Eric Sloof

This Xtravirt utility is designed to reduce the time to deploy and configure VMWare ESX 3 servers and well as eliminate inconsistencies that can arise with manual operations. This Windows GUI based utility is based upon similar functionality of the VMware Web based Scripted Installer but with the additional options of creating post configuration files and loading and saving configurations for repeated use. Complete the form and select the Save option from the toolbar or File menu to generate a pre-configured deployment file. The resulting file can then be used to automatically deploy a fully configured VMWare ESX 3 server. There is tool tip help for each line in the form as well as a help page in the Help menu. All fields must be completed, and a partition file created/selected to create a valid custom configuration file. The resulting ks.cfg file is written in binary format so is fully compatible with Linux Operating Systems.

When you have created a DRS cluster the virtual machines in this cluster are automatically migrated to the least busy ESX host. These migrations depend on VMotion. The most common show stopper for VMotion is a connected CD. This application checks if one of your virtual machines is connected to a CD and displays witch ISO image is connected. I’ve written this application in VB.net and it depends on the VIClient.dll witch is written by Robert Baumstark. Some features like disconnecting all the CD’s with one click of a button are not implemented yet, but I’m so proud of my first application that I published it on my weblog anyway :). If you want to give it a try, you can get a free copy here.

 

 

 

Continue reading "vmCD Connected ?" »

During the VMware TTT DSA class in march 2007 two of my fellow VMware trainers discovered how to use the vim sh command to put an ESX server into maintenance mode. After the information was posted in the Dutch VMware user group I discovered that there are a lot of other undocumented possibility’s regarding he vim sh command. I tried to squeeze some extra information from Jeremy van Doorn during an interview I recorded at the TSX in Nice. After a lot of hacking I created a script witch you can use to lookup witch hardware is in your ESX server. Last week Gavin Jolliffe and Paul Davey from Xtravirt published the Guide to VMware ‘vimsh’ white paper. This paper discusses the currently undocumented VMware ESX ‘vimsh’ command and seeks to explore its options and possibilities at a high level. This paper assumes the reader has good technical knowledge of VMWare Virtual Infrastructure 3 together with some basic scripting experience.

Solko brought me up to date with another great tip. When you are tired of all the error message’s Winscp is giving you and you want to integrate SSH and all the other functions you are using to communicate with you VMware ESX server in just one program, you may want to take a look at a great tool with the name Tunnelier. This tool is a friendly and flexible SSH client for Windows which includes state of the art terminal emulation, graphical as well as command-line SFTP support, an FTP-to-SFTP bridge, powerful tunneling features including dynamic port forwarding through integrated proxy, and also remote administration for our SSH server, WinSSHD. Tunnelier is free for individual use and you can get it here.

I had an interview with Scott Herold he told me that there are many challenges that exist in implementing a Virtual Infrastructure that fall across various levels of an organization. Find out from Scott Herold, one of the leading industry experts, how these challenges can be overcome and how you can be successful from both a technical and business perspective in your Virtual Infrastructure deployment Scott Herold is a VMware Authorized Consultant (VAC), a VMware Certified Professional (VCP), and the owner of www.vmguru.com, a leading virtualization forum. Herold has engineered and implemented some of the largest ESX Server solutions in the world, including those for several financial services and insurance companies. His solutions designs range from two to three physical server implementations to enterprise environments of more than 50 eight-way hosts. Herold is one of the most active participants in the VMware Technology Network Forums, an acknowledge expert in the virtualization field and recognized author of VMware ESX Server, Advanced Technical Guide. The photo is taken by Viktor van den Berg, on his website you can find more TSX photo's.

I had an interview with David Bieneman he will be discussing how esxMigrator has simplified and automated the conversion from ESX Server 2 to VI3, how esxCharter has simplified the monitoring, bill back and understanding of VI3 and why esxRanger has become the industry standard for backup and recovery of your virtual machines on VI3. The photo is taken by Viktor van den Berg, on his website you can find more TSX photo's.

I had an interview with Jacob Jensen, he is the product Manager Datacenter I/O, VMware As server consolidation ratios increase, ESX hosts will require ever more performance from the network. This session will describe how to maximize networking performance in large scale ESX environments. We will cover both current and future technologies that accelerate networking performance. Specific topics include: hardware assist technologies, 10 Gbps Ethernet, Inifinband and best practice network design for maximum performance. Jacob Jensen has over 9 years of experience in data networking and telecommunications. Prior to joining VMware, Jacob worked for Adomo Inc. as a product manager focusing on unified communications solutions for large enterprises. Priori to Adomo, Jacob spent 6 years at Cisco Systems as part of Catalyst 6500 team. Jacob holds a Masters of Science degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. The photo is taken by Viktor van den Berg, on his website you can find more TSX photo's.

Today I had an interview with Puneet Zaroo, he has been working at VMware in the ESX server Group for the last 2,5 years with CPU scheduling algorithms. Prior to that he did his M.S. from Prudue University and Bachelors from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi in Computer Science. The photo is taken by Viktor van den Berg on his website you can find more TSX photo's.

Wanneer je aanlogd op het service console bestaan er een aantal ongedocumenteerde commando’s waar hele nuttige dingen mee gedaan kunnen worden.

Zo ontdekten Viktor van den Berg en Christiaan Roeleveld dat het mogelijk is om met het onderstaande script een ESX host in maintenace mode te zetten. Dit kan handig zijn wanneer je een script laat draaien wat alle updates installeert.

vimsh -n -e /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter 

vimsh -n -e /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit 

Verder heb ik zelf  nog een aardige optie gevonden, een commando waarmee je via het service console kunt achterhalen wat voor type kaart in welk PCI slot zit.

Continue reading "Onder de motorkap van VI-3" »

Deze week heb ik mijn eerste training VMware ESX server gegeven en als ik de beoordelingen mag geloven zijn alle kandidaten met een uiterst tevreden gevoel naar huis gegaan. Wat ze ook mee naar huis hebben genomen is de kennis die ze in vier dagen door middel van de theoretische en praktische modules hebben opgebouwd. Met deze kennis gaan ze nu binnen hun eigen bedrijf met veel enthousiasme aan de slag en dat geeft een goed gevoel. Natuurlijk hebben ze ook het officiële VMware “Certificate of Completion�? ondertekend door Diane Greene (CEO VMware) en Eric Sloof ;-) gekregen.