VCenter on myvirtualcloud.net

Datrium DVX Cloud to AWS Cloud in Less than 60 Seconds

Sun, 27 Aug 2017 09:51:44 +0000

In this version of the Datrium DVX we are demonstrating archival of snapshots from the on-prem DVX to AWS S3 without ever leaving vCenter UI. This presents our customers with the ability to protect their infrastructure data both in the on-prem DVX cloud and off site in AWS DVX cloud repositories.

VMware Horizon View on Acropolis Hypervisor

Mon, 24 Aug 2015 22:21:54 +0000

One of the submissions for the Nutanix Coding Challenge is quite interesting from a VDI point of view. The team at EZDC Automation used the self-service engine from vCloud Automation Center (vRA) to automate the creation and customization of desktops using the Acropolis API's and making them available in VMware Horizon View for use. In this case Horizon View is handling the connection brokering to unmanaged desktops, but both persistent and floating use-cases can be successfully deployed.

Reduce Windows Server License count in VMware View

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 14:04:12 +0000

One of the many features available in VMware View 5.1 is the ability to implement VMware View Composer in a Standalone Server. VMware View Composer is the software piece responsible for creating Linked Clone desktops and since VMware View 5.1 can be deployed on a server other than the vCenter Server. Read more about View Composer at VMware View 4.5 Linked Cloning explained. This move is aiming towards a highly scalable VMware View architecture.

How to change vCenter URL in VMware View

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:42:00 +0000

In some cases VMware View may show a problem with the certificate on the vCenter Server, displaying a dashboard red flag even when certificates and properly in place. This behavior can happen because the administrator entered the vCenter Server address in VMware View Admin UI using the short name instead of the FQDN, but the certificate used on the vCenter Server is a wildcard certificate for the domain.

View Storage Accelerator (CBRC) Hashing Function

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 09:10:25 +0000

VMware View Storage Accelerator uses a vSphere platform feature called CBRC (Content Based Read Cache). CBRC is an in-host RAM cache for VMDK blocks frequently accessed by virtual desktops.

When VMware View Storage Accelerator is enabled (OS disk, or OS and Persistent Disks), a per-VMDK digest file is created to store the hash information about logical block in VMDK disks. This information is stored using SHA1 cryptographic hash function. SHA-1 is the most widely used of the existing SHA hash functions, and is employed in several widely used applications and protocols.

VMware View 5.0 and Composer 2.7 Maximums

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 08:27:00 +0000

I had the pleasure to be part of the VMware View 5.0 Beta program. One thing that still in my mind since the start of program was around the number of hosts in a View Composer enabled cluster. Currently with VMware View 4.6 the limit is eight.

How to script Datastore Multipathing change using PowerShell

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:01:00 +0000

There is a recurring situation that I face whenever I am deploying a new VMware View environment (also applicable to any vSphere deployment) . Due to natural limitations on number of IOPS per datastore (LUN), VMware recommends that you size your datastores for a maximum of 64 virtual desktops. This number could be higher, however you will need to pay attention to the number of IOPS required to support the workload, and verify that each LUN and backend array/spindles are able to provide the required performance. Normally this performance is measured by the latency number between I/O requests. There are references that mention that if I/O latency is higher than 10 milliseconds on average and higher than 20 milliseconds at peak your workload is under I/O contention.

DR for critical desktops in VMware View

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:21:00 +0000

VMware vSphere Infrastructure offer the highest levels of availability and responsiveness for applications and services, and to provide additional protection and deliver advanced capabilities for disaster recovery management VMware released vCenter Site Recovery Manager.

Whilst SRM provides disaster recovery management for the infrastructure, VMware View 4 does not have a native protection tool provided by VMware.

vCenter Fail to Launch Virtual Machine Console

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:51:00 +0000

I have seen this issue many times. If vCenter VM management works fine but there is a problem launching the Virtual Machine Console and the error says: “Unable to connect to the MKS: Host address lookup for server servername failed: No such host is known” check the DNS resolution at the workstation running vCenter client. It should be able to resolve the host running the VM.

NetApp Rapid Cloning Utility 3.0 now integrates with vCenter and View4

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:56:00 +0000

NetApp released few days ago a preview of their new Rapid Cloning Utility 3.0 vCenter Plug-in, integrating storage layer with vCenter and VMware View4.

The RCU 3.0 provides end-to-end storage provisioning from within vCenter for infrastructures running VI3 & vSphere with support for FC, FCoE, iSCSI, & NFS datastores. Once storage and interfaces have been assigned by the storage admin to the VI admin team the RCU can provision datastores to ESX/ESXi host, cluster, or entire data center with a single wizard.

Cloud Computing Offerings – Part 2 - “Wishes”

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:46:00 +0000

“A Bird’s-Eye Look at Cloud Computing offerings” published on November, 26th, generated a lot of interest from the Cloud providers. Both mentioned providers contacted me, providing some corrections to the blog post and requesting some additional feedback. Even a new Cloud start-up has requested some advice and offered me to be part of the beta program.

vSphere Host Profiles Deep Dive

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:00:00 +0000

It was nice to see my blog posts about “Your Organization’s Desktop Virtualization Project – Part 1 and 2” for the first making to the Top 5 Planet V12n blog posts week 45. It was energizing and gave me confidence that I am heading in the right direction with this blog.

Troubleshooting vCenter Server and Lesson Learned

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:26:00 +0000

Not often I face issues with VMware products that were previously working with flaws and I do consider VMware hypervisor and it’s components a very reliable and robust solution.

When I got into the office this morning vCenter Server service was not running and a manual restart or server reboot did not fix the issue. The event viewer showed the following errors:

Connections and Ports in ESX and ESXi

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 04:25:00 +0000

I have previously in the post “PCI DSS, Network Ports and your VMware Environment” discussed the network port requirements for deploying PCI frameworks, tightening your environment or just relaxing firewall rules.

Today I came across a diagram and a great tool to help administrators to identify these connections and the interrelation between different VMware products. The documents are maintained by Dudley Smith and I also recommend a visit to his blog.

VMware Data Recovery step-by-step for newbie's

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:07:24 +0000

Firstly I have to say that this post was born due to my frustration with VMware Data Recovery. I was lucky or unlucky enough to be target by few different bugs in all releases, up to 1.0.2.

VDR promises to deliver virtual machine disk-to-disk backup and recovery solution with integrated de-duplication that was before only found in expensive enterprise class products.

(Take Care) vSphere Virtual Machine Upgrade Process

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:18:07 +0000

I decided to name this post as "Take Care" as I found myself looking for promissed VSphere features that will not be avaiable in most Corporate environments therefore you should prepare yourself, and your environment.

While I as upgrading my VM's from 3.x to VSphere I based my work on this great step-by-step article from @scot_lowe Scott Lowe's (see link bellow). The main reason for upgrading was related to the ability to run the new VMXNET3, Paravirtualized SCSI and Hot-Add/Hot-Plug. I also wanted to customize my templates to use hardware v7.

Perf Best Practices for VMware vSphere 4.0 ERR

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:29:00 +0000

System Administrators are always looking for the additional extra performance tuning. The VMware document bellow provides quick and easy tips to streamline your VSphere environment.

During my readings I have found a ERR – The bellow statement is incomplete or misguiding administrators.

VirtualCenter highly available with VMware VI3

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:51:46 +0000

VirtualCenter high availability is always a point to be discussed especially if your organization does not have enough budget to acquire something like VCenter Heartbeat, in the post following the link bellow vExpert Duncan Eping describe a simple and easy way to achieve higher availability levels for vCenter with VMware VI3.

Rebuilding the Service Console

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:28:00 +0000

To a certain degree we all have faced issues with ESX hosts however nothing can be more dramatic that not being able to connect to the hosts using VI Client, either directly or via VCenter. The old and good SSH or iLO now takes place.

PCI DSS, Network Ports and your VMware Environment

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 01:08:31 +0000

Recently I have been involved with deployment of PCI DSS at TeleTech for the APAC region. It's good to say that TeleTech has been oficially declared PCI compliant however VMware is still on track to get their products certified. This puts a barrier for organizations with high virtualisation levels but I am not here to discuss the PCI requirements and its validity. Dwayne Melancon has already started this discussion for us Security, Compliance and Best Practices » Blog Archive » The need for a new perspective.