VMware

Deploying the VMware Infrastructure

Duncan Epping · Oct 6, 2008 ·

Two months ago I blogged about an upcoming book! This book was written by John Arrasjid(VMware), Daniel Conde(VMware), Karthik Balachandran(VMware), Gary Lamb(INX) and Steve Kaplan(INX) and released during VMworld.

It was up for sale during VMworld and they did a great job cause they ranked 4th on the top selling books list at VMworld. John was so kind so send me a copy of the book and I managed to read it completely today. The fact that I read it completely today says something about the size of the book. Deploying the VMware Infrastucture holds 86 pages and is number 18 in the “Short Topics in System Administration” series by Usenix/SAGE.

This book isn’t like most VMware books out today. Most books are heavily technical and don’t talk about when to use which feature or product. This book is for those relativately new to virtualization and are in need of a guideline to write or come up with deployment strategies and use cases. Although I don’t consider myself a “newbie” I thought it was still useful to read cause it gives a nice clear overview in layman’s terms. I can imagine managers and architects also use this book to fresh up on their virtualization knowledge.

The structure of the book is good, starting out with an Intro on Virtualization and going from the benefits in terms of Capital Expense, ROI and TCO to Advanced Capabilities like HA and DRS. I can’t think of a single thing that’s left out that should have been in these 86 pages. So if you’re looking for a general guideline or writing a deployment plan than this book should be on your “must have” list.

You can find more info on the website of SAGE about the book and purchase it over there or here.

Update: HA Advanced Options

Duncan Epping · Oct 6, 2008 ·

A while back I wrote down all the HA advanced options. With VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 3(and the ESX patch that came with it) VMware added another extra advanced options, this is the complete list:

das.failuredetectiontime – Amount of milliseconds, timeout time for isolation response action(with a default of 15000 milliseconds).

das.isolationaddress[x] – IP adres the ESX hosts uses for it’s heartbeat, where [x] = 0-9. It will use the default gateway by default.

das.usedefaultisolationaddress – Value can be true or false and needs to be set in case the default gateway, which is the default isolation address shouldn’t be used for this purpose.

das.poweroffonisolation – Values are False or True, this is for setting the isolation response. Default a VM will be powered off.

das.vmMemoryMinMB – Higher values will reserve more space for failovers.

das.vmCpuMinMHz – Higher values will reserve more space for failovers.

das.defaultfailoverhost – Value is a hostname, this host will be the primary failover host.

das.failuredetectioninterval – Changes the heartbeat interval among HA hosts. By default, this occurs every second (1000 milliseconds).

das.allowVmotionNetworks – Allows a NIC that is used for VMotion networks to be

considered for VMware HA usage. This permits a host to have only one NIC configured for management and VMotion combined.

das.allowNetwork[x] – Enables the use of port group names to control the networks used for VMware HA, where [x] = 0 – ?. You can set the value to be ʺService Console 2ʺ or ʺManagement Networkʺ to use (only) the networks associated with those port group names in the networking configuration.

das.isolationShutdownTimeout – Shutdown time out for the isolation response “Shutdown VM”, default is 300 seconds. In other words, if a VM isn’t shutdown clean when isolation response occured it’s being powered off after 300 seconds.

das.bypassNetCompatCheck – Disable the “compatible network” check for HA that was introducedwith Update 2. Default value is “false”, setting it to “true” disables the check.Virtual Machine Monitoring HA advanced options

das.failureInterval = The polling interval for failures. Default value is 30.

das.maxFailureWindows = Minimum amount of seconds between failure. Default value is 3600 seconds, if VM fails within 3600 seconds VM HA doesn’t restart the machine.

das.maxFailures = Maximum amount of VM failures, if the amount is reached VM HA doesn’t restart the machine automatically. Default value is 3.

das.minUptime = The minimum uptime in seconds before VM HA starts polling. The default value is 120 seconds.

Bluebear’s Kodiak!

Duncan Epping · Sep 30, 2008 ·

I just received my beta invite for Bluebear’s Kodiak and will be testing it today. I am downloading a brand new Ubuntu 8.0.4 virtual appliance and will keep you guys up to date on this multi platform VirtualCenter management client.

~~If anyone wants an invite to the beta program than just drop your email here, or send me your email on duncan[@]yellow-bricks.com and I will hook you up. It’s still limited so be quick!~~

I’m all out. So you guys should help each other… over 60 invites within 24 hours. Bluebear is hot!

Marathon HA/FT vs VMware HA/FT

Duncan Epping · Sep 24, 2008 ·

A couple of days ago I linked to Mike D. response to Marathon’s blogs. Mike has updated his original blog article and added a second article which responds to another blog by Marathon. Those who are interested in the difference between Marathon’s and VMware’s products should definitely read it. Especially if you’ve only read the Marathon posts so far. Mike D. sets the record straight!

Marathon FT and VMware FT

a short outtake: “This wasn’t talked about but Marathon’s virtualization FT only works with Windows 2003 Standard or Enterprise SP1 today. VMware FT works with any of the over 70 certified guest operating systems that run on Virtual Infrastructure. The Marathon solution also sits deeply embedded within the OS.”

Marathon everRun vs VMware HA – Another Mess

a short outtake: “As you can now see, Marathon obviously has never touched a VMware host to setup VMware HA. They simply type what they want customers to hear on their webpages time and time again and rely on that FUD to get them sales.”