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Install XenServer 6.0 in a VM

20 February 2012
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As written in a previous post, Citrix with XenServer 6 is trying to fill the gap from VMware vSphere… and most features (included distributed virtual switches) are now common also in this type of solution. Of course features are only one of the possible criteria to select an hypervisor and a virtualization solution.

To make some practice or just to have a look at the product, it is possible run it in a VM on VMware products, both Workstation 8 (and probably also 7) and vSphere 5 can be used.

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Certifications for VMware View 5

17 February 2012
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During the Partner Exchange (PEX) of last year, VMware has announced a certifications path for the Enterprise Desktop Virtualization area (for more detail see this page). At the event of this year other there was some update on this path.

After his beta period, the VCP5-DT exam is now available, as also described in the official page. To become a VCP5-DT you have to:

  1. Be a VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 5 (VCP5)
  2. Pass the VCP5-DT exam

No requirement for a VCA certification, as was also modified in the VCP4-DT. No advantages for who is already a VCP4-DT: no discount and simplified path.

The VCP5 is quite strange, because View 5 can run also on vSphere 4.x, so IMHO a simple VCP4 or VCP5 could be a better requirement.

But there are also some good changes: the price is finally the same as a usual VCP exam (when I took the VCP4-DT it was more expensive) and, most important, same testing center of VCP (and not of VCAP).

And what’s happen with other DT certifications? There will exist a VCA5-DT? Sound strange there is no rumors about it, but also for VCAP5 the DCD beta was released before the DCA.

But more important… where is the VCAP-DT certification announced one year ago? Still no news about it… at this point seem sure that there will not exist a VCAP4-DT… let’s see if at least the VCAP5-DT will born before View 6.

vCertification , ,

Big changes in vExpert 2012 Program

16 February 2012
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For the vExpert 2012 program there are some big changes, starting from the new paths:

  • Evangelist Path: The Evangelist Path includes book authors, bloggers, tool builders, public speakers, and other IT professionals who share their knowledge and passion with others with the leverage of a personal public platform to reach many people. Employees of VMware can also apply via the Evangelist pathway.
  • Customer Path: The Customer Path is for internal evangelists and community leaders from VMware customer organizations. They have contributed to success stories, customer references, or public interviews and talks, or were active community contributors, such as VMUG leaders.
  • VPN (VMware Partner Network) Path: The VPN Path is for employees of our partner companies who lead with passion and by example, who are committed to continuous learning and to making their technical knowledge and expertise available to many. This can take shape of event participation, video, IP generation, as well as public speaking engagements.

Although there will be three explicit paths, there will be only a single vExpert designation. The exact requirements for becoming a vExpert in each path are in applications (open on February the 15th). You will find all the details at vmware.com/go/vexpert2012

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VCB with vSphere 5 and Windows Server 2008

9 February 2012
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As written in the previous post related to the upgrade to vSphere 5, the old VCB framework can still be used also with latest version, but is a not supported configuration (I’ve made the test only with a Windows Server 2008 R2 for the VCB proxy, but I suppose that works also with previous OS). Of course the SAN transport mode could not work (or not if you use VMFS5), but the NBD works as on the old vSphere 4.x.

The only issue that I get (but honestly I’ve make only few tests) is on VM with Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2, both with virtual hardware 7 or 8. The error message is quite strange and generic:

The workaround is to set the disk.EnableUUIDparameter in the virtual machine settings to False by performing the following steps:

  1. Power off the Windows Server 2008 virtual machine through vSphere Client.
  2. Click Settings > Options >General > Configuration Parameters.
  3. Set disk.EnableUUID to False.
  4. Save the settings.
  5. Power on the virtual machine.

Note that the option is exactly the opposite that the default one and also is not the same that you may find in VM backup troubleshooting for most backup programs (for example see the VDR note).

By the way, if you have at least the Essential Plus license you can use VDR instead of VCB. Or could be the right time to choose a real backup program.

vBackup, VMware , ,

Storage vMotion issue with Symantec Backup Exec

8 February 2012
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Some days ago I found a strange issue with vSphere 5 where some VMs was not movable with Storage vMotion with a strange error: The method is disabled by ‘SYMC-INCR dd-mm-yyyy hh:mm’.

From the name SYMC my first though went on Symantec Backup Exec (the 2010 R3 version) and may on some corrupted snapshots: but the VM file where good, and there was nothing to be consolidate.

I’ve looked in the VMware KB and I found the KB 2008957 (Storage vMotion fails with the error: The method is disabled by ‘SYMC-INCR dd-mm-yyyy hh:mm’) with the symptoms and an a possible explanation: seems that Backup Exec (but probably also NetBackup) add an information (_DP-VEPA_BACKUP_RESTORE_LOCK_) to the VM before the backup that it will removed after the job. This info seems stored in the vCenter Database.

In fact, the suggested workaround for issue is:

  1. Power off the virtual machine.
  2. In the vSphere Client, right-click the virtual machine and click Remove from Inventory.
  3. Browse to the datastore where the virtual machine resides.
  4. Right-click the .vmx file of the virtual machine and click Add to Inventory. This gives the virtual machine a new ID.
  5. Power on the virtual machine and retry the Storage vMotion.

Unfortunately is not a good solution because it temporally stop the VM. In some cases (but not in all) a full backup could fix the issue.

But probably the best solution is fix it in the vCenter Database. The KB 1021265 (Manually enable vSphere solutions) explain how works the extensible framework and probably by removing the entries in the related table the issue can be fixed.

vProducts ,

Using PHD Virtual Monitor with XenServer and vSphere

7 February 2012
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PHD Virtual Monitor is a comprehensive virtualization monitoring solution that gives you complete visibility across your entire virtual IT infrastructure at all levels including virtual, physical and application. So it not only a multi-hypervisors monitor tool (as described in the previous post), but also a multi-environments tool.

This could be really interesting with Citrix XenServer environments where the monitoring feature are quite minimal (and without simple notification in the free edition): CPU and Memory, both for hosts and VMs; and from latest version also networking and disks (but disk only for VMs). Also the graphs are quite limited and basic:

continue reading…

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Virtualization ecosystem is becoming multi-hypervisor

6 February 2012
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One trend in the last year(s) is that the virtualization ecosystem is growing outside the boundary where was born: historical partner vendor of VMware now are extending their solution to other hypervisors, and also also new products are designed to managed a more complex virtual environment. This was also called “Hypervisor Agnosticism” in a VKernel post.

We do not talk about interoperability across different hypervisors, but simple use same tools, especially for management, monitoring and data protection, for more type of products.

Does it make sense? For a single customer maybe not… have multiple environment could be an extra cost (also if some tools may be the same, VM format, knowledge, admin tasks will be different for each product) that could be a non sense for small and medium company. But for system integrator  this could really be useful because you can push on few products and re-use part of your knowledge and practices. And of course it make sense for the vendor of this multi-platform solutions because they can extend their business to new market.

continue reading…

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