Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

VMware

Site Recovery Manager, random thoughts

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I’ve been disconnected from the internet the last couple of days because of a UPC screw up. So I missed out on all the SRM blogging. I am just reading all the new blogs that were created over the last couple of days. Here are just a couple random thoughts…

  • The SRM docs talk about a “proteced” and a “recovery” site. Does this mean that SRM always needs an “active/passive” setup. In other words, can I only use 1 SAN for production.
    Why? Well I could imagine that one would benefit from having some sort of load balancing with 2 VirtualDatacenters and 2 active SAN’s. Not only will the uptime increase, because if a site fails only half will failover, but also performance will be less of an issue having half of your active vm’s running on another SAN and cluster. And I’m not even gonna talk about TCO when half of your environment is doing nothing.
  • What about the VirtualCenter licensing? Do I need 2 VirtualCenter Licenses?
  • What about failing back? I played around with a beta and there’s no automated option for a fail back at this moment, when will it be available?
  • What about a third site? Think about switching datacenters every week or so for the insurance / banking industry. (Think Anti-Terrorism.)

VMware tools version?

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A couple of weeks ago I contacted Rob, the man behind RVTools, and asked him if he could add an export or copy+past functionality to his amazing tool “RVTools”. This amazing tool checks the VMware tools version and gives you the option to update them all at once. Rob updated his tool today:

Version 1.1
Changes: May 10, 2008
You can copy the selected datagrid values with ctrl-c to the clipboard. The header text is automatically included. After this you can paste the clipboard data to your favorite editor.
The login form remembers the names and/or IP addresses of the entered ESX hosts and/or VirtualCenter servers.
You can use a filter to display only the “templates” or “virtual machines”.
Annotations “notes” field is visible in the datagrid.
http://rvtools.deveij.com

Especially the copy and paste option is handy for those who do consultancy like me, thanks Rob for adding this feature and for this excellent tool! Nextup converting it into a VirtualCenter plugin?!? 😉

ESXi for just $ 99

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Dell announced yesterday that ESXi will cost only $99. (source: virtualization.info) Citrix Xenserver will cost you $299. I’m really curious how HP, IBM and Fujitsu are going to respond to this. And what is Microsoft going to do with this very competitive pricing. Anyway, what ever happens Dell and VMware just woke everybody up and the customers are definitely the one who will benefit!

New VMware certification available within a month!

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Gerben just blogged about it, and I blogged about it several times over the last couple of months but as of next month the new certification is available:

source
The VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) on VMware Infrastructure 3 is an advanced certification developed for design architects of VMware enterprise deployments.

There are four core validation components to achieve VCDX.

(1) Must be certified as a VMware Certified Professional (VCP) on VMware Infrastructure 3.

(2) Pass the VMware Enterprise Administration Exam. Includes live labs and tests a higher level of skill set than the exam for VCP on VMware Infrastructure 3.

(3) Pass the VMware Design Exam. This exam focuses on actual design scenarios and contains simulations and situational questions.

(4) Submit, present and defend a successful VMware Infrastructure design and implementation plan.
Blueprint