By now the whole world has probably read that vSphere 4 Update 2 has been released. (release notes vCenter, release notes ESX, release notes ESXi ) Some of you might have even started slowly upgrading their test systems. (Like I am doing at the moment…)
I will not copy the full release notes but I do want to point out a couple of things on which I have been waiting for.
What’s Cool:
- vSphere 4.0 U2 includes an enhancement of the performance monitoring utility, resxtop. The resxtop utility now provides visibility into the performance of NFS datastores in that it displays the following statistics for NFS datastores: Reads/s, writes/s, MBreads/s, MBwrtn/s, cmds/s, GAVG/s (guest latency).
- VMware High Availability configuration might fail when advanced HA option das.allowNetwork uses vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS) port group on an HA-enabled cluster, if you specify a vDS port group by using the advanced HA configuration option das.allowNetwork, the HA configuration on the hosts might fail. This issue is resolved in this release. Starting with this release, das.allowNetwork works with vDS.
- The esxtop and resxtop utilities do not display various logical cpu power state statistics; this issue is resolved in this release. A new Power screen is accessible with the esxtop utility (supported on ESX) and resxtop utility (supported on ESX and ESXi) that displays logical cpu statistics. To switch to the Power screen, press y at the esxtop or resxtop screens.
- For devices using the roundrobin PSP the value configured for the –iops option changes after ESX host reboot. If a device that is controlled by the roundrobin PSP is configured to use the –iops option, the value set for the –iops option is not retained if the ESX Server is rebooted. This issue is resolved in this release.
In this release many issues have been fixed, but also some new features have been added. For me personally the first one in the list is important. Up to ESX 4 Update 1 it was always needed to dive in to vscsiStats to see the Guest Latency for NFS based storage. As of Update 2 you can just run esxtop and check the statistics for your NFS datastore. This will definitely simplify troubleshooting, single pane of glass!
Is it possible to download ESXi 4.0 U2 for free? I always get the message: “Sorry, at the moment you are not authorized to download VMware ESXi 4 Installable”.
Eugene, your service contract has most probably expired (if you had one).
I was able do download the software without problems.
You might be able to download it thru evaluation pages.
Does this mean VMware are finally treating NFS as enterprise… 😉
I’m actually trying to to get NFS stats, and it took some time to find the correct page. Press “u” to get NFS stats.
We are are using NFS as shared storage almost exclusively and the only this esx4i U2 esxtop shows is the “standard” storage adapters, but no place for the NFS-connections, neither in the “disk device”-stats or “disk vm”.
So the NFS-stats are global,pre connected volume, for the ESX-host and you still have problems drilling down to particular VM creating NFS-requests.
Still, one step closer.
Oh, and I find the power-screen quite interesting as it displays how deep your CPU is able to “sleep” if you are enable dynamic cpu power handling in ESX4.
The evaluation pages offer the U1 version. I hope they will update them soon..
Does vCenter 4 u2 support Windows 2008 R2?
> Does vCenter 4 u2 support Windows 2008 R2?
vCenter 4 u1 supported it, so u2 should, too. 🙂
When will vCenter and VUM be supported on Windows 2008R2?
Does anyone know if the VMware Tools will need to be updated on each VM? That is the most annoying part, by far! Thanks.
Rob Mokkink,
I run vCenter on 2k8 R2 currently with no issues.
dave
vCenter 4.0 u1 did NOT support Windows 2008 R2. I read it wrong too. Its in the release notes, but its talking about guest support, not actually running vCenter on top of it.
Here is the compatibility matrix, go look for yourself. VUM isn’t even supported on x64 SP2 as of update 1.
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_compatibility_matrix.pdf (Page 19)
uuuhhhgggg, web access is still experimental for vcenter 🙁
At least this update resolved my installation issues in trying to get ESXi installed when using HP NC522SFP adapters.
Be ware of updating hosts with 1000v virtual nexus switch installed. I’ve had a nightmare experience that resulted in paving 30% of my hosts and rebuilding them from media.
Wow, VMware really lags in supporting the latest Microsoft platforms for vCenter, VUM, and Orchestrator. For example, no Server 2008 R2 support, no SQL 2008 R2, or SQL 2008 SP1 for Orchestrator. Server 2008 R2 was released, what, 9 months ago? VMware has stated the majority of their users are virtualizing Windows. Why should I have to wait a year or more to have them support new operating systems for their management tools? I just don’t get it.
It is not that Windows 2008R2 does not work, it is not supported by VMware according to the compitability matrix.
Rob,
That’s a difference without a distinction for most shops as it gives support an easy out even if the problem isn’t caused by the OS.
Found the answer to my question, and it is: Yes. Upgrading to ESX 4.0 Update 2 also updates VMware Tools.
Found it in http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1022830
It’s next to impossible to get downtime for some of my VM’s! AHHHHH!!!
Beware, installing the update 2 on a host dedicated to View 4 and updating the VMware Tools on the VM breaks the PCoIP protocol!!
No workaround yet:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1022830
Regards
Can’t seem to find an resxtop that supports the power/nfs views so far for my esxi hosts. The one on vMA is too old and I can’t find a new download.
Weren’t these NFS metrics supposed to be available via vCenter? Maybe it’s because I haven’t updated vCenter yet 🙂
bugs bugs bugs (sing it to : “love love love” from Beatles)