Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

ESX

Just before 2008 ends: Patches!

· ·

Just before 2008 ends VMware released a bunch of patches for the 3.0.X release of VMware ESX. 9 Patches, all are “General” patches:

ESX303-200812401-BG: Virtual Machines Stop Responding When Disconnected from Serial Port
ESX303-200812402-BG: Fix for vdf -P Command to Delimit the Output Values With Proper Spacing
 ESX303-200812403-BG: Qlogic iSCSI Driver Allocates Target IDs Greater than 255
ESX303-200812404-BG: Permissions on the Service Console File System Change to Read-Only During Long NetApp Cluster Failover
ESX303-200812405-BG: CHAP Authentication Failure on ESX Server
 ESX303-200812406-BG: Fix for hostd RPM
 ESX303-200812407-BG: Required Patch for IBM FAStT Storage Arrays (DS3000, DS4000, DS5000 families) to Correct an Issue with Failover; Fix for a VMFS Filesystem Issue
ESX303-200812408-BG: QLogic Driver RPMs Versions Mismatch
 ESX303-200812409-BG: Hyperthreading Status Reported Incorrectly on Non-HT Multicore Processors for ESX Server 3.0.3

Rotating Hostd, VPXD and VPXA log files

· ·

If your hostd, vpxd and or vpxa log files are rotating to quickly or not quick enough check out this great KB article on how to set this up. The most important thing to set is the maximum amount of logfiles and the size. Be sure to do a basic calculation so your logging partition won’t fill up completely! And while your at it, might be worth setting up the rotation scheme for vmkernel, messages etc. If I can find the time I will do a blog article on that one later this week.

UPDATE: ESX Deployment Appliance 0.85

· ·

Like I told you guys in my post on the ESX Deployment Appliance, Herco keeps developing / tweaking the ESX Deployment Appliance. Two days ago 0.85 was released. This new version contains:

  • ESXi support (it works, just not unattended yet. hints appreciated!)
  • New scriptbuilder interface. Makes building scripts even easier and more accessible
  • Scriptpart editor. rudimentary but working nicely 😉

For version 0.9 Herco has got the following features / additions on his todo list:

  • Boot from SAN support
  • Editing the order of the scriptparts
  • Hopefully, unattended ESXi installations

So keep checking the VMware virtual appliances section or Herco’s blog for information on new releases. Start checking it out and keep giving feedback so Herco can keep improving his excellent appliance!

ESX Deployment Appliance

· ·

A couple of weeks ago I was working on a project together with a consultant from PQR, Herco aka Brugh. He told me about a Virtual Appliance he created called “EDA”. It took a couple of minutes before I knew what he was talking about… ESX Deployment Appliance. I’ve played around with it for a while about half a year ago but because we were actively using UDA(ultimate deployment appliance) I didn’t had much time to actually get used to it and introduce it to my colleagues.

During the project Herco showed me what he had actually created and how easy it was to deploy ESX with his appliance. I don’t think there’s a reason to tell you guys again why you need to do a scripted install. EDA is a PXE Boot Virtual Appliance build on JeOS. In other words, boot your ESX installer / iso via the PXE appliance. So no need for burning modified iso’s or hosting your scripts on a random webserver. EDA does all of that for you. Because JeOS was used the appliance is small and doesn’t contain any slack.

The cool thing about EDA compared to UDA is that EDA is specifically created for ESX. It contains a lot of sample code which will make your life a lot easier when creating scripts. EDA also works a lot more intuitive than UDA in my opinion, the GUI looks solid. Besides that, EDA is actively being developed and UDA seems to have died.

If you want to have a better understanding of what EDA is take a look at this video that Herco made:

Herco also started a topic on the VMTN forums, if you’ve got any questions contact him via the forums. He usually responds very quick. And if you’ve got good tips / scripts / modification he will look into it and might integrate it with the new upcoming version. For a short guide on howto install and using the appliance check Herco’s blog. Herco told me that there’s a new version coming up soon. Add his blog to your favorites and keep checking it.

By the way, Herco is also the guy who created the X-M0n0wall Virtual Appliance. His colleague Ruben Spruijt also wrote an article on EDA a couple of months ago, you can find read it here.

Heap size VMFS3

· ·

I was talking to a fellow consultant today. He ran into the following error messages at one of his customer sites:

vmkernel: 8:18:59:58.640 cpu2:1410)WARNING: Heap: 1370: Heap_Align(vmfs3, 4096/4096 bytes, 4 align) failed. caller: 0x8fdbd0
vmkernel: 8:18:59:58.640 cpu2:1410)WARNING: Heap: 1266: Heap vmfs3: Maximum allowed growth (24) too small for size (8192)

During the conversation I knew I’d seen this problem before. But the problem that I witnessed was related to a high threshold value in Vizioncore vFoglight. I knew it was possible to change the setting:

  1. Open vCenter, and click a specific host
  2. Click on the “Configurations” tab
  3. Click on Advanced Settings, VMFS3
  4. Change the value of “VMFS3.MaxHeapSizeMB”

The default value is 16MB, this allows for a maximum of 4TB of open vmdk’s on a single host. The max setting is 128MB which allows for a maximum of 32TB of open vmdk’s on a single host. Keep this in mind when designing your environment.

Keep in mind that this is ESX 3.5 only, you can’t change the heap size in ESX 3.0.x.