Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

Archives for 2009

ESX(i) 4.0 -> ESX(i) 4.0 U1 update

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My colleague Lee Dilworth just emailed me the following. Those who are running vSphere ESX(i) and have the Cisco Nexus1000v installed might want to read this:

If your customers are on ESXi/ESX 4.0 and want to update to U1 using the vihostupdate then first they need to read this new KB:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1015879

From here you will see mention of a file VEM-4.0.0-update01.zip which is not on the U1 download page. One useful addition to the KB article would be to remind customers that to obtain this VEM update you need to navigate to: http://support.vmware.com/selfsupport/download/

From here select “VEM” and “4.0.0” and search. You will then see VEM-4.0.0-update01.zip. Copy this to the same folder as your ESXi patch file (ESXi-4.0.0-update01.zip) and then run:

vihostupdate --server <server> --username <uname> --password <passwd> --bundle
ESXi-4.0.0-update01.zip,VEM-4.0.0-update01.zip --bulletin
VEM400-200911014-BG,ESXi400-200911201-UG –install

Let the install run….that’s it.

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin>vihostupdate.pl --server
192.168.1.1 --bundle C:\Install\U1\ESXi-4.0.0-update01.zip,
C:\Install\U1\VEM-4.0.0-update01-v100.zip --bulletin VEM400-200911014-BG,
ESXi400-200911201-UG --install
Enter username: root
Enter password: vmware
Please wait patch installation is in progress ...

The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.

Solutions for Remote and Branch Offices

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VMware just released two new editions of vSphere which are specifically targeted at retail store / branch office environments. A PDF describing these package can be found here and the solution page on VMware.com can be found here.

  • VMware vSphere Essentials for Retail and Branch Offices offers a package solution for each of a customer’s branch offices to scale agility, security, and efficiency across the organization.
  • VMware vSphere Essentials Plus for Retail and Branch Offices provides a turnkey solution for complete business agility and continuity at all remote sites by adding high availability and data protection.

vSphere ESX/vCenter 4.0 Update 1

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VMware just released ESX 4.0 Update 1 and vCenter 4.0 Update 1. Most people have already reported on this by now. Two things that stood out for me personally is the following:

  1. HA Cluster Configuration Maximum — HA clusters can now support 160 virtual machines per host in HA Cluster of 8 hosts or less. The maximum number of virtual machines per host in cluster sizes of 9 hosts and above is still 40, allowing a maximum of 1280 Virtual Machines per HA cluster.
  2. Enhanced Clustering Support for Microsoft Windows – Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) for Windows 2000 and 2003 and Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering is now supported on an VMware High Availability (HA) and Dynamic Resource Scheduler (DRS) cluster in a limited configuration. HA and DRS functionality can be effectively disabled for individual MSCS virtual machines as opposed to disabling HA and DRS on the entire ESX/ESXi host. Refer to the Setup for Failover Clustering and Microsoft Cluster Service guide for additional configuration guidelines.

Especially the first is important as many people have been building non DRS-HA clusters solely for MSCS VMs. As of now this is not needed anymore. You can simply disable DRS and HA via the Cluster properties to make sure your MSCS VMs do not move around. I think Update 1 is an important release for everyone running vSphere at this moment.

Of course you View guys were all waiting for Update 1 to drop:

  • VMware View 4.0 support – This release adds support for VMware View 4.0, a solution built specifically for delivering desktops as a managed service from the protocol to the platform.

Full ESX 4.0 U1 Release Notes
Full vCenter 4.0 U1 Release Notes

Something else I noticed… The release notes for ESX talk about “vMotion” where the release notes for vCenter talk about “VMotion”. It seems that VMotion is about to be renamed to vMotion.

RVTools 2.7.1

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Rob de Veij has just uploaded a new version of RVTools, 2.7.1. So far over RVTools has been downloaded over 25000 times. Yes 25000 times, that is a lot isn’t it. There’s a good reason though that it is popular. It is easy to use and gives you all the details you are looking for.

Version 2.7.1 contains the following new features and bug fixes:

  • RVTools now reports storage which is wasted by zombie VMs, VMDKs, templates and snapshots. You can find this information on the vHealth tab page. If you guys pay me a dime for every gigabyte of wasted storage, found by RVTools, you will make me rich.
  • Due to the fact that the search all datastores task can take a long time to complete, RVTools now use a separate thread to collect this information.
  • The default percentage value of “free datastore capacity” is changed from 10% to 15%.
  • Bug fix! If a snapshot is more than two levels deep, only the first two are visible. With the input from Mike Price this problem is now solved! Thanks again Mike.

The full releasenotes can be found here. I guess that’s enough for today, just download it!

Dutch VMUG, be there.

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On the 11th of December the anual Dutch VMUG conference will take place at the Nieuwegein Business Center. Over 600 Dutch VMware Warriors will make a plan to conquer the world, we are the new vikings or should I say vIkings?

The final agenda has recently been published and judging on the names and topics it is going to be an awesome event again. Not only will key representatives of several well known vendors present you the latest info; at the Dutch VMUG gurus like Eric Sloof, Luc Dekens and Bouke Groenescheij will take you on a journey to the trenches of virtualization. I can promise you that it will be worth it!

You can also meet some of the Dutch prominent bloggers which will be walking around and helping out during the event. The list probably isn’t complete, but these are the guys who you can expect to walk into. Don’t be shy make sure to say hi.