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Why Dynamic Disks are a bad choice

22 December 2011
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Microsoft Windows Dynamic Disks (or Dynamic Volumes) are an abstraction layer (introduced in Windows 2000) over the partitions (similar to the LVM layer on Linux environment) to decoupled the volumes (with their NTFS data) from the disk partitions and have a greater flexibility, like hot-extend a volume by simple add new partitions (but also several other advantages).

But in a virtual environment there are other way to handle disk flexibility, like hot-extend a virtual disk at hypervisor level (for VMware this feature was introduced in VI 3.5U2)… so there is no need to use dynamic disks at guest level. The only requirement is that the guest file system also support a hot-extent operation: this is available from the GUI in recent versions of Windows (from Vista, aka NT 6.0), and in a limited way (not, without use 3rd part tools, for OS disks) from the command line (with the diskpart command) also in some previous versions.

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Highlights, Microsoft, vDesign

ESXi – Partitions layout of system disk

20 December 2011
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In ESXi the partitions schema is automatically defined by the installation process and there is no way to modify it (you can only choose where install the hypervisor). There is a great post from Rickard Nobel (ESXi 5 partitions) that explain the structure of the partitions, their size and their purpose. But it does not explain how to get this information.

To see the partition layout in ESXi 5, the fdisk command will not work on new GTP disk (this type is used for all new disks and for disks that are extended to more that 2 GB, as written in the post about the upgrade of VMFS).

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Highlights, VMware ,

ESXi – Replace the vmware-cmd command

19 December 2011
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As you know, several commands from local CLI (via the ESXi shell or TSM technical support mode) are changed in latest version of ESXi (in the new ESXi 5 most are replaced by the new esxcli command). One command that was alredy replaced in ESXi 4.1 was the vmware-cmd command. A new vim-cmd must be used instead (as as described by William Lam in VMware vimsh and vim-cmd). The typical use of vmware-cmd command was get/change the state of a VM and register a VM.

About the state of a VM, the VMware KB1014165 (Powering off a virtual machine on an ESXi host) explain the new command syntax and usage.

To get the list of the VMs and they unique indentifier (VMID):

  • Previous command: vmware-cmd -l
  • New command: vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms

To get the state of a VM:

  • Previous command: vmware-cmd VMX_Path getstate
  • New command: vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate VMID

To shutdown a VM (trying with a guest shutdown):

  • Previous command: vmware-cmd VMX_Path stop trysoft
  • New command: vim-cmd vmsvc/power.off VMID trysoft

To register a VM:

  • Previous command: vmware-cmd -s VMX_File
  • New command: vim-cmd solo/registervm VMX_File

Note that you can use VMID or also the entire name of your VMX file.

VMware ,

VMware View Clients – New releases

16 December 2011
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In the recent hours there were a lot of changes in the View Clients with new releases: New VMware View Clients for the Holidays – Mac, Linux, iPad and Android!

View Client of iPad

http://www.vmware.com/it/products/desktop_virtualization/view/ipad-client.html

There is the new 1.3.0 version (Dec, 16) with the following changes:

  • Connect iPad to up to 1080p (1920×1080) external displays and TVs and leverage Presentation Mode to view more of your View virtual desktop
  • Support for virtual higher resolutions to scroll a larger screen resolution display on a smaller resolution screen
  • Improvements to PCoIP bandwidth usage
  • Numerous bug fixes

View Client of Android

http://www.vmware.com/it/products/desktop_virtualization/view/android-client.html

There is the new 1.3.0 version (Dec, 15) with the following changes:

  • All new tablet interface to take advantage of the Honeycomb and later action bar
  • Improved support for lower resolution Android devices with easier desktop selection
  • Improvements to PCoIP bandwidth usage
  • Support for virtual higher resolutions to scroll a larger screen resolution display on a smaller resolution screen
  • Numerous bug fixes

View Client of Mac OS X

Actually there isn’t a new official client, but the VMware View Client with PCoIP for Mac OS X Tech Preview now available! To get the Mac client tech preview, you will need a VMware.com login and go to the download page.

The new features in the VMware View Client for Mac OS X are:

  •  PCoIP protocol optimized for VMware View 5 (previos versions have only the RDP protocol)
  • Full screen support for Mac OS X Lion users
  • Copy and Paste plain text between View 4.x virtual machines and Mac. Copy and Paste text, formatted text, and graphics between View 5.x virtual machines and Mac
  • Support optional RSA authentication
  • Enhanced certificate checking

View Client with PCoIP for Linux

Finally there will be new VMware View Client with PCoIP for Linux.  Making it easy to install, it will soon be available in the Ubuntu Software Center (a little later this month). Just launch the Ubuntu Software Center and search for VMware View to download and install the VMware View client.

VMware ,

Storage Best Practices: Vendor vs. VMware

16 December 2011
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A best practice is a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means, and that is used as a benchmark. In addition, a “best” practice can evolve to become better as improvements are discovered.

But, as well described by Frank Denneman in his post, best practices are never absolute, they depends on your specific case.

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Highlights, vDesign, VMware, vStorage

Installing Dell OMSA Web Server in a VM

14 December 2011
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As written in the previous post you can install the Dell OMSA package for ESXi 5 using VUM or the command line. Finally you need a “proxy” system with the web part of the OMSA package to connect to your ESXi. Usually this can be a physical server, like the backup server (or the media server of a backup solution). But when then backup is server is virtual and no other physical server is available?

First issue is than a client OS is no supported at all (I’ve tried with Windows XP, it seems to work, but it does not work and you cannot connect at the ESXi).

The second issue is that, also with a Windows Server OS (I’ve usually use Windows Server 2008 R2 for this), if it does not work in a physical environment AND on a Dell supported hardware, then the OMSA package fail to install. To solve this issue there are several solutions, some of them really complicated. I prefer to use and follow this one than simple disable the pre-check.

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DellTechnologies ,

Installing Dell OMSA 6.5 on ESXi 5 using CLI

13 December 2011
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In a previous post I’ve describe how install the Dell OMSA package with VUM on ESXi 5. The Dell Open Manage (OMSA) is a useful tool (of course for physical Dell’s servers) for different reasons, like for example: configure and manage the RAID controller (for standalone servers and/or for local storage) and configure the (i)DRAC without reboot the host and enter in the POST menu (or without the physical access at the front panel).

I think that the VUM approach is the simple and faster way, but some days ago I’ve got a standalone server, without vCenter Server (and without vMA)… so I’ve chosen to use the SSH and the local CLI (note that the Dell document describe how install the package using the RCLI).

Note that in the local CLI the old esxupdate (previously used for this kind of task) has been removed and the “esxcli software” command must be used instead.

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DellTechnologies, VMware , ,
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