Virtual Ief

I get a lot of questions about the tools and scripts i use as consultant to check VMware environments. I made a list with tools and scripts i use on a regular basis:

Here are some screenshots

Veeam Monitor Free Edition	VESI with PowerPack V3
VMware Healthcheck ThinApp package	Custom PowerCLI scripts

If you have suggestions for tools or scripts let me know!

 To get your HP EVA storage system  and VMware ESX hosts storage balances you get a better performance. Here are some Best practices.

The VMware vSphere and the HP EVA 4×00, 6×00 and 8×00 series are ALUA compliant. ALUA compliant means in simple words that it is not needed to manually identify preferred I/O paths between VMware ESX hosts and the storage controllers.

When you create a new Vdisk on the HP EVA the LUN is set default set to No Preference. The No Preference policy means the following: 

• Controller ownership is non-deterministic. The unit ownership is alternated between controllers during initial presentation or when controllers are restarted

• On controller failover (owning controller fails), the units are owned by the surviving controller

• On controller failback (previous owning controller returns), the units remain on the surviving controller. No failback occurs unless explicitly triggered.

To get a good distribution between the controllers the following Vdisk policies can be used:

On the HP EVA half of the Vdisks are set on path A-Failover/failback and the other half  of the Vdisks are set to B-Failover/failback, so that they alternate between controller A and B. This can be done from the HP EVA command view.  Now the vDisk are distributed between the two controllers we can go to the vSphere configuration. On every vSphere host perform an rescan or reboot.

In VMware vSphere the Most Recently Used (MRU) and Round Robin (RR) multi-pathing policies are ALUA compliant. Round Robin load balancing is now officially supported.  These multi-path policies have the following characteristics:

The fixed multi-path policy is not ALUA compliant and therefore not recommend to use.

In vSphere 4 there is new multi-pathing framework. There are three core components:

- Native Multi-pathing Plugin (NMP), handles the multi-pathing configuration, communicates with the SATP and PSP to indentify path failure conditions.

- Storage Array Type Plugin (SATP), handles specific operations such as device discovery, error codes and failover.

- Path Selection Plugin (PSP), handles the best available path, there are three policies fixed, MRU and Round Robin.

PSP are set per LUN, meaning that it is possible to have some LUNs use MRU and other use Round Robin policy. Best practice from HP is to change to PSP from MRU to Round Robin we use the following command in the Service Console:

esxcli nmp satp setdefaultpsp --satp VMW_SATP_ALUA --psp VMW_PSP_RR

Another Best practice is to set the IOPS (Default the IOPS value is 1000) with a value of 1 (controls how many IOs are sent down a given path before vSphere starts to use the next path) for every LUN by using the following command:

for i in `ls /vmfs/devices/disks/ | grep naa.600` ; 

do esxcli nmp roundrobin setconfig --type "iops" --iops=1 --device $i ;done

But there is a bug when rebooting the VMware ESX server, the IOPS value reverted to a random value. More information can be found on the Virtual Geek blog from Chad Sakac. To check the IOPS values on all LUNs use the following command:

for i in `ls /vmfs/devices/disks/ | grep naa.600` ; 

do esxcli nmp roundrobin getconfig --device $i ;done

To solve this IOPS bug, edit the /etc/rc.local file on every VMware ESX host and and add the  IOPS=1 command. The rc.local file execute after all init scripts are executed.

After adding the IOPS=1 command restart the VMware ESX host and check the IOPS values when its back online.

Now you can check if the the Round Robin policy is active and the LUNs are spread over the two controllers.

Here are some great PowerCLI one-liners created by Luc Dekens. Thanks for creating so quickly these one-liners for me!

Get-VMHost|Get-ScsiLun -LunType "disk"|where {$_.MultipathPolicy –ne 

"RoundRobin"}|Set-ScsiLun -MultipathPolicy "RoundRobin" 

Get-VMHost <ESXname> | Get-ScsiLun | Select CanonicalName, MultiPathPolicy

Get-VMHost | %{$_.Name; $_ | Get-ScsiLun | Select CanonicalName, MultiPathPolicy}

source: Configuration best practices for HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) family and VMware vSphere 4

VMware released last week the desktop Reference Architecture Workload Simulator (RAWC). 

When validating VMware View™ designs it is important to simulate real world usage as closely as possible. The Desktop Reference Architecture Workload SImulator (RAWC) can be used to simulate a user workload in a typical Microsoft Windows® desktop environment.

Desktop RAWC runs on a Windows XP guest operating system and is executed on each desktop virtual machine (VM) on one or more ESX™ hosts. Each target desktop VM is equipped to run a RAWC workload that simulates typical user behavior, running an application set commonly used across a broad array of desktop environments.

 

The workload has a set of randomly executed functions that perform operations on a variety of applications. Each test is configured using the Desktop RAWC UI

 

The UI enables you to save and retrieve test parameters, create log folders, and define unique workloads based on Active Directory groups. You can use the UI to increase the load or adjust the user behavior, such as the number of words per minute that are typed and the delay between applications being launched.

The workload configuration typically used includes Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Java, Adobe Acrobat, McAfee Virus Scan, and 7-Zip. During the execution of the workload, multiple applications are opened at the same time and windows are minimized and maximized as the workload progresses, randomly switching between each application. Individual application operations that are randomly performed can include:

·        Microsoft Word – Open, minimize, maximize, close, insert text, save modifications

·        Microsoft Word (Random) – Open, minimize, maximize, close, write random words/numbers, save modifications

·        Microsoft Excel – Open, minimize, maximize, close, write random numbers, insert/delete columns/rows, copy/paste formulas, save modifications

·        Microsoft PowerPoint – Open, minimize, maximize, close, conduct a slide show presentation

·        Microsoft Outlook – Open, minimize, maximize, close, create/send emails

·        Internet Explorer – Open, minimize, maximize, close, browse page

·        Windows Media Player – Open, close, view a video

·        Java – Compile a java project comprised of several hundred files using the JDK to create a software

·        engineering type of workload

·        Adobe Acrobat Reader – Open, minimize, maximize, close, browse pages in PDF document

·        McAfee Anti-virus – Real time scanning

·        7-Zip – Open, close, compress a large file

The vSphere Quick Start guide is released and available from Amazon. This guide is written by 6 virtualization guru’s named:

- Duncan Epping

- Alan Renouf

- Dave Mishchenko

- Bernie Baker

- Thomas Bryant

- Stewart Radnidge

The book summary from Amazon:

vSphere 4.0 Quick Start Guide continues from an idea started several years ago by a few engineers. The idea was simple, provide an easy to use reference guide for all level administrators, consultants and architects. Recently VMware introduced many new features in vSphere 4.0 and with this handy pocket guide you will learn about each of these new features. With each chapter, the pages in this essential guide will answer common questions while giving you unprecedented insight into: Expert tips & tricks Pitfalls to avoid RemoteCLI & PowerCLI (PowerShell) scripts Configuration how to’s Virtualization best practices.

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (November 20, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1439263450
ISBN-13: 978-143926345

Here’s some table of contents from the guide:

If you want to know what’s the best way to design and deploy a VMware ESX environment (VMware ESX, vCenter, P2V, networking, storage and automation using PowerCLI) this is a must read! 

The long awaited VMware View with the PCoIP protocol has landed and is available for download.

VMware View 4.0 includes the following new features:

• VMware View with PCoIP – PCoIP provides an optimized desktop experience for the delivery of the entire desktop environment including applications, images, audio, and video content for a wide range of users on the LAN or across the WAN. PCoIP can compensate for an increase in latency or a reduction in bandwidth, to ensure that end users can remain productive regardless of network conditions.
• PCoIP includes VMware View Display with support for up to four monitors and the ability to deliver the optimal resolution and pivot orientation to each monitor independently.
• VMware vSphere Support – VMware vSphere 4 support enables improved virtual machine scalability, performance, and management, with continued support for VMware Infrastructure 3.x.
• Enhanced single sign-on – The Log in as current user feature is integrated with Active Directory and smart cards to help simplify the process of logging in to a VMware View desktop.
• Restricted entitlements – Administrators can control user access to virtual desktops based on the View Connection Server being used for authentication.
• Smart card policies – Administrators can set group policies to force desktop disconnection and require reconnection when users remove smart cards.
• Domain filtering – You can use vdmadmin.exe to control the accessibility of domains and traverse trust relationships more quickly.
• You can cleanly delete View desktops using scripts.
• You can log in to View desktops using user principal names (UPN).
• You can explicitly configure IP addresses to override those supplied by the View Agent when accessing a desktop.
• Mixed Active Directory and Kerberos authentication is supported.

The VMware View 4  release notes can be find here, and the downloads are here. Next week i try to test VMware View 4 and blog my experiences.

Today when i woke up there where a lot of VMware updates available (to much to handle for one day ).  I did an upgrade of my lab environment, it went smooth with any issues. VMware did a great job with the new improvements! Here’s a list of improvements with some screenshots:

VMware ESX 4 Update 1 improvements:

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.

Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 support – This release adds support for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 as well as 64-bit Windows 2008 R2 as guest OS platforms. In addition, the vSphere Client is now supported and can be installed on a Windows 7 platform. For a complete list of supported guest operating systems with this release, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

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 a 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.

Enhanced VMware Paravirtualized SCSI Support – Support for boot disk devices attached to a Paravirtualized SCSI ( PVSCSI) adapter has been added for Windows 2003 and 2008 guest operating systems. Floppy disk images are also available containing the driver for use during the Windows installation by selecting F6 to install additional drivers during setup. Floppy images can be found in the /vmimages/floppies/ folder.

Improved vNetwork Distributed Switch Performance – Several performance and usability issues have been resolved resulting in the following:

• Improved performance when making configuration changes to a vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS) instance when the ESX/ESXi host is under a heavy load
• Improved performance when adding or removing an ESX/ESXi host to or from a vDS instance

Increase in vCPU per Core Limit – The limit on vCPUs per core has been increased from 20 to 25. This change raises the supported limit only. It does not include any additional performance optimizations. Raising the limit allows users more flexibility to configure systems based on specific workloads and to get the most advantage from increasingly faster processors. The achievable number of vCPUs per core depends on the workload and specifics of the hardware. For more information see the Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 4.0 guide.

Enablement of Intel Xeon Processor 3400 Series – Support for the Xeon processor 3400 series has been added. For a complete list of supported third party hardware and devices, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

The new VMware ESX 4 update 1 build is 208167

VMware vCenter Server 4.0 Update 1 improvements:

• IBM DB2 Database Support for vCenter Server — This release adds support for IBM DB2 9.5 as the backend database platform for VMware vCenter Server 4.0. The following editions of IBM DB2 are supported:
• IBM DB2 Enterprise 9.5
• IBM DB2 Workgroup 9.5
• IBM DB2 Express 9.5
• IBM DB2 Express-C 9.5
• 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.
• Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 support — This release adds support for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 as well as 64-bit Windows 2008 R2 as guest operating system platforms. In addition, the vSphere Client is now supported and can be installed on a Windows 7 platform.
• Pre-Upgrade Checker Tool — A standalone pre-upgrade checker tool is now available as part of the vCenter Server installation media that proactively checks ESX hosts for any potential issues that you might encounter while upgrading vCenter agents on these hosts as part of the vCenter Server upgrade process. You can run this tool independently prior to upgrading an existing vCenter Server instance. The tool can help identify any configuration, networking, disk space or other ESX host-related issues that could prevent ESX hosts from being managed by vCenter Server after a successful vCenter Server upgrade.

• 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.

The new vCenter version and build is 4.0.0 build 208111

When choosing for Operating System for the vCenter server keep the following in your mind:

Future releases of VMware vCenter Server might not support installation on 32-bit Windows operating systems. VMware recommends installing vCenter Server on a 64-bit Windows operating system. If you have VirtualCenter 2.x installed, see the vSphere Upgrade Guide for instructions on installing vCenter Server on a 64-bit operating system and preserving your VirtualCenter database.

VMware Data Recovery (vDR) version 1.1 improvements:

File Level Restore Functionality is Officially Supported

File Level Restore (FLR) provides a way to access individual files within restore points for Windows virtual machines. In previous versions of Data Recovery, FLR was provided as an experimental feature. File Level Restore feature is now officially supported.

Integrity Check Stability and Performance Improved

The integrity check process is faster and more stable. Note that integrity checks are computationally intensive processes and can take significant periods of time. The exact amount of time integrity checks take varies based on of the size of the deduplication store. Even with these enhancements, integrity checks that take several hours are not unexpected.

Integrity Checks Provides Improved Progress Information

When an integrity check is running, a progress indicator is displayed. This progress indicator has been improved, although it does not provide the optimal level of detail.

Enhanced CIFS Shares Support

File Level Restore (FLR) is a graphical client that can restore individual files.  Here are some screenshots of FLR:

vSphere PowerCLI 4.0 Update 1 improvements:

 

• Managing the failover and load-balancing policies of VirtualSwitch and VirtualPortGroup objects with Get-NicTeamingPolicy and Set-NicTeamingPolicy.

• Copying files in and out of guest operating systems with Copy-VMGuestFile.

• Restarting virtual machines with Restart-VM.

• Managing the power state of hosts using Start-VMHost, Restart-VMHost, Suspend-VMHost, and Stop-VMHost.

• Managing guest networks with Get-VMGuestNetworkInterface, Set-VMGuestNetworkInterface, Get-VMGuestRoute, New-VMGuestRoute, Remove-VMGuestRoute, and Set-VMGuestRoute.

• Retrieving and removing USB devices with Get-UsbDevice and Remove-UsbDevice.

• Managing NIC customization settings with Get-OSCustomizationNicMapping, New-OSCustomizationNicMapping, and Set-OSCustomizationNicMapping.

• Handling virtual machine questions with Get-VMQuestion and Set-VMQuestion.

• Working with host storages and iSCSI HBA devices with Get-VMHostHba, Set-VMHostHba, Get-iScsiHbaTarget, New-iScsiHbaTarget, Remove-iScsiHbaTarget, Set-iScsiHbaTarget, and Set-VMHostStorage.

• Moving templates with Move-Template and Move-Inventory.

• Managing the access control system with Get-VIPrivilege, Get-VIRole, New-VIRole, Remove-VIRole, Set-VIRole, Get-VIPermission, New-VIPermission, Remove-VIPermission, and Set-VIPermission.

• Managing DRS recommendations with Get-DrsRecommendation and Apply-DrsRecommendation.

• Upgrading hosts with Install-VMHostPatch.

• Managing virtual appliances with Get-VApp, Export-VApp, Import-VApp, New-VApp, Remove-VApp, Set-VApp, Start-VApp, and Stop-VApp.

• Managing PCI and SCSI passthrough devices with Add-PassthroughDevice, Get-PassthroughDevice, and Remove-PassthroughDevice.

• Running BAT (Windows) and BASH (Linux) scripts with Invoke-VMScript.

• Granting and revoking shell access with New-VMHostAccount and Set-VMHostAccount.

• Uploading firmware packages with Set-VMHostFirmware.

• Creating virtual machines with thin provisioned disks with New-VM.

• Cloning powered-on virtual machines with New-VM.

• Resizing virtual disks and guest partitions with Set-HardDisk.

• Extending, cloning, inflating, and reallocating virtual hard disks with Copy-HardDisk, New-HardDisk, and Set-HardDisk.

• Managing the host time zones with Get-VMHostAvailableTimeZone and Set-VMHost.

• Working with default Datastore Provider and Inventory Provider drives.

• Working with files and directories in datastores by using the Datastore Provider.

Download is available here.

VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat 5.5 Update 2 improvements:

The features available depend on the version of vCenter Server installed.

• Support for Windows Server 2008 SP1 and SP2 (x86/x64) — VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat now supports running on Windows Server 2008 SP1 and SP2 (including x86 and x64 versions) operating systems.
• Support for Windows Server 2003 Enterprise SP2 (x64) — VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat now supports running on the Windows Server 2003 Enterprise SP2 (x64) operating system.
• Protection of VMware vCenter Management Web Services — This release of VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat adds the vCenter Management Web Server to its list of protected vCenter Server components.
• Introduction of the WinZip Self-Extracting executable file for Setup — Installation and setup of VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat is initiated through the use of a WinZip Self-Extracting executable file.
• 60-day evaluation mode — This release of VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat provides a built-in 60-day evaluation mode that is triggered from the date of installation. Either prior to or upon expiration of the 60-day evaluation period, administrators will need to provide a valid license key to continue to leverage VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat functionality.
• Tomcat Monitoring Rule — A new rule has been added for vCenter 4.0 Tomcat Web Server availability.

Note: The term vSphere Client is applicable to both vSphere Client and VI Client except where VI Client is specifically stated.

The next new version will probably the View 4 release on Monday.

After attending the VMware View 4 Talkshoe podcast the following information about the announced VMware  View 4 was discussed:

VM’s per core:

VM’s per core, In VMware View 3 the number was 6-9 VM’s per core, now in View 4 with for example the Intel Nehalem processors you can get to 12-16 VM’s per core. This number heavily depends for example on the application load inside the VM’s.

The PCoIP protocol does NOT support:

- Security Server;

- Smart Cards integration;

- Thinprint support.

Generally: 

- The PCoIP protocol is not different in scalability than RDP;

- For the RDP protocol version 6 is used in VMware VIEW;

- Offline desktop support is still experimental;

- There’s no RTO Software Virtual Profiles in this release of VMware VIEW 4;

- Windows  7 is still experimental, official support will be around the begin of 2010; 

- The Connection server must be installed on Windows 2003, support for Windows 2008 will be around the begin of 2010;

- Advise for virus scanning software is use VMware aware virus scanners (VMsafe), for example Trend Micro and McAfee have beta’s that use the VMsafe technology.

Today VMware has View 4 announced.  VMware View 4 is supported on VMware vSphere and has a new protocol named PCoIP (View 3 uses RDP). 

Here’s a list of new and/or improved features:

VMware View is available in two editions:

Offline desktop and Windows 7 support is experimental. This means it is not ready for production environments! There is a HCL for Thin clients that supports View, click here for the HCL. VMware View will be released and available for download on 19 November 2009.

Sources:

- VMware View 4 product page

- VMware View Datasheet

- Register for a 60 day trail when it comes available

On 11 December 2009 the 5th Dutch VMUG event will be held. It is a technical one day event about virtualization. Last year there were more than 600 visitors.  Here’s a list in my opinion of must see presentations:

- Managing VMware vSphere 4 m.b.v. de Virtualization EcoShell by Eric Sloof – VMUG / ntpro.nl

- Project Virtual Reality Check by Ruben Spruijt – VMUG / PQR

- Disitributed Virtual Switch Drill Down by Viktor van den Berg – XTG

- Ontdek de mogelijkheden van vCenter Lab Manager by Joep Piscaer – VMUG / virtuallifestyle.nl
- Performance Troubleshooting Howto by Bouke Groenescheij – VMUG / Jume.nl
- Wat komt er kijken bij het Design van een Virtual Infrastructure? by Gabrie van Zanten – VMUG / gabesvirtualworld.com
- PowerCLI en de SDK: automatiseer je vSphere omgeving by Luc Dekens – VMUG / lucd.info

To see the whole agenda click here.

The VMUG event  is a great opportunity to expand your knowledge on virtualization. See you on 11 December at the Dutch VMUG event in Nieuwegein! 

To register for the event you must have or create a forum account. For more information visit the VMUG website.

I ‘am testing an unattended installation of VMware ESX 4 from USB drive. After every change, i need to test if the unattended still worked. I tried to use VMware workstation to test the unattended installation. VMware Workstation doesn’t support boot from USB, even with version 7. There is an unofficial solution to fix this problem by using the PLOP boot manager (

Download link).  The PLoP Boot Manager is a small program to boot different operating systems. You can boot the operating systems from harddisk, floppy, CD/DVD or from USB.

Steps to boot from USB:

- Download the BLOP boot manager

- Add a USB controller to the VM and select Automatically connect new USB devices.

- Attach the PLOP boot manager image as floppy- or CD image

- boot the VM in PLOP

- Insert the USB stick and select USB

Sometimes the USB device is not detected at once, reboot the VM once more and it should work.

Now it is possible to boot even VMware ESXi in VMware Workstation, cool!

Credits goes to Uli Hankeln from http://sanbarrow.com, thanks for pointing me to this boot manager.