VMware vSphere 4.1

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.1

vCenter Update Manager Support for Provisioning, Patching, & Upgrading EMC's ESX PowerPath Module - VUM can manage 3rd party ESX modules, such as EMC's PowerPath multipathing software. Using VUM to set policies using the Baseline construct & the comprehensive Compliance Dashboard, you can simplify provisioning, patching, and upgrade of the PowerPath module at scale.

http://bit.ly/a0p5dK
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New in VMware vSphere 4.0

Virtual NICs:
Vlance = Virtualized AMD 79C970 PCnet32 LANCE NIC
VMXNET = Optimized NIC for ESX 2.x
Flexible = Reports as a Vlance during VM boot but initializes as Vlance or VMXNET, depending on which driver is loaded for it
E1000 = Virtualized Intel 82545EM Gb Ethernet NIC for newer OS
VMXNET2 (Enhanced) = Supports Jumbo Frames & TSO
VMXNET3 = Next gen paravirtualized NIC, supports multiqueue, IPv6 offloads, MSI/MSI-X
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New in VMware vSphere 4.1

What's New in VMware vSphere 4.1

VMware Fault Tolerance (FT) Enhancements - Introduces an FT-specific versioning-control mechanism that allows Primary & Secondary VMs to run on FT-compatible hosts at different but compatible patch levels. In addition, you can disable VMware HA when FT-enabled VMs are deployed in a cluster, allowing for cluster maintenance operations without turning off FT.

http://bit.ly/9LqILr
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