Datacenter

Jason B, talks about open snapshots:
Know thy open snapshots

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VMware snapshotting is a wonderful and powerful technology that affords IT and Developer staff great flexibility and recovery options with virtual machines (VMs) that weren’t so flexible with physical machines or flat out did not exist. With this technology comes the responsibility of using it properly and knowing its limitations. Snapshots have a shelf life that varies somewhere between the moment the snapshot was created and infinity. Boy, that was real helpful wasn’t it?
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Jason go’s into some detail of how open snaps work, and how much storage they can take, as well introduces a couple of third party tools to use with ESX.

Thanks Jason.

http://www.gabesvirtualworld.com has a nice three part series titled : Hyper-V, not in my datacenter

http://www.gabesvirtualworld.com has this broken in to three parts.

Hyper-V, not in my datacenter (part 1 – Hardware)
Hyper-V, not in my datacenter (part 2: Guest OS and Memory overcommit)
Hyper-V, not in my datacenter (part 3: Motions and storage)

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When posting on my blog I try to stay as objective as I can. Although I’m a big VMware fan I try to look at other products with an open mind and not be biased, I found myself in doubt when creating a presentation in which I was comparing Hyper-V to VMware ESX. I wasn’t questioning myself whether I should or should not be objective, the problem was that I had trouble believing that the presentation I had created was an objective view of things.

Browsing through my presentation multiple times, I was convinced that what I’ve written about Hyper-V and ESX is an objective view on how things are at the moment, but still it looks like the only thing I’m doing is Windows-bashing. I decided to dedicate a blog post to it, so everyone can find out for them self if my points are valid. The big question of my presentation is: “Which is better for my datacenter, Hyper-V or ESX?”.
I’m looking at both hypervisors to see which features they have that would make them suited for running in the datacenter discounting nice features that I would rarely use. Here we go…….
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I will put down my thoughts. In part 1 he talks about hardware, and how it applies to each, I have found in my testing that there is even a larger number of unsupported devices that does work with ESXi, it all depends on if you want supported products.

In part 2, the discussion of Guest OS support comes up, and I have to agree 100% Microsoft is shooting them self’s in the foot with this one, as 90% of the data centers out there have a large mix of OS’s, all with different versions of Service packs and such.

Part 2 also talks about over commit, and wow, look at the numbers, since we are a smaller shop, I have not had much need to get into over commit yet, and we are running ESXi only.

Part 3 talks about migration, and it looks like Microsoft dropped this ball totally on this, as they don’t even offer a hot migration option, end of story for me.

Jason Boche posed that the Q4 2008 Minneapolis Area VMware Users Group meeting is coming up.

See Please join us for the Q4 2008 Minneapolis Area VMware Users Group meeting

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Please join us for the Q4 2008 Minneapolis Area VMware Users Group meeting

Jason Boche, Minneapolis area VMUG leader – Email: [email protected]
Friday December 19th, 2008 1 – 4:00 PM
1:00 – 1:15 General business
1:15 – 2:00 Presentation: Rob Schwartz/Ken Pizzo, EMC: “Optimizing Your VMware Backup Environments”
2:00 – 2:10 Break
2:10 – 2:55 Case Study: Tom Grahek/Derek Clark, Fair Isaac: “Securing Offshore Support Using VMware”
2:55 – 3:05 Break
3:05 – 3:50 Case Study: Cory Miller, Schwans: “Leverage VMware for Disaster Recovery and VDI”
3:50 – 4:00 Door prizes, Q & A, closing

Stick around to win fantastic door prizes from EMC and VMware, plus two books from virtualization authors David Marshall, Stephen Beaver, and Jason McCarty!
(Please bring business cards to enter your name in the door prize drawings)

Meeting Sponsors:
Location and snacks provided by EMC
http://www.emc.com/ – Storage innovation where information lives.

Door prizes provided by EMC and VMware
http://www.emc.com/ – Storage innovation where information lives.
http://www.vmware.com/ – The authority on x86 virtualization. Period.

Virtualization authors David Marshall, Stephen Beaver, and Jason McCarty

Location:
Doubletree Hotel
1500 Park Place Blvd.
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55416 USA
Phone: 952-542-8600

http://doubletree1.hilton.com/en_US/dt/hotel/MSPPHDT-Doubletree-Hotel-Minneapolis-Park-Place-Minnesota/index.do

VMware User Group Event Registration:
http://www.vmware.com/resources/communities/usergroup/events.html

VMware User Group Membership Registration (subscribe):
http://info.vmware.com/forms/UserGroupSubscribe?session=Minneapolis
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Thanks Jason, I hope to make it.

unix – linux – storage has a great write up on the Vmware 2.0 : CLI management utility

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Prior to Vmware server 2.0, vmware-cmd was the command line tool for the managements of the virtual machines. In Vmware 2.0, vmware-vim-cmd is the tool that can be used for command line management and automation. Here are some of the example on how to use it.
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A nice use of CLI.

http://vmware-land.com has a new updated Top 10 Blogs list,

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Top 10 blogs that VMware administrators must read
1) http://www.yellow-bricks.com/
• Duncan Epping’s relatively new blog on VMware topics is another great source for technical tips and information. Duncan recently accepted a job working for VMware and we look forward to more great posts from him.
2) http://blog.scottlowe.org/
• Scott Lowe blogs on many technical areas that administrators will find extremely useful. Scott has a wealth of knowledge and experience and his posts are always worth reading.
3) http://mikedatl.typepad.com/mikedvirtualization/
• A relative newcomer to the VMware blog-o-sphere (well less then a year anyway) Mike DePetrillo is a systems engineer that works for VMware and has been posting some fabulous stuff lately. Mike’s knowledge and experience is evident in his very detailed posts that he writes and he is not afraid to tackle any sensitive issues and set the record straight.
4 ) http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/
• Eric Sloof is a VCI located in the Netherlands that has been blogging on Vmware for many years. His posts are always informative and are another great source for tips and news on VMware related topics.
5 ) http://servervirtualization.blogs.techtarget.com/
• One of Tech Target’s blogs that encompasses all virtualization platforms. In addition to Tech Target’s staff there are several regular contributors including: Rick Vanover, Eric Siebert and Andrew Kutz.
6) http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/virtualization-pro/
• Another Tech Target blog that focuses solely on VMware related topics. In addition to Tech Target’s staff there are several regular contributors including: Rick Vanover, Eric Siebert and Andrew Kutz.
7) http://vmetc.com/
• Richard Brambley’s blog has many good tips and news items for all virtualization products but with more focus on VMware. Many of his posts also detail his experiences working with VMware and are quite helpful.
8) http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/
• Mike Laverick’s RTFM Education blog is a great source for learning more about VMware. His free guides that he writes on a variety of material are a great source for learning more about VMware and going beyond the manual.
9) http://rationalsecurity.typepad.com/blog/virtualization/index.html
• You gotta love the Hoff, Christofer Hoff’s blog focuses on virtualization security. Hoff doesn’t pull any punches and is not afraid to say what’s on his mind when tackling sensitive security topics. His often witty and shrewd blog posts reflect his intimate knowledge and experience with security related topics.
10) http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek
• Chad Sakac who is a systems engineer that works for EMC, VMware’s parent company knows alot about storage as evidenced by his great posts. Chad’s blog has some very detailed and informative posts and is a must read for all virtual geeks out there.

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As you can see, on my blog list, I have a few of the same blogs. But, since I am new in the blog field, I see a few that I need to check out.

Also, check out the other top 10 lists at http://vmware-land.com

I recently was playing around with ESXi and Removed my drives via the motherboard connections, tried another drive type and then tried to reconnect my orginal drive configuration. ( a non supported ICH9 controller, and Sata Drive )

I had no problem with the disk being detected upon a new rescan of LUN’s, but my data store did not show up.

Dave.Mishchenko pointed to page 117-118 of the ESX / ESXi iSCSI San Guide

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VMFS Volume Resignaturing
ESX servers need to be able to differentiate between their VMFS volumes and use a
volume signature to do so. When a VMFS volume is replicated or a snapshot is taken,
the resulting LUN copy has the same signature as the source. When an ESX Server sees
two LUNs with the same signature, the ESX Server must handle the condition to
prevent downtime caused by confusion over which LUN it should be using to access
the registered virtual machines. Resignaturing is a feature introduced in ESX Server 3.0
to solve this problem.
Mounting Original, Snapshot, or Replica VMFS Volumes
You can mount original, snapshot, or replica VMFS volumes on the same ESX Server
host.
To mount original, snapshot, or replica VMFS volumes
1 Perform the required storage tasks:
a Make the storage system snapshot or replica.
b Configure access control to allow ESX Server to access the snapshot or replica.
2 In the VI Client, select the host in the inventory panel.
3 Click the Configuration tab and click Advanced Settings.
4 Select LVM in the left panel, then set the LVM.EnableResignature option to 1.
5 Rescan for any new LUNs or VMFS volumes.
After the rescan, the copied VMFS volume appears as
/vmfs/volumes/snap-–.
If the VMX file for any of the virtual machines or the VMSD file for virtual machine
snapshots contains /vmfs/volumes// paths, you must change
these items to reflect the resignatured volume path.
6 Set the LVM.EnableResignature option to 0 after resignaturing is complete.
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This seemed to work great!

Thanks to Dave

We have started looking at Netapp’s offerings this week, and I saw these links to blog posts at http://blog.scottlowe.org

Thanks to them.

Below are the links.

Using NetApp Deduplication with Block Storage

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Building on my earlier article on setting up NetApp deduplication, I wanted to follow up with some information on using NetApp deduplication with block storage (LUNs presented via Fibre Channel or iSCSI).

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Quick Guide to Setting up NetApp Deduplication

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I’m relatively new to NetApp deduplication (formerly A-SIS), so this article won’t be an advanced treatise on NetApp deduplication or its deep inner workings. Instead, this is intended to be a quick guide to setting up NetApp deduplication for others, like myself, who may be familiar with Data ONTAP but not necessarily deduplication.

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Managing LUN Space Requirements with NetApp Storage

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f you’ve worked with Network Appliance storage before, you’re probably already familiar with the idea of snap reserve (storage space set aside to accommodate for Snapshots) and fractional reserve (used with LUNs). I’m going to hold the in-depth discussion of why you need snap reserve and fractional reserve for a different day, but I did want to pass on these commands that were shared with me by a colleague of mine. These Data ONTAP commands, available with Data ONTAP 7.2 or later (some commands are available in Data ONTAP 7.1), will help you manage the space requirements for LUNs on a NetApp storage area network (SAN).

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How to Provision VMs Using NetApp FlexClones

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When properly implemented and configured, VMware Virtual Infrastructure can make provisioning new servers a task that takes only minutes. In fact, in my own lab (running equipment that is, admittedly, several years old and woefully underpowered), I can provision new servers running Windows Server 2003 R2 in less than 10 minutes. That’s pretty impressive.

As impressive as those numbers may be (and I’m sure there are readers out there with even more impressive numbers), if we leverage some vendor-specific storage functionality we can achieve some really impressive times. For example, leveraging NetApp FlexClones could allow us to provision new VMs in seconds. Let’s take a quick look at how that’s done.

In this article, I’m going to discuss how to use FlexClones for provisioning new VMs in a VMware VI3 environment. This is not an exhaustive treatise on the subject, but rather an introduction to the process and some of the configuration that needs to take place in your environment. (Disclaimer: Use this stuff at your own risk.)

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NetApp FlexClones with VMware, Part 1

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The ability to quickly and easily create new virtual servers in VMware VirtualCenter (using templates and cloning) is a key feature that benefits a lot of VMware customers. A new server running Windows Server 2003 R2 in less than 10 minutes? Who wouldn’t like that functionality? (Some other day, perhaps we’ll discuss that very question.)

VMware’s cloning functionality is great in that it is completely storage-agnostic; it works the same on an HP EVA, a NetApp storage system, an EMC Clariion, or a homebrew iSCSI target. At the same time, VMware’s cloning functionality is not so great in that it is completely storage-agnostic. It doesn’t take advantage of any of the hardware-specific functionality. In this article, I’d like for us to look at one particular vendor Network Appliance and how using some vendor- and hardware-specific functionality (namely FlexClones) can provide some benefits.

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NetApp FlexClones with VMware, Part 2

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Part 1 in our series on NetApp FlexClones and VMware discussed in greater detail some of the advantages of using FlexClones for VM provisioning. In that article, we saw that using FlexClones can greatly reduce both the storage required for new VMs as well as the time required to provision new VMs, especially when the storage needed by the VMs is large. Both of these advantages can be very compelling.

However, in order to make an informed decision about whether we should use FlexClones we must also look at the disadvantages of this approach. In this part of the series, we’ll take a look at some of those disadvantages.

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LUN Clones vs. FlexClones

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My recent article on how to provision VMs using FlexClones prompted a reader to ask the question, “What about using LUN clones?â€� That’s an excellent question, and one that I myself asked when I first started using some of the advanced functionality of Network Appliance storage systems. I had expected that this question would come up, and so I’d already begun preparing an article discussing LUN clones vs. FlexClones. My thanks go to Aaron for prompting the discussion!

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FlexClones Versus Deduplication with VMware Infrastructure

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A number of times over the last few months, I’ve run into situations where NetApp’s FlexClone technology was being heavily pitched to customers interested in deploying, or expanding their deployment of, VMware Infrastructure.

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Wow, what a great bunch of Information! Thanks Scott Lowe

As we look at Netapp more, I will post findings, and resources.

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