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Posts Tagged ‘VMware’

During a health check of a vSphere environment i notices dropped packets on several VMs. In ESXTOP the %DRPRX value showed dropped receive packets on several VMs. In the screenshot an example:

The customer uses vSphere 4.0 build 244038. All the VMs that experiencing the dropped packets problem were Windows 2008 with an  E1000 NIC.

E1000 — An emulated version of the Intel 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet NIC. A driver for this NIC is not included with all guest operating systems. Typically Linux versions 2.4.19 and later, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and later, and Windows Server 2003 (32-bit) and later include the E1000 driver.

On of the Windows 2008 VMs had no packets drops. The only difference with the other VMs was that the IPv6 protocol binding on the NIC was disabled. After disabling the IPv6 protocol binding on all the other VMs the packet drops is disappear.

Some services require the IPv6 binding, so disabling the IPv6 binding was no option for the customer.  All the other Windows 2008 machines with the VMXNET3 NIC and IPv6 enabled had no packet drops. After changing all the VMs with Windows 2008 and the E1000 NIC to the VMXNET3 NIC solves the problem.

The VMXNET 3 adapter is the next generation of a paravirtualized NIC designed for performance, and is not related to VMXNET or VMXNET 2. It offers all the features available in VMXNET 2, and adds several new features like multiqueue support (also known as Receive Side Scaling in Windows), IPv6 offloads, and MSI/MSI-X interrupt delivery.

Whenever possible i suggest to use the VMXNET3 driver for Windows 2008 Operating Systems.

 

The new vSphere 4.1 release offers a lot of new cool features and enhancements. Here’s a list What’s New in vSphere 4.1.  When upgrading to vSphere 4.1 there are a couple of things to think about before starting:

• Make sure your systems and components are supported, check the Hardware Compatibility Guide.
• Verify that other products are compatible with vSphere 4.1. For example VMware View 4 is not supported on vSphere 4.1. VMware View composer does not support 64-bit operating systems.  
• vCenter 4.1 server requires a 64-bit OS. 32-bit Operating Systems are not supported anymore for vCenter 4.1 server.
• vSphere 4.1 and its subsequent update and patch releases are the last releases to include both ESX and ESXi hypervisor architectures. Future major releases of VMware vSphere will include only the VMware ESXi architecture. For this reason, VMware recommends that deployments of vSphere 4.x utilize the ESXi hypervisor architecture. When migrate to ESXi all the script and programs (such as hardware monitoring agents and backup agents), that uses the Service Console needs to replaced. More information can be the following links ESX4.1 is the last ESX what do i do now and in the  ESXi41 Migration Guide.
• vSphere 4.1 support scripted installation for ESXi. You cannot use scripted installation to install ESXi to a USB device!  Here are some good links for scripted ESXi 4.1 installations:  Kenneth van Ditmarsch, Setting up vSphere ESXi 4.1 scripted installation, Kendrick Coleman, ESX 4.1 Kickstart install, Billhill,  Setting up vSphere ESX 4.1 scripted installation from Ubuntu and Deploy ESXi 4.1 using Scripted install feature.
• ESXi comes in two editions, the vSphere Hypervisor (free version) with limited features and the enterprise ESXI.
• The VMware Knowledgebase has best practices for installing and upgrading vSphere 4.1. Installing ESX 4..1 and vCenter 4.1 best practices and Upgrading to ESX 4.1 and vCenter 4.1 best practices.
• Get yourself familiar with tools as PowerCLI, vCLI and the VMware Management Assistant (vMA).These tools helps you to automate, configure  and troubleshoot vSphere 4.1 environments. More information can be found on the following links vCLI, PowerCLI and vMA.
• Before upgrading check the Knowlegde Base from VMware for issues with  vSphere 4.1. For example Upgrading vCenter Server 4.0 to 4.1 fails with the error: Exception Thrown while executing SQL script.

 

VMware HealthAnalyzer automates the collection of VMware Infrastructure or VMware vSphere™ inventory, configuration and utilization data, analyzes data and recommends grades, and generates a report card that presents observations, findings and data categorized by VMware Health Check best practices. HealthAnalyzer can be used by VMware consultants and VMware Solution Providers to improve efficiency and accelerate the delivery of a services engagement such as the VMware Health Check. Consultants can use HealthAnalyzer as a Health Check workbench to capture and review observations, findings, and data, provide actionable recommendations, and generate a Health Check Report for your customer.

What’s new in VMware HealthAnalyzer version 3.0:

-         A new catalog of best practices developed for VMware vSphere

-         Observations tab presents observations (summary of findings),recommendations and a justification for each analyzed best practice area

-         Enhanced best practices navigation pane that provides powerful filtering and grouping capabilities

-         Collection of VMware VirtualCenter/vCenter diagnostics data

-         New Virtual Appliance Web Console Management User Interface

-         Support for running the HealthAnalyzer virtual application on Windows 7

-         Base Health Check mode enables use of HealthAnalyzer as a presales tool

-         Select observations/BP to include in the Health Check report

-         New Health Check Report

-         A new catalog of best practices developed for VMware vSphere

VMware HealthAnalyzer 3.0 is available from the VMware partner central.

 

TrainSignal has released  a new video training called “VMware vSphere Pro Series Vol .1”. Three vExperts covers topics about VMware View and ThinApp, VMware PowerCLI and the Cisco Nexus 1000V.

VMware View & ThinApp Presented by David Davis covers the following topics:

• View Overview and introduction
• Installing VMware View 4
• Deploying Virtual Desktops with View
• Automated Virtual Desktop Deployment with View Pools
• Adding a Terminal Services Pool in View
• Understanding View Composer Linked Clones
• Introduction to ThinApp 4
• Installing ThinApp
• Virtualizing Applications with ThinApp

Managing VMware vSphere with PowerCLI presented by Hal Rottenberg covers the following topics:

• Introduction to PowerCLI,
• Powershell Basic
• PowerCLI Concepts
• PowerCLI in the Real World
• PowerCLI Cmdlet Deep dives

Cisco Nexus 1000V – VMware vSphere Third-Party Virtual Distributed Switch presented by Rick Scherer covers the following topics:

• Getting Started with Nexus 1000V
• Integrating the Cisco Nexus 1000V with vCenter server
• High Availability Options for the Cisco Nexus 1000V
• Configuring Port Profiles on the Cisco Nexus 1000V

The VMware vSphere Pro Series Vol .1 video package contains:

• 20 Videos (10 hrs: 39mins: 50secs) will be provided in High-Quality AVI and WMV format. In other words, you get perfect quality and replication of your instructors’ screens. An easy-to-use table of contents allows you to navigate to key areas you wish to focus on
• Instant Access to all 20 Videos (10 hrs: 39mins: 50secs) in Train Signal’s My Online Training section. These high resolution videos allow you to access any and all of this award winning training in just moments. No need to wait for the DVDs to arrive to get started learning. You can be watching video in just moments and it’s all included for free.
• 20 iPod video files to watch Train Signal on the go! A popular request amongst our students who wish to study while they commute (i.e. train, plane, bus). These 320×240 M4V files are compressed versions of the original course, and play on any iPod that supports video. Also great for reviewing and refreshing your mind "on the job."
• 20 MP3 audio files to listen to Train Signal anytime, anywhere. Some of our students have requested this option. Now, you can listen in the car or while working out. Our MP3 files can be burnt to a CD or copied to a portable device
• Instructor Notes – These PDF documents, which can be printed out, contain the slides used by the instructors throughout the videos. These documents allow the user a quick easy reference to the instructors’ notes on the slides, and provides a place to make additional notes.

The content presented by the VMware vExperts in  the video’s is very good. If you want to know more about VMware View and ThinApp, PowerCLI or the Cisco Nexus 1000V this is a must see video package!   For more information about this training video and watch a demo go to the TrainSignal website by clicking here.

 

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 RAWC kit is available for download from  the VMware partner central website.