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Tuesday, April 7. 2009
FastScale Stack Manager Workstation Edition for VMware Infrastructure
Saturday, April 4. 2009
ProReplicator 3.0 first findings
Last Friday Xlink released VMware Real-Time Replication Software also known as ProReplicator 3.0. Just take a look at the product description, itās promising, doesnāt it?
Xlink proReplicator brings data replication to a whole new level, combining both real-time and scheduled data replication for all your mission critical servers. Whether you are concerned about virtual machine backup, database, email or web server continuous data protection (CDP) and disaster recovery, proReplicator will provide a consolidated solution for your enterprise. Data replication in proReplicator could be implemented either scheduled or in real-time, locally or remotely, over LAN or WAN.
Their website offers a full functioning trail, so I thought letās give it a try and letās find out if it does what it says. I downloaded the 35Mb and installed ProReplicatior in a virtual machine running Windows 2003.
What can I say, it works!!! The installation runs smoothly, and the configuration is straight forward. Create a primary master and a replica master, select what to replicate and thatās all. I selected real-time replication, before I knew it the Dell folder was replicated to the other virtual machine. There are lots of other features that I havenāt tried out yet but are worth looking at.
Welcome new sponsor - Train Signal

Wednesday, April 1. 2009
Drive your ESX server to the max, new advanced feature overclocking
Overclocking a computer's processor or memory causes it to go faster than its factory rated speed. A processor rated at 2.4GHz might be overclocked to 2.5GHz or 2.6GHz, while memory rated at 200MHz might be pushed to 220MHz or higher. The extra speed results in more work being done by the processor and/or memory in a given time period, increasing the overall computing performance of the server. When you configure the VMware ESX Server, various system parameters are assigned predetermined values. These parameters control settings for memory, the processor and networking, for example, and affect the running of virtual machines. You can view these settings from the management interface in āChanging Advanced Settingsā. To change the setting for the VMkernel configuration parameter, click the link for the value in the "Overclock" advanced setting. The Overclock VMkernel Parameter Update window opens on top of the VMware Management Interface window. In the next figure you will see one of the ESX server at 102%. When you canāt find this setting, download the newly released patch here. :-)
Tuesday, March 31. 2009
VMware ESX Server 3.5 Update 4 is out there
- Newly Supported Management Agents
- Newly Supported Guest Operating Systems
- LSI megaraid_sas and mptscsi Storage Controller Driver Update
- Enablement of Intel Xeon Processor 5500 Series
- Expanded Support for Enhanced vmxnet Adapter
- Intel ICH9
- Intel ICH10
VMware ESX Server 3.5 Update 4 Release Notes
ESX 3.5 supports multiple SATA controllers. Some of these controllers are supported only in the native Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI)/SATA mode with SATA hard-drive, and some are only supported in IDE/ATA mode with SATA Optical Drive. For other controllers, VMware provides support in AHCI/SATA or IDE/ATA mode on both types of drives, but you need to be aware of certain feature limitations and trade-offs associated with each mode.
Tuesday, March 24. 2009
My vCenter Server is tweeting me alarms
After posting an article how to Extending the VI Client with the Twitter Plug-in, John Troyer commented, asking me if I can envision a practical use for this? Maybe if the other servers are using the Twitter API to report alerts?
In the Alarm Settings dialog box, you can use the Actions tab to specify actions taken when the alarm is triggered. My first thought was, letās create a PowerShell script, but passing the alarm parameters to a batch file and a PowerShell script isnāt that easy.
After some searching I finally found TwitCon, itās a Twitter updater that uses no external programs or libraries and has no graphical user interface. It'sĀ written to be compliable on any platform and give you a quick, easy, and small way to update your Twitter status in a flash.
You can pass parameters to the twitter.exe from the vCenter Server, in this example I have chosen {targetName} and {alarmName} as the most appropriate.
C:\twitter\twitter.exe username password {targetName} {alarmName}
Other parameters that can be passed to twitter.exe are:
{eventDescription}
{targetName}
{alarmName}
{triggeringSummary}
{declaringSummary}
{oldStatus}
{newStatus}
{target}
Now I can scedule my goodmoring twitter message just before Duncan Epping wakes up. :-)
Sunday, March 22. 2009
PowerShell | Create a Screenshot of a Virtual Machine
In the upcoming version of VMware ESX, the are a lot of new methods available in the SDK. One of the new methods is CreateScreenshot_Task which is part of the ManagedObjectReference:VirtualMachine. This method creates a screenshot of the
virtual machine console, the image is saved as a portable network graphics (.png) file in the virtual machine folder. I created a little PowerShell script to initiate the screenshot.
Get-PSSnapin -registered | Add-PSSnapin -passthru -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$Server = Connect-VIServer -Server 192.168.178.250 -User Administrator -Password vmware
$vm = Get-VM -name "DC.NTPRO.LOCAL"
$vmView = $vm | Get-View
$vmView.CreateScreenshot_Task()
Thursday, March 19. 2009
How to set up an email event trigger
In the upcoming version of vCenter, the Alarm section is greatly improved. You can create alarm rules which are triggered when an event like powering on a Virtual Machine occurs. Event triggers monitor events that occur on managed objects, vCenter Server, and the License Server. An event is recorded for any action that is of interest to vCenter Server.
I created a new alarm that sends me an email when someone reconfigures one of the virtual machines. As a test, I removed the USB controller from a virtual machine and instantly I received an email from my vCenter Server.Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā
[VMware vCenter - Alarm Test Event] Reconfigured Connection on 192.168.178.251 in NTPRO
Target: Connection
Previous Status: Gray
New Status: Red
Ā
Alarm Definition:
([Event alarm expression: VM reconfigured; Status = Red])
Ā
Event details:
Ā Reconfigured Connection on 192.168.178.251 in NTPRO
Wednesday, March 18. 2009
Using vNetwork Distributed Switches and dvPort Groups
You can use vCenter Server to create abstracted network devices called vNetwork Distributed Switches. A vNetwork Distributed Switch functions like a single virtual switch across all associated hosts. This allows virtual machines to maintain consistent network configuration as they migrate across multiple hosts. Like a virtual switch, each vNetwork Distributed Switch is a network hub that virtual machines can use. A vNetwork Distributed Switch can route traffic internally between virtual machines or link to an external network by connecting to physical Ethernet adapters, also known as uplink adapters.
Each vNetwork Distributed Switch can also have one or more dvPort groups assigned to it. dvPort groups aggregate multiple ports under a common configuration and provide a stable anchor point for virtual machines connecting to labeled networks. Each dvPort group is identified by a network label, which is unique to the current datacenter. A VLAN ID, which restricts port group traffic to a logical Ethernet segment within the physical network, is optional.
Tuesday, March 17. 2009
Zoom In or Out of the Map View
