Eric Sloof - Entries from February 2012

Tuesday, February 21. 2012

Video - Cisco Nexus 1000V v1.5 Installation

The Cisco Nexus 1000V is compatible with any upstream physical access layer switch that is Ethernet standard compliant, including the Catalyst 6500 series switch, Cisco Nexus switches, and switches from other network vendors. The Cisco Nexus 1000V is compatible with any server hardware listed in the VMware Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). Cisco and VMware jointly designed APIs that produced the Cisco Nexus 1000V. The Cisco Nexus 1000V is a distributed virtual switch solution that is fully integrated within the VMware virtual infrastructure, including VMware vCenter for the virtualization administrator. This solution offloads the configuration of the virtual switch and port groups to the network administrator to enforce a consistent data center network policy. In this release Java applications are introduced for VSM and VEM installation.

For the Virtual Supervisor Module (VSM)—The control plane of the switch and a virtual machine that runs Cisco NX-OS, just download the Nexus1000v.4.2.1.SV1.5.1.zip file and enter the following command from a Windows, Linux, or Mac command prompt:

java -jar zip_file_location/Nexus1000v.4.2.1.SV1.5.1/VSM/Installer_App/Nexus1000V-install.jar VSM

For the Virtual Ethernet Module (VEM)—A virtual line card embedded in each VMware vSphere (ESX) host. The VEM is partly inside the kernel of the hypervisor and partly in a user-world process, called the VEM Agent. Enter the following command from a Windows, Linux, or Mac command prompt:

java -jar zip_file_location/Nexus1000v.4.2.1.SV1.5.1/VSM/Installer_App/Nexus1000V-install.jar VEM

Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches - Configuration Guides

Cisco Virtual Security Gateway for Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches Data Sheet

Full integration with VMware vCloud Director 1.5 (with vCD patch due to be released by VMware in the March timeframe. See Release Note on "Full integration with vCloud Director" for more details)

Sunday, February 19. 2012

Technical Whitepaper - Network I/O Latency on VMware vSphere 5

Network I/O latency is an important measurement, especially in latency-sensitive applications like those found in industries such as finance and trading, healthcare, transportation, and telecom (in particular, applications using Voice over IP). The end-to-end latency requirements of these applications vary from microseconds to milliseconds. And some of these applications, such as those utilizing Voice over IP, are more sensitive to jitter than end-to-end latency. So an important measurement to consider for vSphere performance in this scope is latency and jitter added due to virtualization.

Packets sent or received from a virtual machine experience some increase in network I/O latency compared to a bare metal (native) environment. This is because packets need to traverse through an extra layer of virtualization stack in the case of virtual machines. The additional latency due to the virtualization stack can come from several different sources. The most commons ones include:

- Emulation Overhead

- Packet Processing

- Scheduling

- Virtual Interrupt Coalescing

- Network Bandwidth Contention

- Halt-Wakeup Physical CPU

- Halt-Wakeup Virtual CPU

VMware designed and ran several performance experiments to show under what conditions the different sources of latency become dominant and how they affect end-to-end latency. The results will help you make proper design choices for your environment such that it fulfills your end-to-end latency requirements.

Network I/O Latency on VMware vSphere 5

Saturday, February 18. 2012

Video - Scripted ESXi Installation

Scripted installation is an efficient way to provision multiple ESXi host. This video explains how to use a kickstart file to install or upgrade ESXi. Both Shift-O invocation and PXE boot are supported.

Friday, February 17. 2012

Options for becoming a VCP 5.0

VMware's Andy Cary who works as a Senior Technical Trainer in EMEA has received a lot of e-mails recently about what the options are for people to secure their VCP5.0. The table in the diagram below shows the 4 different options for attaining your VCP 5.0 exam. Andy thinks there's confusion with the text in printed orange, this text is only valid until the 29th February. So at the 1st March all the orange options will have disappeared from the diagram.

Here's Andy's explanation regarding the four different layers for achieving a VCP5.0

Option 1 - Just Starting with VMware or VCP 2

Another way of saying this is there is no upgrade path from VCP2 to VCP5 and the student hasn’t attend any vSphere 4.0 or 5.0 classes. So in this case the student must attend a vSphere 5.0 qualifying class = vSphere 5 Install Configure and Manage or vSphere 5 Fasttrack and take the VCP5.0 – no deadline for when they have to take the exam

Option 2 - Currently a VCP3

So now if a student is a VCP3 they can take the VCP5.0 exam if:-

1. Attend the vSphere 5.0 What’s New class and take the VCP 5.0 exam by the 29th February – they won’t be able to take the exam after 29th February if this the only training they have attended.

2. Attend vSphere 5 Install Configure and Manage or vSphere 5 Fasttrack and take the VCP5.0 exam – there is no deadline for when they have to take the VCP5.0 exam

Option 3 - Currently a VCP4.0

Go take the VCP5.0 exam by 29th February. If a student in this situation wants to become a VCP5.0 after the 29th Feb they have to attend a vSphere 5.0 What’s New class.

Option 4 - No VCP Certification but have completed one of the VCP4 qualifying classes

In this example a student has attend let’s say the vSphere 4.x ICM class but they haven’t passed any VCP exams.

1. A student will be allowed to take the VCP4.0 exam and then VCP5.0 exam to get the VCP5.0 BUT they must pass the VCP5.0 exam by the 29th February

2. A student will also be allowed to take their VCP5.0 exam (without taking VCP4.0) if they have attend the vSphere 5.0 What’s New class – again no deadline for taking the VCP5.0 exam

So if student in this situation passes their VCP4 exam today, they must pass their VCP5.0 exam by the end of February. If they don’t pass by 29th Feb they are effectively at Option 3 and they have to attend vSphere 5.0 What’s New class

Wednesday, February 15. 2012

IBM Launches the Distributed Virtual Switch 5000V

IBM System Networking Distributed Virtual Switch 5000V provides managed, advanced networking functionality for virtual machines in VMware vSphere 5.0 environment

IBM System Networking Distributed Virtual Switch 5000V is a highly manageable, distributed virtual switch for VMware vSphere 5.0 Enterprise Plus environment. IBM DVS 5000V provides advanced networking features and troubleshooting features, which make it ideal for deployments in large-scale Server Virtualization and Cloud environments. The IBM DVS 5000V appears as a standard network switch, which enables network administrators to configure and manage the distributed virtual switch as a regular physical switch using familiar IBM switch user interfaces.

Take advantage of the manageability, network troubleshooting, and advanced networking features of the IBM® System Networking Distributed Virtual Switch 5000V.

• Manageability - Telnet, SSH, SNMP, TACACS+, RADIUS, Industry Standard CLI

• Network troubleshooting - SPAN, ERSPAN, sFlow, Syslog, VM network statistic
• Advanced networking features - L2-L4 ACLs, Static and Dynamic port aggregation, PVLAN, QoS, EVB (IEEE 802.1Qbg)

Tuesday, February 14. 2012

Available on the AppStore - VMware vCloud Client for iPad

Hold your cloud in your hands with the new VMware vCloud Client for iPad. The VMware vCloud Client for iPad empowers users to view and inspect their VMs, provision environments, and perform basic workload operations -- all from the convenience of an iPad. Existing vCloud users can quickly install the client from the Apple App Store and immediately access their vCloud environments.

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