VMware just uploaded a cool PDF about configuring an iSCSI SAN. This particular PDF is created by EMC and deals about an EMC Celerra iSCSI SAN but there’s more than enough useful info in there for those who don’t own an EMC iSCSI SAN. The cool thing about the Celerra is the possibility to use “network load balancing”. Where most [...]
Today I encountered a weird phenomenon which I did not encounter yet. I installed the VMware Converter Plugin for VirtualCenter client, so far so good. Only thing left to do was to tick the checkbox to enable the plugin. But as soon as I ticked it the VirtualCenter client crashed without any warning. I rebooted the server, and tried it [...]
Just noticed the new errors HA produces at the console when a host is isolated in ESX 3.5: Node isolated from network. Either repair network or override agent startup using option -noiso And when the host returns from isolation: Node no longer isolated, will restart This makes troubleshooting a lot easier! Thanks VMware
I just had a discussion about an upgrade from 3.0.x to 3.5. During that conversation the new HBA drivers that VMware uses came up. After an upgrade it seems that the queue depth settings are lost. Thinking about it I can understand why. ESX 3.5 uses different driver for most HBA’s. For instance Emulex, their driver for the LP11002 used [...]
That’s what I thought at first, why do I need CDP(Cisco Discovery Protocol)? Well yesterday CDP proved to be an excellent option for troubleshooting weird networking problems. One of my customers replaced a faulty NIC and accidentally switched two network cables. One of these cables was part of an etherchannel, this caused all kind of strange routing / connection errors [...]
A new version of Virtual Iron will be released later this day: Release Number: 4.2.13 New Feature: Linux VSTools installation for kernel updates / new distros Fixes: Windows VSTools hangs during installation SLES 10 CD Based installs fail Archive manager stops running Network associations lost when ports are reset When VSTools is checked on W2k3 domain controller guest all logins [...]
A couple of days ago I wrote about the problems with VST and the Intel Quad-port nics. I tested the work around, using “access ports” on the physical switch(EST, external switch tagging) and it seems that the problem is “solved”. A couple of hours ago VMware posted a knowledge base article about this problem, so if you are experiencing these [...]
