Planet vSphere-land

Jim Millard talks certificates, what they are, why you need them and why you should love them.How I learned to love the CSR with Jim Millard (@millardjk) ProfessionalVMware #vBrownBag US from ProfessionalVMware on Vimeo.

I’m not promoting this on Twitter – Let’s see who actually reads my blog on a Monday morning or at least still employs RSS technology. A short while ago, I received on my doorstep a copy of Scott Lowe’s Mastering VMware vSphere 5.  I’ve already got my own copy and I’d like to make sure this book ends up in the hands of someoneone who: A) needs a copy B) wil...

Last week there was a question on VMTN about VM Monitoring sensitivity. I could have sworn I did an article on that exact topic, but I couldn’t find it. I figured I would do a new one with a table explaining the levels of sensitivity that you can configure VM Monitoring to. The question that was asked was based on a false positive response of VM Monitoring, in this case the virtual ma...

A while back I did this article on Storage DRS Interoperability. I had questions last week about this so I figured I would write a new article which reflects the current state (vSphere 5.1). I also included some details that are part of the interoperability white paper Frank and I did so that we have a fairly complete picture. This white paper is on 5.0, it will probably be updated at some ...

For years these rumors have been floating around that DRS does not take CPU Ready Time (%RDY) in to account when it comes load balancing the virtual infrastructure. Fact is that %RDY has always been a part of the DRS algorithm but not as a first class citizen but as part of CPU Demand, which is a combination of various metrics but includes %RDY. Still, one might ask why %RDY is not a first ...

Phillip Jaenke (@rootwyrm) reviews considerations for building your own own home lab and VMware ESXi servers.  Don’t forget to check the HCL!DIY VMware Hardware and Labs Phillip Jaenke (@rootwyrm) ProfessionalVMware #vBrownBag US from ProfessionalVMware on Vimeo.

Not so long ago, VMware product releases were staggered.  Major versions of vSphere would launch at or shortly after VMworld in the fall, and all other products such as SRM, View, vCloud Director, etc. would rev on some other random schedule.  This was extremely frustrating for a vEvangelist because we wanted to be on the latest and greatest platform but lack of compatibility with the remainin...

We had a discussion internally on static overhead memory. Coincidentally I spoke with Aashish Parikh from the DRS team on this topic a couple of weeks ago when I was in Palo Alto. Aashish is working on improving the overhead memory estimation calculation so that both HA and DRS can be even more efficient when it comes to placing virtual machines. The question was around what determines the ...

Welcome to Technology Short Take #32, the latest installment in my irregularly-published series of link collections, thoughts, rants, raves, and miscellaneous information. I try to keep the information linked to data center technologies like networking, storage, virtualization, and the like, but occasionally other items slip through. I hope you find something useful. Networking Ranga Maddipudi ...

Those who manage VMware View currently or have used it in the past may be familiar with desktop customization which is required to provide a unique identity on the network for each View Composer VDI session in a pool.  If you’ve got a pretty good Microsoft background, you’re probably already familiar with Sysprep – Microsoft’s tool for customizing Windows server and desk...

I attended the Silicon Valley VMUG yesterday and there was an interesting question that was brought up at the end of Joe Sarabia's Software Defined Datacenter session (which was great BTW, folks stayed past the end and this was during lunch!). The question from the attendee was how to export an Amazon EC2 Instance and run that on an vSphere ESXi host? Joe's answer was that there is not a tool fr...

As I said earlier this week, VMware memory management is still a topic which a lot of VMware administrators don’t understand. Tuesday I discussed the virtual machine memory allocation graphs. Today we will deal with  VMware vSphere uses transparent page sharing (TPS), memory compression, host swapping and ballooning. VMware ESXi, a crucial component of VMware [...] Leave A Commentposted i...

VMware memory management is still a topic which a lot of VMware administrators don’t understand. I often come across people who have no idea when VMware vSphere uses transparent page sharing (TPS), memory compression, host swapping or ballooning. They even mention disabling or removing the ballooning driver without knowing why.  I also meet a lot of [...] Leave A Commentposted in ESX/ESX...

A technical deep dive on vCenter 5.1 including SSO, inventory service and focus on the vSphere Web Client.2013-04-17 20.34 ProfessionalVMware #vBrownBag US with Justin King (@vCenterGuy) from ProfessionalVMware on Vimeo.

After my recent post about the pre-release/GA version of the VMware vSphere 5.1 Hardening Guide (Draft–Rev A), I was pleased to see that the official GA version of the VMware vSphere 5.1 Hardening Guide has now been released and is available for download.  It should be noted that the VMware vSphere Hardening Guide is in Microsoft Excel format, along with there being a change log spreadshe...

When implementing VMware virtualization technology, organizations must ensure that they can continue to maintain a secure environment and meet their compliance obligations. To do so, you will have to evaluate risks that might affect protected information and mitigate those risks through risk-appropriate standards, processes, and best practices. The official release of the vSphere 5.1 Har...

Recently, I had the opportunity to help out with a very unique and cool project called vOpenData which was created by Ben Thomas (a former VMware GSS Technical Engineer). The idea for the project was sparked by a very simple tweet that came from Duncan Epping:Ben wanted to help answer Duncan’s question but more importantly he wanted to help answer a bigger set of questions: what are some of th...

I have been having these discussions with our engineering teams for the last year around guaranteed restarts of virtual machines in a cluster. In the current shape / form we use Admission Control to guarantee virtual machines are restarted. Today Admission Control is all about guaranteeing virtual machine restarts by keeping track of Memory and CPU resource reservations, but you can imagine...

When VMware View 5.1 was release I wrote about the changes to storage and memory footprint when the 3D software rendering option was enabled. VMware View 5.0 3D Reverse Engineered vSphere 5.0 New .vswp file & Storage Tax on VDI Just to recap: ESxi 5.0 implements a second .vswp file for every virtual machine created either with hardware version 7 or 8. This second .vswp file is dedicated ...

Expendable news item here only worthy of a Friday post.  For those who may have missed it, VMware has released an update to the vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) 5.1 appliance formally referred to as Patch 1.  This release is documented in VMware KB 2044135 and the updated appliance bits can be downloaded here.  Log in, choose the VMware vSphere link, then the Drivers & Tools tab. Patch ...

You might have seen that the second edition of VMware vSphere Design was recently released. How would you like to win a free copy? Starting today (no, this isn’t an April Fool’s joke) and running through April 15, you can enter to win a signed print copy of VMware vSphere Design, 2nd Edition! I’m giving away a free, signed copy of the book to five lucky individuals who enter an...

Just entered my mailbox, there is a new rev of the vSphere 5.1 hardening guide which was spoken about on the last Virtualization Security Podcast. This version of the hardening guide creates a much needed new feature: Profiles. Related Posts:Cloud and Virtualization Security Resolutions for 2012Cloud Apps approved by GSAThis Week in Virtualization Security NewsSum of the Parts… Not equal t...

Regardless of what the vSphere host Advanced Setting Disk.MaxLUN has stated as its definition for years, “Maximum number of LUNs per target scanned for” is technically not correct.  In fact, it’s quite misleading. The true definition looks similar stated in English but carries quite a different meaning and it can be found in my SnagIt hack above or within VMware KB 1998 Defin...

Publication Date: March 25, 2013 | ISBN-10: 1118407911 | ISBN-13: 978-1118407912 | Edition: 2 The big splash was officially made yesterday but I’m following up with my announcement a day later to help spread the message to anyone who may have been heads down and missed it.  Forbes Guthrie ( ), Scott Lowe ( ), and Kendrick Coleman ( ) have teamed up to produce VMware vSphere Design 2nd Ed...

I’ve been phenomenally lucky to be involved in a number of book projects around VMware vSphere. I think that most people probably know me for the wildly popular Mastering VMware vSphere 4 and Mastering VMware vSphere 5 books (released at VMworld 2009 and VMworld EMEA 2011, respectively), but in late 2010/early 2011 I also had the opportunity to collaborate with Forbes Guthrie and Maish Sai...