Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

cloud infrastructure management

vSphere 5.0 Update 1 released

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Although only a minor version I do feel that it is worth mentioning and notifying people about. vSphere 5.0 Update 1 (click here for vCenter release notes and here for ESXi release notes) contains some cool enhancements. I listed the fixes or new features which I personally ran in to the last couple of months or which are worth implementing or important to list in specific scenarios. Especially the HA (FDM) fixes are welcome, but also the “disk.terminateVMonPDLDefault” enhancement was. I will write some more about that later today though.

vCenter Server 5.0 Update 1:

  • Resolved: HA and DRS appear disabled when VM Storage profiles feature is enabled or disabled for a cluster.
    When VM storage profiles feature is enabled or disabled for a cluster, it causes a discrepancy in HA and DRS cluster configuration.
  • Resolved: File-based FDM logging can be enabled inadvertently for ESX 5.x hosts in a mixed cluster with ESX 5.x and ESX 4.x hosts.
    The default FDM logging behavior for ESX 5.x hosts is to use syslog, file-based logging is disabled. In a HA cluster with mixed of 5.x and pre-5.x hosts using DAS advanced option das.config.log.maxFileNum to increase number of log files on the pre-5.0 hosts will inadvertently enable file-based logging for ESX 5.x hosts. This can lead to ESX scratch partition to run out of space.
    This issue is resolved in this release by introducing HA cluster advanced parameter “das.config.log.outputToFiles”. To enable file-based logging for ESX 5.x hosts, both “das.config.log.maxFileNum” need to configure to a value greater than 2 and “das.config.log.outputToFiles” is equal to “true”.

ESXi 5.0 Update 1:

  • Resolved / New: No error message is logged when VMkernel stops a virtual machine on a datastore that is in PDL state
    When a SCSI device goes into permanent device loss (PDL) state, all the virtual machines that use datastores backed by that SCSI device are affected. Some third party HA solutions incorporate a VMX option where disk.terminateVMOnPDLDefault is set to True. With this option the VMkernel stops such affected virtual machines. Starting with this release, when VMkernel stops affected virtual machines, a warning message similar to the following is logged in vmkernel.log once for each virtual machine.
  • New: Enablement of session timeout to ESXi Tech Support Mode (TSM)
    After you log in to an ESXi host at the console and then log in to the Tech Support Mode (Mode) as root user and initiate a remote server console access session, a non-privileged user might obtain root access to the ESXi host, if the remote access session has not timed out or remains idle.Starting with this release, you can configure a session timeout to exit ESXi Tech Support Mode (TSM) as follows:

    1. Log in to Tech Support Mode (Mode) as root user.
    2. Edit /etc/profile file to add TMOUT=<timeout value in seconds>.
    3. Exit Tech Support Mode (Mode).

vShield 5.0.1:

  • New: vShield App High Availability enhancements automatically restarts vShield App or virtual machines if a heartbeat is not detected.
  • New: Enablement of Autodeploy (Stateless ESXi) by providing vShield VIBs (host modules) for download from vShield Manager.

 

VMware Partner Exchange 2012 – Las Vegas

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A couple of weeks back I received the news that one of the sessions I submitted was accepted for VMware Partner Exchange 2012. PEX is held in Las Vegas from the 13th til the 16th of February. There’s an excellent program again. Make sure to check the full list here. If you haven’t signed up yet, do it quick as the early bird discount has been extended with a couple of weeks, it will save you $ 400,-.

This is the session that I submitted:

Session 1359: Architecting a Cloud Infrastructure
Abstract: This session will discuss the various design considerations when architecting the foundation for every solid cloud environment: vSphere 5.0. We will start with sizing and scaling and end with some operational guidance. Different examples will be used to show the impact design considerations can have on the availability of your services.

Presenters: Duncan Epping and David Hill

Just added:

Session 1262 (Wednesday 2/12 @ 12:30pm): DR of the Cloud and to the Cloud

This session will look at DR and the cloud. Two different DR scenarios will be presented in depth – DR of the cloud and DR to the cloud. DR to the cloud is how end consumers fail over resources to a cloud provider. DR of the cloud is how you fail over cloud resources from one site to another. This session will go in depth on the consumer and provider side of the architecture. We’ll look at how to replicate the data, what applications are primary targets, how to size environments, how to maintain multi-tenancy, and what to avoid when architecting these solutions. This session is a must for anyone considering tier 1 applications for the cloud.

Presenters: Chris Colotti and Duncan Epping

I glanced over the list of sessions at PEX and I definitely highly recommend adding the following to your schedule. I tried to keep the list limited by forcing my self to only list 15, too many great sessions at PEX.

  • Emad Benjamin – (1187) Virtualizing Latency Sensitive Workloads and vFabric GemFire
  • Thomas Kraus – (1206) vCloud Director 1.5 solution integration
  • Cormac Hogan – (1231) vSphere Storage Appliance Deep Dive
  • Rob Randell – (1248) Using vShield and vCenter Configuration Manager to Achieve Better Than Physical Security for Business Critical Applications
  • Mike DiPetrillo – (1260) Multi-Site Cloud Deployment How-To
  • Clive Wenman – (1265) SRM 5.0 & vSphere Replication – Understanding the Use cases and Implementation Options
  • Chris Colotti – (1269) Upgrading the vCloud Solution Stack in an End to End Environment
  • Kamau Wanguhu – (1276) vCloud Director Networking and where VXLAN fits in
  • Carter Shanklin – (1316) Using Elastic Memory for Java to pool application server memory, improve consolidation ratios, and increase app server reliability.
  • Kyle Gleed – (1328) Upgrading to vSphere 5.0
  • Grant Suzuki – (1349) VMware vShield App and Data Security Deep Dive
  • Ken Werneburg – (1363) SRM 5 Demo – New Features in Action and Q&A
  • Tom Stephens – (1374) The Last Mile in HA: Application Availability
  • Justin King – (1388) Up and Running with vSphere vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA)
  • Alex Fontana – (1466) Design, Deploy and Optimize Exchange 2010 on vSphere

See you in Las Vegas!