VMware - 22

I just visited the VMware Online Virtualization Forum, looks cool and contains a lot of info, you can even chat with the Product Managers.

Tuesday, December 16th, 8:00 am - 5:00pm PST

Don't miss this opportunity to:

Network with VMware product experts, customers, partners and other IT Professionals. Attend 30-minute presentations and get the latest info on VMware solutions, products and industry trends. Access real-time information from industry leaders without the hassle or expense of travel. Create a multi-media resource kit, including white papers, videos and podcasts.

Virtual Machines may unexpectedly reboot after a VMotion migration to an ESX 3.5 Update 3 Host OR after a Power On operation on an ESX 3.5 Update 3 Host, when the VMware HA feature with Virtual Machine Monitoring is active. A virtual machine may reboot itself when the following conditions exist. Virtual Machine is running on ESX 3.5 Update 3 Host, either by virtue of VMotion or a Power On operation, and a host has VMware HA enabled with the "Virtual Machine Monitoring" option active.

Virtual Machine monitoring is dependent on VMware tools heartbeats to determine the state of the Virtual Machines. With ESX Server 3.5 Update 3, after a VMotion or Power On operation, the host agent running on the ESX server may delay sending the heartbeat state of the Virtual Machine to the Host. VMware HA detects this as a failure of the Virtual Machine and attempts to restart the Virtual Machine.

The new online compatibility guide provides a single point of access for all VMware hardware compatibility guides. The new search tool streamlines the HCL posting process and offers advanced search capabilities and the ability to save the guide(s) or search results in a .PDF or csv format.

The new hardware compatibility guide replaces the following legacy PDF-format HCLs:

• VMware ESX 3.0.x and above version Systems Compatibility Guide
• VMware ESX 3.0.x and above version SAN (storage) Compatibility Guide
• VMware ESX 3.0.x and above version I/O Compatibility Guide
• VMware View Client Compatibility Guide

I must admit, I don’t use the maps that often. Especially in a large VI3 environment the maps are turning into a big black star. But checking VMotion compatibility with maps can be a time saver. Just select the virtual machine and hit the map tab. What I didn’t know is that there are several grades of green presented behind your ESX servers. The grades are showing up if your ESX servers are VMotion compatible. If one of your ESX servers is under a heavy load it’ll show a light green colour. On the other hand, when one of your ESX server is not CPU intensive at all, it will show up dark green. Here’s the proof.

This paper compares the performance with and without RVI of a number of industry-standard benchmarks and micro-benchmarks running in VMware ESX 3.5, Update 2 on AMD Opteron 8384 ("Shanghai") processors.

Since its launch in 2001, Rove has developed a company culture defined by open communication, exciting challenges and an energetic environment. They recently created the VMware Mobile Admin tool. You can watch the demo at YouTube - View a List of Virtual Machines on your BlackBerry.

On hosts with ESX Server 3.5 Update 3 installed, installing either the e1000e or ixgbe driver using an ESX 3.5 Driver CD will cause the host to fail to boot properly. This issue will also occur on ESX Server 3.5 Update 2 hosts with these drivers installed when they are upgraded to Update 3.  In both cases, the host will boot into a basic maintenance shell instead of booting the ESX Server software.

The driver CDs are not shipped with ESX Server 3.5, they are available as separate downloads.  Users of ESX Server 3.5 Update 3 should not install these drivers and users of ESX Server 3.5 Update 2 should not upgrade to ESX Server 3.5 Update 3 if your ESX Server host has either of these driver CDs installed. Below is a list of driver CDs that will not work with ESX 3.5 Update 3: ESX 3.5 Driver CD for driver "e1000e" version 0.4.1.7 VMware ESX 3.5 Driver CD for driver "ixgbe" version 1.3.31.5.

Solution

Do not upgrade to ESX Server 3.5 Update 3 if you have used either of these driver CDs.  Do not install these driver CDs if you are already using ESX Server 3.5 Update 3. VMware is preparing a new version of these driver CDs for ESX Server 3.5 Update 3.

If you have already encountered this issue and your server is not bootable, contact VMware technical support for assistance in restoring your system.

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1007857

Last Monday, December the first the VCP LinkedIn group broke through the 2000 member barrier. Since then I added another 77 new VCP’s. What’s happing in this LinkedIn group? Since LinkedIn released their discussion platform, those 2077 VCP’s are discussing about various VMware topics like:

• Relocating VMware DataCenter to another city
• Virtualizing Domain controllers - Share your experiences
• Can anybody share their P2V experience and suggestions for Linux O/S
• Raw Device Mapping: Virtual or Physical Mode?

If you’re a VCP you can join in using this link.

With VMware View 3 you automatically benefit from the core functionality of ThinPrint like, avoid having to use printer drivers on virtual desktops and thus simplify your system administration. Lower the bandwidth requirements and increase the stability of your network by means of Advanced Adaptive Compression. Increase the speed of your printing and save on connection costs thanks to the reduction of print data down to just 2 percent of its original size Use your "old" 32 bit printer in 64 bit environments.

Effective from today, VMware changed the names of their leading VDI products, parallel to the introduction of VMware View. Writing this article I ‘m thinking back to the good old days were we watched the science fiction “V”, I even bought (and still have) the VHS tapes :-).

VMware Product Name Changes (announced Sept 2008)

• Objective of this document: Summarize changes to existing product names.
• Audience: All
• Note that VMware product/technology names not in this document are unchanged. Also unless otherwise mentioned, changed names of existing products will be updated in various collateral/on the web by December 2, 2008.

NameChangeSummary.pdf