In my previous post "Running the VMware vSphere Hypervisor stateless" I’ve explained how to setup an ESXi deployment server, but now we are going to take it one step further. To be able to save the ESXi configuration settings there’s a CCBoot feature available which is called “Write Back”. In this episode (HD) I’m going to show you how to enable “Write Back” for both the ESXi host and the CCBoot server. After rebooting the ESXI host the configuration will be preserved.
Friday, August 20. 2010
Booting ESXi from iSCSI and PXE
Running the VMware vSphere Hypervisor stateless
This video <- HD version - will show you how to create a stateless VMware vSphere Hypervisor formally known as ESXi and how to boot it trough PXE-iSCSI. Yesterday evening I finally succeeded in booting an ESXi 4.1 host with PXE and iSCSI. After firing the tweet, I’ve received a lot of responses asking me how I did it. In the video I’ll show you how to build your own staging server and the deployment of an ESXi 4.1 host. I’m not really a Linux guy so I had to create a Windows distribution server. In my search I’ve discovered a great little piece of software called CCBoot. This windows application enables a diskless boot of an OS with PXE and iSCSI. Diskless boot makes it possible for ESXi server to be operated without a local disk. The 'diskless' server is connected to a VMDK file over the network and boots up the hypervisor from the remotely located VMDK file which was created in VMware WorkStation. CCBoot is the convergence of the rapidly emerging iSCSI protocol with gPXE diskless boot technology. Remote boot over iSCSI, or CCBoot, pushes the iSCSI technology even further, opening the door to the exciting possibility of the diskless computer.
Here are the steps to set it up
The first thing to do is create a VMDK file with ESXi 4,1 in it, I’ve used VMware Workstation 7.1.
When ESXi 4.1 is installed we’re going to set-up the distribution server, go to http://ccboot.com and download CCBoot v1.9 Build 20100128 (5 users free version). When you’ve installed it, create an entry for you ESXi 4.1 host and you’re ready to run.
Monday, August 16. 2010
Video - Load-Based Teaming (LBT) in action
vSphere 4.1 introduces a load-based teaming (LBT) policy that ensures vDS dvUplink capacity is optimized. LBT avoids the situation of other teaming policies in which some of the dvUplinks in a DV Port Group’s team were idle while others were completely saturated just because the teaming policy used is statically determined. LBT reshuffles port binding dynamically based on load and dvUplinks usage to make an efficient use of the bandwidth available. LBT only moves ports to dvUplinks configured for the corresponding DV Port Group’s team. Note that LBT does not use shares or limits to make its judgment while rebinding ports from one dvUplink to another. LBT is not the default teaming policy in a DV Port Group so it is up to the user to configure it as the active policy.
LBT will only move a flow when the mean send or receive utilization on an uplink exceeds 75 percent of capacity over a 30-second period. LBT will not move flows more often than every 30 seconds. This video will show Load-Based Teaming (LBT) in action.
Friday, August 13. 2010
Video - Deploying vCenter CapacityIQ 1.0.4
In this video I’ll show you how you use the VI Client user interface to deploy the CapacityIQ appliance. VMware distributes the appliance as a .zip file that includes an Open Virtualization Format (OVF) file. After the import the CapacityIQ OVF file, I’ll also show you how to configure the virtual appliance.
This is a maintenance release that adds support for vSphere 4.1. Only customers using vSphere 4.1 are encouraged to upgrade to this release; there are no additional enhancements in this version.
This release does not support virtual machine-based licensing for CapacityIQ. CapacityIQ will provide this type of licensing support in an upcoming release.
CapacityIQ 1.0.4 supports 200 hosts, 2000 powered on virtual machines, and a total of 3000 virtual machines. These scalability limits exist even though the limits of vCenter Server 4.1 are 1000 hosts, 10000 powered on virtual machines, and 15000 registered virtual machines.
Thursday, August 5. 2010
VMware vSphere Pro Series Training Course Volume 2
David Davis over at Train Signal has released the second volume of the VMware vSphere Pro Series Training Course. This new course expands on the precedent set by the first volume, with a line-up of some great new vExpert instructors Including David Davis, Hal Rottenberg, Sean Clark, and Eric Siebert.
- VMware Advanced Features Up Close by Eric Siebert
- VMware Site Recovery Manager 4 by Sean Clark
- Intro to Third-Party Virtualization Tools by David Davis
- Veeam Monitor - David Davis
- Veeam Reporter 4.0 - David Davis
- Veeam Backup and Replication - David Davis
- VMware Data Recovery (VDR) - David Davis
- PowerCLI by Hal Rottenberg
http://www.trainsignal.com/VMware-vSphere-Pro-Series-Training-Vol-2-P98.aspx
I’ve just received the new DVDs and I think I’m going to start with watching Hal and his reporting with PowerCLI video.
In this video you will walk step-by-step through the process of generating useful reports of your virtual environment using PowerCLI. Also, you will take a detailed look at the various ways to get data out of vSphere and vCenter. Plus, you will work hands-on to generate several reports that will be useful in managing your ever-changing virtual landscape.