Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

upgrade

ESX 3.5 Update 5 is available

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For those still on ESX 3.5 VMware has just released Update 5. Here are the full release notes, you can find the download here and make sure to read which issues have been resolved.

What’s New?

Notes:

  1. Not all combinations of VirtualCenter and ESX Server versions are supported. All of these highlighted features are available only if you are using VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 5 with ESX Server 3.5 Update 5. See the ESX Server, VirtualCenter, and VMware Infrastructure Client Compatibility Matrixes for more information on compatibility.
  2. VMware recommends VMware Tools upgrade for this version of ESX Server.

The following information provides highlights of some of the enhancements available in this release of VMware ESX Server:

Enablement of Intel Xeon Processor 3400 Series – Support for the Intel Xeon processor 3400 series has been added. Support includes Enhanced VMotion capabilities. For additional information on previous processor families supported by Enhanced VMotion, see Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC) processor support (KB 1003212).

Driver Update for Broadcom bnx2 Network Controller – The driver for bnx2 controllers has been upgraded to version 1.6.9. This driver supports bootcode upgrade on bnx2 chipsets and requires bmapilnx and lnxfwnx2 tools upgrade from Broadcom. This driver also adds support for Network Controller – Sideband Interface (NC-SI) for SOL (serial over LAN) applicable to Broadcom NetXtreme 5709 and 5716 chipsets.

Driver Update for LSI SCSI and SAS Controllers – The driver for LSI SCSI and SAS controllers is updated to version 2.06.74. This version of the driver is required to provide a better support for shared SAS environments.

Newly Supported Guest Operating Systems – Support for the following guest operating systems has been added specifically for this release:

For more complete information about supported guests included in this release, see the VMware Compatibility Guide: http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=software.

  • Windows 7 Enterprise (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows 7 Ultimate (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows 7 Professional (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Windows 2008 R2 Standard Edition (64-bit)
  • Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition (64-bit)
  • Windows 2008 R2 Datacenter Edition (64-bit)
  • Windows 2008 R2 Web Server (64-bit)
  • Ubuntu Desktop 9.04 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Ubuntu Server 9.04 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Newly Supported Management Agents – See VMware ESX Server Supported Hardware Lifecycle Management Agents for current information on supported management agents.

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.

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.

VMware vCenter Chargeback 1.0.1

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VMware has just released a new version of VMware vCenter Chargeback. Below you can find the “what’s new” details from the release notes:

vCenter Chargeback 1.0.1 | 10/29/2009 | Build 204097

Last Document Update: 10/29/2009

What’s New in this Release

vCenter Chargeback 1.0.1 provides the following new features:

  • Support for Windows Authentication
    This release of vCenter Chargeback supports Windows Authentication for SQL Server databases. If you are using SQL Server for the vCenter Chargeback database or for the vCenter Server database, then you can configure the application to use Windows Authentication instead of SQL Authentication.
  • New computing resource and billing policies added
    This release of vCenter Chargeback introduces a new computing resource, vCPU, and two new billing policies, vCPU Count and Memory Size and Fixed Cost and vCPU Count and Memory Size. These policies enable you to calculate cost based on the number of virtual CPUs and the amount of memory allocated to the virtual machines.
  • Resource Summary section lists rolled-up usage data for all entities
    The Resource Summary section of the chargeback reports show the rolled-up usage data for all the entities.
  • Global fixed cost history is retained
    This release of vCenter Chargeback lets you to set different cost values for different time periods on the same global fixed cost. The old values are retained and not overwritten.
  • Ability to undo to the most recent operation on the chargeback hierarchy
    The most recent operation on the chargeback hierarchy can be undone. This undo feature is available for entities that are added or moved in the hierarchy. The undo option is not available for rename and delete operations.
  • Ability to use the vCenter Chargeback APIs
    vCenter Chargeback APIs provide an interface to programmatically use the various features of vCenter Chargeback. As an application developer, you can use these APIs to build chargeback applications or integrate vCenter Chargeback with your internal billing systems and compliance policies. Please do note that the APIs released with this version of vCenter Chargeback are only for a technical preview.

    • SRM 4.0 released

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    VMware just released version 4.0 of SRM. Just to be clear this is not the 4th version of SRM, the version number is aligned with vCenter and ESX. I’ve highlighted the new features which I think are really really useful or exciting.

    Site Recovery Manager 4.0 | 05-October-2009 | Build 192921

    Release Note
    New Features:

    • Full compatibility with vCenter 4.
    • Full support for NFS-based arrays.
    • Support for shared recovery sites.
      Enables many-to-one pairings of protected sites with a recovery site. For more information, see the technical note Installing, Configuring, and Using Shared Recovery Site Support, which is available at http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/srm_pubs.html.
    • Resilience in the face of vCenter unavailability during a test recovery.
      Placeholder virtual machines can be quickly repaired after the protected site vCenter becomes available again.
    • New repair-mode installation features.
      You can run the SRM installer in repair mode if you need to change configuration parameters such as vCenter credentials, database connection information or credentials, and certificate details.
    • Graphical interface to advanced settings.
      Eliminates most requirements to edit the XML configuration file
    • Support for DB2 as an SRM database server.
    • New licensing options.
    • Improved scalability.
      A single protection group can now include up to 1000 virtual machines.
    • Full Compatibility With DPM (Distributed Power Management)
      SRM recovery plans can now power-on or power-off a host that is in standby mode.
    • New Option to dr-ip-customizer Utility
      The dr-ip-customizer utility now logs less verbose diagnostic output by default. To force dr-ip-customizer to log the same level of diagnostic output that it produced in earlier releases, use the -verbose option.
    • Change in Certificate Validation
      When you select certificate authentication, the SRM installation validates the certificate you supply before continuing. Certificates signed with an MD5 key are no longer allowed.
    • Support for Protecting Fault-Tolerant Virtual Machines.
      SRM can now protect virtual machines that have been configured for fault-tolerant operation. When recovered, these virtual machines lose their fault tolerance, and must be manually reconfigured after recovery to restore fault tolerance.
    • Improved context-sensitive Help.
    • PDF documents available on release media
      Current versions of the PDF documents for this release are available in the docs folder at the root of the SRM 4.0 CD. Updated versions of these documents may be available at http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/srm_pubs.html.

    Keep in mind that if you want to do an upgrade you need to use a specific method to be successful. It’s described here. Now go ahead, download it and try it out!