rvtools

RVTools 3.7 is here!

Duncan Epping · Mar 16, 2015 ·

It has been a year since the last version. This weekend Rob de Vey finally released RVTools 3.7. With over 400.000 downloads so far, this is for sure the most used free health check tool that exists. And there is a good reason for it, it is most definitely also one of the bests tools that can provide valuable insights. I’ve personally been using it since the very first version and have discovered a bunch of potential problems at customers sites. Make sure to follow RVTools on twitter for any updates.

Version 3.7 (March, 2015)

VI SDK reference changed from 5.0 to 5.5
Extended the timeout value from 10 to 20 minutes for really big environments
New field VM Folder on vCPU, vMemory, vDisk, vPartition, vNetwork, vFloppy, vCD, vSnapshot and vTools tabpages
On vDisk tabpage new Storage IO Allocation Information
On vHost tabpage new fields: service tag (serial #) and OEM specific string
On vNic tabpage new field: Name of (distributed) virtual switch
On vMultipath tabpage added multipath info for path 5, 6, 7 and 8
On vHealth tabpage new health check: Multipath operational state
On vHealth tabpage new health check: Virtual machine consolidation needed check
On vInfo tabpage new fields: boot options, firmware and Scheduled Hardware Upgrade Info
On statusbar last refresh date time stamp
On vHealth tabpage: Search datastore errors are now visible as health messages
You can now export the csv files separately from the command line interface (just like the xls export)
You can now set a auto refresh data interval in the preferences dialog box
All datetime columns are now formatted as yyyy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss
The export dir / filenames now have a formated datetime stamp yyyy-mm-dd_hh:mm:ss
Bug fix: on dvPort tabpage not all networks are displayed
Overall improved debug information

Cool tool update: RVTools 3.6

Duncan Epping · Feb 24, 2014 ·

It has been a while since I reported an update of RVTools. Rob just emailed me and told me that Version 3.6 is available as of today. He has been working really hard to get some great new functionality in, which I am sure all of you will appreciate. One of the coolest free tools out there if you ask me! Great work again Rob, thanks for contributing to the community like this.

Version 3.6 (February, 2014)

New tabpage with cluster information
New tabpage with multipath information
On vInfo tabpage new fields HA Isolation response and HA restart priority
On vInfo tabpage new fields Cluster affinity rule information
On vInfo tabpage new fields connection state and suspend time
On vInfo tabpage new field The vSphere HA protection state for a virtual machine (DAS Protection)
On vInfo tabpage new field quest state.
On vCPU tabpage new fields Hot Add and Hot Remove information
On vCPU tabpage cpu/socket/cores information adapted
On vHost tabpage new fields VMotion support and storage VMotion support
On vMemory tabpage new field Hot Add
On vNetwork tabpage new field VM folder.
On vSC_VMK tabpage new field MTU
RVToolsSendMail: you can now also set the mail subject
Fixed a datastore bug for ESX version 3.5
Fixed a vmFolder bug when started from the commandline
Improved documentation for the commandline options

Cool tool update: RVTools 3.5

Duncan Epping · Mar 9, 2013 ·

Yes, there is it is again… an updated version of RVTools. Rob just emailed me and provided me with a nice list of enhancements:

RVTools Version 3.5 (March, 2013)

On vInfo tabpage new field: Resource pool
On vInfo tabpage new field: Consolidation needed.
On vCPU tabpage new field: Number of cores per socket
New tabpage with resource pool information
On vNetwork tabpage new column: Switch name
On vNetwork tabpage new column: Starts Connected
On vTools tabpage new column: required version
On vHost tabpage new columns: custom fields
On vDisk tabpage new columns: raw disk information
Improved error handling for SSO login problems
Bug fix: Invalid snapshot size fixed
Bug fix: All datetime fields now use the local time zone
Bug fix: data not refreshed after changing filter

Now just go and download RVTools! I am certain you will find it very very useful.

Cool Tool update: RVTools 3.4

Duncan Epping · Sep 25, 2012 ·

It has been a while since I blogged about RVTools, but I just received an email from Rob saying that there is an update out so I figured it was about time. RVTools is in my opinion THE best free and independent tool out there for a vSphere enviroment. This is a must-have tool for every virtualization admin / consultant!

I have used it many times in the past, and I can tell you that it helped me digging up some nasty inconsistencies in environments and misconfigured VMs etc. I am surprised that none of the monitoring/reporting vendors has approached Rob to sponsor the tool itself… Especially considering RVTools was downloaded over 150.000 times so far.

What’s new for RVTools 3.4?

Overall performance improvements and better end user experience
VI SDK reference changed from 4.0 to 5.0
Added reference to Log4net (Apache Logging Framework) for debugging purpose
Fixed a SSO problem
CSV export trailing separator removed to fix PowerShell read problem
On vDisk tabpage new fields: Eagerly Scrub and Write Through
On vHost tabpage new field: vRAM = total amount of virtual RAM allocated to all running VMs
On vHost tabpage new fields: Used memory by VMs, Swapped memory by VMs and Ballooned memory by VMs
Bugfix: Snapshot size was displayed as zero when smaller than 1 MM
Added a new preferences screen. Here you can disable / enable some performance killers. By default they are disabled

Go and download it and give it a try, I am certain it will discover things you did not know about…

Cool tool update: RVTools 3.3 released!

Duncan Epping · Apr 24, 2012 ·

Rob de Veij just published RVTools 3.3. I know many of you are using it and I definitely suggest downloading the latest version! RVTools has been downloaded more than 100.000, so definitely worth checking out if you had not so far! Here are the changes in this release:

Version 3.3 (April, 2012)

GetWebResponse timeout value changed from 5 minutes to 10 minutes (for very big environments)
New tabpage with HBA information
On vDatastore tab the definition of the Provisioned MB and In Use MB columns was confusing! This is changed now.
RVToolsSendMail accepts now multiple recipients (semicolon is used as separator)
Folder information of VMs and Templates are now visible on vInfo tabpage
Bugfix: data in comboboxes on filter form are now sorted
Bugfix: Problem with api version 2.5.0 solved
Bugfix: Improved exception handling on vCPU tab.
Bugfix: Improved exception handling on vDatastore tab.