Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

update

VirtualCenter 2.0.2 Update 5

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Besides ESX 3.0.3 also a new VC version has been releaded! I did not notice this one yet.

Security Issues

Note: These vulnerabilities can be exploited remotely only if the attacker has access to the service console network. Security best practices provided by VMware recommend that the service console be isolated from the virtual machine network. For more information on VMware security best practices, refer www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/726.

  • VirtualCenter Server Users Without the Modify Permission Privilege Can No Longer View User Name Details of Other System Users
    Starting with this VirtualCenter Server release, only users with the Modify Permission privilege can view details of other system users. When users with read-only or similar roles attempt to assign permissions to other system users, user name details of other system users are not displayed, instead, a message similar to the following appears:
    Permissions to perform this operation was denied.
    The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-3514 to this issue.

Virtual Machine Management Issues

  • e1000 Is the Default Network Adapter Driver for Windows Vista Ultimate 32-Bit Guest Operating Systems
    Starting with this release, the Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit guest operating systems correctly detects the e1000 driver as the default network adapter driver, instead of the vlance driver.
  • Multiple Virtual Machines Can Be Scheduled to Power On Simultaneously
    This release fixes an issue where multiple tasks that are scheduled to power on virtual machines at the same time might result in one of the following:

    • The scheduled tasks might fail, with log entries similar to the following in the vpxd.log file:
      [2008-02-25 03:35:04.185 'App' 6708 verbose] [VpxdMoEventManager] Event[12597]: Task <virtualmachine _name>_PowerON on <virtualmachine _name> in Data Center failed: The request refers to an unexpected or unknown type.
    • The VirtualCenter Server might stop responding, with log entries similar to the following in the vpxd.log file:
      Exception: Not reached!
      [2008-02-26 03:35:03.260 'App' 4848 error] Backtrace:
      backtrace[00] eip 0x016dc006 Ordinal788
      backtrace[01] eip 0x0167248a Ordinal400      ….
  • VirtualCenter Server Accepts Suffix Less Domain Entries When Updating the DNS Configuration of an ESX Server Host
    This release fixes an issue where, when updating the DNS configuration of an ESX Server host, the VirtualCenter Server fails to accept valid host domain names that do not have suffixes, and displays an error message similar to the following:
    The Domain name is not in the correct format
  • Viewing the Event Tab Page No Longer Causes the Japanese Version of VirtualCenter Server to Stop Responding
    This release fixes an issue where, if an event that writes multi-byte characters to the ARG_DATA column of VPX_EVENT_ARG database table, such as accessing the console of a virtual machine, is followed by viewing the Event tab page, the Japanese version of the VirtualCenter Server might stop responding. Entries similar to the following are logged in the vpxd.log file:
    [2008-03-05 17:12:18.161 'App' 5012 verbose] [VdbStatement]Executing SQL: SELECT EVENT_ID, ARG_ID, ARG_TYPE, ARG_DATA, OBJ_TYPE, OBJ_NAME, VM_ID, HOST_ID, COMPUTERESOURCE_ID, DATACENTER_ID, RESOURCEPOOL_ID, FOLDER_ID, ALARM_ID, SCHEDULEDTASK_ID FROM VPX_EVENT_ARG WHERE (EVENT_ID IN (?,?,?,?..........)
    [2008-03-05 17:12:18.302 'App' 5012 error] An unrecoverable problem has occurred, stopping the VMware VirtualCenter service. Check database connectivity before restarting. Error: Error[VdbODBCError] (-1) ODBC error: () -
    [2008-03-05 17:12:18.302 'App' 5012 verbose] Backtrace:

Installation Issues

  • VirtualCenter Server No Longer Fails to Start When Japanese Version of VirtualCenter 2.0.2 Update 2 is Upgraded
    The VirtualCenter Server might fail to start when the Japanese version of VirtualCenter 2.0.2 Update 2 is upgraded to VirtualCenter 2.0.2 Update 3, or VirtualCenter 2.0.2 Update 4, with entries similar to the following in the vpxd.log log file:
    [2008-05-07 15:56:59.953 'App' 5840 error] [VpxdVdb] Database version value
    'VirtualCenter Database 2.0.2u1' is incompatible with this release of VirtualCenter.
    [2008-05-07 15:56:59.953 'App' 5840 error] Failed to initialize VMware
    VirtualCenter. Shutting down...
    This release fixes the issue. The VirtualCenter Server is capable of starting, when the Japanese version of VirtualCenter 2.0.2 Update 2 is upgraded to VirtualCenter 2.0.2 Update 5.

ESX 3.0.3 available now!

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For those that are still using 3.0.2 and are not looking to upgrade to 3.5 U2 yet, VMware just released 3.0.3! Don’t expect new features to popup. Version 3.0.3 is mainly about compatability and patches:

Processors

Newly supported processors are:

  • Quad-Core AMD Opteron 8300 series and 2300 series processor families (collectively code-named Barcelona)
  • Dual-core Intel Xeon 5200 series processors (code-named Wolfdale)

Drivers

Upgraded drivers are:

  • igb driver version 1.0.0
  • Broadcom 5722 tg3 driver version upgraded from 3.43.to 3.58b
  • Emulex lpfc driver version upgraded to 7.3.2_vmw10

Guest Operating Systems

Newly supported guest operating systems are:

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Data Center Edition
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1

Enhanced Patch and Upgrade Management

Significant improvements to the following patch management utilities:

  • esxupdate Utility – Support for super-bundle and rollup features in esxupdate.
  • Support for VMware Update Manager.

Service Console

Update for service console from RHEL3 U8 to RHEL3 U9.

Management Agents

Support for new versions of Management Agents:

  • HP Insight Manager 8.1
  • Dell OpenManage Server Administrator 5.4
  • IBM Director 5.20 Update 1

Backup Software

Support for additional backup software from third-party vendors:

  • EMC Networker Version 7.4 SP1
  • IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Version 5.5

Quality Improvements

A significant number of issues have been fixed. Some of these issues have been described in Resolved Issues in this Release.

Get it while it’s stil hot and read the complete release notes here!

ESX 3.5 U2 and HA error

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Erik Zandboer just posted a topic on the VMTN forum about an HA error he received when he updates his machines to 3.5 U2. The error was one almost everyone has probably seen by now “could not contact primary HA agent”. This is normally solved by pressing “reconfigure for ha” or disabling and enabling HA. This wasn’t the case this time. after some research Erik discovered that the host file entry for the ESX host did not match the DNS name, one of them started with a capital while other did not. This caused HA to fail, after changing the hostname/dns name and a reboot everything worked fine again.

I can imagine this happens because of the fact that VirtualCenter is actually performing as a DNS/Hosts file for HA. Inconsistent naming has always been, and probably will always be a problem. So before upgrading, check your hostname and /etc/hosts file!

Previously, enabling VMware High Availability required DNS resolution of all ESX Server hosts in a High Availability cluster. This was done using configuring DNS records or by adding all of the host names and IP addresses to the /etc/hosts file on each server.
Starting with the ESX Server 3.5 Update2 release, DNS resolution or /etc/hosts file entries are no longer required to configure High Availability. The host name and IP address information will now be provided by the managing VirtualCenter Server. the source

ESX 3.5 Update 2 available now!

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Am I the first one to notice this? VMware just released Update 2 for ESX(i) 3.5 and a whole bunch of new patches!

So what’s new?

  • Windows Server 2008 support – Windows Server 2008 (Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter editions) is supported as a guest operating system. With VMware’s memory overcommit technology and the reliability of ESX, virtual machine density can be maximized with this new guest operating system to achieve the highest degree of ROI. Guest operating system customizations and Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) are not supported with Windows Server 2008.
  • Enhanced VMotion Compatibility – Enhanced VMotion compatibility (EVC) simplifies VMotion compatibility issues across CPU generations by automatically configuring server CPUs with Intel FlexMigration or AMD-V Extended Migration technologies to be compatible with older servers. Once EVC is enabled for a cluster in the VirtualCenter inventory, all hosts in that cluster are configured to ensure CPU compatibility for VMotion. VirtualCenter will not permit the addition of hosts which cannot be automatically configured to be compatible with those already in the EVC cluster.
  • Storage VMotion – Storage VMotion from a FC/iSCSI datastore to another FC/iSCSI datastore is supported. This support is extended on ESX/ESXi 3.5 Update 1 as well.
  • VSS quiescing support – When creating quiesced snapshot of Windows Server 2003 guests, both filesystem and application quiescing are supported. With Windows Server 2008 guests, only filesystem quiescing is supported. For more information, see the Virtual Machine Backup Guide and the VMware Consolidated Backup 1.5 Release Notes.
  • Hot Virtual Extend Support – The ability to extend a virtual disk while virtual machines are running is provided. Hot extend is supported for vmfs flat virtual disks without snapshots opened in persistent mode.
  • 192 vCPUs per host – VMware now supports increasing the maximum number of vCPUs per host 192 given that the maximum number of Virtual Machines per host is 170 and that no more than 3 virtual floppy devices or virtual CDROM devices are configured on the host at any given time. This support is extended on ESX 3.5 Update 1 as well.

I really really like the VSS support for Snapshots, especially for VCB this is a great feature! And what about hot extending your harddisk, this makes a VMFS datastore as flexible as a RDM datastore!

For Hardware there are also a couple of really great additions:

  • 8Gb Fiber Channel HBAs – Support is available for 8Gb fiber channel HBAs. See the I/O Compatibility Guide for ESX Server 3.5 and ESX Server 3i for details.
  • SAS arrays – more configurations are supported.  See the Storage/SAN Compatibility Guide for ESX Server 3.5 and ESX Server 3i for details.
  • 10 GbE iSCSI initiator – iSCSI over a 10GbE interface is supported. This support is extended on ESX Server 3.5 Update 1, ESX Server version 3.5 Update 1 Embedded and ESX Server version 3.5 Update 1 Installable as well.
  • 10 GbE NFS support – NFS over a 10GbE interface is supported.
  • IBM System x3950 M2 – x3950 M2 in a 4-chassis configuration is supported, complete with hardware management capabilities through multi-node Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) driver and provider. Systems with up to 32 cores are fully supported.  Systems with more than 32 cores are supported experimentally.
  • IPMI OEM extension support – Execution of IPMI OEM extension commands is supported.
  • System health monitoring through CIM providers – More Common Information Model (CIM) providers are added for enhanced hardware monitoring, including storage management providers provided by QLogic and Emulex.  LSI MegaRAID providers are also included and are supported experimentally.
  • CIM SMASH/Server Management API – The VMware CIM SMASH/Server Management API provides an interface for developers building CIM-compliant applications to monitor and manage the health of systems.  CIM SMASH is now a fully supported interface on ESX Server 3.5 and VMware ESX Server 3i.
  • Display of system health information – More system health information is displayed in VI Client for both ESX Server 3.5 and VMware ESX Server 3i.
  • Remote CLI – Remote Command Line Interface (CLI) is now supported on ESX Server 3.5 as well as ESX Server 3i. See the Remote Command-Line Interface Installation and Reference Guide for more information.

One of the important thing in my opinion is the full support for the CIM Smash API! And iSCSI over a 10GBe interface, same goes for NFS! 8GB fibre and SAS arrays is a great extension.

  • VMware High Availability – VirtualCenter 2.5 update 2 adds full support for monitoring individual virtual machine failures based on VMware tools heartbeats. This release also extends support for clusters containing mixed combinations of ESX and ESXi hosts, and minimizes previous configuration dependencies on DNS.
  • VirtualCenter Alarms – VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 2 extends support for alarms on the overall health of the server by considering the health of each of the individual system components such as memory and power supplies. Alarms can now be configured to trigger when host health degrades.
  • Guided Consolidation – now provides administrators with the ability to filter the list of discovered systems by computer name, IP address, domain name or analyzing status. Administrators can also choose to explicitly add physical hosts for analysis, without waiting for systems to be auto-discovered by the Consolidation wizard. Systems can be manually added for analysis by specifying either a hostname or IP address. Multiple hostnames or IP addresses, separated by comma or semi-colon delimiters, may also be specified for analysis. Systems can also be manually added for analysis by specifying an IP address range or by importing a file containing a list of hostnames or IP addresses that need to be analyzed for consolidation. Guided Consolidation also allows administrators to override the provided recommendations and manually invoke the conversion wizard.
  • Live Cloning – VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 2 provides the ability of creating a clone of a powered-on virtual machine without any downtime to the running virtual machine. Therefore, administrators are no longer required to power off a virtual machine in order to create a clone of it.
  • Single Sign-On – You can now automatically authenticate to VirtualCenter using your current Windows domain login credentials on the local workstation, as long as the credentials are valid on the VirtualCenter server. This capability also supports logging in to Windows using Certificates and Smartcards. It can be used with the VI Client or the VI Remote CLI to ensure that scripts written using the VI Toolkits can take advantage of the Windows credentials of your current session to automatically connect to VirtualCenter.

One of the best new features described above in my opinion is the extension of Alarms! It’s awesome that VirtualCenter will report on hardware health! But what about that live cloning, that will definitely come in handy when troubleshooting a live production environment. Just copy the server, start it without the network attached and try to solve the problem!

DOWNLOAD it now:

ESX 3.5 Update 2
ESXi 3.5 installable Update 2
VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 2
VMware Consolidated Backup 1.5