Entries by Eric Sloof

VMware vCenter Infrastructure Navigator is an application awareness plug-in to vCenter Server, and provides continuous dependency mapping of applications. Infrastructure Navigator offers application context to the virtual infrastructure administrators to monitor and manage the virtual infrastructure inventory objects and actions. Administrators can use Infrastructure Navigator to understand the impact of change on the virtual environment in their application infrastructure. Infrastructure Navigator helps virtual infrastructure administrators perform the following tasks:

• Make accurate first-level triage to help either eliminate the problem or associate the problem with the virtual infrastructure when business service users report problems.
• Assess change impact. Manage and communicate virtual infrastructure issues for critical applications.
• Understand the application and business impact of changes to the virtual infrastructure on applications.
  

Configuring vmknic-based multipathing for the software iSCSI adapter will help vSphere users enable failover at the path level as well as balance I/O traffic between the paths.

The objective of this white paper is to provide information on storage protocols and how they interoperate with  VMware vSphere and related features. Not all supported storage protocols are discussed. Some notable  exceptions are ATA over Ethernet (AoE) and shared/switched SAS. However, the protocols that are included in  this paper are the ones that VMware is most frequently asked to compare.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/Storage_Protocol_Comparison.pdf

VMware frequently is asked for guidance regarding the best storage protocol to use with VMware vSphere®. vSphere supports many storage protocols, with no preference given to any one over another. However, many customers still want to know how these protocols stack up against each other and to understand their respective pros and cons.This white paper looks at common storage protocols from a vSphere perspective. It is not intended to delve into performance comparisons, for the following two reasons:

• The Performance Engineering team at VMware already produces excellent storage performance white papers.
• Storage protocol performance can vary greatly, depending on the storage array vendor. It therefore does not make sense to compare iSCSI and NFS from one vendor, because another vendor might implement one of those protocols far better.

• GetWebResponse timeout value changed from 5 minutes to 10 minutes (for very big environments)
• New tabpage with HBA information
• On vDatastore tab the definition of the Provisioned MB and In Use MB columns was confusing! This is changed now.
• RVToolsSendMail accepts now multiple recipients (semicolon is used as separator)
• Folder information of VMs and Templates are now visible on vInfo tabpage
• Bugfix: data in comboboxes on filter form are now sorted
• Bugfix: Problem with api version 2.5.0 solved
• Bugfix: Improved exception handling on vCPU tab.
• Bugfix: Improved exception handling on vDatastore tab.

In general, VMware recommends that the number of vCloud Director cell instances = n + 1, where n is the number of vCenter Server instances providing compute resources for cloud consumption. Based on the Service Definition, two vCloud Director cell instances should be sufficient and allow for upgradability (upgrading one vCloud Director cell, then the other) and high availability.

It is important for vCloud Director to be able to spread and run services in case of hardware failures and load balance them on available cells as best as it can. This article describes how the Kemp Loadmaster is able to balance client connections to the vCloud Director portal and ensures a highly available multi cell deployment by monitoring services an response times.

The Console Proxy and web portal are running on every cell and are stateless. All instances are capable of doing work so failure of any one component does not affect user requests as they are redirected by the load balancer. In a one-armed configuration, the Virtual Servers and the VDC cells are configured on the same subnet. The LoadMaster connects to the Layer 2 network through a single interface, eth0. This architecture covers load balancing of multiple vCloud Director sells within the same site. 

The Loadmaster service should be configured to check the health and response time of the individual vCloud Director cells. Since each cell responds via HTTPS, this can be configured quickly via the IP and API end point URL. Generally services are checked every few-30 seconds based on load. A good starting point is 5 seconds. Example GUI URL - https://my.cloud.com/cloud/

Viktor van den Berg over at viktorious.nl has written an extensive article about load balancing vCloud Director cells with pfSense -  vCloud Director Howto: Load balancing with free pfSense

When implementing 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 draft version of the vSphere 5.0 Hardening Guide provides guidance on how to securely deploy VMware vSphere 5 in a production environment. The focus is on initial configuration of the virtualization infrastructure layer, which covers the following:

• The virtualization hosts 
• Configuration of the virtual machine container (NOT hardening of the guest operating system (OS) or any applications running within)
• Configuration of the virtual networking infrastructure, including the management and storage networks as well as the virtual switch (but NOT security of the virtual machine’s network)
• VMware vCenter Server, its database and client components
  
  

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The Rough Cuts service from Safari Books Online gives you exclusive access to an evolving manuscript that you can read online or download as a PDF and print. A Rough Cuts book is not fully edited or completely formatted, but you'll get access to new versions as they are created.

To make the most of VMware's vSphere 5, IT professionals need knowledge, tips, and insights they'll never find in the manuals - or in any book, until now! In Managing and Optimizing vSphere Deployments, two world-class VMware experts offer start-to-finish lessons for vSphere planning, implementation, operation, management, and troubleshooting: expert insights drawn from their own unsurpassed "in-the-trenches" consulting experience.

Harley Stagner (VCDX,vExpert) and Sean Crookston (VCAP-DCA, VCAP-DCD, vExpert) focus on the most crucial techniques VMware professionals need, providing guidance optimized for the new vSphere 5, and frameworks that will support the evolution of virtual infrastructure for years to come. They present scenarios and case studies drawn from real-world data, addressing areas ranging from sizing and performance to redundancy, coverage includes: 

• Smoothly integrating vSphere 5 into current environments and considerations 
• Overcoming roadblocks to 100% virtualization 
• Establishing a more stable infrastructure 
• Choosing hardware and making optimal configuration decisions 
• Automating tasks with PowerCLI, Host Profiles, and Auto Deploy 
• Maximizing availability with Distributed Resource Scheduler, Networking Redundancy, and Fault Tolerance 
• Efficiently managing updates, patches, and upgrades * Monitoring vSphere 5 with tools provided by VMware and its community 
• Planning for growth, and much more.
  
  

http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9780132947183?portal=pearsonitcertification

VMware is working on a new vCloud Design Best Practices training course, it's still in beta but will be released somewhere around next month. This new course is designed to guide students through the decision points and policy choices available for designing and implementing a VMware vCloud environment. Students will learn to appreciate the effects of design choices in vSphere, vCloud Director, Chargeback, and the vShield Edge capability that is included with vCloud Director. The course culminates in a comprehensive workshop on VMware cloud design. By the end of the course, you should have an understanding of the VMware cloud and be able to do the following:

• Evaluate and design a multitenant environment to address both private cloud and public cloud customer needs.
• Configure vCloud providers that can accommodate heterogeneous server, storage, and network resources.
• Design a network infrastructure optimized for vCloud.
• Integrate vCloud Director security with existing LDAP systems and design appropriate security hierarchies with security roles.
• Design a vCenter Chargeback implementation.

If you have a Citrix XenApp implementation and are making a decision about taking further steps with virtualization, this discussion is for you. You probably already use VMware vSphere to virtualize your servers, including your XenApp Servers. The next steps would be to virtualize applications and desktops. If you like the concept and performance of XenApp application presentation, you can expand that functionality by adding View and ThinApp to the mix. 

This solution preserves the investment you have made in time and money in the XenApp implementation. Your staff expertise in successfully running XenApp will continue to be useful in this combined implementation. Furthermore, the expertise you have accumulated in running a vSphere environment will be leveraged with a View and ThinApp implementation.

The cloud consumer resources are dedicated vCenter clusters that host cloud workloads. These resources are carved up by vCloud Director in the form of one or more provider virtual datacenters, which is a vCenter cluster, and one or more attached datastores. Networking for the resource group will encompass vSphere networks visible to the hosts in that cluster. Provider virtual datacenters are further carved up into organization virtual datacenters, which are backed by vCenter resource pools. If you disable Distributed Resource Scheduling (DRS) on vCenter Clusters level you will lose all resource pools and you’re not able to deploy or power on vApps anymore.  This video will show you such a situation, don’t try this at home. 

In this video you will learn how a vCloud Director network is constructed. The PowerPoint presentation "vCloud networking explained in 1 slide and 52 animations" is created by fellow VCI over at Tuukka Korhonen (itvirtuoosit.fi).

Port group backed network pools require preconfigured set of port groups either on a vNetwork distributed switch or on a standard vSwitch and port groups must be available on each ESX/ESXi host in the cluster. They need to be imported into vCloud Director when creating this network pool. This network pool is used in circumstances where vCenter cannot programmatically create port groups on the fly. Other scenarios when you want to use this network pool is when do not have vNetwork Distributed switches and want to use the Standard switch or when you want to use the Nexus 1000v switches. The port groups must be isolated at the layer 2 level from all other port groups. The port groups must be physically isolated or must be isolated using VLAN tags. Failure to properly isolate the port groups can cause a disruption on the network.

Unlike other types of network pools, a network pool that is backed by port groups does not require a vNetwork distributed switch and this is the only type of network pool that works with Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual switches. A network pool is backed by vSphere network resources such as VLAN IDs, port groups, or cloud isolated networks. Network traffic on each network in a pool is isolated at layer 2 from all other networks. Each organization vDC in vCloud Director can have one network pool. Meaning each Organization vDC can only be assigned to only one network pool. Multiple organization vDCs can share the same network pool but make sure that networks in the pool are isolated. Only system administrators can create and manage network pools. 

vApp networks are used for connectivity of virtual machines within a vApp. A vApp can be connected to a vApp specific network or to an organization network. A vApp network isolates the virtual machines in that vApp from everything else; in that way, it is like an internal organization network, but is only used by that vApp. You can connect vApps to organization network to allow them to communicate with other vApps in that organization. When you connect a vApp to an organization network, determine whether you want a fence or direct connection. Fenced will allow you to have identical virtual machines to connect to organization networks without worrying about IP and MAC address conflicts. You can also have additional firewall rules added to protect virtual machines in the vApp. While direct connection will allow you to directly connect the vApp to the organization network.

Migrating from a physical Data Center to a virtual Data Center creates challenges in terms of determining the best practices for deploying virtualized Oracle databases. This white paper illustrates EMC IT's framework for deploying virtualized Oracle databases. EMC IT's Oracle virtual deployment models are the foundation for the "as-a-Service" cloud deployment model.

If you want to gain insight into the real-world uses of VMware ESXi, this cookbook provides scores of step-by-step solutions for working with this product in a wide range of network environments. You'll not only learn the basics—how to pool resources from hardware servers, computer clusters, networks, and storage, and then distribute them among virtual machines—but also the stumbling blocks you'll encounter when you monitor systems, troubleshoot problems, and deal with security.

Written by experts with experience using VMware in a production environment, VMware Cookbook shares tips and tricks earned through trial and error, and supplies the background information you need to apply them.

• Follow best practices for installing VMware and vSphere in your environment
• Discover how to secure and monitor your network
• Understand disk, SSD, and SAN storage implementation and configuration
• Get solutions for using vCloud Director and vShield
• Configure logical and physical networks
• Learn how to clone and migrate servers
• Gain valuable tips for configuration and fine-tuning
• Use the distributed resource scheduler, shares, and resource pools to learn resource management